Wipro sees strong deal pipeline

Wipro, India's No. 3 software services exporter, sees robust deal pipeline on the back of improving IT demand worldwide, a senior official said on Tuesday.

"The deal pipeline is good ... the demand environment is building up. The IT demand situation is improving," Suresh Vaswani, joint chief executive of the company's IT business, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

The company last month reported a 18.76 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,161.7 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2009.

The IT exporter had a net profit of Rs 978.2 crore in the September quarter of last fiscal.

Total income of the company rose to Rs 7,057.4 crore during the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, from Rs 6,664.8 crore in the year-ago period, as per the Indian accounting norms.

"We see more stability in volumes and pricing as well as an improving demand environment. Our broad portfolio of services and strong delivery excellence continues to position us as a partner of choice with customers, as they focus on capital conservation and cost transformation," Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said.

The country's third largest software exporter's revenue from IT services in rupee terms grew by 5 per cent to Rs 4,996 crore from the year-ago period. However, in dollar terms, the revenue fell by 4 per cent to $1,065.2 million.

"Looking ahead for the quarter ending December 31, 2009, we expect revenues from our IT Services business to be in the range of $1,092 million to $1,113 million," Premji said.

In the reported quarter, the firm added 37 new clients to its IT services business, which accounted for 72 per cent of its total revenue.