India's third-largest software exporter, Wipro, annual net profit climbed 26.9 percent as revenues crossed the two-billion-dollar mark in a booming outsourcing market.
Net profit of the New York Stock Exchange-listed firm jumped to 20.7 billion rupees (460 million dollars) for the financial year to Mahose clients include General Motors and Microsoft, rose 30 percent to 106.26 billion rupees (2.3 billion dollars), according to Indian accounting rules.
During its fourth quarter, net profit rose 43 percent to 6.1 billion rupees from a year earlier on revenues that climbed 35 percent to 31.1 billion rupees, beating market expectations.
The software developer, 84-percent owned by India's wealthiest tycoon Azim Premji, said it added 42 clients in the fourth quarter ending March. During the full financial year, the company, headquartered in the southern high-tech city of Bangalore, recruited 11,885 employees, increasing staff strength to 53,742.
"The information technology services industry is evolving from an era of routine service provisioning to one of innovative knowledge creation," Premji said.
"The strategic initiatives we propose to undertake as part of our plan over the next few years position us well to lead this evolution," Premji said.
"We look forward to 2006-07 and beyond with excitement and enthusiasm," he said.
"Looking ahead for the quarter ending June 2006 we expect revenues from our global IT business to be approximately 533 million dollars," Premji said.
"The broad set of numbers look good ... The guidance for the Q1 2007 quarter is impressive," said Dipen Shah, analyst at brokerage Kotak Securities. The company's results followed earnings from first-place Tata Consultancy Services and second-ranked Infosys that pleased markets.