Wipro Q2 net profit slips 8.4% to Rs 1,931 crore

India's third largest software services firm Wipro today said its consolidated net profit has declined by 8.4% to Rs 1,931.3 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2017.

This is against net profit (attributable to shareholders) at Rs 2,109.6 crore in the year-ago period, as per Indian accounting norms (Ind AS), Wipro said in a BSE filing. Wipro's revenue from operations was nearly flat at Rs 13,669 crore in the quarter under review as against Rs 13,687.8 crore in the year-ago period, it added. Revenues from IT services segment, which accounts for a significant portion of the company's topline, stood at US $2.013 billion, remaining flat sequentially and up by 5.8% year-on-year.

Wipro missed its revenue guidance for the third quarter as it had given a forecast of US $2.014 billion to US $2.054 billion. For the March 2018 quarter, it expects revenues from IT services business to be in the range of US $2,033 million to US $2,073 million. The company said its IT services margin -- at 14.8% -- was impacted by a provision of Rs 317.5 crore (US $49.7 million) made with respect to insolvency of a customer post the balance sheet date.

"Adjusted for this event, IT services margin was higher at 17.2%," the filing said. The company has declared an interim dividend of Re 1 per share. "We continued to improve our growth trajectory driven by strong momentum in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and uptick in healthcare," Wipro CEO and Member of the Board Abidali Z Neemuchwala said. This is also reflected in Wipro's outlook for the next quarter, he added. Wipro now gets over 25% of its revenues from Digital. IT products revenue for the third quarter was Rs 450 crore (US $70 million). The company saw its headcount at 1,62,553 at the end of the third quarter.