Wipro’s revenue edged higher in the September quarter and margins improved, but a sharp drop in large-deal bookings and cautious guidance cast doubt on the pace of its recovery.
Wipro’s latest quarter showed a business that is still expanding, but only modestly, while the pipeline that should support a stronger recovery looks less certain. The Bengaluru-based outsourcing group reported a 4.7 per cent sequential fall in net profit to ₹3,201 crore for the September quarter, even as revenue rose 1.1 per cent from the previous quarter to ₹24,752 crore and 9.1 per cent from a year earlier. IT services revenue was broadly flat on the quarter at $2.6115 billion, with the company pointing to a difficult demand backdrop and weaker momentum in large contracts.
The softest signal came from deal activity. Total bookings dropped 22.9 per cent in constant-currency terms, while large-deal bookings fell 58.6 per cent to $674 million. That matters because the company’s growth story depends on converting a healthy pipeline into signed work. Chief executive Srini Pallia said some deals had been awarded but were not yet signed and would likely move into the December quarter, while also describing the pipeline as strong across net-new, transformational and artificial intelligence-specific opportunities. Even so, the near-term outlook remains cautious: Wipro expects December-quarter IT services revenue to decline by as much as 1.5 per cent, or rise by no more than 0.5 per cent, in constant-currency terms.
The regional picture was uneven. Revenue fell in the Americas 1 market, while Europe, Americas 2 and the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region all grew, with APMEA posting the strongest increase. By industry, consumer led the gains, followed by banking, financial services and insurance, while technology and communications and healthcare both weakened. Analysts told BusinessLine that the company is still stabilising operationally, but that its commercial momentum trails some peers, particularly as clients increasingly look for larger transformation projects centred on AI.
There were a few signs of discipline beneath the weaker bookings. Operating margin improved by 50 basis points to 16.5 per cent, though that remains below Wipro’s own 17 per cent to 18 per cent aspiration, according to earlier company guidance. Headcount fell to 236,328 from 243,044 in the previous quarter, and attrition stood at 13.8 per cent. Saurabh Govil, Wipro’s chief human resources officer, said the company would keep hiring selectively, including campus recruits later in the year, and noted that Wipro had not filed any PERM applications in the past three years, limiting the likely long-term effect of any cancellation issues. The broader message from the quarter is that Wipro is still managing costs and holding margins together, but it has yet to convert that stability into a convincing return to faster growth.
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