HCL Technologies Ltd: Strong Revenue Performance; Margin Disappoints In Q3 FY 21-22

BUY

CMP: Rs1337  

Target Price: Rs1460

* HCLT delivered a strong revenue beat in Q3, aided by solid growth in Services and a sharp rebound in Products & Platforms (24.5% QoQ CC). Revenue grew by 7.6% QoQ in CC terms, the highest in the last 46 quarters. EBITM was flat at 19.0%, below expectations.

* It signed 8 large services and 8 product deals across financial services, technology & services, and life sciences & healthcare for a total new deal TCV of USD2.1bn (64% YoY). Strong broad-based demand and robust deal intake augur well for revenue acceleration.

* The company has reiterated double-digit revenue growth guidance in CC for FY22. It has also retained 19-21% EBITM guidance for FY22, considering supply-side challenges and planned investments in Mode 2 capabilities and markets.

* We tweak FY22-24 EPS estimates by -1% to 2.4%, factoring in Q3 revenue beat, margin miss and lower ETR. Revenue growth is encouraging; however, pressure on Services margin limits earnings upgrade. Retain Buy with a TP of Rs1,460 at 23x Dec'23E EPS.

Fantasy Sports Has Contributed INR 3000 Cr To The Indian Sports Economy In FY 20-21

In the last year, the Indian fantasy sports industry has contributed INR. 3000 Cr in FY 20-21 to the sports ecosystem in India, through a multitude of avenues like sponsoring sports teams, leagues, players buying rights, and even supporting the development of sports at a grassroots level. This number is expected to double in the next three years alongside the growth of the industry and its participating user base. Niti Aayog in a recommendation paper launched in Dec 2020, has already pegged India as an ideal candidate to become a global hub for the fast-growing industry of fantasy sports. Additionally, PwC in its report has stated that the online fantasy sports sector in India is expected to be worth USD 3.7 billion by 2024.

Fantasy sports is widely known to share a symbiotic relationship with real life sports. Data from a number of studies suggests that fantasy sports is helping increase engagement in sports, wherein users have an enhanced interest - in watching more live sports matches - that eventually contribute to the commercial growth of leagues and tournaments across various sports. The industry  has also witnessed a growth of sports content platforms serving the sports consumption needs of fantasy sports users who spend time on the internet to gather data and information as a part of their research to help them play better, while creating their virtual teams. These include watching sports matches, reading about sports players, team strengths, weather and ground conditions. Further, the  full potential of the industry is expected to be unlocked through the growth of non-cricket sports such as hockey, kabaddi, football, volleyball and the growing popularity of women sports through fantasy sports platforms.

Speaking at IAMAI’s India Digital Summit 2022, Harsh Jain, CEO and Co-founder of Dream Sports, brought into focus the contribution of Fantasy Sports towards making sports better. He shared that "Fantasy sports is showing that it can become one of the largest contributors to the economy, in terms of engagement, viewership and commercialisation”.

"With fantasy sports, we've seen a drastic increase in the number of Indians participating in tier two and three cricket (tournaments) and sports outside of cricket, like Kabaddi, basketball, hockey, football, handball, and volleyball, Since consumers have a chance to make a team and compete with people, they end up watching matches or parts of matches that they wouldn't otherwise. This changes the engagement completely and leads to a drastic shift in sports engagement and viewership, which also leads to better commercialization of sports”, he added.

Industry leaders and think tanks who analyse this sector are unified in their recommendation that formal recognition of the fantasy sports industry and providing for principle-led governance would enable the Indian fantasy sports operators to focus on innovation, achieve scale and expand their operations in a clear and principle-based regulatory environment. In doing so, they will in turn, join hands in India's mission of ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ by building a sporting culture right from grassroot level and make India a global sports superpower.

NxtGen Datacenter And Cloud Technologies Offers Enterprise Cloud Services To PeopleStrong To Cater To Its Growing User Base

* NxtGen set up PeopleStrong's entire User Acceptance Testing

* NxtGen's datacenter solution provided PeopleStrong with the capability to absorb newer technologies

NxtGen, a leading data centre and Digital Transformation services company, offers Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) to PeopleStSrong, Asia's leading SaaS-based HR Technology company, and helped them set up their entire User Acceptance Testing (UAT). NxtGen provided a reliable solution to absorb newer technologies to the HR Tech company to increase its scalability.

IT infrastructure plays a critical role in running the business operations of PeopleStrong as their SaaS offerings are hosted on the cloud platform. Scalability, security, high availability, and performance are some of the key parameters that PeopleStrong wanted to focus on, to be the leader in the marketplace. Therefore, NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies assisted PeopleStrong to set up their entire UAT, which allows them to perform all the activities before going live. In addition, NxtGen provided PeopleStrong with a dev environment to enable them to conduct pre-production POCs, test setups of a few services, users and functionalities, integration validations and change management, etc. 

Commenting on the partnership, Rajesh Dangi, Chief Digital Officer NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies, said, "PeopleStrong was seeking for an on-demand scalable and easy to deploy infrastructure solution to cater for its exceedingly growing userbase. Hence, we suggested them our Enterprise Cloud Service which struck the right balance between the quality of service and cost optimization and offered PeopleStrong a competitive advantage while supporting its fundamental business goals of delivering exemplary HR tech products.”

By leveraging NxtGen's ECS for their UAT Environment, PeopleStrong reduced the size of their datacenter or and eliminated their datacenter footprint. In addition, UAT facilitated on NxtGen Cloud, helped PeopleStrong provide a significant return on investment and increase their customer confidence through reassurance that all requirements are met. This resulted in the reduction of the numbers of servers, the software cost, and the number of staff required, which resulted in a significant reduction of IT costs without impacting their organization's IT capabilities.

Saurabh Gugnani, Head IT & Security, PeopleStrong, said, "NxtGen is kind of a partner to believe in as they will stand with you for all your deliveries, and they are more like your own team." 

About NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies:

Headquartered in Bangalore, NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies is a well-established leader in cloud and datacenter technologies foraying into digital services and emerging technologies. Founded in 2012, NxtGen's Infinite Datacenter vision is a state where customers have elastic IT infrastructure available on-demand and pay-per-use, resulting in freeing IT budgets to invest in new application roll-outs. The key services include a complete cloud cover, fulfilled through its Infinite Datacenter, IT Infrastructure Services, IT continuity Services, IT Transformation Services, SpeedCloud™ HPC as a Service, SpeedCloud™ Edge, SpeedCloud™ MLOps as a service, etc. NxtGen is pioneering multiple new enablement services for its customers, which will help the company to accelerate its Digital Transformation agenda. For further details, visit: www.nxtgen.com 

DeHaat Completes Its 3rd Acquisition With Helicrofter, Expands Footprints In Western India

DeHaat, the technology-based platform offering end-to-end agricultural services to farmers in India, today announced its acquisition of Maharashtra-based B2B agri-input marketplace startup, Helicrofter. DeHaat’s co-founder & CEO, Shashank Kumar confirms that with the integration of Helicrofter, encompassing 2000+ agri-input retailers & 30 sellers across Maharashtra, DeHaat has now added another major Indian agricultural belt to their already expansive geographical footprint.

Currently India’s largest full-stack agritech startup, DeHaat has successfully pioneered the tech revolution across major agricultural belts of India. They serve over 700,000 farmers across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The addition of Helicrofter to their roster comes in line with the overarching goal of geographical expansion, as it marks DeHaat’s entry into Maharashtra. Founded in 2020 by Siddhartha Choudhary, Helicrofter is a farm input e-commerce platform designed to do away with supply chain inefficiencies in the rural ecosystem. Despite the pandemic, Helicrofter has been generating revenue since the very first month of its inception and has achieved annual revenue in excess of Rs. 50Cr. Prior to this, Siddhartha was the CEO at DestaGlobal, a farm input e-commerce startup, where he played a critical role in building the complete tech stack for input market linkage and enabling the company to drive revenue. He started his career with Monsanto where he worked as Product Manager for Cotton and Vegetable business.

DeHaat provides farmers with access to over 3,200 agricultural inputs, combined with AI-based customised crop advisory on pest & disease management, delivered via mobile app and call centres. The platform also aggregates 30+ crops from farmers on their network and directly supplies it to over 600 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors. In the last six months, DeHaat has also integrated financial services into its list of offerings. Having been backed by some of the biggest names in the business like Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, RTP Global, FMO and Omnivore, DeHaat closed their latest round of funding in October of 2021 by raising $115 Mn led by Sofina and Lightrock. 

Speaking on the acquisition, Amrendra Singh, Co-founder – DeHaat, says, “At DeHaat, we have built a crop and service agnostic, farmer-first model. Owing to our full-stack approach, we have been generating amazing responses from all our new, as well as existing geographies. We have been consistent with 35-40% growth in our network on a Month on Month basis, and this acquisition will cement our footprint into Maharashtra and thereby the Western part of India, which forms a major agri cluster for the nation. Over the years, DeHaat’s micro-entrepreneur network has grown to 4000 in Eastern and Central parts of India. With the addition of Helicrofter’s network, we will now add a wide range of prospective micro-entrepreneurs from Western India to this list.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Siddhartha Choudhary, Founder, Helicrofter adds, “We, at Helicrofter, are delighted to be joining hands with DeHaat. This union will undoubtedly help us add more value to the farmers and other stakeholders by strengthening our offerings, and accessing the wide variety and quality of services, as well as network access, that DeHaat possesses. What makes this partnership even more ideal for us is the complementing ideologies and synergy of function that will enable us to work together in materialising our vision for the farmer communities that we jointly serve. I am happy that all employees of Helicrofter are settling in well and are eager to scale DeHaat to newer heights.”

Nikhil Toshniwal, Co-founder, FarmGuide, says, “The last 1 year of working with DeHaat has been a very gratifying experience. Sheer knowledge of the colleagues and collaborative work culture have given an entrepreneur like me immense opportunity to sharpen the skills & continue experimentation.  Exciting challenges are consistently posed and resolved, making it an extremely potent and dynamic environment to work in. Building tech-enabled convenience for farmers and an agri-stack platform was at the core of our offerings at FarmGuide, and I am super excited every single day to see them amplifying our growth plan at DeHaat to reach millions of the farmers. I am sure many other entrepreneurs like me who are part of DeHaat resonate with the fact that our skills and enthusiasm are on a growth journey with the organization.

This is the 3rd acquisition for DeHaat on their path for inorganic growth. Just last year, they acquired FarmGuide, which allowed them to integrate Satellite-based crop advisory solutions for farmers. Being well capitalised and the largest full-stack agritech player in the business, DeHaat is aiming for a pan India expansion of farmer communities & its Micro-Entrepreneur network over the next 10-12 months.

Hero MotoCorp Has Announced A New Investment Of Rs 420 Crore In Ather Energy

Aligned with its vision - ‘Be the Future of Mobility’, Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, has announced a new investment of up to Rs. 420 Crore in Ather Energy.

The company’s board has approved the investment in one or more tranches. Prior to the proposed investment, Hero MotoCorp’s shareholding in Ather Energy was 34.8% (on a fully diluted basis). Post the investment, the shareholding will increase and the exact shareholding will be determined upon completion of capital raise round by Ather.

Commenting on the development, Swadesh Srivastava, Head – Emerging Mobility Business Unit, Hero MotoCorp said, “In keeping with our vision 'Be the Future of Mobility', we are working on a variety of emerging mobility solutions. We were one of the early investors in Ather Energy and have continued to expand our association over the years. We are excited to see the growth of Ather Energy in recent years. Our aim is to expand the Hero MotoCorp brand promise and make EV ownership a convenient, hassle-free, and rewarding experience for customers across the world.” 

Hero MotoCorp is an early investor in Ather Energy and has been a part of its growth story since 2016. The company is also exploring collaborations with Ather Energy in various spheres, such as charging infrastructure, technology and sourcing.

Hero MotoCorp is addressing the emerging mobility opportunity in a comprehensive manner through a range of organic and inorganic initiatives. 

It is gearing up to unveil its first Electric Vehicle (EV) in the month of March this year. The vehicle is being developed at the company’s world-class R&D set-up – the Center of Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Jaipur and the Tech Center Germany (TGG) near Munich – and will be produced at the company’s manufacturing facility at Chittoor in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Through its investments and partnerships with external partners like Ather Energy and Gogoro Inc., Hero MotoCorp is also working towards building the entire EV ecosystem – from products to technology, to sales, service, customer care, operations, and innovation.

Sustainability and Emerging Mobility is a priority area for Hero MotoCorp and the company continues to enhance its efforts in this direction.

Kalyan Jewellers Offers Re-Imagined Shopping Experience To Customers At Dickenson Road

* Renovated showroom will provide a luxurious shopping experience

Kalyan Jewellers, one of India’s most trusted and leading jewellery brands, launched its newly designed showroom in Bengaluru at Dickenson Road near Sivanchetti Gardens. The all-new showroom promises to present a luxurious, re-imagined experience with the latest of distinctive as well as trendy jewellery designs on display.  This is part of the company’s larger strategy towards renovating and upgrading the look & feel of showrooms across the state, promising to re-imagine the experience for shoppers in the region. Kalyan Jewellers’ showroom at Dickenson Road is fully operational. 

Celebrating the launch, Kalyan Jewellers has also announced special offers that will enable customers to maximize the value of their purchases this season. Kalyan Jewellers is offering mega discounts and bumper giveaways for its customers. On gold jewellery purchases of Rs.30,000 and above, customers can avail the 0% wastage offer, on half the purchase value. Shoppers can maximise the value of their purchases with up to 20% off on diamond, uncut and precious stone jewellery. These offers are valid until 31st January, 2022.

Talking about the new showroom, Mr. T S Kalyanaraman, Chairman and Managing Director, Kalyan Jewellers said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of our newly-revamped showroom at Dickenson Road in Bengaluru. At Kalyan Jewellers, we have consistently working towards reinventing the shopping experience, from expanding the existing product portfolio to taking major strides towards creating a holistic ecosystem. The redesigned showroom will cater to customers with Kalyan Jewellers’ extensive range of collections, especially the wedding jewellery line – Muhurat, which includes contemporary designs as well as intricate works of temple jewellery. We would also like to thank our patrons in the region for their constant support and faith in Kalyan Jewellers. We promise to continue working towards offering the best to our customers and will stay true to the company’s core values of trust and transparency in times to come.”

Kalyan Jewellers will offer its patrons Muhurat, the bridal jewellery line curated from across India along with exclusive sections featuring Kalyan’s popular house brands such as Tejasvi (Polki jewellery), Mudhra (handcrafted antique jewellery), Nimah (Temple jewellery) and Glo (dancing diamonds). Other sections at the showroom include Ziah (Solitaire-like diamond jewellery), Anokhi (uncut diamonds), Apoorva (diamonds for special occasions), Antara (wedding diamonds), Hera (daily wear diamonds) and Rang (precious stones jewellery). Kalyan Jewellers will draw from its portfolio of over one lakh contemporary and traditional designs and will offer selections for everyday as well as bridal wear and festive occasions.

As part of Kalyan Jewellers’ ‘We Care’ COVID-19 guidelines, the company has instituted the highest level of safety and precautionary measures across all showrooms to safeguard the health and safety of both customers and staff alike. The company has also appointed a ‘Safety Measure Officer’ to ensure safety protocol guidelines are strictly followed.

*T&C Apply

About Kalyan Jewellers

Headquartered in Thrissur in the state of Kerala, Kalyan Jewellers is one the largest jewellery retailers in India with a presence in the Middle East. The company has enjoyed a long-standing presence in the Indian market for nearly three decades and has set industry benchmarks in quality, transparency, pricing and innovation. Kalyan offers an array of traditional and contemporary jewellery designs in gold, diamonds and precious stones catering to the distinct needs of the customers. Kalyan Jewellers has 151 showrooms across India and the Middle East.

Academy Of General Education, MAHE, MEMG And Manipal Media Network, Honoured Personalities At New Year Awards 2022

Academy of General Education (AGE), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), MEMG and Manipal Media Network Ltd conducted “New Year Awards 2022” to honour eminent personalities of different fields for their distinguished services and immense contributions to the society. The awards were conferred on four individuals for their contributions in the fields of medical education, healthcare, business administration, arts and culture. The welcome address for the ceremony was made by Dr H S Ballal - Pro Chancellor & President, Academy of General Education, MAHE.  Lt Gen (Dr) M D Venkatesh, Vice Chancellor MAHE gave the felicitation address

The felicitation of four awardees was done by Dr Ranjan Pai, Chairman, MEMG Group and Registrar, Academy of General Education, along with Dr HS Ballal, Pro Chancellor, MAHE, Mrs Vasanti R Pai- Trustee, MAHE Trust, Shri T Satish U Pai, MD, Manipal Media Network Ltd and Vice President, Academy of General Education (AGE), and Dr Narayana Sabhahit- Registrar MAHE.

The winners of this year were Dr Suresh S Rao, Medical Director Sanjeevani Hospital, Mumbai, for contribution in healthcare, Shri Bhaskar Bhat, Director TATA Sons Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru for his contribution in the field of business administration; Dr Pragna Rao, Pro Vice Chancellor, MAHE, Bengaluru Campus for the role in the field of education and Shri Gopal Acharya Thirthahalli, Renowned Yakshagana Artist from Kergal, Kundapura for contributions to arts and culture.

Speaking about the awards and the achievements of the eminent personalities Dr H S Ballal - Pro Chancellor, MAHE said “We are extremely proud and honoured to be hosting this event to award these very well-deserving members of the society. Their contributions to the nation have been remarkable. I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to them for their dedication and spirit that drives them to make the society we live in, a better place. Keeping in line with the tradition established by our founder the late Dr T.M.A Pai, we are extremely privileged to be honouring such service minded individuals through the New Year Awards 2022”

Speaking on the special occasion, Gen (Dr.) MD Venkatesh, Vice Chancellor, MAHE said “We feel elated to be conducting this award ceremony to honour these four individuals who have achieved exceptional stature in fields ranging from business administration, medical education, art and culture to healthcare and philanthropy. We are extremely honoured by their acceptance of this award. Their noteworthy contributions in their respective fields show the zeal and determination of the human spirit. They have set such a great example for all of us to learn, imbibe and make our own contributions to society. I congratulate them all”

Expressing his happiness Shri Bhaskar Bhat, Director TATA Sons Pvt. Ltd, Bengaluru said “As I accept this recognition from an Institution as renowned and respected as the Academy of General Education, I must admit that I am filled with a sense of both pride and disbelief. As the nation battles the pandemic, I am in awe of the unity that people have shown to support each other through these terrible times. With rigorous vaccination drives the situation has improved. Our economy has done quite well as witnessed by the performance of the stock market, the tax collections and new money that is flowing into start-ups. It is a great time to be in this country of ours with a large aspiring population, a talented workforce, democratic institutions, our wonderful diversity and a “can do” attitude amongst the younger lot in this country”

Expressing her happiness after receiving the award Dr Pragna Rao, Pro Vice Chancellor, MAHE, Bengaluru Campus said “Being recognized and nominated for the Academy of General Education’s New Year’s Award is a tremendous honour and I express my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the Academy of General Education, MAHE, MaGE and the Manipal Media Network. This award assumes even greater significance to me as it was initiated by the Late, Dr TMA Pai who was keen on establishing facilities for higher education at rural areas through the Academy of General Education. My association with Manipal began in 1984 when I joined the Department of Biochemistry as a Post- Graduate student. Now as the Pro Vice Chancellor of the new MAHE Bengaluru campus, I would like to thank this prestigious institute for being an extremely inclusive workplace for women. This just shows Manipal holds equality as sacrosanct to its core values”

Expressing happiness after receiving the award Shri Gopal Acharya Thirthahalli, Renowned Yakshagana Artist from Kergal, Kundapura “I am extremely grateful to be receiving this award. Being recognised for the art of Yakshagana fills my heart with joy. The people from the Udupi and Dakshina Kannada district have also excelled in education, medical and cultural fields and it gives me great pride to hail from this place. Yakshagana is a symbol of Karnataka and I hope the future generation will also contribute to promoting and saving this art form”

Expressing his happiness after receiving the award Dr Suresh S Rao, Medical Director Sanjeevani Hospital, Mumbai said “I feel overwhelmed by a deep sense of gratitude on receiving The New Year Award. Having spent my childhood in Kateel, I have a deep affection for my village and my reverence to the Goddess of the temple knows no bounds. Once I graduated to become a doctor, I realized what my heart deeply wished and that was to serve my village and the society in some way. With determination and courage, I dared to dream of running a hospital. I have been associated with MAHE and KMC Mangalore since 2015 and it has been the most rewarding experience. For me, I had received my award the day Manipal group accepted my proposal to take over the hospital. The members of this institution have provided constant support for me and helped me realise my dream”.