The country's third largest software services firm Wipro today reported a 5.8 per cent dip in its consolidated net profit to Rs 2,114.8 crore for the December quarter.
The city-headquartered company had reported a net profit of Rs 2,246 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.
Wipro, however, saw revenues rising 6.2 per cent to Rs 13,764.5 crore during the quarter from Rs 12,951.6 crore in the same period last year.
The company's IT services revenue stood at USD 1,902.8 million, a sequential decrease of 0.7 per cent but 3.5 per cent rise year-on-year as per IFRS. This was lower than the company's guidance of USD 1,916-1,955 million.
For the quarter ending March 2017, Wipro expects revenues from IT services business to be in the range of USD 1,922 - 1,941 million.
"I believe the demand environment for IT services is interestingly poised. In 2016, while there was focus on cost-saving on the run side, the investments in the change side had not picked up at the same pace as expected perhaps due to caution in the context of US elections and Brexit," Wipro CEO Abidali Z Neemuchwala told reporters here.
"In the current year, we believe clarity will emerge and we expect an uptick in the change investments. We do not expect customer budgets to change drastically. However, we do expect that there could be more momentum on the change spends, although it is a bit early to call it out," he added.
Wipro today also announced signing an agreement to acquire Brazil-based IT services provider InfoSERVER SA for USD 8.7 million.
Commenting on the company's performance, Wipro Chief Financial Officer Jatin Dalal said, "We expanded operating margins by 50 basis points in a seasonally weak quarter and generated strong operating cash flows by disciplined execution."
Wipro's board has approved an interim dividend of Rs 2 per equity share.
The IT services segment had a headcount of 1,79,129 as of December 31, 2016.
Speaking on the demand environment, Neemuchwala said the company continues to see some large deals in the funnel, adding that the "funnel is quite healthy and we are closely monitoring the decision making cycles of the deals."
"We are watchful on two specific areas of our business - one, the healthcare business which is going through a transition phase and spends are soft till clarity emerges on policy direction; two, as discussed last quarter, we are restructuring the India and Middle East business which will be a headwind in the near term," he added.
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Wipro said in Q3 it added one customer to greater than USD 100 million bucket and is seeing better quality of pipeline in its strategic accounts.
Last year, Wipro invested almost USD 1 billion into acquisitions, made six investments through Wipro Ventures, funded 8 ideas through Horizon programme, and continued to invest aggressively in cognitive platform, Neemuchwala said.
Pointing out Wipro's approach to digital has delighted its customers, the company said in the week after the announcement of demonetisation by the government, it has assisted 6 major Indian Banks and Fintech clients handle the regulatory changes and the increased transaction volumes in an agile manner.
"Our total Digital Eco system revenues for Q3 is 21.7 per cent of revenues and grew 9.9 per cent (including Appirio and 4 per cent excluding Appirio). Our consulting ecosystems was 5.5 per cent of our IT services revenue in Q3 and grew 7.9 per cent sequentially," Neemuchwala said.
Wipro said during the quarter, it filed 140 new patents for the intellectual property in Q3 taking the number of total applications to 1,353.
On localisation, Neemuchwala said, "We continue to focus on localization. We intend to continue hiring locally and invest in delivery and innovation centers in the US."
"We have been significantly investing in US, increasing hiring, setting up delivery centers and also focusing our sustainability initiatives specifically in the area of education."
He said Wipro's investments in key geographies of potential such as Continental Europe, Latin America and South America are in line with its long-term plans to position Wipro favorably to harness opportunities in the growth economies.
Responding to a question on US Visa policy, he said they expect it to be business friendly and India friendly and hoped that there will be a fair deal.
