Wipro Q4 24/25 (Media) Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
April 16, 2025
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Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Welcome everyone to our Kodathi campus. For those of us who are joining virtually, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. We will begin the press conference for Wipro's fourth quarter earnings. My name is Nisha Chandra Shekran. I'm part of the external communications team and I will be your moderator for today.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Joining me on stage is our Chief Financial Officer, Aparna Ayyar our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Srini Pallia and our Chief Human Resources Officer, Saurabh Gogul. We will begin with opening remarks from our CEO followed by a financial review from our CFO. Post that, we'll open the floor for your questions. With that, let me hand over to our CEO and MD, Srinipallia.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Thank you, Nisha. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. You know, it's it's hard to believe that's already been a year since I took over as a CEO. They say time flies.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

It did really fly for me. When I look back at these twelve months, I can see clear progress across many areas. We won two mega deals this year. It's clearly a strong sign that our large deal engine is working and continues to expand. In fact, our clients have responded well to our consulting led AI powered industry and cross industry solutions.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

This is reflected in the strong growth in top accounts and also large deal bookings in financial year '25. We have continued to invest in our people, skilling them for the new AI wave. Our execution rigor with speed definitely has been acknowledged by our clients, and that's reflected in the clear improvement in our client satisfaction scores. And we have done all of this while strengthening our margins. It's a meaningful achievement in the context of such ongoing change.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

The global industry environment remain uncertain for most of the year. And, of course, the recent tariff announcements have only added to that. Before coming to Bangalore, I've been speaking to clients across sectors and across markets to understand how things are playing out on the ground. You know, even though the underlying demand for the tech reinvention remains strong, our clients are approaching it more cautiously. They are focused on cost, speed, and, of course, AI led efficiency.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

And that's exactly where we are leaning in. And we see this as an opportunity to move with purpose, make smart bets, and stay committed to our five strategic priorities. I want to say this, driving consistent profitable growth remains a clear priority for us, and we are focused on making that happen. With that, let's look at our quarter four and FY twenty twenty four, twenty five performance. All the growth numbers I share will be in constant currency.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Our IT services revenue for quarter four was dollar 2,600,000,000.0, reflecting a sequential decline of point 81.2% on a year on year basis. The order book for quarter four was at 4,000,000,000, which is a growth of 13.4 sequentially and 10.5% on year on year basis. Our operating margins came in at 17.5%, which is flat sequentially and 10 basis point expansion on a year on year basis. And for the full year, IT services revenues were dollar 10,510,000,000.00, reflecting year on year degrowth of 2.3%. Our operating margin was at 17.1%, an expansion of almost 1% as compared to FY '24.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So now let me talk about our strategic market unit performance. Americas 1 grew point 2% sequentially and 6% on a year on year basis. Americas 2 degrew 1% sequentially and 1.8% on a year on year basis. Europe degrew 2.5% sequentially and 6.9% on a year on year basis. Apnea grew 1% sequentially and degrew 4.9% on a year on year basis.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Now moving on to our industry sector performance. BFSI degrew point 5% sequentially and grew point 8% year on year. Health care degrew 3.1% sequentially and grew point 1% year on year. Consumer degrew 1.3% sequentially and was flat year on year. Technology and communication, de grew point 9% sequentially and 1.1% year on year basis.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Energy, manufacturing, and resources grew 1.1% sequentially, and D grew 7% year on year. Finally, Capco continues to perform well, growing 6.5% sequentially and 11.5% on a year on year basis. Let me now provide an update on our strategic priorities. As I mentioned earlier, we are continuing to see strong momentum in large deals. In quarter four, we closed 17 large deals with a total value of 1,800,000,000.0 across our markets and sectors.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

In fact, for the full year, we closed 63 large deals for a total value of $5,400,000,000, which is a year on year growth of 17.5%. Let me take or rather, let me highlight two recent wins. One, a global technology leader has chosen Wipro for a major five year transformation program. In fact, we will deliver AI powered end to end IT services, completely reshaping employee experience for almost 200,000 employees across countries. Our solution involves proactive support, intelligent self-service, and personalized digital interactions.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

In my second example, with our recent partnership with a leading global food distributor, We are taking over their entire IT infrastructure and corporate applications, which also includes HR, finance, and legal systems. We are leveraging AI solutions, and we will drive automation and simplify user interactions. This will result in higher efficiency, lower costs, and better user experience for our client. As we all know, AI has been part of deal conversations for a while. But this year, it has actually become central to almost every opportunity, big or small, helping drive productivity and efficiency.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

This reflects a broader shift we are seeing across the board. Let me now move on to large accounts, the second strategic priority. We continue to focus on our large accounts in our core markets and our priority sectors. In quarter four, our top five accounts and top 10 accounts grew point 31.1%, respectively, on a sequential basis. I want to share an example that shows our momentum in these strategic accounts.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

In quarter four, a leading Indian private bank expanded strategic partnership with us as part of a business focused digital transformation. We will provide AI powered solutions to strengthen compliance management, addressing the critical need for regulatory compliance while also enhancing the overall experience for this bank. This will help the bank boost operational efficiency and realize its growth ambitions across various functions. We continue to create significant impact for our clients through our consulting led AI powered industry and cross industry solutions. In this context, let me talk about a recent win in the aviation sector.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

In quarter four, a well known Pacific airline chose Wipro to modernize its crew management and operating operation system. In fact, we were selected for our proven ability to future proof the client's IT platform with AI. We will deploy our own TOPS platform to manage end to end crew operations, providing a unified scalable solution that enhances experience and drives sustained operational efficiencies. Alongside all of this, we have put even more focus on client centricity, and it's starting to show results. Our latest third party annual customer satisfaction survey shows clear improvement in overall satisfaction scores and also NPS.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

In fact, I want to thank our teams for making this possible. Thank you. You have heard of this. We have realigned our global business lines effective April 1 to meet our customer needs better. In fact, this change will help us deliver stronger business outcomes for our clients.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Finally, just as important, supporting and growing our global talent has been a top priority all year. If you remember, last quarter, I spoke about our focus on leadership development and how we are building future ready leaders through the Wipro Leadership Institute. In fact, we have moved our top performers into key client facing roles to ensure continuity and stability, and we have launched a sponsorship program this quarter to help them succeed. Now a note on guidance before I wrap up. Given the uncertainty in the environment, we expect our clients to take a more measured approach going forward, especially on two spend areas, large transformation programs and discretionary spend.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

With this in mind and based on our current visibility, we are guiding for a sequential growth of minus 3.5% to minus 1.5% in constant currency terms. With that, let me turn turn it over to Apana for a detailed overview of our financials. Apana, over to you. Thank you.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Let me share a quick update of our financial performance for the quarter ended thirty first March twenty twenty five and then we can open it up for questions. Our IT services revenues for Q4 sequentially declined by 0.8% in constant currency terms, which is within our guidance range. For FY 'twenty five, our IT services revenue declined by 2.3% in constant currency terms. Our rigorous focus on execution has resulted in an operational improvement that has ensured that our margins have been steadily improving over the last five quarters.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

For Q4, our margins expanded 1.1% on a year on year basis. Our margins, reported margins were 17.5%. This brings our full year operating margin expansion to 0.9% over FY24 margins. As we enter FY26, like Srini said, we are faced with headwinds on an uncertain macroeconomic environment that is putting a downward pressure on our revenues. That said, our endeavor will be to maintain the margins in the narrowband in the coming quarters.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Our net income grew 6% quarter on quarter and 19% for the full year. Our EPS for the full year was Rs. 12.6 which is a growth of 20% year on year. We finished the financial year with a free cash flow as a percentage of net income of 118%. That takes our gross cash to $6,400,000,000 In Q4, our other income grew 45% sequentially and our accounting yield for the average investments held in India was 7.9%.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Our ETR was at 24.3 for Q4 versus 26% in the same quarter of last year. Our hedges continued to be in line with our risk management policy and we had about $2,400,000,000 of Forex derivative contracts at the end of Q4 twenty twenty five. In terms of guidance, I want to reiterate the outlook that Srini shared. We expect the revenues from IT services business to be in the range of $2,505,000,000 to $2,557,000,000 This translates to a sequential guidance of -3.5 percent to -1.5 percent in constant currency terms. With that, over to you, Nisha.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Thank you, Apurna. We will now open the floor for your questions. For the journalists who are present in the room, please raise your hand and we'll pass the mic to you. For the journalists who have joined outside of Bangalore who have joined on the teams, please key in your questions and we'll try to accommodate as many as we can. To ensure that everyone has a chance, please limit your questions to two and do make sure that you introduce your publication and yourself before you ask your question.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

I'll come to you Ritu. Can we start with Reshav?

Reshab Shaw
Senior Correspondent at moneycontrol

Hi everybody. Reshav Yav from MoneyControl.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Sorry, I didn't get your name.

Reshab Shaw
Senior Correspondent at moneycontrol

Reshav from MoneyControl. Hi Srini. So the guidance that you have given, does it bake in all the uncertainties that you see as of now and for you know even the margins have gone down irrespective of the AI led product efficiencies that you have you know baked in. So if you could throw some light on that for Saurav. For you, you had said that you would onboard 12,000 freshers.

Reshab Shaw
Senior Correspondent at moneycontrol

So is that plan on? Also for Srini, you said last quarter that clients are at the tail end and as well as the upper end of the clientele is reducing. So what's happening on that account? If you could throw some light on that.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

So, can we take the first two questions and then we'll come back to you once we have some time?

Reshab Shaw
Senior Correspondent at moneycontrol

Sure.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

So, yes Rosha, our guidance does bake in everything that we know as of now. Like Srini shared, the macroeconomic environment is uncertain and that is yielding into our guidance as well. Its base is the current visibility that we have. In terms of the operating margins, you noted that we have actually declined. Actually, we have improved like I said 1.1% year on year even in this quarter and for the full year, we have actually improved 0.9%.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

And even on our net income, we have grown 19% year on year. So it's been a very very strong performance as far as margins and profits are concerned. Saurabh, do you want to take the question?

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

Yeah, so we ended the fiscal FY25 with approximately 10,000 freshers hired. That's what we had said, and we look to continue to see that, but we'll also keep a very close look at what's happening in the environment. Know? We don't want a situation where we onboard people and we don't have challenges of deployment. So we'll keep a very close look, but that's the plan that continuously keep growing and adding people.

Chandra Srikanth
Deputy Executive Editor at moneycontrol

Hi, Chandra Srikanth here from MoneyControl. Srini, as you said yourself, you've completed a full year as CEO. How much of your work is done, how much is left unfinished, how would you sort of rate yourself. Secondly, you know this guidance, is it a result S, the whole uncertainty because as you said yourself, you have won two mega deals in the last year and I think Phoenix will also add to your revenue.

Chandra Srikanth
Deputy Executive Editor at moneycontrol

So if you can tell us about that. Sohrab Employee Edition seven thirty two for the full year, what's the forecast going to be for the coming fiscal? What role is AI playing as far as your hiring plans are concerned?

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Chandra, if I could request that we come back to you, we'll go over to Ritu and then we'll definitely come back to you. Ritu from CNBC. Please go ahead.

Ritu Singh
Deputy Editor at CNBC-TV18

Okay. Wanted to follow-up on some of the things that Chandra was asking as well. On the guidance, if you could give us a bit more color, Srini, because even from TCS, heard some delay in decision making. Are you seeing any sort of cancellations, ramp downs? What are you hearing from clients?

Ritu Singh
Deputy Editor at CNBC-TV18

And is this more of a conservative estimate given the uncertain macro environment we're currently dealing with? Aparna, also on the margin front, given that you're yourself seeing clients are turning more cautious with respect to various aspects, if you're expecting some sort of degrowth in the top line, how will you maintain these margins in this narrow aspirational range you have of 17%, seventeen point five %? What are the kind of levers you have? And overall, would you have the confidence at the start of the year to see if FY '26 would be better than what we saw in FY '25, which is not a great year for Wipro? Also, you know, again to follow-up with what Chandra was asking as well, your hiring plans for this year, if you could tell us, we've seen finally a bit of a growth in the headcount in the fourth quarter.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Ritu, you asked a lot of questions, but I'll try to answer them. First and foremost, think, how do I rate myself was a question from Chandra, but if you want me to answer that question, I can do that. But your question was more on the guidance. The guidance is baked into all the uncertainties that we see, but I think the most important thing is what's happening in the macro environment. Today, in addition to the geopolitics, this year macro environment in the context of tariffs, created a lot of uncertainties to our clients.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

And this uncertainty varies from country to country, markets to market, sectors by sectors. So if you look at it, the big markets that we have, which is The Americas and the Europe, clearly, the clients there are going through uncertainties. Some industries, especially manufacturing within that automotive and industrial, if you look at it, they are really impacted with what's going on. So first thing the clients would like to do is how do I reduce my spend at this point in time when there is an uncertainty? Another industry is consumer.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

They are getting impacted because of how the inflation is going to be, how the consumer spend is going to be, and so on and so forth. And I can tell you one example of a client where we're doing a large transformation program for them. They asked us to pause. It was not a cancellation, but it was pause because they wanted a certainty of what's going to go. So I think that was one of the things that we saw coming into quarter four.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Third, if you look at from a banking financial services sector, the discretionary spend is being debated internally for the clients. And if the tariffs and other things settle down, hopefully they'll respend that, or else they'll be conservative until such time they have clarity. So the issue is more than the tariffs, uncertainties of where it is going to end that we see. And by the way, Europe is also going to be impacted because there's a huge trade happening between Europe and The US, and that's going to impact them. And also what happens to the tariffs to China that will have an impact to our European clients and to The US client.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So with that in the context, we have looked at all the uncertainties that we have, looked at the clients that we have, and based on that, we are given our guidance.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

We don't call out the specifics. I think it was more anecdotal to tell you that there are large transformation programs that were ready in the fray that were happening and the clients have decided to pause it. It was more anecdotal, me not sharing the specifics of the deal, Ritu. I will take the next question that you had asked on how we are planning to maintain our margins. We've really delivered the operating margin improvement over the last eight quarters in a very weak revenue environment.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

That does give us some confidence that it is possible for us to continue to hold our margins in a narrow band. As you know, we don't guide. It is going to be the enormity of the task is ahead of us and we will be at it and I think we are counting on the in quarter execution and we will see how we fare.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

So this is Sushandra and on the hiring piece, if you look at the full people supply chain, three aspects. One is our utilization where we believe we have had space to improve especially in the current environment of low growth. Second is our attrition numbers. On a quarter on quarter basis, we have seen that dip coming, and the environment also is there. And third, we don't guide for the full year, but what I'm seeing is that it'll be we'll have to take it as it comes from a growth perspective.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

But we have geared ourselves from a plan of onboarding people, especially from the campuses on a regular basis, but we are also very cognizant that we shouldn't do anything which is onboard people and not deploy them or hire people and we can't take, which we have burnt our fingers three years back. So we are very conscious that we do the right way. So that's where we are.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So Chandra, I took permission from Nishat to answer your question. So I just want to give a little bit of color to our performance of the last one year. So if you look at overall as a company, we have de grown. But if I look at Americas, which contributes to 63% of our revenue, it has actually grown 1.2%. And if you look at APMEA, which has degrowth, but in quarter four, it has grown sequentially.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

I think our challenge continues to be Europe, which is where I think you can see the degrowth that has happened. But what I can tell you is that we have a new team, and they have started the year with a large deal win, which will start consuming in the quarters ahead. And there's a very strong pipeline in Europe. I think all we need to do is stay focused on those, and that we'll get to where we want to get to in Europe. Now I think some of the I'll repeat some of the topics that Aparna also covered.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Did a very good job on margin improvements. Our large deal wins after a lot of years, two wins in one year, so that gives me a good comfort, confidence that we have a good engine that looking at these large deal wins. And also if you look at our overall large deal bookings, both year on year has significantly improved, not only the overall deal wins as well. So all these are the metrics or the markers, if you will, that you need to look at. So I would rate myself based on those markers, but I realized self rating doesn't work for CEOs.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Not even the CHRO, you are the one.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Veena, you'd like to go next?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Yeah. Okay, Chandra, let me answer. I know Vishay is like Srinivas. You're having a monologue right now. If I look at our pipeline across the markets, Americas and Europe, it continues to be strong.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

That's number one. Second, as far as we are concerned, we are focused on closing these deals that can get getting into next quarter, these projects can get started. Having said that, the point that we are really watching is the discretionary spend. Hopefully, the next couple of weeks, there is new support, the settlement of the tariffs, whatever that is, that actually would let the clients to take decisions. So I'm very cautious about telling you what's going to happen because you know and how things are changing by the week.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So we will sense and respond to the situation. Our clients are doing what I would say situational planning based upon what they're hearing. So what is very important for me and entire team Wipro is to stay close to the client, listen and respond. And there are clients which are coming back to us in terms of, can you help us with cost optimization, both short term and long term? That's a great opportunity for us.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Can you help us bring in AI efficiency and also reduce the cost, improve the experience, productivity, but I don't have too much of cash. Can you take it out of or run and operate so that I can continue to do change and transform? So a lot of conversations are happening around that. I think in the next few weeks and months, we'll have a better clarity in terms of how it will progress. But the deal pipeline is strong and we are at it.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Veena, you can go next.

Veena Mani
Special digital content specialist at The Times Of India

Good evening, Dhanji of you. Srini, congrats on completing a year. Mentioned that there is a sponsorship program for top performers to succeed. If you could give us a little bit of details, some details on that, what exactly is it and what sort of client facing roles besides the regular coding business is it? And also, when you go to campuses, you didn't give us a number, but I wanted to get a sense, the turbo program that you discontinued a couple of years back because of the market, are you going to resume that?

Veena Mani
Special digital content specialist at The Times Of India

Fresher salaries have remained at 3 lakhs, 4 lakhs for almost a decade. How do you take that on and how do you look at that and why do we not see an increase in fresher salaries? And also for Srini, the next year, what are your priorities and what have you sort of jotted down for your team?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Thanks, Veena. Last time, if I remember, you asked a lot more questions. This time you restricted to three. Of the three, two goes to Saurabh. Is that okay, Veena?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Let me talk about the priorities. Think I called out the five strategic priorities. We'll continue to stay focused on that. How do we continue to grow our existing large accounts across our markets and sectors? And that's a focus for us, and that's where we are trying to make sure the client facing team is lot more consulting led and AI powered, and with a specific industry knowledge.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

That's number one. Number two, I talked about It's a large deal. I talked about the pipeline, strong pipeline we have. A significant piece of this pipeline will move to cost transformation, AI driven efficiencies. We got to stay with that as far as the clients are concerned.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Third, field of play, what I call it as industry and cross industry solutions, which are both consulting led and AI powered. I gave an example of the efficient sector. Can you believe that we're going to manage the entire crew management? I'm sure you're going to fly that airline, and hopefully you'll come and tell me the crew was happy about it. So we will continue to stay focused on that, continue to stay invested on that because we have clearly called out what sectors within the sector, what industries, both horizontal and the vertical solutions that we're going to do.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Fourth is building talent at scale. Now I didn't cover too much about it. I talked more about the leadership and that's when you responded to it. But skilling, upskilling of people. Today, when you are talking about AI, you got to know about data.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

When you're talking about AI and data, you need to have the industry one hundred one and two zero one knowledge. So that's the kind of training upskilling that we continue to do our people. And the last one is client centricity. Right? It has to be your NPS score, customer satisfaction score has to constantly improve.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Right? That means there's an opportunity for you, and we'll stay focused on our client centricity, which is nothing but execution rigor with speed. Those are the five strategic priorities, Vinat. We'll continue to do that. Over to you, Saropak.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

Vinat, let me first speak on the campus. If you recall, we had said under the leadership of our CEO, we have relooked or reimagined the entire campus process from where we train people and then hire them. And we have gone more than 50 campuses where we have set up center of excellence for specific skill sets so that we are able to get the right quality of skills from them. So given this landscape now and this paradigm, we are very clearly not getting back to turbo anything. We will continue with what we are we are doing.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

Yeah. Second, on salary, you know, this is a demand and supply issue. It's not a very Wipro centric issue. You know, there's a market driven issue. There's an industry driven issue.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

I can only say that at any any level in the organization, we'll always pay competitive compensation. And as things change, we will obviously be changing that. So that's what I would keep there. On the point which Srini spoke about sponsorship, you know, one of the things which we've always believed in and we want to even give it further impetus is about how do we build long term leadership bench strength. And under Srini's guidance, we have identified a set of leaders who we believe could be doing larger, bigger roles in Vipro in the future, and they are the future of Vipro.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

So how do we mentor them, groom them, sponsor them, you know, help them become better. I think that's the program which is what Srinivas was referring to and that's what we have embarked on that journey going forward.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Haripria, Detectico next.

Haripriya Suresh
India Company News Correspondent at Reuters

Hi. Haripria from Reuters. Srini, a year ago when you joined, it was still an uncertain environment. It was just a different kind of uncertainty, right? What was your visibility like at beginning of FY twenty five and what is that visibility like now at the starting of FY twenty six given all that is going on?

Haripriya Suresh
India Company News Correspondent at Reuters

Do you see that increase or has it reduced quite a bit? Across client buckets, I know that you said you're focusing on the large deals and pipeline is good, but across client buckets I noticed that the numbers are down whether it's 1,000,000 or 100,000,000. You're on your sequentially both. Just wanted to understand why that was the case. Also Europe and APMEA, it's a quarter gone past.

Haripriya Suresh
India Company News Correspondent at Reuters

Why o why I noticed a fair amount of reduction. Is there any geographical specific issue that's happening over there? Assaf you mentioned that you know utilization you still have some headroom but you're already at about 85% odd. How much headroom do you have to push that and from the Phoenix deal how much headcount do you expect to absorb because you will be taking on some employees there.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Just a gentle reminder that we have fifteen minutes so if you could take the first two questions and then we can come back to you.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Haripresh is hinting to keep your answers short. Okay, so you're all in the media and you have seen how the analysts were predicting how FY '26 would be in January. You saw how they revised their outlook in February, and you saw how they dramatically changed in March. Haripuri, I can say that I don't have a crystal ball which tells me how it goes. So going from the context of FY '25 to FY '26, the uncertainties have dramatically increased.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Okay. But as we look at our clients, I think if we stay focused on our five strategic priorities, if we stay focused on our clients, and we help them during this period, I think the best time for the buck because when the growth comes back, when the certainties come back, we will be the partner of choice for them for their growth. So that's where we want to focus on.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Yeah, you know, from a client standpoint, Haripria, you should note that our number of clients greater than $50,000,000 have more or less remained same. Reduced number of clients in the lower buckets is just a reflection of weaker discretionary spends that kind of has a bearing on that. Having said that, if you look at our top five and our top 10 clients, they've continued to grow sequentially even in this quarter. On a full year basis, all three buckets have done well, and I can tell you that as a portfolio of our top clients, they continue to grow much better compared to the Wipro numbers. So if you look at it, top client year on year constant currency for even this quarter was 4.4%, top SI grew 14.4% and top 10 grew 24% year on year.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

So the year on year growth is good in our top 10 buckets and that's what you should take heart in.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Rukmini, do you want to go?

Rukmini Rao
Consulting Editor at Fortune India

Sure, thanks.

Rukmini Rao
Consulting Editor at Fortune India

Srini, Rukmini from Fortune India. The bearishness when it comes to next quarter's guidance that you have given, how much of this is actually CACO's business probably taking a bigger hit and that is reflecting on the consolidated revenue guidance that you have given? And actually, taking forward what Hari Priya was asking you, the absolute numbers have come down indeed. But even when you're talking about 100,000,000 plus kind of clients, that has gone down. While you might say that you're probably mining your top 10 clients deeper, but when there is no growth, do you think you can afford to let go even small accounts when money is trickling?

Rukmini Rao
Consulting Editor at Fortune India

Why not? I have a couple more probably after this.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Go ahead,

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

So, up, I wanted to just revise the numbers. Year on year growth in constant currency for the top client was 0.6, the next five was 1.3% and top 10 is 3.2%. I regret the mix. So I just want to stand corrected on that. To your point on, I don't think there is any conscious strategy to let go any client.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

We are very very clear that was something that we did strategic at a particular point in time when we were trying to deprioritize a certain kind of business in a few geographies. I don't think there is any attempt whatsoever. This is not strategic intent. At the same time, there is a phenomenal focus and energy to grow your large clients even bigger and that is a part of the strategic priorities that Srini spoke of and we will have to continue to stay focused on it. And as you see the growth stabilizing and returning, you will start seeing improvement in this metric as well.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

Aparna, I want to clarify on Capco.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

What was your question on Capco? Yeah. Yeah. CAPCO has been, we particularly call out for outlook on one particular unit but I can tell you CAPCO has had a very strong performance in Q4. Srini just called out they grew sequentially 611% year on year.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

They've also had strong bookings. Could this have been better assuming the macroeconomic environment was better? It could have even been better. We are very very happy with the way the asset has been performing. It's one of our like the best acquisitions we've made.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

We are very happy with the performance that they are giving. Like I said, we guide at the level of the hour. I will be happy to share with you each unit's performance in July when we

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

meet next.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Rupini, we have to come back to you. There are a lot of people waiting as well.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

I like to push back. Okay, Rukmini. So first and foremost, I did tell you that our large deal wins year on year has grown double digits. I hope you got that message. Overall deal wins also have gone up.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

That's number one. Number two, what are the large deals that you talked about, right, that we won? It also depends on the nature of the deal, when the ramp ups of the deal starts happening. It so happened from a timing perspective, it's not happening this quarter. It may happen at the end of next quarter.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So that's the reason why I'm optimistic about Europe for two reasons. One is this particular deal going to create the positive impact for Europe. Second, the pipeline that we have. The point I want to make is that we have a deal engine now in place. We have demonstrated that we can win these deals.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

The point is we've got to rinse and repeat these wins going forward, and that's where we're going to stay focused on.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

If I can just add to what Srini said, some of these large deals have their own ramp up time, so they are not instant, right. They will take longer. Do think that these large deals are converting into revenues. It will take some time, some of it is also just timing, We are very confident that it will come through into the revenue growth.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Go ahead, Peena.

Beena Parmar
Assistant Editor at The Economic Times

Peena from the Economic Times. Just wanted to get a sense, Srini, when you say that one of your large clients spoke about pausing one of your projects. Could you give us a sense on what is the quantum or the percentage of such pauses that you've seen from your deals or the projects over the last quarter? And there is also a lot of talk around cannibalization of revenues because of AI productivity gains. Could you give us some sense, you know, what sort of cannibalization are you doing?

Beena Parmar
Assistant Editor at The Economic Times

Has Wipro passed on productivity gains? What is the percentage of such passing on and the cannibalization that Wipro has seen? And one to sort up, you know, you had given a fresher hiring target last year. Has that been met? I think it was 10,000 to 12,000 for FY25.

Beena Parmar
Assistant Editor at The Economic Times

Has that been met and what is your outlook for FY26?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Peter, let me go first if that's okay with you. As far as what we are seeing from a client perspective, this particular anecdotal example that I gave is a client who's sitting right on the tariff box, if you will, which has a huge impact for them. They have to do the transformation. However, at this point in time, they want to conserve the cash for the quarter they have paused and then see how it goes. Then there could be an opportunity for them to relook at us anything that we need to do differently because of the tariffs.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

I think it was more of that. What we are watching out is more on the discretionary spend. How is that going to play out? Are their clients going to slow down on the spends that is there? So two parts, right?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

And the third part is, with the new transformational deal, I'm talking about business transformation deals, will this slow down the decision making process? Cost transformation is here and now. Business transformation can be delayed for some more time, right? So those aspects of it, I wanted to give the color to you. Second, on the Gen AI.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Not many right now. This one, this example, like I said, they were sitting right on the center of the tariff situation. But otherwise, the clients will have to take time for any supply chain decision. You can't change supply chains overnight, right? You've got to do a lot of planning process and how to do that.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So those conversations will be upfront, having those conversations with the client, and help them in the process of creating a digitally visible supply chain, and make it more future ready for them. Now coming to Gen the way I see it, the whole industry is seeing it, at this point in time, I want to say that Gen AI is an opportunity for us. In fact, we look at it as three buckets of Gen AI. One is how can we change the game for our clients? How can we deploy or infuse Gen AI for our clients?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

And how can we, our own organization, can we infuse Gen AI and create that advantage for ourselves, which could be client zero opportunity, which could be a reference for going forward. The biggest thing that we are, if you look at infusing Gen AI for our existing managed services, if you will. It's going to help us on better experience for our clients. It's going to help us on productivity. At this point in time, those are the two factors.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

But on the new deals, we take Gen AI into the solution itself. Because in earlier deals, Gen AI was not there, now we are infusing Gen AI into that. Whereas the new deals, we are going to infuse Gen And the other bucket which I talked about is change the game, which is where we are driving industry and cross industry solutions. And all the examples that I gave today, everything is Gen AI. It actually helps us to differentiate, helps us to make the client more comfortable about the way we can actually transition to the new phase for them.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Those aspects, I still see Jinea as positive, so I just want to leave that message with you. Sorry? It finally depends on the solution, right? And it's what the conversation we have client by client. Some of the clients want to adopt Gennai here and now.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Some of the clients are a lot more worried about the guardrails in terms of how GeniAir is going to deploy. I think maybe another three to four quarters we'll have a much better clarity on that, but we are going to infuse AI into a solution before we go to the client. The reason why I call out as consulting led AI powered industry solution is that while you reimagine the client process and you say agentic AI can be deployed proactively, what does that mean? The productivity benefit are both for us and the customer as part of the solution.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

We are running out of time, we'll try to take a couple of questions. Uma, please go ahead.

Uma Kannan
Journalist at The New Indian Express

Good evening. I'm Uma Khanan from the New Indian Express. If you look at growth for FY 2025, it was broadly led by healthcare and energy and other verticals had a negative number. Given the current US tariffs and macro environment, can you give some color on your verticals and what can we expect in the present quarter or in the FY 2026?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Prajna?

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Thanks.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Know, we did speak about how the macroeconomic uncertainty has been playing out. We do feel that some sectors like consumer and manufacturing are directly impacted and therefore it is likely to play out in those sectors a lot more compared to others. But other sectors will also feel the indirect impact. We spoke about how BFSI has been doing very well for us particularly around CATCo, Apnea and even in The US. Now some of these spends as we get into the next quarter could be impacted as a result of the uncertainty, but otherwise these three geographies have done really well.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

We are going through some client specific issues in BFSI in Europe which is impacting our overall BFSI growth rate. If you actually had to look at just Capco and even Americas, they've done really well in FY '25. Energy EMR has actually grown sequentially. So that's the first dot in the plot. But we will have to be at it.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Like I said, there is a macroeconomic uncertainty overhang on that. Health has been doing very well for us and we feel very confident about it. There will be some cost corrections that a few of our clients may make given the environment in The US. But overall, we feel it's very, very confident. Across these industries, we do have a very, very strong pipeline.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

So overall, we are going to stay focused on closing that pipeline, converting so that we can have a stronger rest of the year and that's the end of it.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

I add a color to the One of the things, the way we are looking at it is, if you look at the industries and if you look at the markets that we do it, we can do a heat map. Where are the clients who are going to conserve cash in the context of a discretionary spend, and where are the clients who want to ask us to help them on the cost transformation piece. So it's a balancing act of it, and I don't want to go back to all the industries Apana called out, But I want to let you know that even in consumer and manufacturing, there's an opportunity because the clients have to take the cost out. Because in tariff, what happens straight away, it's like a of a tax that you have to pay for it. Either you transition that to the consumer or you may part to the consumer, part you hold back which will hit your bottom line.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So then you have to take the cost out somewhere and that's an opportunity for the client and that's where the conversations are happening as well.

Uma Kannan
Journalist at The New Indian Express

Apana, one quick question. So where do we expect these margins to be in the next three to four quarters?

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

We don't guide for the margins. As said, our endeavor would be to be in narrowband in the coming quarters. You know the guidance we have given for revenues and it's an enormous task for us to sustain. We have improved margins over the last six quarters. We are happy with that performance.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

We are over time, so we'll take one last question.

Ayushman Baruah
Regional Bureau Head at Entrepreneur India

Ayushman here from Entrepreneur India. So I've been late to ask, so it has been partially asked, but then Srini, I mean you have completed a year here now, you know, and so just want to ask what are the few things that you see, you have made a lot of visible changes. So according to you, what percentage of the transformation that you had in mind has been already done and how much of it is left? That is one. And see, I mean during serious time we saw a lot of acquisitions and all that Wipro has made.

Ayushman Baruah
Regional Bureau Head at Entrepreneur India

Is Srini Palia making a conscious call to go soft on acquisitions?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So first and foremost, Aishman, we're going to be consistent with our five strategic priorities. We want to execute them with speed and rigor. And I know if you noticed last four consecutive quarters, I've consistently come and give an update on that. Second, M and A is strategic to Wipro. When we have the right opportunity and it falls into our strategic priorities, we go for it.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

We are constantly looking for an opportunity around that which will help us drive our strategic priorities. So the answer is yes. That's something that's part of inorganic growth for the future as well.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

I just want to conclude your question you asked that we actually did around 10 ks of hiring from campuses in the last fiscal, what we had called up. So we've done that.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

Yes.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

Outlook, I spoke about it, you know, given the environment, we intend doing it, but we have scope from a lower attrition, higher lower utilization. We'll see how it goes.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

Okay. We'll go for one last question. Avik?

Avik Das
Associate Editor at Business Standard

Hi. So three questions.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Can't see Avik's hand but I saw the three ladies raising their hand but of course you're the boss.

Avik Das
Associate Editor at Business Standard

Let's start Srini, when you talk about the cost optimization deals and the digital transformation deals, so just wanted to know that while cost optimization takes a front seat, have you already seen small Gen AI deals or POCs that you were doing with your clients, have they been impacted? Have you been told by the clients to take a pause on that as discretionary spend slow? That's the one question. Just two couple of follow ups.

Avik Das
Associate Editor at Business Standard

You told about how for obvious reasons large deals take time to ramp up. Given this period of uncertainty lying ahead, do you expect these large deals to actually take longer time to materialize than what you would obviously expect? And as cost optimization deals take precedence, do you feel margins are going to come under pressure at least for the next fiscal? Saurav, just one last thing. I don't know whether this has been already asked, but what about the hikes for fiscal?

Avik Das
Associate Editor at Business Standard

Are you putting a pause? Are you relooking? Or would it just go as usual?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Vivek, I'll give you a quick answer. Clients continue to invest in Gen AI POCs. There are clients who have moved from the POC to actual projects and implementation. I'm personally very excited with the opportunity of Gen AI in the context of changing the game for our clients.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

I think in terms of timing of how these large deals convert to revenues, they are very very deal specific. There is no one answer. There is no trend that we are seeing that indeed there will be a delay. So we are not anticipating that at all. We do think some of these large deals that we have taken will follow through as per what we had originally envisaged.

Aparna Iyer
Aparna Iyer
CFO at Wipro

In terms of vendor consolidation deals and cost takeout deals that seem to be really a big vital part of our pipeline, Yes, they do put pressure on margins and therefore we will have to do everything around improving our fixed price productivity, rationalizing our overheads. We have done a lot of rationalization of G and A spends. We spoke about how utilization, again we see some opportunity to improve. So we will have multiple levers in order to offset that. But our priority will be to invest for growth and invest in clients.

Saurabh Govil
Saurabh Govil
Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro

Last hikes you spoke about. So I want to let everybody recall that we were the ones who did hikes ahead of time in September. We had done the previous time in December. So we are still very far from, you know and as you said, in an uncertain environment, we'll we'll decide to the date.

Shilpa Phadnis
IT editor at The Times Of India

Hello. This is Shilpa from The Times of India. If you can help us understand with the rise in GCCs, you have set up a separate GCC rise that you have announced very recently. Are you going to put out a separate leadership structure that will also accelerate your GCC footprint? And secondly, how well poised are IT companies to keep this business in house considering there is the BOT.

Shilpa Phadnis
IT editor at The Times Of India

If you really focus on the B and O, if the transfer out doesn't happen, how well poised are IT companies to capture this business without all the fortune 500 companies setting up their own shop outside and at this point in time do you see some sort of a cannibalization of that business?

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Shilpa, first and foremost, I've been talking about GCC last three quarters, so it's nothing new. I don't know if you're referring to some announcement. We have not made any announcement. Somebody has written about it. That's perfectly fine.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

GCC is strategic to Wipro, and we will invest in BOTT. We'll transform as well as part of that, and the clients are looking out for experience and expertise around that. Having said that, different clients have different ways of running their BODs, but what's most important for us is the opportunities rather for us is to help them set up GCC. The other one is partner with GCC because the kind of innovation, the investments that we do on the engineering side as well, they want to leverage as well. And we are going to be part of their ecosystem, at least in India in the context of the GCC.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

So to me, GCC is strategic. We will continue to invest on that. We will partner with our clients, and we have a lot of clients where we have invested in this aspect.

Nisha Chandrasekaran
Nisha Chandrasekaran
Manager - External Communications at Wipro

We will have to conclude our Q4 FY twenty five earnings press conference. For all follow-up questions, please reach out to the Media Relations team and we'll be happy to help you. Thank you and we'll see you next quarter.

Srini Pallia
Srini Pallia
CEO & MD at Wipro

Thank you, everyone.

Executives
    • Nisha Chandrasekaran
      Nisha Chandrasekaran
      Manager - External Communications
    • Srini Pallia
      Srini Pallia
      CEO & MD
    • Aparna Iyer
      Aparna Iyer
      CFO
    • Saurabh Govil
      Saurabh Govil
      Chief Human Resources Officer
Analysts
    • Reshab Shaw
      Senior Correspondent at moneycontrol
    • Chandra Srikanth
      Deputy Executive Editor at moneycontrol
    • Ritu Singh
      Deputy Editor at CNBC-TV18
    • Veena Mani
      Special digital content specialist at The Times Of India
    • Haripriya Suresh
      India Company News Correspondent at Reuters
    • Rukmini Rao
      Consulting Editor at Fortune India
    • Beena Parmar
      Assistant Editor at The Economic Times
    • Uma Kannan
      Journalist at The New Indian Express
    • Ayushman Baruah
      Regional Bureau Head at Entrepreneur India
    • Avik Das
      Associate Editor at Business Standard
    • Shilpa Phadnis
      IT editor at The Times Of India
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Key Takeaways

  • Strong large-deal momentum: Wipro closed 63 large deals worth $5.4 billion in FY25 (including 17 deals at $1.8 billion in Q4), driven by its consulting-led, AI-powered industry and cross-industry solutions.
  • Q4 financials: IT services revenue was $2.6 billion (–0.8% sequential, –1.2% YoY CC) with a 17.5% operating margin (flat sequential, +10 bps YoY); full-year revenue was $10.51 billion (–2.3% YoY) with a 17.1% margin (+90 bps).
  • Cautious client environment: ongoing macro uncertainty and recent US tariffs have led clients to delay large transformation programs and prioritize cost, speed and AI-driven efficiency initiatives.
  • Q1 FY26 guidance: the company expects a sequential revenue decline of 3.5%–1.5% in constant currency, while aiming to sustain margins through execution rigor, productivity gains and overhead control.
  • Strategic focus areas: Wipro’s five priorities—profitable growth, large-deal wins, deepening top accounts (+3.1% seq), consulting-led AI solutions, and talent investment—are underpinning improvements in client satisfaction and margin resilience.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
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