Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to welcome the management and thank them for this opportunity.

We have with us today Mr. Sorab Agarwal, Executive Director, Mr.

Rajan Luthra, the Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Vyom Agarwal, our President.

I shall now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Good afternoon everybody and welcome to this earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and year ended March 2026. Along with me in today's earnings concall, we have our CFO Mr.

Rajan Luthra and our President Mr. Vyom Agarwal.

I hope you have had an opportunity to look at the company's financial statements and the earnings presentation, which have been circulated and uploaded at the stock exchanges. During the quarter, the demand conditions remained stable across the market except the month of March, supported by conducive macroeconomic environment and a series of fiscal and monetary measures implemented through the year.

Lower headline inflation for a significant part of the period also supported demand in quarter four. Towards the end of the period, the escalation of West Asia crisis led to a sharp rise in crude and crude-linked commodity prices, supply-side disruptions, and continued rupee depreciation.

Despite these geopolitical headwinds, we responded with agility and operational discipline to deliver our best-ever revenue performance in quarter four last year, with sustained operating margins to fortify our balance sheet. Let me take you through some of the highlights of this fiscal.

On a standalone basis, we have achieved a total income of ₹3,395 crores in this fiscal, which is more or less flattish. Our EBITDA margins for the year expanded by 81 basis points to 18.33% from 17.52% last year, and profit before tax expanded by 80 basis points to 16.68% from 15.88%, and PAT increased by 73 basis points to 12.53% from 11.8%.

In absolute terms, EBITDA grew by around 4% to ₹622.36 crores, as against ₹599 crores in the preceding year. We were able to increase our PBT by 4.3% from ₹543 crores in FY '25 to ₹566 crores in FY '26.

Similarly, our PAT also increased from ₹404 crores to 425 crores, thereby registering a growth of 5.4% in the last financial year. The quarter began on a strong note, supported by a healthy market sentiment.

However, during March, the escalation of West Asia crisis led to raw material supply disruptions, inflationary pressures, continued rupee depreciation, impacting the overall cost environment. To brief you on the financial performance of the fourth quarter FY '26 on a standalone basis, the total income stood at 101 ₹1,021 crores for the quarter, which is up 15% sequentially and grew by about 5.58% on a year-on-year basis.

The EBITDA for the quarter at ₹163.7 crores the EBITDA for the quarter stood at 163.7 crores, whereas the PBT and PAT were at 151 and 108 crores respectively. Our company was able to sustain expanded margin profile, and EBITDA margin stood at 16%.

The PBT and PAT margins stood at 14.8 and 10.65% respectively. For the quarter, the operating margins expanded 145 basis points sequentially.

However, owing to volatility caused due to geopolitical environment, the other income was subdued in the quarter. We continue to be debt-free with sufficient availability of liquidity for the future.

The Board of Directors has recommended a final dividend of 100%, that is ₹2 per share for the year ended 31st March, 2026. Our cranes, material handling, and construction equipment business recorded an income of over ₹2,946 crores in the last year.

In this segment, FY '26 in this segment, FY '26 was an year of normalization for the industry following exceptionally strong FY '25, which also benefited from significant pre-buying ahead of emission norm transition. Industry demand during the first half of the year was impacted by emission norm transition, geopolitical situations, extended monsoon, and a slower project mobilization, leading to further moderation in demand.

Encouragingly, the industry conditions improved progressively during the year, and the demand momentum returned in quarter four FY '26, reinforcing our confidence in the medium-term outlook for the sector. For this division, we were able to maintain our expanded margin profile at 18.6% and recorded profit of ₹548 crores.

The Agri division registered a growth of 9% and generated a revenue of around 251 crores with margins at 1%. Further, we are pleased to announce the finalization of a 50-50 joint venture between Action Construction Equipment Limited and Kato Works Company, Japan, bringing together ACE's strong manufacturing and distribution capabilities with Kato's globally recognized leadership in heavy crane technology.

The JV will serve as a dedicated platform for truck cranes, crawler cranes, and rough-terrain crane businesses, strengthening our presence in the heavy crane segment. This partnership positions ACE to accelerate technology upgradation, deepen localization, expand export opportunities, and participate meaningfully in India's growing infrastructure and industrial capex cycle.

Our strategic positioning in the core sectors of infrastructure, construction, manufacturing, logistics, and agri will provide necessary impetus to our growth ambitions. In the past year, we have successfully completed our capital expenditure as planned, expanding our capacities.

We have also enhanced our operational capabilities through modernization and automation initiatives aimed at strengthening our quality and capabilities, while improving market competitiveness. Our blended capacity utilization for cranes, material handling, and construction equipment stands at around 60%, which provides us with enough headroom to capitalize on any immediate demand upticks in the future.

On the macroeconomic front, the Indian economy continues to demonstrate resilience despite ongoing global uncertainties. We remain positive on the long-term outlook of the construction equipment industry, supported by sustained government emphasis on infrastructure creation, improving project execution, and rising investments across urban infrastructure and industrial sectors.

At the same time, we remain mindful of the evolving geopolitical environment, which could lead to temporary supply chain disruptions and demand-side hyperinflation and input cost volatility. Against this backdrop, we expect a steady start to the year and remain focused on delivering on our growth agenda.

Steel, which is our biggest input material, remains volatile and at elevated levels. We will continue to look for all levers like savings, judicious and calibrated pricing actions, whilst maintaining right growth equation to protect and sustain our business model.

Our focus remains on driving volume-led competitive growth with right balance on pricing. We will continue to dynamically manage our EBITDA margin broadly in the existing range.

We continue to closely monitor the inflationary environment, and our focus is to ensure sustenance of our margin profile during the course of the year. We remain confident in the company's medium to long-term growth path.

Our strategic priorities remain unchanged, that is driving operational excellence, improving cost efficiency, maintaining disciplined capital allocation, and investing in capabilities that enhance competitiveness and profitability. With a strong market position, a focused strategy, and continued execution discipline, we believe we are well-positioned to create sustainable long-term value for our stakeholders.

With this, I would now like to open the floor for question-and-answer session. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the question.

Regarding our crawler cranes and truck cranes there were discussions regarding implementation of ADD and potential tapping of the market, what has been the status? Secondly, if we look at the other cranes like pick-and-carry and other products, is there has been any price point change or capability of Chinese players which are restricting them to enter let's say pick-and-carry or any other cranes?

See, obviously

your question is two-three pronged. First is, pick-and-carry cranes, the Chinese are really not doing pick-and-carry cranes.

We do not have any competition as such in the pick-and-carry crane range, which is generally below 30-35 tonnes capacity and is a pick-and-carry crane. What the Chinese are doing good is the slew cranes or the heavy cranes, which are I would say 40-50 tonnes and bigger.

They're different types of crane. They are 360-degree slew and with outriggers.

Wherein we had applied to DGTR with respect to the disabilities and the problems which the Indian industry is facing on a price front or credit terms front, whatever these Chinese people are offering. Obviously the entire proceedings happened, everything happened, and last year in September there was a DGTR order for anti-dumping duties, but very unfortunately for some good, bad reason, it has not been notified by the Ministry of Finance.

That is the situation as on date, and generally it's a 90-day time bar, ideally within December it should have been notified. Even we really do not know what is going to be the future fate of that anti-dumping order wherein 25% to 52% duties were put on Chinese manufacturers, but unfortunately that order has not been implemented by the Finance Ministry.

Understood, sir. Regarding the point that Chinese are not into pick-and-carry cranes, is any specific reason, is there any capability which they don't have or they are not able to meet our price point which we are able to supply, or any other reason?

It's

just generally basically the way how you are used to working within your countries or your territory. Chinese, from day one, even for smaller cranes less than I would say 40 tonnes, I would say less than 10, 20, 30 tonne, they have always been used to the concept of a truck-mounted slew crane.

That is what they continue to use even today, and that is what they've mastered over the years in the last 20, 30 years, 35 years. They really do not manufacture any pick-and-carry crane.

Pick-and-carry cranes are very popular and the mainstay of construction and lifting and shifting activity, even in the industrial areas in our country. In India, pick-and-carry cranes are very popular.

Similar is the case in Australia, pick-and-carry cranes are very popular. Even in Italy, pick-and-carry cranes are very popular.

It is country-specific. In China, they are used to slew cranes or truck cranes, 360-degree slew cranes.

That's the main reason that they're not used to using pick-and-carry cranes, and that's why they don't manufacture pick-and-carry cranes.

Understood, sir. Secondly, regarding the geopolitical conditions and other things, is there any specific parameter of types of crane where the industry tracks, let's say fuel price efficiency to check which product to be used or to be demanded further?

Is there any such parameter or any of our customers or players use this type of thing which affects their decision?

Not really. See, the main parameter for using cranes and construction equipment is their capacity and capabilities.

For cranes, it is in tonnage, and for other types of machines, it is more to do with the volume of aggregate material which they're handling. Fuel consumption with respect to which crane to use or which crane not to use is really not the criteria.

It totally depends on the load which need to be handled.

Understood, sir. Just a bookkeeping question.

How much percentage of our cranes would be whoever customer is buying is financed and how much would be approximately their own finances, matlab not through any financial institution?

I think approximately about close to I would say 85-90% of the cranes, as well as construction equipment, is generally financed through NBFCs and banks.

Got it, sir. All this would be the rental players or the EPC customers?

No, everybody. See, the entire market, which is split between rental as well as contractors, most of them prefer to get it financed through NBFCs or their banks.

For our share of revenue, what percentage or any approx broad range would be rental customers and developer or EPC players?

I would say the ratio would be close to around 50-50%. Let's say approximately half or maybe a little over half are bought by rental players, and balance directly by end users, which are EPC players as well as the manufacturing and the logistics industry per se, because they also use a lot of pick-and-carry cranes for their lifting, shifting requirement: the engineering industry, manufacturing industry, logistics.

Understood, sir. Thank you.

I have more question, I will come up in the follow-up.

Thank you.

Hi, am I audible?

Yes, yes,

yes. Right.

Congrats on the guided numbers. My first question is that on the segment revenue, I see a line item mentioned 'Others' which wasn't present in the previous quarters of the year, which is roughly 76.55 cr.

Can you clarify what that segment other revenue is?

I think Mr. Luthra will take that question.

If I'm not wrong, that is some miscellaneous exports and things which we send out of India. That is getting captured there, because it has become significant, that's why I think we put it as a separate line item.

Mr. Luthra, please.

Sorab, you are right that it is small, some export to miscellaneous. That is why it is separately as a by the auditors.

I see. My second question is in the financial report, can you clarify on the line item impairment losses on financial assets?

What's the breakdown there and where it's coming from? See,

basically, as a prudent accounting policy, we provide for expected credit losses depending on the receivables. As a prudent accounting policy, this is not a real loss, but we have to provide keeping in view the any expectation or any risk going forward.

This is the only provision for payments which are slightly delayed.

All right, good for my two questions. I will come back in the queue.

Thank you.

Hello?

Yes, Neil.

Yeah. Can you explain what the negative other income contains actually?

I'm not able to understand why the other income is negative.

I think it has more to do with mark-to-market losses with respect to the investments that we have made, the extra liquidity and the cash that we have. I think Mr.

Luthra will explain.

Sorab, you are right. Actually, we have because we have a surplus cash which have been invested.

As a prudent accounting policy, we do a mark-to-mark provisioning at the end of every month. This is mark-to-mark, and as you're aware, the market was slightly on a negative side in the month of March and in the last quarter itself, which has resulted in mark-to-mark provisional loss, not actual real loss, which has been partly recovered in the month of April as the market has slightly moved upward as compared to the March month.

Okay. What you mean to say is that in Q1, we can expect higher other income now that the loss has been reversed?

It's really depend how the market behaves. If the market behaves good, definitely it will be recovered.

Definitely April month was slightly better as compared to March partially we have recovered that losses, matlab mark-to-mark provisioning in the month of April. I'm hoping that if market remains static or slight improvement, then we should expect a good number in this quarter.

Most probably we should be hopeful that it should get back in the range of anywhere between 20 to 35 crores, right Luthra sahab?

That's right, Sorab.

I think it should be back on track within this quarter.

Okay. One more question.

Since you have reported under other segment in the segment revenue, can you also let me know the volume that pertains to this other segment, which means the volume that you exported, the miscellaneous export? Because that will really help me.

To the best of my knowledge, I think Luthra sahab can clarify, the volume will be very difficult to segregate because they were miscellaneous things that were exported out of the country which we did, and so I don't think there is actually a volume number to it. It's more of a value number to it.

Yeah.

Can you please repeat did you say that they were cranes that were exported?

Some part of it was construction equipment, but I think generally it was miscellaneous items along with it, some order that our port division took.

Okay. Fine.

Thank you.

Sir, am I audible?

Yes, sir.

Sir, my question was with regards to does your existing clientele include any shipbuilding clients, sir? I am asking this question since there have been news of new clusters coming up, right?

I just wanted to understand if you see any opportunity in this segment of customers.

Yes, we supply to more or less all the shipbuilding yards, whether in Goa, whether in other parts of the country. What I remember, recently we supplied some three special tower cranes to even Garden Reach Shipbuilders, for big tower cranes so that it can be used while building the ship as well as placing material on the ship once it's ready, other aggregate material which needs to be put on.

We do work with all the shipbuilding yards, and they require tower cranes, they require pick-and-carry cranes, they require everything.

Right, sir. With this expansion currently taking place, how much of your revenue do you expect to be contributed from these clients, sir, in the coming years?

See,

very difficult to put a number to it, but let's say out of the 700-odd tower cranes that we sell, if 10, 15, 20 in a year, the bigger ones go to them, you can just put a number, maybe around close to 1% or maybe less. Something similar I would imagine even for pick-and-carry cranes.

Sir. Thank you very much, that would be it.

See,

our market is very, very diversified. Wherever in the country there is any lifting, shifting, material movement required, whether it is infrastructure, whether it is construction, whether it is an industrial unit, engineering unit, or let's say a shipbuilding unit which I would call as a engineering unit, a big engineering unit, wherever there is any lifting, shifting requirement of loads, there cranes are required of different types.

Practically we work with more or less everybody in the country who has a lifting, shifting requirement.

Understood, sir. Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, sir, and congratulations on a good set of numbers.

Sir, my first question is on tower cranes only. You said we did 700 units this year.

What expectations should we keep for FY '27 in terms of volumes for tower cranes given the construction activity we have?

I think the tower cranes we did in the current year was slightly lower than 700. I think close to 680, 690, something like that.

I think obviously the real estate market has been good in the recent past, and that is a trend that we are seeing. With respect to tower cranes, our order books are all full.

Yes, it slows down a little in the monsoon season, but that happens every year. It has not happened so far.

It starts to happen only by middle, end of June. Hopefully, we should be looking at growth again in the tower crane segment.

To put a number to it would be very difficult at this juncture, because we have a capacity right now to do close to about 950-1,000 cranes. We would definitely love that we are able to utilize it going forward.

The overall sentiment, the economic scenario, how it is going to pan out owing to the geopolitical uncertainty which is hanging around and the imbalance in trade deficit, rupee depreciation, I do not know how the scenario pans out going forward, how positive it remains or how neutral or on the other side it goes. We are reasonably confident that we should be doing more numbers than what we did last year.

Okay. Sure.

And... I can just give you let's say what's happening.

See, we're nearly in the end of May, I would say. Nearly one and a half, two months have gone.

The tower crane demand as of now is there full throttle, what I see. Even looking at our other products, we are looking at reasonable growth within quarter one itself.

That is quarter one. Things had started improving end of quarter three last year.

Going forward, how the economic scenario pans out, how is the sentiment, because at the end of the day, all the machines that we make are capital goods. We are first hit, last out, to be very frank with you.

Traditionally, that is what I've seen. As of now, things are looking good.

What happens in Q2, Q3, I think middle, end of Q2 is a precise time we should be able to guide even on annual guidance. That's why we've also refrained from giving an annual guidance so far.

We are looking at a good quarter, that I can tell you. Yes, there will be increase because of inflation with respect to our selling prices, that will add to revenue, that will happen.

We will have some additional revenue coming in from defence, because we have about a 575 crore order book pending in defence, so that will happen. Some export will also increase.

To put a number to it at this juncture would not be prudent. That's why we would like to wait to middle, end of quarter two to put a number to it.

Oh, yeah.

That's what my next question was pertaining to about defence. You have 575 crores of orders execution left, right?

There, I think we have a more visibility about the order execution in terms of the deliveries. What kind of expectation should we have from that part?

See,

last year there was a contribution of close to around 3% from pure defence business in our overall revenue share. This year, we feel that it'll go up to anything between 5-6%, maybe slightly more, but yes, 5-6%, so that should be upwards of 200 crores, 200, 220 crores, whatever it is, within this year.

If we get a chance to execute more than that, we will definitely try to do it.

All right. Any kind of price increase or price hike expected in the upcoming quarters because of the cost inflation that we are seeing?

101%! We've already increased our prices.

I'll talk of the calendar year. In January, we took a 1-1.5% general inflation price increase.

Only on 1st of May, we again increased our prices by close to about 4%, maybe a little more. From 1st of June onwards, we are again pushing in a price increase of another 5%.

This will bring the total to 9% to 10%, but I think looking at the overall cost increase, it could be anywhere between the range of

11%

to 14%. Steel being the 11% to 14%.

We do not know where it will settle in the next one or two months, three months, because steel being the biggest contributor has increased by 20-22% from 1st Jan onwards. That is about 65% approximately of our cost.

Let's say 20% of 65% means 12%. We will have to go to at least 12% price increase eventually.

It could be slightly more than that.

Okay. Thank you, that's it from...

Yeah.

Hello, sir. Good evening.

Am I audible?

Yes.

Sir, actually I'm having two questions. The first question is regarding the non-current investment which we are doing.

Outflow of ₹831 crores of cash. Can you just throw some light on it?

Why we are doing so much investments, I've already seen that investments in some unlisted shares and debentures. Can you throw some light on it?

Basically,

the extra surplus money which we are able to generate, we're putting it to use by investing it, obviously not keeping it redundant. I think Mr.

Luthra will be able to share more light on it. Luthra sahab?

Sir, basically, the definition of non-current starts anything maturing after one year is considered as a non-current. We, as rightly said, we have been investing in surplus in some bonds, etc., with the maturity lies after one year.

Most of my investment will be having a tenure of between 1 to 2, 2 to 3 years only. That has been classified as non-current only.

These are basically although classified as non-current, but because of most of them are secured and listed and bonds, etc., in reality it can be sold in the market and can be converted into cash in a very short notice if required for any other use by the company.

What would be the amount, Luthra sahab, in this non-current investments approximately, off the cuff? Basically non-current is the accounting definition of non-current.

Actually, it may not be non-current in practical, real sense. But...

That I've understood, that they're liquid and they can be traded in the market or sold in the market, but just as to get an idea. Sir, give me a minute.

Because I'm sure that was the next question of the gentleman. Yeah.

Okay. Sir.

The next question is regarding the anti-dumping...

How much, Luthra sahab? It's

about 700 crores. Close to 700 crores.

Okay,

700.

Understood. The next question is regarding the anti-dumping duty.

Right now, all our competitors, earlier it was said that they are importing the high tonnage cranes kits to India and then they are selling it. Now, slowly and steadily, they are moving towards full-fledged manufacturing facility.

With all these things happening, after this, how will this anti-dumping duty help us? Because now they are going to manufacture cranes, high tonnage cranes in India only, if applicable, then how will this help us?

See, unfortunately anti-dumping duties have not been implemented. Ideally, they should have been implemented within December.

I really do not know the fate. As of now, it seems that because there is a 90-day bar, I think it has become time-barred.

There are government regulations and rules, and in the past it has been done after that also. I really do not know whether they will be put in place or not.

Yes, one or two of the manufacturers, out of the three main manufacturers or importers into India, Chinese companies, because of the fear of anti-dumping duties coming in, they have started to at least assemble these machines in India, some of the models, and also trying to indigenize some of the components, which is definitely leading to a cost increase for them, which I understand very clearly because luckily I had a discussion with one of them three-four months back. Their costs are going to go up by 8% to 10%, which will make us more competitive.

Their costs are going up because of trying to do local manufacturing, because earlier what they were doing, it was practically dumping of complete machines from China and at subsidized prices, whether being done by the company itself or eventually being subsidized by the government, which is a mystery to everybody who works with China. Yes, this will work in our favor eventually, because their costs are going up by 8% to 10%.

That is what I understand.

Understood, sir. Thank you so much, sir.

I'll get back to the queue.

Yeah.

Am I audible this time around?

Apologies

for earlier. Thank you so much for taking my question.

My question is that with the price increases that we have implemented and are going to implement, do you believe that there is enough appetite in the market in the cranes segment that we could see at least a 10% growth in crane volumes in FY '27, or is that something that seems out of reach?

See, to be very frank with you, I would not like to put a number to it at this juncture. As I mentioned, quarter one has been strong.

Yes, even because the base in the quarter one last year was a little less. Because of the low base effect, we will be doing reasonably good, okay in quarter one.

Maybe we can even look at a growth of 15-20% or maybe slightly more, I don't know, within quarter one. Going forward, how it pans out, slightly difficult to answer at this juncture.

In saying this, I would just like to say that last year when the new emission norms, BS-V, CEV-V kicked in, there are two types of cranes mainly. One is the Hydra type, which is the old generation, and the new generation crane.

The old generation crane is primarily bought by retail hirers used in a lot of industrial areas, and they were very skeptical because those type of cranes were moving from Tier 3 straight to Tier 5 standard. For the first time, they were becoming electronic.

They were scared of the technology, how they will be able to take care of it, and also the price increase there was the maximum, between 12% to 15%. That part of the market, let's say around 60% of the cranes which are old generation cranes, that part of the market shrank in the last year because of skepticism or fear or whatever you say, which had come back on track in January-February.

If that remains going forward, then we can look at increase in crane numbers. This, looking at the current overall scenario and let's say how the economy is going to pan out in the future, it is difficult to put a number to it.

Yes, as a company, I think we should be able to grow because of the inflation giving us a 5-7%, 8% leverage in our revenue, additional 2-3% defence business giving us some leverage, and certain other levers. We are definitely looking at growth in this year.

To put a number to it, either in form of numbers or let's say in form of turnover or percentage, we would like to do that only in the second half of quarter two. Mhm.

Thank you. My second question is on margins.

Margins for the last three quarters have roughly been EBITDA margins ex-other income has largely been in the 16% region for the last three quarters. Given the price increase that you have taken conversely with the increase in the material cost, do we believe that these margins will largely sustain, or can we see like a 50-60 bps reduction in the margins?

See,

we are hopeful that we should be able to sustain our margin profile, EBITDA without other income, in the range of around 15% to 16%. That is our primary target and aim looking at what has happened in the last two-three months with respect to commodity pricing and inflation.

We will keep a very keen eye on this with respect to our costs wherever they're going up. Accordingly, we will take calibrated price actions wherever required to compensate for that.

We are hopeful that we should be able to maintain our margins.

Thank you. Lastly, on the price increase, is the rest of the competitors within this segment also taking this proactive approach to pricing where they are updating prices regularly?

My question mainly aims to get at, now after all of these price hikes, is there a significant price difference between you and the competitors, or is largely the entire market in the crane segment running at similar prices?

See, the prices have been rising, that's what I've been given to believe from our sales department, that our competition has also increased their prices in the recent past. Because see, the input cost, whether it is steel, rubber, plastic, copper, oils, paints, or any other type of commodity that comes to your mind that goes into automotive type of product or a engineering product, it has increased across the board for everybody.

Our competition at segment level, I think they are at 8-9% margin, whereas we are close to 18-19% margin. I see no reason that if the input cost goes up by 12, 13, 14%, and if their company margin is at 8-9%, that why they will not increase the cost unless and until they want to go into a 5-6% minus type of scenario.

Far, they have increased their costs. That is what is our knowledge.

Going forward, whether they increase or not is their prerogative, but we will definitely be increasing another 5% from 1st of June, and maybe we will have to follow it up by another 3-4% sometime later in quarter two.

All right. Thank you so much for taking my questions.

Thank you.

Sir, thank you for the opportunity. My question was related to this JV with Kato.

Could you highlight what kind of opportunity can we see in the 2 to 3 years, what kind of revenue and margins are we targeting with this? See,

I would like to put it in two scenarios. Currently, where the anti-dumping duties have not been implemented.

In the current scenario, I think in the next 3 to 4 years, we should be looking at a revenue of upwards of 300 crores from this joint venture. It could be slightly more, it could be slightly less.

Yes, if the anti-dumping duties, and even in yesterday's newspaper, the main headlines in Economic Times was we should immediately curb non-essential imports. These machines are non-essential imports, because if these machines can be made in India, why should India be importing them?

If the government wakes up and the Finance Ministry puts anti-dumping duties, in that scenario, we could have looked at even upwards of 7-800 crores. Yes, currently, I would say it is close to 300 crores.

Sir, currently, what would be the price range difference between when it gets made in India versus when we import? See, our

pricing difference with respect to the cost of the Chinese is slightly difficult to put it, but yes, it cannot be cheaper than what we are doing in India. If we talk of let's say the gross margin or the selling prices, what I can say is that the pricing at which the Chinese are selling need to be at least higher by 25-30% for them to make any money, because they have an additional barrier of 7.5% current custom duty.

Then there is also the freight cost coming in from China. Now, even our currency has depreciated by more than 10%.

Even in all this scenario, I think they're underselling by at least 25% to 30%, if not more.

Okay.

On top of that, they also offer a one-year, two-year credit period, which is again a 7-8% benefit per year for the customer.

Right. Sir, my next question is related to capex, given everything that is happening on the macroeconomic front, although Q1 is doing well, but you're also withholding guidance.

What's the capex plan, what are the investment plans, and has there been any kind of change as compared to what it was last year?

In the current year, I think we will be spending close to around approximately 130-135 crores to complete acquisition of a land parcel which we have already contracted for about one, one and a half years back. That will happen for our land for future expansion.

Apart from that, we are setting up a new plant within our existing complex, specially for the defence equipment, and also for some new products which we envisage that we should bring in in the next one or two years. That will be around 40 to 50 crores.

Let's say and some maintenance capex, 20-25 crores put to it, I think including land, our capex for this year should all be put together should be close to 200 crores. We also intend to make a new tower crane factory where we envisage a capex of upwards of 400 crores.

Currently, we have capacity, we will just wait and watch and wait for the momentum, and as soon as we see things, maybe within this year we'll start working on that. That is again need-based.

Right. Sir, how much time does it take, let's say if we plan today to set up this factory for tower cranes, what time line are we looking at?

For the tower crane factory, we will require at least, I would say 12 to 18 months, more towards 18 months, because it is going to be highly autonomous and robotic.

Thank you. I'll come back in.

Thank you for the opportunity. Is there any clarification on the defence NOC that was mentioned earlier and has there been repeat from them?

Yes, we have got the required approvals from there, and if everything goes well regarding that big order of rough-terrain forklifts, actually a telehandler, we should be starting execution in the next quarter.

Lovely, lovely. My second question is last quarter, y'all had mentioned that y'all have figured out something with respect to the JCB backhoe segment, and we should expect something in the future.

Have we cracked that or is there any clarification there?

Yes, it is work in progress. We have tasted some success.

I think the proof of concept with respect to that should be there with us in June or July. Hopefully, that will help us aid us in increasing our numbers reasonably within this year itself, and then going forward it should be much better.

I think we are on track with that, yes.

Awesome, awesome. Thank you for your answers and good luck.

Thank you.

Sir. Hello, my question would be on the guidance provided by you in Q2 FY '26 for FY '29 or FY '30 of approximately around 6,000 to 6,200 crore.

However, given the relatively muted industry environment currently, how do you expect us to the roadmap evolved originally versus any updates you would like to make now and specifically which business segment would now expect to drive bulk of the incremental revenue?

Yes, this 6,000 to 6,200 crores by FY '29, and worst case by FY '30, if I am not wrong, that should have been our guidance. Obviously to do that, we need to add at least about 800-1,000 crores in revenue over the next three years, or maybe at the rate of 700-800 crores for the next four years.

Yes, this year really putting number to the guidance will be difficult at the current juncture, but hopefully we should be able to do it in quarter two. I think looking at a slightly medium to long term, we should be on track to attaining this 6,000 crores plus in FY '29, or latest by FY '30.

Because there are certain other things on the anvil which will also aid us in achieving this. Apart from, yes, in the last year, there was actually a drop in numbers of cranes and construction equipment, they will also come back.

In any case, the product mix and the price mix with respect to higher models has increased. Some inflation will also aid us, and our increasing defence and export business, because last year combined we did close to 9% for the first time, and our target is 10 to 15%, more towards 15% export and defence put together.

Within this year itself, hopefully we should be doing close to about 5 to 6% revenue contribution from defence and about a 6-7% from export. That will take us anywhere between 11 to 13%.

Plus within the cranes and construction equipment segment, even looking at our construction equipment part, we expect a decent growth within this year with all the endeavors and the things that have happened, coupled with export, coupled with defence, coupled with some other initiatives which we have already started. I believe we are on track.

Maybe a year here and there is maximum what we're looking at.

Sir, on a follow-up on this, how does the potential for operating leverage look like on this guidance? See,

I'll be very frank and upfront, and I think I did answer a similar question in the last or the call before that. We are at 15-16% EBITDA level, excluding other income, and about a 17-18% including other income.

I believe that these are very healthy margins, and trying to expand our margins anything beyond this would be detrimental to our market shares eventually. I think we are reasonably satisfied at these margin percentages, and anything beyond this, we'll try to be more competitive.

Sir. That's it from my side.

Thank you, and all the best for the future.

Need lots of it in the current situation. Thank you.

Thanks.

Hello. My question was regarding other expenses.

Although in this year, our volumes have gone down by 18 to 20% something, but our other expense has been flattish or has declined by close to 2-3%. Can you throw some light on why it has not decreased materially?

Other expenses, Luthra sahab, if you can take that question. Mr.

Luthra?

Basically see basically if you look at the other expenses, most of the other expenses are not variable, they are of a fixed nature. That has got no correlation with the revenue.

That is the main reason for it.

Okay. My second question was regarding our realization per unit has decreased drastically in Q4 compared to what it was in nine months.

How has the product mix changed, and how the demand is expected for each of the segment cranes, construction equipment, and material handling for next year, and how it has been in FY '26?

See, your question is demand in FY '26 and next year, and price the realization per machine. See, what is happening is definitely within the especially within the crane segment, the market is moving more towards higher tonnages machines, whether it is the Hydra type of cranes or new generation type of crane.

That is the reason that realization per piece, you see there is an increase there. Apart from obviously cost increase also happening because of the emission transition which we did last year, that also contributed, I think 5-7% to increase in cost per unit on a average blended basis.

FY '26, the demand was very tepid because of the emission norm change, especially quarter one, quarter two. Second half of quarter three, things started to improve, and quarter four was good.

As a matter of fact, within quarter four, we could have done at least a 40-50 crore more revenue. Unfortunately, because of the war which started in the Middle East, some of our export shipments which are still stuck with us and have not moved because they were meant for Middle East.

Obviously, there was some moderation with respect to deliveries happening within the country in March. Some people become skeptical, so that's what happened.

Going forward, within this year, we feel that we should definitely be looking at a handsome growth with respect to especially backhoe loaders and construction equipment. Material handling, that is mainly forklifts and similar machines, again we should be looking at a reasonable growth in numbers.

In cranes, because the Hydra type of cranes which had lost sheen last year because of, people were skeptical because of the major technical change owing to the electronic engines, so that has also come back in the last two-three months. Hopefully, I think we should again see a increase in number of Hydra cranes within the crane segment, apart from increase in our market share in new generation cranes on account of special features, safety features, world-class advanced features I would rather say, which are IoT-enabled and AI-enabled, which we have started giving in our cranes along with our Ace Live app.

All of this put together, I think we should be looking at increase in numbers within the crane segment also. Like I mentioned earlier in the call, the yearly guidance, we would like to give only sometime middle of quarter two.

Sir. No more questions from my side.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I just wanted to know, the guidance which you gave 6,000 crore to 7,000 crore for FY '29 or '30, do that accounts that JV revenue in that?

Yes, obviously that will also contribute here.

Okay. In case if it's above 300, that would be a bonus, right?

That will be a bonus, and there is a possibility it can be above 300, yes.

Fair enough. Sir, I could see that our average company realization per vehicle has reached to 25 to 28 lakhs, and the gross profit near about 8 to 10 8 to 9 lakhs.

Post this big-size crane coming in, and you mentioned that the average ticket size is in crores, do you see that the gross profit margin will increase going forward post the anti-dumping thing getting clear? See,

if the anti-dumping thing gets cleared, then definitely the margins will be better, because currently they're practically nil margins on which we are working. Even if the anti-dumping does not this thing, see, I think going forward, the margins, we would try that somewhere they are in line with our company's current margin profile, and especially to the machines which are going to get exported out of India.

There, the margin profile will be much better.

Fair enough, sir. Sir, you mentioned that you'll be doing near about 200 this year and 400 for the tower crane, the capex, near about 600 crore.

Considering the ROCE of 30-40% of your company, do you see that you'll be getting the same in the capex which you are doing?

Yes, see the 200 crores is more or less certain that we will do in this year. The 400 crores, I really do not know whether it will happen in this year or next year, because even if it starts to happen in this year, maybe 50, 100 crores will go in this year, then the balance will go in the next year.

Sir, my question is for the FY '28, '29 perspective. Do you see that you'll be maintaining the ROCE which you're currently working with?

Yes,

yes, definitely. That is one of also the main reasons why we will be doing it.

That is why we are trying to time it, so that we don't invest money before the actual demand arises. We will be timing it to perfection.

In any case, our investment to turnover ratio is close to about 8

to 10 times.

You can very well calculate that if we invest 400 crores, we are looking at at least a eight times revenue from there, or at least the capacity. That we will totally take care of ROCE and ROE before doing any capital expenditure.

Look,

at least it won't dilute, right? That's my question.

If you see that in the last two years, our ROCE from about 40% has gone down to, I'll just, from the page,

32%,

40% it has gone down to 32%. This is on account that obviously the money is lying idle with us

and is put

in investments. That is why we are trying to put it to productive use so that this ROCE can increase again.

It is not our endeavor or intention so that the ROCE goes below 30 to 33%.

No, fair enough, sir. On the defence side, any missile program are you working with some high-value product on defence?

Any color on that, sir, would be helpful.

We have got a couple of orders for, this is called QRSAM, Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile. We are currently working on building protos for two different integration companies for the same program, who have been allotted to work on that.

Which is going to have huge requirements in the next two-three years.

Tushar, here I would just like to add, that we are not into the firing systems. We are only into...

No, finish this one.

We'll just finish this one.

Yeah. I just wanted to clarify to that question, that we are not into firing systems.

We are only into the material handling requirement of the armed forces for the loading and the unloading of the ammunitions. We are nowhere involved in the firing mechanisms.

I think we'll take the next question.

Hi, sir, and thanks much for the opportunity. I think you've answered a little bit on the joint venture with Kato, but is this a completely new product, the heavy cranes platform?

Is it something that you were not present before and you will be launching these new products, as you mentioned, some at least 250 to 300 crores of revenue that you're targeting? What's the competition like that currently in India for the heavy crane segment?

See,

we are currently into truck cranes as well as crawler cranes, but of limited tonnages. With Kato, we will be also making higher tonnages.

The existing machines are going to be upgraded with the Japanese technology to make them world-class. That's why they'll also get sold in India as well as exported.

There would be bigger crane models that will be developed and evolved within the joint venture. Thirdly, there would be some specific export models which will be made in India, which Kato will be distributing globally.

That is where the main profitability will lie going ahead, two-three years down the line, once we start doing the models which are meant only for export market, which are 100% identical to Kato Japan production. That is also one of the main aims here.

The competition currently remains the same three-four Chinese companies, which in the last 10-15 years have made a very strong foothold within the Indian market because of the advantages and price leverage they were able to offer to customers, apart from extended credit terms of 1 to 2 years, even 3 years in some cases. That is our competition.

Yes, with rupee depreciating, with their own structures and costs within the country and subsidies reducing, and obviously with a premium attached to the Kato name and our pricing power, because customers are willing to pay a 15-20% premium to a Japanese product, going forward, I think we should be able to handle competition.

Sir, just in terms of since you will be exporting a lot of this product, as you mentioned as well, in the global markets, is it that the competition is more better in terms of pricing? Is it that the Chinese can impact that also, or is it more better market performance which is not competitive on price and price reduction in that sense?

See,

it's a huge market globally, much, much bigger than India market. The pricing of the Chinese in different countries where they're competing primarily with European and Japanese or American manufacturers directly is more or less 50% to 150% higher than Indian price point.

I think it'll be a very fair competition when Kato makes these cranes in India with us and takes them there. They should be able to sell at similar or higher prices than Chinese, with a decent profitability.

All those calculations and everything we have done. Another aspect of this JV which I would like to bring forth is that as one of the side agreements, ACE will also be exporting a lot of material, components, and whatever required by Kato Japan, because they don't only make cranes, they also make some other construction equipment like excavators, etc.

They would like to outsource these components and things and materials and commodities from India, wherein ACE directly exclusively would be exporting this to Kato Japan. That will be an additional revenue stream going forward.

Got it, sir. Just in terms of you gave some color that the guidance of course will be coming in quarter two and post that.

Point well taken. Just in terms of volumes, the cranes, construction equipment, and material handling last year was around 13,300, this year at 10,800.

Even because of this fall, as the revenue has only fallen by 1%, and you spoke about the hike. Anytime the volume growth comes in, even if it's in the high single digit, can we expect revenue growth to be much, much higher than what the anticipation is?

I'm sure you can make the calculations. Yes, possible.

That's a possibility. We are not banking on it, because these are turbulent times.

Our first focus is on sustaining profitability. Wherever possible in this scenario, again trying to increase our market share.

Plus, yes, if the market actually grows, which it should because last year the base was less, so that will further add to the momentum, yes.

Got it. Thank you so much, sir.

Thank you for the opportunity, and wish you the best.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hello, sir.

Good afternoon. We are basically market leaders having 60-odd percent market share in mobile and tower cranes.

Would we be able to increase it by 5-10% this FY, considering the chaos that's occurring? See,

the question that you have just asked is a discussion we have been having internally. In the current scenario of hyperinflation and we'll have to increase our pricing and all, I really do not know how easy it would be to increase market share.

It is going to be very difficult rather. Because first of all, we have to hang on to the customers and make sure that we get orders at a better pricing to compensate for the inflation effect.

In saying this, yes, because of a lot of good things and features we have added in our cranes in the last six-eight months, there should be some impact, and we should be able to increase our market share to some extent. In the current scenario, very difficult to put a number to it again.

Sir, I was expecting that the smaller players must be struggling way more than us, so that's why I was asking this.

Yes, all other players are smaller than us. Even our closest competitor is smaller than us, but obviously is a much bigger company with good numbers.

Everybody is struggling in this scenario. Nobody knows what is happening, because nobody actually knows what is the actual inflation put together pricing that needs to be taken, because inflation is happening on the go, and there is a generally a two-three month lag because some inventories are in process, some orders are in process, our supplier orders are in process.

When exactly how much amount is going to hit, but yes, the ballpoint figure like I mentioned earlier is 11 to 14% is the minimum increase that we will have to take to compensate for the inflation, or whether it is 12% eventually or 13%. I'm sure others are finding it difficult, more difficult, I'm sure.

Yes, sir. Chaos is a ladder, sir.

We will come out stronger.

Let's hope that we have climbed a lot of ladders in the past. We will also climb this one, I'm sure.

Thanks.

That's all for me, sir. Thank you.

All the best.

Thank you.

Hello once again, sir. Is it really safe to say from the past turbulent fiscal that the worst is really behind us?

I don't think so. Because

last year, yes, turbulence was because of emission norms, because of India-Pakistan geopolitical, Operation Sindoor, American tariffs, extended monsoon. Right now, this year we have entered with one of the most turbulent things for our country, which is crude oil price.

Now, there are different opinions which I also get from some people. Somebody says $60-$70 billion increase in oil bill will not affect a $3-$4 trillion economy to that extent, it is being overhyped.

Finally, the rupee depreciating is eventually going to help us being more competitive in the export market. All said and done, there is a war happening, and a lot of crude oil going to different countries, coming to India alone is also, including LPGs, is blocked.

These are turbulent times, and really can't say how more turbulent it will get. It's anybody's guess, I would have to become an astrologer to be very frank with you.

Yes, we see some silver lining within this with respect to our endeavors of the past, whether it is the defence portfolio we are able to create or some part of the export portfolio we have been able to create. Luckily, the base last year got reduced primarily because of the introduction of these CEV-V, new emission norm machines, and some customers, some segment of the customers were skeptical.

We definitely expect to do slightly better, much better in backhoe loader segment. Tower cranes are holding up, the numbers will increase.

It's anybody's guess. If there was a certain way to make it happen, we will try all that is possible to do it.

Most definitely, sir. Really appreciate the honesty.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yes, like conveyed, we are in turbulent times and a lot of turbulence has happened post this West Asia conflict. Inflation is increasing, our rupee is depreciating, business sentiment is getting affected, maybe some consumer sentiment will get affected.

I'm sure as a company, we'll find ways and means, and our first priority going ahead is to maintain and sustain our margins, and then see how our numbers and our market share can increase further. In saying all this, I can assure you that all our medium to long-term building blocks with respect to growth, innovation, automation, improvement, strategy, whatever can be thought of is in place, and all of us within our company are working hard on it.

I'm hopeful we'll come out better out of this crisis which our country is facing and the whole world is facing, but our country is facing it a little more because we import more than 80% of our crude. I'm sure things will be good going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.