BANGALORE: Wipro has posted 21 per cent rise in its revenue for the quarter ending September 2002. The company's revenue touched Rs 1,060 crore. However, profit after tax has risen only marginally (2 per cent) to Rs 220 crore.

During the quarter, Wipro Technolgies, the IT business arm, increased its revenue by 19 per cent to Rs 680 crore against that of the corresponding period of last fiscal. Profit before tax and interest for Wipro Technologies was higher at Rs 200 crore.

According to a company release, 30 new customers were added in the global IT services during the quarter, including seven that are on the Fortune 1000 list. Wipro Spectramind, the ITeS arm of the group, recorded revenue of Rs 42.1 crore and profit before interest and tax of Rs 8.7 crore.

Commenting on the future outlook for the company, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said, "A challenging global business environment has made India-based offshore initiatives a key priority for global corporations. Wipro is well positioned to take advantage of this opportunity with its wide range of offshore services offerings for enterprise clients and its depth of R&D skills for the technology clients. We should see the momentum in volume growth of the last two quarters continue. "

Speaking on the future, he said, "For the quarter ending December 2002, we estimate the revenue in our global IT services business to be approximately at $152 million, in Wipro Spectramind to be approximately at $12.5 million and in healthcare and life science business at approximately $3.5 million."

Wipro Vice Chairman and CEO of Wipro Technologies, Vivek Paul added, "The sequential revenue growth of 11 per cent in dollar terms was primarily driven by a 12 per cent growth in volume. We see pricing pressures flattening. Business traction continues from both new as well as existing clients. We acquired 30 new clients, seven of whom were in the Fortune 1000 list, and won two orders for total product ownership from our existing R&D clients during the quarter. The integration of Wipro Spectramind is on plan and the results of the combined offerings are already visible in the client traction we see in the market place. During the quarter Wipro Spectramind has signed letters of intent with four new clients, including one for business process outsourcing."

Wipro Technologies accounted for 64 per cent of the revenue and 85 per cent of the profit before interest and tax for the quarter. Operating margin to revenue was 30 per cent, a decline of 1 per cent sequentially and 4 per cent year on year. Sequentially, increase in utilization of IT professionals by 1 per cent to 67 per cent was partially offset by price realization decline of 2.7 per cent for offshore projects and 0.1 per cent for onsite projects.

Year on year, increase in IT professional utilization by 7 per cent to 67 per cent was offset by decrease in price realizations of 7.2 per cent for offshore projects and 8.6 per cent for onsite projects.