Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 FY25 conference call of L&T Technology Services Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. 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 0 on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pinku Pappan, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Pappan.
Thank you, Darwin. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the earnings call of L&T Technology Services for the first quarter of FY 25. I'm Pinku, heading Investor Relations. Our financial results, investor release, and press release have been filed on the stock exchanges and are also available on our website, www.ltts.com. I hope you have had a chance to go through them. This call is for 60 minutes. We will try to wrap up the management remarks in 20 minutes and then open up for Q&A. The audio recording of this call would be available on our website approximately 1 hour after this call ends. With that, let me introduce the leadership team present on this call today. We have Amit Chadha, CEO and MD; Abhishek, Executive Director and President; Alind Saxena, Executive Director and President; and Rajeev Gupta, CFO.
We will begin with Amit providing an overview of the company performance and outlook, followed by Rajeev, who will walk you through the financial statements and performance. Let me now turn the call over to you, Amit.
Sure. Thank you, Pinku, and thank you all for joining us on the call today. Let me provide you a few highlights of our Q1 performance. In USD terms, our revenue went up 6% year-on-year. Due on account of SWC seasonality, it declined by 3% quarter-on-quarter, in line with what we had guided last quarter. Large deal wins have been healthy, with two $30 million wins, two $15 million wins, three deals that are more than $10 million in the quarter. Additionally, we also got a significant empowerment in this quarter. In order to prioritize growth, we've made investments in sales and technology under our Go Deeper to Scale strategy. Our trajectory on both revenue and margins from this quarter on will be upwards.
Before I do the segmental outlook, which I normally do, I would like to report some progress on AI, because we have done some investments, and I have talked to you often about this. In AI, we have filed a record 61 patents till date across segments in transportation, medical, and industrial products. We are collaborating with NVIDIA in medical, AWS for transportation, and Google for multiple segments. We have launched six solutions in the last quarter alone in GenAI for driver experience, AnnotAI for autonomous driving, AiCE and AiCH for medical QARA, and Secure AI, which is cross-segmental. Some of these have been implemented for clients in production environments. We continue to remain focused on enhancing our solutions on AI, in the software-defined development life cycle, as well as product development life cycle, and test automation and process automation. AI has finally become a revenue generator.
We have won 2 significant empowerment deals, one with a Middle Eastern oil-based oil head customer, and a second with an auto major in Europe, and both are showing a lot of interest in ramping up with us. We are also seeing increased interest and traction in this area, and the pipeline is significantly higher than 2 quarters ago, last quarter in this area. With that, let me provide a segmental performance and outlook. Mobility is now a $400 million run rate segment for us. Our growth of 6%+ was the strongest in the last 6 quarters, driven by auto and followed by commercial vehicles and aero. As you know, we have been investing in EV, hybridization, vehicle engineering, and software-defined vehicles. Our Q1 performance was a result of deals across all these areas.
In total, we won 3 large deals in mobility, one $30 million, two $15 million, across OEMs and Tier 1s. While EV opportunities continue, the shift, the spends are shifting to SDV. We are accelerating our SDx competencies and building a proprietary framework. Some of these components are already ready and implemented, and others will be ready later this year. The deals we have won in SDV is helping us to open new engagements and deeper collaboration with OEMs and Tier 1s. In commercial vehicles, EV continues to be a strong growth area, while in aero, we are seeing large deal opportunities in avionics equipment development. Overall, looking at the pipeline, the deals we have already won and order backlog, we expect the growth momentum in mobility to continue in the coming quarters.
Moving on to sustainability, we had strong growth in the subsegment plant engineering, which is firing on all cylinders, led by new CapEx projects, spend on plant modernization and Digital Twin. The growth in this subsegment, the plant engineering subsegment, helped us notch a slight growth on year-on-year basis, offsetting a decline in the industrial subsegment. Customers are looking to do more offshoring, and our model of establishing high-value engineering centers is helping us capitalize on this opportunity and win deals. In the industrial subsegment, the supply chain inventory is at an all-time high for many of our customers, leading to a dip in spending and budgets. In addition, deal decision-making delays led to large deals getting pushed, because of which we saw the quarter-on-quarter decline. We are investing in asset management solutions, in variable speed motors, in drives and controls.
This will be the next engine of growth for industrials, in addition to AI-led digital manufacturing solutions. We have won a $30 million deal in digital manufacturing with a North American OEM, which will ramp up in Q2. We believe that the worst is over for this subsegment and expect sustainability as a segment will get back to a growth path from next quarter onwards. Finally, high tech. We had good growth in the Semicon subsegment. We see strong demand from customers for AI chip design, and we have signed up COEs for post-silicon activities. In Semicon, we are building differentiated capabilities and are executing programs in next gen advanced chipsets. In the medical subsegment, we are seeing customers spend on sustenance engineering, QARA, value analysis and value engineering, digital manufacturing solutions for operational excellence. We are investing in building a patient experience platform and GenAI-based accelerators for QARA.
In the comms and media subsegment, our performance was impacted by the seasonality in the SWC business and a few one-timer programs that ended in Q4 in the North America Telecom. Customers are looking for cost optimization and more software, and AI-based solutions are improving network operations. In the ISE subsegment, we are investing in an AI build-out for the software development life cycle for continuous integration, continuous development, targeting hyperscalers and software platform companies. We see multiple large deals in play across Telecom, Semicon, ISV and MedTech, and gives us the confidence of growth for high tech rebounding from Q2 onwards. Now, a few highlights on our technology and innovation charter. Our engineers continue to innovate. We have total of 47 patent filings in Q1, and our cumulative filings now stand at 1,343.
We've been rated as a leader in the Everest connected product services assessment across product engineering, embedded engineering, and design engineering. With that, let me now discuss our outlook. I'm encouraged by our pipeline that's 2x of last year, with deals across segments and more $40 million-$50 million deals than earlier, and slated to close in the next two quarters. Customer spend is broadly focused on consolidation, cost optimization, leveraging AI and advanced technologies, leading to efficiencies and faster go-to-market. We are comfortable with our guidance of 8%-10% revenue growth. We see growth in all the three quarters ahead and expect H2 to be better than H1. Our aspiration of $1.5 billion continues. Before I end, I would like to announce that we plan to host an investor and analyst day on August twenty-ninth in Bangalore.
We will provide additional details in the coming days. Pinku will get in touch with you. That said, thank you so much. I'll be around for questions and hand it over to Rajeev. Rajeev?
Thank you, Amit. Good evening, and hope you all are doing well. Let me start by saying that this has been a quarter in line with what we had guided for FY 25. Also, to highlight a few points on Q1 FY 25 revenue and margins, they had an effect of seasonality of our Smart World business, investments in strengthening leadership on account of reorganization to Go Deeper to Scale and prioritize for growth, and building specific solutions for segments and horizontals, in particular, like software-defined everything, AI, GenAI, Digital Manufacturing Labs, and asset health platform. With that said, let me now take you through Q1 FY 25 financials, starting with the P&L. Our revenue for the quarter was INR 2,462 crores, a decline of 3% on sequential basis, mainly coming from seasonality effect of our Smart World business.
Our year-on-year growth came in at 7%. Our EBIT margin for the quarter came in at 16.6%, in line with the aspiration of 16% level for FY 2025. Moving to below EBIT, talking about other income. Other income was INR 49 crore, slightly higher on sequential basis due to our continued efforts of consolidation of facilities. Our effective tax rate for Q1 was at 27.4%, within our expected range of 27.5%. Our net income for the quarter was up by 0.8% on year-on-year basis and came in at INR 314 crore, which is 12.7% of revenue. Moving to balance sheet, let me first highlight that the reorganization was implemented by middle of the quarter and has now stabilized.
This resulted in rebalancing of portfolio, leading to delayed invoicing and collection moving into next quarter. In addition, we saw an impact of delayed collections in our Smart World business due to the general election. We believe this will stabilize in quarter two. Now let me highlight the key balance sheet items. Our quarter one DSO was at 102 days compared to 100 days in Q4. Unbilled days at 23 in Q1, compared to 14 days in quarter four. The combined DSO, including unbilled, stood at 125 days compared to 114 days in quarter four, which is within our target range of 115-125 days for the year. Consequently, our free cash flow came in -INR 89 crore.
Our cash and investments stood at INR 2,784 crore at the end of Q1 versus INR 2,883 crore end of quarter four. Moving to revenue metrics. In dollar terms, we reported revenues at $295 million as compared to $305 million in Q4, which is a decline of 3.3% in reported terms and 3.1% on constant currency basis. Now moving to operational metrics. The on-site offshore mix improved more towards offshore compared to Q4. Offshore percentage now stands at 58.9%. Our aspiration is to improve offshore ratio to 60%. Client profile, which indicates number of million-dollar-plus accounts, has shown a sequential improvement in the $30 million and $5 million-plus category. The client profile will continue to improve in the coming quarters.
Client contribution to revenue has shown an improvement in the top 20 categories as compared to quarter four. We expect revenue from top customers to improve going forward as we are running targeted programs with our strategic clients. Headcount came in at 23,577 in quarter four, compared to 23,812 in quarter four, while attrition was stable at 14.8% in quarter one. Realized rupee for quarter one was around 83.4 to the dollar, a depreciation of 0.3% compared to quarter four. Before I conclude, let me give some visibility on EBIT margin trajectory going forward. Our operating playbook continues to provide opportunities for margin improvements through levers like quality of revenue, offshoring, and perimeter optimization. With the current environment and our revenue outlook, we see EBIT margin trajectory in H2 to be better than H1.
Amit already highlighted in his commentary that we are pivoting on revenue growth. I reiterate that we maintain our EBIT aspiration of 16% levels in FY 2025. Thank you. With that, now I hand it over to the moderator for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Manik Taneja from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to probe you with regards to the margin outlook. If you could first of all, give us a sense of the hiring outlook for the year as well as the wage hike we expect for the year and also as well on the segmental margins, especially in verticals like high tech and mobility. Thank you.
So I will break up the question here. So you talked about hiring outlook. Talked about, margin outlook.
Wage hikes for the year, and also, if you could talk about puts and takes for the segmental margin performance across different industries.
Okay. Segmental margin. So segmental margins. So what I will do is, let me provide you hiring and wage, and then I'll request my colleague, Rajeev, to weigh in on the margin outlook and segmental margins. So as far as we're concerned, we continue to recruit actively, freshers as well as laterals. Having said that, there are two things that we are seeing in our business. Number 1, we are seeing automation, so that straight line impact of headcount to revenue is slightly changing, right?
So, as you see mobility increase, you saw, you know, quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year, you saw the others increase. But if I... Plant engineering is expanded as a sub-segment, quarter-on-quarter itself. The others, some of the others, medical expanded as a sub-segment, quarter-on-quarter. But the headcount went down about 300 people. I would not worry about it because we are leveraging more from the same team, A. B, we are continuing to optimize and reduce management layers with this new segmentation that we have done, number two. Number three, there is the performance appraisals that we have done, and we will be, you know, for every year where we do some kind of HR action on the, on the performers, lower performers, we are doing that.
Having said that, you will see positive headcount coming in next quarter onwards, and for the entire year you will see an increase in headcount that will happen across the company as we move forward. We don't give exact numbers on laterals, but I want to confirm to you that about 1,800 offers to freshers have been made, and people will continue to join, and we will honor those letters just like last year. Now, in terms of wage hike, we are concluding the appraisal process. It's still not done. We expect to complete that in the next week or so, and then we will go ahead and provide increments for the year. For the purpose of your calculation, you can assume that these will come into effect from October.
Sorry?
Yeah. I can take the question on the margins, or rather the EBITDA by segment. So, mobility as a segment, EBITDA is at 18.8%. Sustainability segment has an EBITDA of 27.1%, and high tech has an EBITDA of 12.6%. That's how we are now reporting into our new segment.
I mean, I looked at the headline numbers. I was just trying to understand the puts and takes on the margins on each of the industry verticals.
Could you clarify what you mean by puts and takes?
If you could talk about the different factors that have impacted margins for each of the industry segments?
So I will give you broad highlights. So in terms of mobility, of course, directionally, we saw large deals beginning in quarter one. So when I compare our EBITDA margin in Q1 for mobility at 18.8%, it came up slightly, largely because of the new deal that started off in Q1. When we look at sustainability, 27.1% compared to 28.8% in previous quarter, Amit did talk about the fact that look, client engineering continues to grow. Whereas we saw challenge on industrial products, but that's largely for a quarter, we should see it coming back. That's the major reason why you saw margin on sustainability come down. On the high tech side, 12.6% in Q1 compared to 15.6% EBITDA in quarter 4.
This is largely because of the seasonality of SWC business. We'll always mention that our SWC business has better traction in terms of revenue and margin in H2 compared to H1.
Sure. Thank you, and all the best for the future.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ravi Menon from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Could you talk a bit about, you know, what led to really good growth in Europe, and similarly in the U.S.? I mean, I wasn't aware that SWC has much exposure to Americas, but it looks like Americas had a sharp decline, so what's caused that?
Europe growth has been based on the deals we have been winning and the investments we have made in in Europe. As you're aware, we announced a deal with Tier 1, and that helped us there and has helped us expand Europe. Not just that one deal, we've been seeing expansion in our auto OEM as well as our industrial and plant engineering relationships, aerospace relationships that we have announced in the past. So all that combined, Europe has done very well for us, and we continue to be excited about the geography as it holds promise for the company and continues to accelerate. I do wanna confirm that Europe this year will grow faster than company outlook that we have provided.
Now, in terms of SWC, yes, there was a seasonality we spoke about, and there was a one-off program that ended in March for the same segment in the U.S., and therefore you see that decline quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, we have said. Having said that, we are pleased with the performance of Semicon that has finally turned around, and the capabilities that we have built in VLSI, Semicon design, RTL, PD, all of that is working out for us, including establishing, based on empanelments we had announced in the past on Semicon companies, they have ramped up for us. So that has worked out in our favor. I had also talked to you, if you remember, about two years ago, that we will make targeted efforts to get into hyperscalers.
I'm happy to share with you that a couple of these hyperscalers now are either almost $10 million or past $10 million run rate for us as accounts. We are truly looking at seeing as they continue to spend money on how we can expand that.
Great. Thanks so much for the detailed explanation. Just a follow-up on the V side. You know, we've heard about a Tier 1 German OEM, you know, restructuring that the software part of their business, you know, with about, I think, 1,400 layoffs, so are you expecting that there will be any impact due to that, or do you... Are you even a beneficiary of this?
So again, not getting into specifics because I don't know which Tier 1 you are talking about. There's a lot of Tier 1 action going on. So not getting into specifics, all I will say is that there are two or three things that are definitely happening in the auto industry. Number one, OEMs are pulling in software work in-house, and that means that instead of just integrating staff, they're building larger teams. Now, knock on wood, that's been positive for us, and we have expanded, we are expanding with the OEMs in Europe and the U.S., as well as the new age ones in California. So we continue to ramp up with them. As far as Tier 1s are concerned, there is restructuring.
There is a lot of these consolidation deals that are floating out there. Last quarter, we had one deal in Europe from a Tier 1, where we won a consolidation opportunity and gained market share over competition. And this quarter, again, there are opportunities that we are looking at. We have won one of them. There are others we are pursuing, and we'll see how we get up there. And therefore, I had mentioned that there are deals in Q2 and Q3 for closure, up for closure, that we are working closely on right now.
Thanks so much, and best of luck.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, you may please press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Karan Uppal from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So Amit, firstly, I want to check on the auto business. So one of the larger, one of your larger peer has mentioned about significant weakness in the European auto segment, due to pullback in the EV-related spends. Are you witnessing something like that?
Is that your only question, or you have others? And I sit together.
I have two more, so, I'll ask. So second is, on the Maharashtra government deal, the cybersecurity deal, which you had won. So when is that expected to ramp up? And the third question is on that $1.5 billion aspirational target. Is it still targeted for FY 2025, or are you pushing this to next year?
Let me start last question first, because it's close to our heart. Our $1.5 billion aspiration, aspirational run rate is a FY 2025 goal and aspiration and various things in play, we will see as to where we end up. Number two, on Maharashtra Cyber. So Maharashtra Cyber has ramped up. However, there are other deals that close, right? And that, therefore, that seasonality of Smart World comes in. And you will see Maharashtra Cyber ramping up over the next couple of quarters as well. But we are being judicious on the kind of deals that we pursue, and we win. Plus, there was an election cycle impact also on not just collection, like Rajeev mentioned, but also on order inflow. So we are working on that and seeing where we can work on.
Now in terms of auto. In EV space, the move, the work has changed from product development to value engineering. In fact, we are doing a tear down of various vehicles, without naming them, to see as to what can we learn on components, what can we learn on production techniques, manufacturing techniques, assembly techniques, and operation techniques, right? That we can then offer as suggestions and service offerings to our other customers. Having said that, some of these EV spends are getting replaced with extension of programs on ICE, software-defined vehicles on, for ICE vehicles as well as for EV and hybridization. Plus, there is a significant amount of discussion that we are doing now on modular 2029 for alternate fuel technologies as well. So am I worried about auto and EV at this stage?
What I will say is that we saw this about 3, 2 quarters ago, 2.5, 3 quarters ago, and we've been investing in the HGV area and the hybrid technologies area. In fact, the, the deal that we took over with, with the Tier 1 in Europe was in that direction to fortify our position. I'm happy to share it got certified. The center that we took over has got certified by other OEMs as well as by actually now aerospace customers who use the same skills. So, so I do believe that this will be a positive path forward, though we are cautious and watching as things develop.
But most importantly, and I'm sorry, I'm going to say this, for this last quarter as well, see, I do believe we have to invest because what was current today or yesterday will not be current tomorrow, and that is something that we'll continue to do on an ongoing basis.
Okay, thanks. Thanks for the detailed answer.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipesh from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Two questions. First, about the quarter one performance. Whether quarter one performance was in line with your expectation or weaker or better than expectation, and if you can highlight factors driving that difference. Second question is on slightly medium term. Now, if I look your segment, the way we now club three segments, there is a big variance in margin profile of all three segments. Can you help us understand how one should look from medium-term perspective, whether this gap to sustain or it will narrow down? And what factors likely to lead to that trajectory change? Thank you.
So look, the company is pivoting to revenue growth, right? And we had again shared this with you. We took your feedback, actually, and others' feedback and said we look to revenue growth. So Q1 was broadly in line with what we expected, and that's why we had said, you know, to you last quarter, it was rooted. But, you know, having said that, we would have got more, we would have done more. But having said that, it's in line with what we had said. But, it is upward and onward from, onward and upward from here. Rajeev?
So to answer your question on the medium-term outlook for the margins in each of the segments. So like you said, mobility and sustainability, they are on the higher side of the margin, and will continue to hold up well. On the high-tech side, like we said, high-tech includes a sub-segment, SmartWorld, MedTech, and Comms, Video, and Tech. SmartWorld, there is an impact of seasonality. We believe, you know, you will see that normalize as we go forward. MedTech is a sub-segment with high margin, right? Typically, that's been at about 30% levels, levels of margin. So we feel that the gap between mobility systems, between high-tech will narrow down. We will continue to run programs to also improve margins in the high-tech segment, and you will see that going forward.
Understand. So whether with this mix change, now, because you have a different, at least in near term, you are indicating different growth, prospect for each segment, and medium term, considering mobility showing, better trajectory, at least for near-term perspective, do you think this can have implication on the blended margin, or you think, broadly trajectory, expected improvement kind of trajectory across segments will not have any material impact because of mix change?
So, let me answer it this way. See, we've already shared the aspiration for FY 25 for overall EBIT margins to be at 16% levels. And in terms of the mix, I mean, we did see strong growth coming in mobility. We are seeing good growth in plant engineering. Of course, medical had, I mean, has shown growth in this quarter. We believe that will continue to show growth in the future quarters also. So while we've given aspirations for FY 25 to be at 16%, Amit talked about the IAD to happen end of August. We will come back and clarify to you our medium-term aspirations on EBIT. We definitely aspire to do better.
Our aspirations for FY 25 are more short term and near term, but I will certainly come back and clarify in the IAD on the medium-term outlook on EBIT margin.
Understand. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mihir Manohar from Carnelian Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for giving the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to understand what the seasonality impact of SWC is, if you can quantify both at the company level and second, also in the North America region. Because, you know, the I just wanted to understand what the underlying growth is after removing the seasonality impact of SWC. Second was, second question was just on the SDVs. I mean, you mentioned that you are signing a couple of SDVs. If you can, you know, provide some details as to what, I mean what kind of OEMs are this, and what size of or size of contracts are this, that will be helpful.
So why don't we answer the seasonality? Raju, can you, and I request you, the president, mobility and CMT, to answer the SDV one.
So let me take the first one in terms of, you know, the SWC margins and the impact on the overall that you mentioned about. Look, we don't provide, specific margins in terms of Smart World. We've mentioned that in the past as well. But what I can definitely let you understand is that, look, this is a project-based business, and it's fixed price in nature. So what happens is, typically when these projects get executed, they are milestone-based, right? As the milestones get achieved, there are contingencies as part of the margins that get released, right? Because we tend to bake that as part of our contingency, and that's how usually the projects get executed.
We feel that given the seasonality of Smart World business and more of revenue and margin in H2, this will normalize, right? So we wouldn't want to call that to be an effect that's more, you know, worrisome. It's more of just a quarter-on-quarter phenomenon. We saw very similar to the same phenomenon in FY 2024 as well. I'll hand it over to Alind in terms of the SDV part.
Hi. So, SDV is getting increased traction from our customers across the board. We have recently signed some deals with North American OEMs. We also have signed deals with tier ones in Europe. In fact, we had partly exhibited some of these solutions in CES as well earlier in the year. And we are working on solutions in the SDV space, which are AI-based, and we would be talking more about that in the forthcoming investor meets that we have going along. But it's a very broad-based concept that is touching. And outside of auto, we are also seeing tractions in some of our trucks and off-highway customers as well, which are in the earlier life cycle of implementation, and those are the ones that are increasing for us as well.
Sure. Sir, I mean, on the SWC side, I wanted to understand more on the, your revenue rather than the margins. I mean, also because when we, let me, I mean, if I rephrase my question: So, without considering the SWC seasonality, what would have been the growth, at the company level and at North America level? Hello?
Yeah. So, to respond to that, if you look at the SWC seasonality, that's what you see largely in India. Okay? And the India revenues.
On the U.S. part, I mentioned that there was, there was one program that was a one-off program that ended in March, and that is the impact you're seeing in North America.
Sure. Okay, sure. And just last question was on the guidance side. You know, guidance of 8%-10% still implies like 4%-6% kind of a growth, depending on the quarter. That appears to be quite steep. So just wanted to understand the assumptions and the logic that we are building behind of, maintaining the guidance at 8%-10%?
Okay, so three components here. A certain part of the guidance that we have will get covered based on the backlog. A significant part gets covered based on the backlog that we have. There is a part of the guidance that will get covered by the deals that we will win. Okay? So, so that's where we are on that. Having said that, like I said, our pipeline is about 2x what it was same time last year. Our TCV wins have been higher than what they were earlier. And given the fact that it's a much bigger pipeline and we know decision-making of a number of our $50 million deals, $25 million deals, $40 million deals, will happen in the next, say, 8 to 12 weeks, it will swing us in a direction.
Having said that, I'm confirming that we are fairly comfortable with where, what we have stated as guidance. If you remember, we also had an uphill task in quarter four of last year, and we did deliver. So we are cognizant of that and working towards it as a team.
Sure, yeah. That's it for my side, yeah. Best of luck.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhishek Bhandari from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yes, Abhishek-
Sorry to interrupt, Abhishek, but the line for you is not clear.
Is it better now?
Yes, this is better. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you. So, Rajeev and Amit, you know, just want small clarifications. When you say, you know, $1.5 billion run rate in, some quarter of FY 2025, does it include any inorganic, you know, numbers, because otherwise, you know, from a base, from $300 million what you started in Q1 $297, you know, the growth numbers are actually out of sync of your 8%-10%, you know, guidance for FY 2025?
Very valid question. Of course, it does bake in inorganic means. If you remember, we had shared with you earlier that also that we have created a separate separate M&A section in the company, and there are various prospects that we continue to look at and continue to engage with. So you should assume that there will be an inorganic action between now and end of the year, and we are working hard to see diligently as to what is reasonable for us to pick up at a reasonable valuation. And that actually lines up with our strategy of automotive Europe, ISV, hyperscalers in North America, and medical in North America. These are the only three areas we are looking at.
We again have reiterated in the past, and I will say it again, if we, if we don't, if we don't have anything in this area, we will not acquire, A. B, we will not acquire at unreasonable sums and multiples. C, we will acquire for capability, not for market, because we have the market reach. So we'll do it for a combination of factors that are strategic to us. And yes, I'm confirming that there is inorganic action that is in play in the company, and we'll see what happens. But these are, you know, ongoing discussions at any given time.
Got it, Amit. Amit, one, you know, follow-up to previous Mihir's questions. O n the breakdown you gave around, the elements breaking, the building elements to 8%-10% guidance for FY 2025. This is the, you know, deals what you've already won at the end of Q1. Would you say, you know, 60%-70% of, you know, whatever number that is, of the growth number is already in pocket, and the remaining would be the work in progress for the remaining nine months?
So see, like I said, a considerable part of the guidance is already backlogged into the company. But there are deals that we have to work on. We have just started quarter one. I'm confirming one thing that you should take away: We will grow every quarter here on, top line and bottom line. Allow me a little leeway, if you can. I hope that given our credibility with you and what we delivered to you in quarter four and met what we had told you, allow me some time, and we will come back, and we will keep on updating you.
In fact, one of the things we are working on now, which we haven't done in the past, and I will admit that as our learning, we don't do a lot of these press releases on what we win. We do a lot of them done in stealth mode. You will see more press releases coming out on our wins, as well as our partnerships as we go forward in the next few weeks, and that should give you an indication of progression in the company and the pivot that we are doing on a growth trajectory.
Got it. Last question, Amit. , there are chatters around, you know, a possible, you know, macro improvement maybe after the rate cut cycle begins in U.S. and, U.S. election ends sometime in November. You know, the question on that is, you know, how much of our business is, you know, is discretionary or, you know, dependent on tailwind from these kind of things? Do you think there could be a meaningful lift, both in terms of client conversations leading to, you know, higher deals and, certain, growth improvement because of that?
Okay. So see, what we are definitely seeing is that, like I said, pipeline at 2X, a significant part of that is actually equally divided into proactive deals and reactive deals. Reactive is where the client issues on RFP, but proactive is what we pitch, right? The one predominant thing people are interested in is cost conservation, reducing their costs, as well as cash conservation if they can, and third is around getting to market faster. When we go to people with AI technology, et cetera, they come back and say, "Tell us the value this will create. Will it reduce headcount? Will it increase, improve market reach? Will it improve my customer experience and therefore improve my sales? What will it do?" Right? And that's where we are right now. Any cycle to turn takes time.
If you ask me, reasonably speaking, the guidance we have given you is baking in a little bit of everything. But if there is a lift-off, like you are talking about, and a complete change in segment and people start spending money in big numbers, of course, the guidance will improve and change. But at this stage, we are not factoring in big lift-offs. I think by the time it has an impact into engineering, you will see, I mean, if something changes immediately, you will see an impact in, our, you know, calendar year or next year. But the good part is that a number of programs that we work on are actually model years and work done for future years. So, that's where we are.
Got it. Thanks, Amit, and look forward to catching up on the Analyst Day.
Yes.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I'm sure this is asked in a different way already, but just trying to understand that, generally the confidence that you are emanating is coming from the deals you have won, what you see in the pipeline and stuff like that. So in general view, in terms of how timely are you seeing these deals, ramping up from signing period, are these, back to the way it used to be historically? And do you think, the guidance range, should be more seems skewed toward the lower end this point, or you think it is equal possibility, through the range?
I'm so sorry. Can you repeat your question? Because there's a problem on here.
Yeah. Okay. So what I was saying is that, you know, if you could say that, what is the general, you know, ramp-up that we are seeing in our deal? Is it from signing to ramp, signing to ramping up, is it normalized it, the way it used to be, or you're seeing some bit of changes in that? And secondly, at this point, you think guidance range is equally skewed to the entire band, or it's more towards the lower end at this point?
So if I look at, say, take the example on deals where everything is, everyone is different, right? If I take the example of Maharashtra Cyber, right? That ramped up early on in its life, as we had talked about, and started off immediately. Forvia, which we announced, right, also ramped up immediately in two parts, first, Bangalore and then, Germany. We, if you remember, we announced OEM deals in SDV. Those have taken a little bit longer to ramp up and are ramping up right now as we speak. So it is not one size fits all. Deals are being signed, and then they are being ramped up. It depends of the specific situation of that customer, right? It's not even a segmental thing, I should tell you, right?
It's on the health of that customer and the need of that customer. But clearly, if we are not able to show how will it address in our top line or bottom line or market access point, they are not interested in doing the deal. Okay? Now, in terms of guidance, look, I will maintain that 8-10 band right now, and leave it there for now, and we'll continue to update you as we move forward. But there is work to be done in the year for sure. Otherwise, we would consider the year is closed and we'll be in April.
Sure. Great. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manik Taneja from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the call and opportunity. Just wanted to check back on your, on your comments a few months back when you had spoken about spring and then summer coming in. In that context, how should one be assessing our Q1 performance and, have you had some negative surprises in that, in that backdrop?
So in the same backdrop, my comment now is upward, onward and upward, if that helps you.
Okay. So did the Q1 performance come as a negative surprise to you?
No, it did not. Like I said, I answered this question earlier, I'll repeat myself. Look, listen, we knew the seasonality that was gonna come in, Smart World. If you look at our restated results of FY 2024, 2023.
24.
No, we, we did, definitely at this point. FY 2023 we restated. So FY 2023, please look at the restated results and look at FY 2024, and you will see that there was a seasonality from Q4 to Q1 that time as well, the same one. The only difference this time is that the pipeline is 2x to what it was last time, and. Because the pipeline is too wide, there's a lot more decision to be made and taken in the next 12 weeks, which was not the case. The pipeline was half at that time. As you remember, we ran the G 45 program. We continuously run the large deals program, and that has helped us in terms of showing up the pipeline and discussions.
In addition to that, the play in AI, we are having to put in AI in a lot of bids that we are making right now that is on consolidation. So with all that, it is a different time, and like one of your colleagues earlier said as well, that with the market easing up, we do believe that we are in a much better place.
Sorry to interrupt you further. With regards to the India domestic deal that you won with one of those PSU departments, if you could help us understand the typical trajectory for that business, and should we probably be seeing a significant bump up in second quarter, given Q1 also had an impact of elections in India?
Yes, we said that, H2 for Smart World is better than H1, and that's how they operate and we operate in a Smart World. You will see that lift off happening in H2, in that business as opposed to H1. Rest of the heritage business will continue to see increase in Q2 onwards.
Thank you.
Thank you. As it did in Q1. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mayank Babla from Enam Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted your view on, one aspect. So given the upcoming elections, I remember the last time there were certain curbs, on China, there was, certain revenue impact in our client. So, given that, you know, there are a lot of news articles about this, you know, upcoming curbs, can this be a potential source of, risk for us?
So at this stage, we are closely monitoring the situation. But I, to my mind, don't think there will be a revenue impact from the elections or plus-minus from China. I think what we will see is, as consumption patterns change and as different opportunities come up, we will see that the deployment of the technology solution we have built will help us in winning more market share, and that is what I would take as a positive as opposed to a negative.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Sure. Thanks. That's all from my side. Best of luck.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipesh from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Just one clarification. I think in earlier questions answer, you mentioned about M&A is part of the guidance working. Whether it is for the $1.5 billion aspiration or even for 8 to 10, we consider some of the contribution from M&A, because last time you indicated for $1.5 billion, not for 8 to 10. So just want to get that clarified.
No, no, absolutely. You're absolutely right. 8-10 constant currency is organic growth guidance, and the 1.5 aspiration includes M&A. The 8%-10% organic does not.
Understood. And the focus area, which you said for M&A, if you can provide some more color and more detail in terms of what specific area you are looking for, because auto in Europe is a very wide. Similarly, ISV, if you can provide some more detail around it.
Sure, Rajeev.
So, let me take that. While Amit did provide color on that, so there are three areas we want to build , our M&A capability into. One is, of course, on the auto side in Europe. Now, particularly, this is in the newest technologies like ADV, all of these factors, right? And the reason Europe is, of course, it gives us a lot more market breadth within that region. ISV hyperscalers in North America, and rightfully so, because we see a lot of spend pattern developing in those, you know, companies. And third, MedTech, because we feel there's a good opportunity, right? Medical has been a strong focus for us. We are looking to build more solutioning on the healthcare side and hence on the MedTech side, right?
We will continue to look for the right level of targets to help us scale these capabilities.
Any sense on, comfort range or something around that?
See, in terms of the ticket size, I mean, we are open to look at anything that could range from $50 million to about $150 million. That's the range. Of course, we do have thresholds. They should be at right levels of margin so that we do not dilute the overall company level margins. Of course, we need to come at right levels of valuation so that we are going to be able to make it value accretive for our stakeholders.
The range you said is for consideration, right, rather than revenue?
For revenue.
Revenue. Okay, thanks.
Thank you. That would be our last question for today, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Pinku Pappan for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you all for joining us on the call today. We hope we were able to answer most of your questions, and if there are any follow-ups, I'd be happy to address them. With that, we are signing off, and I look forward to meeting, you know, some of you through the quarter. Have a good day and good evening. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of L&T Technology Services Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect.