HCLTech on Friday announced a $1.14 billion five-year contract with a major European company to transform and manage its digital workplace and enterprise network services.
The company, India’s third-largest IT services firm, did not name the client in a stock exchange filing, but people in the know said it is German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. HCLTech won the contract beating larger rival Infosys that previously held the account, they told ET.
The deal translates to $228 million in annual revenue for HCLTech. The agreement that will run from July 2026 to December 2031 is extendable for another five years, the company said in the filing.
HCLTech and Infosys did not respond to emails seeking comment. Mercedes-Benz said it “does not comment on deal specifics”.
HCLTech shares gained 5.7% to close at Rs 1,140 on the National Stock Exchange Friday, pulling the Nifty IT index up 1.7%.
The deal win for the Noida-based company comes at a time when enterprises are increasingly consolidating vendors, with tech spending budgets tightening amid tough macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions.
A person familiar with the matter said while HCLTech has been awarded the digital workplace solutions and the enterprise network services, there are two other parts of the contract: data centre operations and SAP Basis. These two segments, which will take the total contract value to $2 billion, are still up for grabs, the person said.
Infosys had won an eight-year, $3.2 billion contract from Daimler in December 2020, before the German automotive giant split into Mercedes-Benz Group and Daimler Trucks the following year. After the split, both Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Trucks retained Infosys as their tech services vendor, and together they were among the top three clients for the Bengaluru-headquartered tech services firm.
The combined contract with Infosys had half a dozen service divisions: network services, cybersecurity, SAP software, data centres, after-sales call services and workplace solutions or IT procurement.
In February, Cognizant Technology Solutions won a workplace solutions contract with Daimler Truck, worth about $300 million. The work was earlier with Infosys.
In Friday’s filing, where it identified the client as a Europe-headquartered Fortune Global 50 company, HCLTech said the partnership will set up an AI-led operating model for the client’s workplace and network operations. HCLTech said the deal is an entirely new business for it.
The deal adds to a series of large infrastructure and workplace transformation contracts being signed by technology services firms in Europe as clients in the region are opening up new outsourcing and transformation opportunities.
