This meeting is being recorded.
muted growth in core connectivity, combined with the expenses due to Red Sea and other cable cut-related costs, dragged our margins this quarter. That said, Red Sea cable is largely repaired, and starting Q3, the revenue drag due to these cuts will be behind us. Consolidated EBITDA improved 10% year-on-year, however, was down marginally by 0.6% Q-on-Q. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio stands at 2.37. I would like to apprise you of the progress we are making on the asset monetization side. We have submitted for shareholder approval the sale of the land parcel in Ambattur, Chennai. This is in line with our strategy to enhance shareholder value by unlocking non-core assets. On the order book and funnel side, our funnel continues to be robust.
Although the funnel addition has remained subdued in H1, we have witnessed an improved improvement in our win rate across all the regions. The improvement in win rate in H1 can be attributed to the large deals that have come in this year. On the back of these improving win rates, our order book in Q2 has increased by upwards of 25% year-on-year. The growth in order book is driven across all segments in India and international, except the service provider segment. Our international region has registered the highest quarterly order booking in the last five years. Our core connectivity order book is driven by hyperscalers and OTTs. Our core connectivity revenues came in at INR 2,613 crores and grew by 2.5% Q-on-Q and 3% year-on-year.
India's data center industry is rapidly expanding, and we continue to be the market leaders in data center to data center connectivity space. We have signed major deals with hyperscalers for multi-year network build and capacity upgrade. For instance, for one particular hyperscaler, we are building the long-haul dedicated network, connecting the data centers across different states. The deal is large and complex, and its scale of operation, in terms of, the size, with a multimillion-dollar TCV. Spread over a period of ten years, the revenue for this deal will start coming from FY 2026. We continue to expand our fiber network infrastructure in the country. We have a strong network presence in Tier One and Tier Two towns and serve large enterprises' needs. The rising prominence of Tier Three and Tier Four towns is creating new pockets of growth.
We have been deepening our capillarity of our network in these areas to further augment our leadership in the enterprise data network market. Coming to the digital portfolio performance, this quarter, our revenues came in at 2,221 crores and 3.6% Q-on-Q and 52.4% year-on-year. This growth is broad-based. We are pleased to report that our in-incubation business, which is our IoT fabric, and it has grown in revenues by 33.8% Q-on-Q and 58% year-on-year. The key highlight has been Move platform, which benefited from robust usage growth coming from the addition of new vehicles. Further, there was an increase in our platform revenues as there was a rise in SOTA campaigns. We deepened our relationship with our existing customers by signing them on for enhanced platform proposition, particularly our intelligent connectivity solutions.
Our collaboration and managed CPaaS portfolio, which is our Interaction Fabric, grew by 6.6% Q-on-Q and 174.2% year-on-year. The media business has seen a Q-on-Q decline of 14.2% on the back of the sports calendar and large one-offs in Q1, like the T20 World Cup and the Olympics, which we had in Q1. Cloud and security revenues are flat this quarter. The segment continues to see improving traction within the BFSI space, particularly. The pipeline of deals in this segment is healthy. We are encouraged by the opportunities in this segment and the deals that we have signed in Q1 and Q2. The next-gen connectivity, which is our Network Fabric, grew by 4.5% Q-on-Q and 7.7% year-on-year.
The three pillars of next-gen connectivity services, namely the Managed Wi-Fi, IZO Hybrid WAN, and IZO Multi-Cloud Connect, are addressing the enterprise customers' end-to-end network transformation needs to connect the end users and enterprise to the applications in the cloud. Our Digital Fabric continues to resonate well with our customers. We now have an industry analyst recognition across all the four fabrics, reflecting our strong value proposition. You may refer to our Q2 press release for more details on the same. Our solid value proposition, coupled with our long-standing relationships with large enterprises, gives us the conviction to profit from the market opportunity. With that, I'll now request Kabir to share the financial highlights.
Lakshmi, thank you. Hello, everyone. Let me walk you through our financial performance for the quarter. The Q2 FY 2025 revenue growth, driven by data and digital portfolio, came in at INR 5,767 crores, consolidated growth of 18.4% year-on-year, and 2.4% quarter-on-quarter. Data revenue for the quarter came in at INR 4,834 crores, a growth of 21% year-on-year, and at 3% quarter-on-quarter. Digital services revenue for the quarter came in at INR 2,221 crores, a growth of 52.4% year-on-year and 3.6% quarter-on-quarter, emphasizing that business fundamentals continue to be strong. The most heartening part of our digital business is that we are incubating new businesses to drive long-term sustainable growth....
As Lakshmi mentioned, we have put forth for shareholder approval the proposal for land parcel sale in Ambattur. The estimated range for final sale consideration is expected to be between INR 750-850 crores. This action is in line with our strategy to monetize non-core assets. Let me add that we are taking multiple strategic measures which will start benefiting us in the quarters to come. These include strategic review of non-core assets and assessment of their monetization opportunities, strategic evaluation of pockets which may not offer longer-term leverage, and strategic review of subsidiaries, which we had suggested earlier, and we are making good progress there. These measures will allow us to reposition our assets to drive longer-term value creation and maximize the resources to invest behind our growth.
Additionally, another set of measures are being pursued towards simplification, be it on the process side or org structure, to ensure that our company is competitive for future opportunities. To drive all these measures, some of the costs will be upfront and are being incurred now and over the next couple of quarters. We believe that with these strategic measures, combined with the right capital allocation and a robust governance framework, we are well-placed to accelerate growth and maximize shareholder value. Our EBITDA margins for the quarter were at 19.4%. We'll continue to make efforts to stay in the range of 20% for the consolidated full year FY 2025. Our interest costs were higher this quarter, driven by an increase in short-term borrowings and a change in mix, as there was an increase in INR borrowings. On the tax component, there are two highlights.
First, there was a one-off tax payout of 113 crores as we accelerate our process of streamlining and aligning various entities in various geographies to enable longer-term beneficial outcomes. The second being, we assessed the certainty of utilizing the past capital losses and recognize a deferred tax asset of 84 crores for the quarter and the period ended September thirtieth, 2024. Our PAT was up by 3% year on year. FCF for the quarter was negative 194 crores, significantly better than the previous quarter, and the drag was primarily driven by increase in working capital. Working capital was higher on account of dividends payout in July. Net debt for the quarter stood at INR 10,483 crores, and net debt to EBITDA is at 2.37x.
With our land monetization stated above, we see our leverage ratio, ratios improving meaningfully over the next couple of quarters. Cash CapEx for the quarter stood at INR 447 crore. ROCE came in at 16.4, a decline of 110 basis points quarter on quarter. As of this quarter, the full impact of Kaleyra has been baked in. Moving to subsidiaries, TCTS revenues declined by 26.4% year on year. EBITDA margins came in at 12%, and EBITDA improved by 36.3% quarter on quarter. Our payment business reported a healthy double-digit EBITDA margin of 11.2% this quarter. As you already know, the business is completely on the franchising model now. Let me now ask Sudeshna to open the forum for Q&A.
Thanks, Kabir. We'll wait for a minute for the question queue to assemble. Interested participants may click on Raise Hand icon at the bottom of the pane on Webex, Webex application to join the Q&A. The first question is from the line of Sanjay Jain from ICICI Securities. Sanjay, you have been requested to unmute yourself. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah. Good evening. Can you hear me?
Yes, Sanjay.
Yeah. Hey, hi. Thanks, thanks for this opportunity. Couple of question. First, Lakshmi, you said in your opening remark that we have signed multiple hyperscaler and OTT contract, and you particularly mentioned about one multi-million, ten-year contract, which you are connecting the various data center of a hyperscaler, I hope so. So what is the? Because it's a ten-year scale, so what kind of growth can this particular deal bring to us from an opportunity standpoint? That is number one. And number two, because we need to now also lay out the network in tier three and tier four, so what is the incremental investment does this deal require us to do additionally, probably?
Yeah, Sanjay, you know, first of all, the hyperscaler deal, you know, this kind of build we have been doing for some time for many hyperscalers. As I said, you know, some of these were paused because they had built capacity post-COVID. They all spent money on the back of increasing traffic after the COVID, and then there was a period of utilization of that capacity, and now we believe there is more demand, and these opportunities have come up. So these are the one example of the deals is what we highlighted in this call today. But we have been doing this data center layer and the connectivity for multiple customers, whether it's enterprise or the hyperscalers.
I don't want to break out the revenue, what it means, because we don't give that breakout. The second question that you asked was on the tier two, three expansion of capillarity, and what it means by CapEx. We have been actually steadily increasing our capillarity in those spaces, and we are doing it very scientifically. We have analyzed all the pin codes where there are demands, and we have identified those clusters, and we are expanding our network in those spaces. So this is not a big one-time exercise. We have been steadily doing it over the past four years, and we will continue to do so in order to make sure that we can address the opportunities of enterprises moving to the tier three, four cities in India.
That's clear. That means the $350 million of CapEx what we speak also includes the CapEx for laying out fiber in the tier three and tier two - tier four cities.
That's right?
That's right. That's what we have been doing. Yeah.
Got it. Lakshmi, second question on the core connectivity. Even last quarter, we said that the Red Sea and the cable cuts has hurt us.
Is this completely behind us with the cable getting completely repaired and the 5-6% growth, what we have been speaking, that we should be back from the Q3 onwards?
No, I don't want to comment immediately on the Q3. But your first question, whether it is behind us, yes, it is behind us. I think the last of the cable cuts was with that. And we will now look for how to start utilizing that capacity more meaningfully.
Got it. But we are not seeing any issue from the demand side of the part or the higher pricing erosion. None of those issues which can otherwise hurt the revenue is visible, right?
No, the demand side has been steady, so you know, just to remind you, you know, we have been saying that, the core connectivity as a business globally is a declining trend as a market, right?
Correct.
In that market, you know, we had called out in our strategy that we will be in the low to mid single-digit growth, is what we said. But, you know, for various reasons, there was demand, and also by the fact that the customers trust us to deliver because these are all very critical connections to data centers across the globe. They value the kind of services that we provide. We have been able to garner more market share out of this and deliver a higher growth compared to the market. So we don't see any issue with the market as such, but the overall market is having the color, which I just painted.
I don't think that would change in the short to medium term.
Got it. And this hyperscaler contract, what we mentioned. T hat will be part of the core connectivity, right?
Yes. Yeah, yeah.
The second question on the digital side of the business, if I look at the net revenue, the growth for this quarter is 1.4% quarter on quarter, and on the gross side, it is 3.6%. We are still hitting only 15% growth, and the ambition was to touch 25%. Is the demand side issue, or it's just that the order book and the sales funnel conversion has been slow, but the discussion are encouraging? Where is that gap versus where what we were targeting and what we are delivering today?
I think, you know, we have set ourselves fairly ambitious target. There's no doubt about it, and we are going after it. But the macro conditions and the challenges that arise are something that we don't factor in when we create ambitions, and I don't want that. So, setting that apart, our ambition continues to be that, and you are right in your observation, that 6% translate to the number that you said, but our ambition remains the ambition, and we are gunning for it. From the demand side, you know, we are very, very happy to see that the order booking has improved, and we have been calling out that there is slowness in... and you can see, not just from our commentary, I think that's been true for everybody else, the markets and the slowness, but you know, we are calling out the increased order booking because I was always of the opinion that as you continue to improve your funnel and work your way through, something will come out of the funnel at some point in time and that this last two quarters has proven to be the case.
But the market conditions are still the same. I think you know the conversion or the decision-making time has not improved in any significant way. But you know as it may, we can't change the conditions. What we are focused on is continuing to invest in our fabric, in our products, continuing to engage with our customers, and that is what and that coupled with, you know, we said that we are going to increase our sales footprint, and we did that increase, and some of this, I've also been saying that as you increase the sales footprint, it takes time for the new sales team to understand the propositions, build relationships, and make an impact in the market, so I'm quite pleased with the outcome that we've had, and in order for us to continue to do this, we have to continue to invest in our products and invest in our sales team.
That's fair. That's fair. Kabir, I got three questions on bookkeeping very quickly.
Yeah.
One, last quarter you said that you want to achieve 20% EBITDA margin for FY 25. Do we hold that guidance still true? Second, is this the only land parcel which is put in asset held for sale, or there are more land parcel we can expect in, say, next 12 months time frame, and what is that amount we are looking at? Number three is on the working capital. A sharp increase of INR 13.5 billion in the first half. This is significantly different than what we have seen in last 4 years. So what has changed suddenly from the working capital side of it? Yeah, that's it. Thank you.
Thanks, Sanjesh. Look, our ambition is still in the range of 20%. I said range of 20%, we will maintain that ambition of range of 20%. Yes, cable cuts. I mean, that's not the only reason, but if I were to filter out, there are multiple noises, you know, within that, as you would have in any company in any quarter. It did, you know, have a dent, and we are a little bit, you know, impacted by that. But our ambition is still in the range of 20% for the full year. On your second question on land, it is a significant one, and it's a related party deal, so it needs, as per the regulations, to go to shareholder approval, so it's in the public domain.
I've given you the value of it. Although it is there in the shareholder notice as well, I've cut it out for easy reference for all of you. This quarter, we also had a small parcel, land parcel, you know, in Vikhroli that we sold, that is already recognized. As I told you guys about almost a year, eighteen months ago, there was a real estate strategy that was approved by the board. And the team is constantly working on cleaning all the title issues and all the hindrances that were actually coming in the way of monetization.
Now, to go into specifics, we just got, after enough follow-up, you know, with the local government, we got the patta issued in, in our name, and unless, until you have the patta issued in your name, you can't really get on with the sale process. Although we did the valuation, we did all of those work. So that's the reason why we are today in a stage we're able to do the monetization for Ambattur. In fact, STT is a current tenant there already, and it makes logical and strategic sense for them to become owner, and, and then that's where we are awaiting shareholder approval to consummate the transaction. We have a plan.
I can't give you a number, because all of those are, you know, mired with all of these, you know, complicated, you know, problems, and as and when we unwind each and every one of them and get it ready, we will, you know, go on. Quite a few. I mean, there is no large thing coming up in the next 12 months. A lot of them are in the 50 to 70-80 crore kind of a bracket, couple three, four of those properties. Some of them we went and there were some technical issues we had to actually halt. We will restart them. So those are operational in nature, you know, Sanjesh. Lastly, coming to working capital, yes, I do recognize, you know, that it is, it has gone up.
Let me reassure you that the operations are completely under control. Nature, you know, of it, about, I would say, you know, year to date, about INR 500 crores of the receivables of the total INR 600 that you seek, INR 500 crores are not due. I mean, those are the conditions either in the large deal contracts that we have, where we have billed and we have recognized revenue, but they are not yet due, so they are not collectible, you know, as such. So that has contributed to a big portion. Plus, also, our flavor of our deals are also changing in a way where, you know, we had to accept, you know, some of them came with the conditions of higher payment terms as well.
So that was a conscious business call that we always take between margin and working capital, and then do a right, you know, trade-off, per se. So that is, I would say, the anomaly, you know, of working capital, but nothing, you know, I would say is alarming, you know, that way. Also, Lakshmi alluded to large contracts that we actually, you know, signed. So when we see the holistic picture of it, a little bit of a cash, you know, timing is not something that I would be overly worried about in doing economically the right thing for Tata Co.
Very clear. Just one follow-up on the land, what you said. You said that there are already tenants on that land. That means other income will reduce. Will that be a fair assumption? And if yes, how much will it take?
That is correct. That's exactly the reason why I said it out, even though you did not ask for it. Look, you will have to look at other income that we actually have, and as I monetize, yeah, that will come, will keep coming, you know, down.
Got it. And now that ST Telemedia has announced a very large expansion plan in India worth $3 billion, is it fair to assume that they will keep requiring this land and we have land at the very prime locations? These deals can continue, and number two, what will be our contribution in $3 billion from the equity side of it? Will we maintain this 26% equity stake, and all the equity infusion will be funded by the Tata Communications? to the extent of our shares. Sorry.
Yeah. No, firstly, I mean, they have an ambitious plan of $3.2 billion, which they have communicated. That is a total outlay over five years.
Correct.
There is a large component that will be funded by debt. Yeah, so then there is a balance, you know, equity portion. As of now, our stated position, which you have seen in the last few quarters as well, we will continue to maintain the 26% stake, you know, in STT. What we want to do with that stake is a review that we will undertake, along with multiple other things that we are doing, you know, within the business. That's what I alluded to in the first part of my, you know, of my speech. That there is a lot of value there in this company to be unlocked. So a lot of costs are getting incurred upfront, which is as per accounting, get, you know, booked in my, in my current costs.
But these are all the right actions that we are taking for setting up the company for success. Relooking at capital allocation, how we have to invest behind growth, I think you should look at it from that larger perspective. We are, you know, a company in the digital transmission space. We are servicing the long-term infrastructure and transmission needs for our enterprise customers. We are their Digital Fabric, and these have longer gestation periods. And if our thinking as a management is not going to be long term, and if we do not take long-term actions, we will. I don't want to get myopic into short term. This is not from an... I, I'm not saying it as an excuse, Sanjay, but that is rightly the kind of thinking that Lakshmi drives in the organization, and it's absolutely the right thing to do.
Fair enough. I have taken more than the fair time, but, thanks for patiently answering all those questions and, best of luck for the coming quarters.
Thank you, Sanjay.
Thank you, Sanjesh. The next question is from the line of Amit Maskara. Amit, I'm requesting you to unmute yourself. Please proceed with your question. Amit, your line is unmuted. Please proceed with your question. Amit, we can't hear you. Please, come back in the queue. We'll move to the next question. The next question is from the line of Balaji Subramaniam from IIFL. Balaji, we are requesting you to unmute your line. Please proceed with your question. Balaji, please unmute your line and ask your question.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Thank you. I had three questions. So the first one was on the revenue aspiration that you had laid out in the analyst meet earlier this year, which was INR 28,000 crores of top line by FY 2027, of which about 60% will be from digital portfolio. That is basically around INR 17,000 crores. If I look at the annualized digital portfolio revenue for 2Q, we are somewhere around INR 9,000 crores, give or take 100 or 200 crores. You know, how should one expect the INR 9,000 crore number to move to something like INR 17,000 crores in a span of two and a half years or so? That is one.
You know, even though you know you have stated many times in the past that you would not like to do M&A just for the sake of hitting the revenue aspiration, what are the potential areas you are looking at as far as you know organic opportunities are concerned? In that case, you know, how do you look to fund it? I do get that you are also exploring multiple monetization opportunities, but you know, how should one expect the funding to come through? That would be my first couple of questions. You know, once after you know I get the response, I will move to the last question.
Yeah. Yes, Balaji, thank you. I think the aspiration remains intact, as I said in the previous question. And you are right in saying that, for us to deliver this kind of a growth, our digital portfolio has to grow at a stronger clip, right? So that is what. And that is the reason why, you know, we chose to invest in all the digital four, the all the four fabrics. So if you look at our nextGen fabric, nextGen connectivity in the Network Fabric, we've invested in a new platform called IZO Multi-Cloud Connect. And, in the coming quarters, we will be releasing a product which connects the within the cloud.
With the increasing trend of people adapting more multi-cloud, that's an area which is today a small market, you know, that is, in a single-digit billions slated to grow in upwards of 20% CAGR, in the networking space. We've identified such a pocket, and we have invested in a product, and it's in early stage. This product is in early stage.
and we expect this to grow. So in many of these areas, that is one example. So, you know, if you look at the Interaction Fabric today, the bulk of the revenues are coming from SMS. The clear reading of the market and the expectation is that it will diversify from SMS to other channels, and also, you know, more of AI capability and orchestration across multiple channels will become the norm, and those are the areas we are investing. So these are all new areas, and we have placed our bets in a lot of these new areas, all of which are white spaces with a good growth potential. So, I think that is one dimension of, you know, where we are focused on in order to capture the opportunities.
The second dimension is about the markets itself. You know, the international market is a bigger white space as we've been calling out, and that is a market where, you know, we are increasing our footprint. We do have a challenging proposition there. We have to go and replace the incumbents, and that is what we are working on. So the way we have set out our ambition is based on what we see as the market opportunity, our reading of the technologies in each of the fabrics will go, and we believe we have placed our bets and investment in all the right places. To your question on, you know, funding, if we chose to do inorganic, I think Kabir talked about the several, monetization opportunities and, value unlocking opportunities that we have.
And those are the things that we would use to do. Kabir, do you wanna add anything?
Yeah. Look, Balaji, I would say, we have a lot of growth ambitions, both organically and inorganically. To your point on M&A, we have clarified many a times, there are core principles that drive our M&A decisions. It has to be responsible, it has to be strategic, and it has to create value for everyone. The places where we will look at, obviously, are going to be DPS. Having said that, I am not averse to complementary capacities coming in the core connectivity space. So we will actively look at it. We have an active M&A funnel, and as and when that funnel progresses, you know, to a level, it will go to the board and go through the due diligence, before it's approved, and then it's ready for us to communicate, you know, externally as well, when we do such deals.
Funding of it, both organic and inorganic, you know, are something we constantly look at, and as Lakshmi alluded, there are multiple levers, monetization opportunities that we will examine. But let me rewind the clock. You know, 18 months before, what did we, what did we do? We did have an aspiration of M&A. We spruced up. We delivered a very healthy profitability, you know, in our business. We brought our net debt down to 1.3x, created the war chest and the capacity. We were operating at a very healthy 29% ROCE, and then we went and acquired these three assets, and our task is to, of course, integrate and deliver on the synergies and the business case of these assets.
And we have given you an indication of when, net debt, leverage, ROCE, and EBITDA margins will come back to our ambition ranges. And when we get back there, I've said multiple times, our objective is not to stay there. Our objective is to use our financial muscle to invest behind growth. Now, what happens between the time we get there and now, if there are interesting opportunities, that's why we will look at all these monetization opportunities. With the robustness of our financial performance, our own headroom on debt capacity has also gone up. So if required, we will, you know, look at avenues. We've also done theoretical exercise on varying target sizes, what is the right funding, you know, instrument that we need to use?
So depending on the opportunity, depending on the target, I think, Tata Communications today has the right hygiene and a robust balance sheet to tap onto the right capital asset that is required to fund that opportunity. I'll leave it at that, Balaji. I can't go any further detail than that.
Thanks, Lakshmi and Kabir, for the detailed response. My next question was on the Interaction Fabric that you had mentioned. So, you did allude to the diversification of enterprises towards non-SMS channels. But, you know, based on what I gather from market sources, it does look like, you know, even though WhatsApp volumes are on a tear, there have been some renegotiation of terms from WhatsApp side towards CPaaS players. And I do understand that they have taken up the, you know, the incentive which you get. The threshold which needs to be crossed to be eligible for the incentive.
There is chatter that, you know, eventually the gross margins in the WhatsApp business will also settle down to something like 15%-20%, which is what we see in the domestic SMS market. So, how do you kind of, you know, reconcile the fact that, you know, at the end of the day, something like a channel like an SMS is something which is owned by the telco, while WhatsApp as a channel is owned by Meta? So, you know, considering the typical lack of ownership of these channels by a CPaaS vendor, you know, how... Do you think that that will come in the way of monetization of CPaaS in the long run? Thank you.
Yeah, so, you know, we cannot really, you know, speculate on what will happen. There are not just these channels, there are voice channels, for example, which we own, and, you know, programmable voice is another big opportunity. There are video opportunities, there are RCS opportunities. So the channels will continue to expand. So I think we need to just. And we cannot also predict on, you know, which channels are gonna pick up the most in the customers. So that is one area, you know, we do need to develop the products, which we are doing and take it to customers. The second is, you know, I think the customers also will settle on looking at what are the optimal channels to use, right? In terms of across these channels.
Which is where, you know, our ability to orchestrate across multiple channels, build out those orchestration layers, and bring AI to that will be crucial. So after all, finally, it'll be channels.
Got it. Thanks a lot, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you, Balaji. The next question is from the line of Vibhor Singhal from Nuvama. Vibhor, we have requested you to unmute yourself. Please proceed and ask your question.
Hello? Hello.
Yeah. Hi, hi. Hello.
Yeah, yeah. Hello. Hi, thanks for taking my question. So, actually a couple of questions from my side on the overall growth environment. As I think they have been asked by the earlier participants, I think the growth in this quarter was kind of stable, but of course, there's a big gap between what our aspirations are and what we are delivering at this point of time. How is the basically overall macro looking like, especially with respect to the second half of the year? We've seen a lot of IT services vendors talk about the interest rate cut having reinvigorated talks about discretionary spends. Is that also something that we are also hearing and will that be applicable to us as well?
But on a broader note, what is the kind of growth that we are? I mean, what is the kind of overall growth trajectory that we're looking at for the second half of this year?
Yeah, well, I don't want to comment on immediately the immediate quarters. I think we are very encouraged by the order bookings that we've had in the last two quarters.
Mm-hmm.
and the second data point that I have is that the time taken to convert these orders actually have been longer as well.
Right.
As I've been saying, as we put more in the funnel, at some point in time it will come out, right? So our effort has been to see how do we put good quality of deals into the funnel, increase our engagement. And those are the things entirely under our control, and that is what we are focused on. To the question on macro, there are different readings of it. You know, in terms of the geopolitical risks, you know, that is even more heightened and in fact worsened. Yes, the interest rate cuts have been encouraging. So it's hard to read into some of these. And the second aspect, which I have been highlighting also in the area of, you know, network for example, you know, they are t he customers do not, you know, replace it just like that because it's a fairly complex process that they have to go through, and there is an inertia for them to do so.
There is a lot of work that we are having to do with the customers to switch from incumbents, and having done that, the time to realize some of these revenues are also longer, so yes, macro plays a role in which case, you know, if they build more applications and if they put more into the cloud, their existing network architecture and infrastructure begins to crack, and that is when they look to see whether they can look to transforming the network, so in a sense, that's a relationship between macro.
As macro improves, more applications, more things move into cloud, more stress on their legacy network, and therefore the need to transform. So it's a longer cycle from our perspective. But the good thing is, you know, we stay focused on. And the encouraging thing is also we have multiple fabrics, right? So if hopefully, the discretionary spend goes up, you know, our Interaction Fabric, I believe, will continue to stand to benefit from such a move.
Right. Thanks for that very detailed answer. But if I were to vary the answer you just gave with the answer to Sanjesh's question in the beginning, you mentioned that, of course, there's a macro factor, there's a market dynamics. When we build aspirations, we of course, don't take, market dynamics into account, and we hope for the best. So what exactly are the market triggers or let's say, drivers that you are waiting for? So you've had an interest rate cut. There is a talks of discretionary spend which are picking up. What exactly, are we waiting for? I mean, what are those events, or what is that something which you believe is going to be, is going to drive our revenue growth to our aspirational levels?
No, I said we're not waiting for anything for, for happening. So
Oh, we are waiting for that, maybe.
So if you look at each of the. I think I gave an elaborate answer as far as the network. So when do people undertake network transformation?
Mm.
It's particularly when they go to cloud, they see that their current network architecture is not able to cope. They become under cost pressure, and therefore they look to replace their traditional network with more internet-based architecture. And as they move to more internet-based architecture, there is more need for network security and SASE, which is where again, we have invested. So I think the trigger would be largely, you know, where the enterprises get to a point where as they move their applications to cloud, as they have more distributed touchpoints, either from their users accessing in multiple places, the application performance begins to go down. And as they go to use more internet, they get more worried about security, and therefore, the network transformation, implementing network security-related thing, sort of accelerates.
So that's a trigger point as far as that is concerned, right? In the cloud and our security fabric, I've spoken to the security fabric, so the network security is one. The second is we are seeing a lot of opportunities on implementing a very state-of-the-art, you know, SOC for customers, and that is what we announced at the last quarter, for example. And these are and there are multiple such opportunities where, you know, the threat landscape is increasing and people are wanting to implement. So in a couple of these deals that we are implementing, it's a complex implementation, integrating over twenty different OEM technologies to deliver, and we are enabling it through threat intel from our network and bringing AI capabilities to that, right? So, so that is another trigger event for that portfolio.
And of course, the cloud, you know, we are strengthening our infrastructure as a service as well as a platform. We have, you know, we, you know, expect us to announce some relaunch of these products, in this coming year. And we are investing in AI cloud, which is in a very, very early stage. So, these are some of the examples I can talk about for each of the fabrics. There are clearly trigger points in each of the fabrics, which are driving, which we believe will drive the growth.
Right. Sure. Yeah, got that, Lakshmi. So, I mean, okay, I'll probably just have a couple of four very specific questions. The media revenue saw a very sharp decline in this quarter.
Yeah.
Any specific reason for that? I'm sorry if you elaborated that already. I missed the initial part of your opening comments.
Yeah. So no, I did mention that, the media is a bit cyclical with based on the sports calendar.
Yeah.
A lot of our media revenues.
Okay
Come from our coverage of live sporting events, right? So we are the leaders in a lot of global sporting events, like the Formula One and others. Last quarter, we had, you know, the international cricket, the T20 match in the U.S. and the Caribbean, and we also had Olympics. So all of that were, you know, in the last quarter. So depending on the sports calendar, it has a bit of cyclicality, I would say.
Got it. Sure, that's important. Just last question for Kabir. So, Kabir, I think, I mean, this quarter margins, I suppose, were impacted because of the maintenance expenditure in the core connectivity segment. But excluding the, I don't know if you quantified that. Again, maybe I missed out in the initial parts. But excluding for that, are we looking at a trajectory in which we are looking to expand margins every quarter, especially in the digital space, as we should now be starting to reap the benefits of integration of both Kaleyra and The Switch? Is that understanding correct? And, is that also what we can also build in, let's say, for the next year as well?
Look, Vibhor, I've said we want to get back to our ambition of twenty-three, twenty-five, and that will come in two years' time.
Right.
This year, I've said we will be in the range of 20%. That's what we would like to get.
Right.
You know, 0.5% here, there is not the point, but that is the range we will get, you know, back in. What your point, you say, I will not say only for Kaleyra, but all, for the entire digital products itself.
Mm-hmm
We have a glide path. You know, we have mentioned this, that we have a glide path, and there are multiple drivers, and the drivers differ from product category to product category, and those are tracked in terms of margin expansion. So absolutely, yes. We want to be able to drive faster, better growth in DPS and also profitable growth. So therefore, even that profitable trajectory also needs to go up. Even from the current levels, when we drive faster growth, we have a headwind because of the mix effect, you know, on our margin profile. Despite that, you know, our ambition is to stay in the 23-25.
Got it. Got it. That was really helpful. Thank you, guys. Thanks a lot for taking my questions.
Thank you, Vibhor.
Thanks, Vibhor. The next question is from Vinit Manek, from Karma Capital. Vineeth, I request you to unmute yourself and ask your question.
But just one question for Lakshmi. So Lakshmi, not specifically on the numbers, but we have seen a good growth QOQ for this quarter, and with a lot of revenue coming back on our core connectivity and few of the good order book that we have seen growth for the last two quarters. So can we expect a better second half versus the first half revenues that we have seen, or any comments on that?
So, Vineeth, you know, I sort of gave a color to some of these order books. While I cannot give specific guidance, I've also given a color on the order book that some of the orders I think I mentioned about the large hyperscaler network build, and that will come, you know, almost towards the second half of FY 2026. Some of our network deals, we book the order by the time we realize the revenues take longer. But there are certain portfolios where booking the order to conversion is faster. So it's, you know, so the various portfolios have different colors, so it's harder for me to.
While we know how it's going to translate, we don't want to break that out and give a guidance for the H2 based on this.
Got it. Got it. And, two bookkeeping questions for Kabir. So, Kabir, any sense on the kind of usage of the cash that we're gonna do from the divestment that we had announced? So will it be more towards the debt repayment or it will be required for some accelerated investments on the AI cloud or the GPUs that we will be doing mostly in the second half?
Yeah. I would have liked if you did not call it bookkeeping questions.
Yes.
Finance in Tata Comms is quite strategic, and we add value to the business in a fundamental way, so yeah, bookkeeping is what we do to earn our salary, but we are here to drive business forward. We look at source of funds and use of funds. We have a strategic plan that drives our actions. We have our ambitions to be the Digital Fabric for our enterprise customers, and we have 28,000 crore as our North Star in FY 2027. We have digital portfolio that we want to drive as an acceleration. You know, so those are all our guiding factors.
Yes, each and every opportunity will be evaluated based on the ROI that it needs to deliver, so we are measuring from a very careful angle of driving growth, driving profitable growth, yet delivering the ROCE that we want to, you know, do and maintain a certain healthy debt equity ratio and a leverage. There are multiple places from where this is optimized. I would say we will look at every element, both in the P&L and in the balance sheet, and sweat each and every piece of asset that we have towards driving profitable growth.
If you had probably been exposed to the finance strategy, there is a big pillar called Fit to Grow, and the Fit to Grow is not just a conceptual model, it's a strategic planning model backed with multiple scenarios that the team updates on a monthly basis, which guides us in terms of resource allocation, you know, for the business, both for organic and inorganic activity.
Got it. Got it. And can you just repeat the one-time expenses that were there in the interest cost of INR 193 crore this quarter? And could this be the peak absolute interest cost for us? Because we have already hit the threshold of the debt to EBITDA kind of thing that we were we had on the aspiration side. So can we say that this is the peak interest cost on the absolute side?
Firstly, it's not a one-time cost, that's my interest cost bill for the quarter, INR 193 crores. You tell me that the Central Bank of India and the U.S. will not increase rates. I will give you the guarantee that that is the peak. Look, we have a hedging, you know, that we do. We have an interest rate management policy that we actually run. In this particular quarter, the costs have gone up because of increase in short-term borrowings and a mix of INR versus dollar debt. So that is the reason. I'm sorry, I can't give you guarantees whether we have reached the peak or not, because I do not control interest rates.
Okay, but how much was that? Can you quantify that for the quarter?
Look, it's very marginal.
Okay.
Our weighted average cost of debt is still lower than the previous quarter. It's only the absolute that's gone up because of the mix between the short-term borrowings that are taken in, in India. So it's a few crores here and there.
Got it. Got it, got it. Thank you. Thank you for answering all the questions.
Thanks, Vineeth. The next question is from Priyank Parekh, from Abacus Asset Managers. Priyank, please go ahead and ask your question.
Sir, am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Yeah. Thank you. Just wanted to understand, from the perspective of, that we have multiple segments, and within the digital portfolio, we have five segments. So when we are projecting the growth, for next few years, I want to understand how correlated those, these segments, are. Are they quite, heavily driven by, very, certain levers, or they are, completely diversified?
You mean if in each of the segments. Yeah, I don't think there is much of correlation. So there might be some correlation between the Network Fabric and, for example, the cloud and security fabric. I think I answered in the last call. As people do network transformation and tend to use more of internet, there is gonna be more need for a different security architecture in the network through the SASE and other new technologies, which is linked to the network transformation that takes place, so that is one linkage. But otherwise, you know, I don't think there are huge amount of linkages between an Interaction Fabric and a Network Fabric or an IoT fabric. And also we find that the, you know, the buying personas within enterprise for many of these are somewhat different.
Even within the Network Fabric, the person, you know, who looks at network, and typically the people who have been looking at network security have been different. But as it begins to converge, we are also seeing that in enterprise there are changes in how they make the decisions. So there are certain convergence, like the LAN and the WAN, the WAN and the security. But truly there are different personas taking decisions and there are different drivers. There are not many more links I can think of.
Okay, and when we are speaking that 280 billion of the revenue in next few years, which segment you are really seeing driving that growth within the digital?
Yeah, no, all the fabrics. No, I think I have elaborated before, the Network Fabric, the cloud security, the interconnect, IoT, the media, all of them have potential and all of them can grow at a very healthy double digits.
Okay. Okay, got it. And just the last one question for understanding. When we are saying that this land sale will impact our, their income, that is the real estate income that we are reporting, right?
Sorry. Sorry, repeat that again, please. I missed you.
So when we are saying that this land sale will impact our other incomes, that is the real estate income that we are talking about?
Yes, that is correct.
Okay, understood. Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks, Priyank. The next question is from Gautam Rathi. Gautam, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Gautam, please.
Hello? Hi, this is Nishit. Can you hear me?
Hi, Nishit.
Hi, great. So, you know, just a couple of questions. You know, you called out the best international order book in the last five years. Can you give some color as to what is driving this? I know you gave a very detailed explanation with respect to some of the network transformation deals and how long it takes to kind of get some of those. Are we seeing some of those also in that kind of order book? Or, this vast order book is without some of those network transformation deals?
No, no, I think the order book, again, as I mentioned, is across all the fabrics. But having said that, in some of the usage-based areas like the Interaction Fabric, we don't really include that in the order book because that is purely usage-based. Unless we have a firm commitment, we don't include that in the order book. But the order book color that I gave is across all the four fabrics.
Anything incrementally that has changed, Lakshmi? One thing you called out is increased sales productivity. You know, you're basically saying that, you know, your funnel had increased so much that something had to convert because you had put more manpower behind it. But is there anything incrementally that you're seeing? You know, are you starting to win deals differently? Any other kind of color would be very, very helpful or, or this is it?
I think it's early to call. I mean, we obviously, the win rates have improved, which is simply a function of how much we are winning, compared to, you know, how much get dropped because the customer is not simply taking it forward, or they choose to stay with the incumbent, those kind of scenarios, so the win rates improvement is encouraging. Yeah, other than that, no, it's a factor of gaining the confidence with the customers, because especially in the area, they could easily replace. It takes time, so they are a lot more conservative.
So that's the reason why it takes time. It takes time to develop the trust, and there is a long engagement cycle that goes behind that. So b ut in terms of color, I don't think I can add any more color to that. Yeah, there are instances where, you know, we have won against certain incumbents consistently. But other than that, I can't give you any further color.
Fair. See, I just wanted to call out what I understand, and, you know, just if you could help me understand that, right?
Yeah.
If the way I'm thinking about it is that, you know, it's a long sales cycle, and you guys have been at it for the last maybe eighteen, twenty months, adding more and more salespeople, which means that you've been adding to the funnel. But because it's a long sales cycle, it takes time, and now you're starting to see fruit of some of those deals come through, though the market is still not improved which is kind of showing up in your subdued funnel, right? So it is more gradual, but there is a possibility that as incrementally, both your productivity of the sales improves as you keep adding more products and the market improves, this could accelerate, this could accelerate, right? Is that, is that the way you are seeing it, or is there anything different?
That is the plan.
Perfect. So that is one, and just the subdued funnel in the context of increased sales people, so have things got even worse on the macro side? Because your sales people are getting more productive, which means that even with the macro being soft, you should have actually been the funnel should have been growing, right?
I think you should read that in context with the conversions as well, right, so we have got deals, which means that, you know, we have fruitful conversion of the funnel, and when you convert, then it gets out of the funnel, so we have to replenish the funnel, right?
Understood. Okay.
So what I'm saying is the funnel is remaining constant, which is why we said the funnel is still robust. But in terms of the pace of new additions, that had somewhat slowed down because, you know, rightfully so, the teams are also focused on closing some of them.
Okay. He's occupied there. And just, is there any update on the NVIDIA partnership? Because, you know, Q3 is when we were expecting that to go live. Any kind of color you want to give on that? How do we see that starting? What kind of revenue impact should we see from Q4, Q1 onwards?
Yeah. No, it's close to the period that you said Q3, so please wait for the launch.
Fair enough. And, you know, just the media side, I understand the seasonality on a quarter-on-quarter basis. What I'm not able to fully understand on a year-on-year basis, given the kind of commentary that we were hearing with The Switch. And, you know, the kind of opportunities that were opening up there, are these again a work in progress? What is happening out there, if any kind of understanding there?
Yeah, I think, you know, we are closing deals. But, you know, some of the seasonality is not a yearly seasonality. You know, Olympics doesn't come every year. The ICC T20 doesn't happen every year, right? So, some seasonalities are annual seasonalities, which reflect in the quarterly. Things like the Formula One race begins and ends in certain seasons, but some of the other events are not a yearly calendar one. So that's what I referred. So... No, I think the integration with The Switch is proceeding at pace. You know, we were impacted somewhat by the Hollywood strikes last year, and things are beginning to pick up again. So we are quite pleased with the revenue opportunities through the Switch integration, particularly on the production side, because it does expand our capability beyond just the transmission side that we were in before.
That's fair. You know, Kabir, you spoke about a lot of the costs getting booked upfront and a lot of investment being made. Can you just help us understand maybe a few examples for us to kind of just get a better understanding of this, you know, where.
Nishit, there are a lot of them are there already in the public domain. We've, for example, preparing ourselves, you know, to play really well in the acquisition game. We are reorganizing our subsidiaries. Now, TC U.K. is a direct subsidiary of India. That's there in the regulatory filings. It's there in the public domain. So that's from an M&A perspective that we are competitive, you know, we will do that. Then there are other projects in preparatory stage for any monetization opportunities that we may get, which are not yet approved by the board. So I'm not privy to share any. These are all preparatory works. When it happens and when it reaches, and when the board approves, then this will be the reason for public disclosure.
Until then, you know, I can only tell you that as we are poised for growth, and a lot of you have asked the question on use of funds and how will we do it. So we've looked at all of them and say: How can we do that in a tax-efficient and a least cost, you know, way? And our structure, you know, if that was coming in the way, we are trying to simplify that structure. That's the best level of information I can provide. I can't go any more detailed than that.
That's very fair, Kabir. Kabir, the employee cost also, you know, is this normal increment or you know, the INR 50 crore increase quarter on quarter? Just can you help us understand, is there anything out there that we need to understand? Did you add more, what was that?
No, no, no. You know, it happens every, you know, Q2, if you actually look at historically. So we accrue for a certain SIP costs and, for the full year of, you know, of the previous year, that gets paid out in the first quarter, and when there are excess provisions, that get reversed. So therefore, you are comparing against the base effect. Why that's why it looks, looks, you know, increased, but it's not any increased increment. This is not an increment cycle. Q2 is not our increment cycle, so it's not increment cycle, not any extra hires, so that is not contributing for it.
Look, Q1 had some reversals, and Q2 is more normalized, and this is how you should be seeing this. Okay, that's
Correct.
Yeah, okay. And this INR 86 crore, which has been included in revenue, what exactly is it? Is it like a debtors or provision made, which has been reversed? Is that understanding right?
No, no, no, it's not. Look, it's BAU for us. These are excess customer credits that we had, which we would have otherwise given to customers on renewals and stuff like that, and negotiations turn out better, so it's normally a very, very BAU activity that happens every quarter, every year. Because sometimes renewal happens, and we go and close the discussions two months, three months later on, and so you obviously take a view that, you know, you may end up giving so much as a discount, but you get better than that.
The reason why we've called out this time is because it's an aged, you know, customer credit, which is greater than, you know, five years, and therefore, just as part of good governance, we said since it's an aged credit and not within the year, we've called that out, but otherwise these are, you know, regular BAU stuff.
Understood. And just one last thing on the working capital side, you know, the inventory numbers seem to be very high. And also, is there any impact of Kaleyra in our working capital? You know, because it's a kind of business where you have to give advances upfront. You know, can you just help us understand the inventory and the Kaleyra?
Inventory is a deal-specific, Nishit, so there's one large deal where we've procured the inventory, but we are unable to bill the customer, because of the RFP condition, that we have to stitch a solution, and then only we can, you know, do it. So we have procured it, you know, for that particular purpose. It's most of our inventories, I mean, are for customer orders. They are. We don't have an inventory policy. We don't stock, you know, inventory per se, so this is directly linked to one large deal.
Yeah. And, and Kaleyra, is there an impact on, of Kaleyra on our increased working capital? Because you need to give advances to the telcos and stuff like that.
No, there is one specific deal in Kaleyra where there was an advance payment, you know, that had to be given, which is factored in. I would, you know, as I, you know, responded earlier to Sanjay also, you know, I would say these are, this is BAU, and we have taken an economic call in totality, you know, per se.
This is very helpful. Just one last request, Kabir. Whenever you think it's right, you know, it's very interesting what you spoke about the core and the non-core, and you guys have a very detailed plan towards that. Whenever you guys can share, maybe whatever you can share in that context, you know, for us to kind of take a longer-term view on that business, because I believe it could have very material impact, you know, because you have a lot of capital coming out and cost getting saved, which will then be used to reinvest for further growth, right? And if you could share that plan with us at any point of time, it'll be very, very helpful. It's a request from our side. You can consider whatever best you can.
It's not about request. Sorry, Nishit. Let's not be irresponsible with that comment. We are a publicly listed company, regulated by financial markets and SEBI. There are very clear, laid-out disclosure requirements. When proposals of this nature go to the board and get approved, we are under obligation to report to the market. This is not a request, so please don't, you know, consider it. We, as a management, are obligated, and we will absolutely do everything in compliance with the law and to the strict levels of corporate governance so don't even have an iota of doubt on that.
No, no, I agree with that. I'm not saying what happens. I'm saying what is the way forward? What is strategic, what is not strategic? What kind of amounts are you looking at saving?
That's what I'm trying to say, you know, Nishit.
Uh.
The moment I say, "This is an asset that I want to dispose," I'm obligated to call it an asset held for sale-
I understand.
and put it in my account.
Got it.
Until that review has happened, until the board has approved it, we cannot do it, and I can't be flippant with those remarks.
Understood. Got it, understood. Fair enough. Thanks a lot, Lakshmi and Kabir. Really helpful.
Thank you, Nishit. We will take the last question, and this is from the line of Amit Maskara from Safira. Amit, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Amit, please proceed with your question. Amit, we still can't hear you. We'll request you to please reach out to the IR team, and we'll help address your question. With that, we come to the end of the Q&A session. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I will now request Lakshmi to please share his closing comments.
Thank you all. I think it's been a good interaction. I think we covered a lot of ground. Very pleased with the quarter in terms of the growth, both in the top line and in the EBITDA and PAT. Also pleased with the order booking in the first two quarters that we've had. We commit to stay focused on executing on our strategy. Thank you.
Thank you, Lakshmi. This brings us to the end of the call. In case of any queries, please write to investor.relations@tatacommunications.com. Thank you for joining the call, and you may now disconnect your lines. Have a good evening.