Total revenue increased 18%, Global client revenue increased 12% and Global client BPO revenue increased 14%.
We also delivered adjusted operating income margin of 15.9%, up 10 basis points; and adjusted earnings per share of $2.05, up 14%.
During 2019, we drove Global client growth across our chosen verticals led by growth of more than 30% in transformation services.
Highlighting the impact of transformation services on our business, our fastest-growing relationships are greater than 20% of revenues coming from transformation services.
During 2019, for the second consecutive year, we signed total new bookings close to $4 billion, fed by our high-quality pipeline that remains near historic highs with steady win rates.
As a comparison, during 2016 and 2017, new bookings averaged approximately $2.7 billion.
Large deals continued to be a meaningful contributor to total bookings, and almost three quarters of our bookings had transformation services embedded in them, up from 60% range in 2018.
I am excited to report that we now have three global relationships that crossed $100 million in annual revenue, up from just one at the end of 2018.
At the end of last year, more than 40% of our total revenue is from newer constructs, not just based on FTE pricing, up from the mid-30% range only a couple of years back.
The launch of our Genome platform early last year provides the right tools and methods to up-skill our 95,000-plus global team members with relevant digital transformation and other professional skills at scale.
We are well on our way to achieving our first-year goal of reaching 70% penetration with the amount of learning hours continuing to expand.
Total revenue was $3.52 billion, up 17% year over year or 18% on a constant-currency basis.
Total BPO revenue, which represents approximately 84% of total revenue, increased 19% year over year, and total IT services revenue was up 10% year over year.
Global client revenue, which represented approximately 86% of total revenue, increased 11% year over year or 12% on a constant-currency basis, at the high end of our expected range.
Within Global clients, BPO revenue increased 13% year over year or 14% on a constant-currency basis, led by growth in transformation services, up more than 30%, while IT services revenue increased 3%.
During 2019, we increased the number of our Global clients with annual revenues over $15 million to 49 from 45.
This included clients with more than $25 million in annual revenue, growing to 25 from 21.
GE revenue increased 78% year over year, above our expectations largely due to incremental scope added during the year related to the large deal we signed late in 2018.
Adjusted income from operations grew 18% year over year to $559 million.
Recall that we had assumed approximately $22 million at the beginning of the year related to the India export subsidy in our adjusted operating income outlook.
As it became clearer throughout the year that we would only receive approximately $4 million of that expected benefit, we put plans in motion to cover the $18 million shortfall with other items.
During the fourth quarter, we were able to finalize the plans to monetize a property we owned in India which generated a gain of approximately $31 million included in other operating income.
This gain was partially offset during the quarter by certain other costs, including an $11 million nonrecurring impairment charge in cost of revenues related to a European wealth management platform that we no longer plan to leverage beyond the current scope.
Adjusted operating margin of 15.9% was 10 basis points or $4 million, lower than our 16% target primarily due to a $4 million impairment charge recorded in the fourth quarter related to certain retirement plan assets in India.
Gross margin was lower year over year primarily due to higher stock-based compensation of 20 basis points and approximately 50 basis points due to the nonrecurring charges I just mentioned.
SG&A expenses totaled $795 million, compared to $694 million last year.
As a percentage of revenue, SG&A expenses were down 50 basis points year over year, driven by operating leverage, despite a 50-basis point dilution related to higher year-over-year stock-based compensation, as well as a 10-basis point impact from Rightpoint acquisition-related expenses.
Adjusted earnings per share of $2.05 was up 14% year over year, compared to $1.80 in 2018.
This $0.25 increase was primarily driven by higher operating income of $0.34, partially offset by lower foreign exchange remeasurement gains, higher tax expense, and higher net interest expense of $0.03 each.
2019 represents the fifth consecutive year of double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth that produced a 15% compound annual growth rate over that period.
Our effective tax rate was 23.7%, compared to 22.3% last year, driven by the expiration of Special Economic Zones benefits in India, changes to the jurisdictional mix of income and the impact of India tax law changes.
Global client revenue increased 7% year over year or 8% on a constant-currency basis, largely driven by continued growth in our consumer goods retail, banking capital markets and high-tech verticals.
GE revenues were up 61% year over year, driven by the large deals signed late last year and incremental scope of work added during the quarter.
Adjusted operating margin during the quarter was 16.9%, largely in line with the level reported during the same period last year but slightly lower than we expected primarily due to the nonrecurring impairment of the India retirement plan assets in the quarter that I mentioned earlier.
Gross margin for the quarter was approximately 33%, compared to 35.5% level we generated during the first three quarters of 2019.
The decline was primarily driven by the two nonrecurring charges I referred to earlier that total approximately $14 million.
Since 2019 was impacted by nonrecurring charges of approximately 50 basis points, we are expecting full-year gross margins to be up by 50 basis points in 2020.
Total SG&A expenses were $213 million, compared to $179 million in the same quarter of last year and included approximately $7.4 million of nonrecurring Rightpoint-related acquisition expenses and approximately $16 million related to stock-based compensation.
Adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter was $0.57 compared to $0.52 last year.
The $0.05 increase was driven by higher operating income of $0.07, as well as $0.01 related to the impact of higher foreign exchange balance sheet remeasurement gains, partially offset by higher effective tax rate of $0.02 and increased share count of $0.01.
Our effective tax rate was 28.1% compared to 25.8% last year due to the expiration of Special Economic Zones benefits, changes in the jurisdictional mix of our income and the impact of India tax law changes.
During the year, we returned $95 million of capital to shareholders.
This included approximately $65 million in the form of our regular quarterly dividend of $0.085 per share which increased by 13% in comparison to the prior year.
We also repurchased approximately 766,000 shares totaling $30 million at a weighted average price of $39.16 per share during the year.
Since we initiated our share buyback program in 2015, we've reduced our net outstanding shares by 17%.
Over this period, we repurchased 37.4 million shares at an average price of approximately $26 per share for a total of $976 million.
The weighted average annual return on these share repurchases has been approximately 18% from 2015 through the end of January this year.
We currently have approximately $274 million of authorized capacity under our share repurchase program.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled $467 million, compared to $368 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018.
Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio for the last four rolling quarters was 1.7.
With undrawn debt capacity of $428 million and existing cash balances, we continue to have sufficient liquidity to pursue growth opportunities and execute on our capital allocation strategy.
Days sales outstanding were 86 days, which were down from 87 days sequentially and increased three days from the last year, driven by delayed collections on certain accounts where cash was received in early January.
Despite the higher DSOs, we were able to generate $428 million of cash from operations in 2019, up 26% year over year, exceeding the high end of the range we expected for the year.
Capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue was 3.3% in 2019, in line with our expectations.
We expect total revenues to be between $3.89 billion and $3.95 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 10.5% to 12.5% on a constant-currency basis.
We expect the Rightpoint acquisition to contribute approximately 250 basis points to total company growth in 2020.
This impact is approximately 100 points higher than the contribution from acquisitions to our top line in 2019.
For Global clients, we expect revenue growth to be in the range of 12% to 14% on a constant-currency basis.
We will continue our strategic objectives to expand our adjusted operating margin and expect to drive 10 basis points of improvement to 16%.
As I mentioned earlier, we are expecting our full-year gross margins to improve by approximately 50 basis points in 2020 due to the impact of nonrecurring charges incurred in 2019.
Due to the historic seasonality we see in our business, we currently expect our adjusted operating margin for the first quarter of 2020 to be in the 14% to 15% range we have seen in the last two years.
Our 2020 effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 23.5% to 24.5%, up from 23.7% in 2019, driven primarily by the expiration of Special Economic Zones in India.
We continue to expect our effective tax rate to stabilize in a mid-20% range as the Special Economic Zone expirations reduce over time.
Given the outlook I just provided, we are estimating adjusted earnings per share for the full-year 2020 to be between $2.24 and $2.28.
This increase in earnings per share of 9% to 11% includes the negative impact of higher tax rate of approximately $0.01 per share in 2020 and includes no FX remeasurement-related impact.
Recall that we recorded a gain of $0.03 for FX remeasurement gains in 2019.
We are forecasting cash flow from operations to grow by approximately 10%, largely in line with total company revenue growth.
Capital expenditures as a percentage of revenues are expected to remain at approximately 3% to 3.5%.
And finally, we just announced an increase to our quarterly dividend from $0.085 to $0.0975 per share, which equates to annualized dividend of $0.39 per share, up 15% year over year.

Summary:
Total revenue increased 18%, Global client revenue increased 12% and Global client BPO revenue increased 14%.
Adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter was $0.57 compared to $0.52 last year.
This included approximately $65 million in the form of our regular quarterly dividend of $0.085 per share which increased by 13% in comparison to the prior year.
We expect total revenues to be between $3.89 billion and $3.95 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 10.5% to 12.5% on a constant-currency basis.
For Global clients, we expect revenue growth to be in the range of 12% to 14% on a constant-currency basis.
Given the outlook I just provided, we are estimating adjusted earnings per share for the full-year 2020 to be between $2.24 and $2.28.