Wipro may soon finalise settlement agreement with former top executives Jatin Dalal, Mohd Haque: Report

Wipro is in the process of finalising a settlement agreement with its former CFO, Jatin Dalal, and former healthcare head, Mohd Haque, with the pact expected to be executed within this week among Wipro, Cognizant, Dalal, and Haque, the Times of India reported citing sources.

Business Today couldn't verify the report independently.

Wipro is seeking Rs 25 crore from Dalal for breach of contract as he joined Cognizant as CFO immediately after leaving Wipro on November 30. The company had filed a lawsuit against Dalal in a Bengaluru court last year.

The claim is based on the value of RSUs and PSUs granted to Dalal since he became CFO in 2015. Wipro has also filed a complaint against Haque for violating non-compete clauses by joining Cognizant, a direct competitor. Following an order from the Bengaluru Civil Court in January, Dalal invoked his rights to an arbitral tribunal.

Separately, Wipro’s law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, has requested a US court to deny Haque relief for breach of his employment agreement, arguing that the employment contract was unsigned. They have asked the judge to dismiss Haque’s claim to arbitration and transfer the case to the Central District of California. 

Dalal, who served as Wipro's CFO since 2015, quit on November 30. Cognizant Technology had appointed Dalal as their CFO in September, succeeding Jan Siegmund, who plans to retire early 2024. 

Dalal will be reporting to Cognizant's CEO, S Ravi Kumar. In his new role, Dalal has been with Wipro for over 20 years, his exit was among the slew of top-level resignations from the firm. 

Mohd Haque, Wipro’s former senior vice president (SVP) and head of healthcare and medical devices for the Americas, joined Cognizant as its SVP and business unit head for life sciences, before the end of his non-compete clause tenure till August 1, 2023.

Wipro reported a 7.6 percent year-on-year (YoY) drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,858.20 crore compared with Rs 3,093.50 crore in the same quarter last year. The consolidated revenue from operations fell 4.23 percent YoY to Rs 22,208.30 crore compared with Rs 23,190.30 crore in the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting a 4-8 percent drop in profit and a 4-5 percent drop in sales. 

Wipro said its IT services segment revenue came in at $2,657.4 million for the quarter, up 0.1 percent QoQ and down 6.4 percent YoY. Its constant currency (CC) IT Services segment revenue fell 0.3 percent QoQ and 6.6 percent YoY.

Total deal wins stood at $3.6 billion. Large deal bookings came in at $1.2 billion, up 31.1 percent QoQ and 9.5 percent YoY. IT services operating margin for the quarter stood at 16.4 percent, up 40 bps QoQ.