Why did you choose the Offer for Sale (OFS) route instead of an IPO?
We have ample cash in the business—over USD200 million at the end of the year. We also generate nearly 100% of our post-tax profits as cash due to strong working capital management. Since we don’t need additional capital, an OFS made more sense than an IPO.
Retail investors subscribed only 11 per cent of the shares on offer. Are you disappointed with the retail participation in your offer?
Not at all. We now have nearly 200,000 shareholders. The market has been volatile, with a difficult trading period when we opened the issue. However, we are focused on long-term performance, and I am confident we will create value for shareholders.
Hexaware is a relatively smaller IT company in India. How do you see its future in a rapidly evolving technology landscape?
We may be smaller than some of the larger IT firms, but we are not small. By revenue, we are the 7th largest. Over the last decade, we have consistently gained market share from bigger competitors and grown at over twice the industry average. We expect to continue this trend.
Given that 72 per cent of your revenue comes from the US, do you see risks due to policy changes under Trump?
The US is by far the largest, most robust tech services market in the world. If you want to be a meaningful player, you have to be meaningful in the US, the biggest companies in the world, are all there, and many of them are our clients. I think the animal spirits of Trump’s policies far outweigh any potential downsides.
So, think of stable tax environment, no threat of taxes going up, lower regulation, and more support for M&As mean that businesses feel more confident. Quick early evidence — we are in earning cycle, 77 per cent of S&P 500 companies have announced results. And what’s the outcome of that? S&P 500 reaches an all-time high. So, if it’s good for our clients, it’s good for our industry, it’s good for us.