NEW DELHI: Tata group-backed Tejas Networks has acknowledged that its financial performance was “quite disappointing” in FY26 as the completion of the initial 4G project at state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), along with large order delays, led to a sharp revenue shortfall and pushed the company into losses.
The telecom gear maker reported a net loss of ₹909 crore for FY26, compared with a ₹447 crore profit in the previous year, while revenue from operations fell by over eight times to ₹1,103 crore. The company announced its March quarter and full-year earnings after market hours on Wednesday.
Shares of Tejas Networks slumped nearly 6% in early deals on Thursday to ₹423.50 apiece, reflecting investor concerns over mounting inventories, stretched receivables and the company’s path back to profitability.
During the earnings call, an investor also flagged the sharp fall in the stock from its lifetime high of ₹1,495 in June 2024. The company, however, expressed confidence in its long-term prospects.
“Yes the results have been quite disappointing but at the same time we are positive about our future based on which we have made substantial investments during the year,” said Arnob Roy, executive director and chief operating officer of Tejas Networks, in the earnings call.
“This has been a year of transition for us after the execution of the massive BSNL project in FY25 which gave us a significant amount of revenues and we needed a runway in FY26 to consolidate and transition our business beyond BSNL. Several large customer projects that we were actually planning for both for wireline and wireless products got delayed,” Roy added.
The company has deployed 4G network across about 100,000 sites for state-owned , with the original order valued at ₹7,492 crore, according to an earlier company release.
Roy has now been appointed managing director and chief executive officer for a two-year period effective 15 April 2026 to 3 August 2028, subject to shareholder approval. The position had been vacant for about four quarters following the resignation of the previous CEO, Anand Athreya.
On expectations of a break-even or return to profitability in FY27, Roy said, “That’s the goal…FY26 has been a year of investment and (in) FY27 we expect to see far better financial results.”
Even as the company has an order book of ₹1,514 crore, investors and analysts have raised concerns over its unsold inventory, which stood at ₹2,438 crore at the end of March.
For over a year, the Bengaluru-based firm has been awaiting BSNL’s ₹1,526 crore “add-on” order for 18,685 additional sites, forcing it to hold elevated inventory levels.
Inventory overhang
“Active discussions are still going on with the BSNL team on the sites on which they have to have the 4G and the configurations,” Sanjay Malik, chief strategy and business officer of the company, said during the call.
The company said the radios are not unique to BSNL and can be repurposed for other global customers for private networks, even though a significant portion is expected to go towards the BSNL add-on.
Tejas, which competes with the likes of Nokia and Ericsson, is banking on international expansion through strategic partnerships, an AI-driven network upgrade “super cycle,” and execution of delayed domestic projects such as the BSNL add-on order for 4G and potential 5G upgrades to drive a turnaround.
It recently won a contract from Japan-based NEC Corp. to manufacture and supply 5G massive MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) radios for a global customer. The company is also conducting trials in South Asia and the Americas, and exploring opportunities in data centre interconnectivity.
Of the order book of ₹1,514 crore, India accounts for 83% while 17% is international.
On rising due to supply constraints, the company said the impact on margins would be limited, though lead times remain a challenge.
“Nevertheless I think we are kind of making sure it is accounted for in our cost. We are basically renegotiating and reoffering our new prices with the escalation to make sure that we protect our margin,” Roy said.
The company reported losses for the fifth straight quarter in the January-March period, with a net loss of ₹211 crore compared to ₹72 crore a year earlier. Revenue from operations fell 82.5% to ₹333 crore during the quarter.