Good evening, everyone. We have the HCLTech leadership with us right now: CVK, Shiv, and Ram.

I'll hand it over to CVK to give you a color on the Q4 numbers and the overall performance for the full year. CVK.

CVK.

Yeah. Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for joining us for HCLTech's Q4 and FY '26 press conference. Before we get into the financials, I want to take a moment to reflect on an important milestone for all of us at HCL.

This year marks 50 years of HCL Group, five decades of building, reinventing, leading, and giving back. While this is a milestone we are very proud of, it's also a starting point.

The next 50 years begins now. It is so very fitting that as we mark this milestone, HCLTech has been named to Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies 2026 list.

Coming to the business performance, as all of FY '26 began against a backdrop of uncertainty. Tariff-related volatility persisted.

Discretionary spending softened in the traditional segments while emerging in new areas. Client behavior reflected a continuous focus on cost optimization along with accelerated adoption of AI-driven productivity.

Importantly, the momentum around AI remains strong, with nearly every deal incorporating AI or GenAI component. Our ambition is to be the best AI solutions company, leveraging our engineering pedigree.

Against this backdrop, FY '26 marks the third consecutive year in which HCLTech will be delivering industry-leading organic growth among all the scale players. I extend my sincere appreciation to all HCL Techies for their continued dedication and outstanding performance.

In FY '26, we delivered consolidated revenue of $14.7 billion, representing 3.9% growth in constant currency. All the growth rates hereon referred will be in constant currency.

The performance was supported by increasing contribution from our advanced AI and broader AI offerings. Our advanced AI annualized revenue reached $620 million.

Our operating margin for the year was 17.2%, and excluding restructuring costs, margin stood at 17.9%, which is a decline of 40 basis points from the previous year. In FY '26, our services business grew 4.8%, led by steady momentum in both our IT and business services, which grew 3.7%, while our engineering and R&D delivered a strong 9.8% increase.

In HCL Software, revenue stood at $1.4 billion, ARR of $1.05 billion, reflecting a decline of 4.1% year-on-year, and 0.5% year-on-year on the ARR. Coming to our Q4 performance, our revenue for the quarter was at $3.7 billion, a decline of 3.3% quarter-on-quarter and a growth of 2.4% year-on-year.

Our services business declined 0.1% sequentially, but grew 4.2% year-on-year. HCL Software declined 28.1% sequentially and 14.1% on a year-on-year basis.

Our operating margin for the quarter came in at 16.5% or 17.7% excluding restructuring. Apart from the sequential decline due to the seasonality in the software business, we saw a delay in procurement decisions in the month of March that resulted in revenue coming below our expectations.

At the same time, our advanced AI revenue reached $155 million, reflecting a 6.1% sequential increase. Our services performance this quarter came in at a lower end of our expectations.

This was primarily driven due to reduction in discretionary spending on telecom, as well as discontinuation of two SAP programs, which happened late in the quarter. While annuity programs in telecom held steady, we saw select clients scale back discretionary investments across both digital business and engineering services during the quarter.

Some of this impact is likely to carry into the next quarter, and we have factored that into the guidance that we will be providing. After two quarters of strong new bookings, our new deals booking for the quarter moderated to $1.93 billion.

Booking momentum for the fiscal was good. TCV of net new booking for the year clocked $9.3 billion, which is the same as last year.

If you look at our client categories, we've grown them across the board, starting with an increase of one for greater than $100 million clients, eight for greater than $50 million clients, and all the way at $1 million range, we added 28 clients. This is a great proof of our AI strategy and our client relevance in the AI era.

Our advanced AI, we did some very good wins. A global technology major selected HCLTech for an AI foundry program worth over $100 million.

Our solution will fast-track their requirements of building and operating next-generation AI data centers to support cutting-edge AI workloads using the latest GPU technologies. A global semiconductor major selected HCLTech's AI engineering services to support ASIC development across multiple advanced-node chips, strengthening its position in physical AI.

As we close the quarter and fiscal year, our AI strategy is translating into deeper client engagement and clear market leadership. Momentum across our advanced AI offerings and overall AI portfolio remains strong, reflecting the strength of our early bets and our continued focus on AI that scales from experimentation to measurable business impact.

Our pipeline remains robust and broad-based across segments, verticals, and regions, with AI increasingly integral to nearly all deal conversations. The business environment remains highly fluid, making it difficult to form a definitive view of how the next 12 months will unfold.

We are seeing second-order effect play out. Rising energy prices and supply chain disruptions are weighing on the growth outlook in Europe, with risks of inflation and industrial slowdown becoming more pronounced.

At the same time, North America continues to show relative resilience, with no broad-based macroeconomic challenges at this stage. While our business fundamentals remain strong, we do have two client-specific challenges in Americas that will create a headwind of approximately 50 basis points to growth in FY '27.

These clients are navigating their own business pressures in the current macro environment and have scaled back their IT and business operations spending. In our software segment, we remain focused on accelerating the shift from a perpetual model to a more predictable subscription-led model.

On the margin front, the underlying margins of our portfolio remains resilient, as reflected in our EBIT margins excluding restructuring. As we navigate specific growth challenges in FY '27, we intend to reinvest the benefits of currency depreciation into strengthening our AI capabilities and our sales engine.

Our guidance for financial year '27 is as follows: The revenue growth guidance for the full year is 1% to 4% in constant currency, and 1.5% to 4.5% for services. EBIT margin guidance is at 17.5% to 18.5%.

Now, I will request Shiv to walk you through more details on our financial performance. Thank you.

Thank you, CVK. Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for joining our Q4 financial year '26 earnings call. Let me walk you through our financial performance for the quarter first.

Total revenue for the quarter is ₹33,981 crore, which is a growth of 0.3% quarter-on-quarter and 12.3% on a year-on-year basis. Coming to the services side, services revenue came in at ₹31,230 crores, which is a growth of 3.5% quarter-on-quarter and 14.2% on a year-on-year basis.

The software revenue for the quarter came in at ₹2,857 crores, which is a drop of 24.6% quarter-on-quarter and 5% on a year-on-year basis. Moving on to profitability for the quarter, our EBIT came in at ₹5,620 crores at 16.5% of revenue.

On the back of seasonally strong OND quarter for HCL Software, our EBIT dropped by 10.6% quarter-on-quarter and grew 3.3% on a year-on-year basis. Net income for the quarter is at ₹4,488 crores at 13.2% of revenue.

Now moving on to our financial performance for the financial year 2026. Again starting with the revenue performance, total revenue for the year is at ₹1,30,144 crores, which is a growth of 11.2% on a year-on-year basis.

Coming to the services side, services revenue came in at ₹1,18,158 crores, which is a growth of 12.1% on a year-on-year basis. Software revenue for the year came in at ₹12,397 crores, which is a growth of 2.9% on a year-on-year basis.

Moving on to the profitability, our EBIT came in at ₹22,397 crores at 17.2% of revenue, down 107 basis points year-on-year. Our EBIT grew 4.6% on a year-on-year basis.

Net income for the year is rupees at ₹17,361 crores at 13.3% of revenue. EBIT and net income exclude the one-time impact of new labor codes.

Including the same, FY '26 EBIT is at ₹21,441 crores and net income is ₹16,642 crores. Moving on to return on invested capital, ROIC.

Our ROIC continues to improve, thanks to our ongoing focus on profitability and efficient capital management. The last 12 months ROIC is at 40.3% for the company, up 235 basis points year-on-year, and services ROIC now is at 47%, up 155 basis points year-on-year.

Software continued to improve with ROIC at 22.6%, up 274 basis points year-on-year. Now, let me share the details on our strong cash generation.

Our cash generation remains very strong. Over the last 12 months, operating cash flow reached ₹19,975 crores, while free cash flow generation was at ₹18,553 crores.

Our balance sheet remains strong, with gross cash at ₹33,447 crores and net cash at ₹33,288 crores. Operating cash flow to net income conversion is healthy at 115%, and free cash flow to net income conversion is at 107%.

Update on DSO: our total DSO including unbilled is currently at 84 days, which is an increase of three days over previous quarter. Now for the shareholders, the diluted EPS for last 12 months came in at ₹64.01, which is down 0.1% year-on-year.

Including the impact of new labor code, the diluted EPS is ₹INR 61.36. The board has declared an interim dividend of ₹24 per share for the quarter.

The record date is 25th of April, '26, and the payment date of the same shall be 5th of May, '26. That brings our last 12 months payout to ₹60 per share, effectively distributing 97.6% of our net income for this year.

That's all from my side for now, and I would like to hand over the discussion to Ram for an update on HR metrics. Thank you.

Thank you, Shiv. Good evening, everybody.

Am I audible? Okay.

Good evening, everybody. For the quarter ending March '26, our people strength is 227,181.

That's a sequential increase of 802. On a full-year basis, our people strength increased by 3,761.

That's a 1.7% increase annually. If you look at it, the revenue grew at a faster pace, implying the revenue per employee continues to accelerate.

This quarter we added 1,712 freshers. The number is very similar to what we added in the JFM quarter last fiscal.

On a full-year basis, we added 11,744 freshers. That's about 50% more than what we did in FY '25.

If you recall, at the beginning of FY '26, we did say that our plan for FY '26 is to significantly increase the fresher hiring, and that pretty much is what we have done through the year. IT services voluntary attrition, trailing 12 months at 12.5%.

On a full-year basis from FY '25 to FY '26, that's a 50 basis points improvement. With that brief, I'll hand it over to Ashu.

We'll open the floor for questions. Identify your publication and your name, yeah.

If you can ask two questions in one go. Sure,

sure. Hi, this is Urvashi from Fortune India.

Congratulations on five decades. I want to understand why the guidance band is so wide and what are the indicators for such a wide band?

Yeah. I think even last year we gave a 3% band for guidance.

Normally it was 2% many years ago, but given the volatility in the market, we are a little bit more comfortable with a broader band. We have certain assumptions for our lower end, mid end, and high end.

Our lower end assumes similar discretionary spending, which has been soft, especially since March, and we talked about two client-specific reductions. We factored that in, and we are assuming that might get even worse during the year.

That's the low end. Midpoint, we think is similar discretionary spending environment and the two clients will have whatever planned reductions that we have, that's what will happen.

In the third higher end is discretionary spending environment will improve, and also we will have a very strong booking in Q1/Q2 because of a couple of large deals. I think we've baked in all the scenarios and given you a 3% guidance band.

Okay. Can you shed some color on the margins of the advanced AI revenue?

Last question, what are some reasons behind the decline in the revenue of the top five clients?

I think advanced AI revenue, it's a little premature to call out the margins. Right now we have a very strong mechanism for tracking.

If you look at the top five clients, we did call out it's largely because of one client for whom we had a very huge uptick in FY '25, and now because of offshoring, it's FY '26 revenues are lowered. Otherwise, if you see all the client pyramids have grown very strongly, as I mentioned.

We continue to increase the revenue from these clients despite some of the deflation from AI. Thank you.

Hi, good evening. This is Tanya from The Economic Times.

Few quick questions for you. Your AI revenue grew even as overall services growth stayed weak, and AI is one of your main growth drivers.

I just wanted to ask, are you seeing a reduced demand for some traditional services work as well?

Yes, I think more than the demand is reduced, I think there is a deflation, right? There is demand, of course, our pipeline is strong, but all of them is getting influenced by AI.

We don't call the traditional demand influenced by AI as advanced AI revenue. I don't see that the demand for traditional services have reduced, but let's say something was $100 million deal, now could be an $80 million deal.

Because of the deflation. AI continues to be We've taken some early bets.

We have a very rigorous way to classify our advanced AI revenue. We're very happy to report $620 million of annualized revenue and growing at 7%.

Recently you made some acquisitions. It was Finergics in Jan and there were some other in late last year.

What kind of contribution have they made to FY '27 guidance?

Finergics was a very, very small acquisition and it will hardly have $3 million, $4 million impact in

'26.

In FY '26, $300, in this '27, it'll have maybe $3 million, $4 million. In the larger scheme of $14.

whatever, $7 billion, it's not relevant. The two new acquisitions that we announced in December or in the OND quarter, one was Jaspersoft and the other one was carve-out of the telecom business unit from HPE.

Both of them are still pending clearance. There is a little uncertainty as to when the clearance will come, because some of this is dependent on the US government approvals.

Right now we have not factored in anything. Whenever we get the approvals, then we will let you know.

One last question. You recently partnered with clients like Western Union on some new AI-focused capability centers.

Some recent data shows that GCCs are facing a nearly 40% AI talent gap. Are you seeing clients struggle more with finding talent than with setting up the actual centers, and could this probably be a bottleneck in the next couple of years?

I think when you talk about AI, talent is one of the most critical requirements, and there is definitely a huge talent gap in getting the right type of skills. More than anything else, I think we need to transform the talent that we have.

We have a very clear talent strategy where all our people will get classified into three categories. One is AI builders, who can build solutions, who can work with models, fine-tune, and create completely new AI solutions.

The second category is what we call as AI superusers, who can enhance the productivity on 3 to 4x from their current productivity levels. The third category is what we call as human-in-the-loop AI decision makers.

They very context-aware capability, who can make decisions when there are multiple options provided by an AI solution. That's how we want our talent pyramid to evolve.

We're working very diligently to kind of train and get our people in these three categories and really enhance the capability level.

I'll just squeeze in one last question. There are recent discussions going on in the industry regarding the POSH regulations and guidelines.

As a company, have you also sort of tried to revisit the mechanism and what are your thoughts on that, if you could shed some light on that?

Yeah. Ram?

Yes, I think firstly, what has come out and what has been talked about is very unfortunate. I don't think anybody sitting in any management team will ever stand on the side of turning their sights away from what has happened kind of things.

Just to be very clear, we do take it very seriously. To your question in terms of what have we done, we do have a very robust process, which I'm sure is the case with every other large enterprise.

What we have done additionally is what I call as ACE audits. Stands for adequacy, compliance, effectiveness, right?

It's one thing to have the right policy, set out the right procedures, build the right channels, create awareness, and make sure that those processes work. It's also important to get it independently audited and verified to see whether what we have is adequate.

Are we in compliance with what we set out to be compliance? It's not just about the compliance to what the statute says, but more importantly what we set out as what we want to do, whether we are adhering to that and is it effective, right?

One thing that we have done and we continue to do is to do this as an independent audit, and that gets reported at the highest level of the management to have the management attention to see whatever we need to do. That's where we stand.

Anyone else here?

Hi, this is Rishabh Bhatnagar with NDTV Profit. Firstly, I want to ask, are you seeing clients shifting from output-based pricing to a billing hour pricing sort of a structure?

If that is so, what is the impact in revenue growth and pricing structures that you're seeing? That's the first one.

I think, obviously because of AI, there is more shift towards output and outcome-based pricing than input-based pricing. Right now I have nothing to report on the revenue impact positively or negatively.

That is a trend, and we are also very strongly advocating and providing solutions which are more outcome-based solutions for our clients.

Staying on AI, have you seen any sort of cannibalization for legacy revenues yet, and how do you see the volume to sort of offset that issue?

I think we've talked about it. We will see a deflation in some of the existing revenue streams.

Based on our portfolio, AI deflation could be 2% to 3% a year. We have launched a lot of new AI services, which is what we call as advanced AI, which has got five broad category of services.

One is AI foundry, physical AI, semiconductor design for inferencing, then AI-led marketing services, and IP and platform. These five are what largely contributes to our advanced AI revenue.

As you can see, it's grown 6% or 7% sequentially. We think this is a strong revenue stream.

It should grow 25%, 30% year-on-year. This will really become a big growth driver.

We have a disproportionate emphasis among the leadership to really drive the advanced AI revenue, while of course doing all the right things like AI transformation in our existing customers to transform our traditional revenues into more AI-led operating model.

Right. Lastly, one on Middle East exposures.

How is that situation evolving for you? What sort of feedback are you now getting from clients?

Our Middle East exposure is very small in line with the overall. Our Rest of the World revenue itself is about 9%, Middle East will be maybe sub-1% revenue contribution to the overall numbers.

We saw some impact in the software business during the quarter. Procurement got delayed.

We haven't seen anything in the services business.

Good evening. I'm Shakshi Jain from Informist Media.

One quick question: what are the company's investment priorities in FY '27, especially when it comes to acquisitions, partnerships, and building AI infrastructure, including training?

I think last year we did spend almost 50 basis points of our revenue into AI-led investments and go-to-market investments. Similar things will continue this year.

If you look at the overall R&D spend of HCL, it's somewhere between 2.5% to 3% of our revenue. A lot of that is going towards modernizing our products using AI, building new services which are advanced AI services.

That's what it is.

One maybe on hiring, target for FY '27?

You're specifically referring to overall hiring or is it in the context of--

Would be great if you could help us with the overall number and give the breakup for freshers.

Overall hiring is always going to be a variable number. It's very difficult to give an annual forecast for that.

Generally, it works on the basis of quarterly and monthly run rates. Entry-level hiring, it's it's going to be on similar lines as what we've done for this year.

Like I said, last year I think we in in the current environment, I think trying to put out a number on a full-year basis, it's not going to be the wise thing to do. It's always going to be managed on a quarterly basis, rolling quarterly basis.

Overall, directionally if we look at, it'll be along the similar lines as what we did in FY '26.

All right. Thank you.

Now we'll move to media who joined us virtually. Over to you, Nitin.

Thank you, Ashutosh. For our friends who have joined us virtually today, please follow these instructions to ask your question: For people joining on the Webex mobile app, tap the three dots on the floating panel and select the raise hand icon.

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Our first question is from Rishabh Shah from Moneycontrol. Rishabh, please go ahead and ask your question.

Hello, Rishabh here from Moneycontrol. I have two questions.

HCL announced restructuring in the previous quarter. Could you give a color on as to how many employees would be impacted overall?

Second, about 130 HCLTech employees were affected in one of your US locations. Was it because of a client ramp-down or was it insourcing by the GCC?

Yeah. We've kind of discussed this earlier.

We are not calling out any numbers as a part of this. Whatever we have in the US, maybe Ram, you can--

I think it was very specific to one engagement that was part of the plan for service delivery transformation. That's how the deal was constructed.

That's part of the plan. I don't think there is anything unusual that has happened.

If I connect the dots, I think your question is about the action that happened in Florida. That's to one particular engagement.

That's part of the deal structure. That's on the basis of how the service delivery was designed to be.

All right. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Ram. Our next question is from Jas from Mint.

Jas, please go ahead and ask your question.

Oh hi, am I audible?

Yes, Jas. Loud and clear.

Good evening, sirs. Just want to understand, with the 1% to 4% revenue guidance, you've mentioned that AI deflation would be 2% to 3% per year.

Also on the point that a deal that was once sold for $100 million could now come for $80 million. In this light, how are you looking at growth going ahead?

Also, if we consider the fact that GCCs are sprouting up and more of your clients are shifting their work in-house, how do you look at the growth environment overall going ahead? Second, on the fixed price contracts, how many of your contracts are more towards the fixed price and T&M contracts, and how has this evolved over the last three years?

Thank you.

Yeah. First is 1% to 4% growth, and you overlay it with 2% to 3% deflation.

That should really mean that the gross growth is probably much higher, and we bake in the deflation, and that's why it comes to 1% to 4%. Jas, I think our revenue is also categorized at a high level, even the industry, AI revenue, what the total IT spend is getting categorized into three broad buckets: One is a set of traditional services which are all getting disrupted due to AI.

Then there is set of services which are getting amplified by AI, like data, cloud, cybersecurity, modernization. These are getting amplified.

Then there are completely AI-native services, which is what we're calling as advanced AI. While the traditional services would decline, but our TCV is also the same as last year.

It's not that in spite of the deflation, like the 100 coming to 80, if we have maintained the same total TCV that we won, broadly some $9.4 billion roughly, that's what we've maintained, which means we've been able to offset the deflation and we've been able to win more to maintain the run rate. That is going to create some growth.

In the AI-amplified services like data, modernization, cloud, cybersecurity, we think they will be healthy growth, and that could grow in close to double digits despite AI deflation. The advanced AI revenue, we think it has potential to grow at least 30% for some time.

I think these different categories will all add up to eventually kind of drive the overall revenue categorization. I already addressed the question on TCV.

Now the last question you asked was on FPP projects. If you can repeat your question, what exactly you wanted to ask on FPP?

Right, sir. I just wanted to understand what percentage of your contracts are time and material, outcome-based, and fixed price, and how has this evolved or changed over the last three years?

I think it is it is slightly increased in the last year. I don't have the exact number, but last time when we talked about it, it was somewhat equally split.

50% is a little less than 50% on time and material or input-based, and a little more than 50% is more fixed price and managed services.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, CVK. Our next question is from Debangana from Moneycontrol.

Debangana, please go ahead.

Hi, am I audible?

Yes, Debangana. Loud and clear.

Yes. Good evening, gentlemen.

CVK, just wanted to understand, you had alluded to the fact that the business environment right now is very fluid, it would be a bit unpredictable over the next 12 months. Just wanted to understand, are you seeing any deal cancellations because of that?

Is there a delay in terms of deal renewals as well to that extent? If you could shed some light on you slashing your full-year revenue growth guidance to 1% to 4% from what it was in FY '26?

I have a question for Shiv. Moneycontrol had reported sometime a few weeks ago that HCLTech is looking to invest into Sarvam in a $250 million round along with Nvidia and Bessemer.

Wanted to understand what synergies is HCLTech seeing through this deal, and is there a timeline that you're looking at to close the deal?

I think we're trying to talk about market speculations, we continuously evaluate opportunities that create long-term value. If and when there is something material to share, we will definitely share, right now I don't want to comment on the market speculation.

From a guidance perspective, I did talk about the environment being fluid, which is real, and that's something everybody is seeing every day. There is a lot of volatility in a number of variables, geopolitics and things like that.

Our guidance definitely is lower than what we started last year with. Last year was 2% to 5%, this year is 1% to 4%, and 1.5% to 4.5% in services.

As I called out, apart from everything else, we have two client-specific situations. Due to the clients' own business reasons, they have planned significant ramp-down.

That itself, at our plan levels, it is 0.5% decline, and that's possibly an additional element to consider when you look at the overall guidance. I hope I have answered all your questions.

I just had one more on delays in deal renewals and are you seeing any deal cancellations at the moment?

The software side, we did see significant delays in the procurement decisions in March, especially, and we also saw discretionary spend being reduced by two US telecom firms, which impacted us in the last quarter and that is likely to play out during the rest of the calendar year. We also, as I said, two SAP programs were discontinued towards early March and towards end of March.

There are some indications, but I'm not trying to kind of get a very broad-brush macroeconomic impact kind of thing. I'm trying to be as specific as I can so that you can make your own judgments.

Thanks. Just one last question: you had also mentioned that you are seeing some changes in the operating margin.

There was some impact because of the restructuring going on. Is this to be expected in the upcoming quarters as well, or has all the restructuring been completed by now?

It's largely completed. There could be some more in the next year, but that's all factored into our operating margin guidance of 17.5% to 18.5%.

Sure. Thank you.

Thank you, CVK. Our next question is from Veena Mani from The Times of India.

Veena, can you hear us? Please go ahead and ask your question.

Hi. Ram, I wanted to understand, HCL has been constantly saying that you're moving towards specialized freshers.

Now does this mean that somewhere you're trying to look at only the top engineering colleges that can give you a niche talent and tier-2, tier-3 college hiring will come down? If you can help me understand also, as more and more GCCs come up and clients trying to do their tech work in-house, is it likely to have an impact on your on-site hiring?

I think our overall approach to hiring entry-level talent, we did articulate at the beginning of last year that we want to build a cadre of elite engineers. That approach is working well.

If I look back at FY '26, it has worked well and we will continue to do that. Now to your specific question of does it mean that we'll engage with certain colleges and not engage with certain colleges, that is not the case.

We do engage with a broad section of colleges and universities, largely to do two things, right? One, we are present pretty much across the country, both in tier-1 cities as well as in tier-2 cities, and we do want to cover all the locations that we operate in, we do need to be a lot more broad-based, that is one.

The other thing is also about fairness, right? It's about giving opportunity to everybody.

We have set our entry criteria, and just because somebody comes from College A versus College B, we don't think that it's the right approach to deny opportunity to somebody coming from a different college. The probability of success could be different depending on each individuals.

Our approach is broad-based. We do partner with and work with a variety of colleges.

Far as our intake policy is concerned, it's based on who meets our entry criteria. That's broadly our approach has been.

I think there's a second part to your question about GCC. There is competition for talent.

We've always dealt with competition. GCC is one more dimension to it.

I don't think it's going to have an impact on our hiring plans. Our hiring plans will continue to be a function of how we plan to grow our business and what talent we need for our growth, so that's what is going to guide our approach to recruiting.

One last thing about the restructuring. This might be the third quarter that you're talking about a restructuring.

How has it impacted your workforce and where all have you sort of tried to bring down people?

Ram, will you take that?

Please. Okay.

I think

You're right, it's three quarters. I think at the end of Q1 FY '26 is when we first talked about a restructuring.

Just to recap, when we talked about restructuring, we did very explicitly say that it's not just about people, it's also about other things, right? That's the most important thing to bear in mind.

Now, so far as people is concerned, if you look at the people strength that we have reported quarter-on-quarter, even on a full-year basis, our headcount is only grown by 1.7%, it's not a headcount decline that's happening. Which means you can back-work the numbers, it's not about massive headcount reduction exercise.

It's a very targeted thing that we need to do. We also did call out that some of the things that we had to look at inorganic transactions that we've done over the years, as we integrate and as we stabilize, it does give synergy opportunities.

That's what we focused on. Which is sort of globally distributed, you wouldn't find any one country with some massive numbers being impacted because of restructuring.

It's more efficiency-led measures.

Thank you, Ram. Our next question is from Avik Das from The Business Standard.

Avik, please ask your question. Hi,

am I audible? Yes.

Yes, you are. Yes.

Great. Thank you, gentlemen.

Two questions: one for CVK, one for Ram. CVK, just wanted to understand a bit about the GCC business.

Have you seen a lot of GCCs, especially mid-market ones, who have sort of failed to attain a certain level or degree of maturity, sort of give away certain portions of their business and operations to service providers like you, because a lot of you have been competing with GCCs as well? Have you seen this trend pick up, where certain operations have been carved out and given to the service providers like you, number one?

Ram, just another question on the salary hikes. We understand of course that over the last few years, the typical or the traditional salary cycle has just gone off the rails because of a host of reasons, macro challenges and everything.

Do you think that since IT companies have been giving out hikes at any given time during a fiscal, how much do you think that really impacts the morale of employees going forward? Because nothing is right now concrete, nothing is set in stone.

Hikes can happen anytime, it may not even happen. Just wanted to get your reactions on that as well.

Thank you.

Maybe I'll answer the GCC question and then Ram can answer the salary increments. I think we are seeing some selective pockets of clients moving GCC work into service providers like us.

Every quarter we see one or two where we have this kind of plans. There's also equal number of clients wanting to grow their GCCs, needing our support to grow.

It's both sides and it's still a good business model for us. Ram?

I think on the compensation front, yeah, you're right. We've had a very good run for a number of years where the typical pay increases in the IT services sector would have been 9%, 10%, and I think there are also years where we've had double-digit increases.

Given that reference, if you today look at a 4% to 6% type of an increase, obviously it's not as encouraging as it used to be, that is true. Far as timing of changes are concerned, at least we have been consistent and transparent with what we are doing, right?

We always follow an October cycle, which is where 85% of our employees will be part of the review cycle. We have not changed that.

We've sort of transparently communicated that that's the timing and that's what we've done. That's there is no uncertainty with reference to when the reviews are conducted.

It's also important to see what other policy instruments that we use to try and reward employees. Like for example, I think last year the quarterly variable pay that we used to have as a variable pay, we took a policy decision to convert that variable pay into fixed pay and added that back to everybody's fixed pay, right?

That's a significant decision and it is received well. We do look at, beyond just looking at when the annual increases happen, we do look at other ways and means by which we incentivize and reward people.

Maybe this is not the forum for me to get into all the incentive policies, but I just gave an example of what we look at to try and keep our colleagues motivated.

Thank you CVK, Shiv, Ram. This concludes our press conference.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. Good evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.