Wipro Ltd has forecast that its IT services revenue growth in the current quarter might be as low as 0.6% as clients cut down on non-essential expenditure.<\/p>\n
Wipro’s sales increased 11.2% to 231.9 billion rupees ($2.84 billion) in the March quarter, while its net profit fell 0.4% to 30.75 billion rupees due to a 12.4% increase in costs. The company’s operating margin declined from 17% to 16.3% year on year. Wipro has approved a share buyback of up to 120 billion rupees, with its founders intending to participate.<\/p>\n
Wipro expects IT services revenue to rise 0.6% to 2.8% in the April-June quarter compared to the same period last year. This growth is also lower than Wipro’s fourth-quarter 3.7% increase in IT services revenue, which accounts for approximately 98% of total revenue.<\/p>\n
Despite reporting a 29% increase in contract wins on a constant currency basis to $4.1 billion, Wipro’s rate of growth in IT services revenue has slowed for six consecutive quarters, with the current quarter’s expected growth the weakest in at least nine quarters. This development underlines the short-term challenges that Indian IT businesses are facing as a result of the global economic downturn.<\/p>\n