Thanks, Pari. Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to the Q3 FY2026 earnings call of Afcons Infrastructure.

We have the management today being represented by Mr. Subramanian Krishnamurthy, who's the Executive Chairman; Mr.

Srinivasan Paramasivan, who's the Managing Director; Mr. Ramesh Kumar Jha, the CFO; and Mr.

Hitesh Singh, who head corporate strategy. Now at this point, I will hand over the floor to Mr.

Krishnamurthy for his initial remarks, post which we will open the floor for the Q&A. With that, over to you, sir.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to connect with all of you once again.

I thank our investors, analysts, and stakeholders for joining us today. Our financial results and investment presentation for the quarter have been uploaded on the stock exchanges, and I hope you would have had an opportunity to review them.

I'm joined today by Mr. Paramasivan Srinivasan, our Managing Director; Mr.

Ramesh Jha, our Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Hitesh Singh, who heads our corporate strategy at Afcons.

Let me begin with an overview of our performance for the quarter ended December 2025. For the 9-month period, revenue stood at ₹9,545 crore, reflecting a marginal year-on-year decline of 0.9%.

EBITDA rose 1.8% to ₹1,269 crore, with margin improving 35 basis points on a year-on-year to 13.3%. EBITDA excludes one-time impact of labor code.

Profit after tax stood at ₹339 crore. Coming to Q3 FY2026, we reported a revenue of ₹3,025 crore, a decline of 9% on a year-on-year.

EBITDA for the quarter was ₹424 crore, which margins at 14%, representing a 50 basis point year-on-year improvement. Despite lower revenues, we have seen an improvement in our margins, and this is in line with our guidance.

Profit after tax stood at ₹97 crore compared to ₹149 crore in Q3 FY2025. This includes a one-time impact provisioning of ₹76.51 crore for the new labor code.

Our top line was impacted by a combination of execution-related and general slowdown in the infrastructure activity. Some recently secured projects, including certain quick turnaround high-output projects, progress slower than anticipated.

We also experienced exceptional delays in the conversion of certain large-value L1 projects. Other factor that impacted the top-line growth included continued liquidity issues with certain government clients.

We are actively working to overcome many of these impediments in the coming months. Beyond financials, the quarter was marked by several operational milestones that highlight the depth of our execution capabilities.

I am pleased to share with immense pride that Afcons completed the first 5.5 km TBM drive in the CIDCO water supply project, which also happens to be the first breakthrough for CIDCO. I would like to remind you, Afcons has set and broken its own record for the maximum length of tunneling of 777 m done in a month during this drive.

The project team has completed this activity 1 month ahead of schedule with remarkable accuracy despite logistics and geotechnical challenges. In keeping with the Afcons way, the team has achieved this feat through innovative approaches, one of which has been adjudged as the best paper at the Indian Lean Construction Conference held in December 2025.

The project has also won merit award from National Safety Council of India for 2 million safe man-hours without any lost time injury. I am also proud to share with share that our operational capabilities have been validated through several independent and prestigious recognitions during this quarter.

Engineering News-Record, USA has ranked Afcons eighth among the international marine and port facilities contractors and 12th among international bridge contractors in its 2025 rankings. Afcons has been recognized as the Most Innovative Knowledge Enterprise at both India and global levels for the eighth time in a row.

We are the only infrastructure company to achieve this rare distinction for eight consecutive years. Our innovation drive has been approached by CII, who have bestowed on us the Grand Award for the top innovative company across all sectors and categories and along also in the service category.

This means we are treated as the most innovative company of the country. Looking ahead, the operating environment for Afcons looks favorable.

Although global infrastructure activity at large has been subdued in the last past year due to geopolitical uncertainties, project pipelines in our focus geographies have been robust, particularly in the segments of our interest. This is expected to improve further as per various reports.

In India, the government has signaled continuity in its infrastructure growth policy through a robust ₹12.12 lakh crore allocation and other related policy announcements in the recently announced budget. Ordering activity, however, has remained subdued, particularly in our focus segments.

We expect a pickup in Q4, consistent with historical seasonality. However, we have seen substantial growth opportunity that merit that meet our risk management criteria.

Afcons will continue to be disciplined in its pursuit of growth, focusing on operational excellence. I am confident in our ability to effectively navigate challenges in our path demonstrated time and again and deliver long-term value to the shareholders.

Thank you for your continued support and trust. With this, I will now invite Mr.

Paramasivan, our Managing Director, to share his remarks.

Thank you, Mr. Subramanian, and good morning, everyone.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to all our investors, analysts, and participants. We value your continued interest in Afcons and appreciate the engagement you bring to this discussion.

As Mr. Subramanian outlined, the third quarter reflected some execution and sectoral headwinds, which moderated our performance.

Despite our best efforts to mitigate these challenges, some impacts persisted, largely due to timing-related factors rather than any internal structural issues. We remain focused on restoring the growth momentum over the coming quarters.

Let me briefly touch upon the operating environment and how we see it evolving. In India, the government has reiterated its long-term commitment to infrastructure development through the recently announced budget.

Its vision for new high-speed rail corridors, dedicated freight corridors, and the development of tier 2 and tier 3 cities reinforces that continuity and provides positive visibility for the sector. Further, the push for domestic manufacturing of critical equipments, including construction equipments like TBM, is also encouraging, as it aims to enhance Make in India initiative and also helps in eliminating the challenges witnessed while importing these equipments due to geopolitical issues.

Coming to our focused international markets, we continue our drive in the international geographies and believe that there's a healthy pipeline of projects that gives us confidence that we'll continue to bag international jobs in our focus segments. Coming to the order book, I am pleased to share that we recently secured a road project over €100 million in Uganda.

This is a significant win for us as it reinforces our long-standing presence in Africa. In the domestic market, we secured two marine contracts worth about ₹1,400 crore during the quarter.

Both these contracts are strategic for the government of India and are aligned with broader objective of contributing to infrastructure of national importance. With these awards, our total order inflow till date stands at approximately ₹3,700 crore, and our pending order book as on date remains healthy at ₹32,635 crore.

While order inflows so far have been lower than our initial expectations, we expect a few meaningful awards to materialize during the current quarter, which should strengthen our order book position. Accordingly, we are hopeful of achieving our full-year order inflow guidance of ₹20,000 crore.

Looking ahead, our project pipeline continues to be robust at around ₹3.8 trillion spread across multiple geographies and sectors. That said, we are witnessing rising competitive intensity in several segments, including metros, where bids have become increasingly aggressive.

On the operational side, we are still cautious about our Jal Jeevan Mission projects in Uttar Pradesh. Although the government's allocation to Jal Jeevan Mission in the current budget has remained similar to budget estimate of last year, but based on our experience and on-ground realities, we prefer to remain cautious.

Regarding our high-speed rail project, the second consignment of our TBM is still awaiting clearance. We are in close communication with the concerned ministries and agencies to expedite the release, and we hope to see the progress in soon.

In parallel, we are also working with the client and other stakeholders to evaluate alternative solutions to minimize the impact on project timelines. To conclude, our 9-month performance has remained relatively flat due to the factors already outlined.

While we are still working to achieve our 10% growth as guided in the last call, a 5% growth looks definitely achievable. With a healthy order book, a deep and diversified pipeline, and a committed execution team, Afcons is well-positioned to regain momentum and accelerate growth in the coming periods.

We remain firmly focused on disciplined execution, prudent risk management, and delivering long-term value to all our stakeholders. Thank you once again for your confidence and continued support.

I now hand over the call to our CFO, Mr. Ramesh Jha, to take you through the details of our financial performance.

Thank you, sir. Good morning, everyone.

Before talking on the numbers, let me reiterate what usually I do it on every quarter, and this becomes more relevant this quarter. That the quarterly number varies.

Company is into business of construction. The margin in a quarter varies based on the nature, type, and quantum of work executed.

Quarterly results may vary in different quarter and may not be indicative of annual results or trend. Now coming specific to the numbers, for the 9 month ended, we have done a top line of ₹9,545 crore against last year 9-month top line of ₹9,635 crore, which is kind of it has come down by 0.9%.

In Q3, we have achieved a top line of ₹3,025 crore versus ₹3,332 crore in previous year Q3. There is a marginal degrowth in 9 month as well as Q3 as well.

Now this kind of top-line movement is a manifestation of stressed payment across the projects and few specific projects where certification and payments are slow. Jobs where we were declared L1 quite some time back are still not awarded.

Some recently bagged jobs have not picked up in a manner we were expecting. Also few fast-track projects are moving at the normal pace.

Now moving on to the margins. As far as EBITDA is concerned, for the 9-month period, we have done ₹1,269 crore, which works out to be 13.3% of the top line, which has improved from the previous year number of 1,247, wherein we had done 12.9%.

The EBITDA in terms of percentage has gone up. In the quarterly number for the Q3 FY2026, we have done ₹424 crore, and in this quarter, the EBITDA margin works out to be 14% as against 13.5% in the previous quarter.

When we are talking about the EBITDA number, of course, we have not included this one-time exceptional provision on the accounts of labor code-related provision. The exceptional item on account of labor code is around ₹77 crore, ₹76.51 crore to be very specific during this quarter.

When it comes to profit before tax, for the 9-month period, we have done ₹456 crore, and this number is after providing for this ₹76.5 crore of labor code provision. This works out to be around 4.8% as compared to last year 526, which was 5.5%.

When we look at this 9-monthly number of 4.8%, the exceptional item provision works out to be around 80 basis point for the 9-month period. On Q3, the number of profit before tax is ₹123 crore against ₹200 crore of profit before tax in the Q3 FY2025.

Profit after tax for the 9-month period is ₹339 crore as against ₹376 crore in the previous year 9 month, and during the quarter, the profit after tax is ₹97 crore, which is 3.2% as against ₹149 crore done last year. Now I'll just like to explain on the EBITDA.

In our EBITDA calculation, we consider BG commission as part of our operating expenditure. EBITDA what we are talking about is after removal of BG commission as operating expenditure.

This quarter, because of labor code-related provision, there is a one-time impact, which, of course, we have not factored in the EBITDA calculation. We have factored that in profit before tax and profit after tax.

Other income, in our calculation, we include other income as part of other operating revenue. Here, we have explained earlier also that our other income is something which is part of operating revenue like arbitration interest, foreign currency exchange gain, and miscellaneous incomes are recurring and very integral to our business.

Hence, this needs to be considered as part of other operating income. For the 9-month period, this amount was ₹211 crore in other operating income.

Since we have already achieved 13.3% EBITDA margin in 9 month, our full-year EBITDA should be better than what generally the guidance we give of around 11%. At the same time, there could be some event which may derail, but I'm not saying there is any specific project, but I'm generally saying that every year we are giving guidance of around 11%.

We have already done better, and we have got all projects which are doing fairly well. Annual number should be better than whatever we give generally the annual guidance.

For the 9 month, it is around 13.3%. In terms of profits, profits for the period is similar to that of the last year after adjusting for the labor code-related one-off exceptional item.

Of course, this factors some upside on account of arbitration award and also because of margin improvement in few projects. Also in some projects, we could save on some of the material cost and other operational improvements, and that has improved the margin on a overall basis.

Specific to finance cost increase, we have improved our average borrowing cost in the 9 months FY2026 as compared to what we had achieved last year 9 months. In the 9 months, the average borrowing has gone up.

That is because of working capital blockage, because we are not seeing the payments very smooth in this 9-month period. Despite improving the average cost of borrowing, the overall interest cost on the bank borrowing has gone up.

Also, the interest-bearing advances for the period ending December 2025 has almost doubled to around 40% in the overall advance from customer as compared to last year when we were around, say, 20%, 22% in the overall advances, the interest-bearing advance. This time, it was around 39%, 40%.

Because of this, interest on customer advance has also increased, making the overall interest cost to go up. We expect the situation to improve once our L1 orders materialize, because large part of the international orders where the advances are interest-free.

We have provided for accelerated depreciation in this quarter as well. Of the total ₹354 crore of depreciation, around more than 1% of the cost component in the depreciation is towards accelerated depreciation.

Our profit numbers are after accounting for the accelerated depreciation. In terms of ROCE, 9 month is around 14%, 13.4% to be very precise after considering the exceptional items.

We'll look at these numbers on an annual basis because that will make more sense. As far as networking capital goes, the networking capital continues to remain at elevated level.

There is some moderate improvement in payment from January onwards, but the stuck payments are not moving, and that is where the challenge lies. We are expecting some improved collection in this quarter.

Realization of few stuck receivable and also the collection of good advances should improve the situation definitely from where we are today. Debt, the debt number has remained in the similar range that of September and stands at ₹3,633 crore on the gross basis and ₹2,779 crore on net basis.

On net basis, the debt equity is around 0.5 times of the net worth. In terms of liquidity, the company is in a very comfortable situation because we are maintaining very healthy balance of cash and bank balance, and we have got large amount of bank limits which is unused.

On behalf of Afcons Infrastructure Limited, I thank everyone for attending this call. Now I request the moderator to open the floor for question and answer.

Thank you.

Hi, good morning, sir. My first question is on the L1 status of our projects.

Now these are projects which have been stuck at the L1 stage for a fairly long time, and even Croatia projects are, I think, taking longer than what we had envisaged. Just want to understand how you seeing them getting placed.

Is there risk of some of them getting canceled? That's my first question.

My second question is on margins, which, for last few quarters, we've been doing quite well, and this is happening despite overall execution pace not being very strong and, as you mentioned, competitive intensity being quite high. What is really leading to that, and how sustainable should we consider the current margins to be?

Thank you, sir.

Thanks, Aditya. Number one, with respect to L1 status, I'll first touch upon Croatia.

On Croatia, the railway project is at an advanced stage of getting awarded. From the government, we find out that all levels approvals are over, and this is going to be the largest contract ever awarded by Croatia to any contractor.

Therefore, it is just awaiting the nod of the PM. Once that is done, we are likely to get this job awarded very shortly.

Financial institutions and others have already given their approval. With respect to road jobs, it is in process.

There are a couple of road jobs which were, I would say, bids were opened earlier than us, which are being awarded now. After that, this will get awarded.

All the three jobs in Croatia are on track for award. While railway job can be expected anytime now, road jobs could go towards end of March or early next quarter.

That is something which we are awaiting. With respect to Maharashtra jobs, from the interactions we learned the entire 22 packages of Maharashtra project jobs are going for rebid.

As it is more than 1 year is over, land acquisition in all the cases have not been completed, they would like to have the price discovery again, and therefore, a repackaging could be done and it could go for rebid. That is the indication we have got, though officially they have not communicated as so.

Therefore, in Maharashtra projects L1, in our internal scheme of things, we don't expect to bag in the near future. The second

It includes even Pune Ring Road projects, sir? Pune

Ring Road, Nagpur-Gondia, both what we learned, it is undergoing certain changes, and with that changes, it is going for rebid. That is the indication we have.

Officially, they have not communicated so.

Sure, sure, sure. Some packages of Pune Ring Road had already been awarded.

Isn't that the case?

That was awarded nearly 2 years back. This bid was invited sometime in Jan 2025.

In Jan 2025 bid was opened. This was awarded much earlier, sometime in March or before that 2024.

That part of the job is going on. This part of the job is something which they are going for rebid, as we know.

Understood, sir. Understood.

Good morning. Aditya, on the margin front, see, I'll break this into three parts.

One, we have already talked about that any project we submit bid, we always look at a threshold of margin, and that margin will always be there in the project, unless something goes in upside down and then only. Otherwise, we'll maintain that kind of margin.

That is one. Two, we have also talked about that in projects, there are some risk and contingencies provisions are there, and our endeavor is always to save on those risk and contingencies, improve on some methods, designs, and then improve the margin.

That is second aspect. Third, we have got some award, and because of that also, there is some upside.

That is where, on a consistent basis, we are talking about that 11% EBITDA margin is something which will be there. If you see, say, last 10, 12 years, we are largely there, some years maybe around, say, 9.5%, but largely we are around, say, 10% plus, and in recent time 11% plus.

That is something which is sustainable. Balance is dependent upon how we are able to save on those risk and contingencies, and if some arbitration award comes, that also kind of takes it up.

Understood, sir. Should we start assuming that instead of 11%, we can generate higher margins going forward as well?

Or this appears to be a bit of an aberration because of maybe some arbitration awards that we had and some projects nearing completion?

11% is something which definitely will be there. The kind of margin we are seeing today is not because of purely arbitration award, because arbitration upside is a small fraction of that.

The remaining part is towards the improvements we have done in the project. Some projects we are completing before time.

Some projects we are improving designs and methods and we are saving on some of the cost. We are saving on some material procurement and other aspects.

That is where this improvement is happening. Definitely, the margin will be northwards of 11%, but at the moment, let's keep it at 11% plus.

Sure, sir. Understood.

Thank you.

Yeah. Good morning, and thanks for the opportunity.

My first question is, sir, the revenue growth has been benign for last couple of years, and the order inflow also been subdued for last 9 months. I understand they're sitting on a large L1 position, but they're also likely with some cancellation.

My question is, in this context, how do you think about the growth in FY2027? Revenue growth, yeah.

In the light of delayed order intake, some of these orders in staggered manner we were expecting all through the year, as it is all bunching up towards end of the current quarter, towards the last quarter of the year. With the kind of mobilization and other thing required for such large projects, in our assessment, it is too premature to comment what will be the growth for the next quarter.

Once the orders are in place, we will come back to you with a specific guidance on the next year.

Understood. My second question on the Jal Jeevan Mission.

What is the order book right now? Of course, the last 9 months, I don't think there have been too much spend on Jal Jeevan Mission.

I also understand that from the January, the things have started picking up. Can you please throw some light on the Jal Jeevan Mission order and how do you think and what are you seeing on the ground now?

On Jal Jeevan Mission projects, our major problem is with respect to our UP. In UP, balance pending order is roughly around

₹500 crore.

Sorry, roughly around ₹500 crore. Existing outstanding from the client ₹405 crore.

While there had been meetings held at the Chief Minister's level and all as early as in October, not much traction had taken place in terms of cash flows. We are still awaiting a cash flow coming through for us to In the meanwhile, we have whatever business call we need to take with respect to the project, we have taken by way of slowing down and probably pruning down our establishment, all those kind of rational calls we have taken.

Mohit, just to add, the total Jal Jeevan Mission-related project is around ₹1,300 crore balance order book. As sir has explained that UP is ₹530 crore, and that's the biggest chunk.

Another, say, ₹500-odd crore is in MP, where we are not foreseeing any problem. We are doing the work, we are submitting bills, and we are getting paid as well.

In Rajasthan, we have started the third job. There, around, say, ₹300-odd crore is there in Rajasthan.

Since it is at the very initial stage, we don't foresee any challenge in Rajasthan. All together around ₹1,300 crore.

UP is something which we need to see, and in UP also, from January onwards, they have started releasing payment. We have received close to ₹15 crore in the month of January.

They have promised that they'll release payment. We need to see how it pans out.

Yes, Mohit.

Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. You did mention that there would have been some impact of a favorable arbitration also during this quarter as far as the margins is concerned.

As I read from the notes to account, there is ₹165 crore of revenue which has been taken to the P&L on account of the Chenab Bridge arbitration award. Could you tell that whether this ₹165 crore directly flows to the EBITDA and down, or there is a cost element also attached to it?

What could be the EBITDA impact of this ₹165 crore? That's my first question, sir.

Not the full amount is having an EBITDA impact. There is a cost element also in that.

Okay. Sir, any number you could share what's the EBITDA impact of 165?

Exact number, at the moment, we don't have. The EBITDA impact could be, say, of this amount, it could be around, say, 23%,

24%. 23% to 24% of 165.

Okay. All right.

The same note also mentions there is another ₹115 crore that we are still carrying on this particular project. The arbitration has given us the 243 total amount, and 115 still remains.

What happens to this amount, sir? Does this have to be impaired or we continue to go for another round of arbitration for this 115?

No,

see this arbitration are on various accounts, and one of the case has been settled and we have got the award. The case pertaining to ₹115 crore will come in the due course of time.

Okay. That is not yet come up for hearing or something like that.

The arbitration is ongoing. The award will come in some time.

Understood, sir. Also, there is another matter that we have disclosed.

As far as I've read, maybe it is an incremental matter that there has been encashment of a bond in Gabon for about ₹191 crore equivalent amount. Anything that you could share on this, what really has happened, what's the impact as far as our numbers are concerned, etcetera?

On Gabon, we are doing the project for a French fund, Meridiam funding of France, owned their arm. It's a PPP project with the Gabonese government.

We are the EPC player. More than 90% of the project had been completed quite some time back.

The project is put to use for more than 2 years now. Even after that, originally, it was a joint venture between Meridiam funding and Arise of Dubai.

Arise of Dubai, along the way, they exited, which fact was not known to us. This thing, SAG is the client who they continued with the this thing.

They were not taking over the project because, on taking over, a lot of funds becomes due. We had at some stage, even government of Gabon told them to take over.

Fearing that they need to pay the money, and they went ahead with an encashment, while we went to the court as well. The French court has initially stayed the proceedings of the guarantee.

Later on, the hearing, while they substantially agreed with our contention of abuse by the employer, nevertheless, they said EPC contract is independent and bank guarantee contract is independent. Therefore, bank guarantee contract, there is no recourse but to pay.

That is how the encashment has happened. ICC arbitration has already commenced.

We are confident of the thing. During the course of this thing only, we also learned certain facts which had come to our notice during the course of this legal things.

We are quite confident of winning the award in the ICC arbitration. We don't expect any impact as far as this job is concerned.

This ₹191 crore would be sitting in a debt today, right? We would have had to assume debt in order to honor the bond.

Our debt would have gone up to this extent.

Correct.

All right. Sir, lastly, in terms of the execution constraints that we talked about, now I get an impression that the UP order book is just about 530-odd crore out of the total about 30,000-odd crore order book that we have.

Of course, the TBM issue still continues. Beyond UP, can you highlight any specific project segments where things have been slow?

The bullet train is something that we understand. The UP seems like a relatively small amount in the overall scheme of things in terms of at least the backlog.

Hi, Ashish. Specific projects really will be very difficult to explain, but there are certain domestic projects where we were anticipating that the progress will be fast-tracked, and that is what we have taken in our plans.

Due to various reasons, the progress has not been as fast-track as we have anticipated. That is why this delay has happened.

These are largely domestic projects.

Including, in some cases, scope changes and other things, which necessitated complete change of the overall plan.

Okay. You think this run rate of execution are we getting any indications or is this

normalize as it looks? That's what it looks like.

The situation will normalize because there are certain scope changes, there are certain approvals which were pending, which have received and will receive in due course of time, and we expect the pace to catch up very soon.

All right, sir. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Ashish.

Hi, sir. A couple of questions.

Just continuing the previous questions. The bond, the French one, correct me if I'm wrong, what I understand is this Meridiam French has already filed for the bankruptcy.

When we are saying that we are confident to get back this 194-odd crore, can you explain how that is possible?

Just to add, see, this project what we are doing, Meridiam is the parent entity, but the project we are doing is for SAG, which is a Gabonese entity. This project is on a BOT basis in Gabon, and this is for government of Gabon.

Once they start tolling, from that toll revenue, they'll make the payment. Our recourse is on the Gabonese entity, not the Meridiam entity the French entity.

The contract was under French law. That's why the reason the matter has gone to French court.

Otherwise, this is with SAG.

Okay. Got it.

A couple of more questions. Now when we are saying that we are looking at a ₹20,000 crore order inflow for FY2026, ₹3,700 crore, including this Uganda one, we have already won.

Now all the Maharashtra is, one can say, is cancelled. Can you help me understand this Croatia, the entire ₹11,300 crore, though you said that it could be the road can spill to the April also.

Are we in ₹20,000 crore considering the entire ₹11,300 crore to be LOA by March?

We would not like to dwell upon individual jobs for the sake of retaining the confidentiality amongst competitors and all. Considering that, suffice to say that at any point of time you would see we have around ₹40,000 to ₹50,000 crore of value always bids submitted to be opened, those kind of things are very much there, plus there are Croatia which are in advanced stage, and there are few others also which are in advanced stage.

In some cases, at the final stages of closure and all that. Therefore, we are confident of achieving ₹20,000 crore of our guidance for the year, and balance about 16,000 and odd crore, ₹16,300 crore, we are confident of achieving during the current quarter.

Okay. Sir, I was trying to understand whether the balance of 16,000 is entirely how much would be the new one that we are looking at and not the converting of the L1 to LOA, Croatia?

Yeah. In that, only the Croatia rail project is what we have factored in, which is around ₹6,500 crore.

Rest all are in the new projects which are in the tendering phase. In that no other L1 we have taken in account in this ₹16,300 crore.

Okay. In terms of the going forward also, this kind of a run rate, ₹20,000 crore, is broadly that we look at maybe in FY2027, '28 also?

That's the way one can look at?

That's the target that around ₹20,000 crore next year also will be targeting for order booking.

On the execution front, in the opening, sir has mentioned that still we are hoping 10% growth for the entire full year, but 5% is doable. Even if I'm doing a math for 5%, that means in the fourth quarter, we need to do a 20%, 19% kind of a growth.

That means a ₹3,500 crore kind of a number, which is a ₹3,800 crore kind of a number. Kind of a ₹1,000 crore QoQ improvement.

That kind of a improvement are we already seeing at the projects level? Because you also highlighted there are still kind of a payment, scope change, all these things are there.

Just wanted to understand.

Roughly, we have done about 1/3 of whatever is the target for that quarter 4 for achieving 5% already in 40 days. That should convey to you the level of confidence.

Okay. Got it.

Got it. Understood that.

A couple of balance sheet items, if you can share in terms of the gross debt and net debt you have mentioned, but I missed that part. If you can spell it again and maybe debtor, inventory, creditors, mobilization, retention, unbilled, if you can share, would be helpful to understand how the working capital is moving.

See,

working capital, at the moment, I don't have the full breakup, but I can give you the debt number. The debt number, gross debt number is ₹3,634 crore is the gross number, and 2,779 is the net debt number.

Broadly the balance sheet parameters are similar to the September number, and it is already there in the presentation.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Got it. The capex till now, 9 months, how much we have done?

We were looking at 1,100-odd crore. What's the number for full year and maybe for next year also if you can specify?

On the capex front, for this financial year, as you have rightly said, we had planned ₹1,100 crore. In that ₹1,100 crore, the tunnel boring machine related to this high-speed rail project is around ₹700 crore.

Balance ₹400 crore is something which we are going to do. This TBM is something which is contingent upon movement from China.

If the approval comes, then we'll end up somewhere around, say, ₹1,100 crore for this financial year. If that doesn't happen, then maybe we'll end up around ₹400 crore.

Okay. Till now, 9 months, how much we have already done?

9 months, we have done close to ₹200 crore.

Okay. Because in H1, I think it was 230-odd crore, nothing has been

Similar number is there. Usually what happens that in capex, it's not that it will be proportionate every month.

These are large-value equipment, and the movement happens, and that's how it gets accounted.

Okay. If this ₹700 crore TBM let's say moves to the next year, next year, this 700 and plus maybe another 700 to ₹1,400, ₹1,500 crore kind of a capex one can look at?

We need to see, because many of the projects the way we were looking at the beginning of FY2026, some of the projects were ongoing and then we were expecting that new projects will come. The way things are looking now, the existing projects will be completing.

Large part of the equipment will get free from the existing project. It will not be a direct math of 700 plus 700.

We need to rationalize. It will be, say, around, say, if this TBM moves to the next year, maybe around ₹1,000, ₹1,100 crore kind of capex will be there.

Last, out of current existing order book, 32,500 and maybe plus this 1,000 crore Uganda, let's assume no further inflow comes, how much of that in terms of the revenue one can look at in FY2027 out of this 33,000, 34,000-odd crore?

We'll come back on this number maybe next quarter, because it's too early, because we have to do the detailed planning.

Broadly, 3 year is the execution? That's the way one can look at, or it could be a 3

and a 1/2 year? 2 and a 1/2 year is our average execution period.

That's what we have always conveyed.

Okay. Okay.

Thank you, and all the best, sir.

Thank you.

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

Sir, this Vadhavan Port, technical bid is opened and it's estimated nearly around ₹5,100 crore. The award, when we can expect, sir?

It's mentioned Q4.

Vadhavan Port is something which has gone for a security clearance for all the bidders. Usually in many government contract, they take only the winning bidder for the security clearance.

Here they have mentioned that all the bidders will go for security clearance. They're still awaiting the security clearance.

Once security clearance comes, bid could be opened.

Sir. Sir, I think our interest-bearing advances has been increased to 20% to 40%.

That leads to higher interest cost. Once we get international orders, how this mix will change?

See in excess of ₹11,000 crore of international orders which is L1, and even some of the domestic project also we get interest-free advance. Generally the way we have seen last 3, 4 years, the number is around, say, 20%, 25% the interest-bearing.

At the moment, it is at a bit elevated level. It will be difficult to put in number the percentage, but you can take a guidance that in past it used to be around 20%,

25%. Sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Sir, what would be our total L1 position as of now?

L1 position total is ₹11,300 crore. We have in this L1 position, we have removed the Maharashtra job because the internal this thing we have is these are going for rebid.

Okay. Sir, how big could be the Vadhavan opportunity for us in EPC terms over medium term?

Vadhavan, as of now, we have bid well, and the other contracts also we are participating in the bids. We believe there are good opportunities in Vadhavan Port.

Can you quantify the opportunity?

The estimated values could be overall, if you take it for EPC value somewhere in the region of around ₹15,000 crore.

We are bidding for all the packages?

Yes. One package is awarded where we had not participated, it's about ₹1,300 crore.

All the other packages we are participating. We have participated or are participating.

Okay. Sir, what would be our current bid pipeline, and if you quantify it across key verticals?

Yeah. Our current bid pipeline, which extend to next 2 years, is close to ₹3.8 trillion.

It is well spread across all the segments, all the four key segments where we are actively participating. The large chunk, around 35%, lies in the urban infrastructure space, which take cares of metro, bridges, elevated corridors, and those kind of things.

Around 30% is in the hydro and underground, which includes water, road tunnels, those kind of works. Close to 20% is in marine and industrial business, and around 15% will be in surface transport, which is our road business and railways business.

In terms of domestic and overseas, around 1/3 will be overseas and 2/3 is domestic.

Okay. Sir, lastly, when do you expect the NHAI awarding to improve?

What would be our pipeline right now from NHAI particularly?

With respect to NHAI, we very selectively participate for the simple reason the qualification criteria is so relaxed. While recent times they have talked about saying we have been continuously engaging with NHAI and the MoRTH office, and recent times they've indicated they'll go back to the old model of high-value jobs being on a prequalified basis, all that.

That yet to see implementation. Because of the current delays in execution in NHAI, they're thinking of going back to the old model.

As of now, the new pattern which is coming in, every bid is about 18, 20, 30 bidders, and bids going as low as -40%. That is not a market we want to be in.

We will be very, very selective in NHAI bidding.

Okay. Sir, lastly, are we open for BOT opportunities?

BOT, we don't intend participating as a BOT player. We would associate with concessionaires as an EPC player.

Where there is a requirement for qualification and other purposes, some nominal stake to be taken, we may look at it favorably. Otherwise, we are looking at investors or similar concessionaires bidding for it with us as EPC partner.

That's what we are looking at.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Those were my questions.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. My question is upon the execution.

If you look at order book and exclude all JJM and other projects which you talk about, even then we have a very good visibility. You said there are some pending clearances or approvals and change in scope.

Can you quantify what amount of these projects are which are pending clearance or undergoing changes?

Mudit, it's very difficult to quantify the projects. These are some of the projects which are in the initial stage of execution, and that is why the teething issues.

Generally, these kind of issue happens and they get resolved quickly, but in certain projects it has taken more time. That is the one aspect.

The other part is there are certain projects we expected the pace of turnaround will be much, much quicker, which has not happened. These are the mix of two things, but very difficult to quantify what the quantum of projects which is going through is.

As we have mentioned earlier also, most of the teething issues has been resolved, and we expect this quarter to see the benefit of that.

Got it, sir. Any color you give upon which segment of this project will be?

Again it is spread across largely three segments: the urban infrastructure business, marine business, and also in the hydro and underground business.

Okay. Got it.

We are expecting that all these approvals or majorly of this approvals will receive within this quarter?

That has stretched more than planned, they have already come through.

You are saying all the approvals have already came.

Most of them have come through.

Okay. That's why it gives the confidence that we can do booster growth in 4Q.

Sir, just one question. In terms of the bullet train projects, sir, how much work we have executed?

That have we recognized in the revenue?

Again, project-specific numbers, we would not like to put across here. In terms of percentage, we can tell you that we have completed around 30% in the project, the physical progress, and accordingly, revenue and cost has been booked.

Okay. Sir, we have not yet billed to the client, right?

This will be standing as unbilled revenue.

No, no, no. What we are saying is we have completed 30% in the project.

Accordingly, cost have been booked, accordingly revenue has been booked, and the billing happens as per the payment milestones. Largely it will be done.

The billing has been done. Just to put in perspective, there is an NATM tunneling, there is a TBM tunneling, and TBM tunneling-related shaft creation and other things.

Other than TBM-related work, most of the other works have been completed. There are a few other buildings and all is there, which can be completed only after the TBM tunneling is done.

Other than that, all others are by and large in the final stages of completion.

Got it. Got it.

That's it from my side. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your continued interest, all of you. We are very confident that Afcons would create a long-term value to all the stakeholders.

Stay invested, and we'll be happy to take you along. Thank you.

Once again, I would like to reiterate that while so many IT companies and others are operating in India and many of them are considered innovative, CII recognizing us across segments as the most innovative company is something which is very, very unique. In a construction sector, it is very rare to get that kind of a thing.

Because the measurement of innovation in terms of manufacturing or other things, it's generally done. In a construction sector across multiple remote projects to take the company as the most innovative company, it's a very unique recognition.

I am pretty sure all of you would appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Thank you.