Wipro Q1 net rises 45 per cent; revenues up 40 per cent

Wipro Limited has reported first quarter results in line with market expectations. Like other IT majors, revenue growth in IT services was strong during the quarter and the company managed to keep operating margins steady.

For the quarter ended 30th June 2006, consolidated net profits has increased 44.94 per cent to Rs620.39 crore from Rs428.02 crore for the previous year's quarter. When compared to the March 2006 quarter, net profits have increased very marginally from Rs617.89 crore.

Consolidated revenues have increased 39.8 per cent to Rs3,193.39 crore from Rs2,284.02 crore for the previous year's quarter. On a sequential basis, consolidated revenues have increased marginally by 1.25 per cent from Rs3,154.06 crore for the March 2006 quarter.

Global IT revenues have increased 42 per cent to Rs2,450.5 crore from Rs1,731.8 crore for the previous year quarter. On a sequential basis, global IT revenues have increased 5.76 per cent from Rs2.317.1 crore for the March 2006 quarter.

Operating profits from the IT business have increased by 45 per cent over the previous year quarter and 3.61 per cent sequentially. IT operating margins, as a percentage of IT revenues, has improved to 24.57 per cent from 24.01 per cent for the previous year quarter, but has declined from 25.07 per cent for the March 2006 quarter.

The improvement in operating margins was mostly on account of BPO services, where margins jumped to 20 per cent from 9 per cent for the previous year quarter and 18 per cent for March 2006 quarter. IT services margins remained stable at 26 per cent, both on a year-on-year and sequential basis.