May 5, 2008

The three risks for IT industry

I had recently posted on NIIT tech and uploaded the valuation (see here). The way I see it, there seem to be three key risks for the IT industry which I have tried to include in my valuations.

Risk 1 : US slowdown – This is a medium term risk and should not impact the long term economics of the IT industry. On the contrary I think the slow down will not really impact the industry much in terms of overall growth. There could be a bit of a slow down and some pricing pressure. But not much beyond that.

Risk 2 : Rupee appreciation – I think this with cost pressures is the most critical risks as this would impact the margins of the IT companies. In the scenario I have built I am assuming that margins will drop by half in the next 2 years due to the appreciation and cost pressure

Risk 3 : Taxation issues – The tax holiday enjoyed by the industry would be taken out by the government. In response to the slowdown and rupee appreciation the government has extended the tax holiday and there has been a sudden rally due to that. However I think the tax breaks are bound to go, only question is when. However this risk is definable and can easily be worked into the valuation

In my valuation I have assumed the worst case scenario for all the three risks. However as we saw recently if the rupee appreciates, the tax breaks could get extended a bit and that could mitigate the impact. So it is quite likely that the worst may not come to pass. The stock price assumed the worst in march. Since then there has some correction as the market realised that things are not as bad. However it would not take much to change the mood again.

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