IT major Wipro ltd on Tuesday elevated its Chairman Azim Premji's son Rishad to the company Board in an apparent succession planning on a day it posted 2.1 per cent increase in March quarter profits.
The country's third largest software services firm posted a net profit of Rs2,286.5 crore in January-March 2015, 2.1 per cent higher than Rs2,239.1 crore a year-ago. The net profit growth, which is in line with expectations, was helped by robust momentum in infrastructure and healthcare services.
The 38-year-old Rishad, who had joined Wipro in June 2007 as a Business Manager, was elevated to the Board position representing "shareholder interest", Wipro CEO TK Kurien said. Harvard-educated Rishad, the eldest of the two sons of Azim Premji, is at present chief strategy officer and will join the Board from May 1.
The younger sibling Tariq is associated with Wipro Foundation. The elevation gives clear indications of succession planning at Wipro, which was founded by Azim Premji, 69, in December, 1945. Azim Premji, who controls close to 74 per cent of Wipro, is ranked 48th on the Forbes rich list with a wealth of $17.1 billion.
"We have always said there is going to be shareholder interest being taken care of by getting somebody on the board and Rishad has really filled that role... He represents share holder interest, he is the valued member of the Wipro management team," Kurein said. Wipro, which gets a dominant chunk of its revenues from IT services, saw its topline growing by 3.9 per cent to Rs12,171.4 crore in the January-March quarter of 2014-15, from Rs 11,703.6 crore in the year-ago period.
Revenues from IT services business increased six per cent year-on-year to Rs11,240 crore (up 3.2 per cent to $1.77 billion) in the reported quarter. However, Wipro has forecast its IT services revenues for the April-June 2015 period to be in the range of $1.76 billion to $1.79 billion. This is lower by 0.5 per cent to a growth of one per cent from the earnings of January-March 2015 quarter.