Wipro s global head of infrastructure business quits

Anand Sankaran, global head of Wipro's infrastructure services business, the company's second largest service line, has quit.

"Wipro confirms that after a sterling career of over 24 years with Wipro, Anand Sankaran, currently senior vice president for Global Infrastructure Services and Wipro Infotech, has decided to pursue a career outside of Wipro," the company said in a statement in reaction to media reports about Sankaran's exit on Thursday .

Wipro did not specify the reason for the exit of Sankaran, who joined the company in 1989. Sankaran also headed Wipro's business in India, Middle East and Africa.

Infrastructure services brought in $1.4 billion, or about a quarter of Wipro's $6.2 billion sales at the end of last fiscal year. In terms absolute revenues, Wipro has the highest exposure to infrastructure services business among top Indian IT outsourcers. The Noida-based HCL Technologies, which has infrastructure business as its mainstay got nearly a third of its overall $4.6 billion revenues from this vertical at the end of last fiscal year.

Sequentially, infrastructure services business has been growing at an average of 3% over the past four quarters for Wipro, compared to about 9% for HCL Technologies. In the June quarter, revenues from this service line dropped by 0.9% for Wipro.

Revenues from Wipro's India and Middle East business declined 6.7% in the previous quarter.

During afternoon trade, Wipro stock was trading at Rs 486 apiece, up by 3% on the Bombay Stock Exchange.