Indian Outsourcer Wipro Profits Up 44% for Q1

Indian outsourcer Wipro reported Wednesday growth in both profit and revenue for the quarter that ended June 30, as global corporations made offshore outsourcing a key component of their IT strategy.

Wipro’s first-quarter revenue was 31.3 billion Indian rupees (US$677 million on the closing day of the quarter), up by 37 percent over revenue for the same quarter last year. Profits grew by 44 percent to 6.14 billion rupees.

Besides its core business in offshore outsourcing, Wipro of Bangalore also has a domestic IT business and a consumer care and lighting business. The revenue of its Global IT Services and Products business, which handles most of the company’s outsourcing business from clients outside India, grew by 42 percent to 24.5 billion rupees.

Wipro is India’s third-largest outsourcer. Rivals Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest outsourcer, and Infosys Technologies, India’s second-largest outsourcer, have also announced strong growth in revenue and profits for the quarter, reflecting an upswing in outsourcing to India, and the depreciation of the Indian Rupee against most major currencies.

The results are based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and refer to the first quarter of the company’s fiscal year, which runs from April 1 this year to March 31 next year.

Wipro added 2,693 employees during the quarter in its IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) businesses, taking the total number of employees in these two businesses to 56,435. The company added 62 new clients in its IT services and BPO businesses during the quarter.

Wipro announced earlier this year a “string-of-pearls” strategy for acquisitions, which includes acquiring small companies for their expertise and client access in the niche markets that they address. In the last quarter it acquired three companies including Enabler Informatica, a Portuguese retail solutions provider, Finnish wireless design services company Saraware Oy, and Quantech Global Services, a mechanical design services company in Michigan.

-John Ribeiro, IDG News Service (Bangalore Bureau)

Related Link:

• India’s Wipro to Offer Free E-Waste Disposal

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.