Wipro net profit up by 1.4 per cent in Q2 Alt tag: Wipro chairman Azim Premji upbeat about future projections Bangalore: India's third largest software exporter, Wipro, said on October 18 that its second quarter net profit rose 1.4 per cent from a year ago to Rupees 2.2 billion rupees ($ 44.9 million).

It said the marginal increase in net profit came despite revenues growing 21 per cent to Rupees 10.6 billion for the July to September period. Market analysts said the net profit result was in line with market expectations and the revenues had beaten many forecasts.

In the previous quarter to June, Wipro's net profit declined 24 per cent to Rupees 1.63 billion after the closure of an Internet business.

Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd, said his company clocked a second quarter profit due to global corporations continuing to move their bases to India.

"A challenging global business environment has made India-based offshore initiatives a key priority for global corporations," Premji said.

"For the quarter ending December 2002, we estimate the revenue in our global IT services business to be approximately at $ 152 million," he added.

He said Wipro was well positioned to take advantage of the growing opportunity where global clients were setting up bases in India to develop software and run their back offices.

"We should see the momentum in volume growth of the last two quarters (to) continue.

Vivek Paul, vice-chairman and chief executive officer of the company's global IT business arm, Wipro Technologies, was upbeat about the future.

"We see pricing pressures flattening. Business traction continues from both new as well as existing clients. We acquired 30 new clients, seven of whom were in the Fortune 1,000 list," Paul said.

The company also forecast increased revenues from India's third largest provider of business process outsourcing services, Spectramind, in which it holds 92 per cent stake.

"The integration of Wipro Spectramind is on plan and the results of the combined offerings are already visible in the client traction we see in the market place," Paul said.

"During the quarter Wipro Spectramind has signed letters of intent with four new clients, including one for business process outsourcing," he added.

Wipro Ltd had a total employee strength of 11,298 as of September 30 – an increase of 753 employees from the previous quarter.