1. WIPRO The Soft Transform

The

erstwhile vegetable oil company turned infotech giant went a notch up in

1999-00, growing 41% to touch Rs 2,036 crore against Rs 1,443 crore in the

previous year. Wipro’s hardware and software divisions–under Wipro Infotech

and Wipro Technologies, respectively–continued to remain the company’s

source of growth and prosperity. Wipro Infotech was headed by Arun Thiagarajan,

while Wipro Technologies–the bedrock of the company’s revenues–rested on

the shoulders of its Santa Clara-based chief, Vivek Paul. And, of course,

Chairman Azim Hasham Premji remined the brain behind all.

Wipro

had its fair amount of successes and failures. It lost one of the main pillars

of its IT success, Ashok Soota, who departed to launch his own company, and a

host of other senior hands. However, Premji in his impeccable style, brought in

Vivek Paul from General Electric to handle the software division. Wipro also had

the distinction of becoming the numero uno company in terms of market

capitalization, touching a peak of Rs 69,528 crore on January 4, 2000,

displacing in the process the

fast-moving consumer goods major Hindustan Lever from the top

slot. Wipro was also the first IT company to opt for a stock split. It went for

a five-for-one split, which increased the liquidity of its shares.

Wipro Technologies grew by 65% in the last fiscal while Wipro

Infotech went up by 20%, contributing about 51% and 49% of the total revenue,

respectively. Incidentally, Wipro, which is a major supplier of Sun and Cisco

products, had about 20% of its total revenue coming from agency operations. Its

own products were able to bring in only about 29%, down by 6% from the previous

year’s 35%.

Global R&D and Telecom Solutions arms together brought in

46% of the software revenues for Wipro Technologies, while the balance came from

the Enterprise Solutions business. Ecommerce contributed 15% of Enterprise

Solutions revenue for the year. The domestic business was affected by a drop in

the contribution of revenue from the peripherals division, which recently was

hived off as a separate entity with Wipro holding a 39% stake. The peripherals,

which had brought in 15% of the revenue in 1998-99, could only bring in 11% in

the last fiscal. The systems business also showed a slowdown. While it had

contributed 26% in the previous year, it brought in only 24% for the total kitty

in the last fiscal.

Interestingly, the operating margins didn’t offer much to

speak about. While Wipro Technologies had an operating margin of 28%, Wipro

Infotech was even lower at only 5%.

If we break up Wipro Technologies’ revenue, we find that

telecom brought in 46%, followed by manufacturing at 30%, small office and home

care 13%, and banking and finance 11%. Despite its strategy to target the home

market, Wipro has not been able to do much on that front. Its strategy this year

is to get into the home segment, and it has earmarked a branding campaign

towards this end. However, services is the core area that Wipro will be

concentrating at.

Incidentally, Wipro recently decided to restructure the peripherals division

of Wipro Infotech. The new entity, called Wipro ePeripherals, was to be largely

owned by employees led by Ram N Agarwal as the MD and CEO. This division may be

hived off because of the low margins that it earns. With a US listing in the

pipeline, such moves can help Wipro command a better premium. DQ