Calcutta, Jan. 21: Wipro has posted its highest-ever quarterly profit after tax at Rs 274.3 crore, a 19 per cent rise from Rs 230.6 crore in the same period of 2002.

The company has exceeded its revenue guidance and market expectations to record revenues of Rs 1,521.4 crore for the quarter ended December 31 from Rs 1108.3 crore in the previous corresponding period — a 37 per cent increase.

Revenues for the nine month ended December 31 was Rs 4,094.9 crore, a 32 per cent increase over the previous year’s Rs 3100.6 crore and profit after tax rose to Rs 710.7 crore from Rs 595.1 crore, an increase of 19 per cent.

“Sustained volume growth coupled with a stable pricing environment and operational improvements resulted in Wipro posting its highest ever quarterly profit after tax. Revenue in our global IT services business was $250 million, ahead of the guidance of $241 million. Business momentum continues to be strong,” said chairman Azim Premji.

Global IT services accounted for 75 per cent of total revenues while Wipro Infotech contributed 15 per cent of the earnings.

Premji expects revenues from the global IT services to be around $269 million for the quarter ending March 2004.

The company has witnessed a double-digit sequential revenue growth for the second consecutive quarter.

While BPO grew 29 per cent, technology saw a 13 per cent sequential growth and IT business recorded a 10 per cent growth. Technology infrastructure services grew 17 per cent and package implementation 17 per cent.

Vice-chairman Vivek Paul said, “We continued to build a solid foundation with the highest ever net addition of employees on the back of multiple large customer wins.”

The company recruited 2872 people taking the total headcount to 27,137 employees, which includes 17681 employees in IT services and 9456 employees in IT-enabled services.

During the third quarter, Wipro added 24 new customers, of which eight were in R&D services, 14 in enterprise services and two in ITeS.