Datamatics Global Services Limited (DATAMATICS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

April 29, 2022

National Stock Exchange of India IN Industrials Professional Services earnings 41 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Datamatics Global Services Limited Q4 FY '22 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Asha Gupta from EY Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.

Asha Gupta

attendee
#2

Thank you, Lizann. Good afternoon to all participants in the call today. Welcome to the Q4 and full year FY '22 earnings call of Datamatics Global Services Limited. The results and presentation has been already mailed to you, and it is also available on the website, www.datamatics.com. In case anyone has not received the copy of press release and presentation, please do write to us, and we'll be happy to send you all. To take you through the results and to answer your questions, we have with us the top management of the company, represented by, Mr. Rahul Kanodia, Vice Chairman and CEO; Mr. Sandeep Mantri, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Mitul Mehta, Senior VP and Head -- Mr. Rahul will start the call with brief overview of the quarter and full year on the business, which will then be followed by the financials given by Mr. Sandeep. We will then open the floor for Q&A session. As usual, I would like to remind you that anything that is said on this call, which gives any outlook for the future or which can be construed as forward-looking statements, must be viewed in conjunction with risks and uncertainties that we face. These risk and uncertainties are included, but not limited to what we have mentioned in the prospectus filed with SEBI and subsequent annual reports, which you can find it on our website. With that said, I now hand over the call to Mr. Rahul. Over to you, sir.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#3

Thanks, Asha, and welcome, and thank you all for joining our quarter 4 and financial year 2022 earnings call. I'm happy with the overall performance of the business during the year. The growth was broad-based across the IT as well as BPM segments. We ended the year with a strong EBITDA growth of 57.5%, excluding CIGNEX. Despite the supply side challenges and increased hiring costs, we could improve our financial year '22 EBITDA margins to 16.1%. Our PAT stood at INR 157.5 crores and increased 120% on a year-on-year basis, excluding CIGNEX. We have strengthened our U.S. sales team, which has resulted in a strong deal pipeline. As a result, we will continue to have -- we will continue with the growth momentum in financial year '23. In Q1, our margins may drop due to the annual increase in salaries or increments. However, it should be stable during the year. We added 104 new customers during the year and 14 in quarter 4. In line with the account growth, we continue to showcase our capabilities to our existing customers, resulting in several deal wins. The deal momentum continues to remain strong for us. In quarter 4, we signed new businesses worth INR 14.5 million. In FY '22, we signed new businesses worth INR 126 million through the course of the year, out of which 3 large deals were over INR 15 million to be executed over 3 to 5 years, but several other deals totaling about INR 56 million to be executed over the next 1 to 2 years. I'm glad to share with you all that Phase 1 of Mumbai Metro Line 2A and 7 has become operational, for which we have implemented the Automatic Fare Collection System. In FY '22, we further cemented our position as we -- as a preferred AFC technology provider by winning contracts for the Delhi-Meerut Corridor by NCRTC and the Kolkata Metro by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited. Our annualized attrition rate was 30%. We have ramped up a hiring process and continue to invest in training and upskilling our employees. We added 329 employees during the year, taking the total headcount to 10,744. To fulfill demand and maintain margins, we have undertaken several initiatives, including stepping up fresher recruitment through campus connects, moving our work to lower cost destinations, advancing productivity and negotiating price hikes with customers. Coming to the quarter performance. We reported a revenue growth of 4.2% on a sequential basis and 10.6% on a year-on-year basis, and we maintained an EBITDA margin of 16.4%. Our IT revenues, which contribute 42% of our revenues, grew at 10.4% on a year-on-year basis. The IT EBITDA margin stood at 6.3% for the quarter. However, without considering the investments in products, the EBITDA margin stood at 10.9%. We are seeing significant traction in our BPM business, which contributed 58% of our quarter 4 revenues, and it grew at 10.7% on a year-on-year basis. The BPM EBITDA margin stood at 23.7%. The growth was aided by new logo acquisitions, expansion of business from existing customers and continued effort on cost optimization. On the product business, we have signed some marquee logos in the U.S. and India. As we have entered financial year '23, we have an excellent deal pipeline, which will give us -- which gives us the confidence that we are on the right track. In conclusion, going forward, we are optimistic about the overall demand environment and are confident of maintaining growth of 15% to 20% in the coming year. With that, I will now hand over our call to our CFO, Mr. Sandeep Mantri. Sandeep, over to you.

Sandeep Mantri

executive
#4

Thank you, Rahul. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us in quarter 4 and full year earnings call. I hope that all of you are safe and healthy. Let me start with the key financials for FY '22, and then I will run you through the quarterly numbers for March -- for the quarter ended March 31, 2022. So our revenue for the year was at INR 1,201 crores, which is a growth of 17.4% over previous year. This is, of course, without considering CIGNEX revenue in FY 2021. As you all are aware, that we divested CIGNEX effective 1st of January 2021. Our consolidated EBITDA stood at INR 193.3 crores, which is a growth of 57.5% on a yearly basis. And consolidated EBITDA margin was at 16.1% compared to 12% in the previous year. When we come to segment, our BPM revenue for the year stood at INR 676 crores compared to INR 561 crores. So it is a growth of about 20.3%. And then margin stood at 22.8% compared to 18.1% in FY 2021. Our IT revenue stood at INR 525.5 crores compared to INR 461 crores in last year. We see a growth of about 14% in the IT business. Our IT margin was at 7.5% as compared to 6.9% last year. The margin improvement in both the segment was a factor of many initiatives, like cost optimization, strong revenues, price increase, et cetera. Our other income is -- on a consolidated basis stood at INR 26.3 crores in FY '22 as against INR 10.7 crores in previous year. This increase is primarily due to increase in return on investment and [indiscernible] -- the tax rate for FY '22 was at 19.1% as against 23.2% in FY '21. Our PAT after noncontrolling interest was at INR 157.5 crores, which has grown by 97.5% on a reported basis. And if we ignore CIGNEX, then this grew by 120%, which is 2.2x growth over previous year. Therefore, our diluted EPS stood at INR 26.71 in this year as compared to INR 13.53 in FY '21, which also shows a growth of 97.5%. When we come to balance sheet, our balance sheet continues to remain at a very healthy position. As on March 31, '22, our total liquid and cash net of debt stood at INR 378 crores as compared to INR 255 crores last year. Even our FCF to PAT ratio was at 100.6% as compared to 119.6% last year. Our DSO was at 74 days as of March 22 as compared to 65 days in last year. The price increase in DSO was mainly due to last month billing in our tax customers and in our project customers. So that has resulted in a slight increase in DSO. Our return on equity improved from 11.2% in FY '21 to 14.3% in FY '22. So you can see the healthy parameters in all balance sheet items. Coming to our quarter 4 performance. Our quarter 4 revenue stood at INR 313.3 crores, up by 4.2% on a sequential basis and 10.6% on a Y-o-Y basis. Our BPM revenue for the quarter was at INR 182.3 crores, which is up by 10.6% on a sequential basis and 10.7% on Y-o-Y basis. BPM EBITDA margin was at 23.7% for the quarter, which is 163 basis points up on a Y-o-Y basis. When we see IT services revenue for the quarter, it was at INR 131 crores, which is a drop of 3.7% on a sequential basis and a growth of 10.4% on a Y-o-Y basis. IT EBITDA margin was at 6.3% for the quarter, but if we don't consider investment in product, our margin was at 10.9% for the quarter. Our quarterly consolidated EBITDA grew by 23% on a Y-o-Y basis, and margin was at 16.4%. Despite of increase in hiring costs, we were able to maintain our EBITDA margin, mainly due to a constant effort on cost optimization, strong revenues and price decrease. We aspire to maintain this double-digit healthy margin in coming quarters as well. Our quarterly PAT after NCI was at INR 45.6 crores, which is a growth of 23.4% on a quarterly basis and the growth of 59.2% on a Y-o-Y basis. Our EPS for the quarter was at INR 7.73 per share, which is higher than last year's same period, which was at INR 4.86 per share. Our tax rate for the quarter was low at 12.7%. In terms of geographical footprint, U.S. is the largest geography, with 60% of our business coming from U.S. India is 25%. Rest of World, including U.K. and Europe is 15%. In terms of industry footprint, BFSI continues to remain the large segment for us which is 27% of our revenue, followed by Education & Publishing, which is 24%, then Technology & Consulting, which is at 20%, Manufacturing, Infra & Logistics at 11%, Retail at 6%, nonprofit -- nongovernment organization at 5% of our business; rest all are 7% of our total revenue. So that is [indiscernible] industry wise backup of our revenues. Our client concentration remains very healthy with top 5, 10 and 20 clients contributing to 22%, 35% and 47%, respectively. We added 104 new clients in the year. Our total headcount for the year was -- at the end of the year was 10,744. With this -- these are the financial numbers and the operational number for the year and for the quarter. And with this, I will now pass the call to operator to open the floor for Q&A. And thank you very much for your patience, and I appreciate your continued interest in Datamatics. Thank you.

Operator

operator
#5

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of NGN Puranik from ENAM Securities.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#6

Rahul, congratulations to you and your team for a wonderful turnaround. And you have demonstrated that you can grow revenue, profits both quantitatively and qualitatively. I have a few questions on how to -- how you take this journey forward. A couple of things. One is your BPM business has done extraordinarily. It's a core DNA business, while IT services portfolio is a good long way to go. I want to understand what you need to improve in this. From a quality perspective, is it that you need to improve the quality of the offerings that you have because the margin is a function of the quality of service you would render and where you render? The on-site offshore mix matters a lot in this business. Plus the quality of solution you have. Because if you look at the BPM business you run, it's run very efficiently. I just want to understand how do you leverage BPM competence to make IT services business look better than that? Is there a competency cross-sell from BPM to IT services to anchor deals from BPM?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#7

Sure.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#8

And I have a few. So if you can address business, it will need a long sustainable trend because at the end of the day, if you can anchor a few large customer with high-quality solution, they stay with you for long. So that's what, what you have done in BPM? If you can be there a long stock evaluation network in the BPM? Similarly, you have done all of this, but qualitatively that we need a lot more improvement.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#9

Yes. So to answer your question, the offering -- the basket of offerings we have in IT are widespread, and we do need to do 2 things to improve the quality. One is, of course, change the offerings and sell more of the higher value-add things and less of the lower value-add. So that shift, we are beginning to do. It does not happen overnight, but we are beginning to do more and more of those things, which are in cloud and sales force and those types, which are a little better margins compared to the traditional IT services, point #1. Point #2 is we need to sell more what we call dedicated facilities and extended centers. So we have started putting a lot more effort and building a pipeline in that space. And we're beginning to see the pipeline. I think they should materialize soon. Having said that, of course, right now, we're going through a huge challenges in ramping up resources. The whole industry is going through that challenge. But nevertheless, we will face the challenges as we go through it. And the third thing we need to do is sell more in the U.S. market. Our IT has a very large footprint in India. And India, of course, is a much lower margin territory. And therefore, we need to pivot more to the international markets, specifically the U.S. Which is what we have also done in the last 1-year, we have augmented the sales team in the U.S. quite substantially, and we are not augmenting our team in India. And therefore, we should start seeing a shift in more U.S.-based revenue and also more ODC kind of projects. So I think over the next year or 2, as we make these changes, we will see better IT margins.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#10

But how do you build an ODC deal construct long-term relationship with the company? How will you build that? Because it is a function of you. If you want to do the cloud you need a lot of partnerships in the cloud. So you need...

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#11

We have a partner ecosystem. A lot of the customers that we are talking to are now talking [indiscernible] see, either you approach them for a very specific project, or you approach them with a long-term ODC kind of a model. And that's what we have been doing in the U.S. So when we participate in events and we participate in other programs, it is a focus around the EDC [ strike ] ODC versus a very project-centric way. And also, it has to do with account growth. As we land and expand, as we open new logos, then our whole approach is to go through an ODC mode. And to that extent, we are augmenting the -- what we call the presales activity in the U.S. as well. So those are the people who have delivered on ODCs, and we put them in from the customer, it gives them higher confidence. So yes, all these things have been put into motion already.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#12

And the high value offering includes what?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#13

So for example, when you do sales force, you do cloud, you do analytics, some of that type of stuff, we're getting better deals DevOps. So all these areas are better margins, much better margins, actually, and higher revenue, higher margins and of course, better value to the customer.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#14

Do you have enough experience and skill set in this?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#15

Sorry, say that again?

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#16

In this high value offering, for example, you talked about sales force, cloud, analytics, you have enough skill set and experience in this?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#17

Yes.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#18

Can we leverage you have BPM capability in selling IT services?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#19

In turn, we use -- once you have a relationship with the customer, then we go into the customer. BPM does not lend itself to analytics. Perhaps the relationships is which we will leverage and cross-sell all these things.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#20

And your largest IT services client is what revenue?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#21

Largest IT services should be in the range of about 8 million to 10-odd million.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#22

8 million to 10 million. And you do what kind of services for them?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#23

These are all ODCs, which is multiple things, right, from digital transformation to legacy application support, migration, a basket of things, yes.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#24

And how -- when we can grow this account? One way is to put more sales resources on this account and more I think the solution capability?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#25

Yes. So actually, we have to look at the account by account with us. One account at some point will saturate. So it's not that the account will continue to grow, we just have to open more accounts. And we -- as I mentioned earlier, have a very healthy pipeline of such opportunities. So it's more about opening new doors and expanding them rather than an existing account it's already [indiscernible].

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#26

Correct. Yes, more deep pockets.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#27

Yes. Yes.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#28

Good. Interesting. Then I have...

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#29

[Foreign Language], Puranik.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#30

Yes. And the other thing is about the IT portfolio. You already talked about the -- how IT portfolio is shaping. How the team is getting built and how -- you're doing the premarketing for IT portfolio. Some idea on that will be useful.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#31

Correct. So we signed a few marquee logos in the U.S. with our products. We've established a much stronger sales team. We are augmenting it with the presales team as we speak. And we have started participating now that the U.S. market is opening up. We started participating in many more events. So we've already participated in 4 events in the last 2 months, and we will be participating in many more. So the pipeline is right now looking very healthy. But of course, we need to strengthen the pipeline more and close of a few deals.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#32

But what's the main...

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#33

We continue to get good coverage with the analysts.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#34

But what will help you strike a good deals in this space? As you see, what happens is you have a product, and the product is -- gets demonstrated when it's used. You need to create user base -- expand user base.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#35

Yes.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#36

And the referenceability gets built around that.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#37

I think we will see an inflection point once we hit a certain critical mass. And so our focus is right now just go aggressive and have logo acquisition. Margins are, of course, healthy, but we will pay less emphasis on margins, more of closing new deals. And I think once we get a critical mass, we should see that delivering results.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#38

You have the right set of teams who can connect with the customer?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#39

Yes.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#40

And they're from similar field, selling IT solutions?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#41

That is correct. IT solutions, specifically the IP. You know, IP?

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#42

IP, yes. IP solutions. So they are conversant in that market?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#43

Yes, yes. They are locally hired from the U.S. -- in the U.S., and they come from the IP product space, so that's put up our ecosystem very well.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#44

But does the contest cases that law is demonstrated to the customers?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#45

Yes, yes. We have a few cases have gone live. And as I said, some marquee logos we've been able to bag.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#46

But you had enough of responsibility here in India itself, isn't it, a lot of Indian banks, you have done a lot of work?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#47

Yes. We had there a lot of customers in India. Unfortunately, the U.S. guys want more U.S. references and U.S. [indiscernible]. So that's the hurdle, which I'm sure we'll overcome very soon because we signed up a few good deals.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#48

So you've hired the right guy. That's most important. If you have the right guy, even the deal -- and the product is good it demonstrated in this environment?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#49

Yes. We have opportunity in India also. So is now that we -- of course, yes, yes, India is also going well. But a little more emphasis on the U.S. market.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#50

Question, annual spend on this?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#51

Say that again.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#52

How much is -- what is the sales dollars spent on this IP portfolio?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#53

Good question. So we've got -- well, actually, we've got a total sales team, which is sitting in India selling overseas, as well as based in the U.S. market and Middle East and Europe. So we have a total team of about 20-odd people.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#54

IP. I'm talking about the IP only.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#55

Yes, yes. The IP-only. Correct.

Ngn Puranik

analyst
#56

So that costs about a couple of million dollars?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#57

Yes. Very easily. Yes. But now that the markets have opened up, we will sort of increase that spend and try to go more aggressive in the market.

Operator

operator
#58

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Sanjay Awatramani from Envision Capital.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#59

Just wanted to confirm that you have given this growth guidance of 15% to 20% in the coming year, this is for revenue, right?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#60

That's correct.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#61

And can you highlight something on EBITDA or EBIT margins, if you can give us something on that?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#62

I think we will maintain the EBIT margin. So the reason being that, of course, on the one hand, we have cost pressure with the cost and attrition and things like that, that was going up in the industry. On the other hand, we will increase our spend on marketing and sales. So those will be 2 large areas of cost increase. On the other hand, as Sandeep and I mentioned earlier in our talk, we are looking at moving -- work to lower-cost destinations, higher productivity, better pricing with customers. So they offset each other. So we do expect to, by and large, maintain our EBIT margins.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#63

Okay. Sir, this is very clear. And can you highlight something on the attrition rate? I mean, if you might have highlighted, I might have missed on that, but if you can highlight something on attrition for year-end quarter?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#64

Our attrition was 30%. Last quarter, it was 29%. Right now, we are running at 30%, which is by and large in line with the industry headline.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#65

So any measures taken to -- I mean, cut down on this attrition? I mean, how are we moving ahead with this? Because overall, as you said, the industry is facing the supply for the talent crunch. So what are the measures you're taking up?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#66

Multiple things, right? So we are recruiting many more people at related junior level fresher and even otherwise. We're doing a lot of cross-training and scale-up relation, upselling skills. We have also -- you probably may know we have had a retention. We have a retention program with the senior staff, where -- sometimes when you have critical key people, we are able to retain them by paying them a better salary or bonus. However, there is some attrition, and we can't run away from the reality. So apart from retaining key talent, which is, of course, critical for the organization, the focus is on recruitment and how do we ramp up. Also, we have a program where people are able to work from home or work remotely on a long-term basis. So that allows us to onboard people who are not physically in the cities where we are based. Of course, for 2 years, that was a norm. But now since many people have started coming back to office, we have continued to allow people to work from home and that allows us a talent pool that otherwise we may not have had.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#67

Okay. So this is very much clear now. And any CapEx plans, any future acquisitions we are looking into? I see that, in FY '21, you have divested the CIGNEX [ Datamatics ] side, the Datamatics?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#68

Correct. Correct.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#69

So these were some operational -- these were made just for operational efficiencies. But are we looking out some -- for some acquisitions, as you said, that you're looking for on cloud and other leader sales force stuff, which you're moving at?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#70

Yes. We are in dialogue with some companies from an acquisition point of view. Of course, it's a little premature to talk about them, and obviously, it will be presented to the Board at the right point in time. But yes, we are in dialogue with some companies for an acquisition.

Sandeep Mantri

executive
#71

A couple of companies. Yes.

Operator

operator
#72

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Deepak Poddar from Sapphire Capital.

Deepak Poddar

analyst
#73

Sir, just one query on the revenue.

Operator

operator
#74

Mr. Poddar, sorry to interrupt you [indiscernible] your device?

Deepak Poddar

analyst
#75

And now it's better? Okay. And sir, just one query I have. So what's the revenue growth you're looking next year?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#76

15% to 20%. This year, we did about INR 1,200 crores. So we're looking at a 15% to 20% of that. Hello, Mr. operator, are you there?

Operator

operator
#77

Yes, sir. Mr. Poddar, do you have any more questions?

Deepak Poddar

analyst
#78

No.

Operator

operator
#79

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Subhankar Ojha from SKS Capital & Research.

Subhankar Ojha

analyst
#80

Congratulations. So a couple of questions actually. So your dividend payout ratio has improved over the years. So you have anything in your mind in terms of the kind of payout ratio you would like to maintain -- the minimum payout ratio that you would like to maintain going forward? That's one. And secondly, what is your guidance for this tax rate -- effective tax rate for '23?

Sandeep Mantri

executive
#81

Okay. So on -- Subhankar, on dividend payout, so dividend payout -- we have a policy also in place for dividend payout. And basically, it will depend upon deployment of capital for other users as well. And we will see whether we can deploy money in growing the business more than declaring dividend, paying dividend because that will be onetime. But while if we continue growing the business through acquisition, through other spending on products or spending more on product marketing, and if we are able to grow the business, that will be more return to stakeholder, shareholders. Therefore, mostly, we will maintain -- as a policy, we will maintain some sort of dividend. But our first priority will be to grow businesses and to spend more on these products or IP businesses. Coming back to your second question, what was your second question, Subhankar?

Subhankar Ojha

analyst
#82

On the effective tax rate.

Sandeep Mantri

executive
#83

Tax rate -- last year, we said our tax rate will be between 22% to 25%, while we managed to have a lower tax rate, which is about 19% for the year. In the coming year, which is FY '22, '23, I think we will maintain a tax rate of between 20% to 23%. It will all depend upon the geographical profit contribution from various businesses we have. This year, we had very good U.S. profits, and therefore, we don't have a deferred tax in the U.S. geography. And therefore, whatever we have pockets in U.S. geography, we'll get consummate to the carryforward losses. And therefore, there is no tax firstly in U.S. geography, and that has related into lower tax rate. And I think between 20% to 23%, next say, we should be able to manage on tax rate.

Subhankar Ojha

analyst
#84

And finally, since you have touched up on this point, your IP and the product business, what is -- how do you see this in terms of revenue from this business over the next 3 to 5 years?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#85

We are very hopeful and positive on that. As I said earlier that we started participating in several events. We've signed a few marquee logos. We're getting a very healthy pipeline right now. So as far as the product and IT business is concerned is we are very bullish about it. This year will be very important as we will increase our spend on both sales and marketing. And as we see those results, I think we'll be in good shape.

Operator

operator
#86

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Sanjay Awatramani from Envision Capital.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#87

My next question was, I mean, what is the headcount you're planning to hire in this FY '23?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#88

This is approximately about 400-odd people roughly, depending on the business, though, depending on the growth in business, depending on the projects, it might move up or down a little bit, approximately 400.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#89

Okay. Okay. And any major CapEx plans in FY '23? I mean, you're planning for you said the acquisition side, but on the additional CapEx?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#90

No major CapEx. There's some degree of CapEx in overhauling some of the equipment that we have because for COVID years, 2 years, we did not upgrade a lot of our machines. But that is more of a regular usual kind of no major CapEx.

Sanjay Awatramani

analyst
#91

Okay. Okay. So one thing, you also mentioned that on the employee side that you're moving to some low-cost cities. So that will be in India itself or you're looking at overseas as well?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#92

Both. So we have increased our headcount in Pondicherry. We have now a much larger operation in Pondicherry and in Nashik. And of course, in Philippines as well, compared to the U.S. or Europe. But within India, it's been more -- it will be largely India and more to these cities, like Nashik and Pondicherry compared to Mumbai and Bangalore.

Operator

operator
#93

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Ananya Agarwal, Individual Investor.

Unknown Attendee

attendee
#94

I wanted to know that in the press release, we see a few deal wins that you've given. So can you please elaborate more on that? Can you share the deal size and the geography?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#95

So some of the deals that we won -- we talked about the metro projects, one was of course Kolkata Metro, one was NCRTC in Delhi-Meerut. So that's one. What is the deal size? And do you have a figure?

Sandeep Mantri

executive
#96

15 million.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#97

15 million plus, but they will be -- it will go about 3 years, yes, 4 years. So those are the ones. So yes, as you see, we've listed the couple of larger deals. We've not given names. So we are not at liberty to discuss the deal sizes for each, but they range between $1 million to $2 million, and they would be executed over 1 to 2 years.

Operator

operator
#98

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Chetan B, Individual Investor.

Unknown Attendee

attendee
#99

So my question is for Rahul. So how confident are you about the 15% to 20% growth which you mentioned in your speech? And how are you planning to achieve it?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#100

No. As I said, we have augmented our sales team in the U.S. last year. We have a very healthy pipeline as we entered this new year, and therefore, that gives us good confidence in achieving those numbers, this is the pipeline that we have in hand.

Sandeep Mantri

executive
#101

And we closed a good amount of business in FY '21, '22, which is INR 126 million. Even if you take 1/3 or 1/4 of that, that will actually compensate me for some part of the growth.

Operator

operator
#102

[Operator Instructions] The next question is a follow-up question from the line of Ananya Agarwa, Individual Investor.

Unknown Attendee

attendee
#103

I wanted to ask how do you see the demand environment? And do you see any impact on our business due to ongoing geopolitical or macroeconomic issues?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#104

No. The demand environment remains robust from a geopolitical point of view or -- in fact, because of the Ukraine-Russia war, we have actually gained because some customers who are working with those geographies want to do shift and work with India. So actually, we had an advantage. It's an unfortunate situation to get an advantage because with those poor people are really suffering. But nevertheless -- so we don't see any major problems. European markets remain as vibrant and so do the American markets. So the demand [indiscernible].

Unknown Attendee

attendee
#105

Okay. Another question. Any pricing pressures you are seeing from the clients?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#106

No major pricing pressure. In fact, we've been able to bump up our pricing and reprice our services because the whole industry is facing this current turmoil or crisis or crunch, whatever you want to call it, this mass resignations that you see. So all our customers are facing the same situation. So we have been able to go back to several of them and renegotiate better prices. So right now, we're not seeing a price cut. In fact, we are probably seeing a cost escalation. So the issue is the other way around. So margins will be under pressure because of the cost escalation, not because of price pressure from customers.

Unknown Attendee

attendee
#107

Okay. And the Fed has raised the interest rates. So any impact on the BFSI segment?

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#108

No. We don't see any impact on our business.

Unknown Attendee

attendee
#109

All right.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#110

By and large, we don't get impacted by the Fed's policies on increasing interest rates and regular client.

Operator

operator
#111

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Rahul Kanodia

executive
#112

Thank you, everyone, for being on this call and spending this time with us this evening. We really appreciate your questions and your interest in Datamatics. Once again, thank you very much, and I look forward to meeting you next quarter.

Operator

operator
#113

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Datamatics Global Services Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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