Country's third largest software services firm Wipro today posted 1.8 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 2,234.1 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.
The company-had posted a net profit of Rs 2,192.8 crore in the year-ago period.
The City-based firm saw revenues rising 7.1 per cent to Rs 12,951.6 crore in the said quarter from Rs 12,085.1 in the same period last year, according to a filing on the BSE.
Its IT services revenues stood at Rs 12,310 crore (USD 1.86 billion), an increase of 9 per cent year-on-year, it said.
The company had already warned of a muted performance in this quarter on account of furloughs and Chennai-floods. It had said it expected to meet the lower half of its guidance range of USD 1,841-1,878 million.
For the fourth quarter, Wipro expects its revenues from the IT services business to be in the range of USD 1,875 million to USD 1,912 million.
"We delivered revenues in line with our guidance. We saw a pick-up in large deal closures led by global infrastructure services," Wipro Member of the Board and CEO T K Kurien said.
He added that customers want to simplify operations and optimise their IT spend and that the company is well- positioned to take advantage of this trend.
Wipro Chief Financial Officer Jatin Dalal said the impact on revenues from the Chennai floods were minimised significantly by execution of Business Continuity Plans (BCP).
"The additional expenses incurred in deploying BCP impacted operating margins for the quarter," he added.
The IT services segment had a headcount of 1,70,664 as of December 31, 2015. It added 39 new customers during the quarter.
"We are focussed on driving market share growth in our core businesses through integrated domain and technology services, while investing for the future in building differentiated Digital capabilities," Wipro CEO-Designate Abidali Z. Neemuchwala said.
Wipro's IT products segment delivered Revenue of Rs 6.5 billion (USD 98 million) for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.
On how digital field is reshaping the world, Premji said,
"We are seeing pervasive change all around us. Consumer expectations and experiences, business models, consumptions models and at times, entire industries are getting fundamentally transformed. Every business has to become a tech business and there is no choice but to rapidly build capability in this area."
To partner with the company's customers, Wipro Digital practice offers end-to-end services across digital advisory, design and technology, Premji said.
"We are investing significantly in increasing the portfolio of digital skills of our employees to be able to serve our clients effectively," he said.
On enhanced stakeholder value, Premji said the company has always striven to enhance stakeholder value for investors. The company's philosophy is to provide regular, stable and consistent payouts.In line with this philosophy, the company announced a share buyback through a tender offer amounting to Rs 2,500 crore in addition to offering dividends of Rs 6 per share, Premji said.
For the year 2015-16, dividends declared and proposed, combined with the buyback amount will enhance the payout ratio to 48 per cent from 41 per cent for the year 2014-15, he said.
On financial capital, Premji said the company continues to run very effective programmes to impact communities through multiple initiatives.
"Wipro Applying Thought in Schools is Wipro's social initiative in school education that aims to build capacities for systemic educational reform in India and has been running for over 15 years," he said.
"Our work in education is global beyond Indian borders. We started the Wipro Science Education Fellowship in the US in 2013 with the objective of facilitating high quality science, technology, engineering and math education at the K-12 levels in US schools," he said.
On social impact, Premji said as corporations continue to play their role of driving responsible, sustainable businesses, he firmly believes that owners of corporates are trustees of wealth, which needs to be used for furthering social causes.
Premji said he has irrevocably transferred about 39 per cent of the ownership of Wipro to a Trust that supports philanthropic causes.
"The Trust will continue to engage closely with social issues". The excellence in business performance at Wipro would translate into value creation for shareholders, a substantial portion of which would be towards philanthropy, he added.
In 2015-16, Premji said Wipro achieved the milestone of its 70th anniversary and moved into its 71st year.
