India’s Wipro revenue up 41 percent

The continuing boom in outsourcing to India has helped the country’s top outsourcers post strong revenue and profit growth for their fiscal year ended March 31.

India’s third largest IT outsourcer Wipro announced Friday that its revenue had grown by 41 percent and profits by 44 percent in its fiscal year ended March 31, because of strong growth across all its businesses, and as the benefits from its acquisitions abroad start kicking in.

There is an overall softness in the outsourcing market, but the offshore component of it is still showing strong growth, said Siddharth Pai, a partner at outsourcing consultancy firm, Technology Partners International Inc. (TPI) in Houston.

Wipro posted revenue of Indian Rupees 149.43 billion ($3.44 billion at the exchange rate on the last day of the fiscal year) and profits of Rupees 29.17 billion for the year. Wipro has both a domestic and export business. Its Global IT Services and Products business, which handles most of the outsourcing work for customers abroad, posted revenue of Rupees 110.74 billion, up by 38 percent over the previous year. This business added 197 new clients during the year.

The results are based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Increase in billing rates, and improved profitability in its acquisitions and its business process outsourcing (BPO) business, helped the company offset the impact of the appreciation of the Rupee and wage hikes for staff posted abroad, Wipro of Bangalore said.

Wipro has over the last two years made a number of small acquisitions in the US and Europe that aimed at getting access to new markets or new technologies. All the acquisitions have made profits in the fiscal year to March 31, the company said.

Wipro had 67,818 staff in its global outsourcing business as of March 31 of which 50,354 were in IT services, and 17,464 were in BPO. The company competes for staff and business with multinational services companies like Accenture and IBM that have set up delivery operations in India.

Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, India’s top two outsourcers, have also reported strong revenue and profit growth for the year.

The slowdown in the overall outsourcing market could down the line impact offshore outsourcing as well, Pai said. Indian companies are also likely to face hotter competition from multinational companies in application development, and finance and accounting BPO, where Indian companies have a significant lead, Pai added.

Indian companies have to invest in long-term growth, but they are still very focused on their quarterly results, Pai added.