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00:00 It's been a steady Q4 for L&T tech. The quarter grew sequentially, boosted by seasonality in SWC
00:05 or Smart World and Communication business. My colleague Neeraj Shah spoke to Amit Chadha,
00:10 MD and CEO at L&T Technologies decoding their Q4 earnings. Listen in.
00:15 If I look at the quarter gone by, 5.1% constant currency growth quarter on quarter sequentially
00:24 amongst the best we have had in the last few quarters, number one. Number two, 17.9% growth
00:30 in constant currency, getting us to a $1.2 billion run rate, where we were $1 billion
00:36 less than 12 months ago. So I do believe all in all, well, I mean, I think the team has done
00:44 amazingly well this year, given the climate that it was. Multiple $10 million plus deals. In fact,
00:52 if I was to re-laugh, we've been able to close a $100 million deal this particular year. We've
01:00 been able to also get in multiple $20 million, $30 million deals and $10 million deals. So all in all,
01:08 pipeline stronger than last year and stronger than last quarter. So we do believe that as we move
01:17 forward, we will see traction continuing to improve again, knock on wood. And we are, of
01:24 course, being cautiously optimistic. Any formal guidance that you're laying out,
01:30 excuse me, I don't have a handle on that. Maybe you put it out with the release,
01:33 but any formal guidance that you're laying out for FY25 part one and part two, at a point of
01:38 time when a lot of the peer said, be it IT services, which is not exactly what your peer said,
01:44 but I'm just, humor me, IT services or otherwise are talking about uncertainty in NA and couple of
01:51 other parts. How confident are you of business prospects? So we guided 8 to 10% constant
02:00 currency organic growth for FY25. We've also reaffirmed our aspiration of getting to $1.5
02:08 billion run rate in FY25. So we've done both of those. So there is an inorganic element that
02:14 should kick in sometime this year. Having said that, if I look at the three segments,
02:19 we restructured the company into mobility, sustainability and high-tech. And if I was
02:26 to look at the three segments, I believe that transportation will or mobility will continue
02:32 to spend in software-defined vehicles and vehicle engineering. We do believe that sustainability,
02:39 there will be a lot more happening in plant engineering and we continue to hire and actively
02:44 hire in that space. And then in the high-tech space, I'm fairly comfortable that the hyperscaler
02:50 spend is coming back as well as driven by AI and software-defined everything. There is an
02:56 embedded systems, there is growth coming in from a semiconductor sector again. So those are the
03:02 positives, if I may, for FY25. Looking ahead, industrial products and parts of telecom or
03:13 operators seems to be a little sluggish as we look at the future. But that's from an engineering
03:18 standpoint as we see it. But all in all, year to play out, it just started right now. As you said
03:24 very rightly, uncertainty, so we're baking it all in as we are providing the guidance at this stage.
03:30 Interesting. I heard you say semiconductor and the positive side because there was,
03:33 I believe, some bit of spending freeze that most companies, including you, were seeing
03:38 that's changing, you're saying.
03:41 So, you know, there's a spend in SEMCON for AI chips. And if you remember, I had committed to
03:50 you that we'll get people trained in this area. Happy to share, we've got more than 3,500 people
03:56 trained in AI right now. We've got a differentiated strategy of hardware, embedded software, and then
04:03 application software and data as four layers for AI, not just application data. And that, I believe,
04:10 is helping us as we go to the market in terms of winning new deals and gaining market share. See,
04:17 it's all about gaining market share at this stage, because some of the spends may have stagnated. So
04:22 you will have to find newer pools in newer areas and stay differentiated, if I may, to be able to
04:29 provide value to the customer. And that's what has been our endeavor over the last few quarters and
04:33 months. And I believe as we go forward, we will continue to play that out and be able to build
04:38 down our pipeline as well as closures. Interesting. So, Amit, would it be fair to say that,
04:44 given a choice, because it's an uncertain global environment, if you get business, you might
04:52 maybe compromise a little bit, not compromise, but maybe give a little bit on the margins as
04:57 well in order to get that business in. A lot of your peers that is talking about that. I'm just
05:02 trying to understand how you're thinking about it. See, more than giving up margins to win deals,
05:09 I would rather invest in advance in soft assets, in labs, in infrastructure that can help my client
05:19 get to work faster, rather than providing rate discounts and winning at lower margins, etc.
05:29 So our strategy is slightly different in the ER&D world. So rather than trying to buy deals at much
05:36 cheaper prices, etc., rather create a differentiated strategy that allows me to be able to be a value
05:42 player. So we'll continue to do that. So you will see some investments that we will make,
05:46 additional to what we've been doing normally. So normally we spend between 1% to 2%. Our
05:51 investments will go up slightly in the near immediate term because we've restructured now
05:55 on mobility, sustainability and high tech. And we are making those investments. There's a new lab
06:00 that's been set up for EV value engineering in Bangalore. There is further investments being made
06:06 in Dallas, investments being made in Mysore for software-defined everything, digital manufacturing
06:11 solutions in Chennai. So you will continue to see some of this happening as we go forward,
06:15 because we want to be able to future-proof our business for tomorrow and be able to grow faster
06:21 than industry. That's the goal. Okay. So in some sense, in the quarter three call,
06:27 you mentioning that the winter is over and spring is around the corner, it seems to be
06:31 kind of turning out to be true, Amit? So 5.1% clearly had spring is here. You would agree
06:38 with me. Yeah, I would agree with you. Okay. Now we have to see whether it gets to summer or stay
06:43 in the spring, we'll see. That's true. Visibility and the cyber security deal, I mean, just kind of
06:48 bring that up. Cyber security, it's a great deal, $100 million or 800 crores.
06:55 You know, it's very important. Number one, I'd like to thank the government of Maharashtra for
07:00 having confidence in us and their far-sightedness to be able to think that cyber security is
07:05 extremely critical. This is building forensic audit, forensic trail, forensic investigation
07:13 infrastructure for the state of Maharashtra. And this will be up and live in about six to
07:17 nine months from now. We are leveraging our partnerships with Palo Alto, IBM, Cisco and
07:22 others to bring it forward. It's a world-class solution that we've architected. Work has already
07:29 started with the team. I'm personally reviewing it with our chief operating officer on a regular
07:34 basis. He's been focused on this. We're confident as we move forward, this will be a state-of-the-art
07:40 project that will help us improve, one, the citizens' life, but more equally importantly,
07:47 build up solutions that we can take to others. Sorry, just one final follow-up, because I know
07:51 you're short on time, but when I talk to companies globally engaged in this space,
07:55 whether services or otherwise, checkpoint, this, that, what have you, everybody talks about how
07:59 the quantum of spends and the nature of sticky spends in this space will really gallop at a
08:06 very fast clip over the course of the next five years. What are your thoughts? Very interesting
08:11 that you bring it up. Cyber security remains one of the hottest topics, if I may, and the
08:15 highest growth areas that you can look at. Look, more than that, I would step back and say, I mean,
08:20 you know, now I don't think we can trademark the work. We're calling it SDX, software-defined
08:25 everything. I do believe that software-defined everything, embedded systems, these are two areas
08:30 that will continue to see spends as you move forward. People will cut in other areas and
08:34 spend in these areas. So as long as you're covering a company that continues to invest
08:39 in these areas, I can promise you growth will continue to happen. Okay. I mean, sorry, I've
08:45 done nine minutes. I'll just take one more minute. This will be my final question. I heard you say
08:50 that the guidance factors in organic growth of 9 to 10%, if I'm not wrong, at some point of time
08:57 in the year, the inorganic comes in. Sorry, sir, just like what I'm saying is organic guidance
09:04 at this stage is 8 to 10% for the year. Sorry. 8 to 10% for the year. In addition to that, there
09:09 should be an organic kicking in because we have an aspiration to get in to 1.5 million dollars in
09:16 FY25. Yeah. So if it kicks in, so just to get the numbers straight, what does it take the,
09:22 what would it take the aspirational growth catapult to in terms of a number?
09:27 So let's get to the 1.5 billion run rate first, and then we'll tell you internal targets are
09:33 always higher, but I want to be careful. I would like to commit what I can deliver,
09:38 and then I would like to deliver what I have committed.