Poll ranks TCS, Infosys and Wipro as leaders of India's IT

Who are the "popular picks" among the key players in the Indian IT industry?

A poll on Equitymaster turns up the names Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro.

The largest percentage (57%) of the votes went to TCS. Infosys and Wipro stood second and third with 32% and 11% shares respectively.

The report comes with a table on comparative parameters for the fiscal year 2004. The table shows that TCS scores on profit growth, revenues per employee and attrition rate parameters. Meanwhile, Infosys has an upper hand on factors like sales growth and operating margins.

When risks to investment are taken into consideration, the report shows that "Infosys seems less risky a proposition than TCS and Wipro. This is on account of a lower promoter shareholding in Infosys that provides the ordinary shareholders greater liquidity in the markets."

The report also includes a valuation comparison for this FY. The report shows that Wipro is the most expensive, and it cites "low liquidity and high proportion of revenues from R&D services" as the reasons.

...Infosys and TCS come out leaders over Wipro, at least on the basis of past performances and their business models. However, to judge the better player amongst these two would be the difficult part.

While Infosys scores on key aspects like project execution, delivery and management excellence fronts, TCS has the advantage of scale ($1.5 billion in revenues and over 30,000 employees) and long-term relationships with key large clients.

On the basis of risks involved, Equitymaster ranks Infosys at top desirability, with TCS and Wipro in second and third place.

The report comes with a disclaimer: the poll results may just reflect the euphoria that comes with TCS's recent IPO. Investors are warned that they "need to take note of the respective performances of these three companies and their growth prospects before making any investment decision."

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