IPO-bound CIEL HR Services, India's leading integrated HR and workforce solutions company, has posted a 27 per cent rise in revenue during the first half of FY27 to ₹1,178 crore and is expected to reach the ₹2,600 crore mark during the current financial year.
CIEL has set an ambitious target of becoming a ₹6,000 crore enterprise as part of its Vision 2030 roadmap. The Chennai-based HR firm may go ahead with its IPO plans in the next financial year ending March 2028.
K Pandiarajan, executive chairperson of CIEL HR Group, said: "H1 has been a standout half for CIEL. We grew profits faster than revenue and turned our cash flows positive, which tells us the business is scaling with discipline. Bringing People Metrics and Courseplay together gives our clients one connected path from understanding their people's capabilities to building them. We expect this, along with our continued focus on productivity, to strengthen our bottom line further in the second half."
EBITDA for H1FY27 was ₹32 crore, 31 per cent higher on a Y-o-Y basis, with EBITDA margin expanding by 8 basis points to 2.74 per cent. Profit after tax (PAT) increased by 19.3 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹13.7 crore, reflecting sustained business momentum across the company's integrated HR solutions portfolio.
The company also delivered a decisive turnaround in cash generation during the half-year. Operating cash flow for H1FY27 stood at ₹12.7 crore, compared with an outflow of ₹0.7 crore in H1FY26. Free cash flow turned positive at ₹2.3 crore, against an outflow of ₹12.6 crore in the same period last year, reflecting improved cash conversion and disciplined capital deployment.
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With EBITDA growing faster than revenue, the half-year underlined the operating leverage CIEL is building across its PeopleOS ecosystem, which integrates technology, AI and deep HR expertise to deliver connected workforce solutions. Enterprises continued to invest in workforce transformation, digital HR and AI adoption, driving demand across the company's solutions portfolio.
"As we shared with you last time, our revenue target for FY27 is ₹2,600 crore. Our gross profit target is ₹260 crore, representing a gross margin of 10 per cent. Our EBITDA target is ₹62 crore, which is our operating profit target. Our PBT target is around ₹28 crore, compared to approximately ₹17 crore last year," Pandiarajan said.
He added that more than the quantitative targets, it was the qualitative progress the firm was making that mattered. "First, we are consolidating our 12 discrete businesses into three business clusters. This is a key structural objective. Second, within these clusters, we aim to integrate functions wherever possible and proportionately reduce the support functions across the 12 businesses, including finance, HR and administration, relative to the core business operations," he added.
Another key objective of the company is to infuse AI wherever possible, both in products and across the respective functions within the organisation.
"Since we have deferred our IPO by one year, this financial year needs to be a strong one, enabling us to establish a solid valuation as we move towards the IPO. We hope to return to the market for a listing in FY28," he added.