Wednesday, June 24, 2009

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Wipro: Deal pipeline healthy

Wipro Ltd, India’s third-largest software-services provider, has a “healthy pipeline” of projects this year as customers rebound from the recession, said Suresh Vaswani, head of the company’s information-technology unit.

“We’re fairly confident in terms of customer activity, booking, and a healthy pipeline,” Vaswani, the division’s co- chief executive officer, said in an interview. “Lots of meaningful discussions are taking place.”

Customers in manufacturing and retailing are among Wipro’s strongest, said Vaswani, 49. Some clients had curbed technology budgets to shield themselves from the worst global economic slump since at least World War II, leading Wipro to project little change in this quarter’s sales from a year ago.

Wipro designs and builds software programmes, maintains computer networks and provides product-engineering services and back-office support to General Electric Co, Cisco Systems Inc, Citigroup Inc and other customers. Computer services contributed more than 90 per cent of Wipro’s operating income in the year to March 31. The company also makes soap, light bulbs and hydraulic equipment.

Wipro, which trails Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Infosys Technologies Ltd, fell 1 rupee to 379.35 rupees in Mumbai trading yesterday. The stock has gained 63 per cent this year. Wipro’s American depositary receipts fell 6.1 per cent to $10.66 at in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

US growth
Wipro plans to hire more workers in the US to drive sales and reassure Congress at a time when President Barack Obama is predicting the US unemployment rate will climb to 10 per cent. The US accounts for about 60 per cent of the information-technology unit’s sales.

“Growth has to be there in the US and growth has to be there in Europe for growth overall to sustain,” Vaswani said. The World Bank said that the global recession will be deeper than predicted and warned that there will be a flight of capital from developing countries.

A proposal by Senators Dick Durbin and Charles Grassley would bar companies from hiring more workers with H-1B or L-1 visas if more than half of their US employees have such visas.

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