Wipro Net Meets Estimates, IT Services May Rise to $1.53 Billion
November 08, 2011, 12:42 PM ESTBy Ketaki Gokhale and Jay Shankar
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Wipro Ltd., India’s third-largest software exporter, reported profit that met analysts’ estimates and forecast information-technology services revenue may rise to as much as $1.53 billion this quarter.
Net income rose 1.6 percent to 13 billion rupees ($267 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, from 12.8 billion rupees a year earlier, Bangalore-based Wipro said in a statement today. That compared with the 13.1 billion-rupee median of 40 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Wipro joins larger competitors Infosys Ltd. and Accenture Plc in signaling demand for software maintenance and advisory services remains buoyant. Wipro boosted revenue 18 percent last quarter and won orders that included a contract from ArcelorMittal.
“Infosys held on to its full-year revenue guidance, broadly indicating that the near term demand for software services continues to be reasonably okay,” Girish Pai, an analyst at Centrum Broking Pvt. in Mumbai, said before the announcement.
Revenue rose to 90.9 billion rupees, from 77.3 billion rupees a year earlier. That compared with the 89.5 billion-rupee median of 43 analysts’ estimates.
“We have seen growth momentum build up in our IT Business with healthy volume growth,” Chairman Azim Premji said in the statement. “Our focused investment strategy will get the business to a higher growth trajectory.”
Revenue from the company’s information-technology services business may range between $1.5 billion and $1.53 billion in the current quarter, Wipro said.
Sales at the unit in the three months ended September were $1.47 billion, Wipro said.
Wipro, which provides services such as designing and building software programs, product-engineering and back-office support to companies including BP Plc, William Morrison Supermarkets Plc. and Vodafone Group Plc added 44 new clients in the quarter.
--Editors: Suresh Seshadri, Arijit Ghosh
To contact the reporters on this story: Ketaki Gokhale in Mumbai at kgokhale@bloomberg.net; Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
