Bangalore, Oct 19: Even as the champagne flowed freely back home in India, the usually taciturn Wipro chairman Azim Premji was clearly in bubbly spirits as he rang the bell marking the listing of his company's stock on Wall Street. The 2.75 million American Depository Shares offered at a scaled-down price of $41 3/8 per share, listed higher at $44 1/2 at opening and had already scaled the $46 mark by 9 pm (IST) with volumes of 1.2 million shares - roughly half the issue size.Mr Premji, who had earlier in an e-mail message to his employees put the company's mission as achieving revenues of $4 billion by the year 2004, said the issue had been oversubscribed four times and that they had mopped up around $135 million including the 50 per cent greenshoe option.
Speaking to Indian media from New York in a videoconference, he said the issue had been priced close to yesterday's price on the domestic markets. "US investors are thanking us for giving (them shares) at a reasonable price," he said, adding, "It is a gift from the Indian investors to their American counterparts."
He also announced stock options on the occasion taking the employees covered by ESOPs to 74 per cent. Wipro vice-chairman and chief executive officer Mr Vivek Paul said options over the past 12 months accounted for 4.5 per cent of common equity.
Mr Paul added that company had decided not to have any disparity between Indian and US investors.
Asked if downscaling the issue price would impact on Wipro's acquisition plans, Mr Premji said the listing on NYSE was with the three-fold objective of raising global currency for acquisitions, getting global currency for employee stock options and to build credibility among global investors. "If we need more money (for acquisitions), we can always raise it in subsequent offers," he said.
Mr Paul said acquisition targets included US-based Internet and telecom software companies as also software services companies that would integrate well with the company's overall game plan and bring pricing power and a customer base to the table.
On moving to products, Mr Premji said, "We are primarily a services company. While we have productised services, products for us are a by-product and if we get to monetise them, we will. The thrust, however, will be on services."
Almost 65 per cent of Wipro's revenues came from North America, 24 per cent from Europe and 8 per cent from Japan, he said in response to a query. Nearly 45 per cent of this came from global research and development and 50 per cent from enterprise, of which 35 per cent was from e-commerce solutions. Global support brought in another 5 per cent, he said.
In a message to Wipro employees, Mr Premji said Wipro was aiming to be among the top ten global IT services companies.
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