Under new CEO Thierry Delaporte, Wipro shares have rallied as much as 63 per cent over the last five months, which was the highest among peers during that period. In the last five months, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest software exporter, stock gained 34 per cent, while Infosys share price rallied as much as 56 per cent.
On Monday, Wipro shares closed at Rs 358.55, down 0.61 per cent, on the BSE. Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex ended 347 points or 0.77 per cent higher at 45,427. The stock hit 52-week high of Rs 381.70 and 52-week low of Rs 159.60 on October 13 and March 19, 2020, respectively.
Capgemini Group veteran Thierry Delaporte, who took over as CEO of Wipro on July 6, is yet to visit the company’s headquarter in India. He has been on a virtual tour from his home in Paris, reaching out to company employees across different levels seeking suggestions to drive growth and boost revenue. He took some crucial decisions to simplify the company’s operational structure, which according to him will help Wipro grow at a pace closer to the industry average and deliver sustained margin performance.
Wipro had appointed Delaporte as the CEO and MD on July 6. He is the first non-Indian CEO of the company, based out of Paris. He was earlier the CEO of Capgemini Group and a member of its Group Executive Board. During his 25 year career with Capgemini, he held several leadership roles including that of CEO of the Global Financial Services Strategic Business Unit, and head of all global service lines.
Last month, Wipro announced a new structure that will be in place beginning next calendar year (2021) to catch up with its rivals in the top tier of India’s IT services sector. The company will have geography-specific -four Strategic Market Units (SMUs), consisting of Americas 1, Americas 2, Europe, and Asia Pacific Middle East Africa (APMEA), and two Global Business Lines (GBLs) focussed on digital and new-age businesses, the first being iDEAS (Integrated Digital, Engineering & Application Services), including the service lines like Domain and Consulting, Applications & Data, Engineering and R&D, and Wipro Digital. The second one will be iCORE (Cloud Infrastructure, Digital Operations, Risk & Enterprise Cyber Security Services) which would include the CIS, DOP, and CRS service lines.
For the July-September quarter, Wipro reported 3.40 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,465.70 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2020, against net profit of Rs 2,552.70 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated revenue declined marginally by 0.07 per cent YoY to Rs 15,114.50 crore as against Rs 15,125.60 crore posted in the same quarter last year
