INDIAN IT CO WIPRO POSTS Q1 NET PROFIT TO US$214.4 MLN

Indian IT major Wipro Ltd (BSE:507685) on Friday announced a net profit of Rs 9.08 billion (US$214.4 million) for the first quarter ended on June 30, 2008, against Rs 7.26 billion in the year-ago period.

The consolidated total income rose to Rs 60.87 billion in the latest quarter, from Rs 43.03 billion in the same period of FY'08, Wipro said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The June quarter results does not include the effects of the merger between Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, Quantech Global Services, Wipro Healthcare IT, mPower Software Services India, mPact Technology Service and cMango India, which was effective from April 1, 2007.

The current quarter numbers are not comparable with those of the year-ago period, it added.

The company reported a standalone Q1 net profit of Rs 5.46 billion, against Rs 6.71 billion in the previous year.

The total income rose to Rs 48.07 billion in the latest quarter, from Rs 37.77 billion in the same quarter last year.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said, "Revenues from our IT Services were USD 1.07 billion for the quarter, ahead of our guidance of USD 1.06 billion. In the backdrop of significant economic uncertainty, our financial services and retail businesses demonstrated their resilience."

During the quarter, the company added 31 new customers to their existing 100 million dollar customer list. Wipro expects IT Services revenue to be about USD 1089 million in the September quarter, the filing stated.

"During the quarter, we were able to sustain margins in spite of restricted stock units grants. Rate realisation and utilisation improved sequentially by 300 basis points and 50 basis points respectively," Wipro Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty said.

Shares of Wipro were trading at Rs 382.50, 0.71 per cent up in the early morning trade on the BSE.

(PTI)

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