Wipro Ltd, India’s third-largest software service exporter, on Friday, reported a mere three per cent increase in net profit to Rs 880 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 as against Rs 856 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. This was despite a 32 per cent increase in revenue to Rs 5,700 crore for the fourth quarter.

During the fourth quarter Wipro’s Global IT Business revenue rose 26 per cent to Rs 3,833 crore from Rs 3038.6 crore a year earlier. For the fourth quarter, Wipro’s India, Middle East & Asia Pac business recorded a 41 per cent jump at Rs 1095.6 crore as against Rs 779.5 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.  
   
Cautious optimism  
             
Briefing reporters here, Wipro Ltd Chairman Azim Premji said, “The global economic outlook has changed significantly since the beginning of the calender year.”  The IT major said its combined IT services revenue would rise to $1,060 million in the first quarter of this fiscal as against $1031.5 crore in the January-March quarter of 2007-08.

“We look at Fiscal 2009 with cautious optimism. Market situation is changing rapidly, which has a bearing on our immediate business dynamics. However, we remain resilient and confident of our prospects,” Mr Premji added. Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty said wage increases in this quarter had impacted margins by 100 basis ponits. “During the fourth quarter, energy and utilities, financial services and retail grew ahead of the company average,” he said.

“For the quarter ending June 2008, we expect volume led growth with stable pricing. We will have impact on margins due to H1B Visa cost and fresh RSU grants,” Mr Senapaty added.

For the year ended March 31, 2008, revenue of Wipro Ltd rose buy 33 per cent to Rs 19,957 crore from Rs 14,975 crore in the year-ago period. Profit after tax increased by 12 per cent at Rs 3,283 crore as against Rs 2,942 crore last fiscal. Revenue from Global IT Services & Products during the year stood at Rs 13,642 crore as against Rs 11,084 crore last fiscal, registering a growth of 23 per cent. Similarly revenue from India & Asia IT Services and Products rose 51 per cent to Rs 3,745.6 crore from Rs 2,478.3 crore.

Healthy deal pipeline

Mr Senapaty informed the deal pipeline looked good, but there could be delays. “Customers are talking about flattish to maybe slightly lower budgets, but they are all wanting to do more offshoring,” he said adding that: “Since the decision-making could get delayed, given the uncertain situation, we think most of the fructification would happen after 3-6 months.”

Wipro’s newly appointed Joint CEO for IT business Girish Paranjpe said most of its clients are expected to spend more on IT in the second half of the current calendar year as compared to the first one.

During the quarter, Wipro IT business won three multi-year multi-million dollar deals and its global IT services added 2,290 employees on net basis. The company also added 29 new clients in the fourth quarter.


EXPANDS BOARD

Wipro rejigs IT biz team
Bangalore, dhns:

Wipro Ltd, on Friday, announced changes in the management structures of its IT business and expansion of its Board of Directors.

Suresh Senapaty, Suresh Vaswani and Girish Paranjpe have been appointed to the Board of Wipro Ltd. Wipro also restructured its IT business by appointing Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani as Joint-CEOs.
Girish Paranjpe was the President of the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Business Unit of the Global IT Business of Wipro.

Suresh Vaswani has been with Wipro since 1985 and was most recently President of Wipro Infotech (the India, Middle East and APAC IT business of Wipro) and of Gloabl Practices (EAS, Testing, TIS).

Suresh Senapaty has been CFO of Wipro Ltd since 1995 and has rich experience of having successfully steered all business of Wipro through different stages of growth.