Wipro plans major investments in BPO

New Delhi: IT major Wipro plans to acquire stake in US and European companies for an estimated worth of $800 million.

The billionaire chairman of Wipro, Azim Premji said the company has beaten revenue estimates for a fifth consecutive quarter. The present quarter’s revenues of Rs 140 crore were attributed to acquisitions, with over five percent of the company’s total earnings coming from global IT services clients. The company says the figures are set to double in the next couple of months.

Focusing on the retail, BPO, healthcare and telecom areas, Wipro plans to acquire companies whose revenues range between $150 million to $250 million. Last year alone, Wipro acquired four firms for a whooping $138 million and is now in negotiation with 12 more.

"We are more confident of integrating larger, more complex and not just India, but India-cum-global kind of deals. We have an active pipeline," said Sudip Nandy, Chief Strategy Officer, Wipro.

The company also plans to increase its head count in the wake of bulk overseas orders, added Nandy. Despite the high attrition rate in India’s IT sector, Wipro has managed to keep the ‘ employees’ outflow’ to a bare 16.2 per cent.

Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro says, "On the operations front, we saw lowering of our attrition rate in both the IT and BPO business. That, coupled with improvement in other operational metrics, helped us largely offset the profitability pressure from wage increase and rupee appreciation."

Wipro's bullish about the fourth quarter. By then, it expects to have made a big-ticket acquisition in an all-cash deal. Wipro believes filling that shopping basket will help to inflate its revenues.