Good morning everyone, and welcome to Q4 FY '26 earnings call of Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited. I am Manish Agnihotri, Company Secretary, and I have along with me Mr.

Girish Aggarwal, Managing Director, and Mr. Santosh Breed, CFO.

We will start the call with opening remarks by Girish, and then we'll open the floor for Q&A. Over to you, Girish.

Thank you, Manish. I will first quickly talk about our results for the quarter, and then the full year.

It was another good quarter. Quarter-on-quarter, revenue was up by 26%, EBIT was up by 50%, and EBITDA margins were at 70%.

However, there are two exceptional, one-off items in this quarter results. One is the company received old scrips of 2017-18, 18-19 to the tune of 49.6 crores, which is sitting in other income.

Also on the BG matter with GMB, we accepted the expert committee opinion and have given as a cost of 18 point -- we've taken a cost of 18.8 crores, which is as per the expert committee's recommendation. Net of these two exceptional items, the quarter-on-quarter results, revenue was up by 6%, EBIT was up by 12%, and our EBITDA margins are at 65%.

For the full year, again a good year, overall revenues up by 17%, EBIT is up by 27%, and EBITDA margins are at 61%. In terms of volumes, Ro-Ro continued to do extremely strongly.

Both quarter as well as annual numbers are 39% higher quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. Container was muted.

Quarter-on-quarter was 4% lower. Annual was also 4% lower.

Dry bulk, quarter was 4% lower, annual was 35% higher. Liquids was 5% lower for the quarter and annually 8% higher.

The board has recommended a final dividend of ₹5 per share. This is an addition to the interim dividend paid out of ₹5 and 40 paise.

In terms of quick guidance, we will refrain from the guidance for the full year owing to the Middle East situations, but guidance for the June quarter, underlying performance looks like to be about 16% to 18% EBIT improvement over last quarter. I will stop now, and we will open for questions.

Thank you, Girish. Deepak, please go ahead with your questions.

Hi. Thank you, Girish, and thank you, Manish.

Firstly, if you could just repeat the comment about the non-recurring items and what the recurring EBITDA margin would have been? We missed it because we were still connecting to the call during the period.

Then I'll

come back with my questions.

Sure. We received SEIS scrips of the period 2017-18 and 18-19.

The total value of those scrips is 49.6 crores, which is sitting in other income. Also on the BG matter with GMB, we've taken as cost of 18.8 crores.

This is pursuant to the expert committee recommendation, which we have accepted. Without these one-offs, revenue is up by 6%, EBIT is up by 12%, and EBITDA margins are at 65%.

This is for the quarter, I believe?

Yes, this is for the quarter.

Thank you. Now moving on to my questions, right?

Container shipping, again, we are seeing continued disruptions on the Middle East front. Do you have any visibility in terms of when you could see a recovery in container volumes?

For us to talk about the geopolitical situation, I don't have that visibility, at least at this point in time. One of our service continues to be disrupted, which is the Middle East feeder.

However, I think what we are seeing is certain other opportunities open up, like transshipment, which we are trying to capture. Maersk has also announced a new service called FI2 starting early July, which will start calling Pipavav.

I will request the others to be on mute, please. I think things are moving in the right direction from a container volume perspective, but when and how much final impact of the Middle East will be there, I think we'll probably wait for a month or two to kind of come back to you.

That is very helpful. I know it's very difficult to forecast or predict how things will shape up in terms of volume recovery, but the service which you have seen continuing in the March-April period, is it fair to assume that those services are still continuing now in May and June, and those are steady state compared to the service which dropped off?

Yeah.

We had seen a disruption of two services in March, out of which now one is completely steadily performing. One service continues to not perform.

This is, as I said, is the Middle East ME2 service. However, we now have a new service starting July, which is a Far East service called FI2.

This is a Maersk service, which will start calling Pipavav. We will have a nine-month period in this financial year

in terms of performance. The proforma move that has been announced for Pipavav is about 1,000 moves a week.

Thank you very much. A couple of other questions.

Quickly on the realizations, if you could help us understand what the realizations are for this quarter? Are these realizations after building in any tariff increases, or are you seeing any tariff increases to come hereafter?

Sure. Let me take that.

We have taken a tariff increase in January this year, the impact will be around 3% to the revenue. As far the realizations are concerned, if you look at the container realization, that continues to be in the range of 9,000 to 9,500.

This is after taking the tariff increase. Of course, the cargo mix has some impact because of which the realizations are steady as compared to the previous quarter.

For bulk, it continues to be in the range of 550 to 650, and for liquid also 550 to 600.

Thank you very much. The standard question on concession discussions, any update or status quo?

No,

I think things are moving, again, as I keep saying, in the right direction. There's no red flags.

We continue to engage with the GMB. There's no further update, at least to share at this point in time.

No red flags, all moving in the right direction, all our discussions.

Okay. Thank you very much, Girish and Manish, and I'll get back in the queue.

Thank you,

Deepak. Mr.

Bhavesh Patel, please go ahead with your questions.

Thanks for the opportunity, Girish and Manish, and congratulations on wonderful performance against a very difficult geopolitical situation. I have few strategic questions for you, Girish.

One, in light of the ongoing geopolitical volatility and its impact on shipping routes, how is the management positioning the port to capture potential rerouting? You did mention about service starting in July, but anything else that you're seeing in terms of traffic versus the risk of broader trade slowdown, if at all you're seeing anything?

Let me answer that. I think, from our perspective, as I said, from a container perspective, we've got a new service now starting July.

There were certain opportunities that we captured in the month of April and May, which you will see the results in the June quarter, which was more transshipment, Middle East transshipment cargo. That was an opportunity that kind of presented itself to us, which we captured.

In terms of fertilizers, which largely comes out of the Middle East, that was a challenge in March and April, but we are already starting to see fertilizers coming back, both urea and the other types of fertilizers. It's, of course, dependent on the tenders that the government announces, but are starting to come back.

LPG also, which was very muted in the month of March and April, we are already starting to see now growth on the LPG. However, it is still muted growth.

We still need to see a little bit more to try and see how LPG performs. Of course, it takes time because now a lot of that starts to come from the US, which has a lead time vis-a-vis the Middle East.

In terms of Ro-Ro, while there was some hiccups for a very small period of time in March, that have all gone away, and we continue to perform strongly in Ro-Ro. I don't see any challenge on the Ro-Ro side.

Good to hear that, Girish. Thank you.

Can you also provide update on the liquid jetty construction progress? If I remember correctly, the Ro-Ro staging area that was planned around June 2026 itself, or on that bit, please?

Yes, the Ro-Ro staging area is on track. June end, in fact, maybe a little bit earlier, will be finished.

In terms of liquid jetty, again, a continuous progress. We are still expecting Q3 this year that the construction finishes.

It's, of course, dependent on the monsoons. If it's a regular monsoon, we should be okay.

If it is a little bit tougher monsoons, then it may go another month or so, but that's about it.

Okay. Thank you.

Good to hear. Now that we have FY '26 results out and significant infrastructure investment vision that we had outlined in terms of 17,000 crore capex, of course, pending the concession agreement, which I believe will happen, any updates on that with the capex context?

No,

it's too early to give a context on that 17,000 crore capex. I think we'll wait for some time.

Of course, internally, we continue to kind of build on the business plans, but it is too early to talk about that.

Fantastic. Thank you, and wonderful work in tough situation.

Thanks once again.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Patel.

Mr. Ketan Jain, please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. Had a question on the concession.

As per our concession with the Maritime Board, we are entitled to pay a specific waterfront royalty on the volumes which we handle. I understand that.

Is this royalty currently at some concession rate than what is there in the agreement? Is there any set-off which we are getting for this royalty currently at the moment?

Yeah. Of course, the current royalty are at concessional rate.

It's basically the investment, right? The investment we make

against

that we are getting some concessional royalties.

How is this set-off expected to continue assuming there's a renewal on our concession? If we do the 17,000 crores capex, will we continue to get this set-off, sir?

We don't have answer to that question. That is up to GMB.

Understood. What are the likely terms or how, in terms of concession renewal, which are possible in terms of, say for example, if royalty will go up, or will there be a new bidding?

Any likely outcomes?

No,

what are the possible outcomes?

No, we don't have any answer to that question. This is purely up to GMB.

Sir. I'll get back to the queue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jain.

Mr. Saurabh Beria, please go ahead.

Dropped out. Bhavesh Patel, you have some questions still?

Am I audible? Yeah.

Congratulations for the great set of numbers. I had two set of questions.

First on the side of Ro-Ro facility, what is the maximum capacity which we can reach on the Ro-Ro side on this port? The second question that lies is, suppose we are doing the 17,000 crore capex, on what segment do we expect to spend on it?

On the container side, or be it on the liquid side, or Ro-Ro side? Wanted a clarity on that side.

On the 17,000, again, as I said, it's a very early stage for having a discussion on the 17,000 crore, but it's obvious to state that all the investments will be practically in every aspects of the business. There's no saying we'll invest in one and not invest in two.

Again, as I said, we are still in the process of building a business plan. It's too early to kind of comment on that question.

In terms of Ro-Ro capacity, is the question how much cars can you handle today?

No, how much car can we expect to handle at max capacity? We have a limited hinterland near Pipavav, right?

What is the maximum capacity we can build, basically?

I'm unclear on the question. Are you saying how many cars can I handle today, or you're saying in some other --

No, not today. How much we can build more?

There's no answer to that. Depending on the volumes that we can do, we can go up to half a million, we can go up to 1 million.

If there's more needed, then we can further build. That's purely dependent on how the volume, but there's no limitation as such.

Yes, there's no limitation on the waterfront or on the land side. We can certainly increase the capacity.

Perfect. Got it.

Can you please repeat the realization? I missed that part.

Yeah. The container realization are in the range of 9,000 to 9,500 per TEU.

For bulk, it is 550 to 650 per metric ton, and for liquid, 550 to 600 per metric ton.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beria.

Mr. Kunal Tokas, please go ahead.

Hello, am I audible?

Yes, please.

Okay. Just two questions, sir.

First, just BG settlement that we accepted, just -- did this go into the other expenses line item?

It's part of the exceptional item.

It's part of what? Sorry?

Exceptional item.

Exceptional item. Okay.

The second question is, for this quarter, QoQ there was an about 29% fall in total expenditures, including employee, operating expenses, and all of that. Can you explain why that was?

If you look at the major part, of course, comes from our operating expenses. This is direct expenses related to the lower volumes of bulk that we handled.

Mainly due to that. In the employee benefit, we had adjustment to the gratuity provision that we had taken.

There was some adjustment there last quarter. Other expenses, again, these are mainly to support the operation.

Repairs and maintenance sits here. Those vary on quarter-on-quarter basis.

That's the drill expense. There's no one-off sitting anywhere in other expenses.

All right. Got it, sir.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Nilotpal Sahu, please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Good morning, and congratulations on a great set of numbers.

While we don't have a full year guidance, but for the quarter and for the two months gone by, can you give us some color on how have the volumes shaped up in the last two months on containers, on liquids, and on fertilizers and Ro-Ro as well?

As I said, underlying EBIT we expect for the quarter to be up by 16% to 18%. Expect containers to be up between 5% and 7%, Ro-Ro to be, again, roughly 45%, 50% up.

In terms of liquids and bulk, I think it'll be lower. I off-hand don't have that number handy.

If you're okay, I'll come back to you on that.

Sure, sir. Secondly, my second question was more on the infrastructure side.

Has the KGPL pipeline been connected to the port as of now?

No, not yet. I think last 8 or 10 km are left.

Right. Secondly, we have been hearing about this diesel shortage impacting evacuation.

In the last two months, have you seen any sort of material shift happening towards rail, especially around the Pipavav port?

Sorry, which shortage? I missed it.

There has been diesel shortage and diesel prices have gone up in the past.

No, we have not seen any impact from a diesel perspective. We continue to operate very normally.

Also, evacuation continues as normal. The percentage of evacuation with rail via road is very similar to previous quarters.

I don't see an impact, at least from a Pipavav perspective.

All right, sir. Thank you.

Those were my questions. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Prit, can you please go ahead with your questions?

Yeah. Congratulations on good set of numbers, sir, and thank you for the opportunity.

You mentioned that we would be seeing liquid and bulk lower. Do you mean lower growth or do we expect degrowth in this quarter?

I'll get back with the numbers. Just give me a second.

I'll come back with the numbers, Prit. You can ask the next question.

Can you tell us that at current level how many cars we can handle in Ro-Ro?

At current?

Current capacity used, how many cars we can handle?

Yeah. We're already doing about 250,000 cars.

We can easily handle 300, 350,000 cars today. NYK is already now building a much bigger PDI facility, the MoU signed.

We expect that PDI facility to be operational sometimes next year. That will push our capacity to half a million.

The waterfront capacity is no problem at all.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

On liquid side, we mentioned that liquid jetty would be come by quarter 3 FY '27. Till then, we would be seeing the volumes to be in the range of what we have seen in the last 7, 8 quarters, right?

We cannot go beyond that 4 million something,

4.something. Again, I don't want to give a number of the future.

It will also depend a lot on the Middle East situation. Let's see how that develops.

From a capacity front, we are broadly maxed out.

Sure. That was helpful.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Bhavesh Patel, you have your hands up.

You still have some questions?

Not really. Thank you.

Thank you. Nilotpal, you have further questions?

No, sir. I am good.

Thank you.

Thank you. Collinia, please go ahead with your questions.

Hi sir. Thanks for this opportunity.

Two quick questions. Firstly, on the realization or EBITDA per ton side, even if I were to adjust broadly that SEIS income, it appears that quarter-on-quarter basis even YoY basis, it's still up.

Is there any take-or-pay revenue that is sitting in between that, if you can help us understand that?

I'm really sorry. We can't understand you.

Can you please repeat? It's not very clear.

Can you please repeat?

I hope I am audible now. I'll try to speak a bit louder.

Even if we adjust for the SEIS income, the realization on a YoY basis or QoQ basis looks to be very high, about 9%, 10% odd percent, adjusted for those. Is there any take-or-pay revenue sitting in that item, or if you can help us understand it a bit better, please?

No, there is no take-or-pay sitting in that.

Or any storage income or anything of that sort? BAU is it, the --

There would be some storage income sitting there, but certainly nothing major which is impacting the realization as such.

Okay. Understood, sir.

Sir, secondly, on the liquid jetty capex side, how much has been spent, what is the incremental capex that you need to incur for that, if you can quantify that, please?

At the end of this quarter, we have almost spent 250 cr. 250 cr we have spent.

As we have given earlier that the total spend is going to be in the range of around 720 crores. The rest will come as the project progress.

Got it, sir. Sir, lastly, on the concession agreement, I understand that you already mentioned that things are going as per plan, but why this, because it's only about broadly 2, 2.5 years left.

Where are things stuck there? What are the kind of conversations happening there, if you can help us understand a bit better, please?

I cannot tell you the conversations that are happening. That's not possible, but as I said, everything's moving in the right direction.

I think you should take reassurance from that statement.

Any idea when we can see some at least clarity on that, sir?

No.

Okay. Sure.

Thank you very much and all the best.

Thank you. Mr.

Vipul Kumar Shah, please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity.

I have joined -- Can't hear you. Can you be a little louder, please?

We can't hear you.

Yeah. Sorry, sir.

I have joined a little late, there may be some repetitive questions. My first question is, can you give the EBITDA for all the verticals, for container, liquid --

No, we don't do that. Sorry, we don't split the EBITDA in that manner.

We will not be in a position to give you that information.

Secondly, regarding the expanded capacity for liquid jetty, have we got any firm commitments from any users or buyers?

No, we don't have any firm commitments.

Once it becomes operational, like you said second quarter -- third quarter of next year, right, sir?

We said the jetty will be ready potentially December this year, and then next year is when we should think about volume growth.

How will be the ramp-up?

Most of the ramp-up is happening in the next financial year. This is a 3 million jetty.

If I'm not mistaken, and this is something that we told earlier as well, we start with an addition of about a million metric tons in the next financial year.

Sir. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Mr.

Paramal Matani, please go ahead.

Hello.

Please go ahead.

Yeah. Sir, thanks for the opportunity.

I just wanted to know, in terms of your dividend payout, are we going to maintain the same level of payout going ahead?

Sorry, can you repeat your question, please?

In terms of dividend payout that you've been paying since last three, four years, is the payout ratio going to be at similar level going ahead?

No, we can't. We don't know about that.

There are many factors dependent on the dividend payout. In general, you know the policy.

We try and pay out the full performance that we generate. The payout, of course, is a board decision, we should let it be at the board level rather than at my level.

Okay. Sir, second questions, sorry for repeating this again.

With the discussion with the Gujarat Maritime Board, I'm sure they are aware of the capex plan that you have. Is there any likelihood of any negative surprises on their end?

Because since we're committing money to the table in terms of your investments, is there any red flag that you could highlight or --

No, I told you, maybe you joined later. There's no red flags.

All discussions are moving in the right direction.

Sir. Thank you and all the best, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Mr.

Ketan Jain, you have some questions?

Just a follow-up. How do we see realizations for Ro-Ro volumes?

We don't really give any breakdown for the Ro-Ro realizations because there are very limited customers, we don't split that.

Achha. If I have to estimate the growth for Ro-Ro, any thumb rule for the volume, for the realizations?

Realization will not be able to share with you, please. Volume, of course, we share.

Understood. Achha.

Total. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anyone asking for any further questions?

Yes, Prit, please go ahead.

Just last one question. On capex upfront, we are planning 17,000 crore, but that is if we get a concession extension.

If we do not get, meanwhile what kind of capex we are planning in FY '27? If you could just highlight something on that.

No,

FY '27, the current plan is to ensure that all the capex related to the liquid jetty is completed. That's the capex plan.

If you could give me quantifiable number, what could it be?

The total spend is about 720 crores, out of which Santosh just said that 250 is already paid out. The rest will be spent.

Anything on 17,000 crore capex which we will be planning, how would we be planning that? We would be taking debt or promoter would be infusing money or how are we planning that particular thing?

That cannot be shared. Planning stage cannot be shared at this stage.

Sure. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Any further questions from anyone?

Yes, Siddhant, please go ahead.

Morning, sir. I want to understand if the operating profit margins which are there now are sustainable or not?

We believe our operating profit margins of about 59% to 61% is a reasonable assumption upon an ongoing basis. Yeah.

The reason for the improvement this quarter, sir, like 70% this quarter?

It has one-offs. Underlying is 65%.

Largely, as Santosh was explaining, that's a cost de-escalation as well in some elements, which we expect -- yeah, that's it. Sorry, let me just answer the question that some people asked in terms of bulk and liquid.

Bulk, we expect to decline anywhere between 8% and 10% quarter-on-quarter in the June quarter. Liquids, we expect to decline around 35% to 40% on quarter-on-quarter basis for June quarter.

All right. Anybody has any follow-up questions?

Doesn't seem to be the case. Thank you very much.

Oh, sorry. Vipul Kumar Shah, please go ahead.

Sir. What is the outlook for container volume this quarter, sir?

A growth of 6% to 8%. Sorry, 5%

to 7%. Sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Mr.

Saurabh Beria, you have some follow-up questions?

Thank you. First question was on the Western Corridor that lies, how much time does Mundra take versus what we take on that part?

Secondly, since Mundra lies in a very close proximity to where we stand, what advantage, or on what segment do we carry a upper hand than Mundra, if you can share a broad idea on this?

In terms of DFC connectivity, we are roughly, I think, if I'm not mistaken, about 150 to 200 km longer. From a time frame perspective, not too much, and that's really not how customers also see.

I think the larger question is, are we more expensive, not expensive, because from a time frame perspective, very similar. In terms of competitive advantage, I think we all know that Mundra is significantly better when it comes to infrastructure on the draft front vis-a-vis us when we handle container.

The rest, I think we are equal, if not better than Mundra, in the other categories.

Okay. Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Rajarshi, please go ahead with your questions.

Rajarshi, can you please go ahead with your questions?

Hello.

Please go ahead.

My question is very basic. All your guidance numbers for 1Q FY '27, these are versus the growth numbers versus 1Q FY '26?

Is my understanding right?

Yes.

Thank you. That was the only thing.

Thanks.

Okay. Thank you.

Anybody else having follow-up questions?

Just one last question. Can I go?

Please go ahead.

Yeah. If you can share concentration percentage based on, if we say what percentage of business comes from Gujarat or say what percentage comes from Maharashtra?

Can you share a broad percentage-wise number of revenue concentration on what OEM/customers we cater to?

No, we cannot share that information, and a lot of that information resides with the shipping lines rather than us.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Rajarshi, you have some more questions?

You have your hand raised. Thank you, everyone, for your participation and good questions, and have a nice day.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.