India's TCS profits rise on AI, cloud contracts

Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services saw March quarter profits above analyst expectations, with growth in cloud computing and artificial intelligence projects, the company reported Friday.

The Mumbai-headquartered firm earns more than 80 percent of its revenue from Western markets.

Net income rose to $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, an increase of more than eight percent on-year that defied market expectations of a slowdown in the sector.

TCS chief executive K. Krithivasan said the company had ended the Indian financial year to March 31 "with the highest ever order book and a 26 percent operating margin".

The results were "validating the robustness of our business model and execution excellence", he said in a statement.

Consolidated revenue in the March quarter rose by 2.3 percent to $7.36 billion.

"Clients are prioritizing initiatives that reduce cost, increase business agility, improve security posture and resilience," the company said.

"AI, cloud, enterprise solutions... and cyber security led the growth this quarter," it said.

Chief operating officer N. Ganapathy attributed the results to "broad-based deal wins across industries and geographies", particularly "the mega deal win at Aviva" -- the UK insurer and existing TCS client which announced a 15-year expansion of their partnership.

The group's Indian rivals Infosys and Wipro are scheduled to report their results next week.