BENGALURU: IT services major Wipro beat Street estimates and posted a 4.6% increase in its consolidated net profit for the June quarter at Rs 3,003 crore compared to Rs 2,870 crore in the year-ago period. However, it missed revenue expectations and its consolidated revenue declined by 3.7% to Rs 21,964 crore compared to Rs 22,831 crore in the same quarter last year due to softness in certain geographies.
Srini Pallia, CEO and Managing Director, said that in the first quarter, the company did not see a significant shift in the demand environment. "Clients remained cautious and discretionary spending continued to be muted," he said.
The company's large deal bookings in the first quarter stood at $1.2 billion and IT services operating margin was at 16.5%, an increase of 0.4% y-o-y.
Wipro has guided sequential revenue growth in the range of (-)1% to + 1% in constant currency terms. The company had kept the revenue guidance to (-) 1.5% to + 0.5% for the June quarter.
When asked whether Wipro is planning for any acquisition in FY25, the CEO said, "M&A (mergers and acquisitions) is something that we will constantly look out and we will do the right M&A at the right time. That's part of the strategy and we have a very solid M&A team and as an organisation we have been acquisitive and we will continue to do that."
Pallia said in the first quarter, the company also maintained positive momentum in its Capco business, achieving a sequential growth of 3.4%. The company acquired Capco, a global management and technology consultancy to the banking and financial services industry, for $1.45 billion in 2021.
After a break of a year the company has started on boarding freshers from the campus. The company's Chief Human Resources Officer Saurabh Govil said the firm has onboarded about 3,000 freshers in the first quarter and will add 10,000 to 12,000 in the current fiscal. "We would be completing all backlogs of offers made this fiscal, a commitment to the people whom we have made offers," he added.
In Q1, Wipro has added 337 employees and its total headcount stood at 2,34,391. Its attrition marginally declined to 14.1% in the June quarter.
Aparna Iyer, CFO, said “Our operating cash flows continue to be strong at 131.6% of our net income which takes our current investment and cash balance to $5.4 billion.”
Among industry sectors, BFSI retained its positive momentum from last quarter, and the CEO said, "We have now seen growth in this sector for two consecutive quarters. This sector grew 0.5% sequentially in Q1. Driven by deal flow, the Consumer business grew by 1.6% this quarter. Manufacturing and Energy & Utilities sectors continued to show weakness for us, experiencing sequential decline of 3% and 6.3%, respectively."
On Gen AI, Pallia also said that the company has already provided foundational training to over 225,000 of our employees, and an additional 30,000 employees have received advanced AI training.
"With Wipro as Client Zero, we are utilizing our in-house AI expertise to develop GenAI solutions across all units and functions within the company. We believe this will help us boost not only the capabilities of our employees, but also make Wipro GenAI ready," he added.