Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Ankur Rudra: Thank you. Salil, thank you for the updated guidance. I just wanted to get a sense of, obviously, the ask rate (ph) for the next three quarters has now moderated from, maybe it could have been 2% to 4%, with the same old guidance, it’s 0% to 1.5% as discussed. Just curious about the discretionary cuts and the delays you referenced in your guidance change description. Has this happened more towards the latter half of the quarter? Has there been a linear change over the course of the quarter?

Salil Parekh: So there, Ankur, the way we’ve seen it is there will be no difference in the pattern at the beginning or the end of the quarter. It’s more focused on the industry that we’ve referenced in our opening remarks between Nilanjan and me. We have seen in different places the discretionary work and some transformation work where it will either slowed or stop based on different industries.

Ankur Rudra: Okay. And also, I just want to get a sense of maybe asking this in a slightly different way. Obviously, the guidance change is quite drastic. Is this just the change in environment of spending over the course of last three months or is this also a difference in the way you measure the likelihood of success of when the deal ramp up or the win rate of future deals? Just curious about that and if this guidance is more conservative anyway versus the last time you said it.

Salil Parekh: So there, it’s a combination, as you pointed out of the environment in terms of the discretionary or transformational projects in the quarter. And then some of the mega deals and large deals, we saw a delay in decision-making in closing and also delay changes in the start time or ramp-up of the profile of that business. We’ve actually not seen any change in the win rate. And in fact, internally, we had a good win rate in Q1, and we continue to see good traction, whether it’s consolidation, cost efficiency on the win rate side.

Ankur Rudra: Appreciate that. Just one clarification, if you could. I know this $2 billion framework agreement that you referenced is the second large deal. Could you clarify if this is fully contracted and is this type of deal historically also been disclosed in your PCVs over the last few quarters or years?

Salil Parekh: The deal, we have first made the announcement, as I’m sure you’ve seen, we have completed the contract signing of the deal, that’s when the deal was announced. These types of deals were also included in the past within a large deal mix. Of course, in the past, there was no requirement of disclosing the specific values.

Ankur Rudra: Okay. Understood. Last question, if I can. On margins, they were obviously flat at this time and doesn’t — I mean it seemed like you’ve done well given what the growth has been. The 5-point margin maximization plan you’ve highlighted, is this you playing offense or defense on margins? In other words, is Infosys confident of potentially expanding margins in F ’24 or is more for margin defense because growth outlook doesn’t look very strong at least at the lower end of guide?

Nilanjan Roy: Yeah. So like we said, I mean, this is a two-year program we have started. It is quite comprehensive. It’s just not looking at cost, it’s looking at portfolio. And this is now being led personally by JS (ph) with 20 tracks, 30 leaders. Of course, our aspiration continues to be that we will aspire for higher margins than where we are today. So I mean from that perspective, it is offensive — on offense, I would say offensive, but on offense, this thing to increase our margins that to intent.

Ankur Rudra: Appreciative. Thank you and best of luck.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Apurva Prasad from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.

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