Global Economic Conditions
Global economic conditions continue to show signs of turbulence. TheCOVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the global economy, our clients’ businesses, and on our operations, financial performance and visibility, as described in further detail below, see “—Impact ofCOVID-19.”
The recent global outbreak and spread of the respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus strain known asCOVID-19, which was reported to have surfaced in December 2019, has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, additional slowdown in the global economy, as is evidenced by the recent declines in investments, exports and industrial production. On March 27, 2020, the International Monetary Fund officially declared that the global economy has entered into a recession, as a result of the spread ofCOVID-19. Its global spread has created, and is likely to continue to create, significant volatility and uncertainty and economic disruption. In addition, volatility in the domestic politics of major markets may lead to changes in the institutional framework of the international economy.
The withdrawal of the UK from the EU in January 2020, commonly referred to as “Brexit,” has also created significant political and economic uncertainty regarding the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU. These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, have had and may continue to have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global market liquidity, restrict the ability of key market participants to operate in certain financial markets or restrict our access to capital. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows
In the US, there are concerns over the possibility of its economy entering into a deep recession, including on account of theCOVID-19 pandemic, and there continue to be similar signs of continued economic slowdown and weakness in parts of Europe and India. Globally, countries may require additional financial support, sovereign credit ratings may continue to decline, and there may be default on sovereign debt obligations of certain countries. Any of these global economic conditions may increase the cost of borrowing and cause credit to become more limited, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. For further information, see “Part I — Item 3. Key Information — D. Risk Factors — The global economic andgeo-political conditions have been and continue to be challenging and have had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on the financial markets and the economy in general, which has had, and may continue to have, a material adverse effect on our business, financial performance, results of operations and cash flows and the prices of our equity shares and ADSs.”
These economic andgeo-political conditions may affect our business in a number of ways, as we have operations in 12 countries and we service clients across multiple geographic regions. The general level of economic activity, such as decreases in business and consumer spending, could result in a decrease in demand for our services, thus reducing our revenue. The cost and availability of credit has been and may continue to be adversely affected by illiquid credit markets and wider credit spreads. The current global economic slowdown and the possibility of continued turbulence or uncertainty in the European, US, Asian and international financial markets and economies, and the political climate in the US and the UK, may adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition, and the liquidity and financial condition of our clients. If these market conditions continue or worsen, they may limit our ability to access financing or increase our cost of financing to meet liquidity needs, and affect the ability of our clients to use credit to purchase our services or to make timely payments to us, resulting in adverse effects on our financial condition and results of operations. In the US, there is concern over slowing economic growth and continuing trade tensions.
Furthermore, a weakening of the rate of exchange for the pound sterling, the US dollar or, to a lesser extent, the Australian dollar or the Euro (in which our revenue is principally denominated) against the Indian rupee, or to a lesser extent, the Philippine Peso or the South African rand (in which a significant portion of our costs are denominated) would also adversely affect our results. Fluctuations between the pound sterling, the Indian rupee, the Australian dollar, the Euro, the Philippine Peso, or the South African rand, on the one hand, and the US dollar, on the other hand, also expose us to translation risk when transactions denominated in these currencies are translated into US dollars, our reporting currency. The exchange rates between each of the Indian rupee, the pound sterling, the Australian dollar, the Euro, South African rand, and the Philippine Peso, on the one hand, and the US dollar, on the other hand, have changed substantially in recent years and may fluctuate substantially in the future. For example, the Indian rupee depreciated against the US dollar by an average of 1.4%, the pound sterling depreciated against the US dollar by an average of 3.2%, the Australian dollar depreciated against the US dollar by an average of 6.5%, the Euro depreciated against the US dollar by an average of 4.1%, the South African rand depreciated against the US dollar by an average of 7.3%, and the Philippine Peso appreciated against the US dollar by an average of 2.8%, in fiscal 2020. The depreciation of the South African rand and the Indian rupee against the US dollar in fiscal 2020 positively impacted our results of operations, whereas the depreciation of the pound sterling, the Australian dollar and the Euro against the US dollar, and the appreciation of the Philippine Peso against the US dollar negatively impacted our results of operations in fiscal 2020.
The current global economic slowdown and uncertainty about the future global economic conditions could also continue to increase the volatility of our ADS price. We cannot predict the timing or duration of an economic slowdown or the timing or strength of a subsequent economic recovery generally or in our targeted industries, including the insurance and travel and leisure industries. If macroeconomic conditions worsen or the current global economic conditions continue for a prolonged period of time, we are not able to predict the impact that such conditions will have on our targeted industries, in general, and our results of operations specifically.
Uncertainty about current global economic conditions could also continue to increase the volatility of our share price. We cannot predict the timing or duration of an economic slowdown or the timing or strength of a subsequent economic recovery generally or in our targeted industries, including the insurance and travel and leisure industries. If macroeconomic conditions worsen or current global economic conditions continue for a prolonged period of time, we are not able to predict the impact that such worsening conditions will have on our targeted industries in general, and our results of operations specifically.
Impact ofCOVID-19
TheCOVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the global economy, our clients’ businesses, and on our operations, financial performance and visibility of business outlook. It has required organizations around the world, including WNS, tore-think their business strategies around service delivery, workforce management, information technology, cyber security and data privacy. We expect theCOVID-19 pandemic’s impact to affect the demand for our services across industries, depending on the ability of each client, and the nature of their industries, products and services, in coping with the crisis. Our business will be more significantly impacted in industry verticals where clients are directly affected by the containment measures, such as travel and leisure, diversified businesses (especially manufacturing and retail) and certain segments of banking and financial services, than clients who are able to deliver their products and services remotely, such as insurance. Further, we believe that there are industry verticals, such as healthcare and telecom, where we might see a medium- to long-term increase in the business.
We have continued to see deterioration in many of our clients’ businesses, and the outlook going forward remains uncertain and volatile. Our revenue is currently facing pressure from declining clients’ demand volumes (as their businesses continue to be negatively impacted), delays in new businessramp-ups, and lockdowns and other measures imposed by governments around the world, which may result in our temporary inability to meet the service level and performance requirements of our clients. We are also receiving client requests for lower volumes, price reductions, discounts and extended payment terms.
We have a business continuity planning mechanism in place and are actively working to understand our clients’ changing requirements, adapt delivery to a “work from home” model, ensure data security, prioritize critical processes, adjust service levels and manage costs. While travel restrictions have had a short-term impact on our ability to deliver our services, we have been working to reduce our reliance on travel by changing our business model to be able to conduct meetings using virtual conferencing and collaboration tools. Also, we are now able to deliver over 80% of our clients’ current requirements, with ongoing improvements expected over time. In addition, we are working with national, state, and local authorities, so as to comply with applicable rules and regulations related to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the need to ensure the continuity of our operations, theCOVID-19 pandemic has required, and will continue to require, us to increase our expenses to ensure an adequate transition. For example, we have to incur costs as we significantly shift towards a “work from home” model, where we purchase additional equipment (such as desktops and laptops) for our employees’ home use, software and internet connectivity devices, provide accommodation, meal and transportation allowances and overtime compensation to our employees and organize sanitization and cleaning of our offices and facilities. We believe that theseshort-to-medium term costs incurred might benefit us in the long term, as these steps have broadened our “remote working” capabilities, which we expect to become an opportunity and a permanent feature in our future delivery strategy, as well as our business continuity plans, given that theCOVID-19 pandemic has caused our clients to critically evaluate their business models and potentially adopt a shift towards BPM and a greater willingness to embrace digital transformation services and technology-enabled, automated process solutions. For more details, see “Part I — Item 4. Information on the Company — Recent Developments.”
The adverse impact of theCOVID-19 pandemic on the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 was limited to a ramp-down in the second half of March 2020. As a result, in the short to medium term, we expect volatility to continue in the foreseeable future and a much greater financial and operational impact in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 and potentially in subsequent quarters. In the longer term, while we remain confident in our business and the quality of our services, the magnitude of the impact to our business and financial performance in fiscal 2021 and beyond will be a function of several factors, including, but not limited to, the following:
| • | | the level of demand for services from clients across the industries, including the demand within their own customer base that we serve; |
| • | | the extent of governmental restrictions, such as lockdowns and travel restrictions, which will affect our ability to sustain the delivery of services to clients and to gain new business in a “remote working” environment; |
| • | | our ability to implement policies and measures to ensure the health and safety of our employees, such as conducting temperature screening for all personnel and visitors, ensuring adequate cleaning of our offices and facilities and having adequately aware and trained medical staff; |
| • | | the impact and challenge of implementing “remote working” arrangements on the effectiveness of our productivity or operating capability, especially for our employees working in India, the Philippines, South Africa and Sri Lanka, due to varying local governmental regulations, client requirements, size and scale of operations and technology or infrastructure issues, such as hardware access, software compatibility and internet connectivity; |
| • | | the volatility in exchange rate movements; and |
| • | | the duration that theCOVID-19 pandemic will last globally and the duration that it will take for our clients’ businesses to stabilize and recover. |
We are continually evaluating the impact of theCOVID-19 pandemic on our liquidity and financial position. As at March 31, 2020, we have cash and investments of $302.7 million, unutilized lines of credit amounting to $63.8 million and debt amounting $33.6 million. Based on our current level of operations, we expect that our anticipated cash generated from operating activities, cash and cash equivalents on hand, and use of existing credit facilities will be sufficient to fund our debt repayment obligations, estimated capital expenditures and working capital needs for the next 12 months, and we do not expect any material changes at this point in time in our ability to source for additional lines of credit, if required, or in the cost to access capital and funding sources. However, under the current challenging economic and business conditions as discussed under “— Global Economic Conditions,” there can be no assurance that our business activity would be maintained at the expected level to generate the anticipated cash flows from operations. Also, see “Part I — Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Liquidity and Capital Resources” for more information.
Further, in evaluating the recoverability of our trade receivables, including unbilled revenue, contract assets, goodwill, long lived assets and investments, we have considered the available internal and external information in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. Having performed a sensitivity analysis based on the current assumptions and indicators of future economic conditions, we expect to recover the carrying amount of these assets; however, the impact of theCOVID-19 pandemic may be different from the assumptions and estimates which we used and the scale and duration of COVID-19 related developments are unknown and could have macro and micro negative effects on the financial markets and global economy, which could in turn have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results, earnings, cash flow and financial condition.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, we might see more businesses around the world that have delivery models with improved technology infrastructure incorporate “work from home” components and countries allow more flexible labor laws, which could potentially expand a company’s employee base to include higher number of part-time and gig workers, such as independent contractors, online platform workers, contract firm workers and on-call workers, and take such delivery models beyond the larger cities and into the smaller ones, for example, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India.
For further information, see “Part I — Item 3. Key Information — D. Risk Factors — Our business operations and future growth may be negatively impacted on account of theCOVID-19 pandemic.”
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