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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (5211)	7/20/1999 1:30:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

India's Wipro seen weathering chief's exit wipro.com By Y.P. Rajesh BANGALORE, India, July 20 (Reuters) - Revenue growth at India's Wipro Ltd will not be affected by a recent change of guard at its computer software unit, analysts said. But investor sentiment is likely to be affected in the short term as the outgoing head of the division is seen as responsible for Wipro's position as one of India's top software firms. Wipro announced last week the appointment of Vivek Paul as group vice chairman and as president and chief executive officer of Wipro's Infotech and Software Services Group. Paul, 41, was appointed in place of outgoing vice chairman Ashok Soota, 57, who analysts said had steered Wipro to its present position as India's second largest software exporter behind Tata Consultancy Services. ''Wipro is increasing its focus on marketing its software services with these changes,'' said Alroy Lobo, senior analyst at Kotak Securities, the Indian affiliate of Goldman Sachs. Lobo said Wipro had to get more clients, and the appointment of Paul -- who will be based in the United States -- was a step in this direction. ''Infosys (Nasdaq:INFY - news), Satyam , NIIT all have senior representatives in the U.S. where a large part of their revenues come from,'' Lobo said. Paul, who joins Wipro after heading the $700-million global computerised tomography business at General Electric Medical Systems, will be based at Wipro's Santa Clara office. In a statement to Reuters, Wipro Corporation Chairman Azim Premji said Paul had the right career mix to lead Wipro's ''young, talented and energised team.'' ''We expect from him faster growth, more domain specialisation, and a global presence for Wipro,'' said Premji, last month named the richest Indian with an estimated personal worth of $2.8 billion. Premji owns 75 percent of Wipro, which posted a net profit of 1.7 billion rupees ($39.35 million) for the year ending March 31, 1999. Sales during the period were 17.8 billion rupees. Some analysts said it was a cause of concern for any company when its top management left. ''It can affect investor sentiment in the short term,'' said an analyst with Jardine Fleming India Broking Ltd. The Wipro share is one of India's more actively traded infotech stocks. Srividhya Rajesh, software analyst at Sundaram Newton Asset Management Co Ltd, said Wipro will have to address its employee stock option schemes. ''Barring that, Wipro is a big company and can weather people leaving it.'' (US$1 equals 43.2 rupees)