India's Wipro lags IT peers with Q1 revenue miss, shares tumble

By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Wipro missed quarterly revenue estimates on Friday due to weak demand in Europe and Asia-Pacific, highlighting the tough task its new boss faces as he tries to turn around the fortunes of India's No.4 software services exporter.

The company's U.S.-listed shares tumbled about 10% in early trade in New York, set for their biggest one-day slide since 2008.

Veteran insider CEO Srinivas Pallia took over in April after the abrupt departure of Thierry Delaporte, whose term was filled with a string of top-level exits and a lack of big deal wins.

Last fiscal year, Wipro was the only IT firm to report a decline in revenue and it started this fiscal year with a 3.8% slide in first-quarter revenue to 219.64 billion rupees ($2.63 billion).

That also missed market expectations, in contrast to the better-than-expected results at Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and HCLTech, which raised hopes of a demand recovery in the $254 billion sector.

But Pallia said clients remain cautious as global demand for IT services remains sluggish, although he struck a note of optimism.

"The initial climb is both challenging and exciting, and as a hiker, I’m pleased with the momentum we’ve built in quarter one," he said in a post-results call.

Wipro's revenue fell 11.6% in Europe and 13.2% in Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa. All its business segments, except health, also reported lower revenue.

Its orders dropped to $3.3 billion from $3.7 billion a year earlier.

"Wipro's performance has been weak for quite some time due to weak demand and company-specific issues. It will take time to rebound," Centrum Broking analyst Piyush Pandey said.

Wipro, the only one among the top IT companies to provide a quarterly forecast, said it expects IT services revenue in the current quarter to range between a drop of 1% to an increase of 1%.

Its net profit rose 4.6% to 30.03 billion rupees in the latest quarter, beating ' estimates of 29.48 billion rupees.

Wipro plans to hire up to 12,000 fresh graduates this fiscal year. ($1 = 83.6330 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Dhanya Skariachan and Savio D'Souza)