Wipro Limited is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. The company harnesses the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help its clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. Wipro has been recognised globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship. It has over 180,000 employees serving clients across six continents. The Board of Directors of the company has recently approved a buyback proposal, subject to the approval of shareholders through postal ballot for purchase of up to 237.5 million equity shares of Rs 2 each (representing 4.16% of total paid up equity capital) from the shareholders of the company on a proportionate basis by way of a tender offer. The buyback price is Rs 400 per equity share payable in cash for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 95 billion. The company posted financial results for the quarter ended 30 September 2020 with Gross Revenue at Rs 151.1 billion, an increase of 1.4% y-o-y and net income for the quarter at Rs 24.7 billion, a decrease of 3.4% y-o-y. The Earnings Per Share for the quarter was at Rs 4.33, an increase of 0.7% y-o-y. During the quarter, the company won many major contracts and a few are listed as follows. A US-based multinational food manufacturing company has selected Wipro as the sole strategic partner for application support and maintenance globally. As part of the engagement, Wipro will simplify and transform the client’s application portfolio and help them develop new digital capabilities by leveraging cutting-edge technology solutions. In addition, Wipro will also drive end-to-end enterprise resource planning by rolling out SAP ECC for their acquired entity in Latin America to enable greater integration with the parent company. The company has won a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract from a large US-based healthcare player to provide enrolment and billing services for individual health plans, leveraging Wipro’s digital platform and digital operations services. Wipro has also secured a contract from a leading US-based healthcare technology company to transform its healthcare system by providing application development and support, quality engineering, and production engineering services. It has won a strategic, multi-year managed services contract from a leading US-based manufacturing company to transform its entire procure to pay operations, leveraging Wipro HOLMES® solutions such as Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), Contract Intelligence and Order digitising. Wipro has been awarded a multi-year contract as a transformation partner for Cynergy Bank, a UK Bank specialised in serving the financial needs of property and commercial business owners. Wipro will leverage its core capabilities, IP, partnerships, ventures and best practices to comprehensively manage and transform the Bank’s IT Infrastructure and Security operations as part of this IT co-source engagement. Wipro has also been chosen as the prime partner to deliver digital transformation at the Bank, thereby realising the Bank’s future vision and architectural roadmap. Wipro and Designit have been selected by a regional water authority in Asia Pacific to transform their customer experience, workflow, case management and IoT analytics platforms. The integrated solution, built on Microsoft Azure, will provide a common platform for data acquisition and visualisation, device management, and interface with other IT and third-party agencies/ systems. It will also support new devices to implement various dam safety and water monitoring measures. A leading semiconductor manufacturer has awarded Wipro a turnkey silicon development contract for its 5G wireless infrastructure and automotive vehicle-to-everything market. Wipro’s strong expertise in very large-scale integration and firmware domain will help the customer develop variants of the product for different market segments and accelerate their time-to-market. Meanwhile, a global bank has chosen Designit, a Wipro company, to support a new start-up business focused on small and medium-sized enterprises leveraging strategic design, logistics and operations management and data analysis. Fund managers and analysts are quite bullish on the Wipro stock currently quoting at around Rs 340 and expect it to appreciate by 20% in the next six months’ time horizon.
Rajiv Kapoor is a share broker, certified mutual fund expert and MDRT insurance agent.