Wipro Q2 net up 17 p.c ; revenues up 26.6 p.c

BANGALORE: Wipro Ltd has recorded net profit of Rs 478 crore, a growth of 17 percent for the second quarter ended September 30, 2005 compared to the net profit of Rs 411.70 crore recorded during the same period last year.

For the second quarter, the company has registered total revenue of Rs 2506.80 crore, a growth of 26.6 percent over Rs 1978.50 crore recorded during the second quarter of 2004-05.

Commenting on the results, Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro said “The quarter once again demonstrated the depth of our management and robustness of our processes as we smoothly managed organizational transitions to deliver a solid quarter. The Global IT business sustained its momentum, recording double-digit volume growth sequentially, resulting in revenues for the quarter being $430.7 million against our guidance of $422 million. “

Providing the outlook for the next quarter, he said that the company would expect revenues of around $463 million from global IT services business.

Suresh Senapaty, chief financial officer, said “We saw robust sequential revenue growth in all our business units, with our finance solutions and technology business delivering sequential double digit growth. “

On the profitability front, we were able to expand our operating margins despite a gross addition of over 5,600 people in our IT Services team and lower price realizations. “In line with our expectations, our BPO business delivered improved profitability for the quarter,” he added.

During the quarter, Wipro BPO registered revenues of Rs 181.70 crore, an increase of 10 percent of the corresponding period late year. However, the division's PBIT saw a dip of 37 percent to Rs 22.80 crore from 36.10 crore recorded during the September 30, 2004.

Global IT Services reported revenues of Rs. 1894.8 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, representing an increase of 26 percent over previous year and PBIT of Rs. 462.4 crore, an increase of 12 percent year-on-year.

Wipro added 4575 employees in IT services during the quarter taking the total headcount number to 45,835 as of September 30, 2005.

During the quarter, the company added 39 new clients, including 2 new clients in BPO services. Wipro also won an Orderto-Bill engagement that involves an integrated IT and BPO solution for a data communications major.

The company also announced decision to open a near shore center in Eastern Europe. The new facility is expected to expand Wipro's language capabilities for voice, transaction processing and level 1/ level 2 supports for infrastructure management.

Global IT services and products accounted 76 percent of the total Wipro Ltd revenues and 88 percent of the profit before income tax (PBIT) for the quarter ended September 30, 2005.

For the second quarter, Wipro Infotech recorded revenues of Rs. 398 crore representing a growth of 32 percent year-on-year (YoY) and profit before income tax (PBIT ) of Rs.29.90 crore a growth of 36 percent over last year.

The company has won two Total Outsourcing projects during the second quarter. These include a 10-year contract with the Sanmar Group for application management, infrastructure management, IT processes and asset provisioning. The company also won a five-year contract with Optimix for building and managing their end-to-end IT infrastructure.

Wipro Infotech accounted 16 percent of revenue and 6 percent of the PBIT for the quarter ended September 30, 2005.