FILE PHOTO: Wipro CEO Srinivas Pallia speaks during a press conference announcing the company's quarterly results in Bengaluru, India, April 19, 2024. REUTERS/Rakesh Nair/File Photo
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Wipro, India's fourth-largest IT services player, missed quarterly revenue expectations on Friday due to prolonged softness in key geographies such as Europe, and Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa (APMEA).
The company's consolidated revenue fell 3.8% to 219.64 billion rupees ($2.63 billion), below analysts' estimates of 225.9 billion rupees, per LSEG data.
Bengaluru-based Wipro, the only firm among the top IT companies to provide a quarterly forecast, said it expects IT services revenue of $2.6 billion to $2.65 billion in the second quarter, indicating a sequential decline of 1% to a growth of 1%.
Chief Executive Srinivas Pallia said that the company reported growth in its Americas 1 market, which includes Latin America. Growth in its European and APMEA markets fell 11.6% and 13.2%, respectively.
Wipro saw quarterly revenue decline year-on-year in all of its verticals except health, while banking, financial servcies and insurance, its largest vertical, fell 5.3%. It reported its steepest decline in the communications vertical, which was down 21.9%.
Peers such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and HCLTech have reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, boosting hopes of a recovery in the IT sector.
However, the companies have maintained that the discretionary spending environment remains subdued.
The sector has been grappling with clients tightening their purse strings for discretionary spending amid global economic uncertainties and higher interest rates that make borrowing more expensive.
Wipro's net profit rose 4.6% to 30.03 billion rupees in the quarter ended June, beating analysts' estimates of 29.48 billion rupees, as per LSEG data.
($1 = 83.6330 Indian rupees) (This story has been corrected to say that Wipro beat, not missed profit estimates in paragraph 9)
(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sonia Cheema)
