Wipro’s Q1 net profit up 12% to Rs 2,870 crore, misses estimates

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Wipro on Thursday reported quarter-on-quarter fall in its net profit and revenue for the first quarter ended June amidst weak performances by key verticals like financial services and communications with clients postponing discretionary spending in the short term. India’s fourth-largest software company expects revenue in the ongoing fiscal quarter to be between a sequential fall of 2% and a growth of 1% in constant currency, or without forex fluctuations. For the April-June quarter, Wipro’s net profit stood at Rs 2,870 crore, up 12% compared with Rs 2,564 crore a year earlier, but down 6.7% sequentially.

Its revenue at Rs 22,830 crore was up 6% on year but fell 1.6% on quarter. The street had expected Wipro’s net profit to grow by 19% on year on a 7.1% growth in revenue. “As I have said in the last two quarters, we are in a time of uncertainty,” Thierry Delaporte, chief executive and managing director of Wipro, said at a media briefing.

“Therefore, companies are not necessarily forward looking on how much they are going to spend in 1-5 months from now.” In constant currency terms, Wipro’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% sequentially, but within the company’s own outlook for a 1-3% decline for the April-June period. Delaporte said it was “too early to tell” if there will be a recovery in the second half of the current fiscal year, despite solid bookings. “There is also a lot of smaller discretionary spend that can be postponed or stopped,” he said.