January 20, 2008

Wipro's quarterly profit rises 11 pct

NEW DELHI - India's third-largest software company Wipro Ltd. said Friday that its net income for the October-December quarter rose 11 percent from a year ago due to strong outsourcing orders.

Net income for the fiscal third quarter rose to $210 million (8.26 billion rupees) from 7.45 billion rupees in the same period last year.

"Our top ten customers grew at a healthy rate and we won a good set of new clients," Chairman Azim Premji said, adding that results were satisfying and the company saw good momentum in all its businesses.

Still, profit growth slowed from the 16.7-percent rise of the previous quarter.

"The company is seeing strong business in its main market, the U.S., but some of our clients are facing pressures to curtail costs.," Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty told reporters.

"The rising rupee and some salary increases added to the negative impact on operating margins in the quarter, but we managed to offset most of it by getting pricing increases and controlling costs," he said.

Wipro's sales totaled $1.33 billion (52.36 billion rupees) during the third-quarter, up 32 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The results were slightly lower than the average 8.70 billion rupees in net profit and 52.54 billion rupees in revenue forecast by eight analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

The earning numbers conform to U.S. accounting standards.

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