Wipro Q2 net up 28% at Rs 1932 cr, margin beats street

Moneycontrol Bureau

Wipro's consolidated net profit grew 28 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,932 crore and revenues jumped 19 percent on yearly basis to Rs 10,992 crore for the quarter ended September 2013. It crossed revenues Rs 10,000 crore for the first time in a quarter.
Revenues from its IT services increased 12.67 percent sequentially (20 percent year-on-year) to Rs 10,068 crore in the quarter ended September 2013, meeting analysts' expectations.
Dollar revenues rose 2.7 percent quarter-on-quarter (5.9 percent on yearly basis) to USD 1631.1 million during second quarter, which was within its guidance of USD 1,620-1,650 million.
"We achieved a broadbased revenue growth across all industry verticals and continue to focus on executing to strategy," T K Kurien, executive director & chief executive officer said.
The growth in dollar revenues was lower compared to its peers - TCS had reported dollar revenues growth of 5.4 percent, Infosys 3.8 percent and HCL Technologies 3.5 percent.
According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts on an average had expected the software company to report revenues of Rs 10,115 crore and dollar revenues of USD 1,634 million for the quarter.
Its operational performance was better than analysts' expectations. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew 27 percent sequentially (31 percent year-on-year) to Rs 2,264 crore and EBIT margin jumped 250 basis points Q-o-Q (180 bps Y-o-Y) to 22.5 percent in the quarter gone by. Analysts had expected EBIT at Rs 2,012 crore and margin at 19.9 percent.
"Sustained execution towards increasing operational efficiencies in the business coupled with currency benefits helped offset the impact of wage hikes resulting in strong improvements in operating margins," Suresh Senapaty, executive director & CFO elaborated.
The company added 45 new customers during September quarter as compared to 28 clients in June quarter. "There are positive indicators on the global economy. Client confidence is on the uptick and we see it reflected in results," Azim Premji, chairman said. Q3 Guidance
The software services exporter expects its revenues from IT services business to be in the range of USD 1,660-1,690 million for the quarter ended December 2013, a growth of 1.8-3.6 percent compared to September quarter.
It was better than analysts' forecast of 1.5-3.5 percent growth.
Guidance is based on exchange rates of USD/INR at 61.98, GBP/USD at 1.57, Euro/USD at 1.34 and AUD/USD at 0.93.