Rupee hits Wipro profit growth

Bangalore, Jan 18 (UNI) Hardening Rupee and rising costs resulted in Wipro Ltd, the third largest Indian software exporter, post a reduced growth in net profit at 12 per cent during the third quarter and the recession in the US, its predominant market, may affect its growth further in the coming months.

The total revenue however increased by 33 per cent to Rs 5303 crore, thanks to the 10 per cent rise effected in the prices of its services. However, the bottom line disappointed the industry watchers as the growth dropped to 12 per cent at Rs 854 crore for the period ending December 31, from Rs 765 crore during the corresponding period last year.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, however, termed the results as satisfying as the company ensured good momentum in all its businesses. "We are ahead of our guidance in revenues from Global IT services at USD 910.1 million or RS 3616 crore, a YoY growth of 26 per cent in rupee terms. Looking ahead we expect our global IT services business to reach USD 955 million in the fourth quarter," he said.

Speaking to newspersons here today, he said despite the company wading through the challenging times, the financial services business grew nearly at double digit sequentially during the quarter, while BPO business and Testing services had a strong growth. Retail and health care verticals were also growing ahead of the company's overall growth rate.

He said the company had added 39 new IT clients during the quarter, while its consumer care and lighting business revenue grew by 107 per cent YoYin PBIT grew 99 per cent YoY.

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