Wipro on Wednesday reported consolidated revenues of Rs.6,966 crore in the third quarter of 2009-10, an increase of 5 per cent on an annualised basis. The company made a net profit of Rs.1,217 crore, an increase of 21 per cent.
Revenues from IT services amounted to Rs.5,164 crore, an increase of 2 per cent over the previous year. The pre-tax profit from IT services amounted to Rs.1,227 crore in the quarter.
The BPO business reported a sequential growth of 7.5 per cent during the quarter.
Announcing the results, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said the company’s “strong results reflect a stabilising macroeconomic environment. Demand has improved and is now more broad-based.”
However, growth had been primarily “volume-led,” he remarked.
Mr. Premji said although margins have been flat, the company was “committed to improving efficiencies.” Mr. Premji said “in 2010, we expect IT budgets to be flat to marginally positive. For the quarter ending March 31, 2010, we expect revenues from our IT services business to be in the range of $1.161 billion to $1.183 billion.”
Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty said the company had been able to defend its margins despite a sharp appreciation of the rupee during the last quarter.
Joint CEO (IT Business) Suresh Vaswani said growth had been “broad-based” in terms of geographical spread. Although revenues from Europe increased by only about 5 per cent, revenues from the “rest of the world” category, which included Australia and the Asia-Pacific, increased by over 20 per cent in the quarter. “Growth is more broad-based in terms of both geographies as well as service lines,” he remarked.
The attrition rate of the company’s global services business was 14.3 per cent, the highest in the last four quarters. Executive Vice-President (Human Resources) Pratik Kumar said this was mainly on account of the high level of “voluntary” attrition. “The pay hike, which is coming up in February, is likely to arrest this trend,” he said.
Joint CEO Girish Paranjpe said the recovery in demand “appears to be secular and not merely a blip.” The regulatory changes that were due to be implemented in the global banking industry were likely to offer opportunities for the company, he said. The banking sector’s requirement of “refreshing systems” and their entry into emerging markets also offered opportunities in the future, he added.
In the consumer care and lighting business, revenues increased by 14 per cent on an annualised basis.
