Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd

Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd

662.85
INR
-32.00
(-4.61%)
13.98EPS
62.07P/E
118.63BMarket Cap
Nov 18Next Earn

Q4 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptJune 1, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Titagarh Rail Systems Limited Q4 and FY26 earnings conference call. 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Titagarh Rail Systems Limited.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Umesh Chowdhary

Thank you very much. Very good afternoon to everybody, and a warm welcome to our Q4 FY26 and financial year FY26 earnings call.

I will probably just start off with a few highlights for the year and for the quarter, and then happy to take any questions that might be there. As you would have seen from the the results that have been declared, I would like to first start off by informing everybody that we have finally been able to completely exit our investment in Firema.

Firema has been very strategic as an investment to us because pursuant to that acquisition, we were able to start our passenger rail systems business. However, that part of the strategy was already fulfilled, and Firema continued to be both a drain on our consolidated balance sheet or P&L, as well as on cash flow because of continuous cash needs on account of the losses that it was incurring.

With this with this disinvestment and acquisition of Firema by the Italian State Railways, we have now been able to put a full stop to that. All the past and potential liabilities that Firema might our company might have with respect to the Firema transaction, everything has been provided for in the balance sheet of the of the financials of the company, and there will be no further losses or liabilities that we expect in regard to Firema.

Apart from that, the other big highlight for the year has been that the Titagarh Naval Systems, the shipbuilding business that was already informed in the past that it's a sunrise sector, and we would like to pursue this business, but in a without disturbing the existing business of the rail systems. We have segregated or hived off hived off the shipbuilding business into a wholly owned subsidiary.

The subsidiary, which is called Titagarh Naval Systems Limited, has acquired land in Falta, which is in the south side of West Bengal, and has also taken on lease, on long-term lease, an existing concrete jetty, which was next to the land. That has enabled the company to be able to start the construction activity, and we will be able to start production activity for ships in the new land in in a short period of time.

Within the current financial year, we expect that we should be able to start production in the Titagarh Naval Systems Falta shipyard. This company has also been one of the first companies to be recognized and approved under the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme, and has been sanctioned capital subsidy for its investments to the tune of 25% by the government of India.

The third highlight of the quarter of the year has been that this year has marked the highest ever turnover and profitability for our passenger rail system business. As I have always mentioned, the wagon business, the freight rail system business, is more of a autopilot business or a cruising altitude business, if I can call it, wherein in a good year, we will be able to get to 1,000 wagons a month if there are orders which get placed, and I'll speak more about it as we go along in terms of the recent newspaper reports.

Of course, we do not have any way of confirming or denying them right now, but we are very sure that considering the growth trajectory that the Indian economy has, wagon requirement is bound to be there, whether it is a matter of a few quarters here or a few quarters there. Wagon demand will be there on a sustained basis, is what our conviction is.

Irrespective, what we have what we have planned now is for the current year, we should be able to stay at a run rate which is higher than what we have produced last year, there will be a growth in the freight business. On the passenger side, we would definitely be able to scale up much faster.

We had given a strategic plan that we would do between 100 to 120 coaches in FY26. While we have not been able to achieve that target, we have increased the sales from 12 cars in FY25 to 63 cars in FY26, and we are extremely confident of being able to get to 200 cars in FY27.

The order book also is quite reflective of this growth trajectory. We, on a on a stand-alone basis without considering the share of the joint venture, our order book for the passenger rail segment is about ₹10,600 crore, whereas the freight rail segment is ₹3,100 crore, which signifies the trajectory in which the passenger rail segment has the potential to grow.

Our overall order book at the including our share of the joint ventures and subsidiary, is at about ₹27,540 crore. The other highlights that we have for the quarter is, in order to enhance our product offering to private sector, we have been able to get the wagon leasing license, and we have received our first contract or we have signed our first contract for wagon leasing.

We believe that going forward, we will have a healthy mix of the three segments of wagon orders. One will be from the Railways themselves, the second is from the private sector, and the third is what wagons we offer on lease.

We have been also expecting or we've been hearing that wagon maintenance policy should be announced soon. The wagon leasing business and the wagon maintenance business, once it is done, we believe will be a good addition to our freight business on the whole.

These have been a few of the highlights. The last point is on the on the freight side, we have already completed our capacity and technology enhancement for the foundry, wherein we have installed resin-based molding facilities in both our foundries.

Now the foundries are fully capable of increasing its production and meeting the entire casting demand at full capacity of our wagon production. Of course, we were waiting for the large tenders to be finalized so that we can also go for the power enhancement power connectivity enhancement, etc.

Once this is there is visibility on the orders, we will be able to ramp up the production in the foundry to be able to produce castings for the 1,000 wagons a month. The last point that I would like to mention, the last highlight, is during the year, we have also executed orders for Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation through Mitsui Japan.

These are specialized wagons which are hydraulically and pneumatically operated ballast discharge wagons. This These are high-tech wagons, if I may say so.

That also marks our entry into certain higher end of wagons, which we believe that will be will be new technology that is being continuously implemented by the Railways. The Railways would also like to more and more go into higher technology wagons, and we will be able to cater to that demand as well.

These are the highlights that I would like to mention. All of them will be present will be put into the investor presentation that will be uploaded after the call.

I'm happy to take any questions that might come up.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session.

Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone 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.

First question is from the line of Subramanian from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.

Bala Subramanian

Good evening, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Sir, on the passenger rolling stock side, we have achieved 19% EBITDA margin in Q4 FY26. On the full-year basis, we have achieved 14.3%.

I think our long-term guidance is 15%, but we have reached within a year itself. I think we have to do a lot of work on the backward integration.

If you could reiterate on the margin side for rolling stock and passenger rolling side. We have crossed ₹500 crore-plus in this year, and if I'm taking 120 wagons or 200 wagons by next year, it's the growth rate is coming nearly ₹1,500-plus crore in FY27.

If you could how we are going to execute that kind of jump in this financial year.

Umesh Chowdhary

Thank you for your question. Let me explain two, three aspects of your question.

One is, as far as the margin profile is concerned, we have always guided that passenger rail system, we should be able to get similar margins as we have been able to get in freight rail systems, which is at around 12%, which will get further enhanced when we are able to backward integrate and use our own propulsion, which is still about maybe a couple of years from now. It is also a matter of volumes that the margins will improve because the operating leverage in this business is going to be quite high as the fixed cost of this business is very, very high.

Just to give an example, we have almost 150 people working in design engineering and R&D, and these are all highly skilled people, and that are working in the passenger rail system for only design engineering and R&D. That can give an indication of what kind of operating leverage play will be there in the passenger rail system.

The margin in the current quarter has been higher because we are also executing a contract for Bangalore Metro wherein the material does not come into the top line as the material is a free supply item. Therefore, the EBITDA margin goes up in that contract.

As a result of that, the EBITDA percentage margin during the Q4 of this year, as the execution of the Bangalore Metro was higher, is slightly better. On a sustained basis, we do not change the guidance that we have given in our strategic plan, which was published last year.

As far as the ramp-up is concerned, we have already said in the past, we have ramped up from 12 cars to 63 cars in the last year, and to ramp it up to 200 cars in the current year, we are fairly confident, and we are well on our way to be able to do that.

Bala Subramanian

Sir, my second question, the JV for wheelsets, the JV partner mentioned on the concall it will be starting by end of May or June. If you could reiterate where we are now and how we can expect ramp-up for the wheelset plant?

Umesh Chowdhary

The position remains exactly what our JV partner, Ramkrishna, had mentioned in their call. We are expecting to start the production in this quarter, that is in June.

We are again confident that the ramp-up plan that is there will be fully achieved. We have a contract of 80,000 wheels per annum from the Railways, which is valid for the next 20 years.

We have our own requirement, plus there is opportunity to export wheels and to sell it to other non-street players. There will be a healthy requirement that will be there for the wheels and wheelsets.

Bala Subramanian

Sir, on my last question, on that supply chain disruption side,

Operator

I think Balasubramanian, sorry to interrupt, can you speak louder, please?

Bala Subramanian

Sir, on the supply chain disruption side, which are that specific materials or gas we have faced, and how we are mitigating?

Umesh Chowdhary

The supply chain constraint you are speaking about, sir?

Bala Subramanian

Yes, sir.

Umesh Chowdhary

Yeah. Supply chain constraint, what we have faced is nothing different from all the industry that they have faced.

We have faced supply chain constraint for gas, for LDO, and also our suppliers have faced the supply chain constraint. There have been delays in steel supplies at cases, component supply in cases.

These are standard. Now the situation is much better.

I think the government of India has been able to negotiate international deals in order to improve the situation substantially. The situation remains, I would say, we are watchful of the situation, but we believe that should not impact too much on our targets for the year.

Bala Subramanian

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Umesh Chowdhary

Of course, I would also hope that this situation of West Asia comes to an end. That's something we all continuously hope.

Bala Subramanian

That is true.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Virat Jain, individual investor.

Please go ahead.

Virat Jain

Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

My question is on this leasing order that you won. Can you give some color around it, how many wagons are we looking to lease?

Who is the customer? That is one, and then the follow-up to that is how do you see this leasing business growing over next two, three years?

Umesh Chowdhary

Sorry, I couldn't hear the second part of the question, sir. I heard the first part.

Virat Jain

How do you see this business growing over next two, three years, leasing business?

Umesh Chowdhary

Sure. You see the leasing business that we are doing is more as a product offering as an extension to what business we do.

We are not going to do any third-party leasing for wagons made by other people, but this is only an enhancement of product offering that we are offering to our customer. This order that we have got was from Balmer Lawrie for two rakes only, but I mentioned in my opening remarks the three segments or three outlets of our wagons.

One is to the Railways, the second is to the private sector, and the third will be on the wagon leasing side. On the wagon leasing side, it's going to be a calibrated offering that we will make only to very, very safe clients where we do not see credit risk coming up.

I will not be able to give the exact numbers at this point of time because that is something that will evolve, and I would also not like to mention that for competitive reasons, business reasons, but we will be doing it in a calibrated manner I can say. The growth on the leasing business is not going to be the growth from the leasing business, but a growth in the wagon business owing to the leasing business.

Virat Jain

Okay. That's clear.

The second question, sir, is on this large railway tender. Any color you can give around this?

When can we see this tender? Also, I think you mentioned newspaper article, if you can address that also, whatever comments you have to offer.

Do you feel confident that at least the orders will come in next, let's say, three to six months?

Umesh Chowdhary

See, we cannot speak about the newspaper articles because that would be improper on our part to do that. What I can only say is that we are very confident that the India story is strong.

India is well on its way to become a $5 trillion economy. In order to do that, the logistics cost of India and the logistics infrastructure of India has to be very robust, and that cannot be achieved unless and until the railway network is very robust.

I can give you some very, very high-level numbers to support my belief in this. The Railways have invested a cumulative of almost ₹20 lakh crore over the last 8 to 10 years.

The government of India has invested in the Railways almost ₹20 lakh crore. Now, in order to get return on that investment of ₹20 lakh crore, the Railways have to grow their business, which effectively is passenger and freight traffic.

In order to grow the passenger and freight traffic, the last end of the spectrum for investment is the rolling stock, both for passenger and freight, which means trains and wagons. The current carrying of the Railways, which is at about 1.6 billion tons, has been stated to be increased to 3 billion tons by 2030.

Now, that may happen by 2030, that may not happen by 2030 and happen in 2031 or '32, but it will happen. There is no doubt about that.

In order for that to happen, the wagon requirement has to be there. To answer your first question based on this, that requirement for wagons will come, there will be a healthy demand for wagons.

There can be blips and troughs for brief periods of time based on infrastructure readiness or procurement priorities of the government, but on a sustained basis, we see a healthy demand for the wagon. That's why I said that it is a cruising altitude business.

That's what is given in our strategic plan, that if this is a business that will be there in a range-bound manner, bad years, we can do at the rate of 600 wagons a month; good years, we will do at the rate of 1,000 wagons a month.

Operator

Thank you. Virat, I will request to come back for a follow-up question.

A kind request to all the participants, kindly limit yourself to two questions per participant and rejoin for a follow-up. Next question is from the line of Parvez Qazi from Nuvama Group.

Please go ahead.

Parvez Qazi

Hi. Good afternoon, sir.

Thanks for taking my question. My first question is, would be great if you could give an update about the five major passenger coach orders that we have, which is Vande Bharat, Gujarat Metro, Mumbai Metro, Pune, and the Bangalore Metro.

Thank you.

Umesh Chowdhary

Sure, Parvez. I'll start with Pune.

Again, I think that was a highlight which I missed mentioning in my opening remarks, and thank you for asking this question. Pune, we have completed the supply of the first lot of 30 34 trains.

What is more important is the milestone that bulk of these trains have now completed their defect liability period. Which means that the provenness of this train is now established.

The second, if I can call it the badge of honor, is that we've received repeat order from Pune Metro for the option quantity of 12 trains. Being a new entrant into the passenger coach business or the passenger rail segment, let's say, five years ago, there were apprehensions on the ability and the capability of the company to be able to establish itself in this business.

These are very important milestones or very important benchmarks for conveying that we have been able to establish ourselves, not only complete the order successfully, but complete the defect liability or the warranty period successfully and come out of it. The 12-train orders from Pune that we have got, we had already given it in our press announcement when we got the order, are to be delivered in two years' time from the date of the order, and we'll be well on our track to do that.

Gujarat Metro, we already started the supplies. We have already supplied the first trains, and we are confident of completing this order within this financial year, that is FY27, which is a total of 34 trains or 102 cars.

We should be able to complete that within this financial year or a maximum maybe one quarter of here or there. By and large, our target is to close it within this year.

As far as Mumbai is concerned, we will start the supply within this financial year, and the execution will happen over the next two financial years for both line 5 and line 6. The design approvals are at an advanced stage, and we are planning to start the first car body production in the next quarter, in Q2 of the current financial year.

The train should get delivered in Q4 of the between Q3 and Q4 of the financial year, the first train. As far as Vande Bharat is concerned, once again, we had said that Q3 of this year, within this financial year, we'll be able to deliver the prototype train.

We are well on our way to do that. We have already made first 10 car bodies of the Vande Bharat, and now they are entering into the different stages of outfitting and completion.

We are extremely confident that this financial year, the first trains of Vande Bharat will get delivered.

Parvez Qazi

When do we expect to complete the Bangalore Metro order?

Umesh Chowdhary

Sorry. Bangalore Metro is also something that we will complete within this financial year, maybe spread over to the next quarter, the first quarter of the next financial year.

We are dependent on this order for the supply chain from a third party, as I mentioned a little while ago, that the materials are supplied on a free-supply basis. We use the capacity on a fungible basis between our existing other metros and the Bangalore Metro so that we can optimize on production.

While the contractual delivery provided we get all the free-supply materials on time is within this financial year, we are considering whether that there can be a spillover by one or two quarters.

Operator

Thank you. Parvez, I'll request to come back for a follow-up question.

I request to all the participants, kindly limit to two questions per participant and rejoin for a follow-up. Next question is from the line of Sandeep Mukherjee from SKP Securities.

Please go ahead.

Sandeep Mukherjee

Sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, certain bookkeeping numbers I'd like to ask. Sir, what is the pending number of wagons, and what is the number of private percentage in that?

Umesh Chowdhary

We do not give the break up of the private and the government orders, but the total orders we have now are about in the ballpark of 6, 6,500 wagons. Then, of course, we are aggressively pursuing booking of new orders both from private and from the government sector.

The leasing ones as well.

Sandeep Mukherjee

Sir, what is the number of wagons produced in this quarter, sir?

Umesh Chowdhary

In Q4?

Sandeep Mukherjee

In Q4 itself, sir.

Umesh Chowdhary

Yeah. In Q4, we did about 1,700 and odd wagons.

This will be a part of the presentation that you will receive in a few minutes.

Sandeep Mukherjee

Sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Amay Sharda from Purnartha Investment Advisers.

Please go ahead.

Amay Sharda

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Just wanted to understand regarding the restatement that we had for the Italian subsidiary, Firema. Just wanted to know if there is any kind of cash outflow that is also expected for the same.

Umesh Chowdhary

Firema is now a discontinued business for us, and Firema business has already been sold to the Italian State Railway, which is Ferrovie dello Stato. Beyond whatever we have already invested or provided for in our books, there is no cash outflow or losses expected in our books with respect to Firema anymore.

Amay Sharda

The numbers for Firema, the losses basically increased, right? Because of that, is the cash outflow also expected to increase or that's more like a notional number?

Umesh Chowdhary

No, that is the loss of Firema's Italian operations. That has nothing to do with the cash flow or cash requirement of the company, of Titagarh Rail Systems.

Because of those losses, the investment value of the equity shares in the books of Titagarh Rail Systems has been written down or impaired. Those losses that have been incurred in Firema for the previous year, which was FY25, was the reason which the company decided not to put in more money and sell it to the Italian State Railways.

To answer your question in short, that there will be no impact of those losses that have been reported in Firema any further than what has been already taken in our books and declared, and there is no further losses or cash outflow outside the provision or the loss that has already been booked in our books and declared in the results.

Amay Sharda

Okay. Understood, sir.

Sir, my second question was regarding the freight segment. Since we have started reporting shipbuilding as a separate segment from the freight segment, because of which the margins have improved for the freight segment, it looks improved on the paper.

Does that mean that the current margins will be sustainable for the freight segment? It's around 12%, and we used to report around 11% before that.

Umesh Chowdhary

As we have always mentioned that freight business is business where we have stable margins of 11% to 12% depending on the mix of the private and the public order or the railway orders mix of supplies, depending on how the price variation clause and the commodity prices have moved. My request to you would be not to consider on a quarter-to-quarter basis the margins, but to consider it on a longer period.

There, the margins are going to continue to be at the same level, which is vicinity of 12%. Some quarters can be 0.5%, 1% lower, some quarters can be 0.5%, 1% more.

But 12% on a steady-state basis is what we can consider over maybe 4, 5 quarters going forward as well. Unless and until there is a change in the market dynamics, this is where we should stand.

Amay Sharda

Okay. Understood, sir.

Sir, the last question was, in the passenger segment, just wanted to understand once Titagarh starts working on a new metro train or a new passenger train segment order, after producing the first prototype, how much longer time does the company take to basically ramp up the number of trains? Once you've delivered the first prototype, if the approval comes, then automatically we can ramp it up to two to three trains per month, or it takes some kind of a learning curve to be able to do that?

Umesh Chowdhary

Normally, there is no steady-state answer for different projects. Each project has their own criticality.

What I can answer here is on a on a general basis, on an average basis, the benchmark is that the learning curve or the time taken, the gestation period, is more for the designing and the prototype. Once the prototype is done, of course, there is a learning curve to achieve efficiencies, but the production gets ramped up immediately thereafter.

I will not say on the day second day of the prototype, but maybe over a period of two to three months of the prototype. We always balance the production between different projects so that the overall production does not get adversely impacted to a great extent when we move from one project to the other.

As you can realize that this is a new business for the company, we are we are still establishing. It's the first time that we have done record turnover, record margins in this business, which is only I would say a sign of things to come in the future.

Our objective over the next years is going to be that when we switch over from one project to the other, the disruption in the overall production should be zero or near to zero.

Amay Sharda

Sir. Understood.

Thank you so much.

Umesh Chowdhary

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Koustav Nahar from Electrum PMS.

Please go ahead.

Khush Nahar

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thank you for the opportunity. A couple of questions.

One, could you elaborate more on the opportunity that we have for the DFC, the specialized wagon manufacturing which is there? What kind of overall target market are we looking at, and who are the competitors or players involved in this type of segment?

Umesh Chowdhary

Sure. As far as DFC is concerned, we need to see the DFC as a part of the extended network of the wagons of the Railways.

Therefore, should not look at the DFC as a separate part of the Railways which will require completely different wagons. However, there will be, from time to time, special purpose wagons that will be taken.

The one that I mentioned about in my opening comments was the special purpose wagon that we have given. Some of them required for maintenance purposes or inspection purposes.

The types of competitors are going to be almost the same as we have in other wagons. The competitive landscape does not change from one type of wagon to the other.

In terms of the overall requirement for the DFCC for wagons, I would rather present it differently and say that there will be no separate demand for DFCC on a larger basis, but because of DFCC, the overall demand will increase as the bottlenecks that exist in the Indian railway network will get addressed or will get removed, and the overall throughput of the traffic movement of the Railways will get enhanced.

Khush Nahar

Right, sir. Sir, and in terms of the PRS execution, where do you get some sense that when could we see a similar

Umesh Chowdhary

Your voice is not clear. Can you please go off the hands-free mode?

Khush Nahar

Yeah. Is it better now?

Umesh Chowdhary

Yeah.

Khush Nahar

My question was regarding the passenger rail system. Since now that we'll have the required capacity in FY27, In which year, according to you, can we see the full potential basis the current order book that we have in terms of numbers for the PRS segment?

Umesh Chowdhary

We have already given that in our strategic plan, that we will be ramping up our production and our capacity and our capability on a year-to-year basis right up to 2030. The years that we personally are watching out for are 2028, as '27 is, of course, a very important year.

Then 2028 is going to be the year where Vande Bharat will be in full production and Metros will be in full production. Then continuously, we would expect to continue to ramp up the production up to the targets that we have for FY30.

Khush Nahar

All right. Thank you, sir.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rajesh Bhandari from Nakoda Engineers.

Please go ahead.

Rajesh Bhandari

Hello. Good evening, sir.

Hello. Can you hear me, sir?

Umesh Chowdhary

Good evening, sir. Please go ahead.

Rajesh Bhandari

Yeah. Sir, as you mentioned, we have a total order book of ₹27,540 crore.

That includes order for wheels also?

Umesh Chowdhary

As I mentioned, that includes our share of the joint venture. If we have 49% of the joint venture, then the number of ₹27,540 crore includes 49% of the wheel joint venture that we have.

That's how the number of ₹27,540 crore on a consolidated level is calculated, including our share of the

Rajesh Bhandari

JV. Accha, aur sir, abhi jaise apne paas mein Metro ka aa gaya hai, wagons hai apne paas mein, wheels hai, naval hai, and also in Metro plus we have Vande Bharat also.

Toh now the variety is too good. Lekin apna turnover jo hai sir, '25 ka ₹3,822 crore tha, FY26 ka ₹3,190 crore tha.

Toh abhi what can we expect in FY27, '28 and '29, sir, approximate?

Umesh Chowdhary

We cannot give you forward-looking projections, sir. In our strategic plan that is already uploaded on our website, we have mentioned that two businesses that have to be seen separately, the passenger business and the freight business.

As I mentioned in the earlier comments also, that our freight business is a steady-state business. You can call it a cruising altitude business, which will be range-bound.

The passenger business is the one that will be growing year after year. In terms of the turnover split, if you see that the overall company-wise the turnover of the passenger business was less than 10% in the FY25, and has increased to about approximately 17% in the FY26, and it will continue to increase.

Our expectation is that it will follow somewhere the percentages split of the order book in the future, in maybe 3 to 4 years or 5 years span from now.

Rajesh Bhandari

In course of time, it will even overtake the wagon turnover also?

Umesh Chowdhary

Sir, as I mentioned, we expect that in the next 4 to 5 years' time, maybe by FY30, it will be in line of the order book percentages. Today, in terms of the order book percentage, freight is just about 20 25% or 30%, between 20% to 30%, and passenger is about 70%, 70% to 80%.

The potential of the passenger business to grow is to the same level that it can be on a stand-alone basis, 70% of the overall business.

Rajesh Bhandari

Yeh wheels ka production kab chaloo hoga, sir?

Umesh Chowdhary

Maine already abhi thodi der pehle bataya tha sir ki June mein production chaloo hone wala hai. Accha, then

Rajesh Bhandari

it will go on full swing?

Umesh Chowdhary

That's right.

Rajesh Bhandari

Naval ka, sir?

Umesh Chowdhary

Naval ka bhi maine aapko bataya, iss saal mein hum apna naye yard

Rajesh Bhandari

mein production start kar denge. Kab se, sir?

Aawaz thoda clear nahi hai actually.

Umesh Chowdhary

We will be starting the production within end of this financial year in the new yard.

Rajesh Bhandari

Accha. Yeah.

We can expect next two, three years the turnover will multiply rather?

Umesh Chowdhary

We hope so, sir.

Operator

Thank you, Rajesh. I'll request to come back for a follow-up question.

Next question is from the line of Anubhav Singh from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.

Angad Singh

Thank you so much, sir, for taking my question. First, I just wanted to ask can you give me a breakdown of wagons that we have dispatched out of the 63 wagons split for project, if that is available?

Umesh Chowdhary

Sorry, we never do that, sir.

Angad Singh

Okay. If any outstanding order book of coaches that we are yet to deliver for each project, or broad-based numbers that is available?

Umesh Chowdhary

We have a total order that we are yet to deliver is about 522 Metro coaches and 1,280 Vande Bharat coaches.

Angad Singh

Sir. Yeah.

That was it. Thank you so much.

Sir, will we be releasing a presentation so that I don't think I can see the same on the

Umesh Chowdhary

Yes, immediately during the course of the day today, the presentation will be uploaded.

Angad Singh

Okay. Yeah.

Thank you so much, sir. Those were my questions.

Thank you so much.

Umesh Chowdhary

They will also be addressing some of the questions that come up during the call today.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Akash Agarwal, individual investor.

Please go ahead.

Akash Agarwal

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity. Just wanted to know this Vande Bharat is getting delayed, month on month, month on month, quarter on quarter.

Is this now a firm date that next quarter we'll be able to deliver the prototype?

Umesh Chowdhary

Sir, we never said next quarter, and there have been no delays after the initial delay on Vande Bharat. We have always maintained that the Vande Bharat train will be delivered in the current financial year, the end of Q3 or beginning of Q4 of the year.

The initial delays that had taken place were because of the confusion on the 16 to 24 coaches by the Railways, and the Railways had recognized that and refixed the delivery accordingly to FY27 Q3 or Q4, I do not remember. That's when we are confident of being able to deliver the train.

To clarify, there are no delays from our side on Vande Bharat. We are very well on schedule as per the contract with no imposition of any kind of damages or delays.

Akash Agarwal

Sure. Just the second question, sir.

Once we deliver a prototype, then revenue will recognize in this financial year, right? Then

Umesh Chowdhary

we will start delivering the balance of the trains. We have a total of 80 trains.

Each train is of 16 cars, and there is a schedule against which the trains have to be delivered, and that schedule has also been represented in our strategic plan presentation that was uploaded last year, a few months ago.

Akash Agarwal

Okay. For sure.

Thank you so much.

Umesh Chowdhary

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Koundinya Nimmagadda from Jefferies India.

Please go ahead.

Koundinya Nimmagadda

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity. Just continuing on the previous participant's question, my understanding is that you would be delivering, or you are supposed to deliver, two Vande Bharat trains this year.

Is that fair, or is there a change in plan out there?

Umesh Chowdhary

It is absolutely fair. We will be delivering two Vande Bharat trains within this financial year.

Koundinya Nimmagadda

Any tentative timelines or any specific quarter where you can flag it to us that this will be the quarter where you can see that turnaround or a first prototype delivery that we can look forward to?

Umesh Chowdhary

We are looking at the first train to be delivered in end of Q3 or beginning of Q4. Let's say between Q3 and Q4 will be the first Vande Bharat train that will get delivered.

Koundinya Nimmagadda

Sure. Got it, sir.

Sir, second thing, if you can speak a little bit about your naval expansion plans, what is it that you're planning to do, and then how are you planning to fund the capex out there? You did speak about starting the naval yard at the end of this year.

If you can help us understand for a little bit more color on what can we expect out here.

Umesh Chowdhary

Absolutely. We have already mentioned in the past that the total project cost that we have identified for the TNSL is about ₹610 crore, for which we have also received approval for the capital shipbuilding scheme for a 25% Am I right?

25%? 25% capital subsidy, which will be given by the government of India.

Balance of the capex is going to be funded between a mix of debt and equity in TNSL. The idea of having this as a separate company, as we had also mentioned in the past, was to look for strategic-stroke-financial investors in Titagarh Naval Systems so that the equity outflow from the parent, that is Titagarh Rail Systems, is of a limited nature.

Also, over a period of time, once the business is stabilized, we may look at separately listing this company. That's something which is to do with the future, which we had announced that as the rationale for segregating the shipbuilding business into a separate company.

As of now, what we are going ahead with is what I mentioned, a ₹610 crore project, for which the land has already been allotted and acquired by us. We've already got the jetty, and the work is going to be starting very soon.

Koundinya Nimmagadda

Understood, sir. If I may ask a couple of bookkeeping questions.

Firstly, if I were to look at the inventory days, there appears to be some rise out there. What drove this increase in proportion to sales?

The absolute inventory is fine, but as a percentage of sales has gone up. If you can help us understand that better.

Umesh Chowdhary

It is always here the ramp-up, sir. You will get more details with the presentation also, but the inventory number of days, I had mentioned in my last investor presentations that the KPI that we are looking for is inventory control in the freight, which has been disturbed because of the supply chain constraints.

When you have supply chain constraints, they are limited to a few items, which we can call as balancing items, so that the balance material that we have received kind of gets into a stuck inventory. Those are temporary in nature.

As far as passenger is concerned, we are at a ramp-up stage. This has been a new business for the company, and we are not really monitoring for the first two quarters of this financial year also the inventory carrying, but we are monitoring more on the output ramp-up.

Once that is done, inventory carrying will all automatically become normalized.

Koundinya Nimmagadda

Sir, can you also touch base a bit on the debtor days? I understand passenger would have higher debtor days, but it looks closer to 100-odd days.

What should we look at as a sustainable number out there?

Umesh Chowdhary

Just to add one more highlight to your last question, this year, we have been able to generate a cash from operation, free cash flow has been ₹380 crore as against almost a flat free cash flow in the previous year of March '25, or maybe a slightly negative cash flow in March '25. It has been a year which has generated us free cash flow, which is healthy.

To answer the next question, which is debtors. Debtors mostly, once again, in terms of the normalized working capital cycle, the freight has a net working capital days of 30.

Passenger would have net working capital day of about 75 days. That will only get achieved once we have achieved some kind of a operating leverage or a scale of production, which we expect to achieve by the end of this financial year for the passenger.

Koundinya Nimmagadda

Sure, sir. Thank you very much.

If I may ask one last question. On the Firema side, if I heard correctly, there is no potential cash outflow either from the business or any contingent liability.

Is that a fair understanding?

Umesh Chowdhary

As far as Firema is concerned, beyond what we have already provided for and taken hit in our books, there is no further liability that we are going to accrue in terms of Firema. Of course, unforeseen circumstances are unforeseen circumstances, but we have provided for everything which is to be provided for or liabilities that have to be taken, and there is no further cash outflow or liability beyond what we have already taken.

I would also just add one more point. I'm sorry, I missed out, which was slight delays in payments in terms of debtors in end of the financial year by the public sector, but that is something which keeps on happening every year.

My CFO just pointed that out to me, and I'll just highlight it.

Koundinya Nimmagadda

Sure, sir. Thank you very much, and all the best.

Umesh Chowdhary

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next follow-up question is from the line of Virat Jain, individual investor.

Please go ahead.

Virat Jain

Yeah. Thank you for the follow-up, sir.

One question I asked last time is, do you feel confident this large tender will come in in three to six months? That was the last time question.

Then the second question is in the leasing business, do you expect Indian Railways to be a large customer?

Umesh Chowdhary

Both of them are questions that we will not be able to answer because we do not have enough information to do that. I already explained the reason why we believe that wagon requirement is going to be there, whether it is one large tender or several smaller tenders in just very, very high levels or very order-of-magnitude basis without kind of vetting of the data that I'm presenting, which can be always verified from public domain.

The stock of wagons that the Railways have is about 4 lakh wagons, 400,000 wagons. If you look at the replenishment demand is about 4% of that.

If GDP is growing at 6%, they need 6% additional wagons. So, 6 plus 4 is 10%, and 4 lakh wagons is what they have.

We believe that there can be ups and downs on certain periods of time, but on an overall basis, the wagon demand is something which has to be there if the India story continues to be there. We are absolutely certain that the government and the political leadership is fully committed to making India achieve its rightful place in the economic development.

There is no reason why wagon demand should fall apart.

Virat Jain

Okay. Sir, the second question is this 80,000 wheelset contract, in FY27, can we pencil in, let's say, 30, 40,000 wheelsets supply?

Umesh Chowdhary

That is as per the contractual terms. I will not be able to give you the exact number right now, but we will definitely start the supply in FY27.

What is the exact quantity, I apologize, but I do not have that number ready with me, but we will definitely try to incorporate that in our presentation.

Virat Jain

Okay. Thank you for answering my questions.

Operator

Thank you. Next follow-up question is from the line of Rajesh Bhandari from Nakoda Engineers.

Please go ahead.

Rajesh Bhandari

Sir, yeh Metro coaches mein we were also planning for aluminium coaches. Haan ji, bilkul.

Umesh Chowdhary

The coaches that we have delivered to Pune are aluminium coaches, and the option quantity that we have got from Pune for the 12 additional trains are also aluminium coaches. This makes us, and it's a very interesting question.

Thank you for asking this, Bhandari sahab. This makes us the only company in the country who has both the capabilities of stainless steel and aluminium coaches.

Earlier, we were importing the flat packs or the subassemblies for these aluminium coaches from Firema, from Italy. Now, in the last year, we have imported all the machines that are required for making those flat packs within the country.

Within the this year and the coming year, that is FY27 and beginning of FY28, we will be fully aatmanirbhar, or self-sufficient, to make aluminium coaches from raw material or from extrusion onwards. That will make us fully integrated manufacturers of both aluminium and stainless steel coaches.

By the way, world over, high-speed trains are also made in aluminium. That also opens up our opportunity, and that is going to be something that we will definitely be working towards.

I have mentioned this in the past in in my public interaction, media interactions, that we would consider ourselves to be fully prepared and ready to take on the next next challenge for Indian infrastructure, which is high-speed trains.

Rajesh Bhandari

Accha, sir,

Umesh Chowdhary

ek question

Rajesh Bhandari

aur hai. When we say coach or car, do we mean ek dabba?

Jee haan, coach aur car ek hi dabba hota hai. Woh kabhi car bol dete hain, kabhi coach bol dete hain mood ke upar.

Jee haan. Toh ek dabba jo hai, that is approximately around 10 Cr?

Umesh Chowdhary

That's right.

Rajesh Bhandari

Sir.

Umesh Chowdhary

Jee,

Rajesh Bhandari

sir. Thank you very much.

Umesh Chowdhary

Thank you, sir.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr.

Umesh Chowdhary for closing comments.

Umesh Chowdhary

Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody, for participating in this call, and thank you for the very, very interesting, insightful questions that were asked.

We believe that India infrastructure story is in a very interesting moment, and thanks to the support that all of you, all the investors, and all our customers and the stakeholders, employees, have provided. The timely entry of the company into alternative business, which is the passenger rail segment business, makes us unique in this full infrastructure story wherein we are able to cater to both the streams, which is the freight growth story of India and the passenger growth story of India.

We are very confident, we are very bullish of both these stories continuing in a very healthy manner, in a very forward-looking manner, and we look forward to playing our own role in the infrastructure growth in both these segments, and of course, in the shipbuilding segment. Thank you very much for the continued support, and I look forward to interacting after the next quarters.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Umesh Chowdhary, for taking out time and addressing the participants' questions.

On behalf of Titagarh Rail Systems Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.