Wipro Q3 net profit up 1.8% at Rs2,234 crore

Wipro, India's third-largest IT services company posted consolidated net profit of Rs2,234 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2015, a 1.8 per cent growth from the Rs2,192 crore posted in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Total income of the company for the October-December period stood 7.17 per cent higher at Rs12,951.60 crore against Rs12,085.10 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

IT services revenue was Rs12, 314 crore while IT services margin for the quarter was 20.2 per cent. The IT Products Segment delivered revenue of Rs650 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2015.

In dollar terms the company's net profit stood at $338 million, up 2 per cent year-on-year.

In constant-currency terms revenue from Wipro's IT services business stood at $1.838 billion, compared with $1.795 billion. In actual currency terms, Wipro posted revenue of about $1.86 billion.

In December, Wipro had said that revenues for the quarter ending 31 December would be in the lower half of its $1.84 billion to $1.88 billion range, while it would also book a one-off cost.

''We delivered revenues in line with our guidance. We saw a pick-up in large deal closures led by global infrastructure services. It is becoming increasingly clear that customers want to simplify operations and optimize their IT spend while investing in digital to transform their business. We are well-positioned to take advantage of this trend,'' T K Kurien, member of the board and chief executive of Wipro, said.

In a regulatory filing with the BSE, the company said its board of directors has considered and approved an interim dividend of Rs5 per equity share of Rs2 face value.

During the quarter the company increased its employee count by around 2,268, taking the total strength to 170,664 as of 31 December 2015.

Wipro also added 39 new customers during the quarter.

Going forward, Wipro expects its revenues from IT services business to be in the range of $ 1,875 million to $1,912 million in the fourth quarter ending 31 March 2016.

''During the quarter, we have built competitive differentiation through the acquisition of two high-potential companies – Cellent and Viteos. The impact on revenues from the Chennai floods were minimized significantly by strong execution of our robust Business Continuity Plans (BCP). The additional expenses incurred in deploying BCP impacted operating margins for the quarter,'' stated Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer of Wipro in a release.

Effective 1 January 2016, Wipro completed the transaction announced on December 2, 2015 to acquire Cellent AG, a leading IT consulting and software services company in the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.