Wipro starts the year slow but pins hopes on large deals

Mint

3 days ago

Wipro Ltd has started the fiscal year on a gloomy note with a third consecutive revenue decline, but is pinning its hopes for a better second half on its large deals despite macroeconomic uncertainties.
On Thursday, the Bengaluru-based information technology (IT) outsourcer reported $2.59 billion in revenue for the April-June first quarter, down 0.35% from the preceding three months and 1.47% lower from the corresponding year-ago period.
Much of the company's revenue was dragged by banks and financial institutions, which are its biggest earners.
Wipro's first-quarter revenue, however, was a tad higher than the average of $2.58 billion that 35 analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected. India's fourth-largest IT outsourcer also exceeded its April projection of between $2,505 million and $2,557 million in revenue for the June quarter.
Wipro's Q1 performance was also in line with India's top five IT outsourcers.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, the largest, ended the first quarter with $7.42 billion in revenue, down 0.59% sequentially, while HCL Technologies Ltd, the third-largest, reported $3.55 billion, up 1.34% from the January-March quarter. Tech Mahindra Ltd, India's fifth-largest IT services provider, reported Q1 revenue of $1.56 billion, up 0.97% on a quarterly basis.
Infosys Ltd, India's second-largest IT outsourcer, will report its June-quarter results on 23 July.
'We started the quarter facing significant macro uncertainty, which kept overall demand muted," said Srinivas Pallia, chief executive of Wipro, during the company's post-earnings press briefing on Thursday.
TCS and Tech Mahindra have also pointed to uncertainty in the macro environment resulting in decision-making and project implementation delays by customers, although HCLTech's management has said the macroeconomic environment is stable.
'I would certainly say that there is uncertainty. So the whole aspect of geopolitics continues, the aspect of tariff continues, and each of the industries and each of the countries have a different situation," said Pallia.
A healthy deal pipeline, but…
Wipro is confident of a turnaround because of a healthydeal pipeline.
'The large deals we closed this quarter, and, of course, the last quarter, along with a strong pipeline, put us in a good position for the second half of the year," said Pallia.
The IT services company's large deal wins in the first quarter jumped 51% to $2.67 billion. Much of this increase was because of two 'mega deals" that the company won in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector in the first quarter, and a third large deal that could become a mega deal later.
Wipro considers deals with contract value of $30 million and above as large deals.
At least one analyst gave Wipro's latest quarterly performance a thumbs-up.
'Strong large deal wins coupled with an inline guidance for the September quarter (-1% to 1% quarter-on-quarter in constant currency terms) are encouraging even as the company announced an interim dividend of ₹5," said Manik Taneja, executive director of IT services for Axis Capital.
'Wipro remains the cheapest tier 1 IT services stock and these results only lend confidence that Wipro is certainly steading well under the current CEO," Taneja added.
Wipro ended Thursday's trading on NSE down 1.54% at ₹258.75 per share, before the quarterly earnings results were announced. The Nifty IT index fell 1.39%.
Wipro expects a better second half (October 2025 to March 2026), but does not see its big-ticket deals filling the company's revenue coffers immediately.
'In terms of deal wins and conversions, some of the deals that we won have a good balance of both extending the work that we do, and there is an element of expansion," Wipro's chief financial officer Aparna Iyer said during the press briefing. '(But) given the nature of these deals, they will take about six to eight quarters for them to just fully ramp up."
A steep climb for Pallia
Even as Wipro's large order book and pipeline might show positive signs for Pallia, who completed a year as the company's CEO in May, he faces the challenge of steering it to growth after two years of full-year revenue decline.
The IT services company has projected revenue of $2.56 billion to $2.61 billion for the July-September second quarter. According to Wipro's management, its cautious guidance factors in near-term demand challenges and client visibility.
Even if Wipro reports at the upper end of its revenue guidance for the second quarter, it will still face a herculean task in the second half of the fiscal year. The company will have to report revenue of at least $2.66 billion in the third and fourth quarters each if it has to match its 2024-25 revenue of $10.51 billion in 2025-26.
HCLTech has projected revenue growth of 3-5% in constant currency terms. TCS and Tech Mahindra do not provide yearly or quarterly revenue outlook.
Much of Wipro's revenue decline in the first quarter came from Europe, which makes up a little more than a fourth of the company's revenue. The company earned $665 million from clients based in Europe, down 1.7% sequentially.
Net profit in the first quarter declined 7.38% sequentially to $389 million. Wipro also reported 17.3% in operating margin for the quarter, down 20 basis points sequentially. One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.
TCS and Tech Mahindra reported a jump in profitability to 24.5% and 11.1%, respectively, whereas HCLTech reported a 160 basis points decline in margins to 16.3%.
Lower headcount and murkier waters
Wipro became India's third large IT outsourcer to cut headcount in the first three months of this financial year. The tech outsourcer ended the first quarter with 233,232 employees, 114 fewer from the preceding three months, even as it focuses on specialised hiring.
HCLTech cut headcount by 269 people to end the first quarter with 223,151 employees, while Tech Mahindra's headcount fell by 214 to 148,517 employees. As of now, TCS is the only top IT outsourcer in the country to have added headcount during the June quarter—up by 5,090 people to end the period with 613,069 employees.
Three of the country's five largest IT outsourcers cutting headcount signals to murkier waters ahead. More headcount in an IT services company means more demand for their IT services.
The decrease in headcount comes in the backdrop of a tariff war started by US President Donald Trump coupled with geopolitical uncertainties. These can put IT spending by large companies, many of which count Wipro as their IT vendor, in limbo.