Online Reporter
BENGALURU/MUMBAI. — India’s Tata Consultancy Services expects its retail and manufacturing clients in North America to step up spending on tech, following a similar upturn in its banking and financial services segment, a top executive of the nation’s No. 1 software-services exporter, said.
“We have heard about good holiday season sales (in the U.S.) that should boost consumer sentiment and manufacturing has some of the labour issues behind them,” CFO Samir Seksaria told Reuters.
“If these three verticals (along with banking) improve overall, we should see a good recovery,” he said.
Seksaria’s cautious optimism highlights broader global economic uncertainties and sticky inflation that have forced clients to keep a leash on tech spending.
The company’s revenue in North America, its largest market, declined for the fifth consecutive quarter even as banking and financial services posted their best performance since June 2023.
Retail and manufacturing are the second- and fourth- largest revenue contributors to the US$29 billion behemoth.
Last month, Walmart Inc (WMT.N), Amazon.com (AMZN.O), and fast-growing e-commerce sites Shein and PDD Holding’s (PDD.O), Temu, saw record-breaking sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
US online spending too rose nearly 9 percent to US$241.4 billion during the recent holiday season.
TCS’ communications and media vertical, a capital-intensive segment that is currently one of the company’s laggards, will also see some pick up if interest rates start to go down, Seksaria said.
The fate of the popular video-sharing mobile app TikTok fell before the US Supreme Court on Friday.
The comments echo CEO Krithivasan’s sentiment that the incoming US administration is likely to remove policy uncertainty and boost client confidence to spend on discretionary projects.
On Friday, its Mumbai-listed shares closed up 5.6 percent, its highest single day rise since July 2024. — Reuters.
