Wipro net up 27% at Rs 543 cr

Underpinned by growth in all segments across the board.

Wipro Ltd's net profit has grown 27 per cent to Rs 543 crore for the quarter ended December 2005. The top line, driven by high-volume growth and an addition of a record 61 clients in information technology, has recorded 30 per cent growth to touch Rs 2,744 crore.

Wipro Technologies, the company's global IT business arm, has bettered its own expectations to touch the $473-million (Rs 2,122 crore) mark in revenue for the third quarter, against a guidance of $463 million (Rs 2,074 crore), turning in 34 per cent growth year-on-year and 12 per cent growth on a sequential quarter-on-quarter basis.

Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro, said, "In terms of quarterly results, all our major business segments recorded robust growth rates in revenue and profits. Our IT business crossed the Rs 10,000-crore annual run-rate and our global IT business surpassed the Rs 50,000 landmark in employee-strength."

He added a robust business model ensured that it absorbed the impact of compensation revision for its IT offshore team.

Wipro Technologies, for the current quarter, is expecting to touch a top line of $510 million (Rs 2,285 crore).

This division accounted for 77 per cent of revenue and 89 per cent of profit before interest and tax (PBIT) for the third quarter.

The PBIT for this flagship arm of Wipro has moved up by 27 per cent year-on-year to touch Rs 526-crore mark. Operating income to revenue for the quarter was 24.8 per cent. Research and development services contributed 34 per cent of the revenue of global IT services. Enterprise business contributed 57 per cent of revenue with the balance 9 per cent coming from BPO services.

The BPO services of Wipro, which in the recent past were stagnant, have reported a 4 per cent sequential growth as restructuring efforts have begun taking shape. The entire front-end of global IT services and BPO have been integrated, resulting in six new clients for this company.

Wipro Infotech, an India and Asia-Pacific IT services and products business, registered a 17 per cent year-on-year top line growth to touch the Rs 399-crore mark.

For the ninth quarter in succession, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting registered impressive growth with revenue up 20 per cent at Rs 155 crore, while the PBIT of Rs 21 crore was up 19 per cent.