INFYNSE16 January 2024

Infosys Limited has informed the Exchange regarding 'Earnings Call Transcript'.

Infosys Limited

Download PDF ↗View INFY Stock →

BSE LIMITED NATIONAL STOCK EXCHANGE OF INDIA LIMITED NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

TO ALL STOCK EXCHANGES

January 16, 2024

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Sub: Transcripts of the press conference and earnings call conducted after the Meeting of

Board of directors on January 11, 2024

Please find enclosed the transcripts of the press conference and earnings call conducted after the Board meeting held on January 11, 2024, for your information and records.

This https://www.infosys.com/investors/reports-filings/quarterly-results/2023-2024/q3.html.

Company’s

information

hosted

also

the

will

website,

The audio/video recordings of the press conference and earnings call are also made available on the Company’s website, at https://www.infosys.com/investors/reports-filings/quarterly-results/2023- 2024/q3.html.

This is for your information and records.

Yours Sincerely, For Infosys Limited

A.G.S. Manikantha Company Secretary

Infosys Limited

Q3 FY24 Financial Results Press Conference Call January 11, 2024

CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS:

Salil Parekh Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director

Nilanjan Roy Chief Financial Officer

Rishi Basu Corporate Communications

JOURNALISTS

Ritu Singh CNBC TV18

Beena Parmar The Economic Times

Ayushman Baruah Business Standard

Reshab Shaw Moneycontrol

Jas Bardia Mint

Tushar Deep Singh NDTV Profit

Haripriya Suresh Reuters

Haripriya Sureban The Hindu BusinessLine

Sameer Ranjan Bakshi Financial Express

Rukmini Rao Fortune India

Rishi Basu

A very good evening, everyone, and wishing you all a very happy new year. Thank you for joining us

today at Infosys' Third Quarter Financial Results. My name is Rishi and on behalf of Infosys, I would

like to welcome all of you today. Over the next hour through the course of this press conference, we

request one question from each media house.

And with that, I would like to invite our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Salil Parekh, for his opening

remarks. Over to you, Salil.

Salil Parekh

Thanks, Rishi. Good afternoon, everyone, and wish you a Happy New Year. Our Q3 revenue

declined by 1% Q-o-Q and 1% Y-o-Y in constant currency terms. For the first three quarters, our

revenue grew by 1.8% over the same period last year, in constant currency.

Our operating margin was at 20.5%. Large deals were at $3.2 bn, 71% of these were net new. This

includes one mega deal. We are seeing strong traction for generative AI programs leveraging our

Topaz capability. We have integrated our generative AI components into our service line portfolio,

creating impact for our clients. We have 100,000 employees trained in Generative AI areas and we

have developed a range of use cases and benefit scenarios across different industries for our clients.

Our margin improvement program continues to gain traction.

Based on the performance in the first three quarters, and outlook for Q4, we are tightening our

revenue growth guidance for FY24 to 1.5% to 2% growth in constant currency. Our operating margin

guidance for FY24 remains unchanged at 20% to 22%.

As you probably know, Nilanjan is leaving Infosys at the end of this financial year. I want to thank

Nilanjan for the excellent work he has done and for the strong position he has put Infosys in. In

addition, I also want to thank Nilanjan for his partnership and his friendship over the past several

years. We wish him all the best in the future.

With that, let us open up for questions.

Rishi Basu

Thank you, Salil. We will now open the floor for questions. Joining Salil is Mr. Nilanjan Roy, Chief

Financial Officer, Infosys. The first question is from Ritu Singh from CNBC TV18.

Ritu Singh

Hi, Salil. Hi, Nilanjan. As always, we want to understand why yet again now for the third time during

the year, you have revised this guidance. What is the visibility you have now for the remaining part

of the year? Why the tightening? I mean, sure, it is going to be higher than 1%, perhaps lower than

2.5% on the upper end.

Secondly, what are you seeing when it comes to client budgets now? Are clients in the U.S. open to

spending more? What are the areas of weaknesses and strength, whether it is geographies or

sectors?

And again, the same question, the headcount continues to come down even in this quarter, even

though your attrition rate is lower at 12.9%. Your hiring plans for the year, if you could outline? And

apart from the numbers, if you could clarify on the deal wins and that mega $1.5 bn deal, that MoU

that you had signed with a global client in the AI transformation space that you seem to have lost out

on. What was the reason for that? Are you continuing to see deal cancellations?

And while you wish your colleague all the very best and you always say that Infosys has produced

talent for other companies, you are proud of that. What is the impact on business? Because this is

not a one-off event. We have seen multiple exits over the course of the last 18 months or so.

Salil Parekh

Okay. So let me start off. There are several questions in there. The first, I think was on margin. So

what we have done is really as we get closer to the end of the financial year, we have tightened the

revenue growth guidance, the margin guidance remains the same. So in effect, really, the higher end

has come a little bit lower and the lower end has gone up a little bit. So, we see the outlook in

essence, quite similar, but the guidance is tightened, that is how we are seeing it.

Based on what we have seen in the first three quarters, where our growth has been 1.8% in constant

currency terms over the previous years’ three quarters. And that is really all we have done with the

guidance.

On the budgets, I think that was one of the questions on what we are seeing with the budgets. At this

stage, we have not seen any different behavior from clients. Typically, as you know well, Q3 is a

quarter with large furloughs and other end-of-year holidays and that we have seen continue. We

have not seen either an increase or either a decrease, so the same view. Digital programs are fewer.

Cost and efficiency, automation is much more. And Generative AI has a lot of interest and traction

even if it is small revenue numbers today.

Then there was a question, I think about the MoU, we have no additional comment. We have shared

the comment in the statement we have made some time ago in the quarter.

In terms of leadership, we are indeed fortunate to have a good team and a very strong set of leaders

within the company and over last several quarters and even in the past, the people who have taken

on many of the new positions are people who have been in the company, have developed their skills

there.

And we are delighted Nilanjan has spent five years in that role. He will obviously share his view and

we had a fantastic outcome in those five years. And really, Nilanjan has contributed immensely to

that and all the best wishes as he looks ahead.

Rishi Basu

Thank you.

Ritu Singh

On the headcount question as well. And for Nilanjan, your Project Maximus, just before you go, I

would like to know from you, where do you see the end goal of that project? How do you evaluate

your term here and what is next for you after March?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes, so it is been tremendous five years here. I think how the company has transformed over the

years have been truly remarkable, in terms of the client intimacy, what we see as hunger for large

deals, the focus on people, the entire focus on the shareholder, the capital allocation. So truly,

outside the numbers which you all asked about, has been this whole transformation happening inside

and under Salil and the Board's leadership that has truly been wonderful.

Five years is a long time, 20 quarters answering the question so I think it is time to move and I will

do something later on and as the press release says. But more importantly for me, I may leave

Infosys, but Infosys can’t leave me, it’s just a part of me inside.

Rishi Basu

Thanks, Ritu. The next question is from The Economic Times, Beena.

Beena Parmar

Hi, Salil. Thanks for the call. Firstly, in terms of your deal pipeline, could you give us a sense, you

know, how does the next two quarters look like? Because your deal pipeline, the order book has

reduced that we have seen, in the previous quarter, it was $7.7 bn, but the TCV has reduced this

quarter? Could you give us a reason for that?

And on the senior level management churn that we have seen, just adding to what Ritu said, what is

the reason that you have not really absorbed newer or recruited newer or made newer

appointments? And what is the reason that you are seeing a lot of this churn happening? Do you

see this as a one-off event and what are the reasons?

And another thing is on the reports that are doing around about Infosys sending in communication

to a rival about anti-poaching and unethical practices. Could you give us your view on that?

Salil Parekh

Okay, thanks. Let me try and go through the questions. I think first on the wins, in fact, this quarter

has been, I think, very strong at $3.2 bn. If you look at the nine months, it is the highest ever value

of deal wins that we have had. Actually, it is more than what we had in the year before, where we

had a very large deal in that instance. So, we feel extremely good. 71% of this is net new. That again

is extremely strong because it helps to position us for more into the future. The deal win from last

quarter was also exceptional, but those are big numbers. I mean, $3.2 bn is really well above our

average deal win in any quarter, if you look back, let us say 8, 10, 12 quarters and so on. So, we feel

extremely strong with what we see going ahead. And these have deals which are related to cost

efficiency, automation, consolidation, new work on SAP, cloud. So, a lot of different areas, which is

good. It is across the portfolio.

I think you had a question on our senior leadership team. Again, my sense is we have an

exceptionally strong team at different levels within the company. We have continued over the last

several years and even well into the past, always promote a lot of people internally with larger

responsibilities. We will do that this year and in the years ahead.

And the type of work that we do, people have exposure to some incredible opportunities, both with

clients, with delivery, with projects, and the type of projects we are working on are quite leading. So

we feel good about that. In terms of some of the media reports you alluded to, we have no real

comment on that.

Rishi Basu

Thank you, Beena. The next question is from Ayushman Baruah from Business Standard.

Ayushman Baruah

Hi. So I think the trend seems to continue that despite the large and mega deals, revenue growth

has not been on par, with the deals. So, when can we expect the revenue growth and the large deals

to be in sync? That is one.

And secondly, any specific pockets of weakness you would like to highlight, both in terms of verticals

or geographies?

Salil Parekh

So there, I will start off and then Nilanjan may add some things. I think large deals, more represent

what is the level of connect we have with our clients for large transformation programs or

consolidations or cost and efficiency programs. The revenue reflects both what deals contribute and

then what programs clients are doing or not doing.

For example, digital programs have been reduced in what we have seen over the last few quarters

with clients. That combination gives us the outcome for the revenue and we will see how the global

economic environment evolves and that will tell us when that comes in. Sorry, what was the second

one?

Ayushman Baruah

It was about any pockets of…

Salil Parekh

Yeah, the segments. So, there we are seeing, you know, financial services, hitech, telco, where we

still see impact in the market. We see growth in manufacturing, energy utilities, life sciences. So, we

do see both of those things. In geography, similarly, we see impact in our North American business,

the growth in the European business. So, it is not one thing for all.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. The next question is from Moneycontrol, Reshab Shaw.

Reshab Shaw

Hi, gentlemen, Reshab here. So, on your headcount, Y-o-Y we have seen a lot of headcount

decrease, so does that indicate a weaker than expected revenue trajectory from here onwards? Your

number of clients has been down month-on-month and Y-o-Y. So, would like to say something on

that? And on furloughs, how much has that impacted revenues this quarter? And discretionary

spending, when do you see it coming back?

Nilanjan Roy

So, I will take a couple of them. So, I think furlough is a seasonal industry impact and it is reflected

in the minus 1% constant currency decline, so it is part of that as well. In terms of headcount, we had

already told you all last quarter that we have a lot of utilization headroom still. In a way, that led to

the 6,000-odd headcount reduction. We are still at 82.7%, and our comfort range is between 84%,

85%. So, we still have some capacity and we can always crank this up by taking more trainees on

short notice as well. So, our model is very flexed in terms of ability to recruit fast, train them fast and

put them on production. So in that sense, I think we are in a good space in terms of ability to capture

any future growth.

Reshab Shaw

Great. Thank you.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. The next question is from the Mint newspaper, Jas Bardia.

Jas Bardia

Just a couple of questions. At the start of the year, you had expected to grow at 7% and now this is

the third such revision. How much of this revision do you attribute to company-specific factors? And

how much of it do you attribute to macro-economic issues?

The second question, did the cybersecurity incident at McCamish lead to the termination of the $1.5

bn MoU. Could you give more details on this? And also, could you cite some measures that Infosys

is taking to address this?

Salil Parekh

So let me start off with the guidance point first. I think on the guidance, this quarter we see this more

as a tightening of the guidance. So, in that sense, it is not so much a change. It is more that as we

get closer to the end of the financial year, the visibility gives us to a similar outcome.

So, if you look at last quarter and this quarter, it looks in that sense similar, except the distance to

the end of the year is reduced by half. On the deal specifically, the MoU, we have no additional

comment and we have made a specific disclosure at the earlier time.

On the McCamish question that you asked, I just wanted to maybe share with you a comment from

what we had stated in our financial results. As we have shared earlier, one of our subsidiaries, Infosys

McCamish experienced a cybersecurity incident that resulted in the disruption of some of its services.

The systems have been largely restored and are now up and running.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. The next question is from NDTV Profit, Tushar Singh.

Tushar Deep Singh

Hi, a couple of questions. First on the deal signings, we see that the large deal wins are still

happening, but they are still not meaningfully converting into revenue. So, when do you think that is

going to come back? And are the large deals ramping up as per expectations so far?

Also, your margins have declined quarter-on-quarter, I think because of the wage hikes that went

out. But you have maintained your operational profitability guidance for the full year. So, what are

the margin levers left in play that is giving you the confidence to maintain those margins? A final

question on your acquisition that you have done of InSemi Tech, can you just talk to us about it?

Salil Parekh

On the first one, I think, the way we see large deals, they are really helping us to build a foundation

into the future. And the win sizes, the overall win value is very strong at $3.2 bn and at 71%, very

good to have the net new. That gives us, let us say one piece of the revenue into the future. And

equally, there are digital programs or other programs which are not something that clients are looking

at in this environment. And that takes away a little bit from the revenue. So that combined gives us

the revenue outcome as we see it, and we give out the outlook as we see it. So that is how we will

put that together.

Nilanjan Roy

On the margin, as you have seen in our disclosure, one is, we of course, given our wage hike from

1st of November that is about 70 basis points of the drop. In fact, we have dropped 70 bps. We have

had another impact of $30 mn between revenue and cost because of the McCamish incident as well.

So that is actually 1.3% headwind. We have compensated that at about 50 basis points from the

Project Maximus, which now is in full flow. This is across, we have talked about five tracks and many

verticals. And there is about 10 basis points which is from currency. And then, of course, there is a

balancing around furloughs, etc. So we actually are seeing a very strong underlying margin

movement coming because of Maximus and of course, the wage hikes, etc., were planned and

known for and are leading to this margin gap for this quarter.

Tushar Deep Singh

The acquisition of InSemi?

Nilanjan Roy

Yeah, so as you know, we have a very large and growing engineering business. We do not probably

talk about it as much. It is a business which is working with leading engineering companies around

the world and as you know, semicon is a space which is expected from today, a $500 bn market to

go about a $1 trillion . And this is a very exciting business in terms of semiconductor chip design

working with leading fab, non-fab players across the world. And I think it will give us, firstly, a good

entry into a new space and also a new set of clients which we do not have. So we are very excited

about this.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. The next question is from Haripriya Suresh from Reuters News.

Haripriya Suresh

Good evening, gentlemen. First, I wanted to understand, now that client budgets have firmed up, at

least for the calendar year, do you see what does the deal momentum look like? Are there any signs

of improvement at all? how do we expect things to look like, so far?

And on the guidance, I wanted to understand because it was 2.5% at the upper end, right? Like I

wanted to understand, if you are not seeing cancellations, etc., why it was narrowed at the upper

end. In terms of geographies, I mean across, this is not obviously an Infy phenomenon, across the

companies - North America has obviously been impacted. How much is that affecting you? And is

Europe helping in any way?

And in terms of hiring, you said that it would be in time. So, is it fair to presume you will not be going

to campuses this year and we can expect headcount to trend the way it has right now? Thank you.

Salil Parekh

So maybe combining a few things. On what we are seeing for the budgets as the calendar year

starts, most of our comments are on the financial year that we are looking at. The budget process

has started and launched for many of our clients. It is still early in January. So, it will work its way

through.

At this stage, we do not see any change from what we were seeing last quarter. In that we do not

see things becoming worse. We do not see any change in that dynamic. We will have our own view

of the next financial year as we come into the March, April timeframe, when we have the April results.

The guidance again, for us, we are seeing similar outlook to what we were seeing in the past quarter.

But as we get closer to the end of the year, just the variability reduces, and that is how we have

narrowed the guidance. So it is not a question of reducing the upper end. Because in that sense, we

have increased the lower end. So, I would say it is quite balanced between what we were seeing last

quarter and this quarter.

Haripriya Suresh

On the campus hiring?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes. Like I just mentioned earlier, we continue to monitor the utilization. And our flexi hiring model,

in fact, with COVID, which is both off-campus and on-campus, I think that is really been a new

learning for us. So it is on demand, we can go behind that, in case any fresh demand comes in. And

at this stage, of course, we are not seeing any immediate campus requirement. But for any volume

increase, we have a very strong off-campus program as well now.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. The next question is from Haripriya Sureban from The Hindu Business Line.

Haripriya Sureban

Hi, guys. Salil, could you give us some more color on the visibility in the market. We keep listening

that the macro condition and situation is bottoming out. Do you think so? And do you see any sort of

green shoots or what is your reading like which verticals do you expect to bounce back earlier?

And on the margin front, do you see any impact? if there is no tailwind from the currency depreciation

given that rupee has been flat for almost one year now so?

Salil Parekh

So, on the outlook in the macro, we do not have a view on where it is in terms of the cycle. What we

are focused on is how that is impacting our client decision-making. And there, we see what we were

sharing earlier, financial services, telco, hi-tech, we still see the impact. Equally, we see growth in

manufacturing, energy utilities, life sciences. There is a difference in the geographies as well, as we

shared earlier, between North America and Europe.

So, at this stage, there is no more view that we have than that. We are obviously very positive with

the deal wins we have got. A lot of those deals win in cost and efficiency. But there are also deal

wins which we have seen, for example, in cloud, in SAP and these are areas which we have

tremendous strength in and so we feel good. And then Generative AI is becoming more and more

important in all discussions, while it is not a big revenue component, it is still becoming more and

more important in all discussions.

Nilanjan Roy

On the currency side, we do not plan for actually any currency movement when we do our margin

plans as well. So, whatever comes on top of a currency benefit is actually always a bonus. But our

underlying plans do not reflect that.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. The next question is from the Financial Express, Sameer Bakshi.

Sameer Ranjan Bakshi

Hello sir. Please correct me if I am wrong. You said a lot of Gen AI projects are in pipeline, right?

And you have around 1 lakh Gen AI trained employees. So why is this that we are seeing smaller

and active clients, their number have fallen?

Nilanjan Roy

I think if you see from a revenue perspective, which is more relevant, it is the large clients who

continue to grow well. Of course, there is a longer tail towards the 1,500 plus clients. But I mean the

biggest revenue chunk comes from the top 50, top 100, top 200.

Sameer Ranjan Bakshi

Okay. Thank you.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. The next question is from Rukmini Rao from Fortune India.

Rukmini Rao

Hi, thank you. I have two clarification and a question. One, the $30 mn impact of McCamish, it has

been accounted for completely this quarter?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes, between loss of revenue and in cost, yes.

Rukmini Rao

Sure, thanks. And the other one, this is in continuation to what Beena asked. So Salil, I do not fathom

how two companies can informally talk to each other? And if at all, Infosys has actually written to a

peer raising certain concerns, it must be legal in nature. I mean I am guessing so. So, could you

actually tell us whether you have had any communication with your other peers when it comes to

talent?

Salil Parekh

I think you are referring to the media report?

Rukmini Rao

That is right, that is right.

Salil Parekh

So we have no additional comments on that.

Rukmini Rao

Going back to the deal that did not fructify, right? I just want to understand from you, was it a client

concern about Infosys' ability to be able to execute this deal or was it a client-specific problem that

you faced? The way large deals are getting structured or the check boxes the very last minute that

are getting countered, what really led to this deal not fructifying? And also some sense on the large

deals, is there any fundamental change that is happening how vendors are being looked at by clients

when it comes to closing large deals? Thanks.

Salil Parekh

So, on the way large deals are working, in fact, in this quarter, in Q3, we have seen quite a few deals

which are consolidation deals where we have been the beneficiary, where clients are looking to

consolidate to select partners or strategic partners. So, that is one of the things that we are visibly

seeing.

On the specific MoU which was not completed, there is no additional comment. We made the

statement, as we had shared earlier. The deal flow in the market is good because the way we look

at it, at $3.2 bn, it is well above the average that we see for large deals in any quarter. With 71% net

new, that is also very strong because that gives us a good confidence that, that is building out for

the future. I think that then you get coupled with, the digital programs which are not happening or

slowing down. And that takes away a little bit from the possible benefits of these large deals. And

that is really the balance that we are working on.

Rukmini Rao

Salil, like you mentioned earlier saying that digital deals are not still a big component of your revenue,

right? But when you have another peer of yours already calling out Gen-AI revenues that they are

doing, when do you see actually Infosys being able to call out this number or reach a size in revenue,

where are you there in the curve when it comes to being able to grab a Gen-AI deal and make it, let

us say substantial or be able to have a statable set of revenues coming out of Gen-AI?

Salil Parekh

So, in Generative AI, we have an extremely strong capability set, a lot of activity with our clients. For

example, we are working with a large retail company on their AI-first transformation. This is a very

strategic work with the client. We are working with a large global bank on their risk area to use large

language models to make that risk area better for them.

So we have a large number of such deals. We are not at this stage of publicly sharing what the Gen-

AI revenue is, but we have tremendous capability, a good leading market position. And we feel in

Generative AI, we are very strong in the capabilities we build.

For example, there are a lot of large language models out there. There are several different use

cases, different benefits scenarios. We have many of them, for example, in customer service, in

analytics, in data, in software engineering. So a host of areas which we are working with clients on.

We have also developed what we think is an appropriate approach for large enterprises, what we

call the narrow transformer approach.

Here, when you are looking at large companies, the interest is not just on consumer Generative AI.

It is much more on what is going to make an impact to them with their data set. And so which is the

appropriate large language model you can use for their data set, depending on what the area is.

So I believe we have an incredible capability in Topaz. And clients are also resonating with that

capability. We are not today calling out the Generative AI value today, but that is a different subject.

But the work we are doing, I think, is quite impactful.

Rukmini Rao

Salil, just to understand the Gen-AI needs that you are actually getting are from existing clients, or

you have been able to get newer clients, maybe of smaller ticket sizes. Just to understand…

Salil Parekh

It is a mix of both. A large number of them are existing clients. We have good relationships. They

have seen our capability set, and they are, as I said, it is resonating. We have also done what we

call a Generative AI roadshow. It is a tour where we are taking all of our capabilities in the different

locations around the world. And there are some new clients as well, where we are sort of first time

doing Generative AI.

Rishi Basu

Thank you. With that, we come to the end of this Q&A session. We thank our friends from media for

being part of this press conference. Thank you, Salil. Thank you, Nilanjan.

Before we conclude, please note that the archived webcast of this press conference will be available

on the Infosys website and on our YouTube channel later today. Thank you, and we request you to

join us for some high tea outside.

Salil Parekh

Thanks.

Infosys Limited

Earnings Conference Call January 11, 2024

CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS:

Salil Parekh Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director

Nilanjan Roy Chief Financial Officer

Sandeep Mahindroo Senior Vice President, Financial Controller & Head of Investor Relations

ANALYSTS

Kumar Rakesh BNP Paribas

Nitin Padmanabhan Investec

Moshe Katri Wedbush Securities

Ankur Rudra JPMorgan Chase

Bryan Bergin TD Cowen

Keith Bachman BMO

Jamie Friedman Susquehanna International Group

Sumeet Jain CLSA

Yogesh Agarwal HSBC

Vibhor Singhal Nuvama Equities

Gaurav Rateria Morgan Stanley

Sandeep Shah Equirus Securities

Kawaljeet Saluja Kotak

Manik Taneja Axis Capital

Moderator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Infosys Earnings Conference Call. As a

reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to

ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference

call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that

this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sandeep Mahindroo. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Sandeep Mahindroo

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Infosys Earnings Call for Q3 FY '24. Let me start by wishing

everyone a very Happy New Year. Joining us on this call is CEO and MD, Mr. Salil Parekh; CFO,

Mr. Nilanjan Roy; and other members of the leadership team. We will start the call with some remarks

on the performance of the company for Q3, subsequent to which we will open up the call for

questions.

Please note that anything we say that refers to our outlook for the future is a forward-looking

statement that must be read in conjunction with the risk that the company faces. A full statement

explanation of these risks is available in our filings with the SEC, which can be found on

www.sec.gov.

I would now like to pass on the call to Salil.

Salil Parekh

Thanks, Sandeep. Good evening and good morning to everyone on the call. Wish you a Happy New

Year.

Our Q3 revenue declined by 1% quarter-on-quarter and 1% year-on-year in constant currency terms.

For the first three quarters, our revenue grew by 1.8% over the same period last year in constant

currency. We see lower traction for digital transformation programs and more activity for cost and

efficiency programs and increasing interest in Generative AI programs.

Our operating margin was at 20.5%. We delivered this outcome while managing through one-off

business disruptions. Nilanjan will provide more detail for this. Large deals were at $3.2 bn. 71% of

this was net new. This included one mega deal. With this, our large deal value for the first three

quarters stands at $13.2 bn, of which 55% is net new. This is the highest ever large deal value for

the first three quarters in the fiscal year for us.

We see that with our large deal wins, we continue to win market share and strengthen our position

through our leading capabilities in helping clients with cost, efficiency, automation programs and by

leveraging Generative AI, digital and cloud.

We have seen impact in financial services, telco and hi-tech segments. We see strength in

manufacturing, energy utilities and life sciences segments. We are seeing strong traction for

Generative AI programs, leveraging our Topaz capability. We have integrated our Generative AI

components into our service line portfolio, creating impact for our clients.

We have 100,000 employees trained in Generative AI areas. We have developed a range of use

cases and benefit scenarios across different industries for our clients. Some of these areas are

related to client analytics, process optimization, sales, marketing, knowledge analysis, software

development, self-service and personalization.

Some examples of the work we are doing in these areas. We are working with a large global bank

to support them in their risk analysis program by using a large language model for them. We are

working with a global food supplier to personalized food experience for their customers and to make

their operations efficient using artificial intelligence. We are working with a global retail company in

defining their AI first business transformation strategy.

Our clients are leveraging all these Generative AI capabilities in Topaz, combined with the cloud

capabilities in Cobalt to help them navigate through this current business environment and setting

up for the future.

Our margin improvement program continues to gain traction. The five pillars, the large organization

mobilization and steady execution are creating impact. Based on the performance in the first three

quarters and our outlook for Q4, we are tightening our revenue growth guidance for financial year

'24 to 1.5% to 2% in constant currency.

Our operating margin guidance for financial year '24 remains unchanged at 20% to 22%.

As you probably know, Nilanjan is leaving Infosys at the end of this financial year. I want to thank

Nilanjan for the excellent work he has done and the strong position he has put Infosys in. In addition,

I also want to thank him for his partnership and his friendship over the past several years. We wish

him all the best in his future plans.

With that, let me hand it over to Nilanjan.

Nilanjan Roy

Thanks, Salil. Good evening, everyone and thank you for joining the call.

Coming to our Q3 results, revenues declined by 1% year-on-year in constant currency. Sequentially,

revenues similarly declined by 1% in constant currency and 1.2% in dollar terms. This includes the

impact of furloughs and one-offs. Volumes remain soft, coupled with seasonality and normalization

of one-time revenues we had in Q2. While the overall environment remains subdued, our large-deal

TCV is highest ever on a YTD basis. I will talk about the large deals in more detail.

Revenue for nine months increased by 1.8% in constant currency and 2.5% in USD terms. We are

making steady progress on Project Maximus, the margin improvement plan across five pillars and

over 20 tracks. This strengthens our confidence that the program will give us the impetus for margin

expansion overtime.

Operating margins for Q3 were 20.5%, a decline of 70 basis points sequentially, bringing the nine-

month margins to 20.8%, which is within the guidance band for the year. The major components

of QoQ margin walk for Q3 margin are as follows:

Headwinds of 130 bps comprising of

 70 bps from salary increases effective Nov 1st

 60 bps from McCamish cyber incident which had an impact on both revenues and costs

Partially offset by tailwinds of 60 bps comprising of

 50 bps benefit from cost optimization including higher utilization and lower SG&A

 10 bps from currency movement

Balance includes impact of furloughs, offset by higher leave utilization and one-off benefits including

lower provision for post sales client support and lower ECL model losses etc

Headcount at the end of the quarter stood at 322,000 employees, a decline of 1.9% from the previous

quarter, which is reflected in improvement in utilization to 82.7% excluding trainees. On-site mix also

improved by 20 basis points sequentially to 24.4. As mentioned earlier, we continue to improve our

operating efficiencies.

LTM attrition for Q3 reduced further by 1.7% to 12.9%. Free cash flow for the quarter was robust at

$665 mn and the conversion to net profit for Q3 was strong at 90.6%. Our unbilled revenues dropped

for the third consecutive quarter. And consequently, this has partly led to an increase in DSO by 5

days sequentially to 72 days. Consolidated cash and equivalents stood at $3.9 bn at the end of the

quarter after a dividend payout of $895 mn.

EPS declined by 6.1% in INR on a year-on-year basis and grew by 3% in INR for the 9 months period

ended.

Yield on cash balances was 6.9% in Q3. ROE improved to 31.8%.

Large deal momentum continued and deal TCV of Q3 was $3.2 bn, with 71% net new. Consequently,

our YTD large deal TCV is over $13 bn, which is the highest ever for any comparative period. This

clearly reinforces our position and strengthens the relevance and strength of our service offerings.

We signed 23 large deals in Q3, including one mega deal. We signed 8 deals in manufacturing, 6 in

FS, 4 in EURS, 2 each in retail and communication and 1 in others. Region-wise, we signed 10 large

deals in America, 9 in Europe, 3 in ROW and 1 in India.

Coming to industry verticals,

Inflation, uncertain macro and delay in decision-making continues to impact the financial services

sector. With increasing cost pressures, clients remain cautious on spending and are reprioritizing

their programs to deliver maximum business value. Topaz is central to our Generative AI

discussions, which is gaining momentum and use cases around improving customer experience. We

also started implementing use cases in some of our clients focusing on improving client experience,

detecting fraud, etc. Overall, while the near-term outlook remains volatile, we will benefit from the

recent deal wins and the new account openings.

Clients in communication sector continues to face growth challenges, which is putting pressure on

opex spend. Uncertainty about medium-term spend remains with clients, prioritizing cost optimization

and vendor consolidation. Clients are looking at conserving cash, which is visible in delayed decision-

making and project deferrals. Our focus on large and mega deals resulted in healthy pipeline and

deal wins.

Energy, utilities, resources and services clients remain cautiously optimistic about the demand

environment with cap on short-term spend. In Energy segment, we are seeing market share gains

due to consolidation. Our investment on industry cloud solutions and the energy transition, combined

with extreme focus on human experience, have helped us differentiate, win multiple deals and build

a strong pipeline.

Manufacturing segment continues to deliver strong performance on the back of new deal wins and

ramp-up of earlier large deals signed. Growth was broad-based across Europe and the U.S. as well

as across industrial, automotive and aerospace industries. While the budget remains largely stable,

clients continue to find ways to channel run savings into newer areas like digital, cloud, data and IoT.

Pipeline remains healthy with emerging opportunities on various fronts in the ER&D space resulting

from increased spending.

In the Retail segment, cost takeouts and consolidation remain the primary focus for the clients. While

discretionary spend remain under pressure, there are pockets of opportunities, leveraging

Generative AI, in predictive analysis, real-term insights and decision support areas. Deal pipeline is

strong, though decision cycles remain long.

A resilient performance in a seasonally weak quarter and the continued momentum in deal wins,

coupled with a very large efficient execution engine, gives us confidence for growth in the medium

term. Driven by our YTD growth of 1.8% in CC terms and Q4 outlook, we have revised our revenue

growth guidance for FY '24 from 1% to 2.5% previously to 1.5% to 2% in constant currency terms.

We retain our margin guidance band for the year at 20% to 22%.

Finally, I would personally like to thank all the stakeholders of Infosys, especially the fabulous finance

team here for their support over the past five years. As I step down, I look forward to working closely

with the entire leadership team over the next few months to ensure a smooth transition. Finally, I

wish Jayesh the very best as he assumes the role of CFO from 1st of April '24.

With that, we can open up the call for questions.

Moderator

Thank you, very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question is

from the line of Kumar Rakesh from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Kumar Rakesh

Hi, good evening and thank you for taking my question. My first question was...

Moderator

Kumar sir, can I request you to speak up a bit?

Kumar Rakesh

Sure. Is this better?

Moderator

Yes. Go ahead, please.

Kumar Rakesh

Thank you. So, my first question was around the new deal wins, which has been pretty strong at $2.3

bn, it is some of the highest we have seen in the recent quarters. However, that also implies the

renewals have been weaker. In recent quarters, we have seen renewals to be in the range of $1.5

bn to $2 bn. In this quarter, it was less than $1 bn. And that could also be the reason for the slowdown

in the second half, which you are expecting.

We can understand that the new deal wins would be lumpy and difficult to predict, but you would

have a timeline on the renewals, when they would be happening and what is the probability that you

could see winning them back? So how do you see the next quarter or so panning out from the

renewal perspective, any visibility on that side?

Salil Parekh

Thanks for that question. I think my reading of the large deals win is more along the lines that we are

continuing to do well with renewals and then we have got really excellent net new wins in the $3.2

bn. As we have discussed at other times, the large deals numbers by themselves vary quarter-on-

quarter. As you know, last quarter was also extremely large number.

Having said that, we have on the renewals, a clear sight of what is coming up. We are also benefiting

in many of these areas from consolidations which Nilanjan referenced. And also where our clients

are seeing, opportunities for cost and efficiency. So all of that gets combined with the renewals

coming along at regular cycles.

Kumar Rakesh

Got it. Thanks for that. And my second question was around Gen AI. So you have talked about

100,000 employees being trained on Gen AI. But can you just quantify or share some insights on the

client engagement side? Anything that you can quantify, number of projects that we are working or

the amount of deals that we are winning, anything that we can start tracking on that side?

Salil Parekh

So there, we are not, at this stage sharing externally any views on revenues or projects and so on.

To give you color what is happening today is, almost every discussion with clients involves some

element of Generative AI. And what we have now developed through Topaz is a set of areas where

there is benefit cases, use cases scenarios where there is impact, where we are working across a

large number of clients on those in different scales, where there are some which are more pilot,

some which are programs. And that is the three examples that I shared.

We have also developed strength across a number of large language model, where we have trained

our teams. And then on how to leverage datasets. Our focus is very much on large enterprises who

are our clients and the datasets within those enterprises, depending on the usage of where that large

language model is to be applied.

We have a very strong business in data and analytics, which becomes the foundation for this

Generative AI work. We are working to make sure that the benefits are felt across all of our service

offerings, so we can start to see in new discussions with clients, productivity benefits, which are

downstream coming from this Generative AI. So at this stage, while we are not externally quantifying

all of the elements I referenced, that is the sort of color we are seeing across a large number of

discussions.

Kumar Rakesh

Thanks for that, Salil.

Moderator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Padmanabhan from Investec. Please go ahead.

Nitin Padmanabhan

Hi, good evening, thanks for the opportunity. Congrats on the strong deal wins. So I think, first off,

Salil, anything that you have seen versus the previous quarter in terms of client behavior that

suggests green shoots on the discretionary side? Or do you think that will continue to be under

pressure for some time?

The second question is for Nilanjan. It appears that we will exit the year with margins lower than last

year. Do you still believe that margin could be better next year versus the current one? We have sort

of highlighted that as an aspiration at the beginning of the year, so just wanted your thoughts on how

one should think of that at this point in time? Thank you.

Salil Parekh

Thanks. In terms of the client discussions, we have not seen some significant change in one or the

other direction from what we were seeing last quarter. So some of the digital transformation work or

some of that type of programs are where clients are not putting focus or attention, whereas the cost

and the efficiency and now even consolidation, we are seeing more and more of that, which is what

we were seeing last quarter as well. So in that sense, we do not have any change that we have

sensed at this stage.

Nilanjan Roy

So Nitin, on the margin question, I think you have seen this quarter as well, the underlying margins,

excluding the one-offs are quite resilient and we have talked about now Project Maximus, this is

nearly the third quarter and a lot of work has been going on. We are seeing the benefits of that, and

you can see that in our commentary as well. We are very confident about the overall margin outlook.

Of course, we would not give a number about next year. But really, the multiple tracks around value-

based selling, around efficient pyramid, around automation and Gen AI, are all working well. So, I

think that gives us good optimism over the medium term in terms of our margin structure.

Nitin Padmanabhan

Okay. Thank you so much and all the best.

Moderator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Moshe Katri from Wedbush Securities. Please go ahead.

Moshe Katri

Thanks for taking my questions and congrats on strong bookings for the quarter. First question, any

color of the ongoing budget cycle for calendar '24? Do you think budgets will be on time? Do you

think budgets will be delayed? Any color there on that one?

Salil Parekh

Thanks, Moshe. On the budgets, in Q3 end of the year quarter the furloughs were in play. We are

seeing that coming into play in the Q1 calendar year which is our Q4. The budget decisions are

ongoing and as you know well, these will go through the early part of this month. So, nothing from

that. We do not see any change in what we were seeing in terms of behavior from the last quarter

where budgets would suddenly have a different direction.

So, at this stage, it looks like it is similar to what we were seeing, but everything is not yet closed out

from our discussions on the budgets.

Moshe Katri

Understood. And then looking at the deal flow, the large deal flow that went through calendar '23,

there were some concerns that they are not converting, some of deals are not converting on a timely

basis. Has that changed in any way in terms of conversion on some of these deals, and when we

could start seeing that inflection point in revenue growth because of those deals converting? Thanks

a lot.

Salil Parekh

On that, as you are aware, the large deals are obviously giving us the foundation, especially the net

new and renewal for future revenue. And at the same time, we are also seeing impact of the digital

programs not moving or digital programs sometimes being stopped. So that combination is what

gives that revenue outcome.

At this stage, we have no specific external view on what will happen in the quarter, but our overall

revenue guidance for this financial year, which is only one more quarter, gives you a sense of how

we are feeling about that. We will see, because a lot of the large deals, as they start to build up, and

when the digital capabilities start to have more interest with clients, we will start to see that change,

I am sure.

Moshe Katri

Thanks, Salil.

Moderator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankur Rudra from JPMorgan Chase. Please go

ahead.

Ankur Rudra

Hi, thank you. Salil, could you elaborate on what you have seen the client spending sentiment has

been, on projects that have already been signed, let us say in the last nine months or so on the cost

takeout side; and on incremental signing of smaller projects? Because we can see on large projects,

but we do not have a visibility on how your small projects are doing?

Salil Parekh

Sure. So, on the client spending, where clients have signed recently in the last three, six, nine

months, that spending is going well, both on cost and other projects, incremental projects, as you

were describing. On things that were more in the past, that behavior on the cost has continued and

the incremental projects we have seen even in the past quarter some impact. But what has been

signed recently, we see those proceeding as per what they have signed.

Ankur Rudra

Understood. And you have mentioned several times on the call that there seems to be delays in

revenue recognition because of project reprioritization. Is there a way of maybe estimating this for

investors benefit? Like, for example, how much of fiscal '23 or the last 2 years, total contract value

or signings may have been impacted because of change in client priorities? Or alternatively, how

much of the signings have been shrinking every quarter, there is one back with new project signings

for you to stay at the same place?

Salil Parekh

We are not in a position to share that externally. We have a view on what we look at, in terms of

wins, execution and large deals internally. There are also other programs, some small, some mid-

sizes which go up and down. So that whole internal composition is something which we work with,

but it is not something which we have shared in the past and are even today sharing externally.

Ankur Rudra

Understand. I wanted a color as opposed to maybe a quantification?

Salil Parekh

Yes. So same, I think at this stage, the outcome is what we have. We have not given any more on

that in terms of color as well, Ankur.

Ankur Rudra

Understood. Maybe moving to margins. Just one question. Obviously, this quarter, if I take out the

impact of the ransomware incident, it appears that margins would have been up by 60 basis points.

Is that right? Number one. Number two, if you could elaborate where we are on the various Project

Maximus levers? And where is the remaining support, let us say, over next year or so?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes, we have given the margin walk in the initial script, and quite clear about the one-offs, the salary,

etc.

From Maximus, there are a lot of tracks which are currently in play. Utilization is one you are seeing,

in fact, that is the biggest one, straight up in your metrics, you can see that and how that is flowing

into margins. There are other internal programs on the pyramid, a lot of work there onsite-offshore,

is the first time we have seen some positive movement after a lot of quarters.

On automation and Gen AI, a lot of work going on, with Gen AI coming in with additional sort of levers

available to us more than the traditional automation which we used to do. Pricing has been much

better. There is a lot of work happening on value-based selling. And in fact, that is also reflected in

overall RPP that we are seeing a much more stable pricing, in the underlying pricing regime, and

that is something which we are pushing on.

So all the levers are in play. We have quarters where we are able to squeeze more and many new

ideas. I think with Project Maximus, which have come into the fray as well, looking at large programs

and whether we can early on get into a margin improvement program rather than what was originally

budgeted during the bid phase. So there is a lot of stuff happening, and I think we are already seeing

the early results.

Ankur Rudra

A quick follow-up, if I can. There is some concern that some of the cost takeout contracts won in the

last 9 months may drive some margin headwinds. Is that something that should impact on a portfolio

basis next year?

Nilanjan Roy

That is something we have always talked about. We have a portfolio of contracts in the first, second,

third, fourth, fifth year. So while new contracts come in, which are initially potentially at lower margins,

at the same time, we have contracts which have been going into a steady state. Some of these

questions were raised two, three years back in one of our segments as well.

And you have seen the improvement for that segment particularly over the period of time where it is

nearly closer to the average margin for company. So that is something which we have really fine-

tuned and mastered over the few years. So in that sense, that is always built into our projections and

forecast.

Ankur Rudra

I appreciate the color. Thanks and best of luck.

Moderator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Bryan Bergin from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Bryan Bergin

Hi, good evening, thank you. First question I have is demand by geography. Can you talk about

pipeline and client spending plans across the U.S. versus Europe, maybe also based on what you

have in backlog? I am curious if you think the recent trends of North America weakness being offset

by solid Europe performance is likely to continue or whether that may change as you go through

fiscal '25?

Salil Parekh

On the geography, as you point out, we had good growth in Europe in Q3, weaker in North America.

In terms of pipeline, we don’t share the pipeline split by geography. We do see our large deals that

Nilanjan shared by geography in good momentum at least on the large deals on both U.S. and

European side, but we don’t specifically call out pipeline or outlook by geography within our business.

Bryan Bergin

Okay. Any reason that the current growth trajectory should change near term or should it remain

somewhat consistent?

Salil Parekh

So, if you look at guidance for the full year, which is for the remaining quarter, it’s for the entire

business and we don’t have a specific view that we share externally on the U.S. or Europe there.

Bryan Bergin

Okay. Follow-up on the third-party items. So another uptick here, just I think, over 8% of revenue

now. Can you talk about whether you expect third-party items to continue to rise as mix revenue or

may this start to come down as you go forward and deal composition potentially change? I am just

trying to think about sustainable level here as this has moved up meaningfully over the last couple

of years?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes. So as we have talked about this before, as we are involved in larger transformation deal, the

longer-term transformation deals across the entire IT stack, infra, cyber, application development,

data, I think many of these are bundled deals, which have software, hardware elements in it. And in

a way, that is also giving us the benefit of taking these larger deals off the table and at the same

time, we are able to manage our margins as well.

So, we are able to navigate both, the impact of this. So we have no number in mind to say that this

is where we target or this is optimal level. As long as we are able to get incremental market share

and get our margins in-line, which is what the program of Maximus is also about, I think we are

comfortable with that.

Bryan Bergin

Okay. And just last one for you, just on the headcount resourcing plans. Can you just give us a sense

how you are thinking about resourcing plans near term? I know it was down again, sequentially about

2%. I am just curious if you have kind of reached a stabilization point?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes, so we still have a lot of headroom and we have talked about it in the last two quarters that our

utilizations are still quite low. We have operated a much higher utilization, 84%, 85% and of course

in the COVID years, maybe 87%, 88%. So that is one, and we are still below 84% as we speak. We

also have an on-tap demand fulfillment from our fresher model, so we can absorb in freshers very

fast, because we do not have to just go for colleges and wait for the annual cycle.

Now we have a source of supply from off-campus as well. And with attrition slowing down, there is a

lot of talent, even from a lateral basis available across the country as well. So I do not think that is a

big concern for us.

Bryan Bergin

Good luck to you, Nilanjan. Thank you.

Nilanjan Roy

Thank you.

Moderator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Keith Bachman from BMO. Please go ahead.

Keith Bachman

Hi. Thank you. I want to ask a couple of questions, if I could. First on pricing, you mentioned specific

segment of pricing, but I wanted to ask about, pricing on renewals, are you seeing pricing pressure

that is different from past cycles at the time of renewals? And then also, you had good deal signings

for large deals. I wanted to talk, if you could address pricing for those large deals and how that might

be impacting your margins? And then I have a follow-up, please.

Nilanjan Roy

Yes. We have seen much better pricing stability over the last few years. And in fact, we are also very

conscious with our value-based selling program that we are not leaving any pennies on the table

when we are going after deals, because in the hubris, we want to make sure that we are not leaving

a lot of dollars on the table. So I think there is a lot of work happening there.

But overall, from a competitive positioning, pricing really has been stable across. And that is reflected

on the cost pressure that people are also conscious of, in their margins and in where they are.

So, in that sense, there is no more concern. We, of course, have the one-offs, etc., specific clients,

specific segments where they are in trouble. And of course, they may want to rebid some of that. But

overall, it is not been something which is really concerning us in that sense today.

Keith Bachman

Okay. And my follow-up relates to duration, this was asked a little bit differently earlier in the call. But

as you are getting good signings of large deals, is the duration of those large deals extending so that

investors should be thinking about the book-to-bill being a bit longer?

Nilanjan Roy

So, we do not give out the duration of the deal wins. We have deals which come with longer-term

periods. And you could see some of the announcements we have made. But nothing specifically

whether they are going up across. So, we do not comment on that.

Keith Bachman

Okay. Well, then maybe I could sneak in one more. As you just look out over the next couple of

quarters, if you could just help us on the puts-and-takes on margins that we should be thinking about.

I am not asking for guidance. You have already said that utilization perhaps is a source of potential

margin upside as it goes up. I would think that wage pressures would be less going forward, but not

sure how mix fits into that.

But anything you just want to highlight beyond the March quarter, but just the puts and takes that we

should at least be considering as we are creating our margin profile over the next, four, five quarters?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes. So, I think one of the earlier question was on this and probably I talked about it in Project

Maximus, as well. There are other benefits, which we don’t factor in into any of our models. For

instance, operating leverage, you can see the impact of SG&A benefits on operating margins when

we were growing during '21, '22, '23. So, that is something which automatically flows into the P&L

with growth. And in a way it gets reversed, the operating leverage works against you when revenues

are down. So, that is something from a pure margin perspective, which you know flexes.

Secondly, similarly on the currency, we don’t build in anything into our programs. And that also comes

in the future as well, but it is not part of Maximus. Of course, there are things out there, what the

expectations of dollar movements are. So, these are some things more extraneous as well which

can impact, but we are more confident of what we are able to control within the 20 tracks of Maximus

and we have talked about that.

Keith Bachman

Okay. All right, thank you.

Moderator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jamie Friedman from Susquehanna International

Group. Please go ahead.

Jamie Friedman

Hi. Good evening. Nilanjan, in your prepared remarks you expressed confidence in growth in the

medium term. I was just hoping you could unpack that a little. When you say medium term is that

just a comment about the fourth quarter or is that longer in duration?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes. Medium term is medium term. It is definitely more than the fourth quarter.

Jamie Friedman

Okay. Thank you. Also, Nilanjan and Salil, I have tried to reconcile when Salil observes the strength

in the TCV and a record TCV in nine months and when Nilanjan, you used the word subdued in your

prepared remarks. It seems like you are saying, it is hot and cold at the same time. So, I know these

are where many of these questions are going, but how can the weather be both?

Salil Parekh

Hi, maybe the way that we are thinking about this, we can share with you. The large deals really give

us good confidence of revenue over the next several periods in terms of the wins, both for net new

and renewals. And the comment, which was more around subdued, we look at it from a perspective

of where we see less activity on digital programs and less activity on some of those type of projects,

where that takes away a little bit from the revenue.

So, that is the sort of balance in our mind. One of them giving us that revenue outlook and the other

where clients are under constraints on their own spend, reducing some of that. That is how we see

the balance on that. Hopefully, that clarifies the comments.

Jamie Friedman

Thank you, Salil. I will jump back in the queue.

Moderator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sumeet Jain from CLSA. Please go ahead.

Sumeet Jain

Yes. Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Firstly, I wanted to ask around the one-time loss what you had

around McCamish, are you expecting it to reverse back in Q4 and include it in your guidance? Or

will it reverse some time in FY '25?

Nilanjan Roy

No, this is one-time. There is no reversal.

Sumeet Jain

Got it. And secondly, I wanted to check around your platform business. I mean we have seen for the

last 2 years, there has absolutely been no growth in that particular business. But although we keep

seeing deal wins around your Finacle platform with various regional banks in the Middle East

geography and other regional banks in North America as well. So can you share any plans to grow

that part of the piece where we are seeing the other SaaS companies globally have actually seen a

lot of traction post the Gen AI offerings and their solutions?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes. So I think we continue to do well. I think Finacle business continues to motor ahead, a very nice

deal wins across. And overall platforms is a more generic usage. And I mean, we track it across

various things, but Finacle actually overall has been doing very well.

Sumeet Jain

So any reasons for the platform business to be flat over the last 2 years?

Nilanjan Roy

So I think we can get back to you on that.

Sumeet Jain

Okay, that is all I had. Thank you.

Nilanjan Roy

Okay. I think Sandeep is just prompting me that we also use it for internal productivity as well for

services.

Sumeet Jain

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Moderator

The next question is from the line of Yogesh Agarwal from HSBC. Please go ahead,

Yogesh Agarwal

Yes, hi. Just one quick question. The number of employees are down 7% year-on-year, but the total

wage bill is up around 1% or 2%, which means that the wage bill per head is up around 9%, 10%

year-on-year. So I would have assumed that the pyramid would have kicked in, in a slower growth

last few quarters. So any particular reason why the wage bill per head has gone up so much? Thanks.

Nilanjan Roy

I think one of the things is the comp increase also has happened this quarter. And, of course, in the

initial part of the year, we had more lateral movements coming in, in the top end of the pyramid. But

if you see the latest quarter, you will see a reversal of that. I think the employee costs have come

down, in this quarter as well. So you will see that trend reversing.

Yogesh Agarwal

Great. Thanks. Thanks, Nilanjan, all the best for your future endeavors.

Nilanjan Roy

Thank you.

Moderator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vibhor Singhal from Nuvama Equities. Please go

ahead.

Vibhor Singhal

Yes, hi. Thanks for taking my question.

Moderator

Please use your handset. There is an echo in the line.

Vibhor Singhal

Sure. Is it better now?

Moderator

Yes, please go ahead.

Vibhor Singhal

Yes, thanks a lot for taking my question. So, Salil, just a question on the deal flow number. I know

we have already had a bit on it. So, I just wanted to take a bit of feedback. We know this quarter was

basically on the softer side, both in terms of seasonality and probably furloughs being higher than

the last year itself. But on the overall demand environment that we are looking at, both, let us say, in

terms of the cost takeout deals or the discretionary spends or basically the different verticals that we

are looking at, is there any change in the overall demand environment that we are looking at from 3

months ago? I mean, when we met for the second quarter results?

And how do you see this playing out over the next couple of months as clients get into the budget

cycle and any specific verticals or pockets that you might want to call?

Salil Parekh

So, there, you know, the thing that we have observed is, as we look at a large client base, the way

clients are behaving in terms of spend, we have not seen a change in the way they are looking at it.

So, we still see, what we were discussing earlier on digital transformation programs being more

impacted, where cost efficiency being much more in play, there is also more consolidation that we

are seeing, and that was coming through in the past quarter as well.

And then, there is a lot of interest in almost every conversation we have, where Generative AI is part

of the mix. So, in that sense, I do not have a feeling that there is a change that we are seeing. Now,

this is also the start of the calendar year. We will get a sense fairly quickly on how clients are looking

at their spend. And as we come to the end of our financial year and as we plan for next year, that

will give us, let us say, more view into that spending pattern.

Vibhor Singhal

Got it. And in terms of the deal flow, I mean, the deal wins that we had in the first half of the year

were very rock solid deal wins. Any color on some of those deals getting into execution mode driven

by the conversation with your clients? I mean, are we seeing incremental intent from the clients on

starting those deals, which were maybe a bit delayed on their side? Or, any color on that that we

have seen incrementally over the last three months?

Salil Parekh

So, there we have seen, essentially, in this last 3-month cycle, the deal starting or ramping up being

as we anticipated. So nothing has changed in this 3-months cycle. There are places in some of the

large deals where there is need for incremental work, which is also starting to be visible, which will

hopefully flow through.

So, there will be no delay that we have seen. In fact, we have seen more of those on track in the last

three months.

Vibhor Singhal

Got it. Thanks for taking my questions and I wish you all the best.

Salil Parekh

Thank you.

Moderator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Rateria from Morgan Stanley. Please go

ahead.

Gaurav Rateria

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. The first question is with respect to the mega deal signed in 2Q.

The transition period was expected to be a little longer, and some of them were supposed to come

into revenues in the fourth quarter itself. So is the expectation remaining similar on that? Or has

anything changed with respect to the transition period and flow-through of the revenue?

Salil Parekh

There, as we had shared previously, it was towards the end of the year and that is where we are, so

we do not see that changing.

Gaurav Rateria

Got it. Second question is with respect to the underlying leakage in the business on small deals,

discretionary spend that has been continuing now for some time. How do you characterize your 3Q

versus, let us say, 1Q and 2Q has the leakage remained largely similar or has that kind of come

down compared to the pace at it was leaking in the first two quarters?

Salil Parekh

Let me try to give color in the way we look at it. In the last quarter, so in the last three months, we

have not seen those things change in direction, they appear to be stable or similar.

Gaurav Rateria

And is that the similar thing built in your outlook for the fourth quarter as well, when you tightened

your guided band?

Salil Parekh

At this stage that is what we have put into the Q4 outlook, yes.

Gaurav Rateria

Got it. Last question is on the margins. Given that you will have some bit of more headwind in fourth

quarter because there will be full three-month impact of the wages that you have provided for in this

quarter, your margins probably will have some more headwinds, plus your implied guidance points

to again, weak revenue trajectory in the fourth quarter also, so no major massive operating leverage

per se.

It is just that you are exiting the year with margins closer to the lower end of the guide, is that the

bottom for the margins? And given the Project Maximus is underway from here on the margin should

only be going in the upward direction? Is that the way to look for it? I am not specifically looking for

fiscal '25, but just trying to understand is that the bottom for the margins? Thank you.

Nilanjan Roy

Yes, so in Q4, I mean, it will work out of Q3 as well and you know there are puts-and-takes in Q4.

And like we have said, Project Maximus continues to deliver very strongly and in our overall

commentary, we have talked about the optimism in the medium-term for our margins coming out of

Maximus.

Gaurav Rateria

Thank you.

Moderator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities. Please go

ahead.

Sandeep Shah

Yes, thanks. Thanks for the opportunity. Most of the questions have been answered. Just wanted to

understand the 60 bps impact on our cybersecurity, is it possible to break down in terms of revenue

and cost? And is it fair to assume the impact, which could have been there because of the cost, will

actually no longer be there? It would be a tailwind in the fourth quarter?

Nilanjan Roy

Firstly we can’t split it, but both these are one-time impacts - the loss of revenue and the cost impact.

So, this was like the puts-and-take. So, in Q4, as we see it now, this is not going to be there.

Sandeep Shah

Okay. And so even the revenue will come back in the fourth quarter, right?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes, so I think in the statement, you have seen that the systems are back substantially by the end of

December, right? The system is up and running. So I think that part goes away and the work that we

do in Q4, should translate to revenues.

Sandeep Shah

Okay. And Nilanjan for two months of wage hike, 60 bps to 70 bps wage impact looks slightly lower.

So, is the almost 100% of the eligible employees have been covered? And is it fair to assume the

wage impact would be much lower in the fourth quarter because it would be one month impact?

Nilanjan Roy

Going to be a one-month impact, absolutely. Every time we do a wage hike, we look at, of course,

the competitive scenario we look at the market, attrition, employees, tenure, what are the pay point

grids. So, it is a very complex exercise. And based on this, this is what we have rolled out. And of

course, you can see the attrition figures are also good.

Sandeep Shah

Okay. And last question, Salil, I think one of the responses, you said the furloughs in the December

quarter may continue in the March quarter, have I heard correctly or I have been mistaken?

Salil Parekh

So there, my point was on more Q3, we had the furloughs and that is a seasonal impact. In Q4, we

typically see a little bit of that always in our business in Australia and that is really the reference I

was making.

Sandeep Shah

Okay, okay. Thanks and all the best. And all the best Nilanjan.

Nilanjan Roy

Thank you.

Moderator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kawaljeet Saluja from Kotak. Please go ahead.

Kawaljeet Saluja

Hey, hi. My question is for Nilanjan. And Nilanjan you know the margins for this quarter, is it based

on your normal variable compensation provision? Or is that something which has taken a hit in this

quarter?

Nilanjan Roy

So Kawal, we do not talk about the variable pay, of course. I think there will be enough news in the

papers about that, but we do not give any commentary on variable pay.

Kawaljeet Saluja

Yes. I mean I think it will make its way to the media after a month, so might as well talk about it now

Nilanjan.

Nilanjan Roy

We never confirm at any case.

Kawaljeet Saluja

Okay. Got that. Yes. All the best for your future endeavors, Nilanjan.

Nilanjan Roy

Thanks, Kawal.

Moderator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Manik Taneja from Axis Capital. Please go ahead,

Manik Taneja

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted to understand over the course of last 9 to 12 months,

the industry has been complaining about the leakage on the existing projects as well as non-

extension of discretionary projects. Are you seeing any change on that front? That is question

number one. The second question was with regards to the expansion in terms of captive centers,

and we continue to see news flow on that front. Any comments from you on that front?

Salil Parekh

I think, on the first part, our sense is in the last quarter, so in this Q3, we have not seen any change

in the work on those projects that had essentially a similar type of trajectory. On the captive centers

there, typically, we see that any time there is new technology shifts, whether there was digital or

cloud or Generative AI, there is definitely more interest in some clients building out captives. Equally

as technologies age, we see some clients are looking to exit and especially to be more optimized.

And we have seen that in several of our large deals, if you look back over the last several quarters.

We have had these where, in addition to the transformation, we have taken on the task of optimizing

pre-existing captives and so on.

So, we do not see a change. It is just maybe it is that new technology moment where we see the

activity. But we also see converse activity of things which were let us say, set up 5, 7, 10 years ago,

which are going through that change or decline in that situation.

Manik Taneja

Sure. And one last question from my end, we have been seeing our headcount reduced for the last

several quarters. Any sense on how we should be thinking about the optimization on this front given

the kind of deal wins that we have had in the last three quarters?

Nilanjan Roy

Yes. So I have mentioned that a couple of times, utilization is something where we have headroom.

So the decline in headcount really does not concern us too much. And both from availability of talent

to ramp-up, we now have a very strong off-campus program. This is something over the last three

or four years, we have perfected post COVID and that is really on tap without having to give out

requests to colleges one year in advance.

And of course, from a lateral perspective, like I mentioned, with the market being soft, there is of

course, talent available even laterally. So in that sense, we are very, very comfortable with any

volume requirements and ability to fulfill.

Manik Taneja

Sure. Thank you and all the best for the future.

Moderator

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the

management for their closing remarks. Thank you and over to you.

Salil Parekh

Thank you. Just, first, everyone on the call thanks very much for joining us and for your questions. I

want to just summarize with a few points. First, we are very excited with the large deals at $3.2 bn,

71% net new. It really shows the foundation of what we see for the future, very happy with the strong

margin and also for an extremely strong margin improvement program that is in play.

Our Generative AI work is really pervasive. It is across all of our client discussions, in our service

lines and we believe we are building extremely deep capability within our Topaz set of capabilities.

We see continued strong focus on cost takeout, consolidation and we have extreme strength in that.

We feel good that, that will continue. If that continues, we have a good play into that.

And then finally, we feel good overall about the resilience of our business given the quarter and the

seasonality that we had and the overall economic environment. We feel really good about the

resilience of our business and the future.

So thank you, everyone, again and look forward to catching up at the next quarter call.

Moderator

Thank you very much, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen on behalf of Infosys,

that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.

← All Transcripts INFY Stock Page →

Infosys Limited has informed the Exchange regarding 'Earnings Call Transcript'.

Market Movers