Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 FY2026 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 zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sandesh Naik, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Naik.
Thank you, Darwin. Good evening. Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year. I am Sandesh, and welcome you all to the earnings call of L&T Technology Services for the third quarter of FY2026. 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've 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 will be available on our website about an hour after the call ends. With that, let me introduce you to the leadership team present on this call. We have with us Amit Chadha, CEO and MD, 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 performance. I now invite Amit for his opening remarks.
Perfect. I hope I'm clear.
So you're clear, yes.
Excellent. Perfect. Thank you so much, and thank you, Sandesh. Wishing everybody on this call a very, very happy and prosperous New Year, a very happy Pongal, happy Sankranti, and a happy Lohri. That said, in Q3, we've had multiple conversations with clients, including hosting our fourth advisory council in MIT Media Lab in Boston. Based on our interactions, we believe CY2026 holds promise as macro situation improves and demand, particularly in new age technology areas, continues to strengthen. This is also reflected in our large deal pipeline and closures. In preparation of our LTTS five-year strategy starting FY2027, we have used the past quarter to reevaluate market trends, consult with clients on their spending priorities, and potential high-growth profit pools.
Based on these insights, we are taking decisive actions for delivering full-stack Engineering Intelligence (EI) solutions, trying to become the first company worldwide in EI solutions, reassess our regional focus and offerings, which are not in line with our five-year Lakshya roadmap. In Q3, we have therefore deliberately improved our quality of revenue in line with this strategy. Therefore, this and other factors have reflected in a 120 basis points improvement quarter -on -quarter, with Q3 EBIT margins at 14.6%. Rajeev will share more details in his commentary. Now, let me provide the key highlights on our Q3 performance. Revenue of $326 million grew 4.6% annually, while we degrew 3.2% sequentially as we rebalanced our portfolio towards futuristic technologies to serve our customers and tap into market potential. Sustainability continued its double-digit year-on-year growth momentum, while mobility showed early signs of improvement despite a seasonally weak and slow quarter.
Our large deal wins came in at a healthy TCV of $180 million in the quarter. It is the fifth straight quarter where we have maintained this TCV trajectory. Now, let me provide our segmental performance and outlook. Mobility. Despite being a furlough quarter, mobility showed modest uptick. 50% of our large deal wins in Q3 were in the mobility segment. Our aero and rail subsegment has shown growth sequentially, while traction of highway was slightly subdued. The auto subsegment turned the corner and is seeing positive traction. We won a large multimillion-dollar engagement from a global luxury OEM covering infotainment system engineering across multiple product domains and assessment and assurance of telematic modules. We signed a multi-year agreement focused on engineering the next generation of AI-powered premium connected and intelligent marine experience.
We are accelerating software-defined vehicle offerings by incorporating advanced EI capabilities in the software lifecycle and product development. This is enhancing the overall product experience for end customers. In fact, happy to share that we've been rated in the top two in SDV in the last two weeks, and we'll share the report with you in a short while. From a geo perspective, the U.S. market is positioned for a recovery after several quarters of slowdown in spends, with increased investments, particularly in SDV technology. Europe's focus is shifting towards low-cost countries and strategic partnerships. Investments for new vehicle models are deferred, while cost optimization remains a priority. We are well positioned to be the net beneficiary of these opportunities, as demonstrated by the recent large deal win from the region. New model launches by OEMs in Japan indicate growth opportunities, and we are seeing steady wins.
80% of the revenue in mobility is now predominantly from OEMs, as compared to 20% from them a few years ago, ensuring greater stability in our client revenue mix. And if you remember, this was one of the factors that we were a little worried about till now. The pipeline remains robust, with multiple deal conversions happening in auto, T&OH, aero, and rail. In summary, the mobility segment is witnessing green shoots, and we expect to see continued growth momentum in CY2026 due to better ramp-up on large deals. Coming to sustainability, the sustainability segment grew 11.4% year-on-year and quarterly, reflecting steady demand and execution strength in the deals we have won in the last few quarters. The industrial subsegment is benefiting from our EI solutions, which combine digital automation, AI-powered platforms across PDLC offerings for our clients.
The energy and automation and industrial machinery sectors continue to see good demand, with a strong pipeline and asset management in large deals. Of the $100 million deal announced last quarter, we are steadily ramping up and going as per plan, leveraging our EI portfolio to support the client across new product development and platform automation. In plant engineering, demand continues across O&G and CPG for CapEx projects and ongoing spends on digital and modernization of legacy plants. In India, we are also seeing demand from the chemical industry. We were chosen by an Australian enterprise to establish a high-value engineering center focused on engineering and digital technologies in a multi-year engagement. We further expanded our partnership with a leading global energy company to enhance information management and existing assets, including document data management for its capital projects, leveraging AI NLP solutions.
Re-industrialization in the U.S. and pharma companies setting up plants domestically will create significant opportunity for the sustainability segment. We expect growth momentum in the sustainability segment to continue across industrial plant due to ramp-up in large deals and a strong pipeline. Moving on to tech, the AI investments that we have made have been validated by recent client spending, and we are doubling down our focus on AI EI solutions that will help us scale. As I mentioned earlier, we have recalibrated our business in the segment to ensure that we put our attention to future technologies that will offer higher profitable growth. The MedTech subsegment is rapidly evolving with strong focus on design-led offerings, resulting in execution of more high-end and high-margin work for our clients.
We have seen steady growth in our semiconductor accounts and have also entered into a multi-year engagement with a leading global Semicon platform provider to consolidate advanced lab support operations. Deals that we had won in previous quarters in the telecom subsegment have been steadily ramping up. In the MedTech subsegment, we are seeing healthy demand across all geographies. LTTS secured a new multi-year deal with a leading medical device manufacturer to deliver comprehensive product development engineering services in the cardiopulmonary segment. We expect MedTech to grow in CY2026, leveraging AI EI solutions across digital manufacturing, sustenance engineering, and QA. The software and platform subsegment, which includes Intelliswift, has provided us a platform to leverage our engineering intelligence framework for data-driven intelligence and automation and data science and data engineering. Intelliswift is on plan to deliver as envisaged.
We have received a large impanelment from a hyperscaler and expect that to start ramping up Q1 onwards. In SWC, we have been working on Fusion World AI solution, an AI-based computer vision operating platform for smart spaces, which is seeing traction among customers internationally. We recently deployed the solution for a smart campus project in India and are also making bids in exciting areas, including data center programs across North America. Finally, let me share a few updates on our technology and innovation chart. Our suite of AI offerings are evolving with the launch of new agentic AI platforms as we pivot from AI artificial intelligence to delivering full-stack engineering intelligence or EI solutions for our clients' product and manufacturing lifecycles. We have filed 229 patents in AI and GenAI alone, while our overall patent count is 1,655 this quarter.
We have moved AI from pilots to production-grade deployments across engineering, manufacturing, mobility, and MedTech , with AI now embedded across PDLC, SDLC, embedded systems, IT-OT, and manufacturing workflows. For our clients, we are doing multiple programs leveraging NVIDIA Omniverse platform to develop and accelerate AI-powered solutions focused on digital twins, medical technology, and industrial digitization. We have built Agentic IQ, a scalable enterprise-ready platform enabling rapid creation, orchestration, deployment, monitoring, and governance of AI agents across engineering lifecycle, positioning LTTS beyond point AI solutions into platform-led value creation. 30% of our workforce is already trained in AI, with plans to reach near universal AI literacy within the next three quarters, ensuring delivery capability and capacity keeps pace with client demand. Overall, the macro environment has started looking positive, with revival and deal-related conversations across all segments.
As we pivot to a full-stack engineering intelligence provider, we see more headroom for proactive deal structuring opportunities. This will give us the ability to offer an integrated suite of AI-led solutions to our customers in areas like digital manufacturing, software product engineering, engineering analytics, and new product development. Talking about outlook, let me reiterate our emphasis on shareholder value creation. As I mentioned earlier, we have made a conscious decision during the quarter on discontinuing select regional and technology offerings.
This is evident in our results, reflected in a 120 basis points QoQ improvement with Q3 EBIT margins at 14.6%. With these developments in mind, we are guiding for mid-single overall growth in FY2026. Meanwhile, our focus business areas will see a double-digit growth in the same period. I thank you for your continued guidance and support. I would now hand over the call to Rajeev for further updates. Thank you.
Thank you, Amit. Wishing you and your families a very happy New Year. I will start with the key highlights for quarter three FY2026. Our sustained focus on building strong pipeline and going deeper to scale strategies help in large deal wins, resulting in an average TCV of $200 million for five consecutive quarters. Sustainability, our highest margin segment, grew both in revenue and margins, while mobility saw slight growth in a seasonally weak quarter. Q3 FY2026 saw a boost of 200 basis points in gross margin on a sequential basis, largely due to improved quality of revenue and operational efficiencies, discontinuation of strategic support provided in the past few quarters, and Rupee depreciation during the quarter.
With that, moving to quarter three FY2026 financials, starting with the P&L, our revenue for the quarter came in at INR 2,924 crores, a growth of 10.2% year-on-year, down 1.9% on a sequential basis. EBIT margins for the quarter came to 14.6%, an improvement of 120 basis points over the previous quarter. Other income was INR 18.4 crores, sequentially lower due to USD appreciation compared to INR and asset transfers pertaining to closure of client projects. Effective tax rate for quarter three came in at 26%, showing an improvement from previous quarters by 50 basis points. We expect ETR to be in the range of 26.5%-27% for the year, showing an improvement relative to previous year. Net income for the quarter came in at INR 329.1 crores, at 11.3% of revenue. I would like to also highlight the impact of new wage codes.
The impact of new labor codes is treated as one-time exceptional item, amounting to INR 35.4 crores, net of tax at INR 26.5 crores. Over the past few years, we've been consciously working towards improving the basic salary component in line with new wage codes, resulting in relatively lower liability. Talking about the balance sheet, let me highlight key line items. The combined DSO came in at 112 days compared to 114 days in Q2. This is within the target range of 110 - 115 days and expected to improve further. The bill DSO also improved to 91 days as compared to 94 days in quarter two. Our free cash flows improved further over the quarter to INR 470 crores due to consistent collection efforts, leading to year-to-date free cash flows at INR 886 crores, which is a healthy free cash flow ratio of 91% over net income.
Cash and investments stood at INR 3,160 crores at the end of quarter three versus INR 2,883 crores at the end of quarter two. With respect to revenue metrics in dollar terms, we reported revenue of $326.3 million as compared to $337.1 million in quarter two, a growth of 4.6% on YoY basis, while a decline of 3.2% on sequential basis. The decline in Q3 revenues on account of being selective on revenue portfolio of offerings and regions in line with our upcoming five-year strategy plan. Talking about segments, mobility segment margins for quarter three came in at 14.8%, flat compared to previous quarter, and this is despite furloughs. Mobility revenues will show growth in coming quarters, with the environment now showing improvement in the automotive sector, along with sustained growth in rail and rail subsegments. This will lead to improvement in overall mobility margins from here on.
Sustainability segment further improved in margins to come in at 28.8%, higher by 70 basis points on sequential basis. The ramp-up of deal wins in previous quarters has led to improvement in quality of revenue and also margins, and this will continue to aid revenue growth and margins as we go into FY2027. Tech segment margins for the quarter came in at 10.6%, an improvement of 160 basis points over previous quarter. This is due to improvement in Intelliswift margins, discontinuation of strategic support to customers in the last few quarters, and the action taken on recalibration of portfolios and geographies to improve quality of revenue in line with our upcoming five-year strategy plan. On operational metrics, the onsite and offshore mix has slightly moved towards onshore as compared to Q2. Offshore percentage now stands at 54.6%. We continue to work to improve this in the coming quarters.
The T&M revenue mix was at 61.4% in Q3, similar range as compared to Q2. Our client profile has seen an increase in the number of clients in 20 million + category, and our deep relationship with clients and new-age offerings will help improve this profile from here on. Client contribution to revenue, similar range compared to Q2 across categories. Headcount remained flat at 23,639 in Q3 compared to 23,678 in Q2. Attrition came in at 14.6%, slightly better compared to Q2. Our realized INR in the quarter came in at 89.58 to the USD, a depreciation of 1.4% versus Q2. As I conclude, let me provide visibility on margin trajectory going forward. We did refer to in our Q2 commentary that H2 margins will be better than H1, and are already seeing Q3 margins improve by 120 basis points.
We expect margins to continue to improve from here on based on capital allocation towards high-margin segments of sustainability and mobility, selective choice of portfolio and geography, which will result in improvement in quality of revenue and thus improvement in margin and operational efficiencies, including AI-led delivery. With that, we maintain our aspiration for mid-16% EBIT margins between quarter four FY 2027 and quarter one FY 2028. Thank you, and 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 one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove 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. Our first question comes from the line of Vibhor Singhal from Nuvama Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question, and wish the management team a very happy New Year. Amit and Rajeev, I have a few questions with a few more sub-questions, so I'll try to squeeze in as many as I can. So just wanted to understand the nature of this restructuring exercise that we have taken. Is it like there are some of the clients for which we have stopped doing the projects? Is it some of the divisions that we have basically kind of shut down, and we will not be taking any more projects in that domain? And also, if I look at the basic breakup of this, I think it appears to me that the major restructuring has happened in the tech segment and in the India business.
So would it be fair to say that the large part of it or predominantly this is the SWC business that we had acquired that we are kind of closing down because that is also leading to an improvement in margins?
Sure. So first of all, thank you so much and wish you a happy New Year as well. So let me step back and talk a little about what's happening. See, what's happening is there are huge spends, CAPEX spends that are happening in the data center buildup and the energy buildup area in the U.S., and that is creating follow-up opportunities in the hyperscalers. It is creating opportunity in the tech infra business in our area in the Semicon area as well as in IP because for data center buildup, you need all those things, and then finally partly in plant.
So it's a cross-vertical tailwind, if I may. Second, we are seeing reindustrialization of the U.S. Third, people are moving from enterprise to actually physical, digital plus industrial, which we are calling engineering intelligence, right? So when we looked at all that and we looked at our bets, we said that we need to narrow our focus into specific areas that will give us extraordinary growth and leap forward as opposed to areas that may be lukewarm in growth and lower in margins. I mean, so we balanced all of that, and we said we don't want to play in a commoditized business tomorrow where you can do copy-paste and cut-paste. We want to be people that are known for technology, and we want to look ahead so we don't get into a problem in the future.
So with all that, and then we knew that with our business that we were at, we were comfortable with the double-digit guidance that we had given you, and we were at that trajectory. So we spoke to our Board as well, and the guidance was that if there is stuff that doesn't make sense and is getting commoditized, start looking at seeing if you want to rationalize it. So with that said, what we have done is there are parts in our business that we were doing in the Tech segment in Israel that we have taken, and we have now closed that down. There was business in parts of Europe in a very small area of mobility, a little bit in tech, again, which was old technology, and we knew that the next step would be deep discounts, etc. So we shut that down as well.
And third, then we looked at our U.S., a couple of U.S. clients that were operating at projects that were operating on older technology where we were counting the revenue actually from India because the PO was from India. So we took that also, and we have taken that out as well, including shutting down the lab, providing the equipment back to the customer. And then there was a little bit of revenue that was coming from Indian customers that was not adding value, so we did not accept new orders in that area. So, all put together, is what we have done, Vibhor, as we stand today. Now, yeah, so that was the question, right? Yeah.
Yeah. So is it fair to say, given that we have seen a very sharp decline in the India business and in the tech vertical, that a major part of this restructuring exercise would be in the SWC business?
No, Vibhor, I would not make that case. I would say it is, Vibhor, it is a lot of in fact, a lot of it is POs that were being routed to India on tech labs, etc., that we have taken out. And look at the other part that I talked about, Middle East, Europe. And there are these orders that we would have otherwise taken, but we said there's no point taking in empty calories. I'd rather take something that is value-add to the company, and that is why we decided to let it go. So it's a mixed portfolio, if I may.
In fact, if you remember, we had purchased SWC. There was this telco infra part, cyber part. So I'm happy to share that the cyber part, we've actually won three new contracts, less than $10 million, but cyber contracts in the U.S. In fact, we were hoping to sign a bigger deal and announce it to you guys, but Christmas came and everybody went merry. So we'll do it in this quarter. But so cyber is growing there. And tech infra as well in the U.S., there are newer areas coming up on connectivity, which we are actively engaged in and growing. In fact, there's one operator that we signed has been signed because of the tech business domain experience that we got from SWC. So those continue to be the bright spots. In fact, Middle East also, we are there.
In fact, I was there in Middle East for three days, and again, going back in February, appears to be a promising area for us. I would not come to that conclusion just yet, but this is in play. We expect to finish all of this by March. See, on grounds of prudence, because we could have actually kept quiet and said, "We'll tell you in March and all that," right? We decided we are a very clear, honest, transparent management team. So we wanted to, in prudence, tell you that by the time you end quarter four, March end, the floor is you will end up somewhere in the middle digits, and if we are able to win some of this and grow, maybe it will be a little bigger than that.
But this is the right time, we thought consciously, to make this pivot on margins, get it to that, like Rajeev said, get to the 16.5% EBIT range, where we also are comfortable and you are also comfortable.
No, Amit, I really appreciate that gesture, and I think we've discussed it many times. It's good to take a decision which are in the benefit of the long term of the company rather than focusing on the short term goals. So congrats to the entire team for taking this step. Just last couple of questions. So is the restructuring exercise done, or we could see some more steps being taken and some more accounts being closed in Q4 or in the coming quarters?
See, Vibhor, like I'm saying, so if I would have only assumed Q3, I would have maybe given higher single or whatever. I've taken everything into account in telling you the floor is mid-single, and you will be done. So maybe a little bit here or there is in play, so.
Got it, got it. And just one last question for Rajeev, and then I'll leave the floor for the other participant as well. Rajeev, I know this business definitely boosts the margins also. So going forward, do you expect more margin expansion because of this restructuring exercise that continues to go, or do you think we've kind of plucked most of the fruits of this restructuring exercise? And secondly, does this also benefit our DSO days in the coming future, and will it also help getting them down as well?
Vibhor, let me respond to both of your questions. So of course, we've been taking guidance from many of you, so I appreciate that part. The margin improvement will continue, right? That's the reason I provided a guidance of mid-16% levels between a range of quarter four FY2027 and quarter one FY2028, right? There were three factors. Of course, one was because of the Intelliswift acquisition, the integration plan would continue to show margin improvement sequentially as we move forward, right? That was one.
Second was, of course, this recalibration exercise that Amit largely explained, I think lands in Q3. He's given a view for FY2026, but that largely solidifies our ability to grow in portfolios that we think are more futuristic and are profit-proof, right? So that will also contribute. Third, if you really see, and that's what we talked about earlier, our sustainability segment and all the large deal wins continue to translate, right? So you see growth double-digit year-on-year. You also see improvement in profitability.
Of course, that part will continue, but alongside, we are now seeing green shoots in mobility, right? So mobility, if you look at year-on-year margins, it's come down a bit from about 19%-20%, is down to about 15%. We also believe that mobility will continue to turn around from quarter four onwards. Work to be done, but you'll see over the course of next four quarters that the profitability will move, and we aspire for that mid-16% range. Second, on the DSO, yes, we will continue to improve DSO. Our aspiration is much like on our free cash flow, and I remember some of you posing that question that we'll deliver 90% + of free cash flows in the year. Indeed, we are delivering in the first nine months. Much like that, we will continue to improve DSO.
At the moment, I've given a range of between 110 - 115 days. Our aspiration is to improve even beyond that, but at least I've given a view for the year.
Got it, got it, got it. Great, Rajeev. Thank you so much for taking my question, and congrats again to the management team for the bold steps. Wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the opportunity, and happy New Year to all the management team. Sir, the first question is, Project Lakshya was in place for more than two, three years at a group level. So why suddenly this exercise versus last three months before we were not thinking about the same? I do agree this will create a value-added portfolio with a higher margin, but what has led to this? Why I'm asking is, there has been more than two or three restructuring exercises which we have carried out in terms of growth strategy in the last three, four years, but somehow organic growth is not picking up. So now with the new restructuring exercise, what will change in terms of changing that organic growth part?
Sure. So thank you so much. So if I may provide a little bit of color, so Lakshya is not a two, three-year program. It's a five-year program. It happens every five years. In fact, our first Lakshya was 2010, 2011, right up to 2015, 2016. Then it was there to 2021, and then 2021 to 2026, and now we'll do 2026 to 2031. So it's a five-year program. These are not two, three-year programs. So that is point number one.
Point number two is that we did mention, and I think we had talked about it during our investor call, or we had talked about it in one of those processes, that we do five-year programs. So the new five-year program, next five-year program, will start on April 1st, 2026, and go until March 31st, 2031, right? So this is part of the process that we follow. Point number two is that we are, if I look at it, we've restructured or simplified our organization in segments, and we today have six sales teams in North America. We've got four regional teams outside of North America, total 10 teams, that allows us the ability to continue to look at deals globally rather than in specific areas.
This has actually given us the ability to sign about around $200 million of TCV for five straight quarters, right? And the wins that we have had in sustainability, you can see that playing out. You can see mobility turning around. And in tech, if I was to include the stuff that we dropped, we've actually grown double-digit, right? So we do have organic growth coming along. Now, if we are a tech company, we have two choices. I could go back and stay in a business that tomorrow will become dilutive, continue to be dilutive in margins, and continue to drain away some of the good stuff that is happening in other areas. Or the choice is that before I get commoditized, I turn around, and I turn around, and then do it in advance.
Lastly, and we had talked to you in advance, and you'll notice that in our calls, we give you some forward views. We normally have views that are between nine to 12 months ahead of the market. So we do believe that the market is pivoting on EI. They are pivoting to physical, digital, industrial combined AI. And that's why if we don't pivot now, we will be in a problem in nine months' time or 12 months' time. So this is our first restructuring exercise in this space, in this area. And I would like to acknowledge, actually, that our teams have done very well in terms of being able to identify in the last quarter itself, take action, and decisive action, which has helped us improve the margins within the quarter.
I would have rather done that than come back, lowered the revenue, not improved the margins, and done it two quarters down. We have been able to provide decisive action in the same quarter, and from here on, you will continue to see margin improvement as you're seeing. And like I said, we will shut everything off. Whatever we have to do should happen, hopefully, or will happen by March 31st per our current plan. And your company, therefore, April 1st onwards, continues to focus on EI. Look, our ambition is to become the world's first and biggest EI company in services and solutions, and we will continue to march towards that.
Yeah. Just a follow-up. In this rationalization exercise, once it's over, one can assume SWC seasonality, which leads to volatile growth, will now no longer be valid starting next year. And question to CFO, sir. Sir, just we are cutting down on our low-profit portfolios, but our margin milestone has not been changed. It should have changed, right, with the restructuring exercise. It could have been better than 16 and a half. So any reason for the same?
So can you repeat your first question?
Yeah. Just with the restructuring exercise, SWC seasonality now won't be there starting next year.
I heard you. So we seem to be in love with mobility on some calls, and we seem to be in love with SWC on some calls. We just don't like sustainability, which is the highest profit margin in the company. Is it? Okay. So now, right? So let's go to this. So all I can say at this stage is that we are looking at our portfolio very seriously. There are actions that we have taken. There are actions that we are taking. So please allow us till April when we come back, when we provide you that kind of clarity. At this stage, please give us some more time in play right now. And on margins, I think Rajeev can please answer.
Sandeep, Rajeev here. I think on the second question that you have, right, that we should have seen probably an acceleration in terms of EBIT improvement, rightly acknowledged. At this point, there is a little bit of prudence that is baked in. I probably will come back in quarter four to clarify. Our intent is definitely to deliver earlier than what I am guiding for, but at this point, it's more prudence that I have maintained that time period.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Nitin Padmanabhan from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening. Wishing you a very happy New Year. Just wanted some context around the margins. So one, obviously, the support that we were giving for the customer has come off, and we have also had some currency benefit as well, and looks like, well, we have cut down these businesses. The headcount is still pretty flattish, so just wanted some context around how should we understand this. Is the margin benefit from the cut down of businesses likely to accrue more in the next quarter and beyond, or that is largely already factored in in the current quarter? So yeah, that was the first question. The second one was around when are we expecting to sort of give out salary increases?
And finally, while our deal wins have been consistently strong, I think for the past couple of quarters, and I think if you look at it year-on-year, it's a very strong growth, when should we start expect that to really start showing up from an overall portfolio perspective in terms of higher growth?
So Nitin, let me take the first couple of questions, and I will have Amit to respond to the deal wins part. So first one, on the margin trajectory, I think what you need to understand is that in the quarter, we've seen the margin improvement come through from three areas. I called out during my commentary. It has indeed been on the improved quality of revenue and operational efficiencies. Of course, sustainability has grown. We've also talked about some of the selective choice of portfolio of revenues and geographies. That's one.
The second is on discontinuation of the strategic support that we provided in the past few quarters and repeat depreciation, right? So it's a mix across. But what I'd like to leave you with is that, look, going forward, the margin improvement will come from three to four areas, right? One is that we want to become more, I would say, sharper in terms of capital allocation towards higher margin segments and technologies. Amit talked about EI, which is really the Engineering Intelligence, and you will see margins improving across mobility, sustainability, and tech, right? So it's going to be a combination. I already talked about selective choice of portfolio and geography. Last but not the least is the operational efficiency. We've recently had Mritunjay, who has joined us as a Chief Operating Officer.
He is championing the AI cause for the company, and there is a lot of work at this point in time going around AI-led delivery, and we will call out more specifics as we come into quarter four. But these are the areas that likely will continue to improve. And last is around the Intelliswift acquisition. Like I said earlier, we've got about six to eight quarters of integration plan, and that business has continued to grow and improve in profitability. So those are the three, four areas that I'll clarify in terms of the margin trajectory going forward. Second question was on wages. On the wages, let me respond.
Yeah. Wages, we will provide wage hikes to all our employees worldwide in quarter four, and we have baked that into our estimates as we have provided you our margin trajectory, right? So that is your second question. Third was on deal wins. So Nitin, we've had deal wins in sustainability. Look, so I was very honest and open in sharing what did not ramp up. So the mobility win that we had in quarter four has not ramped up for us, right? And still going small as opposed to what we were expecting.
The other wins that we have had in sustainability in plant subsegment as well as in industrial products have ramped up, and therefore you can see that growth. Mobility, there were some smaller wins, sub-10 million wins that have helped us in terms of see, the biggest hit we take on the furlough quarter, which is October, November, December, is in mobility. And largely mobility, U.S. and Europe where we take them, mobility where we take the hit.
So in spite of that, mobility sequentially grew for us, and we believe mobility has bottomed out. You will see growth from here and a little bit of ramp-up, whatever we have won in quarter three. That entire ramp-up of that, I'm confirming to you, has already taken place. In tech, the deals that we had won, they did, like I mentioned to one of the earlier colleagues on the call, that when you look at tech, if I keep the business that I walked away from, I would have actually shown you double-digit growth as well as sequential growth in tech as well. So the deals are ramping up. Other than that one deal that I called out, the others have ramped up as we speak.
Perfect. That's helpful. Just one clarification. So as we get into the next quarter with the wage increases in place, are there any? Could you give us some sense in terms of puts and takes on how to think about margins there, or should we expect margins to be lower? We will not be able to offset the wage increase, I presume.
So Nitin, let me take this question. So you should see the wage increases in quarter four that Amit talked about could likely have an impact of about 1%, but we will continue to see improvement in margin because we've factored this wage increase. Like you saw in quarter three, we saw an improvement of 200 basis points in gross margins, and that also will somewhat pan out, not to that extent, but will pan out in quarter four between both gross margin or SG&A. So about 1% of increment impact will get absorbed on account of all the aspects that I talked about on margin improvement.
Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you so much and all the very best.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Ravi Menon from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. And congrats on the margin improvement. Just some clarity on the tech vertical margins. So last year, Q3, I know that's prior to the initial acquisition, but still that's on an EBITDA basis. We are still a bit below that. So what to understand is that with the restructuring, what would be a sort of sustainable EBITDA in tech that we could see a year or so down the line?
Ravi, I'll take that question. This is Rajeev here. So a sustainable EBITDA in the tech portfolio, and you rightly said, right? If you look at year-on-year, quarter three, we had EBITDA of 11.5%. We've come in at 10.6% in quarter three, FY 2026. What I will say that, look, we would aspire for between 12%-13% EBITDA range in tech sector. Work left, and I think we'll continue to see this over a period. So that's what you should factor in.
Thanks so much. This deal that you have won with this luxury OEM covering infotainment systems, does that, is that purely, I can say, project-related work, or is there a bit of IP also bundled as part of that?
There's a little bit of IP bundled in that, Ravi, and part of a little bit of that is renewal being completely transferred, and there is a part of it that is new. So we have won all that. In fact, I want to share that the IP that we have created, we have bundled that in, including our AI solution for improving productivity, etc., for the client. That's how we won this.
All right. Thanks so much. Another clarification on this deal, this Australian enterprise, which segment would that fall under?
The high-value engineering center. The high-value engineering center that you're setting up for the customers.
Australia.
Yeah.
It's in the LNG. LNGs will come in plant engineering. Most of the work will be offshore.
All right. Thanks so much. One last question on this on-site shift. I missed that part of the comment. I think, when do you expect this to move offshore, or is this strictly temporary?
So Ravi, I'll take this one, Rajeev here. I would say that this is more of enough. I think it will kind of come back. See, we've hovered around offshore ratio between, say, 56%-58%. Hence, I would not at this stage guide for where it stands to be in quarter three. You will see a few quarters, and this will come back to that range.
All right. Thanks so much.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sudheer Guntupalli from Kotak Mahindra Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hi, Amit. Thanks for the opportunity. And appreciate the color you have shared on restructuring of lower margin business and agree with you on all the logic that you spoke about. But my question is, when the SWC acquisition was announced roughly three years back, most of the analysts and investors have expressed the same concern at that point in time. So three years out, what has changed for us to sort of claim that it's a great strategic fit to going to the level of saying that a lot of these businesses may become obsolete, and that's why we are now restructuring it?
So Sudheer , if I may help you here, the business that we have right now looked at that is not strategic for us for the future. So if I step back, right, and I talk about the whole portfolio, Sudheer, if I look at, so if I go back 15 years, we used to work on mechanical engineering and auto with Tier 1s , right? If I look at the last five years, five years ago, we decided that if we don't get into OEMs, we'll be dead. And if we don't move to EV and software, we'll be gone.
Today, if I look at our mobility portfolio, you got 80% coming from OEMs and most of it in the non-mechanical area. So things change. Times change. 15 years ago, mechanical was core for the company. They would give out embedded and software. It was car companies. Today, they don't care about mechanical. They are concerned about embedded and software because that is a differentiation. So there is a part and relevance that core becomes contextual. Contextual becomes core. This is reality in the business, right? That's number one. Now, let me take the pointed question on SWC. I'm again saying the part that we have rationalized, so the part that we have rationalized and we have taken out is stuff that's in Middle East/Europe part in tech.
There is a portion of U.S. tech which is old technology that we were supporting and testing that we realized will actually become completely commoditized in the next 18 months. So we actually shut that down and respectfully returned the equipment to the customer, and that was all India billing that was happening. And third is there are parts of Indian customers where we did not accept new business that we could have otherwise accepted. So those are the three elements there.
Now, as far as Smart World specifically is concerned, there are parts of Smart World, like I said, cybersecurity and telco infra that have found their foothold in U.S. and Europe. There's parts on data centers that have found their foothold in U.S. and Middle East. But please give us some more time as we go through this process to come back to you as well. But we are fully aware of decisions made, decisions being made right now, and we're being strategic about it.
Sure, sir. Appreciate that context. So I agree with you that over 10, 15-year time frame, technology changes and a lot of things which were very relevant then might not be consequential anymore. But given that this is fairly recent, it's a three-year-old acquisition, and most of us have expressed this concern when you have actually refuted all these concerns and given a comfort that this is very strategic for you. So in that backdrop comes my question of what is the incremental discovery here that led to this rationalization? That is part number one. And part number two, I'm following up on this question because I think Vibhor and Sandeep asked the same question in a different form.
From your response to them, I was not very clear whether this entire restructuring is happening entirely out of SWC or there are other parts to it also. Based on these two aspects, I'm repeating this question. My apologies if there is a misunderstanding on my end.
Sudheer, let me again try to explain the same thing I just said three times with no problems. Number one, there are parts of tech that we were servicing through Israel which we have shut down. Part two, there are parts of tech where we were supporting them from India, getting the Indian orders on Indian INR billing, which is what shows up as offshore for us in India revenue that we have shut down. There are very small parts of old mobility stack work in Europe that we have shut down.
And fourth, there are Indian clients that take some of our offerings where we could have accepted the orders at lower margins that we did not accept. We continue. In my commentary, I told you, FusionWorld.ai continues. There are parts of Smart World that we are working on in cybersecurity that continue overseas, and the Smart World delivery is continuing to happen in India. So I don't think the premise that the rationalization is all Smart World is correct. But like I told you, you'll allow us some more time, and we'll come back within quarter four on what steps will we make to take it forward. Look, our final business, the markets we operate are U.S., Europe, Japan, Middle East, and parts of India that are profitable.
If there are businesses in profit pools in India that are not profitable, I would not want to work on those businesses because that does not make sense for my investors.
Very nice, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Dipesh Mehta from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions. First, about the $200 million deal in tech which we refer to per quarter on average basis, whether it is sufficient for us to meet our aspirational organic growth. So that is question one. Considering all the rationalizations and what we are currently carrying out and optimal mix or let's say business mix change which we envisage over the next couple of quarters. So that is question one. Second question is about SWC and related to restructuring. First is whether you can quantify impact of restructuring.
Whatever we have carried out this quarter, you alluded to three, four elements of restructuring. What would be the cumulative impact of that if you can quantify? And last is about SWC business used to have a regular seasonality in quarter four. Partly, you indicated it is not only SWC. It is other part of business also where restructuring is carrying out kind of thing. So whether the usual seasonality what we observed in the residual SWC which we continue to execute, whether we will see in quarter four. Thank you.
Thank you. So number one, we aspire from this 200 million clip. We want to move to a $300 million clip, but I don't know when because it'll take a little time, right? So your answer to your first question, to accelerate growth, we should move from 200 million to 300 million clip. Absolutely. And then 400 and then 500 from there. I mean, that's broadly, of course, where we will look at as we move forward, right? So that's A. B now, again, I mean, I'm going to repeat myself here, but Smart World, the stuff that we have let go or we are letting go will have an impact. Had we not let it go, let me answer it differently, had we not let it go, you would have had double-digit growth.
Now, because you let it go, you're going to have mid-single-digit growth. Now, you can do the calculation of what is the impact of that restructuring. Now, I've taken that into account and given that to you as a floor, assuming what we know in quarter four at this stage. If some new deals come in, all of a sudden execution starts, quarter four picture could change. So we will keep you updated as we move forward. I assure you we will be as transparent as we can be with you. Whatever we know, you will know.
Let me ask it slightly differently. Considering whatever restructuring exercise we are considering to make organization future-ready, do you think any impact on those aspects on FY2027 growth trajectory, or will we end this exercise by year-end?
We should end the exercise. Our current plan is that the exercise will end by March 31st, and we will be able to go forward from there. That's the current plan.
Maybe I'll add to that. Amit, Dipesh, just to clarify, right? See, maybe Amit talked about it earlier. Large part of this restructuring exercise has already been done in Q3. The impact that flows into Q4 is talked about, which is baked into the mid-single-digit growth. So I would not want you to think that there is more coming in Q4. Whatever is done in Q3, that's already baked in the mid-single-digit growth, right? That's one part.
Second, to your point on the $200 million deal wins in a quarter, does that suffice to tell you that's not the only barometer for revenue growth, right? We operate through our order book, which gives us definite view in terms of revenue growth, plus the large deal wins accelerates the revenue growth, right? So I would not want you to think about large deal wins as the only way for driving revenue growth. So those are the two points I'll add to what Amit said.
Dipesh, I'd like to confirm the pipeline that you got is year-on-year has grown double-digit as well. And we are confident there's some good significant deals in our pipeline. There are, I would like to say, multiple hundred million-plus deals that we've got. There are some 50 million deals, 20 million, 10 million. Let's see how we can get to closure. The year is in play. The quarter is still in play.
No, fair point. I think we just try to understand because if I look at your organic growth, Q4 would be double-digit down. And that's why we try to understand how to offset it. Thank you. Thanks for your input. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from Vibhor Singhal from Nuvama Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for giving me the opportunity again. Now, assuming all the questions on the restructuring part are done, I'll just focus a couple of questions on the core business in which we are doing really well. So on the mobility side, you mentioned that you possibly see a turnaround. I remember a couple of quarters ago, we had discussed, and you had mentioned that in the mobility vertical, it's a very interesting situation that in the U.S., the auto companies are kind of confused whether they should go towards EV or ICE vehicles. And the latest step by Ford is a testimony to that thing.
And in Europe, they are facing a lot of competition from the Chinese competitors. So what do you think has changed or could change in the coming quarter, which gives you the confidence that this mobility vertical could be at the cusp of a turnaround? And secondly, on the sustainability vertical, I think it's consistently done really well for us. Is the plant engineering subsegment of that really doing good for us?
Do you think it will continue to do well going forward as well, given the backdrop of the uncertainty around the tariffs?
Got it. Why don't I request, Alind, why don't you take the mobility question on U.S. and Europe, and then I'll take the sustainability question?
Right. Right. Vibhor, hi. You know that the mobility segment for us is basically three different verticals: auto, trucks and off-highway, and rail. We do see the deliberateness coming in auto, for sure. We do see the wins that we had done earlier ramping up now and leading to the growth that you are seeing or the growth that you are going to see going forward. Plus, the solutions that we had built out in SDV, and we talked about those investments that we had done earlier, those are beginning to bear fruits.
Now, your question about the electrification and the others, you have seen some write-offs happen by the large US automakers on the electrification side. So that's out in the open. But we see that the momentum on the SDV still remains and will continue to power the growth that we have. T&OH, as we had talked about earlier, is a little bit soft for now. But rail and rail, which again has been a market for us and growing, especially on the engine manufacturer and certain rail companies, remain positive. And we will see that trajectory grow as we think about it in short term. Long-term, it's going to be played out, but we remain very positive about the sector as we see it.
So if I may, so US bottomed out. We do expect growth from here on, and we have seen the deals. They have started ramping back up organically. Like Rajeev said, on the small one, less than 10 million number of these wins. On Europe, what is happening is that they are taking out higher-cost suppliers, and they are moving that work to India in. So not just us, others should also gain from Europe as we go forward. My second question, Sustainability. See, Sustainability, the growth is coming from IP as well as PE, both of them. In fact, PE is getting a lot more work in industrial AI and digital and physical AI. Plant is getting work with a build-out in LNG, a build-out in oil and gas, a build-out in CPG. So both the areas are expanding for us and doing well.
Got it. CPG also? You're seeing good traction in CPG as well in terms of plant engineering?
So right now, between CPG and oil and gas, CPG, there was a little bit some project got over. Another one is going to start, but oil and gas is chugging along. In fact, we are diversifying into LNG, and that we believe will be the next play in the Middle East as well as Australia. So this Australia win we have had in LNG is good for us to create the credentials in that area. And U.S. anyway, the work is going on in Europe in the digital part for oil and gas.
Got it. Got it, sir. Thanks for taking my questions again. And again, wish you all the best.
Oh, absolutely. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as our last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sandesh Naik for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you all for joining us on the call today. We hope we were able to answer your queries. I know some of the questions will still be there. So we look forward to interact with you through the quarter and answer those queries. Wish you all a very good evening and a good day. 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 your lines.