Wipro Q2 YoY net zooms 79%

 Wipro has posted a 79% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 411.70 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2004 as compared to Rs 230.20 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2003.

According to a release issued to the BSE today, total revenues increased from Rs 1,374.50 crore in SQ03 to Rs 1,978.50 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2004.

Commenting on the outlook, chairman Azim Premji said: "The strong results clearly demonstrate that Wipro is winning in a market where customers are seeking higher value. Our global IT services business delivered strong sequential revenue growth of 12% and improved operating margins for the fifth successive quarter. We continue to benefit from the investments made over the last few years. We have good business momentum across our businesses. Coupled with our compelling portfolio of services, this gives us immense confidence on our long term prospects. Looking ahead, for the quarter ending December 2004, we expect our revenue from our global IT services business to be approximately $347 million."

Vivek Paul, vice chairman, said: "We continue to sustain our growth across all our key verticals and service lines in our global IT business. Good volume growth and stable pricing environment resulted in revenues of $327 million - ahead of our guidance of $318 million. Excellent execution and continuing focus on improving productivity helped deliver operating margin expansion. In terms of service lines, after a couple of subdued quarters, our BPO business rebounded strongly with a sequential revenue growth of nearly 20%."

Suresh Senapaty, corporate executive vice president (finance),said: "Improvement in operating margin in our global IT services business was driven by better price realisation for onsite projects, an increase in the proportion of revenues from offshore projects, and continued operational improvements partially offset by lower utilisation primarily due to a net addition of over 5,500 employees to our team, including around 3,300 in our IT services business. Further, in a move that could significantly improve employee retention and enhance the alignment of employee interests with those of shareholders, we have issued restricted stock units to our key employees."

The company had 37,063 employees as of September 30, 2004, which included 24,050 employees in the IT services business and 13,013 employees in IT-enabled services business. This represents a net addition of 5,546 employees comprising the addition of 3,282 people in IT services business and 2,264 people in IT-enabled services business.

"During the quarter, we added new 34 customers comprising 10 customers in R&D services, 21 customers in enterprise services and 3 new customers in IT-enabled services business. Global IT services and products accounted for 76% of revenue and 89% of PBIT for the quarter ended September 30, 2004," an official release said.

 Click here for official release