Azad Engineering Limited

Azad Engineering Limited

2,478.70
INR
-77.10
(-3.02%)
21.02EPS
97.90P/E
132.73BMarket Cap
Nov 06Next Earn

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 14, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Azad Engineering Limited Q3 FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

Before we begin, a brief disclaimer: this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance, and it may involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rakesh Chopdar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Rakesh Chopdar

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Q3 and 9-month FY26 earnings call.

I'm Rakesh Chopdar, Chairman and CEO of Azad Engineering Limited. On the call with me today are Mr.

Vishnu Malpani, Whole-Time Director, and Mr. Ronak Jajoo, our CFO.

The results and investor presentations have been uploaded on the stock exchange and the company website. I hope everyone has had the opportunity to review them.

Let me begin by saying that this quarter reflects disciplined execution across all fronts: revenue growth, margin stability, new customer onboarding, contract expansion, and steady progress on our capacity creation roadmap. Let me talk about the performance overview.

For Q3 FY26, we reported revenue of ₹155.8 crores, registering growth of over 31% year-on-year. EBITDA for the quarter stood at ₹60.1 crores, registering growth of over 40.7% year-on-year.

Profit after tax was ₹34 crores, registering growth of over 41.1% year-on-year. Despite expansion-related costs and ongoing ramp activities, margins remain strong and stable.

This reflects operating discipline, product mix strength, and execution consistency. For 9-month FY26, revenue has grown nearly 32% year-on-year.

EBITDA and PAT have shown significant growth over last year. Importantly, our 9-month profitability has already exceeded the full year of FY25 level.

This demonstrates the structural strength of our business model. Our focus continues to remain on profit growth.

We are not chasing scale at the cost of margins. Every growth initiative is aligned with long-term sustainability and value creation.

Order book and customer engagement: our order book remains strong at over ₹6,500 crores plus, providing multi-year revenue visibility. Since listing, we have consistently grown our order book quarter after quarter.

This reflects increasing trust from global OEMs and the expansion of wallet share across both new and existing customers. A key highlight this quarter is our engagement and contract progression with Safran and Pratt & Whitney for highly engineered, critical rotating aerospace components.

These partnerships are built over years of engineering validation, qualification, and performance consistency. They represent high entry barriers and deep integration stickiness into customer programs.

Energy and oil and gas continue to contribute the majority of revenues. At the same time, aerospace and defense is steadily increasing its share and will play an increasingly important role over the medium term in creating a well-diversified business mix.

On the capacity expansion, as we have stated in previous calls, FY26 is a year of stabilization. The new plants dedicated to GE, Mitsubishi, Siemens programs have been capitalized.

Each plant is currently at a different stage and under stabilization, qualification of both facility and products, while scheduling the customer demand. It is important to understand that stabilization in our industry is not immediate.

Aerospace and energy components require stringent validation, certification, and customer audits before full capacity utilization is achieved. We expect stable operating levels by FY27 and maximum utilization starts by FY28.

The capacity we are creating is substantial. These are not incremental expansions.

We are building multifold scalable infrastructure designed to support long-term growth visibility already secured through firm contracts. Managing simultaneous constructions, equipment commissioning, workforce training, certifications, and deliveries is complex.

However, our team has executed this phase with discipline and focus. On the growth outlook, based on plant readiness, secured order book, and customer demand visibility, we remain confident of achieving 25% plus revenue growth over the coming years.

FY26 remains a transition year where stabilization efforts continue. The larger operating leverage benefits will be more visible from FY27 onwards as capacity utilization improves.

We are building capacity against firm contracts and long-cycle programs. There is no speculative expansion.

With that, I will now invite Mr. Vishnu Malpani to provide operational insights.

Thank you.

Vishnu Malpani

Thank you, Chairman, for a insightful discussion on the quarter results. Now, I'm Vishnu Malpani, Whole-Time Director of Azad Engineering.

I will take you through some additional information of our operational performance this quarter. From an operational perspective, Q3 and the 9-month period have been about disciplined execution, like Chairman mentioned, and structured ramp-up.

This quarter also represents our highest ever quarterly and 9-monthly performance. We've delivered revenue growth across all our business segments.

During this quarter, our operational efforts have been focused on strengthening execution and discipline across the organization. We have continued to embed lean principles into our newly built facilities.

These manufacturing facilities have been designed with absolute precision around workflow-based layouts, monitoring systems, and world-class infrastructure. As our volumes build and operating leverage comes in, we will improve through natural fixed-cost absorption and cycle time optimization.

At the same time, we are also strengthening our supply chain reliability. We are seeking customer approvals and progressively improving our domestic sourcing to improve agility and reduce our lead times, also helping us manage our working capital better.

However, all such initiatives remain fully aligned with OEM qualification requirements, traceability, compliance, and quality integrity remain non-negotiable. Equally important has been for us to build capability.

Scaling infrastructure without scaling human resource or people is unsustainable. We've added in this financial year skilled engineers, machinists, quality professionals across the organizations, across levels, and training still remains an important part of our entire employee journey.

Aerospace and energy manufacturing demand repeatability, documentation discipline, and audit readiness. Operational capability is therefore a structural investment and not a tactical one.

From an operational standpoint, FY26 remains a year of calibrated ramp-up. Stabilization will continue through the year, and by FY27, we expect these facilities to start operating at stable levels, enabling stronger operating leverage.

Our approach remains measured. We're scaling against firm contracts, long-term revenue visibility, we are maintaining quality leadership and ensuring that our growth is both disciplined and sustainable.

With this, I will now hand over the call to Mr. Ronak Jajoo, our Chief Financial Officer, to give us a quick overview on financials.

Thank you. Over to you, Ronak.

Ronak Jajoo

Thank you, Vishnu. From a financial standpoint, quarter three and 9-month '26 reflect both strong growth momentum and margin stability even as we continue to execute one of the largest capacity expansions in the history of the company.

Let me walk you through the key highlights of the results. For quarter three FY26, revenue stood at ₹155.8 crores, reflecting over 31% year-on-year growth.

For the 9-month period, revenue growth remained close to 32%, supported by the strong execution across energy programs and steady scaling within the aerospace segment. Importantly, this growth is broad-based.

It is not dependent on single customer, geography, or a segment. That diversification provides resilience and visibility.

EBITDA for quarter three was ₹60.1 crores. On a sequential basis, this represents growth of approximately 16.9%, and for the 9-month period, EBITDA had grown by approximately 38.4% year-on-year basis.

Despite the initial ramp-up costs associated with the new facility and higher depreciation from recent capitalization of assets, margins have remained stable. This stability reflects a combination of improved product mix, pricing discipline across long-term contracts, and better absorption of the fixed overhead and ongoing supply chain optimizations.

As utilization levels improve from FY27 onward, we remain confident our long-term EBITDA margin profile is in range of 33% to 35% is sustainable over the longest period of time. Profit after tax for quarter three stood at ₹34 crores, reflecting strong year-and-year growth.

For 9-month '26, PAT has grow by 55% year-on-year basis, significantly outpaced revenue growth. This is primarily driven by operating leverage, stable margins, and interest income from fixed deposit of QIP proceeds.

Notably, our 9-month profitability has already exceed full year FY25 level, as Chairman has explained. This enforces the scalability of our operating platform.

From a capital allocation perspective, capital deployment continues in line with our expansion roadmap. Every major investment is directly linked to the secured order visibility and long-cycle customer programs.

We are not building speculative or idle capacity. Each facility has defined demand backing it.

At the same time, we remain financially disciplined. Balance sheet prudence remains a priority even as we support long-term growth.

Given the strength of our order book, plant readiness, progressive stabilization, and stable margin structure, we remain confident in delivering 25% plus revenue growth over the coming years with a sustainable margin in range of 33% to 35% at EBITDA levels. Our financial approach remains conservative in planning while enabling ambitious and disciplined operational executions.

Thank you. Now floor is open for questions and answers.

Operator

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

Anyone who wishes to ask a question may please press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two.

Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

The first question is from the line of Vikash Singh from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Vikash Singh

Good morning, sir, and congratulation on a very good set of numbers. Sir, my first question pertains to our next four sheds which we are under commissioning.

Could you give us the timeline, and is there any more dedicated shed which we have already tied up with any OEMs at this point of time?

Rakesh Chopdar

Yeah. Thank you for the question.

Look, the facilities which are already inaugurated, right? When we say it's inaugurated, the building is up, machines are in, and it's ready to start the production-wise.

As I mentioned, before we even start the production, though like we were doing in our existing facility here, and the new facility requires a lot of the audits they have to re-audit the facility, there was a certifications, the validations. That will take some time.

As if we finish with the Mitsubishi and Siemens, we are in progress, and almost we are in the finishing stage. As we finish the validations, we start the production.

Not all the floor happens together. It goes with few machines and few product line, and once they are approved, then the production starts.

That's what we mentioned like it will be done by FY26 stabilization, and FY27, we can see that we can stabilize the operations and maximum utilization start by FY28. It's a process that we all have to follow.

Vikash Singh

Noted, sir. Sir, second question pertains to now we have tied up with Safran and there is a huge possibility of that Indian manufacturing ecosystem for Rafale to get developed in India.

How do we see our wallet size with them? Is there any clear view which you can give?

Effectively, given our capacity constraint is the main hurdle for the higher growth, do we expecting to now go for that 75,000 square feet third facility simultaneously? How should we look at the growth plans from here onwards now?

Rakesh Chopdar

If you talk specially about Safran, just to remind you, any of the OEMs which Azad is working today, it's not on the offset policy we work with them. We are a global supplier.

Right? If Safran or GE or Mitsubishi or any OEM are giving business to Azad, that's not under a obligation of the offset policy.

We are a global supplier. Whatever requirement comes in, it goes to the global benchmark.

Right? We will not know which country is using our product line and which country they are selling their engines.

However, now Safran coming to India, that gives an additional boost to Azad. Companies like Azad, where we have extra benefits coming in.

Azad is playing global as well as will benefit from the obligations what Safran must be having of doing business in India with the domestic suppliers. This is nothing but a bonus.

That way, I would clarify Azad is just not a domestic supplier. It's also a global supplier.

Vikash Singh

Noted, sir. Sir, lastly, on the development of that small engine which we were doing, any update on the same?

Rakesh Chopdar

That's still in the progress. We have finished, I think, a good progress.

We are around 70%, 75%. As you ask me the progress scale, we are around 75% on that.

Vikash Singh

By when we can expect the 100%?

Rakesh Chopdar

We are planning very soon. Couple of months, I think, we should be able to be positioned to deliver the engine.

Vikash Singh

Noted, sir. Thank you and congratulation once again for a very good set of numbers.

Rakesh Chopdar

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Amit Dixit from Goldman Sachs.

Please go ahead.

Amit Dixit

Hi. Good morning, everyone, and congratulations for a very good set of numbers on all the fronts.

Couple of questions from my side. Now, if we see the overall ecosystem, Mitsubishi, GE, all are raising their guidance on energy front.

Safran reported couple of days back again a very good set of numbers and increase in guidance. Even some of your peers like AeroEdge, for example, has increased its guidance on the LEAP components delivery.

In this context, how do you see the traction in your line of business since now we have a foothold in most of these key accounts. How do you see actually these foreign OEMs kind of coming to you, the engagement with them?

Has it increased? In that sense, just wanted to ask that this order book that we are having, ₹6,500 crores, how do we see the trajectory of this, let us say, in next couple of years?

I'm not expecting a quarter or a 6-monthly view. It's over a couple of years kind of view.

Rakesh Chopdar

Thanks, Amit. Thanks for the question.

If we talk about the engagement with the OEMs, right? If you see when we started with energy, Mitsubishi or GE and Siemens or any other good, great customers we have, and in the years 2010s and '12 and '14, what we remember as we started engagement with these all these OEMs, and we were at the exactly the same stage what we are with today with with Safran or Rolls-Royce or or a GE or a, Pratt & Whitney.

I would say the as as we progress as we progress, it's it's with the with the qualifications we are doing with the existing, the customers which are in hand, like we signed up with Safran, we signed up with Pratt & Whitney, we signed up with Rolls-Royce. As we move the as we move forward with the contracts which we have signed and the product line which we have already secured.

All right. That gives us an edge that we are not new to them now.

It's not that knock knock, here we come, we are Azad, to introduce and we start a thing. It has already started.

It has already started, and it has started taking a shape. Once this is established, the best part is Azad has got a a beautiful track record of of delivering, the most complex solutions.

We we can Any OEM is seeking today, they come to Azad. That's that's the beauty of Azad here that we we can give all kind of all kind of solutions that a customer needs.

That has been established. What are we waiting for is to just finish the cycle of this qualification.

Once this tick in the box is there, and then the door opens, and it's already open open for us. We know what's coming.

We know what's what are the pipelines they have. We know we have the visibility what each and every OEM is is looking at.

As you know that these these these parts are not quarter as you rightly said, it's we cannot gauge this by quarter quarter. This goes This goes in a very long strategy, right?

They they re-plan it very we look at a very look at forward-looking thing which has to be very well managed before they even give us a production order. All these preparations are going on well.

Amit Dixit

Great. The second one is essentially there were a lot of, I think, concerns on the investor side on the possible tariffs by the US.

With now US-India deal is mostly done, I believe those concerns would be over. Now in that context, how do you see the opportunity for us shaping up both in terms of US and in terms of Europe, of course, with the EU-India FTA also in place?

I'll give you context. I was speaking to the India head of Pratt & Whitney the other day, and he made a remark which was very interesting that they are looking to increase their delivery from India by 10x.

Earlier it was 6x, by the way, but after US-India trade deal, they are looking to increase it multifold. How do you see the US-India trade deal as an enabler for your business?

Of course, in all the concalls, you have maintained that this doesn't really matter for your kind of product, but just wanted to get your thoughts on this.

Rakesh Chopdar

Amit, I was about to answer that in my previous calls also, I mentioned that these tariffs won't affect the products what Azad is holding, because they are essential, they are something very long qualification products where even the tariff goes double, it will just not go away from Azad, because it takes a lot of time to develop any other supplier. In that angle, there's no effect before, there's no effect after.

However, the customer's at ease, they are more happy that, okay, we don't have to pay the tariff, and we are back on track with Azad. That is where the best part what having is happy environment.

That is only changed. Nothing else has changed.

Amit Dixit

In terms of cost competitiveness now, earlier there was some lingering, I would say, doubts that, okay, with 50%, 55% tariff, maybe the cost competitiveness of Azad could be compromised. With now 18%, I think you should be very, very

Rakesh Chopdar

competitive. Exactly that's what I'm saying.

Customers are very happy now. Before they were okay, we are paying some tariff, but we have no choice.

Now they are happy that we're back with Azad, and we are happy with Azad, and it is back the olden days how we used to work, and they were more happy than working with Azad on the pricing, the quality, the deliveries. I think it has turned around more positive.

Amit Dixit

Wonderful, sir. Great.

Congratulations, and all the best.

Rakesh Chopdar

Thanks, Amit.

Operator

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Manish Ostwal from Nirmal Bang Securities Private Limited.

Please go ahead.

Manish Ostwal

Sir, thank you for the opportunity and good set of numbers and maintaining the extraordinary execution track. Sir, I have a slightly longer-term question on the company's growth and the capital decision-making.

I was tracking since the IPO, the company have built a formidable customer profile and 39% revenue CAGR, which is quite impressive. We have raised money to QIP and the IPO, almost ₹940 crores, and for funding our capex program as well as the some deleveraging because of that.

As I model or visualize Azad Engineering towards a journey of ₹1,800 crore to ₹2,000 crore company by 2030, given our order book and the growth trajectory which we guided in the past in the current quarter, the growth trajectory achievable without any equity dilution, that is a question. The financial leverage can increase, that is a question, sir, in investor minds.

When we interact with the investor that the question is when the Azad business model will move from capital-consuming growth model to self-sustaining growth model? I want your comment on the management commitment on that trajectory, how we should think, how we should build our expectation for that journey for Azad.

Thank you.

Vishnu Malpani

Yep, thank you. Thank you for your question.

Let me start by saying see, we'd raised ₹240 crores in IPO, but out of that, ₹180 crores were towards debt reduction, and hardly any capital from IPO proceeds was used towards building capex, right? We started deploying capital in the newer facility only largely through QIP, where we'd raised about ₹700 crores.

Our guidance to the market has always been that we are investing roughly about ₹200-odd crores in infrastructure, ₹200 to ₹250 crores in infrastructure, and the balance ₹450-odd crores to ₹500 crores will be deployed towards actual plant and machinery, right, which will be leading towards an output. From an asset turn perspective blended across our business, we were already doing about ₹450 crores, which we delivered last year through our existing facility, and through this incremental deployment of 500 ₹450 to ₹500 crores in machines, we should be able to generate anywhere around 1.72 to asset turn of ₹500 crores.

If you look at that, so that gives us another easily between ₹800 to about ₹1,000 crores sort of a visibility incremental to the ₹450 that we delivered last year. Now if you add that, it gives you the entire roadmap from ₹400 crores to say ₹1,500, ₹1,600 crores and beyond, right?

Manish Ostwal

Yes. The second I think, sir, I just looking the QIP proceedings notes to accounts of our filing where you mentioned that there is a use of general corporate expenses of ₹156 crore, which is almost 34% of our revenue.

Can you just brief about the nature of this expenditure, where we spend that money, and how the company will benefit out of that? Can you just highlight for us?

Ronak Jajoo

Sure. Sir.

As Vishnu mentioned that we are deploying around ₹450-₹500 crore in plant and machinery, that required around 15 10% to 15% has to be deployed towards the ancillary which required your installation cost and all those things, which amount to around ₹100-₹150 crores. Out of ₹250 crore, ₹100-₹150 crore has gone towards stabilization and balance has gone towards our long-term working capital, and few of the machines which are not part of the QIP, we have funded that.

Manish Ostwal

All right. What is the capex in 9 months and capex guidance for next couple of years for our business?

Ronak Jajoo

For 9 months, we have capitalized plant and machinery, as we have mentioned that we have capitalized MHI, GE, and Siemens plant during the last 9 months, which amount to around ₹250 crores from the plant and machinery side. Going forward, as Vishnu mentioned, that balance QIP money has to be deployed over the next 1 to 2 years going forward from here in FY27 and '28.

Manish Ostwal

All right, sir. Thank you very much for answering my question.

All the very best for the future execution.

Ronak Jajoo

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Mulesh Savla from Shah & Savla.

Please go ahead.

Mulesh Savla

Thanks for taking my question. Heartiest congratulations to team for the excellent numbers, especially when we are ramping up the production facilities, plant and machineries are being installed, employees and people are being hired, and there are a lot of other expenses.

Sir, my first question is to Mr. Chopdar.

We have excellent product profile. We have long-standing customer relations, and our additional manufacturing facilities are being ramped up.

We have already grown at about 30% plus in the past, recent past. Still, what is restricting you to guide us for the 25% plus growth on the top line and not 30% plus?

That is my first question.

Rakesh Chopdar

Oh, good question. Thank you for the question.

As I mentioned now, stabilization is very important, right? FY26, I

Mulesh Savla

want to stabilize.

Rakesh Chopdar

We want to stabilize Azad. FY20 FY27 is where we start the operating levels.

As I mentioned in the earlier statement also, that qualifications, audits, product qualifications, that's going to take time along with execution and the ramp-up. When it comes to maximum utilization from FY28, I'll change my statement of the growth.

That time it will be nice to keep these statements at that time. What do you say?

Mulesh Savla

Right, sir. I appreciate your conservative guidance and overdelivering.

Rakesh Chopdar

Still,

Mulesh Savla

I feel that we are too much conservative because during all these years, we have been facing these challenges of expanding capacities and all, and still we have delivered 30%, and with these specific dedicated facilities and other facilities coming up, I'm sure we should be able to cross 30% plus guidance.

Rakesh Chopdar

This is what we expect, because we are struggling. What we are struggling: building this massive facility.

It's not a small facility. Making a world-class factory, having these world-class customers, having the world-class product, and such thing, I'm hats off, and I'm lucky to have a team, what everyone is handling so beautifully.

We have a great coordination going on. All this is still giving us we are still on the growth of what we are delivering now, which is commendable at this stage, I would say that.

As it settles down, then there is nothing that we can be stopped, right? Great.

Great.

Mulesh Savla

Great. Sir, my second question again to you is that you said that our gas turbine engine is likely to be ready within another couple of months, I believe it should be before the end of this financial year.

Can you throw some light on kind of potential that can throw up for our company? See,

Rakesh Chopdar

this will be the first jet engine of India.

Mulesh Savla

Correct.

Rakesh Chopdar

It's 100% indigenous, right? This is the first and 100% engine is manufactured in Azad.

When we say it's first, and we anticipated that we'll finish off the deliveries in Q4 and Q3, Q4. However, there are certain things which are jointly done by Azad and GTRE, correct?

There are certain challenges which comes in back and forth. Being the first engine, right?

We anticipate some kind of challenges, but we don't anticipate the timelines. These timelines are just we are hopeful that we are in the last leg, right, of the design phase, what GTRE is doing,

Mulesh Savla

and

Rakesh Chopdar

we are in the last phase of manufacturing. I don't see any more delays in this.

However, a couple of months, we never know if we see some more surprises. As this is the first engine, we all should be very happy that we are very near to get India's first jet engine out.

Mulesh Savla

Correct. That will be our nation's pride.

If you can sir just give rough numbers to what kind of business that it can throw up to Azad?

Rakesh Chopdar

See, right now, we are not looking at business. Right now, we're looking at to get this engine successful.

That's my main focus now.

Mulesh Savla

I'm

Rakesh Chopdar

not concerned, because this is the need of the country, and we all should be proud of it. Great.

Mulesh Savla

Great, sir. I wish you all the very best.

That's all from my side. If I have any question, I'll join back the queue.

Thank you so much.

Rakesh Chopdar

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Gaurav from Avendus.

Please go ahead.

Gaurav Arora

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

First question is on the airfoils opportunity that we have. Given that gas turbines are in very high demand currently because from the data centers, we have seen globally gas turbine prices have gone up considerably in last one year.

The question is that have you also seen any benefit of that gas turbine price increase as OEM passed on that benefit to you as well, which you are seeing in a good margins currently? That's question number one.

Second question is that where are we in the qualification cycle specially for the engine airfoils, and how much time you think it will take for you to get the qualifications?

Vishnu Malpani

Hi. Thank you for the question.

Let me answer it in two parts. The first question, I think, see, we're definitely experiencing a lot of demand, which is coming back to back from our customers directly.

Because we are the only qualified partners in India, we are a direct beneficiary of this, and we've been doing it. Plus with the global situation, we are seeing extremely high demands coming to us.

Now it's only our ability to be able to build up infrastructure and execute which will keep growing our wallet share. In terms of the price, pricing decisions are not being done, and for us, our contracts are longer term where we maintain our 35% 30% to 35% margins and continue to grow on that side.

We are not looking at short-term gains from this perspective. We are building a very, very robust relationship, strategic relationship with our customers, which is not a supplier-customer relationship, but a partnership.

This is our intent to do, but we're experiencing heavy demand, so as to say. That's part number one of your question.

The second is we are aggressively progressing on our airfoil qualification on the aerospace side as well. In fact, if you see these developments that are happening with our customers on this side is a testament to the fact that there is progress that's happening and customers are recognizing it.

That's why we are becoming a part of not just legacy platforms, but also a lot of new engine platforms that will be driving the aviation for the future, right, and across all of our engine manufacturers. We've recently done a contract and finalization with Pratt & Whitney, which we notified.

There's been progress that Mr. Chopdar spoke about on Safran.

Rolls-Royce, we started working in 2024. We should be starting to supply something in FY27.

All of these things are a mixed bag, but let me bring about one point which is important to understand, and I think our Chairman also touched upon it. See, today, what journey we are with Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Safran, and all of these engine manufacturers is what we were with GE, Mitsubishi, and Siemens a few years ago, right?

While we are ramping those up because we finished qualifications, this will be a journey of qualification. We will build qualifications to a point, and slowly, this will be the next leg of growth for us in the future.

Qualifications are progressing really well, and you should be able to see some revenues coming out of the aero engine department in the coming year.

Gaurav Arora

All right. I have two more questions on the accounting side for Ronak.

Ronak, number one is in this quarter, have you seen the sales of services going up considerably compared to last quarter, which has benefited the gross margins and EBITDA margins? That's number one.

Number two, what are the inventory days and working capital days in this quarter?

Ronak Jajoo

Yeah. Coming to the first question, the business is quite stable and more or less it's in the same line in the historical numbers.

As I mentioned in last time also, we don't track business on that particular front like that. On the working capital side, H1, as I mentioned, that we are targeting around 190 to 200 days.

We have started working on that direction, and the results are coming, but it will take some time to stabilize, and it will take time to have. For H2, we are targeting around 140 to 150 days because once we completed all the things on the distribution supply chain and discounting part, we are quite confident it's will come to 140 to 150 days time.

Gaurav Arora

No, but my question is, have we seen inventory days going up in this quarter given

Ronak Jajoo

Not really. Yeah.

Gaurav Arora

Okay.

Ronak Jajoo

WIP this is into the WIP, and you start reflecting this in H1 and H2, as I mentioned. Right now, it's still on the sustainable basis what we have seen in historical periods.

Vishnu Malpani

See, this is progressive change, right? All of these things that we're doing will start reflecting over time.

Our endeavor was to finish this by the end of this current financial year, but I think this is while the complexity in our business that we spoke about, we are in the ramp-up phase, transition phase. Probably in the next about two quarters, you will see the first milestone being hit, and then it's will start reflecting in H2 for the second milestone.

We should be able to do this in our H1 commentary for next year.

Gaurav Arora

All right. Okay.

Thanks a lot, and best wishes for the future.

Ronak Jajoo

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Vinayak Kariwal from Exponent Tribe.

Please go ahead.

Vinayak Kariwal

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, sir.

I just remember Mr. Vishnu Malpani posting about the hiring of at least 1,000 workers for our new plants in the next 3 months.

On the same post, I remember someone commenting that they hired 100 workers, and that took them 12 months to hire. I just wanted to understand how is the aerospace and precision engineering workforce situation in the area where we are operating in?

What is the progress on that hiring?

Vishnu Malpani

Sure. I think very good question.

I think while you can manage everything else with capital, I think capability or recruitment or skill is something that will only be built over time, right? Azad Engineering recognizes that for us to be able to achieve these goals that we are setting for ourselves, these aggressive goals, we will need a very, very strong team to support this, right?

That's why we are onboarding talent at every level, building the skill, training them to be future-ready, right? If you look at, I know you're referring to my post on LinkedIn where I said I want to recruit 1,000 people over the next So the idea is that we do not want the business to be deprived of manpower, because the cost of having employees versus the cost of not having employees is disproportionately high in our business, right?

We've built an execution engine today that we are able to source about 150 to 200 people per month. We have created a training center internally and a program where we are able to in about 50 days, we are able to put a person on the training program and deploy them on the shop floor.

We are running several engagement programs in the company which are interesting, which are helping us train, retain employees as well. It's important, and I think, yeah, it's not an easy thing to be cracked, but then I think we've taken enough and more measures to solve the entire piece of human resource, and we are well in control given our targets for the next few years.

Vinayak Kariwal

Sure, sure. On the margins part, do you expect the margins to dip for the next FY considering the fact that we are coming up with these capacities and the utilization won't be up to the mark, which will only hit maximum utilization in FY28?

Do you expect a margin dip for the next year?

Vishnu Malpani

I'll go back to, like on every call, we say, we would want to maintain our guidance to be in the range of 33% to 35%, but even this year this quarter, you can look at our EBITDA margin. It's been at 38%, right?

I would want to still continue to guide 33% to 35% EBITDA margins in our business for the longer term, but, there are always positive shoots that we would want to bring to the market, like we did this quarter. Fingers crossed.

Vinayak Kariwal

Sure. Last question on the on the requirement from the three gas turbine OEMs.

The data center compute is expected to get 3x every year for the next 4, 5 years,

Vishnu Malpani

and

Vinayak Kariwal

that has a similar requirement of power that the data center industry expect to be ramped up.

Vishnu Malpani

Right.

Vinayak Kariwal

The front-runners in the on-site power generation are these three OEMs which you are the only qualified player in the country. What are the conversations you are having with these OEMs in the kind of ramp-up they are expecting from you, and what is the situation if you could give us a broad view?

Vishnu Malpani

I think you've very correctly summarized this that there's a lot of demand. See, the demand for electricity over the next about 15 years is going to double with what the world needs today.

The only way you can power the world's demand for electricity is by putting up these gas turbines, nuclear turbines, steam turbines, and so on and so forth, right? This demand is being experienced by all of our OEMs aggressively, right?

If you look at their order backlogs and how much orders are they taking quarter-on-quarter, there's a lot of pressure for them and delivery, because data centers have presented this opportunity and this entire industry has changed structurally, right? Our conversations are how quickly can we ramp up on the existing product line, how quickly can we move into adjacent product lines which are also critical and ramp up, right?

Azad is today, right, holding with our existing 100% ramp-up, etc. We will still be doing a single-digit wallet share with our customers, right?

This is going to grow, right? Giving you an example, right, if you look at Howmet Aerospace, even at $700 million worth of scale that they're doing, they're still growing at 25% year-on-year, right?

They say they've delivered a 25% growth. This is a brilliant time to be in this industry, and we are constantly just looking at newer demand coming to us, newer capacity, and even the existing business is to be done over the next few years, right?

The backlog is constantly increasing for our customers and that is just channeled to us directly. Like you said, since we are the only qualified partner in the country, we will be a direct beneficiary of this.

It is in Azad's best interest to sort of keep scaling up and improving our wallet share existing and then also enter into newer product portfolios which we have the opportunity today, right? These are low-hanging fruits for Azad to get into adjacent categories as well.

We are also expanding, right? Why we don't talk about it in our earnings call as much, but there is a lot of capability development that we're doing that will only lead to revenues in the coming years, which is our long-term plan, right?

We're entering into combustion from compressors. Every aspect of a turbine, right, right from a compressor airfoils to really complex combustion parts also, for land, sea, and air turbines, we are building capabilities.

For gas, steam, and nuclear turbines, we are building capabilities. I think Azad is very beautifully present in terms of capabilities that we have and capabilities that we're building right now from our customer's perspective.

These are some of the conversations.

Vinayak Kariwal

Just a clarification. Could we expect more than 40%, 50% growth once you stabilize these capacities with the three turbine OEMs for the next 4, 5 years?

See, the

Vishnu Malpani

demand is there, right? There is obviously a lot of demand.

You see, our customers are signing. If you look at just the contract that we signed with Mitsubishi, right, we signed roughly a $100 million contract, $70 to $80 million contract in phase one, and it was immediately in about one one and a half, less than a year, we were able to sign a phase two of the same contract for a similar value, right?

The demand is obviously there, but our ability to execute these contracts depends on infrastructure, stabilization, all the things that Mr. Chopdar mentioned, right?

All the new plants that we're building up, it's not just about building up a factory, putting machines, and starting, right? This industry does not have a very linear growth, right?

This needs a lot of time, and then you see in Azad's case also, 2008 to 2020, we did ₹100 crores. And 2020 to 2026, we're talking about a number like this year we've delivered five times of what we were in more than five times of what we were.

Definitely, the opportunity to grow is there, but it relies on Azad's ability to execute, take contracts, and execute at that scale, right? While you were asking me questions on how are we also doing on manpower, this is a complex project management, right?

You will have to manage every aspect of the business while you're managing customer expectations, you're building infrastructure, you're ensuring that your current deliveries are not impacted, also hiring, planning for the next year, quarters. It's a very complex mess, and that's why while we still grow at 25%, we say that with absolute confidence, right?

That's why we believe that there is a definitive opportunity in the future to see this demand.

Vinayak Kariwal

Thanks. Thank you so much.

That's helpful. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one now.

The next question is from the line of Kaushik Mohan from Ashika Group. Please go ahead.

Kaushik Mohan

Hi, sir. Sir, I just wanted to understand with the missile engines that what we are trying to do, is those also numbers been considered in the growth rates that we are talking about?

Vishnu Malpani

No, sir. Thank you for the question, but so see, the number projections that we've spoken about, we've only spoken about the customers what we have in hand today, and not something that we haven't, right, which is in the future.

The engine development that we're doing and is not a part of our revenue projections if you're asking us, but this is a capability that we're developing, right?

Kaushik Mohan

What can be the market size if it is possible to be told or anything, what is the market size and what can we capture over here? See,

Vishnu Malpani

I think the market is huge. You should be able to understand that these are strategic defense drones.

This will be used in strategic defense, UAVs, and drones, etc., single-shot device. From that perspective, it will be used in anti-ship missiles, etc.

This is the first strategic jet engine that will be made out of India, you should think about it. I will request Mr.

Chopdar to sort of give us a little more insight on this.

Rakesh Chopdar

Your question is when we can know, because in Azad, whatever we say or whatever we project, we only project whatever is there in hand, okay, what is confirmed, what we can deliver. Maybe in Q1 Q1, we can give you more good news on the engines, we can give you some projections, we can give you some revenues, because as we have a practice, whatever is confirmed, whatever is there in hand, we can definitely talk about it.

This is a great moment for sure. The volumes can be substantial, as this engine is currently been imported by Government of India.

This is an import substitute. There is a massive pressure from the country to develop this engine, and We are on the same page with them, and we are putting all the efforts to develop this engine.

Hopefully, fingers crossed, we very soon will give you good news in Q1, and we can talk more on the projections, we can talk on the revenues, we can talk on the numbers.

Kaushik Mohan

Got it. Got it.

Sir, and I just wanted to understand another thing: with the current order book that we have, the revenue growth rates that we are talking about will be successfully fulfilling its numbers. I just wanted to understand what kind of growth rates that we can see in the current existing products and with the current existing clients, and what will be the market share that we can increase over next 3, 4, or 5 years down the line?

Rakesh Chopdar

The question is good, short, but answer is very long to this. Can I invite you to Azad and I can show you, because every customer has its own product line, every customer has their own design, and nothing is common between these customers.

I have a very long answer for this, I would request you to please visit Azad so that I can show you more in detail.

Kaushik Mohan

Sure, sure. Post this quarter, we will definitely come this

Rakesh Chopdar

Most welcome. Most welcome.

Thanks.

Kaushik Mohan

Thanks for this.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, that was the last question for today.

I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.

Vishnu Malpani

On behalf of Azad Engineering Board of Directors, we'd like to thank everyone for joining the call and listening to the performance updates of quarter three FY26. We're very happy to share that this was an excellent quarter, and we believe that we will be continuing the momentum and the guidance that we've shared with the market.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. On behalf of Azad Engineering Limited, that concludes this conference call.

Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.