Mphasis BFL was in the limelight on Friday on reports that the company's BPO arm has tied up with Accenture, the world's largest consulting firm.

By 11:24 IST, the scrip of the software company rose by 4.16% to Rs 702 on the BSE, recording a volume of 13,926 shares.

In 10 sessions after the DQ 2002 results between 9 and 23 January 2003, the scrip has lost 12.5% to Rs 673.95 from Rs 770, on profit-booking. Prior to that in the five months between 31 July 2002 and 9 January 2003, the scrip witnessed a rise of 123.2%, from Rs 345.

In the morning, Mphasis BFL announced that it has tied up with Accenture, the world's largest consulting firm, to provide call centre BPO services in India. The tie-up was between Accenture and MsourceE, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Mphasis BFL. Meanwhile, the company did not provide any further details.

Analysts said it is a positive development for the company. Accenture already has a full fledged BPO set-up in Bangalore, they added.

Earlier, on 9 January 2003, Mphasis BFL unveiled its December 2002 quarter results, posting a 40.8% rise in net profit to Rs 18.18 crore (Rs 12.91 crore) on a 44.3% increase in sales to Rs 115.94 crore (Rs 80.3 crore).

Both net profit as well as sales met market expectations. A capitalmarket.com poll of eight software analysts had projected a 29.6% to 71.2% growth in net profit to Rs 16.7 crore-Rs 22.1 crore. Sales were expected to grow by 35% to 47% to somewhere between Rs 108.5 crore (Rs 1.08 billion) and Rs 118 crore (Rs 1.18 billion).

Meanwhile, sequentially, the company also registered good growth, with the top-line rising by 13% to Rs 115.95 crore (Rs 1.15 billion). The top-line growth was due to a 11.4% rise in the company's software services to Rs 89.73 crore and 17.4% growth of MsourcE. Net profit was up 13% sequentially to Rs 18.18 crore. The bottom line growth was fueled by a 33% rise in software services. However, MsourcE was in the red with a net loss of Rs 1.89 crore. Notably, MsourcE had posted profit after tax of Rs 1.05 crore and Rs 2.2 million during the quarters ended September 2002 and June 2002 respectively. The management indicated that the negative contribution of MsourcE during this quarter was more due to ramp-up of operations and the fundamentals of this business remain intact.

In the December 2002 quarter, the company said it added eight clients of which three were from its subsidiary MSource. Earlier, the company came out with a guidance of 25-30% growth in top-line and a 60-70% growth in bottom-line for FY 2002-03.

Incorporated in August 1992, Mphasis BFL (previously known as BFL Software) was promoted by a group of industrialists and professionals. Mphasis BFL is an India-based global software solutions company, operating from Bangalore. It specialises in the delivery of a variety of IT solutions for large and reputed clients including global leaders like Compaq, Fed-Ex, NEC, Samsung and ING. Mphasis BFL's expertise covers solutions in the e-commerce, systems, enterprises, networking and telecom spaces.

The company also creates software products (de-merged into a subsidiary from 2000).

Public, institutions and foreign bodies held 4.84%, 11.16% and 10.15% stake in the company respectively.