India's third largest IT bellwether Wipro Ltd. on Tuesday gave a flat sequential revenue outlook for the first quarter (April-June) of this fiscal (2015-16) from its global software services business.
"We expect revenues from our IT services business to be in the range of $1,765-1,793 million for the quarter (Q1) ending June," the $7.5 billion company said in a statement here.
The average revenue guidance of $1,779 million is marginally higher than $1,775 million it posted in the fourth quarter (January-March) of the just-concluded fiscal 2014-15, which is a decline of 1.2 percent sequentially from the third quarter (October-December) of FY 2015.
The IT services revenue ($1,775 million) for the quarter under review (Q4) is also lower than the average guidance of $1,832 million it gave on January 16.
Unlike its rival Infosys Ltd., Wipro does not give annual revenue guidance.
"Though the demand environment remains stable, we see uncertainty in two industry sectors. Sharp cutbacks in capex (capital expenditure) have impacted us to $100 million in revenue for FY 2015 compared to FY 2014," Wipro chief executive T.K. Kurien told reporters here.
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From a portfolio mix, Kurien admitted that the company's flagship business was relatively overweight in the energy vertical.
"We saw some slowness in the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) in spending as we exited the calendar year 2014 and we have not seen that pick up," Kurien added.
The company, however, plans to invest significantly in Wipro Digital to pull together mobility, analytics, UX (user experience) and cloud technologies.
Earlier, the IT outsourcing major reported net profit of Rs.8,653 crore for fiscal 2014-15, registering 11 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth, as per the Indian accounting standard.
In a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges after trading ended, the company said the total revenue grew 8 percent YoY to Rs.46,954 crore for FY 2015, as per the Indian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles).
Under the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), net income for whole fiscal increased to $1.4 billion and gross income to $7.5 billion.
Revenue from IT services grew 10 percent YoY to Rs.44,018 crore, while for products, it declined 12 percent YoY to Rs.3,401 crore under the Indian GAAP.
Under IFRS, revenue from IT services for FY 2015 grew 7 percent YoY to $7,082 million ($7.1 billion).
The city-based company's net profit for the fourth quarter (Q4) grew just 2 percent YoY and 3.6 percent sequentially (quarter-on-quarter) to Rs.2,272 crore under the Indian accounting standard.
Revenue for quarter under review (Q4) grew 4 percent YoY and 1.2 percent sequentially to Rs.12,142 crore under the Indian GAAP.
Under IFRS, net income at $366 million is 5.1 percent up sequentially, while gross income at $1.9 billion is flat sequentially from the previous (third) quarter.
Revenue from IT services increased 3.2 percent YoY to $1,775 million ($1.8 billion) but decreased 1.2 percent sequentially in terms of dollar under IFRS, while it increased in rupee terms 6 percent YoY to Rs.11,242 crore.
IT products revenue declined 15 percent YoY to Rs.945 crore in the quarter (Q4).
Operating margin declined 2.3 percent YoY to 22.2 percent from 24.5 percent a year ago though fractionally up sequentially from 21.8 percent in the third quarter.
"We have seen a margin expansion despite adverse cross-currency movements owing to our focus on operational improvements and productivity enhancements," Wipro chief financial officer Jatin Dalal said on the occasion.
The IT services business added 65 new customers in Q4 as against 44 in the previous quarter (Q3) and a year ago, taking the total number of new customers for FY 2015 to 194 from a year ago.
With net addition of 1,351 techies in Q4, the headcount for IT services increased to 158,217 for the fiscal goneby from 156,866 in third quarter and 146,053 a year ago.
"Our quarterly annualised attrition dropped to 15.6 percent from 16.4 percent," Kurien added..