TCS largely unaffected by rupee rise: CFO
The Economic Times — December 12, 2007

India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Wednesday said it was largely unaffected by the appreciating rupee through hedging and proper product pricing.

"We have managed our business very well through a three-pronged approach. We had already kept our estimates for rupee at Rs 39.5 to a dollar on short term basis," TCS Executive Director and CFO S Mahalingam told reporters on the sidelines of a CII Corporate Governance Conference.

Elaborating, Mahalingam said the company had put USD 2 billion for hedging along with proper pricing of products and in the last quarter, TCS earned 43 per cent of its overall revenues from offshore business.

The company currently has 12 contracts of which the largest order was of USD 50 million.

Mahalingam said the banking, financial services and insurance continues to be a powerful vertical for TCS.

"TCS has reasonably powerful portfolio and people pay higher prices for the quality they get," he added.

On the use of exotic products for hedging, Mahalingam said the company does not deal in derivatives but has diversified its business well.

Asked on the impact of US Fed Reserve's decision to cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent, he said the industry had already factored in a cut and was not affected by it in a big way.