Paris on alert as swollen river Seine reaches peak levels

Paris on alert as swollen river Seine reaches peak levels

The rain-swollen River Seine in Paris reached its highest level in three decades today, spilling its banks and prompting the Louvre museum to shut its doors and evacuate artworks in its basement.

Parisians were urged to avoid the banks of the river which was expected to reach a peak of six metres (19 feet) today, while deadly floods continued to wreak havoc elsewhere in France and Germany.

In France, a man on horseback died after he was swept away in a swollen river in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, southeast of Paris, local authorities said yesterday.

And in Germany, a 65-year-old man was found dead in the flood-hit town of Simbach am Inn, bringing the total death toll in the country this week to 10.

Days of torrential rain have only added to the gloomy atmosphere in France, also facing a third full day of train strikes after months of protests and political turmoil.

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal said that she feared more bodies would be found as waters recede in French villages which have seen main streets turned into muddy rivers.

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**Wipro says Chennai flood to impact revenues, margins for December quarter**

After Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro too has issued a warning saying that disruption at its Chennai facilities due to recent floods and the costs associated with subsequent invocation of business continuity plans would have a material impact on the performance of the company in the October-December quarter of FY16.

Wipro’s warning comes on the heels of a similar announcement by India’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services.

The Bengaluru-based Wipro, India’s third largest IT services company which has over 22,000 employees in Chennai across multiple centres, said it would incur a “higher one-time cost” towards deployment of business continuity plan which would not only adversely impact its revenue performance during the quarter, but also its operating margins.

“For the quarter ending December 31, 2015, the incident is expected to have a material impact on the revenues and will result in higher one-time cost incurred towards deployment of our business continuity plan. Both these factors will impact our operating margins for the quarter,” Wipro said in a statutory filing to stock exchanges on Wednesday.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2015, operating margins for Wipro’s IT services business stood at 20.7%.

The company also said that it expects its revenues to be in the lower half of its guidance range. For the December quarter, Wipro had said it was expecting IT services revenues to be in the range of $1,841 mn -$1,878 mn.

Last week, TCS had also issued a similar warning saying that the company was expecting material impact on its revenues in the seasonally weak December quarter due to Chennai rains.

Meanwhile, Wipro said its Chennai operations has largely been restored to normal. The company is in touch with insurance companies to assess the damage. Wipro’s share price was down 0.51% at Rs 555.75 on the BSE in early trade.