Wipro Promoters Not Envisaging Sale, Says Azim Premji

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji on Monday said that company's promoters are not envisaging sale of their holdings. The clarification comes after a media report that stated Wipro promoters were looking to sell their holding in the IT firm. "The news article about promoters of Wipro evaluating sale of their holding in the company is baseless and malicious. There is no truth to these unsubstantiated rumours," he said in a letter to the company's employees.

"I continue to be incredibly excited about the potential of the IT industry and Wipro. I see enormous energy within the company to power the success of our clients and therefore the success of Wipro," Mr Premji added.

Wipro has announced salary hikes for employees effective June 1, 2017. The Bengaluru-based outsourcer said that "on an average, the increments are in the mid-single digits for offshore employees while increments for onsite employees vary from low to mid-single digits depending on their geographical location". Wipro also said "top performers have been rewarded with relatively higher increases in their compensation".

Meanwhile, Mr Premji's pay package saw a fall of 63 per cent to $1,21,853 (about Rs. 79 lakh) last fiscal year, with no commission being paid during the year. The IT czar had drawn a larger compensation of $3,27,993 (about Rs. 2.17 crore) in the previous fiscal year. Mr Premji's package included $66,464 in salary and allowances and $13,647 in long-term compensation (deferred benefit - the company's contribution to the Provident Fund and Pension Fund), totalling to $121,853 for the year 2016-17, documents with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

"Azim H Premji is entitled to a commission at the rate of 0.5 per cent on incremental net profits of Wipro for the fiscal 2017 over the previous year... For the year ended March 31, 2017, commission paid to Azim H Premji is INR Nil," the document said.