Tata Communications’ ambition to achieve ₹280 billion revenue from data is likely be delayed by a few quarters, said Nuvama Research, despite the company expressing confidence earlier about doubling the same by 2027.

The company’s data revenues came in at ₹19,513 crore, growing 13.7 per cent y-o-y; in Q4, it stood at ₹5,096 crore, up 3.9 per cent sequentially.

During the quarterly results, Kabir Ahmed Shakir, Chief Financial Officer at Tata Communications, said the expectations for the data revenue were not guidance points. “This is our ambition. Does it go towards doubling our data business? 100 per cent. Yes, when we announced it two years ago, it was a different set of business environment at that point in time, different set of environment that we are facing, and we are navigating that through,” he said.

However, Nuvama, in its report, noted that the company now aspires to realise its earlier ambition of revenue growth, margin leverage and RoCE by FY28, instead of FY27. It also expects the focus on M&A and non-core asset divestment to continue.

“Tata Communication’s ambition to achieve ₹280 billion is now likely to be delayed by a few quarters, as the ask rate for achieving it by FY27 was becoming quite steep. We continue to see TCOM as an exciting play, offering the best of both the worlds — stability of telecom and growth potential of the IT Services sector. We maintain ‘BUY’ with a target price of ₹2,000 (earlier ₹1,900). While being made official for the first time, we believe this deferral was largely anticipated and already priced in.”

digital services

Similarly, Centrum said a third of this incremental growth is expected to come from strategic digital services such as Unified Cloud Network, Kaleyra.ai, SASE, and AI Cloud. Regarding digital platforms, Centrum said: “While core connectivity maintained high profitability (FY25 EBITDA margin: 43.6 per cent), the digital platform business is expected to improve from –9.7 per cent EBITDA in FY25 to breakeven, and ultimately to double-digit margins. The management aims to generate over ₹15 billion EBITDA from digital platforms, supported by multi-fabric customer growth and platform monetisation.”

Published on June 11, 2025