Black Box (500463) Q4 23/24 earnings summary

Executive summary

• FY24 consolidated revenue was ₹6,281.58 crore, essentially flat YoY; EBITDA rose 59% to ₹428 crore and PAT rose to ₹137.67 crore from ₹23.70 crore.

• Delayed decisions, H2 order hold-ups and exits from low-value customers constrained growth; strategy prioritizes larger, accretive accounts and data-center, networking, cybersecurity and AI-led infrastructure.

Financial highlights

• Q4 FY24 consolidated revenue was ₹1,480.35 crore versus ₹1,681.92 crore YoY; net profit was ₹40.90 crore versus ₹23.10 crore.

• FY24 EBITDA margin rose to 6.8% from 4.3%; Q4 EBITDA was ₹122 crore, up 28% YoY, with an 8.2% margin, up 260 bps.

• FY24 gross margin increased to 27.3% from 26.1%; EBIT was ₹336 crore versus ₹204 crore and PBT was ₹156 crore versus ₹29 crore.

• FY24 basic EPS was ₹8.20 versus ₹1.42 in FY23; Q4 FY24 EPS was ₹2.44.

Outlook and guidance

• FY25 revenue guidance is ₹6,600–6,900 crore, up 5–10%; normalised EBITDA guidance is ₹525–560 crore, up 23–31%, and PAT guidance is ₹220–250 crore.

• Management expects backlog momentum to improve over the next few quarters as larger deals mature; the pipeline was close to $2 billion, particularly in networking and data-center solutions.

• Long-term operating-margin target is 10%, supported by contract repricing, India delivery productivity, procurement and subcontractor management, right-shoring and G&A control.

• North American data-center opportunities are expected to mature during FY25, with stronger momentum anticipated thereafter as larger customer opportunities develop.