Wipro, India’s third largest IT services exporter, saw its net profit rise by 41% for the fourth quarter ended March 31, driven by higher productivity and automation even as its operating profit margins rose by 150 basis points in a span of three months.
The Azim Premji-led IT major provided revenue growth guidance of -0.3 to 2% for the first quarter of FY15, lower than the 2.5% growth recorded in the fourth quarter.
Commenting on the guidance, Wipro CEO TK Kurien said, ?We always had a poor first quarter and one should not read much from the guidance. We expect linearity in our performance and growth coming back in Q2. We are affected by the seasonality of India business being low in Q1 and low retail business. The first quarter cannot be seen as a precursor to the full year.?
At the end of the fourth quarter, net profit touched $371 million and consolidated revenues, including hardware business, reached $2 billion, recording an annual growth rate of 22%.
The revenue from IT services was $1.72 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, recording a sequential rise of 2.5% and a y-o-y rise of 8.5%. In rupee terms, the consolidated revenue for the quarter stood at R11,700 crore. Net profit for the period was R2,230 crore.
Commenting on the results, Wipro chairman Premji said: ?The steady improvement in global economy, coupled with the exciting pace of technological advancements, presents us with opportunities to create innovative solutions to help our customer differentiate, compete and succeed in their respective markets.?
The big jump for Wipro was in its operating profit margins, which touched 24.5% at the end of the fourth quarter as against 23% in the previous quarter. This is the highest OPM for Wipro in the last 15 quarters. The company attributed the jump to favourable currency movement, higher employee utilisation level and productivity gains.
