Infosys Ltd Q2 FY23 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Infosys Ltd (INFY) Q2 FY23 Earnings Concall

Management Update:

• [00:04:26] INFY said its attrition has been decreasing for the past three quarters including 2Q23. Quarterly annualized voluntary attrition came down by 2.5% during 2Q23, while LTM attrition numbers reduced to 27.1% compared to 28.4% in 1Q23.

• [00:06:46] The company revised its operating margin guidance for FY23 to 21-22% from 21-23%. INFY expects to be at the lower end of this range.

Q&A Highlights:

• [00:14:10] Ankur Rudra from J.P.Morgan asked how realistic is INFY’s revenue guidance for 2H23. Salil Parekh CEO said INFY had good growth in 1Q23 and 2Q23. Also the overall pipeline for large deals is larger than last two quarters that led to the revenue guidance of 15-16% from 14-16%.

• [00:17:41] Ankur Rudra of J.P.Morgan enquired if there is any change in the compensation trajectory over the next 2 quarters. Nilanjan Roy CFO answered that 1Q23 had the biggest impact. And for 2Q23, it was more for the mid to senior level employees. So there’s nothing unusual.

• [00:18:23] Moshe Katri with Wedbush Securities asked about any project cancellations or deferrals from the clients. Salil Parekh CEO replied that the company didn’t see any cancellations, but saw some slowness in discretionary spend within the macro segments.

• [00:21:16] Ashwin Mehta from Ambit Capital enquired about the margins in the manufacturing vertical. Nilanjan Roy CFO replied that INFY has worked on the advice and making sure margins across large manufacturing deals improve.

• [00:27:35] Zack Ajzenman of Cowen asked about the reason for revenue per full time employee trending lower for some quarters now. Nilanjan Roy CFO answered that it is impacting the utilization and revenue per employee is not indicating anything on pricing. Also there is cross-currency impact that brought down the numbers.

• [00:32:29] Keith Bachman from BMO asked about INFY’s thoughts on attrition exiting the year. Nilanjan Roy CFO replied that indicators are improving going into 3Q, as in a lot of geographies there is a 90 day notice period, which gives a reasonable view of what’s coming ahead. And INFY expects attrition to go down in future.

• [00:33:31] Aniket Pande with ICICI Securities queried about the trend of TCV number and how the mix has changed between cost optimization and transformation. Salil Parekh CEO answered that INFY is seeing a good focus on cost programs in the pipeline.

• [00:35:06] Aniket Pande with ICICI Securities also asked about the tone and tenure of pricing conversation with clients. Nilanjan Roy CFO said that pricing is client-specific, long haul and complex. Additionally, INFY added that large discounts have come down.

• [00:36:34] Kumar Rakesh of BNP Paribas enquired about the drivers of sharp increase in new deal wins. Salil Parekh CEO clarified that the wins represents the trends INFY has on digital and core automation capabilities. INFY added that the driver is also putting more emphasis in its pipeline on proactively looking at automation cost deals with its clients.

• [00:40:10] Dipesh Mehta from Emkay Global queried about moderation in revenue growth trajectory, in which segment INFY is seeing weakness. Salil Parekh CEO answered that segment specific details can’t be given but the macro environment has some areas that INFY is looking with more caution.

• [00:44:28] Nitin Padmanabhan with Investec asked about revenue contribution mostly coming from the non-top 25 customers and if this trend will continue. Nilanjan Roy CFO answered that there is nothing to worry on top 25 contribution. One reason could be a lot of cross currency being applicable during the quarter.

• [00:50:28] Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities asked about being conservative on the EBIT margin guidance of 21.3% in 2H23 vs. 21.5% in 2Q23. Nilanjan Roy CFO answered that it’s not conservative. INFY is realistic in its margin projection. The company saw some headwinds, impact of furloughs and attrition impact.