On a year-on-year basis, the company’s revenues grew 27 per cent with Wipro logging a total income of Rs 794.9 crore in the year’s first quarter as against Rs 622.1 crore reported by the company in the quarter ending June 30, 2000.

The result was seen as ‘good bottomline, disappointing topline’ by some analysts

Wipro has managed to improve its operating margins by 40 basis points as the contribution made by the global IT services subsidiary Wipro Technologies’ has gone up significantly from 55 per cent in the fourth

quarter 2001 to 65 per cent in the first quarter of the present fiscal.

Offshore projects comprise 50 per cent of the company’s revenue which actually means a rise of three percentage points as against 47 per cent in the same quarter last year.

Indian IT services projects of Wipro Infotech contributed 20 per cent to the revenues whereas consumer care and lighting comprised 10 per cent. Five per cent came from other businesses.

Analysts were `slightly disappointed’ by the results, which represent consolidated figures of Wipro and its subsidiaries. They were expecting a three-figure jump in profits after the good showing by the other top

software companies like Infosys, Satyam and Digital Equipment which have declared their first quarter results in past 10 days.

The market nevertheless gave a thumbs up to the results with the company’s stock, which had closed at Rs 1,365 on Thursday, zooming to Rs 1,435 in the morning after the results were declared. It later came down and is hovering at Rs 1,380, still higher than Thursday’s levels when its shares had fallen

1.06 per cent to Rs 1,365 in pre-results nervousness.

Wipro’s stock has lost about 56 per cent from the year’s high of Rs 3,074 in February, but later recovered 79 per cent from the low of Rs 763.30 it hit in April.

Though Wipro results have been a little lower than the market expectations, a drastic fall in the prices is highly unlikely. All top five software exporters have posted results that are above expectations or near about. This means when the US market begins to recover by the end of the year, these companies will be in a good position to bounce back on the bourses, said Indiabulls president, brokerage, Gajendra Nagpal.

Significantly, Wipro has bagged a $70-million contract from the telecom subsidiary of Britain’s Lattice Group. The company is building a pound 460-million fire optic backbone in the UK and Wipro will provide system integration and infrastructure support to the entire project.

The revenues from the project will start reflecting on Wipro’s balance sheet in the second half of the year. Commenting on the company’s performance, chairman Azim Premji said: Looking ahead, we will continue to grow ahead of the industry growth rates. In the current environment, we had the option of

using price plays for getting volumes versus the tougher and long term beneficial approach of focussing on value, leveraging our technology skill sets and Six Sigma quality approach to delivery. We chose to pursue big deals competing with the big five and large system and telecom integration players.

During the quarter, the company acquired 1,791,385 shares representing 8 per cent of the Equity Capital of Wipro Net. Consequently WNL has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. The board of directors of both the companies have decided to amalgamate WNL into Wipro with effect from April

1, 2001.