Thanks, Leo. Good evening, everyone.

I would like to welcome the management and thank them for giving us this opportunity to host the earnings call. Representing the senior management, we have with us today Mr.

Ashwani Gupta, Whole-Time Director and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. D.

Muthukumaran, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Divyesh Taneja, CEO Logistics Business; and Mr.

Rahul Agarwal, Head of Investor Relations and ESG. Shall now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks.

Over to you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Anshul. Hello, everyone, and a warm welcome to APSEZ's third quarter earnings conference call.

We will begin with Ashwani's opening remarks and then open the floor for Q&A. Ashwani?

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, depending on the time zone you are in. Thank you so much for being on this call and thank you for your continued support and confidence in APSEZ.

As India's largest and world's fastest growing integrated utility company, APSEZ has once again demonstrated exceptional performance in regular, consistent way. All the four business pillars of the company are delivering strong, high double-digit growth rates, much more than the markets, much more than the competition, much more than the trade.

We are setting up the new benchmarks, and this quarter, we have even surpassed our internal benchmarks. Whether we talk about financials, we talk about revenue growth, we talk about EBITDA growth, we talk about PAT, we talk about market share, we talk about free cash, if you talk about any indicator, you will see a consistent growth delivering a very, very sustainable performance.

We have been saying that in every quarter, and we are demonstrating it in every quarter. Now, I will go a little bit more in detail.

The domestic ports delivered the highest ever 9-month container share at 40.6%, which is our main pillar of growth. Then when we talk about international ports, I still remember we always talked about how the international ports will perform, and now you can see that in quarter, we had a revenue which was 1,000 crores.

Which means that international business is also becoming between 4,000 to 5,000 crores revenue annual business, which is a very, very hyper growth trajectory. When we talk about marine, and if you remember that when we did the acquisition of Astro, we very smartly hand-crafted this business, and this is the reason that marine is also pulling our profitable growth.

All these do not come at the cost of profitability. If you look at marine and international ports EBITDA, it is more than double with double-digit growth.

Also, when you look at logistics, which is of course our second pillar, we have delivered the revenue 1,121 crore, which is 62% higher year-in-year. This was possible because of our strategy, which is based on asset-heavy, asset-light, and asset-zero.

Then all these financial disciplines, all these operational excellence results in a very strong financial discipline, which means despite the NQXT acquisition, where we are taking 700 million Australian dollars of debt, we are still able to keep our leverage under a check of 1.8x. Which means, moving forward, when we are following this higher double-digit growth trajectory, our cash flow is so much significant for us, which will help us in investing in the capacities on the existing assets, which is giving us the organic growth, but also to explore the meaningful rate of return inorganic growth by merger and acquisitions.

With the operational excellence and the financial discipline, we have revised our guidance by 800 crores. Now, all this has been very clearly appreciated and recognized by the external agencies.

To start with, our balance sheet strength is now validated by Japan Credit Rating Agency, which rated us a notch above India's sovereign rating. Now moving forward, we continue to invest in the capacities for the organic growth, especially in India, including liquid, including containers, and very recently, we announced 16,000 crores Vizhinjam Phase 2 expansion, and we are investing in Dhamra, Ennore, Kattupalli, Haldia, and so on and so on.

This growth momentum, along with the operation efficiency, positions us to be very much on the trajectory towards the FY29, which is our end of 5-year plan, where we said we will be doing 65,500 crores of revenue and 36,500 crores of EBITDA. Once again, quarter-on-quarter, we are overdelivering with respect to internal as well as the external benchmarks, which are making us very much confident to reach the 5-year plan in FY29.

Now, giving a little bit more details that how we are investing in the technology to improve the operational efficiency, very recently, Vizhinjam has achieved the world-class GCR, which is the gross crane rate, at 30 containers lifts per hour, which is a benchmark just after 8 months of operation. That's why we keep on continuing to invest in the technologies.

Now, all this profitable growth comes with sustainability at the center of our strategy. Sustainability is an enabler, not an objective, for us.

That's why, as a global leader in sustainable transportation, APSEZ has become India's first company in its sector and among a select group of global players to adopt the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, setting a new benchmark for nature-positive infrastructure development. We now take the questions.

Thank you.

Thank you. Congratulations on a very good set of numbers, sir.

Sir, my first question is I was observing the numbers. Our domestic realization is up 9% year-on-year in this quarter.

Can you tell us what is the reason driving this?

Hi. This is Muthukumaran.

Thank you very much. Spot on.

We have increased, and we have mentioned in page number 16 where we talking about domestic ports that the higher implied revenue and EBITDA per ton of this quarter is non-representative as it also includes some take-or-pay charges in addition to the routine price increase and mix change. What we're trying to say is that actually, we have sort of enjoyed the benefit of price increase, mix increase, and benefit of mix change, and there is a little bit of benefit from Forex.

Besides all these things, there is a little bit of an element on the denominator being suppressed because we are getting take-or-pay, but the volume is not. If you're calculating price per ton, you'll have to actually sort of put all these things.

Of course, we don't give the breakdown of each of these elements, but yeah, we have all these things put into the price increase.

Understood. That is why that difference.

My second question is if you could help us with the cargo breakdown of the international cargo port-wise?

I'll flip to the page. Can you go to the next question in the meanwhile?

My last question is on Mundra. What is your outlook on Mundra for the full year?

I think we are down around 2% for 9 months. What is your outlook on Mundra for that full year?

As you can see, Mundra is doing extremely well utilizing each and every capacity which we could. Quarter 3 if you look at the container cargo, because if you remember, I always talk about container, container, and container because we know that two of the power plants in Mundra are highly dependent on the imported coal, we are focusing on that.

You can see that month-on-month, quarter-on-quarter, we are increasing the container. In quarter 3, we did 2.2 roughly 2.2 million.

In January, we touched 754,000. This is when we have not yet opened up the capacity for the new terminal which will be coming in next year.

I think in January we already did 754,000, which is a real benchmark because our efficiency in Mundra is reaching the best of best in terms of GCR, in terms of rail evacuation, and so on. Now, after this CT5 comes in, definitely we will have add-on capacity.

To answer to your question, container, liquid terminal, fertilizers, and all these commodities, Mundra is on the right track. When it comes to the coal, especially the thermal coal, there, we of course see flat movement.

Anyhow, that is not going to change the dynamics of our Mundra financials because, as Muthukumaran said just before, those are all take-or-pay capacities when it comes to financial.

Ketan, the volume split, the numbers are about 5.4. Israel about 2.1, and Tanzania about 3.1 MMT.

Sorry, sir, I couldn't hear you. Could you repeat?

Colombo 5.4 MMT, Haifa 2.1, and Tanzania 3.1. 3.1 MMT.

These are all quarterly numbers.

Understood. Thank you, sir.

Those are my questions.

Thank you.

My congratulations to you for increasing the guidance and of course for a very strong outlook for the year. My first question is, sir, when I see the numbers in a bit more detail, we are seeing that there is this Others revenue that we are seeing, there is a significant increase in that top line there and almost a doubling of the EBITDA.

What is driving that? Is it our dredging entity or is it the track maintenance entity?

How should we look at this particular item going forward?

Priyankar, hi. Thanks a lot for the question.

Subsequent to last financial year's income tax changes, we did a little bit of a restructuring of assets, and some dredgers which were sitting in Adani Ports SEZ, the top company, did go to Shanti Sagar, which is the subsidiary company, then that gets clubbed under Others. Then Others include another subsidiary, Sarguja, where our volumes have ramped up quite significantly in this financial year.

I just wanted to lay these explanations out to you before coming to, I guess, the purpose of question, quality of analysis or quality of revenue. These are sustainable, recurring, usual, routine income.

It's just a classification. There is nothing in particular, sort of for you to focus on Others line.

In any case, actually, as you can see as the last point, on a per-ton basis, EBITDA contributes 2 rupees, increase. Which is not quite significant.

Overall, I just wanted to re-emphasize that these are accounting classifications, and nothing to highlight to you on, sort of quality of income.

Sir, furthermore, in Vizhinjam, we just heard the announcement of this 16,000 crores further expansion of capacity. Now on that, can you just provide us like what sort like what is the timeline for the capex, and following that, what sort of a volumes, let's say, you are building in?

Because by the time it comes let's say onstream, we would be very close to our FY28 and '29 targets. If you can share share some color.

Is there some plans for I think offshore ship-to-ship bunkering, something of that plans, at least from the press release that I could make out?

The last question, can you just repeat the last sentence?

Is there some plans for liquids as well as Vizhinjam, like ship-to-ship bunkering or something of that sort?

Divyesh. No, this 16,000 crore is for the Phase 2 development.

This will take the capacity more than 5 million because, with the technology and with efficiency, we are delivering 20% to 30% more than the nameplate capacity. This 16,000 includes extension of the breakwater, includes the berths, includes the equipments, and it includes all the ecosystem which is needed to run the port.

Obviously, this includes the potential to develop the liquid terminal. To start with, we have already signed the MOU with BPCL for LNG bunkering.

This will be ship-to-ship bunkering because, as that today, the LNG bunkering is at Jebel Ali, and then the Colombo is still struggling. Because on this international channel, there is not many competitive LNG bunkering facility, that's the reason that shipping lines are not bringing their LNG-capable vessels on this channel.

With the ship-to-ship bunkering facility in Vizhinjam, which is just 10 nautical miles from the international water, is boosting the shipping lines and motivating them to bring their vessels which are LNG-capable. I'm pretty sure this will be very successful, and BPCL will of course bring the LNG from very nearby Kochi plant.

Thank you. The question, Priyankar, on capex, the capex will go on till FY29, and the payments will happen until FY30.

I'm actually while talking to you trying to pull out the EGM notice in which we have given the year-wise anticipated cash flows. Just 1 second, I'm getting it up for you.

This will increase the capacities from the current 1.6 million TEUs to we will expand it by 4.1. That for in total, we will go up to 5.7 million TEUs of total capacity.

We have also given the details of exact project specification: how many cranes, what is the breakwater requirement. All of them are in the EGM notice that we have actually circulated.

I'm actually trying to read out to you from there the capex: FY26, we have 90 million; FY27, we have 350 million; FY28, we have 700 million; and '29, 550 million; and FY30, 63 million. This is the anticipated cash flows on account of this project.

It'll not be out of place to actually put in a caveat that these are estimates which is going to go 4 years out. There may be variations, but this is our estimate of cash flow.

Sir, very helpful. What I was trying to actually understand, when you are doing this large expansion of Vizhinjam and you have a plan for 36,000 crores EBITDA in FY29, is this asset contributing handsomely to that from this expansion?

No, this expansion, the basic port already exists, right? We already have 800-meter berth.

We will keep on building up. It is not that we will increase the volume in 2028 only.

I think we will be doing an incremental ramp-up of our volume. This EBITDA, which we have declared that we will be doing by FY29, includes all the ports which we have, includes the ramp-up, and includes the existing business.

It's not a new decision which we took which is going to impact the EBITDA. It is all included in our business plan, right?

Just to add to it, actually, as I mentioned, this project will only be completed by FY29, and 36,000 crores that you're talking about is for FY29. It'll be very, very small contribution to that estimate.

It is being built based on the markets' growth and sort of our company's growth going forward.

That's very clear. Just if I can squeeze just last one in, since NQXT would be included from the next quarter, can you give us some idea how should the balance sheet be essentially looking like when we close the year, like FY26, and how should we look at, let's say, a little bit ahead?

I think in the page number I'm trying to look, but basically the total debt, net debt of Australia is about 4,800 crores as of December 2025.

That's the gross debt. 4,744 crores is the gross debt.

280 crores is the cash.

Sorry, 4,500 crores.

Sir. I'll come back into the queue.

Yeah. Hi, Ashwani and Muthu.

I have two questions. If you can talk about your 2030 target of 1 billion ton, will it be entirely or largely fulfilled by the ongoing expansion in half a dozen ports that you mentioned in your presentation, including Vizhinjam and so on and so forth?

That's question number one. If not, and will that expansion target will be in India or in overseas?

Second question is with respect to Vizhinjam, do we have a entire ecosystem in place to handle your target capacity in terms of evacuation, in terms of cargo, if you can share any color? Also the pricing difference between Vizhinjam and Colombo?

Let me start with the second question first, Parash. Vizhinjam basically, at this point in time, we are positioning it as a transshipment.

Evacuation into hinterland is marginal for now. That said, there is a road connectivity, which is right outside the port, which can evacuate for EXIM cargo.

There is also a plan for us, and we are sort of evaluating and implementing a rail connectivity program in that port. If and when rail also happens, we will have added evacuation capacity, and road, of course, can serve to the extent that we need.

It is not a constraint. As the market develops, we'll be able to actually sort of handle the EXIM cargo quite easily.

At the moment, it is positioned as a transshipment cargo. To your question on 1 billion ton, basically, we are talking about the split of largely domestic and international.

International is about 150 million metric tons, for which the current four ports that we have in the portfolio sort of have a very clear visibility of how we can get to 150 from these four ports with the current program, with nothing sort of added new. Now, if we do add anything more in the international, it'll actually add to the comfort of a billion ton.

As far as the balance 850 million ton is concerned, it is all going to come from domestic market. Vizhinjam is a transshipment port, and if you go back to the earlier question, I did mention that Vizhinjam is going to have Phase 2 coming in only post-FY30 in volumes.

Therefore, current volumes that we're doing, you have the current indication of where we will do. Now, if you remove that, everything else is sort of coming from the existing ports that we already have.

We have explained in the last quarter that we see a disproportionate increase in Dhamra. We can see that going up to 100 million tons in times to come.

Other than that, all the ports will actually go up in proportion. Mundra has an ecosystem to grow faster than other people, but that is sort of only at the margin.

By and large, we don't anticipate any proportionate contribution coming from ports in a way which is different from what we have today. The current split is, by and large, indicative of how we will do.

All the ports, we expect to contribute to growth, and you will see that we've been investing in all of the ports, expansion, capacities being created in an organic manner. We expect the proportion to, by and large, remain the same.

On Vizhinjam, if you can talk about the pricing of transshipment cargos versus Colombo, for instance?

Sorry, your voice kind of

high, low.

See, as pricing is always the consequence of supply and demand. Colombo is short of capacity, and I'm pretty sure that in coming 3 to 4 years, Colombo will be struggling for the capacity.

We have the capacity, and in addition to the capacity, we would be also offering the EXIM very, very, very soon. Vizhinjam, anyhow, as a overall port, will keep its competitiveness, and we will fight with the competition accordingly.

Far, since we started, absolutely we have no pricing pressure because of that because we are driving the business by the services we give to the shipping lines, not only in Vizhinjam port, but everywhere in the world, including Colombo.

Fair enough. That's very helpful.

Thank you, and have a good rest of the evening.

Thank you, Paras.

Hi, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity.

One question on the container cargo volume growth that you have seen in the logistics business. It's about 4% Q-o-Q.

Seemed to be a bit low versus what you were tracking, and what even CONCOR has done is slightly more than that. Also, as the second biggest player in the space right now, given that DFC is going to come up in March, and the CONCOR has given a fairly strong growth guidance for the next 3, 4 years on their call, just wanted to hear your thoughts on how you are looking at the next 3, 4 years post-DFC?

Hi,

I'll just respond to that. You're right.

We're Q-on-Q looking at 4%, so that's roughly 1.64 to 1.70. Initial response to that is that we're going down the integrated path and looking at having a complete port-to-factory sort of thought process.

That's where you're seeing a reconfig happening. With regards to the DFC, which is roughly 1,500 and 6 km, which ultimately will connect the northern hinterland into, let's say, Nhava Sheva as well as Mundra, we don't see too much of disruption.

We're looking at our volumes remaining steady. Primarily, if I look at it, the rail slabs that you're looking at between, let's say, Mundra and the other ports vary from 6 to 7 rail slabs that will increase.

Apart from, let's say, the increase in cargo carrying capacity, the rail slabs will not really benefit that process. We will see a little more movement, no doubt, maybe from road into rail, but we don't see any delta affecting us.

In fact, we do look at the industry as a whole benefiting from this.

Your response sort of gives me the impression that you are looking at a single-digit growth for the next 3, 4 years in the rail container volumes even after DFC. Is that the right impression?

No, not really. If I'm looking at Adani Logistics in particular, we are targeting double-digit growth, as we have done even in this, if you look at my year-on-year numbers, we are in double digit, roughly at 11%.

We are looking at double digit to continue.

For rail container volumes.

That's right. I think for the DFC, we appreciate DFC because at the end, it is contributing to the overall trade, and it is contributing to the traffic.

One thing which is very important for all of us to be very clear: what comes to our competitor port is because of their port competitiveness, which is draft, which is evacuation, and so on and so on. What comes to Mundra is because of Mundra's competitiveness of the port, whether it is a vessel turnaround time, whether it is the efficiency of our ecosystem at Mundra, whether it is the draft, and also our relationship with the shipping lines everywhere, right?

Anything which comes to Mundra can also go to Vizhinjam for the transshipment. That is the competitiveness in Mundra as a port.

Now, we can always say that catchment area for our competitor and us are different, so that will always continue. Now, the question is what is the impact of DFC on us is negligible, and I would say zero.

Why? Because when it comes the travel time, the travel time on the DFC will improve, but the travel time on connections to the competitor port and to the competitor ICD will remain the same as it is between Mundra and our other ICDs in the NCR.

We don't expect the total end-to-end time using the DFC to go much less unless until the bottlenecks, and which will take time and efforts both. More than that, the only competitiveness which may come is from what is the cost per TEU after the DFC will be started.

Because this is where the shipping lines can say that even if Mundra has got a better draft, even if Mundra has got a better vessel turnaround time, even if Mundra has got a better services, which is end-to-end, but still, your competition will have a competitiveness because of DFC, and answer is no. Why?

Because there will be additional 300 to 350 km where Mundra will have the competitiveness, which is roughly 5 to 6 railway slabs, and which is not few hundred rupees, which is few thousand rupees. I think our customers/shipping line will think twice to use our competition DFC if it is our catchment area, if it is our competitiveness.

That's where we do believe that DFC will increase the efficiency of our competition, but will not take away the business from us.

Very clear. Also, just a brief comment if you can make on the GPWIS volumes, which have been flattish this year.

Is that mainly because of coal not being too much in vogue, or what is the reason for GPWIS volume being flattish for 9 months?

It's predominantly, if you look at it on the east coast, we've had an extended monsoon. I've gone from 5.5 to 5.2.

This is primarily the reason.

Extended monsoon. Okay.

Flattish for 9 months is again linked to which commodity?

No change in commodity mix, it will remain flat. We were thinking and we wanted to take your feedback also.

We started communicating about GPWIS when the Indian policy was talking about increase in the GPWIS and increase in the participation of private players in GPWIS, and we were very bullish on that. Then, all of a sudden, there was a pause on the policy.

Only thing which we can do is to run GPWIS in a very efficient way. The issue comes when we want to run the GPWIS in efficient way, but at the end, they are connected to the main traffic of the railways.

If GPWIS is not getting the load, sometime it comes empty. That's where you will see the fluctuation of the utilization of the GPWIS, not because GPWIS does not have the business opportunity, just because that overall ecosystem of rakes owned by Indian Railways and the rakes owned by us do not get the full optimization because of import-export imbalance.

Got it. Just one last question, your EBITDA for 9 months is 16,830 crores.

How's been the conversion to operating cash flow for the 9-month period? The way you are tracking on operating cash flow, which is much, much ahead as compared to your EBITDA as compared to your capex plan for FY26.

We've been asking it in the past to your cash position, and your balance sheet just gets better. What are your capex plans through 2030, if you can repeat them once again, and what do you do with the extra cash generation?

First question, conversion, basically, we have an annual interest net, including sort of netting off income in the region of about 1,800 crores. Tax, a little less, but call it similar amount.

We have already given you the guidance for the full year of 22,800 crores as the EBITDA. If you remove these two or deduct these two, you will get the sort of operating cash flows a little over 18,000 crores.

That is answer to your first question, and we are on track sort of for this conversion. To your second question, what we're going to do with extra cash, you have seen that over the last 2, 3 years, we have been sort of doing sort of buybacks where required.

We've been actually prepaying some loans. We have said that as a policy, we will keep cash to a comfortable level of at least two quarters of capex and anticipated cash outflows.

That's the minimum that we would like to carry in our balance sheet. As and when we generate excess cash flows, we will deal with the way we did in

the past. Which is in the past, you were on a capex spree, but right now your capex plans are much lower.

We will actually give you along with the next quarter the sort of capex plan for FY27. It will be sort of discussed in detail like we have done for past years.

At the time of Q4 result, we will give you, and you will see that directionally, for all the projects that we have already announced, we will have more cash capex than what we have done in the past. It will all stack up when we give you the breakdown in Q4.

Sure. Just to revisit, to meet your target of 1 billion ton, has the capex plan over a 5-year timeframe, which was there earlier, changed?

No.

It is only going to be timing of the capex. I think we will look forward to the fourth quarter discussion.

Thank you.

Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

The first question I have is with respect to container at Mundra. If I see the last three quarters, our container volume has been between 2 to 2.2 million TEUs.

A, or rather last four quarters, if you could give us some sense as to what is the challenge out here? B, the outlook, I know you've given the kind of overall number, but if you could just talk a little bit on container and coal for Mundra particularly, and also at aggregate level.

Thank you so much.

Sorry, I'm trying to understand your question. You're saying that between 2 to 2.2 is less or more or okay or?

No, actually, okay, let me rephrase, sir. If I look at the container volume growth for last three quarters, it's -3, +4, and +6 at Mundra port.

Uh-huh.

It has been growing in high double-digit or mid-teens in the past. If you could give us some sense as to what is creating this hiccup, and B, the outlook, and similarly for coal.

No,

I think, no, there is no hiccup in Mundra. Of course, there was a hiccup in quarter 1 when we had this Operation Sindhur, because of which, we had the disturbance in the supply chain, and that's where the quarter 1 was 2 million, but then it started picking up from quarter 2.

Quarter 3, as you can see, is 2.2 million, and January itself is 7.5. If I do my math correct, we should be more than 2.2.

As I said before, Mundra is still having the capacity, and we are really encashing each and every bit of the capacity. Very soon, our CT5 will be open.

We don't see any challenge in increase in volume in Mundra. I think on the coal, there was a combination of two things.

Number one, India as a whole saw the sluggish power demand. That was number one, which means the thermal coal import all-India basis was -2.7%.

We, as the two power plants in Mundra, because they are dependent on the imported coal, they also got the hit because of that. That's where, we had this issue.

Now moving forward, both the plants have been fired, and I think both have got the approvals to move forward, and they will move forward because that's where the India power needs are. Having said that, once again, I repeat that the Mundra growth is not driven by these two power plants or by the thermal coal.

Mundra growth is driven by container, container, and container. That's why we decided to invest in container terminals.

Mundra growth is also by the liquid. If you would have seen in last two quarters, you would have seen the growth in LPG also, and the fertilizers, the agri, and so on and so on.

Overall, we really want to drive the growth in Mundra by container.

Got it. Secondly, just a clarification.

NQXT will be consolidate from 1st of January? Have I understood right, or 1st of April 2026?

1st of January.

Understood. If you could clarify in terms of the other expenses line item, that seems to have kind of seen a decline on a YoY basis.

Any particular reason out here if you could call out? If I see, this is 475 crores.

475, 471.

Yes. No, there isn't actually any particular sort of reason.

These are just quarterly and seasonal things. If you see year as a whole, it'll actually stack up.

Got it. Thank you.

I'll fall back in the queue for more questions. Thank you.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

I would like to ask what are the kind of borrowing target for FY27, and what kind of avenues would the company be looking at in terms of domestic and external borrowing, if you could share some segregation?

Okay. In FY27, we have only routine amortizations coming up for repayments, which is in the order of some 3,500 crores.

We will give you the EBITDA guidance for the next year when we discuss next quarter numbers. Directionally, you will find that we are generating sufficient cash flows to meet the mandatory prepayments required, as well as the capex plan that we have.

Without numbers, it's a little bit of a peep into what you might sort of hear from us in next quarter about the next financial year. We don't need any borrowing.

That said, we have been having sort of virtually all markets open. We've been able to borrow in the ECB market, we've been able to borrow in the rupee banking market and the rupee NCD market.

Then we also have short-term markets like CP. We have multiple avenues of sort of markets open to us.

Over the course of last 1 year, we have been dipping into each of these markets just to actually remain active in these markets. We've been doing borrowings in all these markets over the period of last 1 year.

It gives me the confidence to tell you that all these things are open because sort of we have done this.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Many congratulations to the management and for their good quarter. My question is regarding the upcoming projects, like with a recent notification of Galathea Bay as India's 13th major port and the government's move towards the PPP model with a private anchor, is the company planning for any interest in the bidding for this project?

Sorry. Sorry, I missed your question, I just got it.

Thank you. In India, we are already running between 27% 27% market share, and any new capacity which is built up in India, definitely we will go for it, even if it is PPP model or it is a HAM model, whatsoever model comes in, we will go for it.

Great, sir. If, as per the research I had made an estimated cost of around 44,000 CR at the Phase 1, how would such a massive greenfield investment project will be, like, sourced through the current leverage ratios and doubling the EBITDA by FY29?

Hey, sorry to interject. Your voice is not coming through clearly.

It's a little blurred.

Is it properly now?

We'll try to make it work. Just

go ahead. The estimated project cost is around 44,000 CR, and how much a massive greenfield investment impact will occur on the current leverage ratios and the long-term target for doubling EBITDA by FY29 or '30?

The current 44,000 means what? No, I understood.

Basically, we have given the strategy presentation where we have said the total investment program identified is 75,000 crores, out of which 50,000 crores is for the ports. For us to do that kind of investment, we don't need fresh borrowings.

On the contrary, even after this investment in a 5-year plan, we will be in a net cash generator because our operating cash flows are far more than the currently declared investment program. On that basis, our leverage will go down on a net basis.

Of course, we are always on the lookout for more growth opportunities, and that is something that will occur episodically, and whenever we actually get the opportunity, we will invest in

organic land. Got it.

That's it from my side. All other questions were covered up.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for taking my questions. Good afternoon, good evening.

Obviously, a lot of things went right in the quarter, but maybe at a higher level, if you can just tell us what could have been better? What are we missing?

What are we not seeing in the quarter that could have gone better?

That's great. Thank you.

I think in Vizhinjam, we reached 30 GCR in the month of December. If we would have reached it in the month of October, we would have done more volumes in Vizhinjam because we are up in Vizhinjam.

Let me say that. I think the second point is on the logistics.

I think we announced our strategy 9 months before, and quarter-on-quarter, we are demonstrating significant increase in our logistics. Very recently, we have started the optimization of the rail, trucking, and warehousing.

I would say that the rail volume which we saw, container volume especially, the 4% increase, definitely has many opportunities. This is where, just before we said, that especially in logistics and especially in rail container, we will be doing much better with respect to the previous quarter.

I think rest, I would say, coal, thermal coal import is not in our hands. Whatever is in our hands, I would say that if I prioritize, I think the rail container, and I would say that that is something which I would say that we will be doing much better.

Then just looking at international ports and logistics margins, appreciating the fact that those two segments are ramping up, how should we think about margins? Because margins did decline sequentially from second quarter to third quarter.

How should we think about the cadence of margins as we look out the next few years? Where do they settle?

Manish, you are absolutely right. At sort of the headline level, our profitability margins sort of have come down in this quarter.

If I were to set the context correct and analysis correct, we've been sort of laying out a strategy which will go down this path. It is well within the framework of what we have set ourselves to do.

Our international margins, bulk of it is coming from marine. Marine is firing at about 55% of EBITDA margin, and it is also giving an return on capital employed of 14%, which is far, far above the threshold.

We've been guiding that as far as the logistics and international ports is concerned, the best metric is to use the return on capital employed because it's a non-homogeneous market. In a heterogeneous market, it's pointless to compare EBITDA margin.

It actually does not tell you the business performance. Therefore, we have been providing details on return on capital employed.

Okay. Then just lastly, Ashwani, there's been fair amount of discussion today on the '29 targets, but maybe if you can just help us understand what could be the tightest constraints to achieving the fiscal '29 guidance that you have laid out?

I think that would be super helpful. Actually related to that, do you have any plans to potentially revise the fiscal '29 outlook that you have provided?

I think first, I will answer the question number two. I don't think we are revising the guidance on the 5-year, because 5-year is always a guidance which guides us to execute the business on day-to-day basis, and deliver and communicate the results on quarter-on-quarter.

I think this is what is the policy, is the philosophy of the procedure we have adopted, and we will keep that. Obviously, like we have seen in this quarter, that we were confident, we have the visibility, we revised the guidance.

We will not update the 5-year just because we are revising the guidance for this quarter. I think this is how we are managing our business by maximizing the opportunity and minimizing the risks.

That's answer to number two. Answer to number one, Manish, that there is only one thing which can take away from reaching the target, which is a big turmoil between the countries, and which may impact the trade.

Otherwise, with small geopolitics here and there, with small tariff discussions here and there, you would have seen that it does not move the needle on the reverse direction. I think we are very much on the track, and we will be on the track.

As I said, there is only one thing. It's a big turmoil between the countries which will impact the global trade, then only we will be impacted.

A small thing here and there, whether it is Red Sea or it is some humidity or it is something, it does not move the needle because now, fortunately, our base is quite big.

Okay. No, that's super helpful, Ashwani.

Thank you so much, and good luck, Muthu.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sir, thank you for taking my questions. I have a few of them.

The first couple are just bookkeeping.

Is this better? Can you hear me?

Still not clear?

We can make do with this, Pulkit, but it's not very clear.

Sir, okay. I'll just try to be a little loud.

My first question is bookkeeping. Is it fair to assume part of the realization improvement that you've seen in the quarter is also to do with the rupee depreciation?

The answer is yes, Pulkit, but can you be a little far away from your handset or whatever you're talking from, because it's a little too jarring. We can't hear you clearly.

Is that better, Muthu?

It's better. Please go ahead.

Okay. My second question is in your press release, you've spoken of the gross debt, where you mention that it excludes certain non-core liabilities related to NQXT.

Could you just highlight what those are and what would be the total number for those?

This is also a matter that was approved by shareholders yesterday in the extraordinary general meeting. If you go back, Pulkit, to the deal construct, along with our acquisition came certain non-port-related assets and liabilities.

We said that in short order, as soon as possible, we will take them out. We guided for a few months' time frame, but we actually ended up doing within a month.

Also, as of now, it stands approved, it's only an accounting entry that we need to pass. For all practical purpose, you can ignore them as we speak today.

Just to give you a sense of amount, because you asked for the amount, we have indicated the amount to be $2.54 billion as on 31st January 2026. However, none of these have any bearing, and as of today, it stands dissolved, and there are no non-core assets and liabilities as we speak.

Everything is dissolved as of now. My next question is on coal volumes.

A quarter of our total volumes come from thermal coal, and while there is a lot of uncertainty and we've seen the last of couple of years, coal has had some downward pressure. How is the company looking at sort of diversifying away from this exposure to coal?

What's the plan for coal to settle down for us in terms of our total proportion of volume? Just some sort of forward-looking guidance there.

I don't know from where you got this number. Coal has got different coals, right?

Coal has got thermal coal, thermal coal has got imported coal and coastal coal. Imported coal is going down, but coastal coal is increasing, right?

All-India level, coastal coal is increasing. Then second is the coking coal.

Coking coal is used in the steel industry. Because the steel is having a growth, the coking coal is also having a growth.

10.8% is the growth which is on the coking coal, right? Then coastal coal, 1.9% is the coastal coal.

At first, to answer to your question, coal is not going down. Overall, coal is going up.

Only the thermal coal which is linked to the import is going down, right? As far as we are concerned, we have a business portfolio which is mix of container, coal, iron ore, liquid, and so on, and we manage the mix in the way trade is progressing.

If the imported thermal coal is going down, it's not going to change the needle. As you would have seen, it has not changed the needle in this quarter also.

No, no. Absolutely, sir.

Let me rephrase. I didn't mean it's going down.

I'm looking at slide 41, where it's going down as a proportion, which is actually a good thing. I just meant, where do you think it settles as a proportion of the overall cargo for us?

From 30% in FY24, 9-this 9-month, it's at 22%. I was

Where did you get this 30% of thermal coal?

No, sir. Thermal coal as a percentage of overall cargo, it's on slide number 41.

It's 22%, coming down from 30%. That's what I meant.

See, you are asking, Pulkit, where will it actually settle down? If you see that, if you look at next 5 years trajectory, India is talking about the declared thermal power plants increased by 50% in capacity, and that is one data point.

The other data point is, we have been investing in container over the past sort of several quarters. Our growth in containers sort of is, let's say, 20%, or if you have to pick one number, which is growing the highest amongst the portfolio of products that we have got.

If you bake in both these two, I would say in the long term, if you're starting with 30% as a number for FY24, there is no reason why we will be sort of away from, let's say, 20% or coal in 5 years from now, considering that our container is sort of growing the highest, and we also have in our business plan sort of oil and gas products coming in in the next 5 years. If you put all of them, the weightage of coal will go down, and we should be somewhere between 20%,

22%. Around the same, 20%, 22%.

Thank you. It was very useful.

Thank you.

Hi. Am I audible?

Yes, Ankita.

Hi. Firstly, congratulations on a very all-round performance.

Congratulations to the team. My question is on NQXT.

In EBITDA, you've mentioned that, one quarter in the guidance, sorry, guidance on EBITDA, that one quarter of NQXT inclusion is included in this at 300 crores. This is for the fourth quarter expectations, right, for

FY26? Yes, Ankita.

What would be the similar number on the revenue side?

It is firing at 65% EBITDA. So, 300 crores is roughly 65%.

It'll be about 450 crores, 500 crores, a little less.

Oh, 65% EBITDA. Okay.

Correct.

Going forward, there was expectation that there will be contract negotiations. Will we see contract negotiations on the higher side from FY27 onwards itself, or it will take time to pan out?

No, there isn't much happening in FY27. There is a little bit of a quantity in FY28, and then a large volume coming up in FY29.

Okay. This 65% margins can go up to what levels?

Will it become similar to what our domestic ports are making margins?

It will be to that level. You're right.

That will be mostly beyond FY28, right?

Sorry, I was actually doing the math while talking to you. No, actually we would still be at around similar percentage because both denominator and sort of numerator will both go up as the EBITDA goes up.

It is coming from price realization, absolute EBITDA will go up to the $400 million mark that we have guided.

You're saying in terms of EBITDA margin, it will remain more or less similar only.

Let me just do the math for you while talking to you.

Or maybe you can take it offline. It's okay.

It'll not be significantly off. It'll be a few percentage points up.

See, currently we are doing $350 million of revenue and $230 million of EBITDA, and the 230 will go up to 400. The 350 will correspondingly go up to 520, it's 400 upon 520, it'll roughly be similar percentage.

70 that's the percentage, that's some math.

Got it. In our consolidation, will we take the nameplate capacity of 50 million tons or contracted capacity of 40 in our calculation over future?

Capacity will be 50 million.

The volume numbers that we will be calculating will be using the nameplate capacity only, 50 million for NQXT? Will that be the number that we should work with?

No, no. For volume, we will actually go with, and we'll probably put it as a note also whenever this comes up, we will put actually contracted volume or actual, whichever is higher.

The reason for that is actually contracted volume will give us a definitive revenue at a per-ton rate. If we do more volume than contracted, then we are going to realize that much more.

We will be paid for the extra volume at the similar rate.

Got it. Great.

I think, yeah, that's it from my side. Wish you all the best and best wishes.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello. Thanks for the opportunity.

My question is on the margin. If I see slide 22 in your PPT, if I look at the margins for few ports like Mundra, Kattupalli, Dhamra, and Karaikal, there seems to have been a year-on-year margin decline.

Is there anything specific that you would like to highlight for these? Also for Gopalpur, obviously there has been a sharp decline.

These five ports, anything specific that needs to be noted? Thank you.

No, there is nothing specific here, and on an absolute per-ton basis, our EBITDA has been going up in the large ports. Gopalpur, of course, we will implement the turnaround program, and as it happens, it'll catch up.

It is the per-ton EBITDA that you need to track where we are going up.

Okay. Gopalpur specifically, what has been the reason for, this quarter there has been actually a negative EBITDA and about close to 70% decline in revenue on a year-on-year basis.

What is the basis? Because the volume decline is I think 25% odd.

What explains this kind of a sharp dip?

There are certain fixed costs in the ports. All the equipments that we have there are all on hire, our fixed cost is sort of something that we need to work on.

Like I said, as we actually work on it, we will actually sort that also out in times to come.

Thank you. Thanks a lot.

Yes, thank you so much for taking my question. My question mainly surrounds that how much of our container volumes depend on exports to the US?

380,000.

All right. Have we seen any decline in these particular

Just a minute. 380,000 out of 12.5 million which we do.

All right.

Okay.

Have we seen any weakness in these volumes specifically?

No, we can't measure it because it's so minor.

All right. My last question is that what do you think would be the impact of volumes at Mundra given that there is copper, coal to PVC, and the solar module capacity will also be expanding in that region?

Overall, what is the contribution of additional volumes that we can expect from group companies?

It's difficult to say, but yes, it is contributing. It's difficult to say how much.

All right. Thank you.

Those were my questions. Yeah.

Thank you.

Hang on a second, please.

Thank you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your support. I also want to take this opportunity to share with you that Mr.

Muthukumaran will be taking the assignment in the group with effect from 1st of March. I really want to say thanks to you for your great support to Mr.

Muthukumaran because of which APSEZ is at this stage. We will be introducing to the succession.

This is in line with our succession plan and the career development plan, and we will be introducing Mr. Krishna as the new CFO in the next call.

Thank you for your support.