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Informist, Thursday, Apr. 16, 2026

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI – Wipro Ltd.'s margin performance in the ongoing quarter will see hindrance from wage hikes and ramp-up of large deals, Chief Financial Officer Aparna C. Iyer said in a post-earnings press conference Thursday. The information technology services major rolled out the latest round of wage hikes for its employees on Mar. 1. 

"As we move into Q1 (Apr-Jun), we do have headwinds, including the impact of recent large-deal wins, impact of two incremental months of salary increase, which could cause some volatility on our quarterly performance," Iyer said, adding that the company's endeavour would be to maintain the margins in a narrow band in the medium term.

The country's fourth-largest IT firm by market capitalisation expects revenue from its IT Services business segment to be in the range of $2.60 billion to $2.65 billion for the current quarter, translating to a sequential guidance of (-)2% to 0% in constant currency terms. This estimate is inclusive of the impact from the two acquisition deals announced recently by the company, the management said.

The INR-150-billion share buyback by the company is also expected to conclude in the ongoing quarter, as per the management. Wipro's board Thursday approved the share buyback, which involves 600 million shares at INR 250 per share via the tender offer route.

Answering a question on whether this buyback plan was the best use of the company's cash when its peers are doubling down on investments tied to artificial intelligence, Iyer said it is a well-considered move and that the company has a strong war chest to support its ambitions.

Shortly before the press meet, Wipro reported consolidated net profit of INR 35.02 billion for the March quarter, up over 12% sequentially but down around 2% on year. The company's revenue for the reporting quarter grew around 3% sequentially and around 8% on year to INR 242.36 billion.  

The company's IT services sales rose 0.6% sequentially and over 2.1% on year to $2.65 billion in the March quarter. It reported an IT services operating margin of 17.3% for the quarter, down from 17.6% in the previous quarter. 

Geopolitical issues have become the new normal for Wipro's clients and IT spending showed resilience in the March quarter, the company's Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Srini Pallia said. He later added that technology budgets of clients are strong across industries and markets, as far as the company is concerned.

Pallia said that despite the volatile geopolical environment, the company continues to make decisive investments to navigate the AI-first world. "...we are making a deliberate strategic pivot to stay ahead...we have launched a dedicated AI-native business and platforms unit to expand beyond a services-only model to a services-as-a-software approach," he later said.

According to Pallia, Wipro has a strong deal pipeline across geographies and across industries. "We do have strategic deals in the pipeline. You have seen we have been aggressive and competitive in the market, and we will continue to do so," he said.

Addressing questions on the impact of the war in West Asia, Pallia said service delivery to clients has continued unaffected. He added that client spending decisions were also largely unaffected. "...but there are a couple of projects (where) the client wants to slow down," Pallia said.  

SEGMENTS, HIRING

Commenting on business across different segments in the March quarter, Pallia said the healthcare sector in the Americas 1 market was impacted by seasonality and policy changes. "For us, the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector was impacted by delayed ramp-ups on some large deals that were closed earlier this year, and by certain client-specific issues."

He, however, later added that the company has a healthy pipeline of deals in the BFSI segment. Meanwhile, Iyer assured that the client-specific issue will be contained and not have any continuing impact beyond the ongoing quarter.

In the March quarter, revenue from Wipro's core BFSI segment fell 1.3% sequentially and 0.5% on year in constant currency terms. Sales from the health segment were down 4.4% sequentially and steady on year in constant currency terms.

Unlike some of its peers who have begun quantifying their AI-driven revenues as a seperate metric, Pallia said Wipro is not calling out that number for now.

On hiring in FY27, the management said it would depend on business needs. "Layoffs are happening across the industry. We can't go across, hiring," Chief Human Resources Officer Saurabh Govil said. 

Wipro's total headcount as of Mar. 31 was 242,156, up marginally from 242,021 at the end of the December quarter. In FY26, the Bengaluru-headquartered player added 7,500 freshers to its overall tally, including more than 3,000 in the March quarter, the company management said.  

Wipro does not have a fresher hiring target for FY27. "It depends completely on demand, very volatile environment right now. So we'll play it by the ear as the demand picks up and we'll see how it goes," Govil said.

On a question whether there will be a sharper de-linking of revenue from headcount going forward, with AI a part of the overall mix, Govil said, "...the shift is for real. We should not shy away from saying that. We have seen it, our campus intake over the last four years is gradually coming down."

Wipro announced its March quarter earnings after market hours. Shares of the company closed 0.2% higher at INR 210.26 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

US$1 = INR 93.19

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Shakshi Jain and Arya S. Biju

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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