Elliott Management Corporation, the US-based asset management firm set up by billionaire Paul Singer, has bought a stake in Wipro, its first ever purchase of an Indian-based software outsourcer. The New York hedge fund acquired 1.855 million American depositary receipts, or around 0.04% of Wipro’s share capital, according to a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. Though small when compared with Elliott’s stake of more than 4% in rival professional services company Cognizant, which has the bulk of its operations in India, the holding in Wipro gives the fund another foothold in the nation’s $167 billion IT services industry at a time its main players are re-tooling to shore up margins amid tighter client budgets. Elliott is known for shaking up companies. At Cognizant, it pushed for a board re-shuffle and a $3.4 billion return of capital to shareholders, setting off a wave of dividend and share buyback announcements among its IT peers. Billionaire founder Azim Premji owns over 73% of Bangalore-based Wipro. The company declined to comment on the purchase by Elliott. [Bloomberg]
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