Wipro gives higher returns to US investors

NEW DELHI: Shares of Wipro, whose Chairman Azim Premji has been named among the world's greatest entrepreneurs of all times by BusinessWeek, has given a return of over 25 per cent to company's investors in US in one year.

Wipro's scrip, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has soared to 15.78 dollar at the end of June from 12.59 dollar in the year-ago period.

However, on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the IT major's share has made a gain of just four per cent over a year. The scrip closed at Rs 518.20 at the end of June this year ascompared to Rs 496 in the same period previous year.

Wipro's share settled at Rs 512.60 last week, while its ADRs settled at 15.86 dollars at the NYSE on July 13.

The company started off as a vegetable oil firm and has since diversified to become a leading global player in IT services.

Premji has been the Chairman of Wipro Ltd from 1966 when he took over the company after his return from Stanford. He founded the Azim Premji Foundation in the year 2001, with an aim to make tangible impact on identified social issues through education, BusinessWeek said.

The Foundation is working with 15 state governments and is engaged with 20,000 government-run schools reaching about 2.5 million children.

The US magazine named Premji in the 'Top 30 All TimeEntrepreneurs' list, which honours the ideas and innovation of the world's 30 most influential people. The list includes 15thcentury explorer Admiral Zheng H to present day business leaders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell.