What began as a milestone year in 2024–25 for Tejas Networks Ltd—with the Tata group-backed telecom gear maker deploying a 4G network across about 100,000 sites for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)—has given way to a prolonged financial struggle, as a delay in a critical order weighs on earnings.
For nearly a year, the Bengaluru-based firm has been waiting for BSNL's ₹1,526 crore “add-on” order for 18,685 additional sites. This delay has forced it to hold sticky inventory levels exceeding ₹2,300 crore for four consecutive quarters, resulting in quarterly losses driven by severe revenue constraints.
During the December-quarter earnings call on 9 January, growing impatience was evident as stakeholders questioned management about the path to profitability following a period of cumulative losses.
Investors and analysts raised red flags over the company’s financial model, noting that inventory levels are currently double the order book size of ₹1,329 crore, creating a very long working capital cycle that has yet to yield returns for shareholders.
Questions also mounted about the company's cash runway, as analysts queried whether a fundraise would be imminent given the recurring Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) losses of approximately ₹150 crore and the significant revenue needed to break even, excluding BSNL orders.
“I understand this is a difficult time because of our business and the stock price and all. All I can say is that we are bullish about our business,” said Arnob Roy, executive director and chief operating officer of Tejas Networks, during the earnings call.
“We are doing everything that we can to execute on this, and we are confident that we will get there. It’s a transition period which is taking longer than we would have liked.”
The BSNL delay
Tejas Networks attributed the delay in the BSNL order to the telecom operator's lack of operational readiness for rolling out the network. According to Roy, the company’s inventory levels will deplete rapidly once it receives the purchase order from BSNL and starts executing on that project.
"Earlier, a lot of this inventory had actually been procured for executing on the BSNL 4G add-on order, for which our partner Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has received an APO (advanced purchase order). That's why we are sitting on this large inventory, but we know that since this order is going to come, we have to hold on to the inventory with the interest of being able to execute on this project,” he said.
Tejas Networks first talked about being in advanced stages of discussions with BSNL for the add-on offer in April 2025 during an earnings call. Then it informed the stock exchanges on 21 May 2025 that it had received an add-on advance purchase order from BSNL for the supply, deployment, and maintenance of a 4G mobile network at 18,685 sites. It had pegged the order value at ₹1,526 crore. However, the final order has not been received yet.
Hit on earnings
In the December quarter, it reported a ₹197 crore loss compared to a ₹166 crore net profit a year ago. The company’s revenue from operations fell by over 88% year-on-year to ₹307 crore. In the nine-month period ended December, the company’s loss was at ₹698 crore compared to a ₹518 crore profit in the year-ago period.
Weak financial results also weighed on the shares of the company, which closed 8.9% lower on Monday at ₹380 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Data from Investing.com suggests that in 2025, the share price fell 61.7% from ₹1,185.7.
“Tejas Networks has a huge dependency on a single customer, which is BSNL. The company’s success story is limited, given that major private telecom operators have not been using their equipment. The company needs to focus more on research and development to leapfrog innovation,” said Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst at Techarc, a technology market research company.
Kawoosa said that higher competition in the global telecom gear market, particularly from Chinese players, could also complicate the company's international expansion plans.
To be sure, in December 2024, Tejas announced a three-year contract with Vodafone Idea Ltd to supply its products for the telecom operator's backhaul capacity and improve network performance.
“We don’t see that BSNL and BSNL projects are the lifeline or the anchor for Tejas. They were a platform for us, and we are very grateful for having got that opportunity, but I think the plan for the company is really to take this global, to take it to private telecom operators, to international operators,” Roy said.
On the company’s path to profitability, he said, "it will be when that business really scales up both internationally as well as in India, led by our wireless products as well as our wireline products.”
He added that a good business size will be able to support the investments that the company has made over the years.
About Tejas Networks’ order book of ₹1,329 crore, India accounts for 92%, while the international order size is approximately 8%. The company said it was seeing an increase in international engagements for its 4G/5G radio access network (RAN) equipment, including multiple ongoing proofs-of-concept and commercial negotiations across the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, and Europe.
The leaderhip vaccum
During the call, the investors also questioned management about the timeline for appointing a new chief executive officer (CEO). The position has been vacant for about three quarters since the resignation of the previous CEO, Anand Athreya.
In response, Roy said the company’s regular business operations are not affected without the filing of a CEO position. The board is working actively on it, and an appointment will occur at some point in the near future, he added.
Going forward, the company anticipates demand driven by AI-driven traffic growth, continued 4G expansion, new 5G deployments in emerging markets, and rising investments in AI data centres.