NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based Accenture Limited, the world's second-biggest technology consulting firm, said third-quarter net income rose about one percent as revenue in Asia and Europe surged. The company also raised its earnings forecast for the year.Profit climbed to $345.4 million, or 54 cents a share, in the quarter ended May 31, from $342.3 million, or 56 cents, a year earlier, when the company had a gain of six cents a share from a drop in reorganisation costs. Sales, before reimbursements from clients, advanced 15 percent to $5.08 billion, Accenture said.

Accenture decided in March to double its management consultant staff worldwide, seeking more clients in Europe and countries such as India, China and Brazil. The company also will spend $250 million in the next three years upgrading data centres and recruiting and training staff.

"The global diversity of our network continues to be a competitive advantage for us," chief operating officer Stephen Rohleder said in a conference call yesterday. Accenture had 158,000 employees at the end of the quarter, a 13 percent increase from the end of the company's last fiscal year.

Accenture said profit for the year will be $1.94 to $1.96 a share, compared with an earlier range of $1.88 to $1.93. The average analyst estimate for net income in a Bloomberg survey is $1.89 a share, or $1.93 excluding items.

The shares of Hamilton-based Accenture fell 13 cents to $42.83 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. They rose 97 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $43.80 in extended trading.

The company also predicted that fourth-quarter sales will be $4.8 billion to $5 billion, exceeding the $4.72 billion average in a Bloomberg survey.

Accenture booked $3.5 billion in new consultancy agreements for the last quarter, representing more than half of the company's total new business.

"The consulting market is hot," J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Tien-Tsin Huang said in an interview before the results came out. "Many companies are looking to consolidate platforms and assets they've acquired over the last several years."

Revenue from Europe, the Middle East and Africa climbed 19 percent to $2.47 billion, while Asian sales climbed 44 percent to $457 million. U.S. revenue increased 6.9 percent to $2.16 billion.

The third-quarter results compared with analysts' estimates of profit of 55 cents a share and revenue of $5.01 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey. The company had forecast sales of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion for the period.