Just a couple of questions. Firstly, on the margin side. I just wanted to understand, you've been able to maintain margins sequentially, whereas the product mix has gotten tilted more towards ULIPs in this quarter. So what were the tailwinds that helped you in this quarter? And also, you mentioned 27% to 29% in the long term. Then outside of a change in product mix where, say, ULIP comes down and traditional goes up and protection goes up in the future, are there any other levers that you can call out?
Questions across 18 calls
Rishi Jhunjhunwala
IIFL Institutional Equities
SBI Life Insurance Company Limited
Yes, thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions . So firstly, are there any considerations or pressure in terms of increasing payouts for your banca and agency channel? And one of the reasons I'm saying is because some of your larger peers have increased commission payouts by 2x to 3x over the year, esp ecially on the traditional plan. So, any discussions around that for us as well?
Okay, sir. And secondly, just in terms of the margin mix that has changed over the last 12 months or so, you have indicated 200 basis points decline has come from the business mix and profile. And if you really look at APE mix change, it's predominantly a four to five percentage shift from non -par to ULIPs, so I just wanted to underst and, I mean, is it primarily to do with just shift or at a product level also there might have been some compression on the portfolio side?
LTM Limited
Just a couple of questions. One, your deal number has been reasonably strong at that $1.68 billion. But you haven't really called out any like $100 or $200 million kind of deals in that. I just wanted to understand if you can give some more color in terms of the mix of this order inflow, split between maybe qualitatively split between discretionary versus cost takeout and new versus renewal?
And just very quickly, for this quarter at 1.8%, the two headwinds that we saw, one was with the top Hi-Tech client and the other one on the furloughs. Furloughs are going to get reversed in 4Q and the impact of the Hi-Tech client is going to reduce. So, I just wanted to understand, I mean, is it possible to quantify say what the growth in this quarter would be ex of that client's issue and can we at least get that kind of growth in 4Q as well?
Most of my questions have been answered. Just one basic understanding of the business as it stands now. Now when LTIMindtree were two different companies, LTI used to have a revenue trajectory wherein second half used to be better than first half in most of the years in a normal spending environment. Is it fair to say that as a combined entity now we are very similar to how some of our larger cap peers are wherein first half typically in a normal environment would end up being better than second half?
Right. The other question is just in terms of the kind of yield we are generating on our investments and cash. It seems to be north of almost 8%. So just wanted to understand the nature of investments we are doing?
Actually, most of my questions have been answered. Just a quick bookkeeping one. If you look at our depreciation and our interest expense, we have gone up very sharply over the last 12 months. Depreciation is up by almost 27%, interest expense is up by almost 67%. Just trying to understand what is driving that and if there is any one-off in there?
These are sustainable levels, yes?
HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited
Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question, you mentioned about not changing much on the repricing of the products post the surrender value changes from 1st October. Given that we are 15 days into the quarter, just wanted to understand how your compet ition has reacted during the same period in terms of repricing of products? And in case there has been lower repricing done, do you see that as an opportunity to gain market share in multi-insurer distribution channels?
Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question, you mentioned about not changing much on the repricing of the products post the surrender value changes from 1st October. Given that we are 15 days into the quarter, just wanted to understand how your compet ition has reacted during the same period in terms of repricing of products? And in case there has been lower repricing done, do you see that as an opportunity to gain market share in multi-insurer distribution channels?
Just a couple of questions. One is now our EOM is at decadal high. And even adjusting for any kind of reclassification of commission payouts, it looks like both on year-on-year and sequential basis, it has gone up. So just wanted to understand what is driving that, have commission payouts gone up? And the second question is, when you are offering a guaranteed- return product, what kind of rate of return do you make or do you assume. Is it higher or lower than GSec plus 50 bps?
The only reason I asked that question is for the surrender regulations, we have been allowed to discount with a factor of GSec plus 50 bps. So, what I was trying to understand is, at a portfolio level, on guaranteed return product, do we end up earning more than that or less than that?
Just a couple of questions. One is now our EOM is at decadal high. And even adjusting for any kind of reclassification of commission payouts, it looks like both on year-on-year and sequential basis, it has gone up. So just wanted to understand what is driving that, have commission payouts gone up? And the second question is, when you are offering a guaranteed- return product, what kind of rate of return do you make or do you assume. Is it higher or lower than GSec plus 50 bps?
The only reason I asked that question is for the surrender regulations, we have been allowed to discount with a factor of GSec plus 50 bps. So, what I was trying to understand is, at a portfolio level, on guaranteed return product, do we end up earning more than that or less than that?
HCL Technologies Limited
Just a couple of questions. Firstly, can you clarify once again, you said minus 1.32% to plus 0.6% 4Q implied growth. One is, did you mention it for services and is it organic or does it already include the impact of HPE asset?
Understood. Okay, great. The other question is on just the broad-based nature of growth. If you look at it from a client concentration perspective, our top five clients are pretty much growing at 30% plus for the last four quarters. So, a large part of our growth this year has been primarily attributable to the top five. Just wanted to understand, are you seeing clear signs of growth spreading to your non -top five and even beyond top 20? Given that you have made some comments on the ACV side, but just wanted to understand whether is growth becoming a bit more broad -based versus what we have seen in the last year or so?
Just one question around the products business side. So, just wanted to understand the underlying dynamics there. It seems like it is actually being doing relatively better than what we would have potentially planned a couple of years ago or in general, h ow the environment is. So, if you can elaborate a little bit more on how much of this is sustainable and what is driving the low to mid-single digit growth in the products business and this quarter of course that growth is much higher. So, how do we think about that both from a slightly medium-term growth perspective and a consequent impact on margins?
Tata Consultancy Services Limited
Yes. Thank you for the opportunity. Just a couple of quick questions. Firstly, on this BSNL thing, right? So , over the course of the entire project, which I guess is going to go on for in total 6 to 8 quarters, -or-so. Just wanted to understand the overall project, what the end profitability would eventually be that you would have envisaged if at all there is, I understand that was strategic in nature and it was giving you an entry into network services management and all that. But just from a project profitability perspective, just wanted to get some color on that.
Okay, no problem. The other question is on capital allocation method. So, you have announced a special dividend this quarter. So , given the change in the tax regime on buybacks, is it fair to assume that going forward, dividends would be the more efficient way for you to return capital?
Yes. Thanks for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions. Firstly, if you look at our SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue, they are pretty much at an all-time low. And in the past four to five quarters, we have seen sequentially even the absolute a mount coming down. Just wanted to understand, is it more a reflection of how things have slowed down in the past four, five quarters and hence, you are trying to rationalize that or more a reflection of how the next three, four quarters might look like and kind of managing investments there?
Okay, sir. And just secondly on deals, right? So last quarter we had indicated that there were delays in deal closures and so possibly that could have been reflected in better wins this quarter. There hasn't been any material uptick, but you mentioned 7 billion to 9 billion is a comfortable range in which you are operating. Just wanted to | 23 understand in order for our growth to accelerate to maybe high single digit or close to double digit over the next 12, 18 months. Do you still need this number to go up substantially or the overall budgets might just reflect that even if it is not getting reflected in the TCV?
Infosys Limited
Thanks for the opportunity. Just one question. So, your growth in this quarter as well as last quarter has been fairly broad-based across verticals. Th ere has been the commentary that you have given also suggests that discretionary is seeing some sort of pickup in some verticals. But the guidance that you have provided for the se cond half effectively means that there is a considerable slowdown in the ov erall growth momentum. Now I understand there is some bit of seasonality that comes through. But given the nature of broad-based growth that you have delivered for two consecutive quarters at the midpoint of the guidance not having growth seems to be a little bit counterintuitive versus what you have commented on the demand environment. So, I just wanted to understand how you are thinking about it.
Got it. And just very quickly, given where your utilization levels are right now, is it fair to assume that going forward, the hiring trends will largely reflect how you end up growing on revenues as well since a lot of the moderation on utilization is probably behind us?
Thanks for the opportunity. Just one question. So, your growth in this quarter as well as last quarter has been fairly broad-based across verticals. Th ere has been the commentary that you have given also suggests that discretionary is seeing some sort of pickup in some verticals. But the guidance that you have provided for the se cond half effectively means that there is a considerable slowdown in the ov erall growth momentum. Now I understand there is some bit of seasonality that comes through. But given the nature of broad-based growth that you have delivered for two consecutive quarters at the midpoint of the guidance not having growth seems to be a little bit counterintuitive versus what you have commented on the demand environment. So, I just wanted to understand how you are thinking about it.
Got it. And just very quickly, given where your utilization levels are right now, is it fair to assume that going forward, the hiring trends will largely reflect how you end up growing on revenues as well since a lot of the moderation on utilization is probably behind us?
Tech Mahindra Limited
Yes, thanks for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions. Firstly, if you look at our top five clients' revenues, right, in the last six quarters they are down almost 30%. So just wanted to understand, what is the nature of ram p down given that these were being the top five clients would be large and fairly long relationships that we would have had. And I'm assuming, the budgets wouldn't be down by that amount. So have we lost wallet share there?
Understood. And just secondly on the margin side, right? So the last two quarters have seen about 650 bps of margin decline. Just if you can quantify, how much of that was purely led by all the restructuring efforts that you would have done either on the customer or on the employee side? Any kind of visibility in terms of reversal of those in the time period in which you can. And I'm just talking about these one-off expenses, right? So I'm assuming there should be some visibility around that. That will help. Thank you.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited
Just one question. I mean, even apart from commissions, if I look at other OPEX has gone up substantially for us on a H1 over H1 basis as well, whereas the premium growth, of course, has not been that strong. So, just trying to understand what is driving that ex of commissions also and in the backdrop of that, do you think that given that seems like a lot of these commission increase are going to stay here for a while, do you think that VNB growth in this year will be possible?
And so, views on VNB growth this year?
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited
Just a couple of questions. Firstly, this September month would have seen the first 5 -year anniversary of the two -wheeler long- term TP. How has the experience been in terms of renewal given that 5 years of TP means that the renewals are pretty much down to zero and as a result if you can give some color in terms of what would that amount of premium for September month be as proportion of overall motor TP?
And the second is on the total payouts to the distribution channels. Some of our life insurance peers have talked about industry wide increase in payouts to the distribution channe ls. How has it behaved for us in the key ban ca partner channel as well as outside of that in terms of the total payout? I understand there was categorization or reclassification. But just in terms of payout, has there been a demand for increase in payouts for us? And have you seen any anomalies in the industry otherwise?