IT services major Wipro Thursday sought shareholders' nod for its up to ₹10,500 crore share buyback offer.

The company also sought shareholders' approval for the appointment former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya as an independent director on its board.

After a gap of almost three years, Wipro Consumer care, part of Azim Premji’s Wipro Group, on Monday struck a new deal in the consumer goods space. The company said that it has acquired Philippines-based personal care company Splash Corporation for an undisclosed amount.

The transaction strengthens Wipro’s consumer care portfolio in personal care and completes its south-east Asian footprint.

Wipro Ltd on Friday said a cyber attack on few of its employee accounts has not impacted its critical business operations and the firm has taken remedial measures.

In a regulatory filing, the company said it became aware of potentially abnormal activity within its network about 10 days back in respect of few of its employee accounts, who were “subjected to an advanced phishing campaign”.

Wipro shares slumped 3 per cent from its early morning high to trade at Rs 282 after the firm gave a tepid outlook for the first quarter of FY20, citing delays in starting new projects. The stock had opened 3 per cent higher at Rs 289 on the BSE on Thursday. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.29 per cent at 39,392 points at 09:20 am.

The country's third-largest IT services company said it expects revenue from IT services business to be in the range of $2,046 million to $2,087 million for the quarter ending June 30, 2019 (Q1FY20).

Wipro has largely met the Street estimates on the revenue and profit fronts for the fourth quarter of 2018-19, though the revenue growth reported by the country's third-largest IT services firm was the lowest among the top three players in the last financial year.

The company, however, gave a tepid outlook for the first quarter of FY20, citing delays in starting out new projects. The firm also announced a mega buyback plan of Rs 10,500 crore at Rs 325 a share, making it the second such repurchase consecutively. The buyback price is 15.4 per cent higher than Tuesday's closing price on the NSE.

Billionaire Azim Premji has announced he has raised his commitment for philanthropy by renouncing more of his personal assets and earmarking them to his Azim Premji Foundation endowment.

The Wipro chairman has done this by additionally earmarking all economic benefits for philanthropic purposes in about 34 per cent of the shares in Wipro (current market value at Rs 52,750 crore or $7.5 billion), held by certain entities controlled by him, the Foundation stated. Premji is also chairman of the Foundation.

Shares of Wipro fell 5 per cent to Rs 256 in intra-day trade on the BSE in after huge block deals were executed on the counter.

Till 11:22 am, a combined 57.86 million equity shares, representing 1.3 per cent equity, of Wipro had changed hands on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE.

The name of the buyer and sellers could not be ascertained immediately.

Azim Premji-promoted Wipro Group will expand its presence in Saudi Arabia through tie-ups with local companies. Wipro Technologies has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of communication and IT of Saudi Arabia.

“We have been working in that market for over 15 years. They are looking for transformation of industry in areas like oil and gas, health care, education and that would required a whole lot of talent,” said Anand Padmanabhan, president, strategic sales and geographies, Wipro. The company already has 1,200 IT professionals working in Saudi Arabia.

With adoption of protectionist policies by governments across the world, a lot of human resource related actions of Wipro are now shifting to onsite locations including the US, Europe and Australia. The IT services firm is replicating a model similar to that of India, which it has been following for quite long, to ramp up delivery presence and hire more locals as part of its workforce in client geographies.

Shares of Wipro hit a near two-decade high of Rs 353 apiece, gaining 2 per cent on the BSE, as analysts expect the company to post better revenue growth in FY20 led by continued momentum in large deal wins, robust digital growth and continued growth in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) and other verticals. The stock of IT services firm was trading at its highest level since March 8, 2000.

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