Infosys,wipro report rise in Q3 profits
BENGALURU: In a boost for the IT industry, Infosys Ltd and Wipro Ltd reported a rise in their third quarter net profits on Wednesday. Infosys reported a consolidated net proft of ₹5,197 crore in the December quarter while Wipro reported a consolidated net profit of ₹2,968 crore during the same period. Infosys raised its annual revenue growth forecast and reported a higher quarterly profit, helped by large deal wins as demand for its digital services rose during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Larger rival Tata Consultancy Services reported higher thirdquarter profit last week and forecast strong growth for the year ahead.
Infosys, the country’s second biggest software services firm by market value, said it expects annual revenue in the financial year to end-march 2021 to grow between 4.5% and 5% in constant currency terms, higher than 2% to 3% forecast earlier.
The December-quarter is typically weak for India’s IT sector, but it strengthened in 2020 as global clients invested more in digital services to support the shift to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the quarter, Infosys bagged several deals including a cloud partnership with German automaker Daimler AG and a strategic partnership with British aero-engine maker Rolls-royce. Total contract value of large declined to be identified.
Its main listed company, Geely Automobile, has the capacity to build more than 2 million vehicles a year but sold only some 1.32 million in 2020. Geely Automobile plans to issue shares on mainland China’s STAR board this year.
Foxconn, whose official name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd, said in October it aimed to provide components or services to 10% of the world’s EVS by 2025-2027.
Geely shares climbed 1% on the news. Foxconn shares finished 2.4% higher prior to the companies’ announcement. deals in the quarter was $7.13 billion.
Consolidated net profit climbed to ₹5,197 crore ($709.90 million) from ₹4,457 crore a year earlier.
Revenue from operations rose 12.3% to ₹25,927 crore.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of ₹5,050 crore, according to Refinitiv data.
“The Infosys team has delivered another quarter of excellent results. Execution of client relevant strategy focused on digital transformation continues to drive superior growth, well ahead of the industry. The scale of new client partnerships with leading global companies such as Vanguard, Daimler and Rollsroyce demonstrate the depth of digital and cloud capabilities of Infosys,” the Infosys chief executive and managing director Salil
Parekh said. He added that with the intense focus on client needs and the comprehensive foundation built on differentiated capabilities, he was confident about the future.
Infosys said its large deal total contract value was at an all-time high of $7.13 billion.
Meanwhile, IT services major Wipro Ltd reported a consolidated net profit at ₹2,968 crore for the December 2020 quarter. This was a rise of around 21% as the net profit attributable to shareholders in the year-ago period was at ₹2,455.9 crore, according to a regulatory filing by Wipro.
The company’s revenue from operations grew nearly 1.3% to ₹15,670 crore from ₹15,470.5 crore in the quarter ended December 2019.
Wipro, which gets a bulk of its topline from IT services, said it expects revenues from that business to be in the range of $2,102-2,143 million in the March 2021 quarter.
This translates into a sequential growth of 1.5% to 3.5% for the March quarter.
For the December quarter, IT services revenue grew 3.9% sequentially to $2,071 million, exceeding the forecast that had been given by the company in October.
In October, Wipro had said it expects its revenue from IT services business to be in the range of $2,022-2,062 million for the December quarter, a sequential growth of 1.5-3.5%.
“Wipro has delivered a second consecutive quarter of strong performance on order booking, revenue and margins. Five of our sectors grew over 4% sequentially. We closed our largest ever deal win in Continental Europe,” Wipro chief executive and managin director Thierry Delaporte said in a statement.
The demand environment is steadily improving, especially for digital transformation, digital operations, and cloud services, he added. Wipro’s revenue from IT products during the quarter was about ₹160 crore ($21.3 million), while that from Indian state run enterprises business was ₹240 crore ($32.8 million). The company has declared a dividend of ₹1 per equity share. Wipro shares closed marginally higher at ₹458.7 apiece on BSE on Wednesday. The results were declared after market hours.
GEELY’S MAIN UNIT CAN BUILD MORE THAN 2 MILLION VEHICLES A YEAR BUT SOLD ONLY SOME 1.32 MILLION UNITS IN 2020