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Wipro mulling acquisitions

Our Bureau

BANGALORE, July 20

``WE are actively considering a few candidates for acquisition,'' said the Wipro Chairman, Mr Azim Premji. He said that it was too early to be more precise, and added, ``you can rest assured that the expenditure budget for the M&A team is not under the C FO's scrutiny for reduction.''

The Vice-Chairman, Mr Vivek Paul, said that Wipro was feeling price pressures, but not so much from customers as from competitors within the country.

Explaining Wipro's strategy regarding pricing, Mr Paul said that the company had taken a conscious decision not to drop prices even if it meant a volume fall of 4 per cent since the last quarter. ``This quarter has been a quarter of restraint,'' he added .

The rate cutting that is occurring in the industry will not get anyone anywhere, he opined. The volume of business in the country will remain the same and only the price points will go down. If the situation demands, the company is willing to lower

prices, he implied. ``It is not a religion with us. You just have to be smart in this,'' he said.

The company's utilisation rates for the quarter was 60 per cent and the billed man-months to billable man-months was 66 per cent. This translates into a bench of 1,000.

Wipro has launched ``Operation Bench Press'' and has been using the bench to develop IP, according to Mr Paul. People are also being trained, put through language courses and are working on projects that could come through in future, he added.

The company said the campus recruitment offers made last year still stand though the joining dates have been deferred. Meanwhile, the candidates are given access to the company's intranet and e-learning systems.

Wipro's top client -- Nortel -- contributes 8 per cent of its revenues. The top five companies contribute 29 per cent, while the top 10 contribute 42 per cent of revenues.