Technology solutions company Cyient will actively focus on Indian market in the next 3-4 years on the basis of the growth opportunities across segments such as communications, transportation, and new-age verticals like medical, semiconductor, hi-tech, and automotive, etc, the company’s chief executive officer Karthikeyan Natarajan told FE in an interaction.

“We are not really actively focused on growing the India business unless some opportunities come up. Factors such as price realisation, the ability to collect cash, and our ability to really see a consistent growth, will take time to mature in India,” Natarajan said, adding that it will take atleast 3-4 years for Cyient to see India as a growth market especially in segment such as communications.

“The definition of our servies business is it has to be consistent, progressive, and growing. We are really focused on sustainability business and also working with the two large conglomerates in India. So we are definitely opportunistic in terms of where we think we can make money, able to collect and still be able to work on contracting terms that will be respected,” Natarajan said.

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Natarajan, who recently got promoted to the role of CEO at Cyient, will focus on pivoting the company towards technology roadmap in areas such as intelligent product and platforms, digital enterprise and engineering technologies, and sustainable infrastructure and decarbonisation.

The Hyderabad-based company, which has a presence across 19 countries, is currently bullish on the sustainability business in India with solutions such as connected equipment, smart asset management, data management etc in mining and energy segments.

Further, the company is also focused on the design-led manufacturing in the semiconductors in India. Cyient last year partnered with IIT Hyderabad and WiSig Networks, a startup incubated at IITH, to enable volume production of India’s first architected and designed chip – the Koala NB-IoT SoC (Narrowband-IoT System-on-Chip). The chip will be used in smart meters, machine-to-machine connectivity, censor connectivity, digital healthcare, etc.

“India is becoming a silicon semiconductor design hub globally. In the medium to long term, we expect semiconductor has to be a growth engine for Cyient especially for the automotive segment,” Natarajan said.

For Cyient, currently the Americas region constitute the highest revenue share of 49.2% annually, followed by Europe, Middle East, and Africa at 29.7%, and Asia Pacific (including India) at 21.1%. In terms of business units, transportation (aerospace and rail transportation) contributes 29.9% to the revenue, followed by connectivity business at 28.7%, sustainability at 22.1%, and new growth areas at 19.4%.

In FY23, the company’s revenue from operations rose 32.7% to Rs 6,106 crore and normalised net profit rose 8.2% to Rs 565 crore. The IT firm expects FY24 consolidated services revenue growth to be in the range of 15-20% YoY in constant currency (CC) terms.

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On the connectivity business under which Cyient provides intelligent & connected products, private 5G solutions, etc, Natarajan said there were some unexpected event or aberration in the January-March quarter such as delay in start of certain projects. The company expects the connectivity business to witness double-digit growth in FY24.

With regard to opportunities from private 5G, Cyient expects the market to take atleast 5 years to develop and accordingly the company will provide its solutions in India.

“It would take about three to five years in terms of how this market would mature. You cannot do (grow the business) as a cost arbitrage, it has to be capability arbitrage. So when you really start playing in capability arbitrage, then there will be a market potential,” Natarajan said.

Even as large information technology company such as Infosys, TCS posted a weak earnings in the January-March quarter, Cyient recorded a strong growth with positive commentary.

“We are not in typical tech companies as our customer base which essentially means we are in other parts of the businesses such as sustainability, communications, and automotive, etc, which will definitely be not directly impacted as compared to many of the IT services companies in India,” Natarajan said.

In the last one year, tech companies went through a struggle. “Can you believe, $1.6 trillion of tech companies’ market cap has been eroded? It is the energy and utilities, the sustainability business of ours has gained. $1.8 trillion of market cap shifted in the last one year from tech to sustainability,” Natarajan added.

While Cyient is positive about the business in general, it still does not rule out the possibility of deferment or delay in projects by clients.

In the January-March quarter, the company’s revenue grew 48.3% YoY to Rs 1,751 crore, and net profit rose 5.8% YoY to Rs 163.20 crore.