Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Kalpataru Projects International Limited Q4 FY26 Earnings Conference Call hosted by DAM Capital Advisors Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Kishan Mundhra from DAM Capital.
Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Kishan Mundhra
Hi, thanks, Iqra. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining in early in the day, and a warm welcome to the Q4 FY26 earnings call of Kalpataru Projects International Limited.
We have the management, which is represented by Mr. Manish Mohnot, who is the Managing Director and CEO; Mr.
S.K. Tripathi, who is the Deputy Managing Director; Mr.
Sanjay Dalmia, the Executive Director; Mr. Amit Uplenchwar, who is the Director, Group Strategy; and Mr.
Ram Patodia, President, Finance and the CFO. Now at this point, I'll hand over the floor to Mr.
Mohnot for his initial remarks, post which we'll open the floor up for question and answer. With that, thank you, and over to you, sir.
Manish Mohnot
Thank you, Kishan, for setting up the call for us. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.
Let me begin with the performance for fourth quarter and full year FY26, and what it represents for Kalpataru Projects International Limited. We previously established clear targets for FY26, starting with revenue growth of 20% to 25%, improve in consol PBT margins of 100 basis points, a net working capital cycle under 100 days, and order inflows of ₹26,000 to ₹28,000 crores.
We also committed to finalizing the Vindhyachal transaction and the Indore real estate project. Today, I'm proud to report that we have fully delivered on each of these promises.
In FY26, our consol revenue grew by 22% YoY to reach ₹27,143 crores, while standalone revenue reported a growth of 23% YoY. I'm particularly encouraged by the high quality of this growth, which was well-diversified across our business portfolio in both domestic and international markets.
Except for the water business, all business units reported robust growth driven by strong execution. From a profitability standpoint, our consol PBT before exceptional items rose sharply by 62% YoY to ₹1,334 crores for FY26.
Consequently, the consol PBT margin expanded by 120 basis points to 4.9%, exceeding our guided range of 4.5% to 4.75%. Additionally, our standalone PBT margin, excluding exceptional items and a one-off dividend income from VEPL, reached 5.9% in FY26, which is also ahead of our annual guidance of 5.5%.
This step-up in PBT margins reflects our strategic business mix, strict operating discipline, and accelerating operating leverage as we gain size and scale. I'm delighted to report that our consol PAT surged 82% YoY, crossing the ₹1,000-crore threshold to hit ₹1,031 crores.
This profitability translated into a 71% jump in consol EPS to ₹61 per share, while standalone EPS expanded 24% to ₹49 per share. Our balance sheet highlights excellent financial health, anchored by a strong cash position, sharp debt reduction, and disciplined working capital management.
At the consol level, we reduced net debt by over 50% to ₹915 crores, optimized our working capital cycle to 75 days, and reduced finance cost to sales by 80 basis points to just 1.8%. Our consol and standalone net debt to equity is at a multi-year historic low of 0.1x.
This operational efficiency fueled a massive 68% jump in operating cash flow, reaching ₹1,535 crores, and ROCE improving to exceed 21%. Similarly, we delivered robust performance at the standalone level, where net debt fell by 32% YoY to ₹749 crores, with working capital improving to 90 days, and finance cost to sales coming down 40 bps to 1.6%.
We managed to achieve this optimal leverage levels and cash position despite collection delays within the water business. What makes this balance sheet performance truly remarkable is that we delivered it while continuing to invest nearly ₹900 crores in capex, and pursued a strong top-line growth of 22% in FY26.
This underscores our core commitment to disciplined growth and strict capital management. Moving on to the ordering momentum, robust tender activity in the T&D, B&F, and urban infra verticals drove our order wins past the ₹26,000-crore mark in FY26.
What stands out is that nearly half of these bookings came from large-ticket orders exceeding ₹1,000 crore plus. This clearly highlights our strategic shift towards high-value, large-scale projects in our top-performing business lines.
This strong momentum pushed our total order book to an all-time high of ₹65,457 crores at the end of FY26, offering excellent diversity across businesses, clients, and markets. Furthermore, our growth pipeline remains robust across T&D, B&F, oil and gas, and urban infra business.
Since the closing of the fiscal year, we picked up new orders worth ₹1,833 crores, and additionally, we are placed L1 in projects worth ₹3,200 crores. Moving on to business-level performance, our T&D business continues to capitalize on the multi-decade super global capex cycle.
Our order inflows reached closer to ₹13,000 crores in FY26, with India accounting for nearly 35% of inflows and the remaining 65% spanned across Nordics, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. We have successfully wrapped up all ongoing projects in Brazil and took a full provision for our exposure in Brazilian subsidiaries in Q4.
We closed this year with a strong T&D order book of ₹28,572 crores. For the full year, the T&D business reported revenue growth of 25% YoY.
We expect the T&D business to remain on robust growth trajectory in FY27 and beyond, backed by healthy tender pipeline in India, Middle East, South America, and Nordics. Moving on to our buildings and factories business, the business delivered a strong 19% top-line growth in FY26.
Our order inflows in B&F business surged by roughly 40% to reach ₹11,460 crores, closing the year with an order book of ₹18,295 crores. Our key highlights include major wins in the residential space, particularly through high-value orders across South and NCR regions.
What is highly encouraging is that nearly half of our B&F project portfolio has shifted towards design-build projects. Looking ahead to FY27, we expect this business to deliver continued robust growth as we optimize our portfolio mix.
The ordering pipeline remains vibrant, anchored by residential real estate, and fortified by emerging opportunities in data centers, airports, and industrial plants. Turning to our oil and gas vertical, the business continues to perform exceptionally well, locking in a phenomenal 55% YoY revenue growth for FY26.
On the ground execution across our Saudi projects remains steady and resilient despite ongoing Middle East headwinds. The pipeline ahead looks very promising.
We expect tendering activity to accelerate sharply in FY27, led by large-scale, high-value oil and gas infrastructure bids, primarily in the Middle East market. This business is rapidly scaling and is positioned to be a major engine of our growth moving forward.
In our water business, we achieved a revenue of ₹2,112 crores as we maintained our focus on the execution and completion of Jal Jeevan Mission projects. Our Q4 delivered strong results in terms of collection, and we expect this positive receivables trend to continue going forward.
In line with our strategic roadmap to expand our global footprint, we are favorably placed in our initial foray into the high-potential overseas market in the water business. Our urban infra business recorded revenue growth of 49% YoY in FY26, led by execution of metro rail projects.
During the year, we secured orders worth ₹2,000 crores, further improving our presence in elevated and underground metro rail projects. We continue to strengthen our organizational capabilities in line with good visibility infrastructure sectors like elevated and underground metro rail, tunneling works, elevated roads, et cetera.
We maintain a cautious and selective bidding strategy in our railway business. Our railway business reported a growth of 9% YoY.
Beyond the numbers, I want to step back and talk briefly about what has structurally changed at KPIL over the past 3 years, and how it is strengthening the quality, resilience, and sustainability of our business. First, we have sharpened our competitive position across EPC contracts.
Today's market demand partners who deliver speed and cost efficiency without compromising quality. We are rapidly becoming the partner of choice, uniquely capable of executing complex projects at scale.
This is driven by a rigorous project management framework that ensures productivity and predictability. The proof is in our order book.
A significant share of our recent wins comes from repeat business with major customers. Second, strategic capex has become our core execution enabler.
We invested nearly ₹3,000 crores over the past 5 years to upgrade our asset base. This infrastructure compresses cycle times, elevates quality, and allows us to secure massive multi-geography contracts with high confidence.
This capex-led strategy establishes KPIL as a long-term strategic partner and accelerates our upcoming project pipeline. Third, we are aggressively scaling our internal capabilities.
Over the last few years, we've expanded our specialized design engineering and project execution teams. This intellectual capital is our strategic wedge.
It creates a distinct competitive advantage, embedding us in high-barrier, large-scale projects where few can compete. This capability drives both scale and global expansion.
By executing complex multi-geography EPC mandates, we've validated our credentials with the world's most demanding customers. Our recent breakthroughs in international oil and gas, airports, underground metros, and utility-scale solar combined with major design-build B&F wins provide clear evidence of an organization built for the future.
Collectively, these strategic enablers enhance our geographic reach and customer diversification, improving revenue visibility, and support a more resilient growth trajectory. To conclude, a constructive demand environment and excellent visibility reinforce our confidence for FY27.
We expect full-year order wins to exceed ₹30,000 crores in FY27. Further, we are guiding for around 15% plus top-line growth coupled with robust profitability.
This bottom-line performance will be driven by a 75-basis-point expansion in our consol PBT margins. Above all, our core focus remains unchanged.
We'll back this growth with unwavering operational rigor and capital discipline. Our biggest challenges continue to be managing the issues coming from the geopolitical scenarios, ensuring minimal disruption in labor availability, and managing cost structure in the current environment.
With that, we can open the call for Q&A. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session.
Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two.
Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
The first question is from the line of Ashish Shah from HDFC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Ashish Shah
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, congrats on a wonderful performance.
My first question is on how does the bid pipeline look today? You did just say that you are looking at ₹30,000 crore of inflow, but if you could just give us more color in terms of what is the bid pipeline, which segments are expected to drive this inflow, and particularly you mentioned about large prospects in oil and gas.
A little more color on that will help. Thank you.
Manish Mohnot
Sure. Ashish, as I mentioned earlier, we continue to stay bullish on on three, four businesses in the current year.
T&D continues to be as healthy as it was in the previous year with more than ₹1 lakh crore of bidding happening in the domestic sector domestic T&D, and similar amount, if not higher, in the international business, although in the next 6 to 9 months. On the B&F side, we continue to stay bullish on residential and commercial in some geographies.
A lot of airport projects coming up, industrial projects where we are now qualified for large-scale projects, as well as data centers. We were currently working on a few of them already.
On the oil and gas front, we're seeing a lot of traction coming from Middle East, whether it is Saudi, whether it is Abu Dhabi, whether it is Qatar. Yes, it might take some time for this, traction to get converted to bids and to orders, but at least the traction is already visible while we speak.
That's also an area which we believe going into Q3, Q4 could be very, very healthy in terms of order book. Even on the urban infrastructure side, now we're seeing a lot of tenders coming, whether it's for underground metro or elevated metro, both on domestic and international.
On all the four businesses, I think we continue to stay positive. Oil and gas might move at a much faster speed in Q3, Q4, whereas T&D, B&F, as well as urban infra would start right from now.
We will stay cautious on the water business on the domestic front, but on the international front, that business also shows some good visibility, and we're already placed L1 in a small order while we speak. As mentioned earlier, on the railway business, we continue to be very watchful and am not very bullish in terms of prospects of growth there.
At least four businesses out of our six, we're very, very positive, and that will help us target ₹30,000-plus crores of order inflow in the next year in the current year.
Ashish Shah
Sure, sir. I know it's a little too early, but if you can just split this ₹30,000 crore into what would you look forward to in terms of, let's say, T&D, B&F, and oil and gas, and maybe urban infra?
Any broad thought we have on how does this inflow look?
Manish Mohnot
My own view, and as you rightly said it's too early, is at least one-third, one-third of this would be T&D and B&F, minimum, right, and the balance one-third would be taken by projects which come from either oil and gas or urban infra or even water international. Still, at least from a 6-month perspective, it's T&D and B&F which are going to drive significant growth in order book.
Today, when you look at it, including L1, we have visibility of around ₹5,000 crores. We declared ₹1,800 crores yesterday plus we're L1 in around 3,200.
This entire ₹5,000 crores is only in T&D and B&F. The first 6 months, significant inflow coming from T&D and B&F; the last 6 months, you'll see significant inflows coming from oil and gas and urban infra.
Ashish Shah
Right. Second question is on whether there are any margin pressures at this point of time.
Obviously, there's been a huge surge in the commodity prices. How does the situation look for us, and what kind of mitigation measures we have, including any pass-throughs, etc., in our contracts?
Manish Mohnot
Sure. Ashish, our order book today is 50% fixed and 50% variable, nearly 50%.
It could be 49%, 51% in that range. From a margin perspective, if you look at specific commodities, on aluminum, zinc, copper, we are 90%-plus hedged on our exposures.
We do not see significant impact coming on that at least on the current order book, on at least things like aluminum, zinc, and copper. Steel, we've seen some expansion in prices come through in February, March, but they've again stabilized in April, May.
We've not seen much happening in April, May. To that extent, steel, whatever increases come in, we've budgeted that.
We've also budgeted slightly more coming into Q2, Q3, and that's already inbuilt when we have given our 75 basis points guidance on margins. One of our biggest challenges could be the diesel cost, for which also we have budgeted a significant amount in our current P&L, but that's something we will wait and watch, because that's something which number could be X, could be 2X, and we would come back to the streets hopefully Q1, Q2.
Would it have a very big dent on the margins? Maybe not, because diesel as a percentage of the overall revenue would be minimal, but that's a cost we need to be watching for.
Otherwise, on commodities, we are nearly hedged. Even on FX, we are hedged at more than 80% of our exposure, even FX, we are at 85% actually of our exposure.
I do not see volatility hitting us in a big way except maybe diesel and petrol prices, and some supply chain disruptions if they happen in the Middle East area.
Ashish Shah
Sure, sir. Last quick one from me, sir.
The T&D business revenue was just about 1% up YoY. For the year, it was 25%, but for the quarter, it just seems 1%.
What could be the reason for this?
Manish Mohnot
I think the primary reason was that disruptions in March which happened in Middle East, which picked up again in April in some form. A lot of material which was ready we were not able to supply because of the supply chain disruptions, and those 15, 20 days of problems.
Primarily reason for T&D to be low is driven by two aspects. One, our Fasttel business reduced closer to zero, which was at a reasonable number previous year Q4; and second, our T&D international March impact because of the geopolitical scenario.
Ashish Shah
As we speak, some of the disruption continues, right? That's what you're saying.
Manish Mohnot
As we speak, while work continues at the site on all projects, work is not stopped on majority of our projects, but supply chain disruptions still continue.
Ashish Shah
All right, sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Amit Anwani from PL Capital.
Please go ahead.
Amit Anwani
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question.
First question, as I can see, the order inflow guidance which you have given, and wanted to understand specially for the T&D, and since we are expecting very robust performance, I think the order inflow which I can see for full year was roughly about 13,000, and last year, it was about 14,400. Definitely, there is a decline.
Even if I take 45% to 50% of the 30, 31,000 which you are expecting, it still will be about 14,000. There is no meaningful growth from two financial years, and probably the expectation this quarter.
Is that the correct understanding, and what exactly we are factoring in terms of international T&D, domestic T&D, some trends, if you would like to highlight amid the current geopolitics, because that is still not solved, and we are also expecting probably the domestic government finances, they might have to also rethink the budgets across various sectors? Your thoughts on that in terms of pipeline for you and the overall scenario?
Sure.
Manish Mohnot
Amit, yes, you're right in terms of absolute inflow. FY25 T&D was higher than FY26.
We were L1 in a couple of large projects which got shifted to FY27, and which you'll see coming in in the month of April, May itself. Now on a totality basis, do I expect this number to be beyond ₹15,000 crores?
In all likelihood, we should be at levels of ₹15,000 crores max as far as T&D order inflow is concerned in the next year. As I mentioned earlier, Amit, for us, it's more important to work with selective clients, high-margin projects, and large-scale projects.
It's not only about top-line growth. Because for us, capital allocation, resource allocation, and making sure that what we commit we deliver is equally important.
We believe that even at a growth of ₹15,000 crores, if we get that in T&D, which is on the upper side, my view could be more in the range of ₹13,000-₹14,000 crores, would be a very good number, because we already have order visibility today which is more than 2.5 years in the T&D business. If you look at the business in terms of revenue versus order visibility, we have a 2.5-year order book visibility even today.
We will continue to focus on not as much on volume, but as much on strategic projects, large projects, design-build projects, and solar EPC projects where margins could be slightly better than what we are getting across normal projects. That's our philosophy.
In terms of market, the market continues to be bullish. In terms of our capacity at the plant, I think we have capacity of more than 2 lakh tons at our Raipur and Gandhinagar, 2,25,000 tons.
That's not a challenge. Yes, a 15,000 crore is a good number because remember, all projects now come with a delivery which is more 2.5 to 3 years.
It's not only about getting orders, it's also about delivering that on time with that labor scarcity which continues to be a big challenge. You're right, our order inflow on T&D might not grow at 20%, which is what our business is growing, or at 15%, which is where the business is growing, but profitability improvement and return ratios improvement would be much higher than what you have seen, and that's visible even in the last 2 years.
Amit Anwani
Right. Sir, some color on the segmental margins, international T&D, domestic T&D, and all, how they have done for this financial year, and what are the expectations forward?
Also for your PBT improvement, if I got it correct, 70 bps which we are expecting this year, is it going to come from the segmental margin improvement or the overall balance sheet structure and the interest savings that is driving the PBT? Some color on these two aspects.
Manish Mohnot
Sure. I do not have exactly segment-wise margins, but I can tell you transmission, B&F, and oil and gas, all three businesses at EBITDA level are double-digit plus.
They are at good levels of double-digits, 10%, 11% plus. Our urban infra, water, and railways business are at single-digit when it comes to EBITDA.
I think this trend would continue getting into next year also. All three businesses, which is T&D, B&F, and oil and gas will continue to be a double-digit.
I don't see them coming down as far as EBITDA margins are concerned. As far as margin enhancement is concerned, I think it's going to be a mix of margins coming from the business segments as well as some balance sheet improvements because, as you rightly said, our debt levels are low.
It's going to be a combination of both. We've not deep-dived into exact details of seeing that how much of this 75 basis points would come from where, but it's going to be combination of both, driven primarily by improvement in margin on the business units.
Amit Anwani
Understood, sir. Thank you so much, sir.
All the best.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sumit Kishore from Axis Capital.
Please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore
Good morning. My compliments on your strong PBT margin performance and the extremely strong operating cash flow performance.
The question is that the capex in the cash flow seems to have gone up meaningfully year-on-year, and that is reducing the extent of flow-through to the free cash flow. Basically, there is ₹9 billion plus of capex versus ₹6.6 billion last year.
What is this capex going into, why the sharp increase, and what's the outlook for the next year? That's my first question.
Manish Mohnot
Sure. Sumit, last 3, 4 years post-COVID at KPIL, we took a call that there is good visibility on growth, and we as a company believe that to take care of that growth, we need to put in investments, whether it is on aluminum shuttering, whether it is on equipments at the site, TSEs, cranes, whether it's on plant modernization, and whether it's on international front, which includes Saudi and some of the other geographies.
We continue to be on track on that, and all of that is coming out of our free cash flows. Second, what is it going forward?
I believe that again next year, we might be incurring capex more in the range of ₹800-crore plus. That is what we have budgeted, and which is into a right mix of B&F business, T&D, as well as international, as well as some modernization at the plant.
We might be further expanding our plant capacity, and for which we'll come back to you by the end of Q2. We believe that in the current year also, we should be doing capex of ₹800-plus crores.
We as an organization are firm believer that in the EPC business, having your own capex is a big advantage, at least on large-scale projects, because these are projects where you start everything at the same time. For example, one of those large projects which we are doing for a big client in Southern India, 15 towers together we were able to start across, right?
That's something which we built the ability over the last few years. We will continue to put in capex, at least for the next few years, but all out of our internal cash flows.
We also have some events of free cash flows coming in next year, whether it is through a few more divestments which are left, which might happen either next year or year after that, or whether it is through some strategic investment coming into our Swedish subsidiary, in whatever form it comes. We expect some more cash flows to come out of our non-core businesses also, which will also help us further strengthen the balance sheet in every form.
Sumit Kishore
My second question is you have been talking about that you're reasonably well-hedged on the raw material commodity side. The question is that, look, copper prices started rising meaningfully Q3 onwards.
The most liquid contract on the LME is maybe the 9-month contract. Will the rollover of these hedges, if the issue on commodity prices continues for three quarters, let us say, will that create some pain in terms of the commodity hit on margins?
Manish Mohnot
Sumit, just to be very clear, our copper exposure is extremely small. It is so minimal because copper isn't required
Sumit Kishore
for
Manish Mohnot
transmission.
Sumit Kishore
Aluminum is also there, yeah.
Manish Mohnot
Okay. Aluminum businesses, Sumit, we have hedge which go up to even 2 years.
We have significant hedge which is 2 years and above. There's enough liquidity for that in the international market.
Today, if you ask me, we are hedged on that 90%, out of which half of them is hedged for beyond 18 months. From a 2 to 3-year perspective you ask me, on aluminum, we are adequately hedged.
We don't need to even worry on the rollover risk, first. Second, even during rollovers, if you have hedged it at the right price, it's only about the differential in terms of premium, which is very, very small more often than not.
That's not such a big issue. Would that rollover create impact on margins?
My view is closer to zero.
Sumit Kishore
Those contracts for 2 years are liquid on the other side? The one who is taking position, people are willing to give you for hedges?
Manish Mohnot
On the international market, yes, they are available.
Sumit Kishore
Excellent. Just the last follow-up question.
Good to hear the 70 basis point guidance on increase in PBT margin. That's at the consolidated level or should we read that at the standalone level?
Manish Mohnot
I think on the consol level, we are targeting improvement of closer to 75 to 100 basis points. On a standalone level, it will be more in the range of 75 basis points.
Consol level would be slightly better than 75 basis points.
Sumit Kishore
Excellent. Finally, the 40% QoQ increase in the water segment in terms of revenue growth was good to see.
Now what is the situation in terms of the total sort of cash flows, money that is sort of still showing up in the working capital as a receivable, and just your brief comments on how the situation on domestic drinking water as a percentage of your order book and growth looks like in FY27? Thank you.
Manish Mohnot
On the water business, if you look at the previous year, we collected more than ₹1,800 crores, but we invested around ₹2,500 crores in that business because we continue to focus on delivery. Even in the previous year, we had a negative cash flow of closer to ₹700 crores in that business.
In April, we've collected more than ₹100 crores, and in May also things look like going fine, and even collections from all states has started, including UP and Jharkhand. Jharkhand remains slightly slow.
While we speak today, our total outstanding receivables on that business is closer to ₹1,600-odd crores. We're pretty confident that majority of this should get recovered in the first two quarters itself.
That's the feeling we're getting from the ground level. We continue to focus on execution of our water projects, and we believe that majority of our water projects, except maybe five or six, would all get completed physically in the current year and get into the O&M phase.
We continue to be hopeful at getting this money, and we're working hard to make sure this happens. Previous year was much better than the year before that.
If you look at year before that, our collections was maybe less than ₹500 crores, previous year ₹1,800 crores, current year we're expecting ₹2,500 crores plus. I'm reasonably sure we should be able to get that collections.
Sumit Kishore
Right. I think wonderful FY26, all the best for FY27.
Thank you.
Manish Mohnot
Thank you, Sumit.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities.
Please go ahead.
Parikshit Kandpal
Sir. Hi.
Congratulations on a great quarter. Sir, my first question is we have done substantial improvement in our balance sheet with both NWC days and net debt coming down significantly.
Are these numbers sustainable, and especially on the debt side, when do you expect that you'll be net cash?
Manish Mohnot
Parikshit, as far as the current debt levels are concerned, based on where we are, clearly they look sustainable. With that growth planned for the next year and with that capex plan, debt would go up in proportion to the growth plan, excluding that one-off inflows which we might get in the next year also.
For business as usual, I expect that to grow up in relation to the business growth, not significantly higher than that, one. As far as free cash flows are concerned, at operation level, we are doing very well.
Just that given the kind of opportunities, we are focused on investing in the business, and that's why out of our operational cash flows, a lot of cash flow is going into capex. While we continue doing that, we are very clear that ROCE from here will continue to go up.
As far as ROCE is concerned, you should see that moving up every year, whatever 100-plus basis points, even in the current year. ROCE should go up.
Debt would go up in proportion to the growth, not significant, but yes, small amounts. Capex will continue to be at ₹800-plus crores, as I had said earlier.
Net working capital days, we definitely believe that we have reached at levels where if we maintain this, it would be very good for the business.
Parikshit Kandpal
Okay. The second question is, sir, how are you positioning ourselves to the entire renewables capex both in domestic and international market, and even on the data center side?
Beyond the T&D, what are you planning to do to capture the bigger opportunity from the ordering side?
Manish Mohnot
Parikshit, on the renewables side, our focus is a lot more in the international markets, primarily the Middle East markets with a large solar projects which we are looking at. We are already favorably placed in one large project, which I'm hoping to conclude in May, June itself.
On the domestic front, we're not doing anything significant on renewable, and that's not also on our radar as of now. As far as T&D projects are concerned, as I said earlier, we continue to stay bullish with growth from majority of our large clients, both in domestic and international.
That's one of our enabler for improving margins and return ratios going forward.
Parikshit Kandpal
Okay. This one large project, you're saying is it the one which you included in the L1 of 3,000 or it is beyond that?
Manish Mohnot
No, no, it's included in the L1 of 3,000 3,000 crores. It's included in that.
Parikshit Kandpal
Okay. How big is that, sir?
Manish Mohnot
That's closer to ₹2,000 crores, in the range of ₹2,000 crores.
Parikshit Kandpal
What is the scope of work here in...
Manish Mohnot
It's a solar project in the international market. I might not be able to share more with you because it's still at that stage where we have not signed the contract, but hopefully the moment we sign, we'll be able to share a lot more.
Parikshit Kandpal
Okay. The other question is, whilst we have done strong work on the balance sheet and NWC, but one thing which keeps somehow stuck or maybe the concerns around the pledge.
Now the promoters, the other entities already listed, and the expectation was that over a period of time, the pledge on the KPIL share will come down to zero because these two are different entities. What are the steps, and so how are you thinking or the management or the promoters are thinking that KPIL will at some point of time become pledge-free?
Manish Mohnot
Parikshit, I'm not sure we have ever said that the intent is to become pledge-free. I've never said that, but we have always said that pledge will continue to come down.
That's what is the comfort given by promoters, and we've seen that over the last six quarters, every quarter pledge has come down. I think the promoters, from whatever discussion I've had with them, continue to be on that track of bringing down pledge.
We've never said that it would be zero or I've never heard that from the promoters ever, but you'll see that traction going down. That's one side.
Second, I think it's also important to understand that, on the pledge, the borrowing is very minimal. If you look at the borrowing on the pledge, it's like 1 is to 4, the value versus or maybe 1/3, less than 1/3 or 25% is what they borrowed.
Isn't a risk. We would discuss this again with promoters, and our view is that it should only keep on coming down over a period of time, and quarter-on-quarter, there should be healthy movement on that.
Parikshit Kandpal
Okay. Just the last question on the domestic T&D side, sir.
How are you seeing both from the state side and even on the HVDC pipeline, if you can help us understand what is PSP capex likely in this year and what is the HVDC pipeline looking for this year and next year? Any state transmission projects where you see potential can add to the order inflow for you?
Manish Mohnot
Parikshit, today our significant focus continues to be more on Power Grid and a few large private sector clients, and that would continue to be a focus at least for the current year. We do not see a lot of traction coming from state electricity boards as of now, but that could change.
Every 3, 4 years, you see a few years where there's a lot of traction which comes from there. For the current year, focus primarily continues to be projects coming from Power Grid and a few private sector players.
As far as the HVDC traction is concerned, we see a couple of large projects coming out in Q2 Q2 itself, maybe later part of Q1 and Q2. That's something which I'm sure will focus both on transmission and substation side.
Let's see who wins, and then accordingly, we will have an EPC order coming from either private sector or from the PSU side. Our focus continues to be more on PSUs and private and not as much on SEBs in the current year.
Parikshit Kandpal
In terms of project cost, what will be the size of these two HVDCs?
Manish Mohnot
I think I do not have the exact numbers, but when I had seen it, ₹30,000-₹35,000 crores minimum, including the transformers and the reactors, maybe in the range of ₹30,000-₹35,000 crores, but this I do not have the exact updated numbers. I remember this numbers from a few quarters ago.
Parikshit Kandpal
Each of them will be ₹30,000 to ₹35,000 crores?
Manish Mohnot
No, total HVDC, both put together would be in the range of 30, 35,000.
Parikshit Kandpal
Okay. Sure, sir.
Thank you. Those were my questions.
Manish Mohnot
Thank you, Parikshit.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one.
We will take our next question from the line of Vaibhav Shah from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Vaibhav Shah
Yeah. Sir, earlier we were looking for a growth of close to 20-odd percent in terms of revenue for FY27.
Does moderation in the number would largely be due to the Middle East challenges we are seeing, especially in the first half of the year?
Manish Mohnot
I think our growth projections are more in the range of 15% for the current year, and we could revisit this numbers at the end of Q2. Because as we stand, Q1, we have disruptions on the global environment, we have disruptions on labor availability thanks to the elections.
While we stand where we stand, Q1, Q2 are going to be difficult quarters, our guidance is more in the range of 15% and not 20% to start with. This comes across various businesses.
Our B&F business, we expect that to grow at 20% plus. Our T&D business also we expect that to grow at 20% plus, and our oil and gas business also.
The businesses which would not grow would continue to be mainly water and railways. Clear visibility on our core businesses to be growing at 20% plus while we speak.
More at an annualized basis, but not on a quarterly basis, because as I said, quarterly Q1, Q2 could be challenging times for reasons completely beyond our control. As I said earlier, our biggest challenges are only this: geopolitical, managing labor in this first 3 to 6 months given the geopolitical and supply chain disruptions.
Pretty confident we'll be able to manage that on an annualized basis, but Q1, Q2 would be challenging times from a growth perspective, not necessarily from margin perspective.
Vaibhav Shah
Okay. Okay.
Secondly, on the oil and gas business, we had submitted few bids, we have started submitting bids in the Middle East region. Any progress over there?
Manish Mohnot
Yes, we've submitted a few bids in Q4. We continue to submit bids now also.
Technically, we're qualified in majority, if not all the businesses. A few price bids have opened, where discussions have continued, but are we L1 in any of them, if you are asking me that question, not as of now.
I would also like to highlight a lot of this clients do not necessarily award project based on L1 basis. It's more an ability to deliver in a defined time frame and your commitment and your historical performance.
You could be L3 and still win a project, but as of today, is there anything included in L1 on oil and gas, the answer is no.
Vaibhav Shah
Okay. Sir, lastly, what would be our water order backlog as of March, the JJM portion?
Manish Mohnot
If you look at our water order backlog, it's closer to ₹7,900 crores, out of which around ₹2,100 crores is O&M. If you remove that, the water backlog is around ₹5,800 crores, out of which significant portion would be JJM.
More than 75% of this would be JJM, which we expect majority of them to get completed in the current year itself. Except for a couple of projects of Punjab, everything should get completed in the current year itself.
Vaibhav Shah
Okay. You expect that 1,600 crore receivables we have right now to be cleared by September?
Manish Mohnot
Yes, we continue to stay optimistic on this. We would like it to get cleared in June itself, but the indication from the ground levels and you've seen this traction in February, March, and April also, the indication from the ground level is next 4, 5 months entire thing should get cleared.
Vaibhav Shah
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Those were my questions.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mohit from ICICI Securities.
Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning and congratulations on a very good set of numbers.
My first question, sir, can you help us with the lower EBITDA at consolidated level versus standalone in the quarter? Is it due to higher provisioning?
Manish Mohnot
Mohit, I think the impact as far as quarter is concerned is because of that exceptional loss which we've taken at a Brazilian level, one. Second, you had road assets which were contributing to EBITDA last year which do not exist now.
It's a combination of both. Road assets we have divested and surrendered and we only have one small road asset now, VEPL.
Second is the Fasttel losses which have come through in Q4, which we have taken. It's a combination of both of that which has impacted EBITDA in Q4.
Can you please quantify the provisioning number, sir, if possible?
Manish Mohnot
At a Fasttel level, we have done a provision of closer to ₹515 crores on a standalone numbers. So ₹515 crores, our entire investment in any form in Fasttel has been provided for.
Today, the investment stands at closer to zero in our books. The entire thing is happening in Q4 on a standalone level.
On a consol level, there's a impact of closer to ₹200 crores which have come in Q4. We had taken already around ₹330 till Q9, maybe around ₹175, ₹180 crores which have come in Q4.
That's the impact on EBITDA on a standalone and consol basis when you look at the Brazil numbers. On road assets, I don't have the exact numbers, but clearly that EBITDA was there.
From EBITDA perspective, my team tells me that the impact of closer to ₹100 crores at EBITDA level. I'll have to just reverify this numbers.
Understood. My second question on oil and gas, are tendering activity in the Middle East getting postponed as you speak or are you seeing the dates are being adhered to given the volatility in the region?
Manish Mohnot
Mohit, we have seen discussions have already started. Tender documents have started coming out.
Clients have started conversations with us in terms of what is our capacity, how much work can we take, what is our capability, all of that. Those things have started.
We've also seen some tender documents come out, some had come out in March which got deferred. Are these tenders due immediately?
Maybe a few in June, maybe a few after that. Discussions across every geography, whether it is Saudi, whether it is ADNOC, Abu Dhabi, whether it is Kuwait, whether it is Qatar, have started.
When I say discussions, are serious interactions on our ability and competency to deliver on large-scale projects and our ability to put in capex. My own belief is, as I said earlier, Q1, Q2 would be where all these discussions and tendering should happen, and Q3 onwards, we should start seeing some wins coming in.
Understood. My last question, sir, on the outlook on domestic T&D.
Of course, you spoke about the near-term opportunity, but how do you think about the medium-term outlook for next 2 to 3 years? Do you think the opportunity is peaking in the domestic market, and our order inflow maybe have peaked out?
Manish Mohnot
Mohit, in terms of opportunity, I think the opportunity continues to look extremely good, driven by everything, driven by the grid connectivity to solar, given by the northeastern expansion, given by HVDC, driven by thermal coming in, for which further requirement of transmission network is required, and given by the capex plans of Power Grid, right? Given with all of that, I think opportunity looks very good.
As I said earlier, for us, the opportunity is driven by making sure we focus on large-scale projects, where our competency and our design ability comes in. I think opportunity from a next 2, 3-year perspective looks very, very attractive on this.
As I said earlier, overall T&D will be happy to have an orders in the range of ₹14,000-₹15,000 crores. We could even do more than that including solar orders.
Our focus is more on improving return ratios, and not necessarily because we have good visibility on B&F, we have good visibility on oil and gas. At the end of the day, as I said earlier, it's all delivery in 3 years.
You need to be cautious on not building an order book which you can't deliver in that timeframe.
Understood, sir. Thank you and best of luck, sir.
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ashwani Sharma from Emkay Global Financial Services Limited.
Please go ahead.
Ashwani Sharma
Thank you very much and congratulations for a great set of performance. Sir, my first question is on the bookkeeping side.
What was the revenue loss because of this war in the Middle East?
Manish Mohnot
Ashwani, if you look at the revenue loss, that was divided into three aspects: the site construction, the bought out, and the tower manufacturing. I think if I include all of them together, would be more in the range of ₹200 to ₹250 crores, because there was more disruptions coming out of supply chain rather than site, and that would be a number more in the range of ₹200 to ₹250 crores.
Ashwani Sharma
Okay. Thank you very much.
Secondly, sir, since, this fund release has started on the JJM side, while you did indicate on the collection side, but then how is the tender pipeline over there? Has the JJM-2 has kind of, started seeing we started seeing, anything on the tender pipeline side?
Manish Mohnot
While we speak, Ashwani, we've seen a few tenders come up in one particular state, but if you ask me, are you seeing a lot of tenders come out as presented by honorable FM in the budget, not yet. We're still waiting for that.
As of now, a few tenders which clearly we're not focused as of now, but not so much traction seen in the last 2 months as far as JJM tenders are concerned.
Ashwani Sharma
Okay. My final question is, sir, given the fact that now we are at a very strong footing in terms of balance sheet and then growth visibility, wanted to have some sense that over the next 2 to 3 years, what would be our key priorities from here on?
Manish Mohnot
Ashwani, clearly if you look at it strategically where we have positioned ourselves, our priority is more focused on large-scale complex projects across all business units where we are, driven by our design capability. Means we have now more than 500 people at our design center of excellence, across various business units.
We have the best tools which are used for productivity monitoring, planning, all of that. We're investing in automation.
We are increasing our capacity at the plant. Our first focus is large-scale projects with clients who we have worked for more than in the last few decades.
Today more than 50% of our order book, if not 60%, comes from our top 10 clients, and some of them have been with us for the last 10, 20 years, if not one of them has been with us for 25 years. Our first priority is large-scale strategic complex projects with minimal competition, which will help us get into higher margin and return ratios.
Our second focus is also making sure that some of our businesses look at the international footprints also. Today, if you look at the international footprints, it's primarily transmission and oil and gas.
The other businesses have also done well, built themselves over the last 8 to 10 years, we would be taking some of our other businesses also on the international footprint. Our third priority would be again reduce some of our other non-core assets, maybe this year, maybe next year, so that at least we are out of majority of our non-core in the next couple of years.
Our fourth and the largest and the biggest priority, if you ask me, is to make sure that we can keep our team intact, right, because that's our biggest challenge today in terms of attrition and all of that. Make sure that we keep this culture of keeping the team together focused on profitable growth, and that's what as senior leadership we are driving towards.
Ashwani Sharma
Thank you, sir. Just one more if I can squeeze in.
Sir, in the Middle East, you just alluded to the fact on the labor issues or how are you kind of managing this labor availability specially in the international geographies given the scenario that we have?
Manish Mohnot
Ashwani, I think labor issues today are more dominant on the Indian front, what we have seen, people leaving March end after Holi and West Bengal elections and continuing till Bakrid. It's a large impact coming on the Indian front, not necessarily on the international front.
As I said earlier, international sites all continue to work at different speed levels, some at maybe the similar productivity, some at lower productivity, and there isn't such a big challenge on labor at the international front. It's a much larger challenge in April and May on the domestic front than the international front.
Ashwani Sharma
All right, Manish. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vaibhav Shah from JM Financial.
Please go ahead. Yeah.
Sir,
Vaibhav Shah
thanks for the follow-up. Sir, firstly on the LMG side, revenue growth was very strong at 64% to ₹3,000-odd crores.
How have we performed at the EBITDA level and PAT level?
Manish Mohnot
As we had guided earlier, given the order book visibility, we said that revenue would do well and they've done well. If you look at it on a FY26 level, at the EBITDA level also, they have grown at more than 100%.
On a revenue of ₹3,000-odd crores, their EBITDA was closer to ₹200 crores, and a PBT level, they were at closer to ₹160, ₹170-odd crores, which is again a growth of 100 crore plus, 100% plus. At a EBITDA level, they've been at more at 6.7%, 6.6%, 6.7%, at a PBT level they're more at a 5.6%, 5.7% level, which is much higher than what they did in the previous year.
Previous year, if you look at it, there's improvement of more than 100 basis points both on EBITDA and PBT as far as LMG is concerned.
Vaibhav Shah
Sure. Sir, lastly, what is the amount of warranty, guarantee sitting on the book as of March?
Manish Mohnot
Vaibhav, over the previous year, we have provided for an additional of closer to ₹100 crores in warranty, guarantee on our balance sheet, and at the end of March, our numbers should be approximately ₹550-odd crores of warranty, guarantee in our books. Besides warranty, guarantee provision of ₹100 crores, we have also done a ECL provision of closer to ₹100 crores in the previous year, and that number on books should be closer to ₹250-odd crores, if I'm not wrong.
At ECL, we are at around
Ram Patodia
₹320
Manish Mohnot
crores. Thank you, Ram.
Warranty, guarantee and ECL put together is a number closer to ₹870, ₹880 crores.
Vaibhav Shah
Have we received entire money from Indore real estate now?
Manish Mohnot
I think we have already declared that in our investor presentation, and I think we have received nearly the full amount. I think the full amount is what the team tells me.
Vaibhav Shah
Okay. Sir, in FY27, any plans on Shree Shubham Logistics to either monetize it or...
Manish Mohnot
Vaibhav, as far as Shubham Logistics is concerned, our focus is now to reduce debt and we have reduced that significantly. We believe that our outside debt would be closer to zero by June.
We are selling off some of our assets, some of our warehouses, and moving to a rental model. Our first focus is to make external debt closer to zero, which I expect would happen in Q1, Q2 itself.
Post that, we will rationalize the business more with rented warehouses and look at maybe strategic opportunities getting into the next year.
Vaibhav Shah
What would be our debt right now about the external debt?
Manish Mohnot
It's closer to 60, ₹60-odd crores as far as external on 31st March. I think this would get closer to zero by June itself.
Vaibhav Shah
Okay. Sir, lastly on tax rate, what would be the tax rate for FY27 at a standalone level?
Manish Mohnot
I think it's difficult to give you an expectation on that. Clearly, our tax rates if I look at it from a 3-year perspective has been more in the range of 28% to 30%, and given that international profitability still will drive a significant number of our profit, I expect it to stay in the range of 28% to 30% only.
Vaibhav Shah
At standalone level, it has been around 26%, 27% for last 3, 4 years.
Manish Mohnot
Yes. Standalone 26% to 28%,
Vaibhav Shah
consol
Manish Mohnot
28% to 30%. Okay.
Right.
Vaibhav Shah
Thank you, sir. Those were my questions.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ravi Swaminathan from Avendus Spark.
Please go ahead.
Ravi Swaminathan
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on a good set of numbers.
Sir, every quarter every call, you give a broad idea in terms of the pipeline of orders which are there in the market, broadly at overall level and domestic and international, if you can give that number. Also the power T&D breakup between domestic and international if you can give it for this year and next year.
You had told that the power T&D we expected to grow by 20%. How the both the domestic and international segments, subsegments are likely to grow?
Manish Mohnot
Ravi, I know you're asking me exactly what we have planned in the strategy for the current year. Let me give it to you in a short synopsis.
I'm just repeating some things which I said earlier. T&D, B&F, huge visibility across all clients we work, and that continues to be a big focus in the first 6 months.
Building on oil and gas in the first two quarters, which we expect would give us good wins in Q3, Q4. Urban infra, we continue to be selective on projects because very capex-intensive.
Now we already have six TBMs which we have invested in the last 2 years. All of them are already occupied while we speak or committed while we speak.
Urban infra, we continue to be selective and cautious in terms of what we bid, but we will continuously focus on growth there also. From overall perspective, domestic T&D, ₹1 lakh crore plus visible pipeline to be focused on.
International T&D, the markets which we are looking at itself is a few trillion dollars, which we have to bid for in the next 6 to 9 months. Oil and gas, from what I hear from these four markets, this number could be easily in the range of ₹50,000 to ₹70,000 crores, if not higher than that, which we have to bid for in the next 6 months.
Urban infra, the numbers could be high, but our focus would be on selective bidding as I've said earlier. As far as T&D is concerned, if you look at FY25 and '26, FY25, significant portion of our T&D order came from TL domestic.
More than around ₹7,000 crores is what we got in TL domestic in FY25, which came down to closer to ₹4,500 crores in '26, but we expect this to again go up significantly in the next year. When I look at the international markets, there was LMG, Fasttel, and TLI all put together, which have been very similar in the last 2 years.
In FY25, they got orders of around ₹6,500 crores; in FY26, around ₹8,000 crores. I expect this business to do more than ₹8,000, ₹8,500 crores in '27 also, including some solar projects which we are bidding for.
Focus is a right mix of both domestic and international, in the range of 8 to ₹8,000 to ₹9,000 international, in the range of ₹6,000 to ₹7,000 domestic. That's what will continue to drive growth going forward.
Ravi Swaminathan
Understood, sir. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. That was the last question for today.
I would now like to hand the call back to the management for closing comments.
Manish Mohnot
Thank you very much for attending the call. Hopefully, we will continue to deliver as we have done in the past.
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much. On behalf of DAM Capital Advisors, that concludes this conference.
Thank you all for joining us today, and you may now disconnect your lines.
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