IT services major Wipro Friday posted a 31.8 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,544.5 crore for October-December 2018 compared to the year-ago period.
Wipro’s board has also approved an issue of bonus shares offering one bonus share for every three held by shareholders.
The net profit in the October-December 2017 quarter was at Rs 1,930.1 crore. The revenue from operations expanded 10.17 per cent to Rs 15,059.5 crore during the period under review from Rs 13,669 crore in the third quarter of FY 2017-18.
“It is yet another quarter of solid execution. Our performance in both revenue and margins has been robust,” Wipro CEO and executive director Abidali Z Neemuchwala told reporters here.
In the constant currency terms, the IT services grew by 2.4 per cent which is above the midpoint of the guidance range, he said.
Amongst the business units, BFSI, CBU and ENU continued to build on the momentum and have grown well during the quarter, Neemuchwala said.
Technology had a muted growth impacted by forloughs, but the outlook remains stable, besides communications has grown well at 2.1 per cent QoQ in constant currency, he said.
The demand environment in the global markets is stable and the company does not see any immediate impact of the macro headwinds that some of the large economies have cautioned, but continued to be watchful, he said.
The traction in US and Asia Pacific and other emerging markets remains healthy and the growth this quarter is across industry segments, he said.
“India is likely to remain volatile,” he added.
The company has expanded its margins significantly over the past two quarters which was driven by restless focus and effort across the teams, Neemuchwala said.
“We see some of the uptick being re-invested into retaining people and our big bets to acquire demand. We remain committed to driving profitable growth and quality for revenues, he said.
The business revenue is expected to be in the range of USD 2,047 million to USD 2,088 million for the March quarter, which translates into flat to 2 per cent growth sequentially.
Chief Financial Officer of the company Jatin Dalal said, Relentless focus on the quality of revenues and operational improvements have led to the expansion of IT services operating margins to 19.8%. Our operating cash flows grew by 19.5 per cent on YoY basis and was at 142 per cent of net income.”
Localisation continued positive momentum in Q3 across key geographies and US localisation rose to 62.6 per cent up from 60.3 per cent in Q2, 2019, he said.