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There is no defensible single winner among HFCL, Tejas Networks and Sterlite Technologies because they are not the same type of telecom company. HFCL combines optical fiber and cable, telecom equipment, network solutions and defence; Tejas Networks is an R&D- and intellectual-property-led supplier of active networking products; Sterlite Technologies (STL) is primarily an optical-connectivity and network-infrastructure comparison.
The useful question is not which order book is largest. It is whether each order can become profitable, cash-generative revenue without excessive customer concentration, working-capital stress or balance-sheet risk. The figures below use the periods reported by each company and should not be treated as a synchronized valuation ranking.
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The short answer: compare business models before comparing prices
HFCL is the diversified case. Its products include optical fiber and optical-fiber cable, telecom equipment, network solutions and defence systems. Tejas Networks is more concentrated in designed-and-owned networking technology: 4G and 5G radio access, fiber broadband, optical transport, switching and routing, satellite communications and broadcast networking. STL belongs in the comparison mainly for optical connectivity and network infrastructure rather than as a direct substitute for an active-equipment or radio-access vendor.
That distinction changes how an investor should read revenue, margins and backlog. A fiber-cable contract, a software-rich radio-access system and a network-construction project can all appear in a telecom company’s order book, yet have different gross margins, delivery schedules, payment terms and capital requirements. A large backlog is valuable only after those characteristics are understood.
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What each company actually does
HFCL: diversified products plus projects
HFCL’s FY2024-25 annual report describes a shift from project-led to product-led revenue. Products represented 61% of FY25 revenue and projects 39%. The product side includes optical fiber and cable and telecom equipment, while the project side includes network solutions and related execution. Defence adds another source of demand and makes HFCL less dependent on one telecom product cycle, but it also means that contract timing and government procurement can affect quarterly results.
For FY25, HFCL reported consolidated revenue of ₹4,065 crore, EBITDA of ₹507 crore and profit after tax (PAT) of ₹173 crore. Its reported order book was ₹10,480 crore on June 30, 2025, compared with ₹6,776 crore a year earlier. The order-book date is important: it is a June 30 position, not a FY25 year-end number.
Tejas Networks: R&D, IPR and active networking equipment
Tejas designs and supplies active networking systems rather than being primarily a cable maker. Its portfolio spans 4G and 5G radio access, fiber broadband, optical transport, switching and routing, satellite communications and broadcast networking. The company says more than 1 million systems have been deployed in over 500 carrier networks across 75 countries. It also supplies national projects such as BSNL 4G/5G and BharatNet.
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Tejas shipped equipment for more than 100,000 BSNL 4G/5G sites. In FY25 it reported revenue from operations of ₹8,923 crore, EBIT of ₹905 crore and PAT of ₹447 crore; its order book at FY25 year-end was ₹1,019 crore. Those figures describe an unusually strong project year, so they should not automatically be extrapolated into a steady-state earnings forecast.
The company’s later investor-relations update illustrates the risk of using FY25 alone. For Q2 FY27, Tejas reported revenue of ₹406 crore and PAT of negative ₹207 crore. For H1 FY27, revenue was ₹808 crore and PAT was negative ₹409 crore, while the reported order book was ₹2,315 crore. The later loss does not erase the FY25 execution, but it demonstrates how sharply earnings can change when a major deployment cycle, shipment schedule or project mix changes.
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STL: optical connectivity and network infrastructure
STL should be analyzed as an optical-connectivity and network-infrastructure business. That places it closer to fiber, cable, connectivity components and infrastructure execution than to a pure radio-access or switching-equipment supplier. Its official site hosts FY25 and FY26 annual reports, but its segments, backlog definitions, margins, debt and cash flow must be read from the consolidated statements for the same period used for HFCL and Tejas.
A secondary FY25 extract cites revenue from operations of ₹4,083 crore. Do not use that figure as a synchronized comparison number until it has been checked against STL’s consolidated FY25 financial statements. An unverified secondary number, even if accurate, cannot support a ranking against company-wide figures reported on different dates.
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| Company | Period and metric | Reported figure | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|---|
| HFCL | FY25 consolidated revenue | ₹4,065 crore | Annual figure covering a diversified product and project mix. |
| HFCL | FY25 EBITDA | ₹507 crore | Use with the same consolidated definition when comparing margins. |
| HFCL | FY25 PAT | ₹173 crore | Annual profit; do not substitute it with a quarterly number. |
| HFCL | Order book on June 30, 2025 | ₹10,480 crore | Up from ₹6,776 crore a year earlier; date differs from Tejas’s FY25 year-end backlog. |
| Tejas Networks | FY25 revenue from operations | ₹8,923 crore | Includes a major national-network deployment cycle. |
| Tejas Networks | FY25 EBIT | ₹905 crore | Compare only with an equivalent operating-profit definition. |
| Tejas Networks | FY25 PAT | ₹447 crore | Requires normalization because later FY27 results were loss-making. |
| Tejas Networks | FY25 year-end order book | ₹1,019 crore | Year-end figure; scope and date are not the same as HFCL’s June 30 backlog. |
| Tejas Networks | Q2 FY27 revenue and PAT | ₹406 crore revenue; negative ₹207 crore PAT | Quarterly result showing volatility after the FY25 peak. |
| Tejas Networks | H1 FY27 revenue and PAT | ₹808 crore revenue; negative ₹409 crore PAT | Half-year result; do not annualize without examining the delivery calendar. |
| Tejas Networks | Q2 FY27 order book | ₹2,315 crore | Later backlog position; it is not directly comparable with the FY25 year-end number without scope checks. |
| STL | Comparable FY25 revenue, margins, debt and order book | Not stated here | Take these from aligned consolidated FY25 statements before calculating ratios. |
Why the biggest order book is not automatically the best investment
HFCL’s ₹10,480 crore backlog is more than twice its FY25 revenue, while Tejas’s FY25 year-end backlog was much smaller than its FY25 revenue. That contrast is a useful prompt for investigation, not a performance verdict. The figures have different cut-off dates and business contexts, and Tejas’s FY25 revenue reflects equipment shipped for a large BSNL 4G/5G rollout.
For every backlog number, ask five questions:
- What is included? Is it product purchase orders, installation and engineering work, maintenance, or a mixture?
- When will it ship? A two-year contract and a six-month delivery schedule have different revenue and cash implications.
- What can be cancelled or deferred? Framework agreements and conditional awards are not equivalent to firm, non-cancellable purchase orders.
- What margin does it carry? A low-margin pass-through project can inflate backlog without creating attractive returns.
- Who pays and when? Government and large-telco contracts may be creditworthy but can still create long receivable cycles and retention deductions.
Also check whether the company reports backlog for the whole group or only a segment. HFCL’s figure is a company-reported order book at a specific date. Tejas’s cited ₹1,019 crore is a FY25 year-end figure, while its later ₹2,315 crore figure comes from a Q2 FY27 update. Do not place those values in one chart without labeling the dates and definitions.
A practical framework for comparing the three stocks
1. Align the accounting periods and scope
Start with the latest consolidated annual and quarterly statements available for all three companies. Record the reporting date, currency, revenue definition, operating-profit definition, order-book cut-off and whether figures include subsidiaries. Avoid comparing HFCL’s June 30, 2025 backlog with Tejas’s FY25 year-end backlog as though they were measured on the same day.
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Create one line for reported values and another for normalized values. Keep exceptional project ramps, asset sales, impairment charges, tax effects and other unusual items visible rather than silently smoothing them.
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| Segment type | Questions to answer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Optical fiber and cable | What is volume, utilization, price per kilometer and raw-material exposure? | Margins can move with fiber prices, capacity utilization and regional demand. |
| Active telecom equipment | How much of the bill of materials is proprietary hardware, software and third-party content? | IP and software content can support differentiation, while imported components can pressure margins and working capital. |
| Network services and EPC | What are the milestones, retention amounts and penalty clauses? | Revenue may be large but cash conversion can lag completion. |
| Defence and government projects | What is the tender status, acceptance test and delivery calendar? | Procurement and certification timing can shift revenue between quarters. |
| Maintenance and recurring software | What proportion renews annually and at what gross margin? | Recurring revenue is generally easier to forecast than one-time hardware shipments, but the exact mix must be disclosed. |
HFCL discloses a product/project split for FY25: 61% products and 39% projects. Tejas’s portfolio is product and R&D led, but its reported results can still be dominated by large national deployments. STL requires a segment-level reading of its annual report rather than an assumption that every rupee is high-margin fiber product revenue.
3. Map customers, geography and concentration
List the largest customers and identify exposure to BSNL, other government programs, private telecom operators, utilities, data centers and exports. Tejas reports deployments across 500-plus carrier networks in 75 countries, alongside major BSNL 4G/5G and BharatNet work. That combination indicates broad technical reach, but the investor still needs the revenue share and payment profile of the largest individual programs.
For HFCL and STL, separate domestic government work, private-telco demand and export orders. A diversified geography can reduce dependence on one national rollout, while a concentrated contract can accelerate growth and increase execution risk at the same time.
4. Test order quality, not just order quantity
Build an order roll-forward: opening backlog, new orders, revenue recognized, cancellations, scope changes and closing backlog. Then attach an expected delivery year and an estimated gross margin to each material contract. If the company does not disclose those details, mark the uncertainty instead of treating the entire backlog as near-term revenue.
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Compare backlog with manufacturing capacity and installation resources. A company can win more work than it can execute without overtime, subcontracting or new capital expenditure. Check whether customer advances fund production or whether the supplier must finance inventory and receivables.
5. Normalize earnings across project cycles
Tejas’s FY25 revenue of ₹8,923 crore and PAT of ₹447 crore should be viewed alongside its Q2 FY27 PAT loss of ₹207 crore and H1 FY27 PAT loss of ₹409 crore. Calculate a multi-year average or a bear/base/bull range rather than applying a single-year price-to-earnings ratio to the FY25 peak.
For HFCL, separate the 61% product revenue from the 39% project revenue when estimating sustainable margins. For STL, use the consolidated income statement and segment notes to distinguish recurring operations from project or restructuring effects. A normalized operating margin is more informative than a headline margin from one unusually strong or weak quarter.
6. Check cash conversion and the balance sheet
Profit is not the same as cash. From each consolidated filing, collect trade receivables, inventory, contract assets, payables, working-capital borrowings, capital expenditure, lease liabilities and net debt. Calculate operating cash flow minus capital expenditure and compare it with EBITDA over several periods.
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Investigate receivables that grow faster than sales, inventory built for delayed projects and borrowing used to finance government or telco contracts. A backlog can increase while free cash flow deteriorates if milestone payments arrive late. Conversely, customer advances can make a large order book less capital-intensive than its headline size suggests.
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7. Use valuation measures that match the business cycle
Refresh market capitalization, enterprise value, share count, net debt and the latest consolidated earnings immediately before making an investment decision. The figures cited here do not provide synchronized current prices or multiples. Use price-to-earnings only when earnings are representative; otherwise examine enterprise value to normalized EBITDA, enterprise value to sales with margin context, and a scenario-based free-cash-flow yield.
For loss-making or sharply cyclical periods, show a range rather than a point estimate. State which revenue, margin, working-capital and execution assumptions produce each valuation case. Do not present a precise target price when the underlying backlog conversion and cash generation are uncertain.
8. Run explicit downside scenarios
Model at least three cases for each company:
- Base case: contracted work ships on the disclosed schedule, margins remain near a normalized level and receivables grow with revenue.
- Delay case: a major customer defers acceptance, reducing current-period revenue while inventory and receivables remain elevated.
- Stress case: margins compress, project costs overrun and additional working-capital borrowing is required.
The exercise is especially important for Tejas because the contrast between FY25 profit and the later FY27 losses shows that annual results can move with deployment timing. For HFCL, test whether a large backlog can be executed without eroding product margins. For STL, include fiber-price, capacity-utilization and infrastructure-spending assumptions after reviewing its disclosures.
Company-specific strengths and risks to investigate
HFCL
- Potential strength: the combination of products, projects, optical connectivity and defence gives HFCL more than one demand source.
- Evidence to monitor: products were 61% of FY25 revenue, and the order book reached ₹10,480 crore on June 30, 2025.
- Key risk: a large backlog can include lower-margin execution work, and the product/project mix may change as contracts are delivered.
- Questions for the next filing: How much of the backlog is product versus project? What is the expected execution period? Are receivables and inventory rising with the backlog?
Tejas Networks
- Potential strength: owned networking technology, broad product coverage and deployments across more than 500 carrier networks in 75 countries can support long-term differentiation.
- Evidence to monitor: FY25 revenue was ₹8,923 crore, EBIT ₹905 crore and PAT ₹447 crore, with equipment shipped for more than 100,000 BSNL 4G/5G sites.
- Key risk: the later Q2 FY27 and H1 FY27 losses show that a strong project year does not establish a stable earnings run rate.
- Questions for the next filing: What portion of revenue is from BSNL and other national projects? How quickly does the ₹2,315 crore backlog convert? What is the recurring software, service and export contribution?
STL
- Potential strength to test: optical-connectivity and infrastructure exposure may benefit from fiberization, broadband and data-network investment.
- Evidence requirement: obtain the company’s consolidated FY25 and FY26 statements and extract segment revenue, operating margins, debt, cash flow and order-book scope.
- Key risk: using a secondary revenue extract or a company-wide backlog without understanding segment economics can create a false comparison with HFCL or Tejas.
- Questions for the next filing: What percentage of sales comes from fiber and cable? What is capacity utilization? How much backlog is firm, and what are the delivery and payment terms?
Which stock profile may fit which investor?
| Investor priority | Profile that may deserve closer study | What must be verified first |
|---|---|---|
| Diversified exposure across products, projects and defence | HFCL | Product/project margins, backlog execution and working-capital needs. |
| Technology ownership and active networking products | Tejas Networks | Normalized earnings after the FY25 deployment surge, customer concentration and conversion of the ₹2,315 crore later backlog. |
| Optical connectivity and network infrastructure | STL | Aligned consolidated segment data, utilization, leverage, cash conversion and verified backlog. |
| Lowest apparent valuation | None can be selected from these figures alone | Refresh current price, enterprise value, net debt and normalized earnings for all three on the same date. |
This is a screening framework, not a recommendation. An investor who wants fiber exposure should not assume that a company with the largest telecom order book has the most fiber sensitivity. Likewise, an investor seeking R&D-led active equipment should not value a project-heavy business using the same margin and revenue assumptions.
A repeatable spreadsheet checklist
- Enter each company’s latest consolidated revenue, EBITDA or EBIT, PAT, operating cash flow, capital expenditure, net debt and share count.
- Label every number with its fiscal period, quarter or balance-sheet date.
- Separate product, project, services, defence and optical-connectivity revenue wherever the filing permits.
- Record opening and closing backlog, new orders, cancellations, expected execution years and disclosed customer concentration.
- Calculate gross margin, operating margin, cash conversion, net-debt-to-EBITDA and receivable days using consistent definitions.
- Build base, delay and stress cases for revenue recognition, margin and working capital.
- Apply current market prices to normalized earnings or cash flow, not automatically to the strongest reported year.
- Re-read the latest filing for contingent liabilities, related-party balances, guarantees, covenant restrictions and changes in accounting presentation.
Common comparison mistakes
- Mixing dates: HFCL’s backlog is dated June 30, 2025; Tejas’s cited ₹1,019 crore backlog is FY25 year-end; Tejas’s ₹2,315 crore figure is from a later Q2 FY27 update.
- Equating backlog with sales: orders may be delayed, cancelled, renegotiated or recognized over several years.
- Using one-year P/E: Tejas’s FY25 profit and later FY27 losses show why a project peak is not necessarily normal earnings.
- Ignoring cash: receivables, inventory and contract assets can absorb the cash generated by reported profit.
- Comparing unlike margins: EBIT, EBITDA, segment profit and adjusted profit are not interchangeable.
- Accepting an unverified STL figure: confirm revenue, debt, margins and backlog in STL’s consolidated statements before putting them beside HFCL and Tejas.
- Ranking without valuation: operating quality and stock attractiveness are separate questions; current market capitalization and normalized multiples must be refreshed together.
What would change the comparison?
The conclusion should be updated when all three companies have comparable, recent consolidated data. The most decision-useful additions are STL’s verified segment and backlog numbers, synchronized net debt and cash-flow figures, current market values, and a consistent view of expected order execution. New disclosures showing a durable product mix, lower customer concentration, improving cash conversion or recurring service revenue would matter more than another headline order announcement.
Until then, treat HFCL as the diversified product-and-project candidate, Tejas as the R&D-led active-equipment candidate whose earnings need normalization, and STL as the optical-connectivity and infrastructure candidate requiring a fresh statement-based review. The decisive comparison is order quality, customer concentration, margin durability, cash conversion, leverage and normalized valuation—not the largest headline backlog.
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