Mumbai: India's third largest software services provider Wipro's consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter rose 7.7 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,481 crore, in-line with market expectations. However, shares plunged over 7 per cent on opening on Wednesday after the street was disappointed with its weak volume growth in Jan-March and muted guidance for the first quarter.
The Bangalore-based company expects revenue from IT services in April-June will be in $ 1.52-1.55 billion range, just about 0.6 per cent higher than that in Jan-March at the top end.
"Wipro’s fourth quarter is in-line with our expectations. However, volume growth in the quarter was muted than our estimates. More importantly, revenue growth guidance for first quarter in IT services is below our as well as consensus expectations," said an analyst with a local brokerage.
In the fourth quarter, Wipro's consolidated net sales were up 19 per cent from a year ago to Rs 9,836.3 crore.
On a sequential basis, Wipro's net profit was up 1.7 per cent, while revenue fell 0.5 per cent.Volume growth in IT services was also muted at 0.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Analysts on average had expected Wipro to report a net profit of Rs 1,471 crore on revenue of Rs 10,157 crore in Jan-March.
"Our focus on operations helped improve revenue productivity and deliver strong cash flows in a volatile environment," said Suresh Senapaty, CFO.
In the fourth quarter, the company's revenue from IT services rose 9.7 per cent from a year ago and 2 per cent sequentially to $ 1.54 billion.
"We have delivered revenues in line with our guidance in an uncertain environment. Our restructuring journey started with us positioning the customer at the center of all our efforts - we have seen progress with customer satisfaction scores going up in each of the last 4 quarters and we have created better value for our clients, with 7 customers contributing more than $100 million in revenues," said TK Kurien, CEO, IT Business.
The company added 13,535 employees in the last fiscal year, and as of March 31, the IT services segment had 1,35,920 employees.
Wipro added 41 new customers in the fourth quarter and 173 during the year.
India's top IT company Tata Consultancy Services on Monday reported a 23 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,932.4 crore, while total income was up 30.5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 13,259.3 crore in Jan-March.
Number two player Infosys had reported a 27 per cent year-on-year growth in net profit. It has guided for 8-10 per cent US dollar revenue growth in fiscal 2013. For the first quarter Infosys has forecast a revenue growth of 6-7.1 per cent year-on-year and 0-1 per cent sequentially.
Meanwhile, among Wipro's other segments, IT products revenue was up 3 per cent from a year ago to 937 crore. Consumer Care and Lighting Business revenue rose 25 per cent year-on-year to Rs 907 crore in Jan-March.
At 9:55 hrs, Wipro shares were down 6.6 per cent at Rs 412.80 on NSE.
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