Demand acceleration is evident for pure-play engineering services, especially in areas such as electric, autonomous, connected vehicles (EACVs), digital manufacturing and digital products across key customer markets including the U.S, Europe and India, said Amit Chadha, CEO and MD, L&T Technology Services (LTTS).
“Based on my interactions with global CEOs and R&D heads of many conglomerates, the demand appears to be bouncing back in many of our key markets. Overall, we see demand acceleration for pure-play engineering services, in areas like EACVs, digital manufacturing and digital products,” Mr. told The Hindu.
“From customers, we are getting positive signals on CY22 budgets, as CTOs and heads of engineering invest in growth and transformation,” he added.
Auto companies were going through rapid transformation, and LTTS was partnering with major players around the globe in the areas of electrification and connected vehicles, he said.
The company’s Electric Vehicles (EV) lab, backed by domain expertise was generating ‘a lot of’ customer interest and had helped the company win large deals in the second quarter, according to him.
To build scale in deep technology areas, the company has identified six strategic investment areas — EACVs, 5G, medical tech, digital manufacturing, AI- and ML-driven smart products and sustainability, he said.
“Through investments in these areas, we will be able to create a sustainable growth engine. The EACV segment is seeing strong demand and we won an over $25 million EACV deal in Q2,” he elaborated.
The market outlook had gradually improved over the last two quarters and a growing momentum was visible across industries such as automotive, healthcare and industrial products in terms of traction and large-deal wins, he pointed out.
LTTS said 5G was a ‘big growth opportunity’. The company recently opened a dedicated 5G lab in Bengaluru for driving innovation in the space. The lab is intended to deliver development, testing and integration services, including advanced automation capabilities and patented tools and platforms in the 5G telecom space.
The company said it would hire about 2,000 engineering graduates in FY22 for its centres in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Vadodara and Mumbai, and the bulk of these freshers would be recruited in the current quarter. Hiring would be based on project pipeline and demands in specific verticals such as very-large scale integration (VLSI), embedded systems and automotive, Mr. Chadha added.
In the quarter ended September, LTTS’s net profit rose 39% to ₹230 crore and revenue grew 22% to ₹1,607.7 crore. The company’s medical segment saw ‘strong bounce-back’ with almost 10% sequential growth in the quarter, crossing $100 million in annualised revenue. Its largest segment, transportation, registered a 6% sequential growth led by good demand across all segments, he added.