Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Sterlite Technologies Ltd (NSE: STLTECH) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 29, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Ankit Agarwal — Managing Director
Ajay Jhanjhari — Chief Financial Officer
Unidentified Speaker
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Nikhil Choudhary — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Akshat Mehta — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Sunny Gosar — Analyst
Saket Kapoor — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to Sterilite Technologies Limited Q4 SI26 earnings conference call. Before we proceed with the call, let me remind you that the discussion may contain forward looking statements that may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. It must be waived in conjunction with our business risks that could cause future results, performance or achievement to differ significantly from what is expressed or implied in such forward looking statements.
Please note that we have uploaded the results and earnings call presentation on STL’s website and the same is available on the Exchange. In case if you not have received the same you can write to us and we’ll be happy to send the same to you to take us through the results and answer your questions. Today we have the Senior management of Sterlite Technologies Limited be presented by Mr. Ankit Agarwal, the Managing Director and Mr. Ajay Jhandari, Chief Financial Officer. We will start the call with a brief overview of the quarter gone past and then conduct the Q and A session.
As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Ankit. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Ankit Agarwal — Managing Director
Yeah Good day everyone and thank you for joining STL’s Quarter 4 and FY26 earnings call. I’ll begin by highlighting the key takeaways from my investor presentation and then Ajay will walk you through the financials. HDL is a global leader in digital connectivity infrastructure serving telcos, data centers, citizen networks and large enterprises. Our portfolio spans fiber to fiber optic cables, specialty cables and connectivity products. We’re India’s number one end to end optical manufacturer with over 8% global optical fiber cable markets outside of China and with more than 30 plus years of leadership, close to almost 800 patents and 10 plus zero waste to manufacturing facilities worldwide, STL is truly leading the next wave of global digital infrastructure.
At STL we are amongst very few companies in the world that have mastered the journey from glass to gigabit. It starts with the purest grade of silicon which we transform through advanced processes like silicon tetrachloride formation, chemical vapor deposition and high precision sintering to create ultra pure glass preforms which is truly the backbone of optical fiber around the world. From there we draw the highest grade fiber, design high density cables and develop reliable connectivity products that power data centers and telecom networks around the world.
This full stack integration right from raw material to network deployment gives SDL a unique edge in quality, cost efficiency and innovation across the connectivity value chain. This deep integration enables us to engineer next generation fiber cable and connectivity solutions that are redefining global connectivity end to end Innovation from material science to smart optical systems help global network builders create faster, denser and more reliable networks for the AI era. As we look forward to FY27, our priorities are defined.
We are focused on expanding our OFC market share while meaningfully increasing connectivity attach rates across deployments. At the same time, we aim to scale the contribution from our enterprise and data center segments underpinned by continued technology leadership and a relentless focus on cost optimization. Moving on we will now speak about the industry tailwinds and the growing market opportunity. We are at the intersection of three powerful multi year and investment cycles. FTTX Data centers and 5G are creating a strong structural tailwind for the optical infrastructure.
FTTX is accelerating globally with deployments rising to 151 million fiber kilometers in 2025 going up to 170 million fiber kilometers by 2030. Just in the US alone, over 100 million homes will be served by Fiber 2030 supported by large government projects like Bead and BharatNet in India, data centers are simply the fastest growing driver for fiber demand. CRU projects that 40% of global growth in optical cable demand from data centers in 2026 alone, driven by hyperscale expansion and AI workloads.
North America installed DC capacity is expected to more than double from 60 gigawatts in 2025 to almost 115 gigawatts by 2030. Hyperscaler DC CapEx is expected to increase to a whopping $762 billion. 5G is scaling rapidly with 6.4 billion subscriptions expected to grow by 2030 and carrying 80% of all mobile traffic. This requires massive fiber haul, backhaul, front haul and network densification across the board. Together these three cycles are creating a structured multi year demand tailwind for the fiber and connectivity positioning STL at the center of next global digital infrastructure buildout Next we show how global telecom and big tech giants are aligned in backing optical fiber as a base of Digital future across 5G broadband data centers and the AI infrastructure.
The takeaway is very simple. Fiber remains at the backbone of all of the digital infrastructure. Moving on to slide seven shows how the AI revolution and rapid data center expansion are creating once in a generation opportunity for optical connectivity as per sources. By 2013, nearly 70% of data center demand will be AI led, driving a sharp increase in capex and infrastructure intensity. GPU architectures are rapidly shifting from 400 gig to 800 gigs and all the way to 1.6 terabyte speeds where copper reaches its bandwidth threshold and fiber becomes essential.
Simultaneously, AI workloads are creating dense fiber interconnections, exponentially increasing fiber per ack and every new data center adds multiplies this demand. This is not just a matter of scale, it’s a step change in fiber intensity. With our Neuralis end to end AI DC portfolio, SDL is uniquely positioned to capture this multi year structural growth opportunity. We will cover Neuralis in more detail in the upcoming slides. I’ll now address India’s Data Center Movement India’s data center expansion is emerging as one of the most compelling structural tailwinds of optical fiber and we’re uniquely positioned to capture it.
You would have read recently in news about the tremendous updates in Vizag as well. Installed capacity is set to grow to 5x from 1.4 GW in 2025 to 8 GW by 2030. What makes this cycle particularly powerful is the breadth of commitment that hyperscalers like Google and Microsoft are deploying tens of billions of dollars. Indian conglomerates like Adani and Reliance are anchoring gigawatt campuses and even domestic majors like TCS are laying out long term capacity plans. This is a diversified and resilient demand base, a supportive policy environment, state incentives, power availability and benefits and tax holidays.
Extending 2047 is further de risking and accelerating the build out every dollar of data center CAPEX has a direct multiplier fiber intensity across DCI, metro and long haul networks. With optical cable demand projected to grow at 11% CAGR through 2030. This is not a cyclical uptick, it’s a durable high visibility growth opportunity playing out right here in our home market in India. According to CRU, global optical cable demand growth of 2026 has been upgraded to about 6.8% year on year following stabilization in 2025 led by mainly the North America’s data center build out and improved execution in China.
Importantly, demand is now consistently outpacing domestic supply in North America, keeping the lead times tight. Looking ahead, North America is said to be the main growth engine powered by AI LED data centers DCI builds and the continued FTTH expansion, CRU expects it to deliver the strongest regional CAGR of 15% all the way to 2013. Overall. This points to sustained multiyear upcycle in fiber demand with North America and APAC x China, both core STL focus market drivers growth. We are also seeing positive momentum in India, Southeast Asia and parts of Europe which are closely aligned with our stated strategy.
We’re successfully seizing new market opportunities, a trend that is clearly visible in our record order book intake. This year in FY26 order inflows more than doubled to 7687 crores, up 109% year on year as compared to 3672 crores in FY25. This momentum has been driven by a series of strategic wins including large scale data center projects, predominantly North America and long term orders which are secured from Tier 1 telecom operators in India. Importantly, our order book today is well diversified with a healthy mix of order intakes from all customer segments and product categories across regions.
Our innovation, as we’ve always stated, continues to be a key differentiator for STL and this quarter we made strong progress across next generation optical and data center technologies. The launch of India’s first hollow core fiber cable marks a defining milestone in STL’s innovation journey and reinforces our leadership in AI ready digital infrastructure. This breakthrough enables ultra low latency and high bandwidth connectivity critical for hyperscalers and next generation data centers. As for current data, the hollow core fiber is expected to reduce the latency between 35 to 40% in the network which will be a huge breakthrough.
As some of you may have seen, STL launched Neuralis, our flagship AI era data center connectivity portfolio in the US at Data Center World 2026. I will cover about that in detail in the next slide. Our innovation engine is backed by Deep IP portfolio of over 780 patents with 21 new filings this quarter and has been recognized through multiple global awards through these advance. Overall, these advancements reinforce our position as a technology leader building future ready capabilities that align closely with AI, cloud and high performance network demands.
Slide 17 presents our latest launch of Neuralys which is our purpose built portfolio for the AI era of data centers. It addresses two mission critical needs, AI white space connectivity and high speed DCI where fiber density speeds and simplicity matter the most with pre terminated fiber trunks, high density arrays, Celestia IBR cable scaling up to close to 7,000 fibers and intelligent enclosures. Neuralis enables faster deployment and massive GPU clustering leveraging STL’s full integration from glass preformed to pre terminate assemblies.
Neuralis reduces deployment complexity and accelerates time to service which is critical for data centers supported by local manufacturing in South Carolina. This launch strengthens our position within US hyperscalers as well as the upcoming NEO cloud providers. Slide 18 highlights STL leadership in multicore fiber key enabled for quantum safe as well as multi terabit networks Multicore fiber allows between four to seven times higher capacity within the same physical footprint, improving space efficiency while lowering deployment infrastructure costs, making it ideal for AI data center long haul, 5G and high performance interconnects.
We have shown strong capability enabling India’s first quantum key distribution over MultiCore, completing live 100 kilometer testing and becoming the first globally to deploy MCF in both aerial underground networks, further validated by our latest successful trials with Colt, a leading operator in the uk. Overall, this positions SDL as a forefront of quantum safe next generation optical networks with strong relevance for global hyperscalers and carriers. And as a continuation from our previous call, we have made successful progress on a two next generation fiber platform 654e as well as hollowcore fiber, both designed to address the rapidly evolving requirements of modern connectivity network.
Since then 654e has been successfully launched and also secured our first commercial order validating strong customer interest with its 30% lower signal loss larger core which will enable higher power ultra longwall DWDM DCI applications. In parallel we have launched India’s first hollow core fiber as I mentioned, cable with a true step change technology with light travel through an air filled core delivering 30 to 47% lower latency with supporting bandwidth from 800 Gig to 106 Terabit and beyond.
Together these platforms significantly strengthen SGI’s leadership in high performance optical networks and position us to be a select group of global players shaping the future of fast low latency AI infrastructure on market position and attached rate trends. Our Global X channel of OFC market share remains stable at around 8% in FY26, demonstrating resilient execution in a challenging environment marked by US tariff impacts and germanium constraints that we spoke about earlier. We remain focused on steadily building our share over time in optical connectivity.
Attach age moderated 15% from FY26 from 22% in FY25. This was primarily driven by product mix and project timing along with sharp acceleration of OFC revenues leading to a higher base. The moderation is temporary and the long term opportunity of connectivity remains very strong. Our connectivity is expanding and and we’re increasingly focusing on selling integrated solutions rather than standalone products. Taken together, this shows that our core OFC business stable while there’s a clear Runway to drive higher value through attaching long growth over the medium term.
I will now hand over to Ajay to take you through the financials.
Ajay Jhanjhari — Chief Financial Officer
Thank
Unidentified Speaker
You Ankit and thanks to everyone for joining us today. I’ll take you through the key financial highlights for Q4 and FY26. STL delivered a strong Q4 finish and solid full year performance. Q4 FY26 revenue stood at 1,441 crore reflecting strong 37% year on year growth momentum. EBITDA margins expanded to 15.1% supported by scale benefits and better product mix. For the full year revenue increased to 4745 crore with EBITDA rising to 628 crore or 39% year on year growth with margin improving to 13.2%.
PAT also turned positive in Q4 and for the full year reflecting improved profitability and execution. Overall, the performance reflects our focus on disciplined growth, margin expansion and stronger bottom line outcomes. As you can see in slide 25, despite a challenging external environment, we have delivered consistent operational margin margin expansion over the last six quarters. Operational EBITDA improved to 15.1% in Q4 FY26 driven by higher utilization, a stronger product mix and operating leverage.
While US Tariff headwinds have meaningfully moderated from peak levels adding margins, we are seeing new near term cost ratios from geopolitical disruption driven by war in West Asia, particularly impacting helium and polymer inputs. Despite these headwinds, our structural margin profile continues to expand in line with our guidance of 20% at reported level by end of the current fiscal. On segment side, telecom and citizen network remains the core contributor while enterprise and data centers moderated to 19% in FY26 primarily due to decline in our copper business because of higher higher LME prices.
Looking ahead with accelerating AI data center investments and pipeline visibility, we expect the enterprise and data center segment to scale up to 30% of revenues in the current fiscal. From a geographic standpoint, our revenue mix continues to diversify. North America share increased from 25% in FY25 to 39% in FY26 while Europe remains a significant contributor at 40%. This balanced regional footprint reduces concentration risk and positions us well to capture growth across key global markets.
Moving to the order book we have seen strong momentum this fiscal. Our open order book stood at 7309 crore in FY26 up 67% from 4378 crore in FY25 reflecting healthy order inflows and strong market confidence of this 1468 crore is slated for execution in Q1 FY27 while the remaining order is scheduled for execution over Q2, FY27 and beyond. This robust order pipeline provides strong revenue visibility and reinforces our growth outlook for the year. On slide 28 we have shared a brief snapshot of our reported numbers for your reference Net Debt stands at 11.28crore with debt to equity of 0.5 and net debt to EBITDA at 1.3x comparatively below our earlier target of 2x with a revised ambition of moving below 1.2x.
Turning to our IT services business, STL Digital for FY26 digital revenue closed at 284 crore compared to 290 crore last year, while EBITDA improved meaningfully to 3 crore, reversing a loss position in FY25. This demonstrates our clear focus on sustained profitable growth rather than scale at any cost. In Q4 we added a new UK based healthcare client, expanding our footprint in data engineering, analytics and product services. With nine new customer logos added in FY26, our total customer base now stands at 35 with this now I hand it over back to Ankit for updates on our social responsibility initiatives and closing remarks.
Ankit Agarwal — Managing Director
Thank you Ajay HDI CSR initiatives continue to create a strong measured impact across healthcare and education. This is all aligned with our philosophy that we must give back to the society in which we operate. Our flagship healthcare program, Swatya Suraksha won the Best Rural Healthcare Initiative for the year 2025 and the Indian at the Indian Social Impact Award. Secondizing its sustained contribution for rural and tribal healthcare and education, the Robo Edge program received the Best Education Support Initiative of the year 2025 at the Indian CSR Awards for Advancing STEM Learning and Innovation.
Robo Edge students also excite excelled globally at the International RoboBo Tax Championship 2025, winning multiple podium positions. Nine students representing India showcasing talent, teamwork and innovation Reflecting India’s commitment STL’s commitment to build a stronger future ready society at STL, sustainability is simply central to our purpose. We’re proud to hold a Synergy A rating and are committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2030. Our strategy is built on three pillars environmental sustainability since FY19 we diverted 282,000 metric tons of waste, recycled almost 11 million metric cubes of water and reduced over 440 tons of carbon emissions for energy efficiency.
Over 36% of our procurement is local and we partner with Hygenco to advance green hydrogen successfully. Social Responsibility aligned with the 16 United Nations SDGs, we positively impacted 20,000 plus lives through education, women’s empowerment and healthcare alongside installing 4,500 kilowatt power of solar capacity. With two big four auditors and robust governance committees, we earned 100 plus EFG awards in FY19. Notably HL, the world’s first Optic 5 manufacturer certified for zero liquid discharge and zero wasteful landfill setting a truly industry benchmark.
Let me close with our focus areas. Our goal is driving technology and cost leadership, growing its market in focus markets, increasing connectivity, attach rates and rapidly scaling the revenue contribution from our data center business. This trend in SGL’s role is a clear enabler of global digital infrastructure. With this I’ll close my opening remarks and hand it over the operator to open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star n1 on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star N2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Please note in order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, kindly limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow up question, please rejoin the queue.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Aniruddh Tandare from Param Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yes, you
Operator
Are audible.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah hi Ankit, Congrats on the great results. Can you give us some indication on the current utilization levels and any sort of guidance going forward?
Ankit Agarwal
I won’t comment on specific utilization but you know, broadly it’s improved slightly said we’ve called it out. It’s, you know, we continue to have constraints with some of our raw materials and we do expect those, you know, the constraints to reduce quarter on quarter as I’ve been stating. So it’s more of the same.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. And I mean an extension of that question probably. Since you mentioned raw material, any update on the germanium or helium? We have seen significant, I believe cost inflation there as well.
Ankit Agarwal
So the costs continue to be quite high or very high. But as I said, more importantly for us is getting the availability itself. And that is something that continues to be a challenge. But we do expect it to improve quarter on quarter.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so how, I mean is there a number sort of how far ahead do we have the sort of the stocks? Like Is it 2 quarters, 3 quarters, 4 quarters?
Ankit Agarwal
Yeah, I mean we, as I said we have some amount of volume for the rest of the year it’s about optimizing and getting more so that we can further utilize our factories. So there is some good amount of base we have and we’re continuing to try to get more. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aman Seifi Stallion Asak. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi sir, thank you so much for the opportunity. I hope I’m audible.
Ankit Agarwal
It’s a little hazy to hear but go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, I just wanted to understand on the recent QIP approval is it just an enabling resolution to maintain capital raising flexibility or is there any demand? I’m sorry to interrupt.
Operator
Aman, would you please use your handset mode?
Unidentified Participant
Yeah.
Unidentified Participant
Is it better now?
Operator
Yeah. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, I just wanted to understand on the recent QIP approval is it purely a enabling resolution to maintain capital raising flexibility or is there any funding requirement already identified? And also on the context on the recent capital infusion from the parent level how should we think about the incremental capital needs for Sterilite tech?
Unidentified Participant
So I’ll answer in two parts. The first one on the fundraising. So this has always been a enabling resolution which we take year on year basis. So this year also this, this needs to be considered as a enabling. Right now there are certain CAPEX plans which we are having. We do expect that in near term to we will focus on our technology leadership and upgrading our asset base to support high value data center portfolio offerings which can have a approximate investment of 500 crore.
Unidentified Participant
Got it, got it, Understood. And my second question would be the kind of tailwind we have been, you know, hearing on the data center. How did we look at our growth numbers since our order book itself itself has gone up significantly this quarter. So growth rates and probably the margin guidance if you can provide for next year.
Ankit Agarwal
Actually we don’t provide this kind of guidance as we’ve been sharing we are very focused on both the data center segment and the telecom segment. As Ajay said we are looking at a capex about 500 crores. So as you can appreciate that that’s happening on the back of our understanding and visibility of the market and the opportunities so broadly. I would say that we continue to remain excited about the opportunities and we are focused on capturing more and more share of this market.
Unidentified Participant
And so what would be a data center share? Sorry to
Operator
Interrupt. Aman, please rejoin the queue for more questions.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, sure.
Ankit Agarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil from Nirama. Please go ahead.
Nikhil Choudhary
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on very strong number especially dealing. I Have one question for you and one project. So basically I need some color. If you can provide the strong order book this quarter, was it volume driven purely or you have seen improvement in realization as well as if you can quantify contribution from data center within this, it’s possible.
Ankit Agarwal
Nikhil, I can’t give you color, I’ll have to be black and white. But in seriousness.
Unidentified Participant
So the data center contribution, so
Ankit Agarwal
We don’t break that out. I think we’ve called out broadly the data center and enterprise. As you can see the absolute number is, you know, is growing and we did have slightly lower copper sales. So overall it’s in the right direction and I think, you know, as we’ve discussed and we’ve shared on these calls, we continue to work on securing long term contracts and relationships both with telecom operators as well as data centers. So that’s moving in the right direction.
Nikhil Choudhary
Got it. Okay, very helpful. Second, I think you commented two incremental point. What is I think you often take the guidance of reaching 30% from Enterprise Data center compared to earlier guidance of 12 to 18 months. And secondly also I guess if I heard it correctly you mentioned that by end of this year Q4 you will achieve 20% in EBITDA margin. So just wanted to understand the lever for the margin and what change in 1/4 which you know give you confidence of upfronting this guidance. Thank you.
So
Unidentified Participant
These are interlinked. Actually Nikhil, if you see in proportion to our increase in the data center revenue, we are going to witness a good jump in the margins as well. In all our assumptions we have kept the tariff at the current rate. That is something which we will have to adopt for going forward. But right now if we achieve that 30% rate which looks like if we do the right execution we can reach there. So we do target to have it by the end of the Q4 the margins which I have mentioned.
Nikhil Choudhary
Got it. Again very helpful and congratulations on very strong quarter and thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
Ankit Agarwal
You very much. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahel Dasani from mapl. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi, I’m Audible.
Ankit Agarwal
Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, good afternoon and first of all thank you for this opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. A few basic questions to begin with. What’s our IBR capacity at as of date and what are our plans to increase it, if any?
Ankit Agarwal
Sorry Raj, we don’t disclose capacities.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Okay. Would you be able to share how much of our total preform requirement do we buy from outside as of date. And how much will this increase to as and when we start utilizing optimum capabilities capacity of 80, 85%.
Ankit Agarwal
Sorry Rayal, we don’t disclose any of these things.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so maybe what we can try is on the hyperscaler side. Why is the hyperscaler and DC sales volumes not picking up as much for us while our global as well as local peers are scaling up very well and shifting majority capacities to DC demand? Are we seeing any product quality issues especially with the 1728 and 3456 fiber count and hence we are not getting approved by the hyperscalers.
Ankit Agarwal
I don’t know what to say. There’s none of all these. None of these things exist. What you mentioned we’re very well placed with the data center and telco business and I think we’re going quite.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. One last question would be when are we. I’m sorry to interrupt.
Operator
Rahel, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saurabh chain from Sunidi Securities. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Congratulations to the entire team for the wonderful performance and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is during, you know, Q4 OSP prices have witnessed a very sharp increase particularly from late December or early January. So how has been the trend in the realizations of late across the standard OFC and high frequency data center cables? How is the, you know, difference in prices and what’s the delta in margin margins playing out rightly and how are we going to, you know, evolve the mix in our favor?
Ankit Agarwal
Yes, thank you. I would kind of reiterate what we’ve been saying through previous calls. We do not play in the spot market and we do not sell in the spot market. We are very, very focused on long term contracts with our select customers globally, particularly in Europe and US and in India. So that’s how we look at it. Of course at any point, if for example raw materials or freight or anything is going up and down or tariff, then those are conversations we have with our customers and we look to see how we can adjust those things.
I am aware that the fiber optic prices have increased particularly in China and in some other places. But we are not selling for many of these applications or to these spot opportunities. At a macro level I would say that yes, the margin profile of selling to the data centers is better and these are very, very advanced and patented products that we create. And more and more of what we sell to this market will be an end to end solution, thereby improving our Profitability going forward.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Also if you can, you know, talk about the pipeline and conversion pipeline of large hyperscaler deals, are we moving towards any multi year capacity reservation agreements like our global peers? What we are listening yesterday on the conference call, Corning mentioned that after Meta they have signed two more such similar size and similar tenure deals. So can we expect something like that? Are we in talks with any of these hyperscalers?
Ankit Agarwal
Yeah, I mean, I won’t comment on any specific names or what our competition has done. We continue to remain very focused and quite excited about, you know, securing long term contracts both with telecom operators as well as data center companies. We are making good progress both in terms of our conversations as well as in terms of our product portfolio and readiness. So yeah, I would broadly say we are quite well placed and you know, accordingly, as we make progress, we’re happy to share that with you.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, that’s all. Thank you and wish you all the best.
Ankit Agarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akshat Mehta from Seven Rivers Holding. Please go ahead.
Akshat Mehta
Hello sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on the margin, sir. So given that this quarter has been part impact of, you know, the US tariffs coming down now, how should we look at, you know, margins going forward when the full impact of the US that is coming from 50 to 15% will come should be similar or should be probably higher somewhat.
Unidentified Participant
Susie, last quarter, at least in Kippur, there was a slight impact only of, because of the reduction in tariffs because we need to sell goods in advance to our subsidies and all going forward in Q1, there will be a positive impact on account of tariff while our revenue is expected to increase further from US operations. But there is one more counterpart to it which is the cost which is increasing significantly due to this war issue. So broadly there will be an improvement in the overall margin profile, but that won’t be similar to what we are reflecting here.
Like it will have some impact of the cost increase as well.
Akshat Mehta
Okay. Should it be at similar levels to what is in Q4 or the. I think
Unidentified Participant
It, it should be. Well, I can’t give any guidance on that, but it should be on an improving stage from Q4.
Akshat Mehta
Okay, my second question is on the. Sorry to interrupt.
Operator
This is my second question.
Akshat Mehta
Ma’. Am. Hello. Yeah, so I just wanted to, you know, double check on the, the thing that you said that you don’t really sell in the SP side. So what is kind of stopping us from, you know, diverting a few kilometers of the capacity to sell in the spot market except for, you know, on a principal basis or on a value basis to take advantage of this opportunity.
Ankit Agarwal
I mean look, I think it’s, you know, we’ve been in this business for 30 years, I’ve been in this business 16 years. And I think our learning from that is that what you want to really make sure and go out of your way is that you’re having a large portion of your catering to the right kinds of customers who are building and co developing with you in terms of products and it’s truly a long term partnership. So that’s the philosophy we’ve chosen and it requires a certain amount of discipline because it’s easy to get excited about some of these spot prices.
But we’ve chosen that path of discipline, focus on R and D and creating long term value. That’s the reason.
Akshat Mehta
Okay, thank you Ankit.
Ankit Agarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pushkar Jain from Millie Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi sir. Am I audible?
Unidentified Participant
Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. So we were actually looking at a ppt of omnicure. So they had some exclusive tie up with you for germanium. So is that, is there entire capacity enough for us or we need more and is the supply started for the same?
Ankit Agarwal
Sorry, I mean for confidential reasons we can’t share where we stand on this or our suppliers. We are, it is, it is an important raw material and like helium and some others and we continue to take strategic actions.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And post this capex can we at least tell what will be our capacity forc?
Ankit Agarwal
Sorry we not. We’re not going to be disclosing capacities going forward.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thanks a lot.
Ankit Agarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is in the line of Bala Subramanian from Arihan Capital. Please go ahead.
Ajay Jhanjhari
Good evening sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Sir, my first question on the data center side I think we are launching advanced products like neuralysis, Hollow Core, Cyber G654 and I think many products are under pipeline. But if you look at on the international market big players are taking billion dollars orders especially for data center and generative AI and enterprise side. So I’m trying to understand whether is there any active pipeline or rfq?
Even these data center hyperscaler customers they are willing to fund and they are willing to for a rich risk sharing agreements. They are more aggressive on building data centers especially for AI side. So I’m trying to understand whether our products like how we are, how we are getting orders, whether we have a pipeline of any Billion dollar orders, especially long term, maybe three to five years time frame side, if you could share your thought process on the industry levels and how we, how our products are fit into the market.
Ankit Agarwal
Thank you. I think broadly I would say that where we’ve done some good work, I’m very proud of our team in terms of the product portfolio we’ve created. Neuralys is truly cutting edge what we’ve launched and it’s truly a great solution that we believe will serve the data center world. I think we’re well placed, I think in terms of our portfolio, in terms of the work that we’ve done and we are, we do have some good customers where we’re working well with them in terms of looking at their long term requirements.
And as we continue to make progress and as we continue to grow with them, we’ll continue to update you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sunny Gusiv from MK benches. Please go ahead.
Sunny Gosar
Yeah, hi, thanks for taking my question and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My question is on the optical interconnect segment. So we have seen some in my understanding, some stagnation in the revenue in FY26, but if we have to say look at the next two to three years, how should we look at this segment in terms of the growth trajectory? And earlier we used to look at 50% attach rates. So how are we thinking about that now going forward?
Ankit Agarwal
Yeah, thank you Sunny. And look, I think that structurally yes, the attach rate percentage wise has come down but I think it’s largely a timing and mix related factors. There’s no change in structural demand. I think we’ve been working hard on this for a few years now building our product portfolio. We’ve also been working closely with customers to co develop it for them. So I do see this, that at least on an absolute basis the revenue should continue to increase over time. There are also certain connectivity products that are required for the data center segment which we are, we are evaluating and looking at.
So I think combine both of these. What are the attach rates required for the home portfolio? Home connectivity as well as data center connectivity. I do see this growing year on year going forward
Sunny Gosar
And the rate of change will be visible in the near term or this will take some time in terms of starting to reflect on the revenue growth.
Ankit Agarwal
I would say broadly over the year you will see the growth. It’s tough to kind of predict the timing because of the approval process and cycle, but we are making progress quarter on quarter for sure.
Sunny Gosar
And my second question is more on the medium term outlook. So historically we have seen cyclicality play a role in the optic fiber demand. So based on our past learnings across cycles like how are we looking to reduce or rationalize that risk of cyclicality and how successful have we been in terms of getting some longer tenure contracts, better visibility over same two to three years while we see that the near term demand remains robust. But assuming that there is some slowdown or some cyclicality in the demand, how are we looking to kind of reduce that risk per se?
Ankit Agarwal
Yeah, I think both. I would cover it in three ways. Like one, I think at a principal level we do strongly believe that you know, these are kind of multiple tailwinds in parallel. You’ve got you know, 5G, 6G coming up in a couple of years. Then you’ve got fiber to the home. You’ve got rural massive connectivity that will happen with BE BharatNet and everything else. Then you’ve got optic fiber for drone applications which I think are currently in couple of places but could spread further. And then you’ve got this kind of multifold growth because of the data center side.
So at some level we do believe that these are tailwinds over a longer period of time number one. And it’s not just the telco up and down cycle that we’re dealing with. So that gives us some level of confidence. But I think to your point, I think it’s back to what I’ve been sharing so far is that we are very, very focused on the longer term contracts rather than playing in the spot market or trying to make a quick buck. And we do expect that we will make good progress on this quarter on quarter.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor and Company. Please go ahead. Mr. Kapoor. Your line is unmuted. Please proceed.
Saket Kapoor
Yeah, hello.
Ankit Agarwal
Yes, please
Operator
Proceed.
Saket Kapoor
Hope I’m audible.
Ankit Agarwal
Yes, yes
Saket Kapoor
Sir. Firstly, pertaining to this permission cables litigation. What, what is the last we have heard on the same and any, any date that we have for the litigation or at what stage are we. And the secondly in continuation to the tariff part, we have also seen that the US government has been asked to, to, to reverse the, the amount which they have collected as tariff. And I think so we have paid tariff on, on the, on the, on the sales that we have done to the US the geograph. So where are we in terms of these two aspects?
Ankit Agarwal
Yeah, thank you. So I think on the legal matter we had filed our appeal in September 2025. So that’s where it is that, that’s Progressing. As I said, we continue to believe we have a very strong case and we do and hope for a favorable outcome in that matter. And I think in terms of the tariff rebate, you’re right. There is a process that’s got kick started in the US for repayment of tariff to the importer on record. And to that extent we will follow that process. But we can’t give a clear timeline right now of when and how much of those refunds will come.
We can probably update you in, in the next earnings call.
Saket Kapoor
But what amount we have paid as tariff is there with you so that you can share whatever is the refund. That will happen in due course. But you can share the amount at least how much we have paid as tariff. I think the 6 to 7% of EBITDA was negated because of this. If I remember correctly in the last quarter or the before quarter when the tariffs were at 50%,
Ankit Agarwal
I think broadly it will be north of 100 crores.
Saket Kapoor
Hypothetically with this judgment,
Ajay Jhanjhari
Madam, I will only conclude
Saket Kapoor
Won’t be getting opportunity. Again ma’, am, just a small point sir. In case the judgment comes, do we have any other option to appeal higher or what would be the, the, the process going ahead with the permission part? I think so. That’s a huge liability of 100 million.
Ankit Agarwal
Yeah, there’s, there’s in fact two more steps. One, currently this is in a bench of three judges. You can then appeal to ask for all the judges to be present and to, to again evaluate the matter. If again after that, then again we have, we can appeal to the Supreme Court. So there are two more stages so called after this.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Page Patel from Niv Shivyay. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of number again sir. Now bringing back to the earlier participants question. I know you know, I know you know we have been in discussion with the hyperscalers since along and you are, you are making good progress. Right. But you know, given our capabilities and you know I’m just trying to understand there should be some progress made. Right. And I just wanted to understand what could be the timeline, you know where we could look to close this let’s say orders or deals or you know any Lois with the hyperscalers.
Because almost like a three to four months we are into discussion and then you know we, we have, I mean it’s a domestic peers, global players, you know, getting those orders. I just wanted to understand, you know, what, what are the timeline on these orders. Are we facing any problems on that side?
Ankit Agarwal
No, as I said, at least I don’t think we are facing any orders. We are continuing to expand our product portfolio that can serve this market and we’ve got good feedback from our customers. We continue to get orders from them and we are, as I said, we’re making good progress with the hyperscalers in terms of, you know, what could a longer term partnership be? So that’s the conversations that are going on.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Are we at least in the testing mode of our products with the hyperscalers?
Ankit Agarwal
So I think we already shared last last quarter. We are actively now supplying into this market.
Unidentified Participant
Got it, Got it. And sir, I think we were upgrading our line to the IBR for higher fiber count. Is the capex on. On track? I think it was supposed to get live by June 2026. Right.
Ankit Agarwal
We don’t comment about specific product lines, etc. So I won’t be able to comment on that.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, sir. Correct. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. With this, we conclude our call. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Ankit Agarwal
Thank you everyone for taking your time to hear us out. We remain excited and motivated to drive this business forward and to unlock its full potential. Through our efforts, we see a tremendous opportunity to connect the unconnected across the world and especially here in India. We truly believe SGL is well positioned to play a pivotal role in building the digital infrastructure of the future and of our country. We’re happy to take any questions of yours. For any queries or qualifications, you can reach out to our investor relations team which and Ajay and I will both be available.
Once again, thank you for your time and your continued support. Jai Hind.
Operator
Thank you very much on behalf of Sterlite Technologies Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us today. And you may now disconnect your lines.