Wipro elevates Azim Premji's son Rishad to board from May 1

Wipro, country's third-biggest software services exporter, has appointed the son of billionaire founder Azim Premji to its board, in a long-awaited promotion that moves the chairman's heir apparent closer to the top spot.

Rishad Premji, eldest son and a Harvard Business School graduate, was already Wipro's chief strategy officer. He joins the board from May 1.

The appointment was announced on Tuesday alongside Wipro's fourth-quarter earnings and a modest 2 per cent rise in profit. That beat expectations of a slight dip, thanks to a rise in its Western clients' technology spending.

Wipro founder Azim Premji took over his own father's ailing vegetable oil business in the mid-1960s. He diversified into making hydraulic cylinders in the 1970s and struck out into information technology in 1980.

"There is nothing much to be read into this other than the fact he is really representing shareholders' interest," Wipro's Chief Executive Officer TK Kurien told reporters, when asked about Rishad's elevation to the board.

For its fourth quarter ended March 31, Wipro's net profit rose to Rs 2,272 crore ($361.38 million), compared with Rs 2,227 crore in the same period the previous year, the company said in a statement.

Analysts, on average, had expected Wipro to report a profit of Rs 2,180 crore, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Total revenue rose to Rs 12,140 crore in the quarter, a rise of 4 per cent over last year, as the company added 65 new clients.

Wipro, which makes about three quarters of its sales in the United States and Europe, said its IT services revenue is likely to be $1.77 billion to $1.79 billion in the June quarter, growth of up to 1.1 per cent from the preceding quarter.

Wipro has been looking to boost revenue from high margin services that help overseas clients seeking to speed up automation and do more business online.

Rajan Kohli, head of Wipro's newly-formed digital business unit, said last month the unit aimed to generate $1 billion in annual revenue within three years, which would make it one of the company's top sources of income.

(Reuters)

($1 = Rs 62.8700)