Our acquisition strategy has been playing out well: HCL Technologies CEO

Apart from engineering services, Vijayakumar said telecom, BFSI, retail and consumer packaged goods would drive growth in the quarters ahead

As HCL Tech emerges as the no. 3 player in the domestic IT services industry, surpassing Wipro in dollar revenue terms, the management is quite confident of sustaining the growth momentum for the fiscal. Apart from engineering services, president and CEO C VIJAYAKUMAR said telecom, BFSI, retail and consumer packaged goods would drive growth in the quarters ahead. The company also said its acquisition strategy is reaping dividends. Edited excerpts:

The pecking order of the Indian IT services industry has changed with HCL emerging as the third largest player, surpassing Wipro. What has driven this growth?

It’s our differentiated strategy that I articulated a couple of years ago. We had focused on three key areas with differentiated approach. 

We also adopted a good mix of organic and inorganic strategy that had helped us deliver industry-leading growth figures over the last two years. Consistent execution and delivery to clients also helped record good performance, and the credit goes to around 125,000 entrepreneurs (employees) of HCL Tech.

Despite strong deal flow and traction in key verticals, you have still maintained revenue growth guidance of 9.5-11.5 per cent for this fiscal? Does it not call for revision?

We are only done with the first quarter and I don’t want to give any comment on the revenue guidance aspect. We will update it at the end of Q2.

Apart from infra services, which are the other verticals that you expect to drive growth in the coming quarters?

Telecom is a big growth driver. Retail and CPG will be a key focus areas in the coming quarters. 

Analysts are worried about your approach towards acquisition. They believe that you are more focused on acquiring non-digital assets. What's your take?

The strategy is working extremely well. On the digital side, we have done a lot of organic investments. We have invested $100 million in the last two years to build strong digital capability. Our acquisitions have a very clear integration plan. Our EBIT margins continue to remain very stable.
 

So, all metrics are doing pretty well. We have also done a couple of acquisitions in the digital space, which are playing out well for us.