Wipro’s revenues fall 2% in Q2, guides for a steeper fall in Q3

• Wipro’s board approved the merger of five of its subsidiaries into the company.
• Wipro said that it has 22 accounts above the $100 million range as of September end.
• Its voluntary attrition came in at a nine-quarter low of 13.4% in the second quarter.

Wipro, the country’s fourth largest IT services company, reported a 2% sequential fall in constant currency revenues for the July-September quarter on Wednesday. This is the third consecutive quarter where it has reported sequential fall in revenues. Gross revenues declined 0.01% to ₹17,365 crore year-on-year. The IT major has also guided for yet another weak quarter ahead. It expects revenues to fall anywhere between 1.5-3.5% in the third quarter of FY24. The fall was steeper in its quarterly net profit, which declined by 8% in rupee terms to ₹2,667 crore against ₹2,887 crore it reported in the previous quarter.

The Street was expecting Wipro to report a 1% sequential fall in constant currency revenues. In dollar terms, its IT segment revenues fell 2.3% to $2,713.3 million, the company said on Wednesday.

Commenting on the quarterly numbers, Thierry Delaporte, Wipro’s CEO and MD, said: “Due to our higher exposure to the consulting and BFSI sector in the Americas, we have seen a higher than usual impact of macroeconomic conditions. As the markets start to turnaround, on the back of our transformation and efficiency plays, we expect to see improvement in the coming quarters.

Wipro said that its total bookings for the quarter stood at $3.8 billion for the quarter which is 6% higher than what it was in the same quarter last year. Its large deal booking is at $1.3 billion – which is the highest it has seen in the last nine quarters. It said it has 22 accounts above the $100M range – twice as much they had in FY21.

Wipro’s operating margin for the quarter was at 16.1%, up 10 bps QoQ. The company said it expects the margins to remain range-bound as seen in the last few quarters.

Employees to get 80% variable pay

Wipro’s voluntary attrition has continued to moderate sequentially, coming in at a nine-quarter low of 13.4% in the second quarter. The company also said it will give 80% of the variable pay to its employees based on performance.

It did not disclose its plans of hiring at campuses this year. “Hiring is a function of demand and benching. We are focussed on honouring our commitments made to people before going to campuses, and there are still some offers left to honour,” said Saurabh Govil, chief human resources officer at Wipro.

The company’s board also approved a scheme of amalgamation to merge five of its wholly-owned subsidiaries with itself. The subsidiaries are Wipro HR Services, Wipro Overseas IT Services, Wipro Technology Product Services, Wipro Trademarks Holding and Wipro VLSI Design Services.

“The scheme is subject to necessary statutory and regulatory approvals under applicable laws, including approval of the National Company Law Tribunal,” the company said.

IT companies are facing demand headwinds in their key markets. Wipro, like other peers, had also indicated that its revenues could contract during the second quarter. In July, the company had said while announcing its first quarter earnings that it expected revenue from IT services to be in the range of $2,722 million to $2,805 million. This would translate to sequential guidance of -2 per cent to +1 per cent in constant currency terms.