Cognizant has made little progress on its plans for an India listing, 10 months after the proposal was first publicly discussed, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Sources told businessline that the listing plan has remained in the preliminary, exploratory stage, and is taking longer than earlier anticipated given the performance of the India markets and the AI impact on IT services industry. The company has yet to appoint investment bankers.
In October last year, the Nifty50 was above 25,800-levels. Since then it has fallen nearly 9 per cent. Further, Cognizant’s own shares, listed on the Nasdaq, have fallen around 39 per cent in the last 6 months.
Cognizant first spoke about its India listing in October 2025, while announcing its July-September quarter earnings, that it was assessing a potential primary offering and secondary listing in India with its legal and financial advisers, and that the review was still in its early stages. Ten months later, sources say little progress has been made.
“Considering its stock performance and the uncertainty in the Indian markets, it will be difficult for the company to get a decent valuation,” said an investment banker, who has worked on high profile MNC IPOs. The biggest blow to the company’s stock is its recent ouster from Nasdaq-100 Index after more than a two-decade run.
Nasdaq on Thursday announced that IT major Cognizant will be removed from its Nasdaq-100 Index later this month as the index makes room for a set of new companies, many of which are riding the AI wave.
“It will be difficult to convince investors,” said the banker, pointing out that several large companies are delaying their IPOs due to valuation mismatch.
Listing plans
However, Cognizant denied that the listing plans had been shelved.
“As we mentioned at the end of April, we continue to make progress and advance on our evaluation of potential primary offering and secondary listing in India. We remain committed to acting in the best interest of our shareholders. That process is ongoing,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
In April, while announcing its Q1 earnings, Cognizant also signalled layoffs with the announcement of a transformation programme called Project Leap. Under this, Cognizant expects to incur $200 million-$270 million of employee severance and personnel-related costs in 2026. Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S had said then that their AI builder strategy and partnership ecosystem position them to bridge the AI gap.