Q1-FY24 · Sudhir Singh
Exceptional execution by Team Coforge in a testing environment allowed us to deliver another quarter of sustained, robust and profitable growth.
Coforge · tone and specificity signals across the available quarters.
Language signals
Exceptional execution by Team Coforge in a testing environment allowed us to deliver another quarter of sustained, robust and profitable growth.
We believe that effective application now today of generative AI using large language models, known as LLMs, such as ChatGPT, can drive exponential value for our customers.
Our confidence doesn't stem from forward-looking plans. It comes from our past record. It comes from the experiences that we as a team have gone through repeatedly over the last six years.
A 3.7% sequential CC growth, excluding India, with a concurrent expansion in EBITDA by 210 basis points YOY in the same quarter, a record headcount quarterly increase of 1,886, a very significantly improved operating cash flow of $23.2 million for quarter one, and an ever-strengthening order executable next twelve month booked orders, which now is 19.3% higher YOY, gives us confidence that the quarters to come shall see robust and profitable growth.
We believe that the demand has not just bottomed out, but that it is picking up. There is clearly a rebound on the demand front. It is tepid, but it is definite.
We have not given a guidance for this year, and we will not be giving a guidance going forward as well. There is no other midcap firm in our industry that gives a guidance, and we are aligning with that process.
We believe that we have established a path to deliver 14% reported EBIT in fiscal year twenty six itself.
The executable order book stands at a record $1,550,000,000, 46.9 percent higher than at the same time last year.
We have never ever given up on even one of the big bets that we've undertaken.
We believe that sustained growth is a function of both winning large deals and equally importantly, ensuring that existing business is retained.
We are crystal clear, we are a growth firm. We will deliver growth, not just in FY 2024, where the guidance is 13%-16%, but in FY 2025, 2026, 2027, and then on.
The combination of us being very, very focused and therefore very, very competent in key areas, along with it being within the non-discretionary and transformation areas, has meant we've been able to grow where others have struggled.
The growth story of Coforge is now 29-quarters old. This is a time-tested team that is hungrier today, more hungry today, than it was more than seven years back when we first came together.
We expected Cigniti to hit a 16.5% EBITDA target by Quarter Four, but we now believe that we will hit more than an 18% EBITDA target for the standalone Cigniti business by Quarter Four this year.
The only thing that's exceeded even margins on the expectation side has been the eagerness with which a team that was largely selling only one service line has embraced the other ten that they can now sell.
Our growth continues to be driven by an execution intensity that is uniquely our own. Execution, we have always believed, is the ability to not just create strategies and share plans, but to actually deliver upon them.
We believe AI is a clear tailwind for firms that understand the domain and also have an appreciation for how to apply the relevant AI-specific technology.
Once we hit 14% EBIT, if we manage to hit it this year, we will plan to, at a minimum, clip along at 14% EBIT. Our primary aim will be to make sure that we prioritize growth over any further EBIT improvement.
Despite quarter three being a very tough quarter for the industry, Team Coforge has once again turned in a strong performance.
We are not baking in any improvement into our next year plans from where things are.
Execution, execution, execution.
This quarter has been an exceptionally strong quarter for the firm.
The Coforge growth story is now into its eighth year. This is possibly one of the most sustained, and I double underline the word sustained, high-growth business trajectories that any team in our industry has carved out.
Our whole BPS business is not defined or run on the basis of just volume of people on seats. It's very much driven around outcomes.
The age of AI experimentation is over. What we're witnessing is a market inflection point.
We are also willing to underwrite outcomes. Our risk-reward commercial models tie our fees to our clients' achieved results.
We have concluded that we will not need a QIP for retiring the term loan in the target company.
We are now entering fiscal year 25 with our order executable 17.3% higher year-over-year, and hence our confidence around delivering robust growth again in FY 25 is very high.
We believe that the acquisition of Cigniti will help us grow into a $2 billion firm by fiscal year 27, with a 150-250 basis points higher margin.
We are endeavoring to be a net cash company by end of fiscal 2025.
We are entering fiscal year 2026 with a record signed order book, which is 47.7% higher than where it was at the same time last year.
We believe very significant growth in fiscal year 2026 will be accompanied by a simultaneous and a material expansion in reported EBIT.
The Sabre $1.56 billion deal that we announced through the quarter has seen an impeccable transition and a ramp-up so far.
AI generated code is cheap to build but it is expensive to own. It is expensive to secure and it is expensive to maintain.
We believe the EBIT reset in quarter 4 has been a structural reset. It has come off the back of the automation and AIEL interventions.
The path from pilot to production runs through architecture and delivery, not through model selection.