Wipro BPO, a business unit of Wipro Technologies, will continue to focus on non-linear growth and will not add mass. The division which has been revamped over the past two-years slowing weaning itself away from being a voice-heavy BPO provider, has only added around 500 people while growing its topline by 50% in this period.
Wipro BPO current headcount of around 19,000 is expected to go up to around 21,000 by the year-end. But The recently started KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) arm with renewed focus already employs around 700 people.
Wipro BPO on a year-on-year basis has posted a 20% growth for first quarter of current fiscal, while its operating margins have shored up by 35 percent. Sequentially both these parameters have taken a hit by close to 5% and 14%, respectively.
This arm is also set to kickstart its China center during the current quarter with an initial employee base of 50-75 and is hoping to ramp this up to 300 in an year's time. This is the second overseas center for Wipro BPO after the one in Romania which employs around 100 currently and is expected to double that by June next year.
Wipro Limited -- which has cash reserves of close to $800m and is set to add another $500m during the year is expected to close another acquisition in the $200m plus range. The company over the past two years has spent a little over $500m for around a dozen acquisitions -- the largest being the recent $250m acquisiton of Singapore-based FMCG player Unza Holdings.
Across the four main businesses - Wipro Technologies, Wipro Infotech, Wipro Consumer Care, Wipro Infrastructure - there are at least 10-15 deals which the company is pursuing. The lower end of the band cumulatively the value will be $250 million, while the upper end is purported to be near $1 billion.
Wipro Technologies too is looking at acquisitions in Germany and Canada. This would help the company in expanding its footprints in those countries, apart from establishing a strong local presence. Besides those two, Wipro is said to also be looking at increasing presence in the Middle East.
In the last quarter, Wipro Technologies has won two contracts in Canada in the last quarter in energy and utilities space.
Source(s): Business Standard, WIpro
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