Wipro, on Wednesday, announced revenues of Rs.37,525 crore in 2011-12, an increase of 21 per cent over the previous year. Earnings from IT services, which accounts for three-fourths of overall revenues, amounted to Rs.28,431 crores, also improved by 21 per cent.
The company reported a net profit of Rs.5,573 crore, a rise of 5.2 per cent over 2010-11.
Rupee-denominated revenue from IT services went up by 21 per cent to Rs.7,590 crore in the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2012. However, in dollar terms, sequential growth during the quarter was only 2 per cent.
The company has declared a final dividend of Rs.4 per share, taking the total dividend for the year to Rs.6 per share.
Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said although the overall economic environment ‘remains challenging,' the company saw opportunities for growth in clients' emphasis on increasing productivity and reducing costs.
Observing that the company had delivered revenues within its earlier guidance range, T. K. Kurien, CEO, said although the company's order “pipeline remains robust, (deal) closures are taking time to bear fruit.” Wipro stood to benefit from “technology disruptions” arising in a situation where “offshoring has become mainstream.” He pointed out that the company added seven accounts each with deals worth more than $100 million during the fourth quarter, compared to only three in the last quarter of 2010-11. The average revenue from such clients had increased from $111 million to $123 million. However, he admitted that ‘decision-making' by clients had been slow.
Mr. Kurien identified cloud, analytics and ‘big data' as well as mobility as thrust areas for the company. The analytics segment grew at 5.6 per cent during the fourth quarter and by 30 per cent on an annualised basis, he said.
The company's revenue guidance for the current quarter is in the range of $1.52 billion to $1.55 billion. The guidance range is between minus one per cent and one per cent of the actual earnings of $1.536 billion in the last quarter of 2011-12.
Mr. Kurien said the company's revenues from the domestic market were likely to be affected by ‘headwinds' in the telecom sector. The company, which had a significant deal with Uninor, a company that is caught in the 2G imbroglio, had “faced a secular decline in the telecom equipment market in the last few quarters,” Mr. Kurien said.
He said ‘deal closures' that did not happen during the last quarter of 2011-12 could spill over into the current year. The company, in order to improve productivity, had identified 138 “core clients, which would be mined extensively,” Mr. Kurien said.
Suresh Senapaty, Chief Financial Officer, said operating margins dropped by only ten basis points during the fourth quarter, despite rupee appreciation. Although price realisation improved during the fourth quarter by 0.4 per cent for onsite projects and by 1.4 per cent in offshore projects, realisation from onshore deals declined by almost 90 basis points during the full year. However, realisations from onsite deals improved by two percentage points during the full year. It reported an attrition rate of 14.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, a decline of 6.5 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2010-11. Mr. kurien said Wipro was ‘committed' to increase employee compensation from June 1, but refused to spell out the magnitude of the increase.
