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Our Bureau

Bangalore , April 16

INFOTECH major Wipro Ltd on Friday topped market estimates and its guidance to record 17 per cent quarterly profit growth of Rs 274.3 crore while revenue grew 17 per cent to touch Rs 1,521.4 crore.

The company also exceeded the billion-dollar revenue mark for the year, recording figures of $1.2 billion (36 per cent growth year-on-year) yielding a profit after tax of Rs 1,032 crore (26 per cent year-on-year). The board recommended a bonus of two shares for every share held and a total dividend of Rs 29 per share, including a one-time dividend of Rs 25.

Wipro also gave a guidance of $292 million for the next quarter for its global IT services business. "With a political year in the US market and the controversies about outsourcing, we expect slightly muted growth for the next couple of quarters," said Mr Vivek Paul, Vice-Chairman.

Wipro shares rose on the earnings announcements to touch a high of Rs 1,675 during the day's trading and closed at Rs 1,624.5, 1.7 per cent over the previous close.

"In a year when significant rupee appreciation against the dollar and increase in compensation costs put pressure on profitability, we expanded our operating margins in our global IT business by 250 basis points to 23.7 per cent," said Mr Azim Premji, Chairman, adding that " we are seeing sustained momentum in the volumes of business."

A better pricing environment, operational improvements and hedging strategies have not only helped offset the impact of the rising rupee but also contributed to improved operating margins, said Mr Suresh Senapaty, Corporate Executive Vice-President (Finance). Wipro has hedged over $900 million in sales to protect against the weak dollar, he said.

Global IT services and products business reported revenues of Rs 4,358 crore for the year, up 43 per cent year-on-year. During the quarter, revenues touched Rs 1,255 crore of which R&D services contributed 33 per cent, enterprise business 56 per cent and ITeS the balance.

The company added 35 new clients during the quarter, 15 of them being Fortune 500 clients. The ITeS business grew 130 per cent during the year; it contributed 11 per cent to quarterly revenues at $26.8 million, said Mr Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director, Wipro Spectramind.

It ended the year with 9,300 employees, a net decline of 156 people during the quarter while it added a net of 4,194 people during the year. ITeS added four clients during the quarter.

The board has recommended a restricted stock award scheme for employees, a performance-based scheme structured to let them benefit best through capital gains, said Mr Senapathy. Wipro employs 32,778 people, 28,502 of them in the global IT services business. Wipro Infotech's India, Middle-East and Asia-Pacific business recorded revenues of Rs 976 crore, an increase of 16 per cent year-on-year. Services business contributed to 32 per cent of the total revenues during the year. "We are bullish on the Middle East and Australian regions for our services and software integration business while we are growing at 15 per cent in the Indian market," said Mr Suresh Vaswani, President.

Consumer Care and lighting business recorded revenues of Rs 365 crore, buoyed by growth in toilet soaps — aided by the Santoor brand — and the commercial and institutional lighting business, according to Mr Vineet Agarwal, President.

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