Wipro announces Rs 824 crore net profit

Bangalore, Oct 19 (UNI) IT major Wipro today announced a net profit of Rs 824 crore for the second quarter ended September 2007 as against Rs 710.4 crore on quarter on quarter basis.

Addressing a press conference here, Company Chairman Azim Premji said the revenue during the period increased by 35 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,785 crore.

Global IT services and products revenue, in dollar terms, was US Dollar 796.5 million, a sequential growth of 9.7 per cent and year-on-year growth of 35 per cent.

In Rupee terms, the revenue stood at Rs 3,249 crore, a sequential growth of 10 per cent.

The Board also declared an interim dividend of Rs two per share (100 per cent on an equity share of par value of Rs two).

Wipro's India, Middle East and Asia-Pac business recorded 72 per cent growth in revenues year-on-year. Revenues had grown at three times market growth rate in H1FY08.

''Revenues from our Global IT Services at US Dollar 796.5 million for the quarter, including revenues of US Dollar 6.4 million from infocrossing, were ahead of our guidance of US Dollar 777 million,'' Mr Premji said.

On a standalone basis, the net profit increased by 14.29 per cent at Rs 760.3 crore for the second quarter compared to Rs 665.2 crore for the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

The total standalone income of the company rose by 25.77 per cent to Rs 4,245 crore, during the second quarter of this fiscal, from Rs 3,375.2 crore for the quarter ended September 2006.

The company had 77,478 employees as of September 30, 2007 including 926 employees, who joined as part of Infocrossing acquisition.

As compared to previous quarter, this represented a net addition of 5,341 people, comprising 4,463 employees in IT services and products business and 878 employees in the BPO business.

The Global IT services and products business added 59 new clients during the quarter, of which six were Global 500 or Fortune 1,000 companies. It comprised of 26 new Technology clients and 33 new Enterprise clients.

UNI