FY27 starts on a healthy note with good 1Q: Investment in AI data center to go up the value chain

Research evidence excerpt

FY27 starts on a healthy note with good 1Q: Investment in AI data center to go up the value chain

5-18.5% EBIT margin includes 40-50bp of restructuring costs. We

Source: LSEG, Nomuraexpect an EBIT margin of 17.9/18.2% in FY27F/28F.

Investing ~INR35bn in AI data center, eyeing sovereign AI services Research Analysts

HCL is entering the AI data center business with an initial strategic investment of upto INR35bn, aiming for

a long-term capacity of 50MW, while offering full stack AI-ready solutions and addressing sovereign data India Technology/Services &

Softwarerequirements. Investment will be funded through a mix of partners, silicon and OEM vendors, committed

Abhishek Bhandari, CFA - NFASLclient capacity, and a combination of equity and debt, rather than solely from the balance sheet in a single

abhishek.bhandari@nomura.com

year. HCLT intends to differentiate its AI data center strategy from large infrastructure companies by

+91 22 403 74120

focusing on a full-stack AI solution with high-margin services, rather than just renting out capacity.

Karan Nain - NFASL

We increase FY27-28F EPS estimates by ~2-3%; maintain Buy rating karan.nain@nomura.com

We raise our FY27-28F EPS estimates by ~2-3% to factor in the 1Q results and JasperSoft (unlisted) +91 22 676 26540

acquisition closure. Our TP increases to INR1,290 (from INR1,250) set at unchanged 16x FY28F EPS

(refer to our report for valuation methodology).

Year-end 31 Mar FY26 FY27F FY28F FY29F

Currency (INR) Actual Old New Old New Old New

Revenue (mn) 1,301,440 1,405,411 1,424,073 1,468,6941,496,290 1,549,671 1,578,829

Reported net profit (mn) 166,420 197,926 202,925 211,244 217,657 224,310 231,065

Normalised net profit (mn) 166,420 197,926 202,925 211,244 217,657 224,310 231,065