Hinduja Global Solutions Limited ($HGS)

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to the Q4 and Full Year FY 2022 Earnings Conference Call of Hinduja Global Solutions Limited. From the senior management, we have with us today Mr. Venkatesh Korla, Global Chief Executive Officer; [indiscernible] Mr. [indiscernible], Whole-Time Director; HGS and CEO of NXTDIGITAL Media Business; and Mr. Mahesh Kumar Notalapati, Global Chief Financial Officer. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anand Venugopal from Adfactors PR. Thank you, and over to you, Anand.

Thank you, Sagar. Good evening, everyone. We welcome you to the Q4 and full year FY 2026 Earnings Call of Hinduja Global Solutions Limited. Before we begin, I would like to highlight that some of the statements made during today's call may be forward-looking in nature. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those related to the company's future financial and operational performance. Additionally, in the unlikely event of a call drop during the conference, we will ensure the call is reconnected at the earlier I now invite Venkatesh, to deliver the opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Anandz. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. [indiscernible] Global CEO of HGS. Let me start by putting the year in context for all of us. FY '26, so the year of disciplined transformation for HGS, where we focused on strengthening the fundamentals, simplifying the business and positioning ourselves for the next phase of growth. We made strong progress in how we go to market. Today, we are operating with a single integrated GS value proposition, bringing together experience platforms and operations in a much more unified way. This is helping us to more relevant declines and sharper in our execution. We took clear actions to rationalize our cost base across the real estate technology and infrastructure, which has helped us deliver around 200 basis points of margin improvement. While reported revenue growth has been modest due to a few client ramp-downs, the underlying core business remains healthy and has been growing. Looking ahead, we are seeing improved momentum in pipeline and new client wins. We are reinventing the efficiencies or we have reinvested the efficiencies we have created into growth, building new sales capacity, expanding our offerings and accelerating our AI-led solutions portfolio. We see a clear opportunity to support clients in moving from experimentation to real scale adoption. Our positioning around intelligent experience powered by a realized AI methodology is resonating well because it combines technology with deep process expertise on the front line. This is already visible in client outcomes. For instance, in the U.K., we have seen a strong turnaround with new contract wins, including public sector programs that integrate air led solutions with human expertise. Similar momentum is building across the U.S., Canada and Australia markets as clients increasingly look for partners who can deliver measurable outcomes, not just technology. Overall, we believe we are now better aligned to where the market is headed with a clearer strategy, a stronger pipeline and the differentiated position in the mid-market. With that, let me turn to our financial performance for the year. Snapshot of [ Hinduja ] financial performance, Q4 and full year FY 2026. In Q4, we delivered revenues of close to INR 1,085 crores. Total income stood at INR 1,255 crores with EBITDA at INR 197 crores and margin at 15.7%. For the full year, revenue from operations was INR 4,037 crores. Total income stood at INR 4,857 crores, with EBITDA of INR 6,749 crores and margins at 13.4% Moving on to what are the growth drivers for HGS. And before that, in fact, I want to actually -- if you go back to the previous slide, I want to actually talk about the fact that we are announcing a dividend. A final dividend of INR 5 per equity share on par value of INR 10 each has been recommended by the Board for FY '26, subject to the approval of the shareholders of the company at the Asia. Looking at the growth drivers for HGS. Let's look at what's driving the business. It's a combination of structural ships and execution. First, a key highlight of the year, new client acquisitions. FY '26 has been our strongest year ever with 79 new clients signed on across BPM and digital services. This is important because it gives us a much broader base of revenue growth in FY '27 and beyond as most of our growth comes through existing clients. Second, we are seeing good pipeline momentum across services. The quality of the pipeline has also improved. It's more outcome-led, more integrated and more aligned to transformation deals our packaged solution strategy is becoming a real growth engine. We now have 8 new solutions in the market, including AM lens for [indiscernible], loan flow for low management and processing. KYC vision. These offerings are designed to solve very specific business problems with faster deployment cycles. Today, Agent X is moving from capability to scale. We now have 23 active customers and 21 AI assistance and production. Importantly, these are not pilots anymore. They are embedded into real workflows in client operations. We are seeing a shift towards [indiscernible]. Key clients are no longer looking at CX Digital and data offer separately. They increasingly want integrated transformation. This leads directly to our strength of being both a BPM and the digital business. We can bring these capabilities together faster instead of operating files. We are also investing in our FDE-led delivery model, which improves both scalability and efficiency and delivers value for our customers. That's a very important shift in how clients are approaching [indiscernible] We are moving from proof of concept to prove value, particularly through our 90-day programs. More clients are willing to commit to outcomes, and we are increasing the core innovating with them through AI-led centers of excellence. Finally, we launched a new brand identity in positioning our intelligent experiences in March. This has been received very well in the market. So overall, a combination of strong pipeline better conversion, scalable platforms and deeper client engagement is driving our growth, and we see a bright future ahead. As for our client satisfaction, which is on the next slide for NPS. HGS [indiscernible] in the top quartile. I want to speak to you about the trajectory in our NPLs. We have seen a significant improvement over the last few years as the transformation has taken on. Today, our NPS is at 60, up 12 [indiscernible] and 68% of our clients are promoters. We announced it firmly in the top quarter of the industry bring products on client entities. Importantly, this is not just a metric. We are seeing CSAT translate into business expansion with our existing clients, and this is exciting. It's not just the clients recognizing that's what our hard work, it's the industry and the [indiscernible]. We have won a number of key awards in FY '26. We have won several top awards from credible organizations across technology, people and CSRs. Solutions such as AM lens, DaVinci and teams like data analytics, have been recognized for their innovative capabilities, reflecting our transformation towards being intelligent experience partners. We were also GPTW certified in the U.S. and Colombia during the year, showcasing the trust of our people during this transformation that we're going to. On to the next slide. Now how does the evolution to intelligent experience provider work. All of this really reflects a broader evolution of HGS. We are moving from being seen primarily as a CX service provider to become an intelligent experience partners. What this means in simple terms is that we are no longer just executing processes, we are designing and delivering outcomes across the entire experience value chain, be it customer experience operations or digital transformation. The shift is very intentional as it aligns with where client demand is going. If you step back and look at the market, we are at a very interesting inflection point. There's a lot of investment going into AI, but a large percentage of initiatives are getting stock. Today, most pilots don't deliver ROI or say into scale. Enterprises are realizing that they don't just need technology. They need a partner who can take ownership of outcomes and actually operational [indiscernible] AI at scale. That's the gap we are focusing on solving. They're looking for a partner who can bridge the gap from promise to production. So looking at it from our perspective, this brings us into a very simple but important point. Air itself is no longer the differentiate. Almost everyone has access to similar tools. What really matters now is execution. How effectively can I be embedded into real business processes and deliver measurable outcomes. This is where we deliver HGS value, and we believe it gives us an advantage for our customers. This advantage comes from a legacy of 50-plus. We bring the case of experience across customer experience, system integration, data and machine learning. So we are not approaching AI as something new, we are layering it on top of capabilities we have been building over many years. This always allows us to move faster and with more conflicts. That positions us very well as the Intelligent Experience partner. We see our role to be someone who can connect technology process management and experience design to deliver real business outcomes. And increasingly, this is exactly what our clients are looking for. Now looking at delivering intelligent experience uncertainty, that's a bold promise. Considering today's competitive markets, the way we deliver is equally important. As part of our new approach, we focus on certainty of outcomes, not just activities of KPIs. Our model brings together intelligent platforms, intelligent operations and intelligent interactions all built on a unified foundation. So whether it's a automation of workflows, improving decision-making or enhancing customer journeys everything is designed to be measurable and embedded in their operations. I want to reiterate that it's not an overlay, but part of how the business runs today. Our capabilities to support this, we have been building and have built a very broad capability stack across AI, data cloud, cybersecurity and engineering, combined with strong demand [indiscernible] finance, [indiscernible] and digital marketing. This allows us to work not just on isolated problems but on end-to-end transformation programs for our customers, leveraging these capabilities. Here are some examples of of what we have been able to do for our clients. We have been able to deliver real AI with real returns across marketing, sales, service operations and compliance. For example, for a U.S.-based rental device company, HGS helped capture high-intent patient leads instantly through always-on AI engagement. We built a scalable, compliant AI-powered CX layer that delivers consistent empathetic interactions without adding more metro. The results, 50-plus percent of higher engagement a 35% to 45% uplift in sales potential and response signs of under 5 seconds. Similarly, for the North American beauty brand, it has built a forward-looking intelligence platform that sports market trends, 4 to 8 weeks early. We streamline research by automating 60% to 70% of [indiscernible] that brings together tense and clear data-backed insights for faster aware decision-making. And how are we doing all of this? We are using a methodology called realized AR. The core idea is very simple. The opportunity isn't more AI tools, it's AI that lives inside the workflow where every interaction becomes intelligence you can add on. [indiscernible] that certainty, we are talking to executives who know they need to change, but are unsure about how clients don't want bots that deflect the wart evolution. They don't want vendors that slab AI apps on to legacy platforms or [indiscernible]. They want agent ecosystems or a multi-agent workforce where humans provide oversight to AI agents. Basically, they want a partner who engineers intelligent experience within that. So what is [indiscernible]? Realized AI is HGS's operating model for deploying AI and production, not experimentation. It's a risk that is shared and not transferred to the customers. we pick 1 client process. I identify the problem and solve it. And we take it from 0 to production in 90 days. Once the client sees the value, it leads to more business. for a longer term and we scale the AI tooling that we build for the customers. The realized AI model has 3 pillars: First, the team. HGS has almost 18,000 people with real operational experience and strong domain knowledge, not just technical expertise. These are people who have had thousands of [indiscernible] with customers executed multiple paychecks and people who can tell what the emotion is going to be when a customer does not get the [indiscernible] that they're looking for. People who know how to fit hundreds of the agents and onboard them over a few weeks. These are practitioners. Second, method is a clear scientific model for we document the needs of the clients, build and deploy the technology and measure outcomes using our FDE approach. And third, the age index Workpath our accelerators and 3 build components allow us to move quickly and consistently. Together, this gives us more speed and reliability and execution. It was a case study. That will give you a real example in the U.K. public sector. We have deployed what we call as it assists an AI-augmented solution for checkout in adult social care. The process used before was manual and time intensive and typically took over 4 hours per day with our solution. It's now down to about 30 minutes with near to rework. This is a significant improvement in both productivity and quality. But the real impact is on capacity. We have been able to onboard over 40 additional practitioners and help clear large backlogs that were impacting [indiscernible]. Importantly, this isn't about replacing people. It's about enabling them to focus on judgment and decision making while AI handles the [ heavy ] lifting. So you get faster outcomes, better quality and better support for the sales of ponded most. At this point, I want to hand over to Vince to talk about the media business as well.

Thank you, Venk. Good afternoon, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the call. I hope everyone can hear me loud and clear in case my audio is not clear. Can I request someone to point it out, please? Otherwise, I'm assuming Tanuja or can you hear me, everyone?

Sir, your audio is coming through loud and clear.

Thank you very much. I'm going to go straight to Slide 21, which is the management commentary on the media business. And I think a term that when used right in the beginning is very important, has been very important for us. We mentioned it last year. and the term is disciplined. This entire -- the entire year FY 2026 has been a year of disciplined execution and the portfolio rebalancing for the entire media business. And clearly, there was the need for portfolio rebalancing. This was a question that was asked last year, but linear television is facing headwinds. We're seeing whether it be cable television or its or DTH or any other linear form being impacted by transition to OTT or free-to-air services. And I think that has been a very important thing for us. And therefore, we have focused this year on rebalancing our portfolio and, of course, executing it through a very disciplined model. And while doing that, we have focused on ensuring that our broadband business more specifically our retail broadband business and CelerityX, which is our enterprise service. We've developed those as the engines of forward growth. We've continued to make significant impact, positive impact during the year. And as I said, we focused in terms of the digital television or TV vertical to ensure structured cost optimization faced with challenges as well as maintaining ARPUs, which is very important for the average revenue per user, but I think the highlight of the last quarter has been the signing of a memorandum of understanding our MOU with the government of [indiscernible] for a project called Project [ Ganga ]. And if you go to Slide #22, this gives you a head of view or gives you kind of a 360-degree view on what is Project Ganga. So the state Transformation Commission of the government of petition staff with looking at building a strong vision and mission for the state and executing it. And 1 very important thing is that there is a very, very clear digital inclusion goal set by the government of [indiscernible] extending digital access to consumers and the communities without exception. So whether it's access to digital education or health care, remote work opportunities, even other services, right, whether it be governance services or others, there is a very clear digital inclusion goal of the state, especially in underconnected and rural communities and Project Ganga is basically a large-scale digital inclusion initiative in the state to be able to provide that connectivity. And we're very proud as in 1 OTT Entertainment Limited, a broadband vertical for signing this [indiscernible] in March, for Project Ganga, which is government-assisted network for growth and advancement. So what is actually Project Ganga when you look at it? So the objective is empowering you enabling as many as up to 10,000 [indiscernible] at the [indiscernible] level. They have to be developed into independent digital service providers or One very important thing, which is a very clear mandate for us is that it must include a significant number of [indiscernible], which is clearly the vision and mission of the state and when the project is completed, over 2 million households across the state of [indiscernible] will get connected with high speed broadband over the next 2 to 3 years. And to make the project really successful, the government has worked -- has defined the model that each selected digital service provider will receive essentially an interest-free and collateral-free loan of up to INR 5 lakhs is a very strong scheme that the government has called the [indiscernible] scheme, under which they will receive this loan. So oil or the broadband vertical of [indiscernible] Global Solutions is the effective enabler and knowledge partner. We will not only have facilitate the DSP identification but also provide the requisite training in business operations and technology. And of course, we'll support -- we'll bring all our experience, expertise of so many years, decades of setting up digital television, setting up networks across the country and setting up broadband. We will bring all of that technology and experience to help the partners the DSPs with network design and as well as handholding. And while initially the services that the DSP will provide will be high-speed broadband. It will also expand to WiFi connectivity for public areas, for schools, colleges and other areas, there will be access to OTT platforms, there's IPTV that is lined up and, of course, the CTV for homes and connectivity for offices and establishments, which come under enterprises. There's been a lot of positive feel good about it. And if you go to Slide 23, you'll get a sense of the amount of coverage that this has received because it is indeed a unique project nothing of the scale has ever been done before where over up to 10,000 [ entrepreneurs ] are being trained, the local entrepreneurs, they've been trained in digital schemes and effectively developing 100,000 strong panel workforce of digital warriors because obviously, as you start digital services, you will need people who are attached with the business that could include customer service executives, billing executives, linesmen who will have to draw the fiber. So in addition to the Project Ganga MOU that we signed on the 9th of March, if you move to the next slide, we also signed an MOU for digital skilling with the UP government to skill 100,000 youth in terms of digital skills. And this is something, again, that got a lot of traction because our idea is that it's not just the 10,000 entrepreneurs, it's also creating a really strong, robust ecosystem of digital warriors that can help not just develop the broadband push, high-speed broadband push across the state. t all the panel digital activities. And this is something that at HGS that we believe in, it's not just the inroad, but it's also the larger envelope of services that could be emerging technologies whether it be cybersecurity or as Venka so rightly pointing out artificial intelligence and other related services. All of these would eventually get enveloped within a digital skilling workflow going forward. So there's a lot of excitement on that. There's already a kickoff started, and we will keep you posted as the project progresses. Going to Slide 25, and I apologize. I think there is some text missing on the pie chart here, and -- but I will read it out to you anyways. If you look at Slide 25, this is something that we've started sharing with you as analysts and investors and people who are interested in looking at how the business is really picking up. So one of the key KPIs is the value migration. And if you look at the 2 quarters, we've looked at last year where we were at this time and currently in 2026, and if you look at it very clearly, the upselling and packaging strategy of the company has certainly started to pay dividends because if you look at what we term as high-speed customers who are greater than who pick up speeds greater than 100 bps. Last year at this time, about 10.7% of our base was pretty much in that segment, that is straight away jump to 15%. So the quadrant that you're missing the numbers on the right-hand side, the 101 to 200 Mbps agreed [indiscernible] 9%. So -- and the 51 to 100 Mbps is 38%, right? So -- yes. And like I said, the mid-level package also, if you look at the 51 to 100 Mbps, right, that has significantly jumped from 31% last year to 38% this year. So straight away, you're seeing a lot of traction, positive traction happening in that space to be able to grow. And more importantly, entry-level package as the consumer base grows, we also want to see consumers who sign on for the first time our customers for the first time, picking up higher base bands. So earlier, if we looked at the base plans. Earlier, the up to 50 Mbps, nearly 54% of our base was -- which is 10 to 30 that we're seeing was about 21% -- sorry, it was 28% last year, so 28% in 10 to 30 Mbps and 33% in the 31 to 50 Mbps in Q4 of FY '25. If you look at the shift to this year has been significant. from 54% last year, it's dropped to 46%. So more and more consumers are adopting a higher base plan at start. So it's not just reflecting the upselling and packaging strategy of the company, but also there is a clear sense of improved customer affordability and there's rising data consumption. The apps that are coming out, the services that are coming out, they all require significantly high speeds, better bandwidth, less brakes, et cetera. And so very clearly, this is a reflection on Slide 25. So with that, I'm going to go to Slide 26, something that I share every quarter again. And as you can see, the 2 graphs on the left-hand side is our digital television business. very, very, very clear that given the headwinds facing the industry and the challenges across the rear television industry, -- we're making sure that we're focusing on retaining our customers and therefore, ensuring the churn is well below 2% in the last couple of quarters. And at the same time, ensuring that the ARPU, the average revenue per user remains stable at 122. So it shows the consumer, obviously, happy with the package that she or him would be selecting. On the left-hand side, if you look at the churn, again, which is correlated, this is, again, a matter of great pride for us. The average churn in the industry is close to anywhere between 2% to 3% per month. And we've been able to see a significant control kind of coming in at the end of Q4 at about 0.62%. So that shows also the improved quality of service that we've been providing the response time from the consumer teams. And is it great? Well, the way I see it, I think there's always room for improvement and we're working hard on that. At the same time, full credit to the back-end teams we've been able to do that. And similarly, the back-end deal, which our teams like the finance and operating and tech teams have also been able to pull down the bandwidth cost as a percentage of revenue in the retail segment, we were at 28%. And I think this has been thanks to better utilization, better negotiations, better cost optimization. We've been able to bring that down from about 28% to 26%. So overall, clearly, as I've said on Slide 21 in the commentary, that broadband, retail and the enterprise services [indiscernible] we have been developed in the last fiscal as the engines of forward growth. There is the driver for us, and that is also reflected in the highlight of Q4, which is the MOU for Project Ganga or government-assisted network for growth and advancement, which will see significant traction in the broadband segment. And at the same time, ensuring that our DTV business, which is facing headwinds we continue to ensure a structured cost optimization as well as maintaining ARPUs. So that has been the net effect of the year and the focus in the year of fiscal gone by. And with that, thank you all for listening to me patiently. And I'm going to hand over to Mahesh who is our Global CFO. Thank you again. Mahesh, over to you.

Thank you, Vince. Good afternoon, good evening, everyone. Hope I am audible.

Loud and clear, Mahesh .

Thanks, Vince. So this is Mahesh Nutalapati, Global CFO, and I will be taking you all through HGS's financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year of FY '26. And as outlined by both Venk and Vince, FY '26 is when we are defined by disciplined execution and portfolio rebalancing and a clear towards our intelligent experience strategy. As we go through the financials, we will realize that FY '26 has been a year, which absorbed our legacy run house. While Q4 showed signs of early recovery, then and the positioning FY '27 as [Indiscernible]. Over the next few slides, I will walk you through our consolidated results, balance sheet, cash flows and the composition of our revenue across source work on geography and delivery. Moving on to Slide 28, which talks about the consolidated performance for FY '26. o a sequential basis on a year-on-year basis. Revenue from operations was around INR 1,085 crores with operating expenses of INR 1,057 crores. The total other income stood at INR 170 crores. The total income, including the revenue from operations and total other income comes to around INR 1,255 crores with a total EBITDA of INR 197.1 crores. And on a percentage basis, it is 15.7% for the quarter. The sequential expansion reflects the operating leverage from our pipeline conversions and the disciplined cost actions that we took throughout the year and which will be continuing in the next year as well, where we can see some impact of the cost to flowing through [indiscernible] cost on account of the actions that we are taking going through FY '27 of H1. And as you can see, Q4 show sequential recovery in top line and margins. If you look at the core business, it remains stable when we adjust for runoffs. And I want to reiterate here that runoffs that we have had in FY '26 our nonrecurring in venture. And on a positive side, this runoff [indiscernible] help us in mitigating the client concentration risk. With Q4 results, we can reasonably assure you all that all the cost discipline actions are materializing. And as Venk also mentioned, that we have seen an upside in the margins of around 200 basis points. Operations are definitely becoming more efficient. And we can see Q4 is more of a trend shift rather than a target achieved kind of a scenario. Moving on to Slide 29, which talks about full year performance at the consol level and on a sequential basis, also comparison is there. The revenue from operations is INR 437 crores. And operating expenses are at INR 4,208 crores with a total other income of INR 59.7 crores, considering that the total income comes to INR 4,857 crores, with a total EBITDA of INR 648 crores as a percentage of 13.4. As mentioned earlier, I think FY '26 definitely has been a year of disciplined execution. We have rebalanced the portfolio, expanded our digital and AI offerings and exited the [indiscernible] strong margin profile than we entered it. With 79 new signings across BPM and digital, as Venk mentioned in his presentation as well, I could say this is the best year we've ever had on new logos. And with these signings, we are definitely entering FY '27 with meaningful revenue visibility. Headline numbers, though, are flat, but drivers are clearly understood. And Q4 has been the first signal of stabilization. Moving on to Slide #30, which gives a snapshot of our balance sheet at the consol level. Our financial position remains robust financial assets, which includes investments, loans given and bank balances continue to provide ample liquidity to fund both organic growth and as well as strategic investments in AI, package solutions and broadband build-out, as outlined by both Venk and Vyns in their respective presentations. We continue to operate from a position of financial strength. Net treasury and cash surplus is INR 5,346 crores, which gives us enough flexibility for us to invest behind the related UI framework and the project without compromising with us. Moving on to Slide #31, which talks about the brief of cash flows at the consol level. FY '26 cash flows has been a year of investments in both operations and as well as on strategic priorities and on strategic priorities, capital is applied in AI-like [indiscernible] of Excellence, package solutions and the broadband and accelerate expansions while maintaining the conservative leverage. The quality of our cash flow substantially gives us confidence in funding the next phase of growth from [indiscernible] Moving on the next slide, Slide #32, which is the any composition by source. Looking at the revenue composition by [indiscernible], our mix continues to evolve in line with our intelligent experience strategy with growing contributions from digital data, AI and platform led engagements, alongside our core CMBM business. The [indiscernible] business continues to be at 55%, whereas digital and media service rep per full year FY '26. And for quarter 4, it was 58% for CX and [indiscernible] This diversification is exactly what we set out at [indiscernible], higher margins to give this revenue layer on top of resilient core. We expect this trend to accelerate in FY 27 as the new signings ramp and AI assistance moved from pilot to production. Move on the next slide, Slide #33, which is operating M&A composition by vertical. Tech Media and Telecom continues to be a bigger vertical with 50% contribution coming in, BFSI 18% [indiscernible] 17% and public sector at 8%. The public sector momentum is definitely entering for us, anchored by U.K. and Canada public sector wins and as Vyns also mentioned about those come by and the digital [indiscernible]. So this creates definitely a multiyear revenue runway with a strong social impact alongside commercial returns. Moving on to Slide #24, which talks about operating revenue composition by origination. On origination, that is where the revenue is sold from. So we maintain a healthy mix across India, North America, U.K., Europe and Asia Pacific contributing around 38% from India, 28% from North America, U.K. at 13% and others sit around 12%. The geography spread continues to be a key competitive advantage in the metal hedge against [indiscernible] softness. Multi-tower deals, combining digital data and experiences are increasingly being originated across geographies, and we expect the multiregion multiservice platforms to win [indiscernible] FY '27. Moving on to Slide 35, which talks about operating revenue composition by delivery. In delivery mix, we continue to leverage our global delivery footprint to optimize our client outcomes cost [indiscernible] India, 19% from North America and [indiscernible] you add U.S. and Canada and we had 10% with all public sector that sandwiches around 13%. Our India and offshore delivery centers, as I mentioned, we [indiscernible] amounting advantage for us, while onshore and Neosho deliveries be scale selector for regulated and high tech investments. To summarize, FY '26 delivered around INR 4,307.4 crores in revenue of INR 4.6 crores at 1.4%, a stronger balance sheet, healthy cash and a record year of new signings with realize their scaling package solutions like clients and for the tender, we are entering 2 confidence in for momentum. Looking forward, we definitely remain cautiously optimistic despite ongoing macro uncertainties and continued client caution in the near term. our high-quality pipeline, ad-driven differentiation and disciplined execution position us to deliver steady improvements in growth and [indiscernible] . Our priority remains driving sustainable profitable growth with an unwavering focus on productivity, cost discipline and capital efficiencies. With that, I will hand it back to the moderator.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of [indiscernible] with CS Securities.

The first question is regarding the Vyns is described as [ CX data ] [indiscernible] and received industry recognition as well. What are its 4 use cases? And how does it complement our other AI [indiscernible]

So let me take that. The [indiscernible] a platform that we have created where we are able [indiscernible] information from all the customer interactions that we have on behalf of the brand into a centralized data, where we not only bring the note about a given call or a given chat or a text message or an interaction that the fact we are also able to bring information from call transcripts, we to bring information from e-mail transcripts or email summarization using the [indiscernible] bring it all together in one location. Combine it with other metrics such as average handle time and the quality of the call [indiscernible] of that, which allows us to, number one, provide a way for customers to extract in traction in sites to understand what are the common core drivers, which call drivers are trending higher, where we have taken the most amount of time. It also identifies interactions that can be automated using AI. That's the second use case, third use cases that provides a customer review of the end consumer who is making the call so that we can actually help our customers. Our human agents who are taking the calls to be able to more than tend to be able to answer the questions more easily that the consumer has. So making them more efficient and effective in what they're trying to achieve and represent the [indiscernible] more efficiently. These are the three use cases [indiscernible] the fourth, of course, is the financial [indiscernible] where it gives you the full operation visibility of at the stress point in the service we're bill. That is the value of the data lake and that you see [indiscernible]

Understood. And how does it complement?

Well, it complements on [indiscernible] our operations more efficiently. It allows us to move our existing operations, which are human-led with customers rated a reman led to actually show the our customers where the value is in moving them to be more [indiscernible] and where we can actually deploy conversation AI or knowledge and identify where inflection points are to drive value for the customers using AI. So it goes back to the whole principle of you don't use AI for the use of using technology, you use it to actually deliver value. And first, you need to know where to apply AI to deliver value. And this is the data lake actually allows you to [indiscernible].

My second question was regarding the case study on social care, showed a dramatic reduction in the [indiscernible]. Are there any similar deployments coming in other public sector agencies [indiscernible]

Yes. So that was with the first agency. Now that is being picked up and we actually have -- we are working with multiple different agencies in the public sector, both in U.K. and in Canada, and we're also starting to see the needs coming out of the U.S., where we are talking to these agencies where they have a lot of different and it's not just about health care case focus. So it could also be any other cases that the system warrant from the government, and we're able to deploy this and help improve efficiencies for these public sector[indiscernible]

Okay. Okay. Just a small out I had that as we are planning for [indiscernible] and on the same time, we have announced dividend payout as well. Can you shed some light on this?

Mahesh, you want to take -- actually, could you repeat the question, please? Sorry, I missed [indiscernible]

So as we are planning for the [indiscernible] we require funds. But on the same time, we are -- we have declared dividend as well. So can you share some light on this [indiscernible]

So last couple of -- yes, last year, we could not declare a dividend. We are seeing improved performance and as we have the company generating profitability this year through its deployed assets, and we're also trying to move towards this bright future. We think that with the improved performance and future outlook. We are recommending to declare dividends to share the value of the cathodes as well. And I think there's enough cash assets in the company that we are not concerned about shortage of front as you go through the transformation, we see a bright future. And so we thought it's best to share the optimism and potential growth for shareholders.

Next question comes from [indiscernible] .

Atr the outset, let me say that I'm very happy that the company has announced a dividend of INR 5 per share. Hopefully, it signifies that the management sees the company returning to profitability sooner than rate. I myself, I'm very confident that this [indiscernible] happen at the corporate level. And we are concerned with the steep losses to the Media and Communication division is facing quarter after quarter. Within the last 1 quarter, it declared a loss of INR 50 crores and for the full year, INR 175 crores. And this is in spite of all the many positive initiatives that inches talked about above the company's station. So my question is what is from here. I mean, all these positive initiatives are sales launching losses, what steps can we take to mitigate these losses because only at the user division starts to perform, can we expect the whole operation to perform at the corporate level? So if you could throw some light on that as to what additional initiatives you could be taking extend these levels, that will be helpful. My second thing is about Project Ganga [indiscernible] a very, very ambitious [indiscernible] and I'm sure if we have a great social impact. But my concern stems from the [indiscernible] and if you can expect this to contribute to our profitability in any way? I would like to like to be found [indiscernible]

So as regards the numbers, I'm going to ask Raj our media group CFO to explain. Rajiv, I hope you are available on the call. You there?

So you can explain that in a moment. But first, let me just answer more from a strategy perspective. So you're absolutely right. We have been taking a whole bunch of initiatives. It is -- it's not any secret that the Pay TV business on the linear television business is facing significant headwinds. And rather than us sitting on our hands and kind of the morning, the industry, we've been very, very active in terms of doing several things. And like I said at the beginning. For example, I'll give you specifics. So CelerityX, which is the enterprise broadband business that we developed very 1.5 years ago, revenues have increased for the enterprise business by 2x in this year. And the total contract value, which is the TCV has increased by 5x. What we've been trying to do in this last year is actually build in terms of engines of forward growth and to see slowly but surely how do we recover the losses and the challenges faced by the linear television business. Is it happening? It's happening. Is it happening at a rapid pace? No, sir. That is the challenge we're facing. So that is something in terms of the numbers that Rajiv will share with you in a moment. But it has been disciplined execution. There's been structured cost optimization in this year very significant cost optimization, whether we are network operating costs, whether it be our content costs, whether it be a business operating costs all those have been brought under control, and Rajiv can just give you a flavor of that impact. Sir, on your question on project Ganga, as I mentioned on Slide 22, sir. So the way the model works is our investment into the project is mainly in terms of our expertise our knowledge and our know-how, we will be focusing on providing and facilitating the identification, the training process the handholding and would support the DSPs with network design, right, in terms of the knowledge that we've invited over the last 10, 15, 20, 25 years. So the investment the capital expenditure, all of that comes from the CMS closer. The government has a because [indiscernible] it's a CM U.S. scheme, which provides a loan to a qualified or selected digital service provider for up to 5 lakhs. So the way we structured the project is for that to be able to cover its cost of rolling out this network. So our model is very clear. We will continue to be an Internet service provider. And obviously, our investment is related to the people, the processes, the technology, the website, lending our expertise for which we will work in the garb of an Internet service provider, and therefore, running -- earning our revenues to an ISP model, sir. So effectively, the entire capital expenditure investments will be funded by the CMU schemes, while as we, in the capacity of an enabler and knowledge partner will provide all the other aspects. That's one project Ganga, sir. In terms of your relevant question on the losses, Rajiv, if I can request you to please seen and then I'm happy in case of Mr. Prasad would like any further clarifications, happy to bring that in. But Rajiv, would you like to...

Yes. So taking forward from what you said, we are taking further initiatives on both the fronts, which is the revenue optimization in terms of increasing our sales to enterprises a lot of getting new clients on salaries and also the product mix, which you showed in one of your slides, which was shared where the bandwidth we are increasing the product with the higher bandwidth being consumed by the customer. So that's where we are taking several initiatives on revenue front, revenue optimization. And at the same time, we are taking a lot of initiatives on the cost optimization side. like the bandwidth cost as a percentage of the revenue is coming down. So we are being very, very hard negotiation with the telcos and the service providers so that our bandwidth cost, which is a key input cost for our broadband business comes down. Similarly, on the DTV front, though, it has been potential in terms of the subscriber base across the industry coming down. However, we are negotiating very, very hard with the broadcasters. So that is giving us very, very good savings. Similarly, we are looking at our entire operations, where the G&A, which is selenite cost, we are looking very, very hard look and cutting down the cost wherever possible. And of course, [indiscernible] give us some kicker. So I hope we will continue the revenue optimization and the cost optimization path is to bring down the losses Thanks. Okay.

Yes. So that -- yes, so like I said, sir, that is exactly the reality. The headwinds are not new for the linear business. I mean, it's a reality what the industry is going through. And like I said, we will continue to do whatever it takes and I believe initiatives like CelerityX initiatives like Project Ganga. And of course, the rapidly changing product mix is putting us on the right track. So which is why, as Mahesh and Venk pointed out rightly that we can see light at the end of the tunnel and therefore, we are working towards that aspect and hence in line with the strategy of the group, sir.

At this point in time, are you in any position to give us any planning elite expect it to take 1 year, 2 years, a few quarters or a able to say that. .

No, sir. I think from an internal perspective, we have a clear time line. We have a clear process. If I may only request you, sir, this being the first quarter of the year, if you allow us to share at the end of Q2, the traction that we've gained on Project Ganga well as other initiatives et perhaps we'll be able to explain it in greater detail in terms of the time line, sir?

[indiscernible] to management. as refocus on the efficiency of capital, that is the return on cap employed. So the industry is looking effective way. The book value per share is INR 1,700. Even a reasonable return on that would ensure that we get at INR 170 crores per share as per UPL, which in turn would definitely show an upward momentum in the of the station in the market. Right now, our market tariff is INR 400 per share as against INR 1,700 per quarter. Clearly, the market is saying that the destruction of focus on that. I mean, just even a slight improvement we work 1 does. With that, I'd like to follow over thioesterase to focus on the efficiency of [indiscernible].

Your next question comes from the line of [indiscernible] with [indiscernible] Limited.

I would like to ask about the income tax addition phase, like what is the update on that?

Can you give specific which aspects that you're looking at on [indiscernible]

Like there was a pace currently regarding the merger of NXTDIGITAL?

So you're referring to the [indiscernible] case that is [indiscernible] So that is currently subsidized when we have filed an appeal with Bombay High Court. And the next hearing is on 30th of June. So we'll be awaiting the outcome of the hearing. But currently, is there in the public domain, we have untested against the direction given by the [indiscernible] panel and the case is [indiscernible].

Okay. I would like to ask one more question. Like we have a [indiscernible] minus [indiscernible] could you please shed some light on that?

Yes, [indiscernible] the EPS of 34.52, which is reported in the publication page, okay? I think that is a straightforward calculation that we have done. I think the earnings that we have received for the year for the full period as a stand-alone basis is a negative INR 160 crores. on a stand-alone level at 150 crores, and that's how the [indiscernible] has been derived. So as we mentioned, I think FY '26 year has been a sort of a turnaround year for us. So we have been looking at various initiatives to ensure that the losses are minimized and we get into a territory of profit making and that was confidence that internally we have and then we also express that our Board of Directors where a recommendation for a dividend payout also has happened. So yes, FY '26, definitely, we are looking at target release, but as you progress during the year in FY '27 and years to come with the strategic investment sector making [indiscernible] and on the broadband side on the CelerityX side. We definitely look at this negative EPS will go. And also, as pointed out earlier, the capital allocation will also start paying results, and we can see an upside coming in.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will take this as our last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing remarks.

Sure. Well, nothing to add from my side. I think -- thank you, everyone, for being here. It's been as Venk has pointed out and Mahesh pointed out, there's a lot of faith. And more importantly, we've seen a lot of traction across the entire businesses and speak to the media business in terms of aspects of Project Ganga and broadband really on the right accelerator mode. And thank you very much for joining in, and we look forward to the next quarter when we will have more to report in terms of the progress. Good day to everyone. Mahesh.?

I think nothing specific to add, but just to reiterate, our priority remains driving sustainable and profitable growth. But the focus on productivity, cost discipline and capital efficiencies, and we are quite optimistic as we look forward for FY '27. Thank you, everyone. And with that, I will hand it over to Venk.

Thanks, Mahesh. And thanks, everyone, for taking your time to join us today. As you all know, we are making progress, and we will continue to make progress. We see a bright future that's coming up. As the company transitions into a more of a technology services provider, that is focused both around more process improvement in the intersection of process management and technology services. And we expect a bright future [indiscernible] and we're continuing to drive towards the direction with our new platform, world intelligent experiences. I hope you all got to see the change in the brand, the tone of the direction of the company and I like the direction is going. I look forward to working with each and every one of my team members to deliver the value to the shareholders. Thank you, again.

Thank you, all the members of the management. On behalf of Hinduja Global Solutions Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you, everyone, for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.