CUBE HIGHWAYS TRUST Units

CUBE HIGHWAYS TRUST Units

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Q1 FY2027 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 17, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Cube Highways Trust Q1 FY '27 investor conference call hosted by DAM Capital Advisors Limited. 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, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Kishan Mundra from DAM Capital.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Kishan Mundra

All right, thank you Darwin and good evening and welcome everyone. From the investment manager side, we have with us Mr.

Vinay C. Sekar, who is the CEO; Mr.

Pankaj Vasani, the group CFO; Mr. Saurabh Bansal, head capital raising, investments, and strategy; Ms.

Richa Gupta Rohatgi, company secretary and compliance officer; Mr. Abhijit Sathe, the joint executive VP finance and accounts; Mr.

Saurabh Kumar, VP strategy and investor relations; and Mr. Deepan Shah, VP legal.

From the trust's project management team, we have Mr. Bobin Kumar, the CEO; Mr.

Mukul Shastri, group general counsel; and Mr. Anuj Maitri, head of operations.

The conference call may include forward-looking statements reflecting the company's current beliefs, views, and expectations as of the date of this call. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance and may differ materially from the actual results.

Please note that this conference is being recorded. With that, I would now like to hand over the call to Mr.

Vinay C. Sekar, the CEO, for his opening remarks.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Vinay C. Sekar

Thank you, Kishan. Good evening to everybody.

Thank you for joining us. This has been a landmark quarter for Cube InvIT with an important milestone in our journey as an infrastructure investment platform.

On July 31st, 2026, we successfully transitioned from a privately listed InvIT to a publicly listed InvIT through an offer for sale of ₹5,000 crores. This is a significant achievement for Cube InvIT, and we believe for InvITs in India.

We are the first private InvIT to transition to a publicly listed InvIT successfully and have emerged as India's largest public listed InvIT. The response from investors has been extremely encouraging.

The issue was oversubscribed 9.42 times. More importantly, the transition has materially broadened our investor base.

As of August 7th, 2026, we have more than 17,000 unit holders with broad-based institutional ownerships across mutual funds, insurers, banks, pension funds, and trusts. For us, this milestone represents much more than a successful capital markets transaction.

It is the culmination of several years of work to institutionalize the platform through stronger governance, internal controls, technology, systems, valuation discipline, and risk management frameworks. We believe the transition significantly strengthens our ability to access a broader pool of institutional and long-term capital, improves the platform's visibility, and creates a strong foundation for the next phase of growth.

Against this backdrop, our underlying portfolio continues to perform exceptionally. Cube InvIT's portfolio comprises of 27 road assets, 18 toll, 6 hybrid annuities, and 3 annuity assets, covering over 8,700 lane kilometers across 12 states and 1 union territory.

The portfolio has an 86-to-14 toll-to-annuity mix with an average residual concession life of 17.8 years. This provides us with a diversified portfolio of long-duration infrastructure assets with cash flows naturally protected by contractual inflation and interest rate pass-through mechanisms.

On the acquisition of four assets, for two of the assets, CNTL and DTPL, all the key conditions precedents have been completed. The other two assets have one key CP to be completed each.

Considering this, we will initiate the unit holder approvals for preferential issuance for these assets by the end of August or first week of September. We hope to initiate this for all four assets.

However, in case some one or two these approvals get delayed, we will complete these acquisitions in tranches. Additionally, the trust continues to have a first right of first offer for three additional sponsor assets, subject to, of course, commercial alignment and regulatory approvals.

This provides visibility into our future growth pipeline. Coming to our operating performance, Q1 FY '27 was a very strong quarter for the portfolio with a 9.3% year-on-year traffic growth, resulting in 11.5% year-on-year growth in toll revenues.

The reported toll revenue was despite the Western UP concession expiring on the 23rd of June. On a comparable operating day basis, portfolio toll revenue growth was 12% year-on-year.

The growth was supported by strong vehicle sales in the country. Passenger traffic has also benefited from longer trip plans, better roads, and passenger convenience measures such as the annual pass.

Toll revenue growth was led by our assets such as Ghaziabad-Aligarh, Delhi-Agra, NAM expressways, and the assets between Tamil Nadu and in Tamil Nadu between Madurai to Kanyakumari. The traffic growth remains broad-based across the portfolio, and most importantly, a majority of our toll assets posted double-digit traffic growth.

Annual pass adoption amongst private cars averaged approximately 32% across our portfolio with ₹108 crore of compensation recognized as received/receivable as of 30th June 2026. The average receivable days stood at 42 days in Q1 FY '27.

Our weighted average cost of debt improved further during the quarter, declining to 7.49%, supported by the issuance of a fixed-rate instrument during the quarter. Our NAV has increased to ₹149.6 per unit from ₹145.8 per unit in the previous quarter, largely driven by compression in the weighted average cost of capital.

During the quarter, we have declared a distribution of ₹3.95 per unit, bringing the cumulative distribution since listing to ₹38.81 per unit. The total distribution declared during Q1 FY '27 was ₹531 crores.

The board of the investment manager also approved an upward revision of the full-year FY '27 DPU guidance to ₹14.50 per unit from the ₹14 per unit previously. This is supported by the strong traffic performance during the quarter.

There remains an upside in the distributions in case the traffic performance continues to remain robust for the rest of the year. We believe the quarter demonstrates the strength and the resilience of the underlying portfolio, and at the same time, the successful transition to public InvIT marks the beginning of a very new and important chapter for Cube InvIT.

Operationally, we continue to focus on improving efficiency, asset quality, and life cycle across the portfolio. Major maintenance work at two assets, NAM expressway and Delhi-Agra, is progressing as planned and within budget.

We have deployed micro-fine milling across 4.5 lakh square meters, saving approximately over 2,250 metric tons of bitumen and 32,000 metric tons of aggregates while also generating cost efficiencies. We have also introduced technology-led pothole identification and other in-house O&M initiatives to improve maintenance efficiency, turnaround times, and overall asset management.

With a broader and more diversified investor base, a strong operating portfolio, a robust balance sheet, and a visible growth pipeline, we remain focused on delivering sustainable distributions and long-term value creation for our unit holders. With that overview, I would like to invite Pankaj to take you through the financial performance and updates.

Thank you.

Pankaj Vasani

Thank you, Vinay. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Cube InvIT's earning call.

Q1 '27 is the first quarter we report as a public listed InvIT, and we are delighted to welcome a considerably wider base of unit holders. The results for the quarter substantiates the continued strong showing across key performance metrics.

Let me take you through some of the key financial highlights for the quarter. We have continued our strong performance during the quarter with sustained momentum across our toll assets and have received full payment of all annuities due for the quarter ended 30th June '26.

Revenue from operations stood at ₹1,127 crores, up 19.3% YoY, while total consolidated income was ₹1,157 crores. Our daily average collection was ₹10.1 crores in Q1 with ETC collection stable at 97.1%.

Traffic trends remain stable to positive across most corridors. While toll revenue grew 11.5% YoY, traffic grew 9.3% YoY.

EBITDA for the quarter rose to ₹819 crores, an improvement of around 16.7% YoY. NAV stood at ₹149.6 per unit compared with ₹145.8 per unit of last quarter.

Debt, including deferred payment, stood at ₹17,645 crores with net debt-by-AUM at 45.17%. AUM remains stable at ₹367 billion.

During the quarter, we raised ₹637 crores through a 7.3925% fixed-rate NCD with an 11.8-year tenor, further extending our debt maturity profile and supporting our overall cost of debt. Our valuation framework continues to incorporate conservative assumptions regarding traffic growth, inflation, maintenance cost, and discount rates, with independent valuation support and periodic reassessment of macroeconomic conditions.

As you are aware, the trust is required to distribute at least 90% of its NDCF to unit holders each financial year. We make quarterly distribution in accordance with our distribution policy.

To reiterate some of the key principles behind the calculation of NDCF: First, NDCF for BOT and TOT asset is generally stable on a quarter-on-quarter basis, supported by predictable traffic patterns and operating structure. That said, there can be some seasonality in toll revenues driven by factors such as traffic trends and festival or monsoon periods, as well as toll rate escalation that occur at different points during the year.

Annuity-based asset will naturally have a variance aligned with timing of annuity receipt and are considered for NDCF only on actual receipt. Third, SPVs are allowed to create reserve for specific business and regulatory requirements, such as towards MMR and operational expenses in annuity asset.

Last but not the least, any restricted cash or free cash, including annuities received prior to acquisition, forms a part of opening cash, utilization of which is governed by the InvIT regulations. The NDCF calculation for each SPV and at for the trust are part of the results and can be found on our website.

Now, let me very quickly take you through the summary of NDCF generated during the quarter. At a consol level, the trust generated ₹532 crores, up 57% YoY from ₹339 crores of Q1 financial year '26.

At the trust level, the total cash inflow for the quarter were ₹1,397 crores, comprising ₹920 crores in toll receipts from 18 operational assets, ₹449 crores of annuity receipt, and ₹28 crores in other income. The total expenses for the quarter were ₹360 crores, comprising O&M expense of ₹235 crores, periodic maintenance and capex of ₹59 crores, tax, working capital, and other adjustment of ₹66 crores.

This gave us a net balance of ₹1,037 crores. Debt servicing for the quarter was ₹487 crores, comprising principal of ₹139 crores, interest of ₹341 crores, processing and other fee of ₹7 crores.

The net amount available for distribution came to ₹550 crores. Western UP cash not distributable was ₹19 crores, and a cap reduction scheme was filed for this.

The NCLT approved the scheme of arrangement on 29th of July '26, implementation of which is subject to requisite filing with the RoC. After all these adjustments, the net amount available for distribution in Q1 was ₹532 crores, with declared a distribution of ₹531 crores, effectively 99.8% of the NDCF generated during the quarter was distributed.

A quick recap of our distribution history: In financial year '24, with 18 SPVs, our DPU was 10.9, amounting to ₹1,302 crores. The distribution mix was interest at 70%, return of capital at 19, dividend at 10, and treasury income at 1%.

Moving to '25, the portfolio expanded to 25 SPVs, 18 for the whole year, 6 HAM projects for 10 months, and NAMEL for 1.5. DPU rose to 11 with a total distribution of ₹1,468 crores.

The distribution mix was interest at 52%, return of capital at 43%, dividend at 5%, and treasury income making up the balance. For financial year '26, with 27 SPVs, including two new highway assets acquired and full-year contribution from NAM and HAM, we distributed ₹13.77 per unit, totaling to ₹1,851 crores.

The distribution mix was interest at 57%, return of capital at 32%, dividend at 11%, and treasury income making up the balance. Now, we have entered financial year '27 with full contribution from all 27 SPVs for the first quarter, and we have made a distribution of ₹531 crores, which is ₹3.95 per unit.

The distribution mix for the quarter is interest at 53%, dividend at 27%, return of capital at 19%, and treasury income making up the balance. I would also like to discuss a recently proposed tax amendment.

As you may be aware, the Tax and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, financial year '26, passed by the Parliament earlier this month, proposes tax-exempt treatment for dividends distributed by SPVs to InvIT unit holders, regardless of the tax regime that the SPV opts for. To maintain revenue neutrality, the surcharge applicability to SPVs of InvIT opting in the new tax regime has increased from 10% to 25%, raising the effective SPV tax rate from 25.2% to 28.6%.

For the current year, 17 SPVs are under the new regime, and we expect the increase in surcharge to have a minimal impact on their current tax for the financial year, which is estimated to be around ₹5 to ₹6 crores. The remaining SPVs continue under the old regime, primarily because they are eligible to claim reduction under Section 80-IA of the erstwhile Income-tax Act, 1961.

As our portfolio matures, the dividend component of distribution is expected to increase significantly. Over time, with return of capital, which is exempt up to the cost of acquisition, around 60% to 70% of the distribution is expected to be tax-exempt, compared with a similar proportion that is currently taxable.

While there is some increase in tax at the SPV level, the elimination of investor-level taxation on dividend component is expected to improve post-tax returns, particularly for taxable investors, who at present constitute a large share of our investor base. Overall, we believe that this quarter's performance yet again reflects our portfolio's resilience, disciplined capital management, and the team's consistent execution.

We remain grateful to our investors, partners, and stakeholders for their continued trust and support in us. With that, I hand the call back over to the moderator for the Q&A session.

Thank you.

Operator

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

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Participants viewing the webcast may click on the Ask a Question tab and follow the instructions on the screen. As we have no questions at this time, we will now conclude the call.

On behalf of Cube Highways Trust, we appreciate your participation. Thank you for joining us.

You may now kindly disconnect.