Wipro seeing a few cancellations, more delays

By Georgina Prodhan

LONDON (Reuters) - Indian IT outsourcing company Wipro is seeing a few customers cancel contracts and more delaying or downsizing deals as a result of deteriorating global economic conditions, its joint chief executive said.

Girish Paranjpe added that Wipro, India's third-biggest software services exporter, was feeling minimal impact from last week's attacks that killed almost 200 people in Mumbai, and reiterated that the company expects business to improve next year.

Referring to the Mumbai attacks, he told Reuters in an interview on Monday, "I don't see any operational impact of that ..."

When asked about cancellations by Wipro's customers -- who include Cicso, Credit Suisse and Nortel -- he said: "Some few, but much more delay, postponement, resizing -- a few cancellations."

Paranjpe said he remained hopeful that business would pick up in the company's first quarter beginning in April next year after a slowing that began about a quarter ago. Customers cannot sustain constrained spending indefinitely, he said.

"About six months you can manage with compression, three to six months you can manage with compression. Beyond that, you have to start thinking longer-term," he said.

"I'm still kind of optimistic that we would have gone past the bottom some time in the first fiscal quarter" next year, he added.

Sector leader Tata Consultancy Services and fellow large Indian outsourcer Infosys have recently expressed cautious optimism about the market, but like most peers they face at least short-term uncertainty.