NEW LANDMARKS: Azim Premji (right), Chairman, Wipro, and Suresh Senapathy, Chief Finance Officer, at a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: G. R. N. Somashekar

BANGALORE: Wipro's net profit rose by 27 per cent to Rs. 2,067 crore in 2005-06 from Rs. 1,629 crore in 2004-05 as revenues climbed up by 30 per cent riding on the back of a continuing boom in outsourcing from western countries.

The board of directors of the comapny has recommended a cash dividend of Rs. 5 per share/ADS.

The consolidated revenues of Wipro for 2005-06 grew by 30 per cent to Rs. 10,626 crore from Rs. 8,170 crore. During the year, Wipro sailed through the $2-billion-revenue-mark in its IT business and hired 11,885 employees to take its staff strength in IT business beyond the 50,000-mark. Wipro now has 53,742 employees on its rolls, comprising 37,655 employees in its IT services business and 16,087 employees in its BPO business.

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services and products arm of Wipro, garnered revenues of Rs. 8,066 crore, a growth of 33 per cent.

Revenues of Wipro Infotech, the firm's IT business in India, West Asia and the Asia-Pacific grew by 22 per cent to Rs. 1,705 crore, while that of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting rose by 27 per cent to Rs. 601 crore.

Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech accounted for 74 per cent and 18 per cent of the total revenues of Wipro for the fiscal.

The net profit of Wipro for the fourth quarter ended March 31 grew by 43 per cent to Rs. 618 crore as revenues jumped by 35 per cent to Rs. 3,113 crore.

During the fourth quarter, the revenues of Wipro Technologies rose by 41 per cent to Rs. 2,317 crore, while that of Wipro Infotech grew by 18 per cent to Rs. 570 crore from a year earlier. Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting reported a revenue growth of 35 per cent during the fourth quarter to reach Rs. 166 crore.

"It was a year in which we crossed several landmarks, including Rs. 10,000 crore in total revenues, $2-billion-mark in IT business revenues, Rs. 500 crore of quarterly profits, 5 per cent revenue contribution from innovation initiatives and a team size of 50,000. Looking ahead, for the quarter ending June 2006, we expect revenue from our global IT services business to be about $533 million,'' Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro, told reporters here on Wednesday, while announcing the annual results of the company.

Wipro added 42 clients during the fourth quarter, including a Rs. 360-crore deal for providing comprehensive outsourcing services to HDFC Bank for a ten-year period.

Without divulging figures, Mr. Premji said Wipro would hire more staff during the year in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon, Noida, Kolkata and also in several smaller cities where it was in the process of opening offices. It would open a new centre at Bucharest in Romania by the end of May.

Wipro was expected to grow ahead of the industry and to meet the demand, the company was planning to invest substantially more towards capital expenditure requirements, Mr. Premji said.

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