Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Cyient Limited Q2 FY 2025 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Krishna Bodanapu, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Cyient Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Cyient Limited's earnings call for the second quarter of fiscal year FY twenty-twenty-five. Present with me on this call are Karthik Natarajan, CEO and Executive Director, and Prabhakar Atla, President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. A detailed statement in this regard is available on our website in our investor update, which has been mailed to you and is also posted on our corporate website. This call will be accompanied with an earnings call presentation. The details of these have been shared with you already. Coming to the highlights for the quarter, as you may be aware, we Cyient Limited recently passed...
We basically concluded partial divestment of our stake in Cyient DLM Limited. We sold about 11.5 million shares for a consideration of approximately INR 875 crore. Our stake in Cyient DLM now stands at 52.16%. We plan to use the proceeds from this stake sale towards fulfilling our capital requirements across organic and inorganic initiatives in our recently launched semiconductor business to drive accelerated growth. We will also partly use some of this consideration towards the retirement of Cyient Limited's debt. I'm very pleased to announce that we're making strong and continuous progress towards unlocking the potential of our semiconductor business. In this quarter, we set up a wholly owned subsidiary, CSPL, or Cyient Semiconductors Private Limited, to drive dedicated focus on ASIC, turnkey ASIC design and chip sales through a fabless model.
Through this, towards this initiative, we have reached an agreement to acquire 27.3% stake in Azimuth AI, a fabless custom ASIC company known for its expertise in energy and industrial applications, with a focus across global markets, including the Indian market. This investment aligns perfectly with our strategic growth objectives for the semiconductor sector. The focus on sustainability has heralded a transformation in the energy sector. In line with building further on our expertise in the energy business and on expanding our global footprint, we have set up a dedicated entity in the United Arab Emirates to cater to the Middle East region, which, as you know, is the world's largest energy market. To accelerate this initiative, we have reached an agreement to acquire Abu Dhabi and Gulf Computer Establishment, ADGCE, an Abu Dhabi-based technology consulting and digital services provider, primarily catering to the energy sector.
This strategic move will further strengthen our presence in UAE and help Cyient access one of the largest markets for the energy business. I'm very happy to report these two initiatives to you because they are very important for the long-term strategic vision of Cyient in two very important markets, semiconductor and energy. And I'm happy to report that we have made significant progress in a short term, and we will see some very good initiatives and action and, of course, growth coming from these two initiatives. With this, I would like to hand over this call to Prabhakar, who will take you through the financial performance for the quarter. Prabhakar?
Thank you, Krishna. Hello, everyone. Thank you very much for your kind participation in the call today. Thank you for your time, and thank you for your attention. Before we proceed with the financials, a quick comment on nomenclature. The nomenclature and segments under which we report our group performance will remain the same as the previous quarter, i.e., DET, DLM, and others. The focus of this call will remain DET segment, which also includes the semiconductor business, and therefore, all metrics are like to like the previous quarter. The Q2 FY 2025 U.S. dollar revenue for DET stood at $133 million, a QoQ growth of 1.3% in constant currency and a year-on-year degrowth of 3.3% in constant currency.
In rupee terms, this revenue stood at INR 1,450 crore, with a QoQ growth of 2.5% and a year-on-year degrowth of 1.8%. This revenue performance for this quarter is in line with our expectations. As we commented previously, we had ramp-up and specific client-related issues in Q1 for connectivity and transportation segment, while in Q2, the segments have demonstrated healthy growth. Connectivity business grew by 3.9% QoQ in constant currency. Transportation business grew by 3.4%, while engineering grew by 9.7% QoQ in constant currency. This global growth in our key segment helped us mitigate the seasonal headwinds in sustainability segment, which, owing to vacation period in Europe, de-grew by 6.4% in constant currency along expected lines for the quarter.
In Q2 FY 2025, DET EBIT margin stood at 14.2%, up by 75 basis points quarter on quarter. This quarter on quarter positive movement was driven by revenue growth and efficiency improvement, which helped mitigate the wage hike during the quarter by enabling margin expansion. The Q2 FY 2025 PAT for DET stood at INR 177 crores, a growth of 25% quarter on quarter and 2.3% year on year, translating into an EPS of INR 16.07 for DET for the quarter. The significant improvement in PAT during the quarter was due to a combination of revenue growth, EBIT improvement, reduction in interest cost, and positive movements in other income, especially from undervalued FX gain, due to significant currency movements in this quarter.
The Q2 FY 2025 DET FCF stood at INR 177 crore, a positive movement QoQ, translating into 100% FCF to PAT conversion for the quarter. As mentioned earlier, with 1.3% CC revenue growth QoQ, 75 basis points improvement in EBIT QoQ, and 25% earnings growth and 100% FCF to PAT conversion, we consider DET performance to be along expected lines and we are aided by some one-time currency tailwind, supporting the significant earnings growth in this quarter. Moving on to the group numbers. Group numbers are a combination of all three segments we have, including Cyient DLM.
For Q2 FY 2025, group revenue stood at INR 1,849 crores, which is a growth of 10.3% QOQ and 4% year on year, with an EBIT growth of 58 basis points quarter on quarter and de-growth of 147 basis points year on year, while PAT expanded by 24.5% quarter on quarter and 4.6% year on year. You will also see significant positive movement in FCF, both QoQ and YoY. We're also very pleased to inform you that we're announcing an interim dividend payout of INR 12 for FY 2025. Before I conclude the financials, allow me to present a quick other update. As you all aware, and as Krishna mentioned earlier, in course of this quarter, we have raised capital through partial divestiture of Cyient stake in Cyient DLM.
Part of the proceeds from this transaction were utilized to retire long-term debt, which helped optimize our debt position from $47 million at the end of Q1 FY 2025 to $9 million at the end of Q2. As you'll also recall, our debt position was $94 million at the end of FY 2023, which we were able to bring down to the current level through consistent focus on cash generation. While a part of the sales proceeds were utilized for debt reduction, most of the sales proceeds have been allocated to support investment, which we intend to make in our Semiconductor business, which we believe has significant growth potential in the current asset space as our next growth engine. From an accounting perspective, this divestiture is considered as an equity transaction with no impact on Cyient DET P&L.
However, with an impact on consolidated PNL and balance sheet. With this, I'd like to thank you once again for your time, and I will now hand over the call to Karthik for a more detailed commentary on DET performance for the quarter.
Thank you, Prabhakar. Good evening, everyone. On top of the commentary that you heard from Prabhakar, I just want to share some of the updates about individual business units. To start with transportation, which has seen a growth of 3.4% in quarter on quarter in constant currency, has also shown a de-growth of 7.3% year on year. This is strongly the recovery shown from aerospace, and I think that's something which we have stated earlier, and we are happy with the progress that we made in the transportation segment. Connectivity, we have seen a growth of 3.9% quarter on quarter, and with about minus 6.1% in year on year. North America led the growth, and we continue to see Europe recovering in H2.
We are confident that the communication segment will continue to grow for the rest of the year as well. Sustainability, which has seen a seasonal impact due to the holidays in Europe, has shown a de-growth of 6.4% in quarter on quarter and -2.2% year on year. We expect the sustainability to be better in H2 as compared to H1 as well. New growth areas, which has shown a significant growth of 9.7% in quarter on quarter basis and also 6.7% year on year basis. The growth was led by healthcare and life sciences, automotive, and semiconductor.
All three sub-segments have shown growth, and we do expect that this continue to live up to the expectation of being called as new growth area, and, we are very confident about the growth even in H2 as well. All in all, I think we have seen a growth of 1.3% in constant currency, quarter on quarter, with -3.3% in year on year. As far as the order intake is concerned, we have, received about $156.8 million order intake, which is about -14.7%, compared to the last year same quarter. And we expect this to, significantly improve during H2. And we do think that some of the seasonal changes that were seen there should get corrected in H2.
Also, moving on to all the interesting areas of progress that we made, I'm happy to share some of the new wins around the technology solutions and programs that we launched over the last couple of years, and led by some of the deals that are highlighted here. And this is DLM platform migration, and this is an announcement for our MedTech customers to improve the process simulation, and followed by a digital platform implementation and process enhancements for a different customer, as well as the mixed signal ASIC for medical analysis and DNA sequencing for a Med Tech leader. And happy to report a deal of design and development of connected IoT analytics SaaS platform for midsize security player and to provide real-time monitoring and data-driven insights.
This is an interesting deal, and we do feel some of these opportunities will continue to grow, and we are confident about winning more such deals in the similar area, and followed by the last one, which I'll highlight, is about the AI-enabled intelligent content platform solution and for automating the technical publication for a large aircraft manufacturer out of Europe. Also happy to report, we have been recognized by ISG as a product challenger for strategy and consulting and development and deployment of GenAI platforms for midsize providers globally, and also recognized by Microsoft as a solution partner, recognized in two areas, Data and AI, as well as Digital and App Innovations. With that, I'll hand it over to the moderator to talk to you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Bhavik Mehta from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you. A couple of questions. Firstly, how should we think about growth and margin trajectory in the second half in terms of Q3 versus Q4? Because typically, Q3 tends to have seasonality, but given your business, should we expect Q3 to be lower than Q4, or should we expect similar kind of growth and margin expansion in both the quarters?
So we expect Q3 to be stronger than Q2, and we also guided in the past that our H2 will be better than H1. I think we still hold on to the same view. And, the previous guidance we have given, Bhavik, on the Q4 exit margin at 16% revenue, we're still sticking to that. We still have a line of sight on that. That is what we believe we will exit Q4 H.
Okay, got it. That's helpful. The second question: If I look at the headcount, it's actually been coming down over the past three, four quarters. So can you throw some color in terms of, are we seeing an increasing utilization level, which is driving, or whether which is not driving the need to add more people, given the growth is expected to improve in the second half?
Yeah, Bhavik, we also talked about this earlier. We also started using the contingent workforce, where the project-based engagements need a kind of flexibility in the workforce. I think that is definitely one of the elements that we spoke about it during last quarter. And also led by some of the initiatives to improve the productivity and automation, I think that's really starting to play out. So with those two things, we would really look at areas where we need to add headcount, without we having to tap into the contingent as well as the automation initiatives, right.
Okay. And just lastly, if I look at your client buckets, the 20 million plus clients have come down from seven at the beginning of last year to four in this quarter. So now what's the outlook on those clients? I mean, is there a particular rundown which happened? Is there some renewal which didn't come through? How should we think about the trajectory over there for those particular clients?
I would just say, if you look at, I think, whether it is five million plus or ten million plus or twenty million plus, I think, some movements will keep happening here and there, given the drop that we have seen in the last quarter. But I do expect that by Q4, I think some of them should get corrected and should be in a better shape, as far as these buckets are concerned. I think, one other point to look at is our business is a bit, project-based, right? So because of how the project starts and stops happen, right? Because there are projects where we will build, you know, individual projects where we will build $5 million, $6 million, $7 million within a quarter.
So because of that project-based nature, and when the start, stop happens to these projects, you will always see that movement happen.
Okay, got it. Thank you. That's it from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sulabh Govila from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. So my first question is more of a clarification. We mentioned that the revenue growth in this particular quarter is in line with our expectations, what we had thought of at the beginning of the quarter. So is it fair to assume the guidance that we had given last quarter, that stays, or is there any change in the outlook for 2H versus what you had thought at the beginning of the last quarter?
So we are still confident that we have a line of sight towards the flattish year. And so the two things that we talked about, the flattish year and the 16% exit margin. So we're still, we do have a line of sight towards that, and we're quite confident that we will get it flattish and at 16%. It was expected that Q1, Q2 were going to be a little bit weaker. The H1 was going to be a little bit weaker. H2 is going to be much stronger, but also in H2, as I think we pointed out, that Q3 is seasonally weak.
But having said that, I think that's where some of the project nature of the business actually kicks in, because it's not really furloughs or closures that impact. The work is already there, and it's really about the execution. And if you look at, I think, last year also, we had a fairly strong Q3. So, taking all that into account, the growth outlook stays same.
That's great to hear. And the second question is on the sustainability vertical. So just wanted to understand, in this particular quarter, the decline that you mentioned, is it entirely driven by the holidays or the seasonality that you mentioned? Because the reason I'm asking is, the trend was very different last year, when this vertical actually grew by 5% Q on Q, in the same period last year. So has this anything changed this year? And will this be an annual phenomena, you know, going forward, from that perspective?
I would just say that I think a couple of points there, Sulabh. One is, there is a seasonality that is coming up, which is going to be true for every Q2 moving forward. Two, on top of that, we also have seen a softness from the consulting business in Q2. So those two things added towards to really see the effect on what we are seeing.
And also, what Krishna said earlier, in Q2 of last year, we had a major program and a ramp-up phase in sustainability, which we won in the previous quarter, which is now stabilized. So therefore, what you see right now is a true seasonality impact in the current quarter, which was not evident in the last year, owing to a one-time ramp-up we had at one point in time.
Okay. Okay, understood. And is it fair to assume? I know you mentioned that this vertical will be better in Q2 versus Q1, but is it fair to assume that it'll be on a growth path, sequentially from next quarter itself?
That will be, yes.
Okay. Okay, understood.
We can say so for all the segments going forward for H2.
Sorry, can you repeat that?
No, to extrapolate it, we can say the same thing that all segments will experience or we expect all segments to grow in H2.
Okay. Okay, understood, and the last question is that, you know, on this project-based nature of work, would you classify your current position as a percentage of your overall revenue? Would you say that over the last couple of years, has this gone up, or gone down, you know, with respect to how they're contributing to your revenue?
The shift has been happening across the board, across the industry, which was traditionally in a T&M model in the past to fixed price, later, to outcome-driven, quality-driven engagements and delivery as we know. That is what we are seeing manifesting more and more right now. So at this point in time, we do a lot of work in fixed price model, which is that parts of work gets right now done in a project-specific model, especially as we ramp up, as we build our business, as we acquire entities. That's what you're seeing right now as a part of it.
And I think, we also have to look at the Citec acquisition. The Citec's business is quite project-centric. So, our therefore, when we acquired Citec, the proposed proportion changed quite a bit, and that would be a big change basically.
Which we are comfortable with, because, this is also a significant growth driver for us.
No, understood. Very clear. Thanks for taking my question.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on good execution. Yes, we are reiterating the guidance. So the typical question which comes every quarter is the growth rate being 5% in Q3 and Q4. So you believe based on the order pipeline, because order wins in the last two quarters were also not great, and Q3 generally sees a low. So are we expecting a broad-based growth, or are we expecting some sector-based performance in the second half?
So, Sandeep, thank you for the question. See, the growth will still be more back-ended towards the year. We currently expect Q3 to be much stronger than Q2, like Krishna mentioned before. And therefore, given what we have in hand in terms of order intake, given what we see as execution happening in the current quarter, we're already in Q3 as we see, we're very confident of Q3. Therefore, we're still holding on to the internal view that we have, that we have very strong enough for a package here. That's the first thing. The second thing is, you also made a very valid comment on the order intake size changing quarter on quarter compared to the previous year.
But also a reflection of, we spoke about it in the beginning of the year, that this year, owing to whatever macroeconomic situation that we are currently handling, the deals are being truncated into smaller tranches, which basically means order intake might look different compared to previous year, but the execution time may also be shorter compared to the previous year. So dynamic in terms of how we are managing the risk.
Okay, thanks for this clarity. So, this second half performance based on the implied guidance, is based on the orders won, or you expect some orders to come in the order win in Q3, Q4, and some of them would be executed as part of the revenue to achieve the guidance in Q3, Q4?
The strong confidence from Q3 comes with what we already have in hand, and execution that is already in talk, in progress. There is some more work to do in Q4, but we're confident of getting there.
Okay. And just on strategic question on semiconductor business. So what could be the total OpEx and CapEx, which we aspire to invest in the next coming few quarters? And when will you expect this business to commercialize? Because organically also, we are in this business for the last six, seven years, and I don't think organically we are able to scale up. So why this confidence is suddenly coming into play?
... So I'll say two things. I think in terms of OpEx and CapEx, I don't have immediate numbers on hand, because what we've said is to start with the take this from the DLM, a significant majority of it, which was close to the outcome of that, was close to $100 million. So a significant majority of that will be deployed into the semiconductor business. So that's the first element. I'd say we'll start with this number, and then we will figure out the capital structure. Of course, this number is a decent number, especially I'll say it'll be mostly CapEx in the sense that it'll be towards acquisitions and organic, et cetera. Our own CapEx is already...
Much of it is already in place because a lot of the equipment, et cetera, that we need, we already have in Cyient, which will be transitioned. And beyond that, we really won't need any great amount of CapEx. So one is we'll start with this number and say, "Let's see what the," you know. The board has approved the $100 million outlay, close to a $100 million outlay, I'd say. Some of this money is also being used for debt repayment. But the board has approved it. So that's one element.
Now, the second element is, you know, if you look at why the business has not grown according to its potential, it's because the real value in this business is not just in the design, but it's in the design and supply of chips. And the supply of chips are something that has a very different cost equation, very different dynamics, not unlike what has happened in the past with the DLM business. So we believe that if we can run this as an independent business, our ability to take on a lot of these chip sales related deals, because a lot of times we've lost deals because we wouldn't take on the chip sales, or we put irrational margins when the market sees it from, the market sees it, we put irrational margins on chip sales.
All that can stop, and we can get a lot more aggressive with the design and sourcing of chips. So that's really the confidence that I'm getting on this business. Actually, in many ways, the chip, the turnkey ASIC business, the design and sourcing of chips is a business that's not very dissimilar to the DLM business with its economic time cycles, etc. Therefore, you know, we weren't able to really be aggressive and grow it in Cyient because that would have played havoc with our margins, with the lumpiness of the business, cyclicality, etc. But as an independent business, I'm very confident that we can grow much faster than what we've grown in the past.
Okay. Okay, and just the last question. In terms of any investments in this business, in terms of talent or some other OpEx, this year may not impact the Cyient EBIT margins, because we are already calling out 16% by Q4. But do you expect FY 2026 margin may get impacted because of this business being in an investment mode?
I would say not necessarily. I think there is a way to segregate this. When we say 16%... This year, you know, the investments that we'll make will be minimal, and I don't think it even makes sense to call them out. From next year, of course, the board, if you may recall, last quarter, I think during this quarter, like I said, the board also gave us permission or the approval, sorry, to create Cyient Semiconductors, which will be a separate step-down subsidiary. We will report those numbers in the step-down subsidiary. Again, we don't see any material impact, at least in the foreseeable future.
Okay, thanks, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask questions, you may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Vibhor Singhal from Nuvama Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to understand a bit more on the seasonality in the sustainability vertical that we have spoken of. Now, I went through the transcript for the last four years of our company. No one ever talked about any seasonality in Q2 before this. If you look at all the other companies, be it the IT services sector or the R&D segment, no one is talking about any kind of seasonality in Q2, either this time or before. So could you just help us understand what are these kind of clients? Because Europe as a geography is also quite your peers as well, and we've never heard about anything.
Vibhor, the line for you is not very clear. You might have to repeat your question, sir.
Yeah. You audible now?
It's a little better, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So, sorry for that. I was just trying to understand the seasonality that we spoke about in Q2 in the sustainability vertical. Now, I went through the transcript of the last four years of the company, and I couldn't find anything that we would have mentioned about the seasonality in the business ever before. Any of our peers in IT services or R&D, they haven't spoken about any kind of seasonality because of European holidays also, either this quarter or in Q2 before this as well. So could you just help us understand, what is the kind of clients that we are talking about, which are kind of dealing with this kind of seasonality? And will this be a recurring phenomenon going forward as well?
Vibhor, I'll start with that and also ask Prabhakar to chime in. So if you look at, we acquired this company called Citec way back in August 2022. So you might have seen it on a full year basis in that quarter, as much as what you are seeing now. Last year, as Krishna mentioned, we had a ramp-up of one of the projects, which is probably not given the impact of,
... the challenge that we had because of the holiday. So this is a very common thing for this business that we have heard in the last five years, how this business was run. So their best quarters has been Q3 and Q4 in the last five years, and Q2 has been seasonally weak because of the holiday season that is there in Europe. Any business which has a significant bias of countries like Finland, Norway, Germany, and France, and Sweden, I think you'll find that most of them have a significant vacation period between July to September. And that is something that we have seen that if you look at, we are not seeing at overall segment level, but the sustainability level, this business has a significant impact on the European side. So that's the reason why we are calling out this for that business unit.
Got it. Got it. So, yeah, sorry. You're welcome.
We have good customers for their strength. This is a seasonality coming in because, of let's say, the earlier influence of U.S., and we will talk about it in Q4, in Q3 typically. That people typically have to go on vacation, therefore we do not pursue in that period.
Got it. Got it. So basically, it's an, it's an acquired seasonality because of the Citec business?
Absolutely. Not a client-specific thing or industry-specific, it's basically geography-specific, vacation-specific seasonality. Not unlike what in December or whatever impact many companies have in the U.S. market.
Got it. And this will be a recurring phenomenon because Citec is now part of integrated completely. So we will have a softer Q2 because in the sustainability vertical specifically going forward as well.
This is what was forecasted by us earlier. We were aware of this even last year. That's why we also commented earlier on a softer H1 compared to H2 when we began this.
Got it. Got it. So going forward, we will have Europe seasonality in Q2 and U.S. seasonality in Q3. So two of the four quarters will have seasonally the impact, seasonality impacting our business, which we will have to mitigate through other methods.
And also, yes, but also it depends on what part of our business, right? Because sustainability has a large European on-site content, so that will impact in Q2. But if you look at large U.S. content, that is primarily aerospace and maybe a little bit of semiconductor. So, I mean, the reality is there will be seasonality if you look at it at a micro level, but at a macro level, you know, most of these things should iron out. I mean, that's the reason why we've worked quite hard at building this balanced portfolio, because then some of these things automatically get ironed out, and that's what we're going for. So yes, certain businesses and certain quarters will get impacted, but not necessarily overall in the business just because of the challenge that there is also in the business.
Got it. Just my second and my last question is on the auto vertical. I think, a lot of our peers have basically highlighted weakness in the tech spending in the auto vertical. We've heard of profit warnings by the likes of Mercedes and other OEMs as well. What is our reading of this macro development, and how are our clients talking about it? And what could be the potential impact on our auto vertical, subvertical, I would say, because of that in the coming quarters and let's say, for the next financial year?
Yeah. So Vibhor, I'll take this part. I think if you look at what we have started seeing in the automotive side, we said, we guided earlier saying that the growth will be led by silicon, software, and digital. And we are continuing to make progress on silicon as well as on the digital side, while software is something which is likely to have an impact in the medium term. And for the size of our business, we do feel that we'll continue to make progress, and we do expect the growth to continue for the rest of the year as well. For the next financial year, maybe give us another couple of quarters for us to give our view for the fiscal twenty-six.
Got it. I understand that for our size of business, the overall macro might not be challenged. But do you see the macro being a challenge, I mean, for an industry as overall? I mean, it might be more relevant for larger players which are more dependent on them. Do you see that, or do you see this could be a temporary blip and the auto industry could just come, they could possibly come back in maybe a few quarters time as well?
The actual auto industry goes through this every five years or about a year or a year and a half, and then they do recover. So I do see something which, should bounce back sometime next year. But having said that, this time, I think German companies are likely to see more pressures because of the competition from China, as well as lack of growth from the developed markets. I think that continue to, be a challenge, with electrification being challenged and people are going back to their diesel engine. And, how do you think this hybrid version is likely to take off?
I think there is a lot more concerns around the future of this industry and how will it take shape and what is going to be the future model in terms of alternative fuels and as well as the growth of volume that is going to be seen from various geographies. So there are multiple things at play, and there could be potential softness for the next three, four quarters, and hopefully it comes back by next year.
Okay, got it. Great, thank you so much for taking my questions, and I wish you all the best.
Thank you. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Krishna Bodanapu for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you very much, and thank you for making the time this evening. As we spoke about in the presentation and the Q&A, we're quite excited about a lot of things that are happening. I would summarize that on three buckets. The first bucket is, of course, the revenue. The revenue growth is top of mind for all of us, and associated with it is margin. As we reiterated, I think the second half continues to look much better than the first half. We are quite confident of the outlook that we gave, the flattish for the year outlook, with the 15% exit margin.
We believe that a few things are coming back into line, which will help us just bring back stability and, and more importantly, bring back growth as revenue and, and bring stability at the margin level. So that's the first bucket. On the second piece, the investments that we're making are also playing out. Semiconductor is a very important sector. It's going through an inflection point, and I believe we're going to position ourselves very strongly in this inflection point to take advantage of the growth in the investments that are going to happen in this sector. Similarly, energy is a very important sector. We spoke a little bit about our acquisition of Citec in England about twenty-four months ago. Citec is now fully integrated into Cyient.
We're delivering a lot of value there, and we believe that we will also deliver some very good value into the Middle East market. So all these things will really help with the, perhaps not with the immediate growth, but definitely with the medium to short, medium time. You know, a couple of quarters will start seeing the outcome of a number of these and a lot of other initiatives that we've highlighted to you and updated you in the past. The third thing, which we didn't talk about, is the strength of the balance sheet. One is, of course, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet in terms of how we're audited, et cetera, et cetera. But more importantly, this quarter also, we cleaned out all the debt.
We had $94 billion of debt after the acquisition of Citec. And purely from organic cash generation in the last eighteen months, we were able to clean out that debt. Of course, we took some money from the DLM acquisition, but that's only a stopgap just on how we manage our investments in cash flows. So I also am very happy to report that there's a very strong balance sheet in place. And now for us to, again, perhaps lever up and perhaps do even more acquisitions, well, we will definitely do more acquisitions and perhaps lever up to do those acquisitions. The dry powder and the financial muscle and wherewithal that we have is significantly higher.
So on all these three counts, the gearing now of revenue and growth, the strategic investments that we're making and the strength of the balance sheet, gives me immense confidence that we're gonna see some very good quarters ahead of us. With that, thank you very much for your support as always. Thanks for the great questions, and we'll again speak in about a quarter or so. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect the line.