Wipro Limited

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Wipro Limited Q3 FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the 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 and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded and the duration for today's call will be for 45 minutes. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Abhishek Jain, Vice President, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Yasashree. Warm welcome to our Q3 FI26 earnings call. We'll begin the call with the business highlights and overview by Srinivas Palia, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, followed by updates on financial overview by our CFO, Aparna Iyer, We also have our CHRO, Saurav Govil, and our Chief Strategist and Technology Officer, Hari Shetty, on this call. Afterwards, the operator will open the bridge for Q&A with our management team. Before Srini starts, let me draw your attention to the fact that during this call, we may make certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Private Security Litigation Reform Act 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are associated with uncertainties and risks. which may cause the actual results to differ materially from those expected. The uncertainties and risk factors are explained in our detailed filings with the SEC. WIPRO does not undertake any obligation to update the forward-looking statements to reflect events and circumstances after the date of filing. The conference call will be archived and a transcript will be available on our website. With that, I would like to turn over the call to Shini.

Thank you, Abhishek. Good evening and thank you for joining us today. a very happy new year to you. Let me start with the broader environment before walking you through our quarterly performance and how we are positioning Wipro for an AI-first world. Across our client landscape, one thing is clear. Organizations are reshaping priorities as AI influences how they plan, invest and operate. In fact, AI is now a standing board-level mandate led by CEOs who recognize its ability to transform business models, unlock productivity, and create lasting competitive advantage. We are also seeing the same themes continue from past quarters in our deal pipeline. Cost optimization vendor consolidation, and a clear shift towards AI-led transformation. In quarter three, we also marked two important milestones for Wipro. In December, we completed 80 years as a company. And in October, we celebrated 25 years of being listed on the New York Stock Exchange. These milestones reflect a legacy of strong governance, values, and integrity, a foundation of trust that continues to differentiate us with our clients, partners, and investors. Turning to quarter three performance, our IT services sequential revenue at $2.64 billion grew 1.4%. on a constant currency basis. Excluding Harman DTS acquisition, revenue grew 0.6% in constant currency terms. Growth was broad-based with three of our four markets and four of our five sectors reporting sequential gains. America's one delivered sequential and a year-on-year growth driven by strong performance. in healthcare, consumer, and LATAM. America, too, saw a sequential decline. Europe grew sequentially in Q3, led by ramp-up of the earlier announced mega-deal. We are also seeing good traction in the UK and Western Europe. APMEA grew sequentially and year-on-year, led by India, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. BFSI continues to show strong traction with ramp-ups and new wins. Capco revenue was impacted by furloughs and remained flat year-on-year. Our operating margin at 17.6% expanded 0.4% for adjusted quarter-to-margin and 0.1% year on year. We closed $3.3 billion in total contract value and $871 million in large deal bookings. Last quarter, I introduced Wipro Intelligence. It's a unified approach to delivering AI-powered transformation across industries. This approach is anchored on three strategic pillars. First, industry platforms and solutions. We are building consulting-led AI solutions across sectors. For example, platforms like Pair AI in healthcare, Net Oxygen for lending, and AutoCortex for automotive. These solutions help streamline operations, improve customer outcomes, and open up new avenues for growth. Second, our delivery platforms accelerate AI adoption at scale. Wing, out of our repro intelligence, brings AI into the heart of operations, from application management to infrastructure support and business process operations. Vega adds AI-driven capabilities across the development lifecycle, from wipe coding to model tuning and data pipeline. Together, these platforms help our clients modernize faster and operate smarter. Third, the Wipro Innovation Network. This connects our labs with partners, startups, universities, and deep tech talent around the world. This ecosystem helps us explore new technologies and build solutions for the future. We launched innovation labs in three cities in the US, Australia, and the Middle East, expanding our network, growing our global footprint, and strengthening our role as a trusted innovation partner. We are also partnering with client GCCs to drive transformation and turn their cost centers into high-impact innovation apps. Let me now share two examples of large deal wins that we had leveraging Wipro Intelligence. First, a leading global education provider in the UK which is expanding rapidly across markets, has chosen us as its strategic partner for a multi-year transformation. The goal is to build a single, secure, intelligent operating model that can scale with their growth and improve stakeholder experience. Using Wings, we will standardize core processes, embed automation, and AI-driven insights and optimize costs through a global delivery model. Second, a leading US-based fitness technology company has selected Wipro for a multi-year transformation to accelerate its shift to a subscription-based wellness model and support global expansion. We will use both Wings and Vega to embed AI and automation across IT infrastructure and core functions, driving efficiency, productivity, growth, and better customer experiences. These engagements highlight a clear trend. Clients are bringing us in much earlier and recognizing the step change in the way we deliver and innovate. I would now like to update you on Harman DTS. First, a warm welcome to all Harman DTS employees joining us. With the acquisition now complete, we have added engineering and AI capabilities that truly complement what we do. This strengthens our engineering global business line and helps us accelerate AI-driven product innovation for clients. The integration also opens new regions and high-growth industries and allows us to take on larger, more complex transformation programs. As our teams come together, we look forward to entering new markets, building deeper client relationships and turning innovation into long-term value. Finally, guidance for quarter four. In quarter four, we are projecting sequential IT services revenue growth of 0% to 2.0% in constant currency. With that, I will hand it over to Aparna for the detailed financial. Thank you. Over to you, Aparna.

Thank you, Srini. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I wish you all a very, very happy new year. Let me share a quick update on the financial performance. Our IT services revenue for quarter three grew 1.4% sequentially in constant currency term and 1.2% sequentially in reported currency. Revenue grew 0.2% year on year. in reported terms, while declining 1.2% year-on-year in constant currency terms. Our constant currency revenue growth numbers included 0.8% as contribution from the Harman DTS acquisition that was closed in Q3 2016. Our operating margins for the quarter was 17.6%, an expansion of 40 basis points over the adjusted operating margins for Q2 and Q3. 10 basis points improvement on a year-on-year basis. I would also like to highlight that this is one of our best margin performance in the last several quarters. As we move to Q4, we will need to factor for incremental dilution of harm and DTS. That said, our endeavor, as always, will be to maintain the margins in a similar band as in the last few quarters. Adjusted net income for the quarter was Rs. 33.6 billion and adjusted EPS for the quarter was at Rs. 3.21. An increase of 3.5% quarter-on-quarter and flat year-on-year. Moving on to our strategic market unit and sector performance, all the numbers I will share will be in constant currency. America grew 1.8% sequentially and grew 2.8% on a year-on-year basis. America's grew, declined 0.8% sequentially and 5.2% on a year-on-year basis. Europe grew 3.3% sequentially and declined 4.6% on a year-on-year basis. Acme grew 1.7% sequentially and 6.6% on a year-on-year basis. From a sector standpoint, BFSI grew 2.6% sequentially and 0.4% year-on-year. Health grew 4.2% sequentially and 1% year-on-year. Consumer grew 0.7% sequentially while declining 5.7% year-on-year. Tech and Com grew 4.2% sequentially and 3.5% on year-on-year terms. EMR declined 4.9% sequentially and 5.8% year-on-year. To give an added color, Kako was slacked on a year-on-year basis, UQ3. Before I move on to other financial parameters, I'd like to draw your attention to two specific one-off charges that we took in our P&L that also impacted our net income. These changes are not included in our, these charges are not included in our IT services segment margins. First is an increase of 302 crores towards gratuity expenses due to implementation of the new labor code. Second is regarding the restructuring exercise that was completed during the quarter and its impact is about 263 crores. I'd like to confirm that we've now completed the restructuring we wanted to do and do not anticipate any further charges. Our operating cash flows continue to be higher than the net income and so that 135% of net income for quarter three. Our gross cash including investments is now at 6.5 billion dollars. Our net other income in Q3 grew 15% sequentially. Accounting yield for the average investments held in India was at 7.2%. Our effective tax rate at 23.9% for Q3-26 was better than the same quarter last year of 24.4%. In terms of our guidance, we would like to reiterate what was stated by Srini. We expect our revenues from the IT services business segment to be in the range of $2.635 billion to $2.688 billion. This translates to a sequential guidance of 0 to 2% in constant currency terms. Our guidance includes the incremental two months of revenue from Harman VTA. It is impacted by fewer working days in Q4 and certain delayed ramp-ups in some of the large rates that we won earlier in the year. Lastly, I'd like to share with you that in our recently concluded board meeting, the board of directors has declared an interim dividend of Rs. 6 per share. With this payout, the cash distributed to our shareholders during the current financial year will be in excess of $1.3 billion. And we will be able to significantly exceed the minimum threshold that we had laid out in our capital allocation policy for the block ending financial year 2026. With that, I'm going to ask Yeshusvi to open it up for Q&A.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take our first question from the line of Nitin Parmanavan from Investec. Please go ahead.

Hello, good evening. Wishing you a very happy new year. I had a couple of questions. So one is I think this quarter we lost almost $24 million of revenue in energy manufacturing resources. I just wanted your thoughts on that vertical and how do you see the deal pipeline there? When do you think this can sort of turn around? The second is you alluded to some delays in ramp-ups impacting growth for next quarter. So if you could give some color there. I presume this is related to the last deals. By when do you see this sort of beginning to ramp going forward? And third, when are we expecting to have the wage hike cycle? Yeah, those are the three. Thank you.

So Nitin, I'll take your second question. And then on EMR, I'll ask Srini to answer. And on attrition, we have Saurabh here. He can take that. On hike, salary hike, sorry. You know, Nitin, in terms of our large deal conversion, you know, each deal is different. One of the significant deal wins we had in Q4 of the last financial year, Phoenix, is now fully ramped up and its revenues are fully realized and it's part of our quarterly performance. So that's on track. Some of the other deals, given the nature of the deals that we've won, We've earlier also highlighted that these days will take a few quarters to ramp up. So it's a question of it coming in through the course of the next few quarters and therefore we've called it out saying that in Q4 we may not be able to realize the full impact and therefore we're calling it out. The other lever that is playing out is typically furloughs do come back but Q4 continues to have lower working days which is not really This is in some sense offsetting for those furloughs, and therefore we've given you the guidance we have. But these deals should continue to converse. Each deal is different. We're confident it will take some time, but it will ramp up. Srini, you want to talk on EMR and then follow up?

Sure. Thanks, Aparna. Happy New Year, Nitin. As far as EMR is concerned, our performance in this sector clearly has been impacted based on the macroeconomic uncertainty we have seen, some during tariff related and also some disrupted supply chain issues that we faced. However, our pipeline continues to remain strong in this sector and essentially the significant pipeline is around either vendor consolidation or cost takeout. And if I were to give a little bit of color to specific segments, we have good momentum in energy in both America and Europe. And as far as manufacturing is concerned, we are seeing that in Europe. Also, our Capco business, which is also seeing some traction on the energy consulting side. So, NetNet, that's the situation that we have right now with EMR, Nitin. Over to you, Saurabh.

In salary hikes, we will take a call in the next few weeks. When should we be doing it? Our intention is to look at it this quarter, but we'll confirm it during the next couple of weeks.

Perfect. Perfect. That's helpful. Just one clarification. Do you think EMR should start getting back to growth sometime next year? That's the last question for mine.

Thank you. So as far as EMR is concerned, I'll just repeat that. One is the pipeline. Like I said, specifically, we have good momentum on the pipeline in energy in both America and Europe. And as far as manufacturing is concerned, it's in Europe. I think our focus right now is to convert these deals and then, you know, that should drive the revenue growth for us. And we are just staying focused on winning some of those deals when it ends.

Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you so much and all the very best.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vibhor Singhal from Nuama Equities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. And congrats on a solid performance. So my question was mainly on the basically the consumer vertical. You mentioned about the challenges in the EMR vertical. Planting has been doing well for us. In the consumer vertical, the growth was stepped in this quarter. We continue to decline on a Y&Y basis. How do you see the outlook in this vertical? We know this vertical also has been impacted a lot by the tariff uncertainty that has basically impacted the producers. But any conversations with the clients in terms of our interactions in the pipeline, do you see it turning the corner in coming quarters or do you think it will be sometime before some clarity emerges in this vertical?

Thanks, Vibhar. If you look at our consumer sector, clearly If you recollect, I talked about it before as well, that the tariffs had an impact on this, and that is reflected in our numbers. And also, if you reflect, there was a large SAP program which was put on hold last year by our customers. And again, the client is yet to re-initiate, and that is one of the things that is impacting our year-on-year performance as well in this particular thing. in this particular market sector. However, the overall trend that we see right now is mixed here for us in consumer. Some of the wins we had earlier this year is slowly ramping up, and that should support the growth in this sector. I do not have a, you know, from a quarter four perspective, whatever growth we are seeing, that's baked into our forecast report.

Got it, got it, got it. And similar thing on the basically high-tech vertical. I know it's not that big a vertical, but I think both tech and health vertical appear to be doing good. Any specific project ramp-up that we saw in this quarter which led to this growth, or do you think it's a growth which we can sustain in the coming quarters as well?

Sorry, which sector did you refer to, Vibhav?

Aparna, tech and the healthcare verticals, both of them specifically.

In some sense, in healthcare, we've been consistently doing well, and we've had both in our year-on-year performance. Seasonally, obviously, we have the open enrollment season that really does improve our health performance in Q3. So, that is also added to the performance. In terms of our tech and comm, we've continued to do well in some of our large technology players, and There is a little bit of the harm in acquisition numbers, which is also reflected in the overall sector's performance. And I think communications in general have been better for Europe and apnea. That's the color I can give you.

Perfect, perfect. That's really helpful. Just one last question from my side. You mentioned about the few headwinds in Q4 that you will be facing. And if I look at our guidance, it is 0 to 2% at the console level. And if we were to, let's say, extrapolate the two-month incremental impact of hormone acquisition, the organic growth will probably fall somewhere between minus 1.5 to plus 0.5%. Is that the right understanding? And is the reason for that very much as you mentioned in your opening remarks as well?

You know, for some reason, we're not able to hear it clearly. Can you just slow down the question?

I'm so sorry. Very sorry. Yeah, I can hear me.

Yes. I'm sorry. His line is disconnected. We'll move on to the next question. Before we do that, ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone. Next question is from the line of Ravi Menon from Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a really strong margin performance this quarter. Now that you've come to sequential growth, even in a seasonally weak quarter, I'm surprised that organically we seem to be hinting at a slight decline, possibly at the lower end of our guidance next quarter. Capco should also be coming out of the furloughs that it fanned this quarter. Could you talk a bit about that and beyond that, do you think that sequential growth is possible looking at the pipeline and the slight improvement possibly if we have on the demand environment?

So I will ask Srini to talk through the demand environment. You know, we guide based on the visibility that we have at the start of the quarter. I've shared with you that some of the furloughs that typically does come back are you know, partially offset by the lower working days that we are also seeing this year. And to that extent, we are seeing some softness continue, right? But that said, you know, our endeavor would be to obviously execute the quarter, you know, better through the next 90 days, right? You want to talk about it?

Thanks, Aparna. So, Naveen, if we look at it, there is no significant change in the demand environment, specifically the discretionary spend as the uncertainty continues. Second, you know, January is the time when many of our customers will finalize their budgeting process, will have a much better understanding and view of where they're going to spend. But having said that, If I look at the current pipeline that we have, a significant piece of this pipeline is around cost optimization and vendor consolidation, which are the key levers for our clients. And they are using this as a lever for savings. And they want to reinvest these savings into AI capabilities and also some of the advanced transformation projects that they want to do. For us, we believe this is an optimal opportunity for us to capitalize on this. And we'll make strategic bets in each of these sectors and markets and continue to invest in our clients to do this. From a full year of visibility, like Panna said, there is uncertainty in the market and customers continue to remain in wait and watch mode. At this stage, our guidance represents the best visibility we have. And if there are any further updates, we'll definitely share, Naveen.

Thanks, Srini. And Srini, you talked about vendor consolidation and cost takeout and clients actually using those savings for transformation. Are they actually giving both to the same vendor, or do they prefer to split that out, what you're seeing, at least in the wins that you have?

Again, it's mixed. There are certain clients who are doing that and continuing with their current partners. And there are certain clients who are changing, and there are certain clients who are increasing the scope and using multiple partners as well. So it clearly varies from client to client.

All right. Thank you. And one last question on the Helman DTS. You know, which segments do you think this really improves your possibility of win rates? You can start with Helman.

So, Naveed, if I understand the question, how the Harman DTS acquisition will help us, right?

Correct, yeah. Which sectors do you expect the win rates to improve?

So, clearly, you know, Harman brings in both, you know, design to manufacturing capabilities and, you know, AI-powered product innovation. In that context, clearly, the sweet spot for for a combined unit, especially the engineering global business line that we have, is the tech and comm sector. That's, I think, primarily the one where we see a significant opportunity. And the other three sectors I would pick are health, consumer, and EMR.

Thanks so much.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the opportunity. Just the first question is, because of delay in ramp up of deal wins of the last two, three quarters, is it fair to assume if those ramps up in the first quarter next year, then the seasonal softness which generally comes in the first quarter may not be true next year?

So Sandeep, yes, in some sense, you know, that will be the, you know, objective that we ramp up enough so that we can expect for some of the weakness that could arise. That said, we don't guide for Q1, but we would like to clarify that it's just delayed and some of this do take time to ramp up and confident that it will ramp up and we will keep you posted.

Okay. Okay. Just, Aparna, I wanted to understand the guidance on the margins, which you said narrow band. Narrow band compared to Q3 margins or earlier range?

So, you know, you again know we don't guide for margins. You've seen our performance over the last eight quarters. We've consistently improved, right? I think, you know, all credit to the team. We have been fairly resilient on margin. And we will continue our endeavor to keep it. But that said, we will have to invest for growth. And that's the number one priority, right? We've acquired ETS Harman, and, you know, that will mean an incremental dilution to our margins that we will have to absorb. So, you know, we continue to chase and win large deals, and they come with a different margin profile. And these are very important investments we have to make. And, you know, there will also be decisions that will have to be made on wage increases that Saurabh spoke of. A lot of moving parts. Our endeavor is going to be to make sure that we keep it in that band of 17 to 17.5%. If you recall, we said that while we stated that band, with the acquisition, we will see pressure to that. Right now, we are continuing to hold that band, which itself is a positive. But like I said, you know, we will have to take it quarter to quarter. There will be some quarters where you'll have to invest in our people, in our deals, in our clients, and for growth. So we will make those tradeoffs.

Yeah, this last couple of questions. The deal TCV in this quarter, both on large deal and total, has been slightly softer versus very strong momentum in the earlier three quarters. So any reason where is it declined, decision-making being slowed down, or it's the intense competitive pressure which has led to some decline in the win ratio? And the last question...

Yeah, you know, typically, like I said, you know, some of these deals, they tend to club, right? We are contesting a lot of large deals. They are in the cycle. We are hopeful of closing them. You will continue to see the momentum on large deal wins. At a billion dollars or maybe, you know, we're just shy of 100 million dollars. That's been the normal trajectory. Obviously, in the first half, we had a few mega deal wins. So, to be specific, We hope to win more, right? So I wouldn't read into it in terms of lower decision-making cycle or competitive pressure. I would just say that, you know, they tend to lump up. We have a lot of good deals and we will see the momentum pick up.

Okay. And just the last question, Aparna, with the war chest of $6.1 billion, though we are distributing dividends, But is it fair to assume that buyback continues to remain one of the options in the mind to give this excess cash back to the shareholders?

We have said that buyback will continue to be a means by which we will return cash to our shareholders. It's certainly an option on the table, and we will consider it at an appropriate time.

Okay. Thanks, and all the best.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kumar Rakesh from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good evening and thank you for taking my question. I have just one question. Do you think given the kind of mix which you have both of vertical and the capability at Wipro, you would be able to get back in line with the industry average revenue growth? Or would it make sense to just slow down your margin, get to maintain sort of a margin, be able to better compete with some of your peers, maybe with your peers as well? Or maybe acquire some of the companies to reset the mix. What's your thought on that?

Kumar.

Kumar, clearly, first, if you look at our inorganic strategy, it's very clearly aligned to the strategic priorities we called out. We constantly look for sectors and the markets combination in terms of where we need to invest, where we need to acquire new capabilities. And if you look at specifically Harman DTS, clearly it's giving us a combination of both what I would call as capabilities and also a few new markets that they're already in. So we continue to look at opportunities for us, Kumar, as we continue to move forward. Our strategy is both growing our organic and inorganic and continue to invest in organic. And you are right, we do have cash, and as far as that is concerned, it is an opportunity for us to look at the market, scan the market, and do the right investment. That makes it a win-win for us.

Great. Thanks a lot for that.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rishi Jhunjhunwala from IIFL. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand, you know, X of Harmon doesn't look like there would be, you know, much of a sequential growth in 4Q and, you know, 1Q, as we were discussing earlier in the call, historically has had some weak seasonality. I noticed a pretty sharp increase in our overall headcount in this quarter. So just wanted to understand given the outlook for the next couple of quarters, what is driving this and how do we read that?

The headcount for this quarter is primarily driven from two things. One is the acquisition, DTS acquisition. And second is the one of the large deals and ceilings we had done as we were re-badging, so I think when we ramped up the deal. So that's been the reason for seeing the ramp up in this quarter. Otherwise, from a hiring standpoint and supply side, I don't see a challenge. Attrition has been at 2% low for the quarter. It's trending the same in the next quarter. We are going to go to the campuses again. We had taken a bit of a hiatus in this quarter, next quarter. So from a supply side, relation is looking up. The net of the furloughs, the net of the leave people have taken. So we are fairly confident in the headcount supply side to manage the demand.

Understood, sir. The second question is just wanted to understand this restructuring cost that we have booked in our financials. Is it in the same nature as what we did in 1Q? And if not, if you can give some color around that.

The restructuring basically has pivoted on obsolete skills and family in two areas. One is in Europe where we have a tough labor law and second is in Capco. These are the two big areas where we did that. Similar to what we have done in Q1.

Understood. And just last thing, there was a bookkeeping question. There is a spike in DNA in this quarter, any particular reason, and is that a normalized level going forward as well? Thank you.

You know, we have taken a provision for that in the full day charge, and I think that's the line item that will show an increase. That's in the usual course of business. You should see that go off starting next quarter.

Aparna, I was asking about depreciation and amortization.

Okay. And, you know, typically we do assess the intangibles every year. And if, you know, based on the expected forecast, et cetera, sometimes we tend to accelerate such amortization. In this quarter, we did accelerate some amortization towards one of the earlier acquisitions, and that's reflected. And that should also normalize. However, we will have an increased amortization charge coming in for the DTS common. So, yeah. So, you should wait for the next quarter to get them normalized then.

Sure, sure. Sorry. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kavaljeet Saluja from Kotak Security. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. The audio is not very clear.

Is it better now?

Yes.

Please go ahead. Hi, Aparna. I have just a couple of questions for you. First is that at $6.5 billion, it seems that you have plenty of excess cash. So how do you intend to flush this excess cash out? Would it be through dividends or is buyback possible? on the cards, and if buyback is on the cards, then what are the considerations set required to move towards that path here? That's the first question.

Okay, you know, you're right. We did note that we've been having excess cash, and as a result of that, you know, last year we had increased our capital allocation and we said that we would start increasing our dividend payouts. We did that. We paid out Rs. 6 in the last financial year. This year, we've almost paid Rs. 11 per share, which is about $1.3 billion, which should nearly account for, if I had to just analyze our YTD EPS, it was about 88-89% of that. So at least What the increased dividend is doing is we're not adding to the excess cash and leaving enough for, you know, watches for whatever acquisitions and organic investments we need to make. Is buyback an option to still consider in terms of returning excess cash to shareholders? Indeed it is. And what are the considerations for that? you know, we will have a discussion with the board on that and we will come back. Typically, considerations include, you know, whether we have enough net cash available in order to pursue the investments we need. And we will keep the market posted covered. But other statutory considerations are quite in the place for buyback.

Can you repeat that last part again? I missed it here.

Oh, I said, you know, there are some statutory considerations that, you know, you can't do a buyback within 12 months. You know, you can't do it if there is a merger pending for NCLC, et cetera. None of that is, I mean, all of that is conducive, Karan.

Okay, so let's say if you had to theoretically decide to do a buyback today, you can do that. Whereas in the past, there was an NCLP process or merger which would have acted as an impediment. There is no such impediment. I mean, you can do that as and when you feel it's the right time. Is that the way to look at it? Yes.

Absolutely.

Noted. The second question is for you and Srini. Let's say... if those two mega-deals ramp-ups were not delayed, then what would the guidance have been for the March quarter? Any way to detail it out, either quantitatively, which may be difficult, or even qualitatively, that would be very helpful to understand the growth trajectory here.

You know, obviously, we can't talk about it quantitatively, Kaval. And qualitatively, like I said, it's only delayed. These ramp-ups should happen. And each deal is different in its nature, right? For example, something like Phoenix, which was entirely net new and fully, you know, where there was a clear go-live date and readiness, We've been able to do that, and that's fully into our revenue starting Q3, so that's played out perfectly to plan. Right now, in some of the other larger deals, mega-reviews that we could be winning in terms of vendor consolidation, these deals typically have both an element of renewal and new. Obviously, the renewal is fully in, and that continues, and we're not seeing any changes in terms of the expectations. In case of the new, the element of new, some of these things are taking longer either due to client situations where there could be some changes in the client environment that they're going through and therefore there is a little bit of a delay in terms of the timing of the ramp up or it could just be the nature of how it is going to play out, right? Because, you know, we will have, it will take six quarters. That's what I earlier alluded to. So it is going to take that time. And we're hopeful that this will flow through in the coming quarters.

Noted. Thank you so much. All the best.

Thank you. Thank you, Kabir.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference back to Mr. Abhishek Jain for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Yes, thank you all for joining the call. Have a nice day. Thank you.

Thank you, members of the management team. On behalf of the ProLimited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.