Thank you, Alaric. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the KEC International's Q1 earnings conference call.

Let me begin by sharing an overview of the operating environment, followed by our performance during the quarter and business-wise updates. In the Middle East, our Dubai manufacturing facility and the execution of all ongoing projects continue to operate near normal on the ground.

The region accounts for approximately 25% of our overall order book and L1 position. While tendering activity remains strong across the region, we are witnessing some delays in the finalization and award of new orders.

Cash flows remain stable, and we continue to be optimistic about the medium to long-term outlook, supported by sustained investments in grid expansion, regional interconnections, grid resilience, renewable energy integration, and reconstruction initiatives. While on-ground execution continues across our sites, we continue to face challenges on the supply chain and logistics.

Shipments, especially from Europe, China, and India to the GCC countries, which had come to a standstill earlier, have gradually resumed, albeit with some delays. This has resulted in slower execution on certain projects on the supply side.

Freight costs, including war-related surcharges, insurances, etc., remain elevated, though they are expected to moderate over the coming weeks. This also had a cascading increase on logistics, fuel, and power costs, also in the manufacturing facilities in India.

We are working closely with our supply chain partners to minimize these disruptions and are also engaging with our customers to recover these additional costs. Procurement or project execution may get deferred until customer alignment is achieved on recovery of the additional costs, resulting in revenue, margin, timing impact.

These challenges impacted execution during Q1 and are expected to have a spillover effect on Q2 also. Coming to Q1 performance, despite a challenging operating environment, we delivered a resilient performance by maintaining revenues, strengthening our order book, reducing debt, and continuing to build a healthy pipeline for future growth.

We delivered revenues at ₹5,024 crores, marginally higher than Q1 last year. We have delivered a PBT of ₹90 crores with PBT margins of 1.8%, and our PAT stands at ₹73 crores.

Our performance could have been better, but for the continued geopolitical disruptions in Middle East, shortage of labor, and calibrated execution of water projects owing to delays in payments. The labor situation has started improving from June '26 onwards.

Delay in legal closure of disputes/settlement of claims in transportation and metro projects also impacted the profitability. On the order intake front, we secured new orders of over ₹6,300 crores across T&D, civil, renewables, cable and conductors, and transportation business.

Additionally, we have a L1 position of almost ₹3,000 crores, predominantly in the T&D business, which are expected to be awarded in the near future. We have a diversified and strong order book of ₹37,697 crores as on date.

Including the L1 position, our order book and L1 stands at over ₹40,000 crores. On the debt front, net debt including acceptances have been reduced by over ₹150 crores to ₹6,568 crores in June '26 from March '26, supported by free cash flow generation.

This reduction in debt has also translated in a lower absolute interest cost compared to Q4 '26. The debt could have been further reduced, but for the delay in realizing significant collections from Afghanistan, which we now expect to materialize in Q2, as well as higher inventory levels due to delayed dispatches from Dubai factory, as well as some raw materials storage amidst the ongoing Middle East disruptions.

On specific businesses, T&D, the business achieved revenues of ₹3,217 crores, higher than last year. The revenues could have been better, but for the supply chain constraints in Middle East.

On the order intake front, the business secured orders of ₹3,600 crores across India, Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. In India, we secured repeat orders from leading private developers, including a significant order in the rapidly growing HVDC segment.

We continue to witness a robust opportunity pipeline in this space. We have already participated in multiple packages in the Barmer, Rajasthan HVDC scheme, and expect additional schemes to be floated during the course of the year.

We have also secured our first transmission line order for evacuation of power to a data center in Western India from a private developer. This order marks an important milestone for the T&D business in supporting the power infrastructure needs of the growing data center segment.

We're also engaged in discussions with other data center developers for similar opportunities. In addition to PGCI and other private developers, we have started bidding for three new developers during the quarter.

In international, we are witnessing a gradual revival in the African market, reflected in the recent win of a significant transmission line order that further strengthens our presence in the region. We have also expanded our tower supply business by securing a substantial order in the Middle East, opening up a sizable new market beyond our presence in the Americas, Australia, and Europe.

In SAE, the business achieved revenues of ₹450 crores, a strong growth of 25% year-on-year. We continue to witness strong momentum in order flows, with new orders of over ₹1,650 crores for the supply of towers, hardware, poles, and engineering services across the US, Mexico, and Brazil, an increase of nearly four times compared to last year.

These orders include the largest ever tower supply order from the US, reflecting the growing momentum in the American T&D market. With these orders, the order book and L1 position has been scaled up to a record level of over ₹3,800 crores.

In line with our strategy of diversifying our product portfolio and expanding into new markets, we continue to make encouraging progress. In Brazil, we successfully executed our first pilot order for mining structures, opening up opportunities beyond the power transmission sector.

In Mexico, we expanded our international footprint by securing an order for the supply of structures for a solar project outside Mexico. On the manufacturing front, following the successful capacity enhancements at our facilities in Dubai, Jaipur, and Jabalpur, we completed the expansion of our Butibori facility in Nagpur in Q1.

With this, our global manufacturing capacity has increased to 483,800 metric tons. These capacity additions further strengthen our manufacturing capabilities and position us well to cater to the growing demand for transmission infrastructure across both domestic and international markets.

The overall tender pipeline in T&D continues to remain robust across both domestic and the international markets. In India, the sector continues to offer a strong multiyear growth opportunity, driven by rising power demand, accelerated renewable energy capacity addition, grid modernization, and the increasing need to address grid congestion through expansion and strengthening of the transmission network.

With a robust tender pipeline, we see significant multiyear opportunities ahead and remain well positioned to capitalize on this growth. The international T&D market continues to present a strong growth outlook, supported by robust transmission investments across the Middle East, a recovery in Africa, expanding opportunities in the Americas, CIS, and the SAARC regions, and increasing infrastructure demand driven by renewable energy integration and the AI-led data center boom.

Our diversified global position positions us well to capitalize on these opportunities. With a healthy order book and L1 in T&D of over ₹25,000 crores, we are confident of delivering significant growth in the T&D business.

In civil, we delivered revenues of ₹993 crores for the quarter, a growth of 6% year-on-year. While execution has progressed across multiple sites, growth was slightly lower owing to the labor shortages arising from the election period and the delays in customer payments in the water segment.

During the quarter, we successfully commissioned the Bheden water supply project in Odisha, which was inaugurated by the honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. This landmark project will provide safe and reliable drinking water to 166 villages through 58,000 household tap connections, creating a meaningful social impact.

During the quarter, the business secured multiple orders/L1s of over ₹1,400 crores in the buildings and factories vertical from reputed clients. The civil business has widened its presence in the automobile segment with an order from one of the India's leading automobile manufacturers, adding a marquee client to its portfolio.

The business continues to strengthen its presence in the high-rise residential segment, expanding its customer base with a prestigious order in Northern India. It is also well positioned to secure another order from a repeat customer, reflecting our strong execution capabilities and customer confidence.

With these wins, KEC is now constructing approximately 80 high-rise buildings for marquee clients across the country. Our geographic footprint extends with a strong presence in markets such as Mumbai, Gurugram, Pune, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.

During the quarter, we further strengthened our civil leadership capabilities through onboarding of senior talent. Looking ahead, with the labor situation gradually normalizing, a sharp focus on execution, and robust order book and L1 of over ₹10,000 crores, we are confident that the civil business is well positioned to deliver healthy growth over the coming quarters.

Our transportation business has achieved a revenue of ₹259 crores for the quarter. The business continues to focus on execution of the new orders and completion of ongoing projects.

During the quarter, the honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra inaugurated the Mumbai Metro Line 2B section between Mandale and Diamond Garden, where KEC executed the ballastless track works. The business has also secured new orders over ₹250 crores in the technologically advanced automatic block signaling segment.

The business has successfully implemented Kavach across 667 route kilometers and is currently executing deployments across an additional 1,780 RKM of the railway network and over 3,000 locos. We continue to actively pursue opportunities in Kavach, technologically advanced metro systems, and tunnel ventilation projects.

Going forward, our focus remains on accelerating project closures, improving working capital efficiency, and selectively pursuing high-value domestic and international opportunities to drive profitable growth. Our cables and conductors business has achieved a revenue of over ₹600 crores, a stellar growth of 57% year-on-year, driven by robust demand across the infrastructure, power transmission, and industrial segments.

We also continue to witness steady inflow of orders for supply of both cables and conductors. On the new product front, elastomeric cables are slated to commence production in this quarter, followed by the commissioning of the E-beam plant in the next quarter.

These investments are expected to strengthen our specialty product portfolio, improve our product mix, and support long-term margin expansion. In the renewables business, we secured new orders of ₹800 crores from an existing customer during the quarter.

These include prestigious projects in both the wind and solar segments. We are now executing solar and wind energy projects with a cumulative capacity of over 600 megawatt.

In addition, the 1 gigawatt solar projects for IRCON in Karnataka and NTPC in Rajasthan, commissioned recently, are operating successfully at their rated capacity. The outlook for the renewable business remains highly encouraging, driven by sustained investments in clean energy, grid modernization, and the increasing focus on reliable and dispatchable power solutions.

We continue to engage with leading wind OEMs for strategic partnerships to strengthen our presence in the wind segment. With our expanding execution capability and growing project portfolio both across wind and solar, we are confident that the renewable business will become a significant contributor to KEC's long-term growth.

In the oil and gas pipeline business, we have initiated the merger of our wholly owned subsidiary, KEC Spur Infra, with KEC International. Post the merger, the oil and gas pipeline portfolio will be integrated into our civil hydrocarbon segment, enabling a more unified approach towards hydrocarbon projects.

Going forward, we see significant opportunities to expand our hydrocarbon business across both domestic and international markets. In conclusion, our performance during the quarter reflects the resilience of our diversified geographical portfolio.

While we continue to face certain near-term challenges, we believe these are largely transitory. With supply chains gradually normalizing, labor availability improving, a strong order book and L1 position of over ₹40,000 crores, a robust tender pipeline exceeding ₹2 lakh crores, and encouraging opportunities across both domestic and international markets, we remain confident of delivering stronger execution and improved financial performance over the remaining quarters of the year.

Thank you. We are now open to take questions.

Yeah. Sir, firstly, on the standalone performance, we saw EBITDA margin declining to almost 4-odd percent for Q1, and PAT was negligible.

What was the reason for that at standalone level?

Vaibhav, as you have seen our numbers, T&D obviously is at a higher margin and railways and civil has been negative, and that is in the standalone. A large part of our T&D is also in the consol piece.

Which is the major reason why the standalone is showing a much lower numbers as compared to the consol.

Okay. Do you expect the T&D to pick up from Q2 onwards, or it should be in the second half?

There should be some pickup happening in Q2. I think the problem in Q2 is in T&D in India is there because of very heavy rainfall, especially in Gujarat, where most of our projects are right now concentrated.

Clearly Q2 definitely be better on standalone.

Okay. Secondly, you mentioned about the stuck receivables in Afghanistan and JJM.

What is the quantum of receivables from Afghanistan and JJM? Can you split the JJM receivables in both MP and Orissa and how do you see the inflows coming in?

I don't have the split numbers, but the total receivables should be around ₹800 or ₹900 crores, of which around ₹400 to ₹500 are sort of overdue. Okay?

Balance are pending certification, etc. We have been talking with everyone, including the state governments and the central governments, and the assurance is that funds are now being released.

We will keep our fingers crossed. In fact, in the month of July and August till date, we have received around ₹110 crores or so between the two states.

I don't have the exact, but I think the dues are equally split between Orissa and MP. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, we have around roughly ₹300 crores of money which is due for payment for some time, and it has to come from ADB.

We have been getting repeated assurances that we should get the money. It was supposed to come in Q1.

Now they have told us Q2. I think it's a matter of time.

I think if we are lucky, let me put it, that we should get it in Q2 itself, otherwise definitely Q3. That's a large amount, ₹300 crores without any outflow against it, so that will help us in improving our debt situation, which did improve a little bit in this quarter.

Sir, lastly, you mentioned that in the previous call that we are targeting 120 days by September and 110 days by March in terms of overall working capital. If we receive this ₹300 crores from Afghanistan and another ₹300, ₹400 crores from JJM, then also to achieve that target, we need another improvement as well.

What could be that lever to reach towards that 110 days?

I think these two will help us decently. Also, I did mention that we had a higher inventory level in Q1.

One is partly in our Dubai factories because there were some balancing equipment, etc., which did not reach there, which have now reached. That is one.

Secondly, now cable business also, with all the uncertainty on the plastic side, etc., we had increased our raw material, etc., and finished goods also, now they are getting going. I think maybe around ₹200, ₹250 crores should get sort of released from the working capital side without the debtors also.

I think we are pretty okay with the numbers what you're talking about.

Okay. Sir, lastly, on interest cost, we have seen some reduction on a Q-o-Q basis.

Incrementally, this should be the run rate on a quarterly basis for the entire year?

No, it should be much less than that. This quarter, we had 3.3%, largely because a lot of cash came in the end of the quarter.

While the absolute borrowings went down by the quarter end, I think in April, May it was elevated. Our expectation is that against the 3.3% which we did, we should be around 2.3 or so for the whole year.

Our total interest should be around ₹600 and odd crores. That's our expectation.

Okay. Thanks a lot, sir.

I'll fall back in the queue.

Thanks, Vaibhav. Thank you, Vaibhav.

Good morning, sir. Good

morning, Sumit.

My question is in relation to your 25% order book in Middle East. Could you speak about the composition of this order book, the challenges that you face in terms of execution.

Excluding Middle East, what would have been your revenue growth, just trying to understand the impact here? Sumit,

our 25% order book is broadly, I'll say, equally divided between Saudi and UAE. That's the basic.

When you say 25%, it's almost ₹10,000 crores, ₹5,000 each between the two countries. Okay?

Very broadly, maybe 2 or 1 or 2% here and there. Okay?

That's one part of it. On challenges, we are not seeing anything significant on the ground.

Project executions are going on. I think in the last four months, we have commissioned three or four projects during these four months, and a lot more is happening.

I think the problem is twofold. One is the logistics cost have gone up, fuel costs have gone up, local operating costs have gone up significantly, which is reflected in the margins.

We are in touch with the client, etc. Let us see what happens.

Since the costs are being incurred, they are getting booked immediately. That's one part of it.

The second part is on the supplies. Typically, 25, 30% of our revenues come from supplies items.

We are seeing a significant challenge on the shipping side with the ports under attack or so. Vessels from China, Europe, and even from India are difficult to get, and also the rates have gone up.

Whatever is impacting the quality of revenue, we have been deferring it for some time. Hopefully, the situation is slowly normalizing.

It should come back maybe by the end of this quarter or so. We'll keep our fingers crossed on that.

The major impact is not on the physical execution, but towards the supplies which go into the projects.

Okay. Essentially, revenue growth excluding Middle East would also have been flattish, just like we have seen on a year-on-year basis for KEC at consolidated level?

No.

I think the revenue growth was slightly, I'll say, impacted in India T&D and also civil because of labor in the civil side. India T&D, I think we are still seeing a huge headwind in terms of ROWs.

Whether it is Rajasthan, whether it is Gujarat, I think these are two major states where we are operating majorly because all the renewable projects are there, most of our projects are in that side. That's one issue.

I think slowly, slowly, it is getting resolved. Gujarat has come out with a new scheme where they have increased it twice or thrice of market value.

I hope that we will start seeing a lot more movement on the India T&D side.

Okay. Okay.

On the FY26 call, you had indicated an expectation to grow 12 to 15% in revenue terms, order inflow of ₹300 billion, and you had not given any specific margin guidance. Would you like to revisit your guidance for the fiscal?

I think we are okay with the guidance. I think only on the revenue side, we were 12 to 15, it will depend upon what happens in the war.

I think maybe a half a 1% here and there, but I don't think there's anything major for us to worry because we have an order book plus L1 of ₹40,000 crores. Q3, Q4 typically are good for execution.

I think right now we are pretty okay with our guidance.

Okay. Finally, in your civil segment, how much is water as a percentage of your order book now?

And Go ahead.

Yeah. Basically, with the adverse or working capital challenges, what is the outlook on execution there?

Particularly within civil, I think you had expressed the expectation of ₹80 billion of order inflow in FY27. How much of that would be particularly from water?

We have not taken anything from water, first of all. Secondly, I think on the order book, we are roughly around ₹1,200 or ₹1,300 crores in water.

That would be, let's say, 13, 14% of our order book. I think for the balance numbers, I think we are pretty okay.

We have got a large tender pipeline for civil. We are not too much worried.

There is enough and more work happening, especially on the residential and the commercial piece of it, and continued work, a lot of inquiries from the metals and mining. I don't think we are seeing too much on other sectors, but at least on this sector, there's a continuous inquiries coming on.

Okay. Thank you, and wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Yeah. Sir, hi.

Congratulations on a decent quarter in a tough environment. Sir, my first question is on the standalone revenues and the profitability.

If I do simple maths, almost close to about ₹3,900 crores of revenues and you reported 4% EBITDA. Historically, this business had 10% margin, but assuming if we take even 8% normalized margins, it's a ₹311 or ₹300-odd crore EBITDA, we are shortfall for almost ₹150 crores.

Largely, this loss is coming from which segment within the order book?

It's difficult to quantify which exactly, but it's primarily coming from our transportation and civil business. That's where the shortfall is coming.

T&D is doing reasonably well, I'd say.

Civil sir, we were approaching high single-digit margin. What's happening in civil now?

Why civil has turned negative? No,

no, it has not turned negative. I think the issue what we have been discussing is that we have got a few old metro projects and all that.

I can give you an example. I've got four metro projects, two in DMRC, two in Chennai Metro.

One of the DMRC project was commissioned some time back. The second one is ready for commissioning since I think last June.

Okay? The client has not taken over.

Chennai Metro, the same thing, the project, one of them is ready for commissioning for I don't know how many months now. It's not been commissioned for whatever reason because somebody's not available or I don't know what's happening.

Because of that, what happens is that the client will not take over, you are supposed to maintain, virtually you end up spending almost ₹10 crores per month on each project. All these are going in the expense account.

You will make a claim and all that, but jab aayega tab aayega, but aaj ki tarikh mein usko debit karna padta hai. That's where it is continuing, and I think it's a saga which is I don't know what to say about it.

Hopefully, we are now hearing that they will get commissioned, and they're stuck for commissioning because the second part is not getting ready or something else has happened and all that. That's where this is happening.

When you say that we are going towards a higher margin, it's a fact on all the new orders are all profitable, and we are pretty okay with them. It's a question of as soon as we are able to close the tap on these orders, we will start seeing a turnaround.

When we talk about the line of sight, Q1 is ₹150 crores of shortfall. If I annualize, it's almost ₹600 crores on standalone.

Where does it end? What is the order backlog right now from all this troublesome projects which are underfunded or maybe a loss-making?

What is the pending cost to completion, or maybe extra costs which you need to cover up? If one has to look at which quarter down the line we'll turn profitable, move towards 8, 9% standalone margins.

If you can give some color on that will be helpful.

Difficult to give it today. On the second part, or the first part on the order book, these are not in the order book because they are all completed projects.

They don't have any backlog of orders except one CMRL project which will get completed in maybe next six months, where we may have an order book of ₹100, ₹150 crores or so. Rest of all are not.

As I said, they are completed, ready to hand over, everything is done. They're not in the order book.

I will not be able to give you exact numbers, but I do think that, this quarter also Q2 also would remain in a similar line, maybe 50 basis points here or there. That's the way at least Q2 will be there.

Q3, Q4 will depend upon what happens also in West Asia because most of the projects of West Asia, many of them are in my standalone.

Okay. The other part is the one thing which is there on the civil side and on the transportation side, now secondly, challenges which are coming up on the freight and the commodity side, steel, aluminum, prices are going up.

Is there a case when in the T&D business, which was supposed to be high margins, now starts seeing headwinds on the margins because of all this conflict, and they'll start reporting lower margins, and directionally, our aspiration to reach high single-digit margin gets pushed out maybe by a year or a couple of years?

T&D, I am not seeing too much of a challenge on a double-digit margin. Okay?

We have, I think, enough cushions available. A lot of them are hedged already, I don't think we are too much worried about it.

Okay? T&D, I think we are okay.

Steel and all that, what has happened is that the costs have come down again, specially on the plates, etc., the angles. Aluminum, yeah, we have some exposure, but I think we have enough time to look at it.

Are we worried? No, I don't think we are significantly worried about.

Maybe 50 basis points here and there. Our view is that T&D would probably continue to be double-digit or maybe very close to double-digit going forward.

What about the other segments, civil, transportation, others? If you can give color.

They're still negative. Okay?

That's where the overall numbers are under pressure.

Any guestimates as from which quarter do you think the margins turnaround will start happening? If someone has to hold you and give a call that at which quarter we'll see the turnaround happening.

Will it happen in FY27, and now we look at maybe towards FY28, start of FY28, where the margin turnaround will start happening?

No, I think the margins will keep on inching up. Where and how they reach, I have no numbers to give you today.

Okay? Do we think we'll get into double digit and all in FY27?

No, not possible. '28,

high single-digit starting '28?

High single-digit in '28 should be possible. Yes.

All right, sir. Thank you.

Those were my questions. The biggest worry is on the margin side now, and because that impacts the CFO and CFO I thought the biggest worry

I thought your biggest worry was on working capital, which you're not asking.

Yeah. Eventually, CFO leads to working capital and then how working capital gets impacted.

It flows down from profitability. Anyways, that's a challenge right now, we are not able to grapple with.

Thanks, Parikshit. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Thank you, sir.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to understand how do we see the opportunity in data center EPC business in terms of competitions, margins, and what is our right to win over in that segment?

Jainam, it's a difficult business in the sense that what we are seeing is that although there are large opportunities being there, but traditionally, we are seeing developers breaking up the orders into various smaller sections, slicing it into different. Very very few I'll say hyperscalers are there who are willing to give orders for your civil as well as MEP and all together.

Typically, most of them break it up on the high, low, and So we are not seeing large orders coming in from most of the clients. A few exceptions are there.

Right to win for us is that we can do civil as well as we can do MEP together, and that's what is being pitched. I think hopefully, we will see some wins happening on data centers maybe next quarter.

The market is large, but as I said that there is too many players with small I'll say ticket sizes, which is creating a problem overall. For me, the interesting part in data center is more coming on my T&D side where we are seeing inquiries coming in where the data center may get built in 15 to 18 months, but then the lines and the power supply, etc., are becoming challenge in some places, which is why we announced that we got our private order now.

We are seeing developers like US also resorting to having their own connectivity, etc. I think that is also very interesting.

Okay. We have been pursuing the opportunities in the US for the US data center as well, especially in the T&D segment?

I'm not pursuing for the US, but we got some large orders. A lot of inquiries are there, which are from also private developers in US who are supplying to data centers.

Okay. Sir, how about the competition?

How is it panning out?

In which area?

In the data center business and

Data center mein bahut mushkil hai. It's very fragmented.

It's region-wise and all that. Each region has got different players, difficult to say who are there, but otherwise if you look at the bigger players, it would be people like Tata Projects and L&T, etc.

Sir.

Sir, what would be the civil TAM if we have to compute? Right now we have got so order in the T&D space, right, for data center.

How about the civil segment for data centers?

Right now we don't have a single order in data centers, or we have finished five data centers in the last couple of years. We have bid for a few of them, which is why I said that hopefully by next quarter, we should at least have a few orders in the civil side on the data centers.

Okay. Sir, if you have to quantify, per megawatt or if it's available on a per megawatt basis?

Typically, our size would be around ₹10 crores per megawatt or something like that.

Sir. Bahut mushkil hai,

because Jainam, what happens is every developer gives it in a different format. It's difficult to put numbers.

Each tender has got a different number. Sir.

Okay. Sir, my last question is in the Jal Jeevan Mission side.

What is the pending order book currently and how much of the receivables are stuck over there, sir, now?

We have order book of roughly around ₹1,300 crores or so pending. Gross debtors would be around ₹800, ₹900 crores.

I think ₹400 or something are due for payment. We hope that that will come in.

Sir. That answers my question.

Thank you so much, and all the best.

Thanks, Jainam. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Good morning.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Hi, Amit. Morning.

First question, you did highlighted about the delays in conversion. Just wanted to understand is it more so with the domestic market or the export market, particularly Middle East?

Second, you have highlighted ₹2 lakh crore pipeline. 50, I think ₹1 lakh crore for T&D and ₹1 lakh for non-T&D.

Within ₹1 lakh of T&D, how much you are really factoring in from the Middle East market? Third, what is the expected inflow now amid whatever is happening, because we are already 4, 5 months in the financial year.

For full year, what is the expectation of inflows? Yeah.

Amit, when we talked about delay in conversion, it was primarily the West Asia market, primarily. Okay?

We have bid quite a few projects in Saudi and UAE and Oman. In fact, we are L1 in a few of them.

The conversion is taking its time. It's not that it's unduly delayed, but it is taking time.

Okay? The tender pipeline is there.

In fact, now also we've saw some new tenders getting announced even yesterday also in Middle East. I think we are not worried about it because tenders are getting announced even now.

There has been some talk saying, will there be scaling down? I don't think there is a scaling down because continuously projects are coming up.

To me, that is the basic thing as far as the West Asia is concerned. As far as I'll say when you look at the order intake, when we've said ₹30,000 or so, roughly I'll say 60, 65% would be from the T&D market, and I think international is around 9, 10,000, right?

I think our international expectation was that we'll be between 9 to 10,000 in terms of order intake. A significant part of it would obviously come from West Asia.

Right. Second, on the cables business, you have done very strong and probably few quarters performance has been quite strong.

What's the capacity now, and with elastomeric, are you seeing more growth happening? Are you seeing more CapEx lined up in cables because we are seeing other pure play cables or conductor player has still been front-loading the capacity.

That is one. Second, any thought on the exports of cables also to the US market, and what are the margins which you are currently making in the cable segment?

Typically

our exports have been roughly around, I'll say, ₹200 crores last year. Okay?

We obviously want to expand the same. Okay?

With this specialty cables coming up, I think by Q4, we should have a increase happening in our export market. I don't think we have very large CapEx programs.

We normally have been spending around 75, 80, or maybe ₹100 crores in cables every year. Last three years, we've spent ₹300 crores.

A large CapEx will happen if we decide to expand our EHV, which we have been looking at it. Once we see that demand stabilizing, maybe we'll put in a larger CapEx not immediately.

Could be next year or something, but I think it's still on the drawing board. Otherwise, ₹50, ₹75 crores we keep on spending.

We will definitely, I think, add some capacity on our aluminum conductor side, more specialized products on HTLS, etc. That's the way we are looking at cables.

The margins have been okay. I think they are around 5% right now, almost 200 basis points still below the market.

With the specialty cables coming up, I think the margin will start inching up. That's the expectation.

Right. What's the capacity or probably the peak revenue you can do with the fixed asset you have?

I don't have the capacity in terms of kilometers and all that, but I think we can do around ₹3,000 crores with the current assets without any more CapEx.

Right. Sir, lastly, what was the deferment, I would say, or probably you were not able to book in revenue because of the Middle East conflict, and the overall expectation now in terms of the full year growth and yeah, I think this will help.

Amit, full year, we are still saying what we had said last quarter, around 12 to 15% growth should be feasible today. Middle East, I think the number would be around ₹300 crores or so for the quarter.

Right. Is it so that is also probably dragging the growth this year or this is something which is recoverable in the subsequent quarter for the

No, it will it will definitely be recorded. This is not a product sale that it is lost.

It's

an it's an EPC number, whatever has not happened in this quarter and what did not happen in Q4 also, ultimately all of that should happen, which is why in spite of having a flat quarter this year, we are this quarter, we are still saying that we will maintain our growth.

Right. Thank you, sir.

Thank you for answering my questions.

Thank you.

Hello? Thank you for the opportunity, sir.

Sir, I wanted to understand on the SAE towers business. The current set of fixed assets that we have, in terms of the revenue potential, how much can we execute in a year, and what is the utilization percentage?

Maybe you can throw some light on that.

I think it's difficult to give a number because it will depend upon what type of product, what you make, but broadly I'll say around ₹2,000 crores could be the utilization based on today's fixed assets, but we have been adding little bit here and there. Okay?

It will go up slightly, but 2,000 is a number which you can take.

Okay.

The utilization is reasonably okay. I think we are now at almost at a full capacity.

You can always add something by adding extra shifts and all that, but broadly, I think we are at 100% now.

Okay. The current order book from this particular segment is around ₹3,800 crores.

That would be delivered in a matter of, say, 1.5 to 2 years, right?

Yes. Typically in those markets, you get orders much in advance, at least 12 months in advance.

Okay? That's the way it works in the Brazil and the US market.

Okay. Got it.

Typically, what would be the margins from this business, the tower manufacturing, SAE Towers?

I think SAE is almost double-digit right now.

Double-digit, right, sir? Yes.

Okay. Sir, for FY27 on the order inflow guidance, typically from your T&D, how much are we expecting?

We have said that we should be around 60, 65%, or either 60 to 70%, out of ₹30,000 crores if you take it, roughly it would be ₹20,000 crores, maybe little bit here and there.

Got it. Thank you, sir.

Those were my questions.

Thank you, Sudeep.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thanks for taking my question. Sir, my first question is on let's say apart from the Middle East and labor challenges, now we are seeing the labor challenges now sorting out, and Middle East also let's say in next couple of months, we'll get some clarity on that.

Which are the other factors need to watch out in the near future to get back to let's say 15% revenue growth and EBITDA margin of 8%?

Difficult to say, because these are the two major factors which we are seeing. Once they are out of the way, obviously the margin should improve.

Other thing we have always been talking out is that we have got a lot of arbitration and other issues which are going on especially on the railway side. Okay?

If something really adverse happens, then it could have some impact, but I think to me it's a little bit of far-fetched. Since you asked a specific question and giving an answer.

Otherwise, with West Asia and labor situation getting resolved, I think a large part of the headwinds will go away.

Got it. Secondly on which are the slow-moving project in railway and water projects?

Any sense on that, by when we expect to get out from this project and get back to normalized margin?

Railways, most of the slow-moving projects are at 95, 97% closure and all that. It's a question of when the railway gives a block or when they approve the design of the depot, etc.

They will get completed. Okay?

Water, we only have two states where we are working, MP and Orissa, but Orissa, I think we have got six or seven projects, all of them are various stages of completion. Our expectation is that if cash flow happens regularly, by this year end, we will have maybe two projects still continuing post-March.

Otherwise, most of them should get completed within this year.

Got it, sir.

Thank you, Arafat.

Lastly, if you can just give any guidance on working capital days for FY27? Rajeev?

I think we are talking about 110 days for working capital at the end of the year.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Hi, Priyankar.

Hi, sir. Sir, coming back to this working capital question.

Just trying to visualize sort of a road map on, let's say, the working capital reduction. Whatever I heard from the call.

You are going to get, let's say, if not in the next quarter, let's say in the coming two, three quarters, at least, let's say, ₹300-odd crores from Afghanistan, right? That is the first point.

Secondly, from the water, what I understand is right now, the current dues are ₹300 to ₹400 crores. You should ideally receive that as well.

Then there is this inventory build that had happened in West Asia, there should be some unwinding also. These are the plus factors that I have.

If you can give a cumulative factor like taking everything together, what should be the working capital reduction if we take all of this? Then finally also, this JJM still has ₹1,300 crores of order book left, is what I understand.

In the individual projects, what sort of completion on an average you have got there? To complete this entire 1,300, to run down this entire ₹1,300 crores of, let's say, orders, what sort of costs would be required?

This is what I wanted to know.

Rajeev. Priyankar, as you rightly said that, I think these are some of the levers that are available with us to reduce the working capital.

See, overall reduction what we are looking at in the current financial year is roughly about ₹1,200 crore debt reduction. At the beginning of the year, we were at about ₹6,700 crore, and what we are guiding is by March, we should reach to about ₹5,500 crore.

Apart from the two or three levers that you just counted, apart from that, there are, let's say in Saudi, we are closing few projects which were started about 2, 2.5 years back. These projects will also get closed, and then we will be able to recover at least 50% of the retention money on physical closure.

So 50% comes at the time of physical handover and 50% comes after the defect liability period. At least the first part of it, we should be able to collect.

These are the basically largely, and then the another item that we are looking at is, in railways, there are few claims which have been decided positively in our favor in DAPs and arbitration. We are hoping that, with the intervention of the client and with the client negotiation, etc., we should be able to recover some of the claims.

Additionally, we are also looking at closer of all the projects, as Vimal alluded something earlier, that we are towards 90, 95% closure of these projects. We are hoping that these projects will get closed, and we should be able to collect the retention money.

These are the few let's say lever which are available with us, and we are confident that we should be able to let's say realize and able to reduce our working capital debt to about ₹5,500 crore.

Sir. For this water-related projects, the ₹1,300 crores order book that you were speaking about, what would be the cost to complete it?

What I'm trying to assess is how much further losses can be there, or cash outflows can be there to, let's say, kitchen sink the entire JJM book?

No, as Vimal some time back said that these water projects are profitable. The only challenge is that because we have a large outstanding which is there, we have deliberately, let's say, slowed down the execution.

Although the construction is going on full force, what is happening is that supply items, we are actually doing it need-based. Depending on the project requirement, we are supplying those items like DI pipes and valves and other things.

I think these projects are all profitable, and they are, let's say around 8 to 10% margin at various stages. I don't see there is any challenge in terms to the cost structure or the profitability of this project.

Sir. If I may just harp on that.

Afghanistan, you said that in the next couple of quarters, let's say you will get ₹300-odd crores, right, if I heard it correctly, roughly. Water in, let's say, the next half, ₹300, ₹400 crores you are saying is the current dues.

You should be able to, let's say, recover that. Of course, there would be some new dues also will come over.

What should be the collections in water, the net collections? To get to these numbers.

Priyankar,

we are expecting let's say roughly about ₹300 to ₹400 crore for which the cost has already been incurred. If what we are hearing from the government is that water from the Jal Jeevan Mission have started getting released.

If that release happens, then whatever overdues are there, we should be able to collect that is roughly about ₹300 to ₹400 crore, and whatever the next revenue is happening, we will incur that cost and we will be let's say regularizing the collection from the water segment in the remaining part of the year.

Okay. Now that is clear.

Also, you said about this Saudi Arabia project and let's say the railway claim. Saudi Arabia project should lead to how much inflows, broad ballpark, if 50% of the retention comes here, cash inflows?

We are expecting between Saudi and some of the project in the Middle East, I think we should be able to collect easily ₹300 to ₹400 crore there. That is what we are expecting, cuz in Saudi there is a lot of execution which is also happening.

What our assumption is that with the collection of this ₹300, ₹400 crore, although the overall retention may not really come down, but there will not be further investment at the time of execution of these revenues. You'll That will ease out the working capital, yeah.

What about the claims in the railway? How much has been decided, let's say, favorably for us, roughly?

Claims, we are expecting roughly about ₹200 crore to realize in this current financial year. We have already let's say got the award for about ₹150, ₹160 crore already.

It all depends how much we are able to negotiate and how much we are able to realize from the customer. That all depends on that.

Our expectation is let's say between now and March, we should be able to realize between ₹150 to ₹200 crore from the claims.

Okay. Sir, just squeezing one more in.

We had heard during the early parts of this West Asia crisis that the GCC governments were probably discussing about, let's say, reducing the amount of retention in T&D projects. Has any steps been taken in this direction here, or is it still something that they sometimes talk, but not yet implemented?

Priyankar, we have not seen any reduction happening in the retention amounts, but what is also happening is that there's a little bit of easing of general payment. Otherwise if they're paying 70%, you can ask them saying isko thoda badha do.

In one case, I know they agreed to pay 95%. In some cases, they change the billing breakups, etc., to allow you to claim faster on your progress bills.

I don't see any major thing, but what we have seen in retention is that the release of retentions has been fast-tracked, not the percentage. The percentage remains 10% in UAE and 20% in Saudi and 30, 35% in Kuwait.

At least in Saudi and also Dubai, we have seen that the payment of retention as and when it is due has been actually fast-tracked, much faster than what we had expected them to pay.

Very well understood. This may be the levers that can hopefully, let's say, reduce the debt by at least ₹1,000, ₹1,200-odd crores.

Yeah. I think, Priyankar, if I can summarize what Rajeev said, basically some money from Afghanistan, some money from closed projects, okay, a little bit of reduction in working capital inventory, etc.

I think that three and if water comes in, when I say water 400 is beyond the normal payment. See, whatever normal they pay, we are reinvesting in the business.

The outstanding, the old one, let's say that old one is revolving, but it has that ₹300, ₹400 crores which is there, if that comes in, then that put together we're talking about ₹1,000, ₹1,200 crores of debt reduction. Yeah.

Okay. That was all from my side.

Thanks for this

comprehensive

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

So

Hi, Nipun.

Is there some way that we can bring down the net working capital by tinkering let's say with the nature or type of the EPC orders we get, and how willing are you people to do that?

It's not a question of how willing I am, it will ultimately be a question of whether the client is willing to agree to it. I'll tell you a simple example is we recently negotiated a contract where we told the client that we'll not work with less than 20% advance.

Okay? The client has finally in an exceptional case agreed.

Or the earlier question from Priyankar was on can you play with retention? There are places where you're going and talking with the client saying we don't agree for cash retention.

Typically in some of the private clients, especially on civil, these negotiations are possible. T&D, at least on Power Grid or Middle East and all that, which are standard tender conditions, there it does not work out.

You can always go and negotiate on particular contracts and say mujhe iska paisa jaldi chahiye, don't wait for the entire billing to happen, etc., etc. These are contracts which you need to Obviously, we always ask for the moon, but deta kya hai, it will depend on the individual client.

I can say one thing is, generally if you ask me a comment, payment terms are improving. I can say that, both in civil, T&D, private, I'm seeing them improving.

Power Grid also in some cases have now improved, interest they made advances, right? Interest earlier, Power Grid used to charge interest on advances, now they've made it interest-free.

Generally I'm saying I'll make a sweeping statement that we are seeing improvement in payment terms or payment cycle.

Okay. How much of your current order book pertains to orders with let's say high execution complexity, and in some way we have some high entry barriers to that?

Very difficult to say high complexity, because I know we have got couple of orders which were on a single negotiation basis because the client felt that no one else can do it. Now whether it is complexity or difficult to execute, difficult terrain, very difficult to say, because most of the orders are still on a tender basis.

Okay?

Very difficult, because we would have built in the cost and all that in our this. There are not too many entry barriers if I can say, except for the very large projects.

We have seen entry barriers in the private sector where they pick and choose whom they want to give. That's where the entry barriers in a way come in.

Got it. Lastly, if I may ask, we have a current order book of some ₹40,000 crores.

How much of it would be from the Adani Group specifically?

Total, I don't think we give individual numbers, but it will be I think close to maybe 5% or less as of now.

Close to 5%, sorry?

It would be spread across T&D, railways, civil, and all. Okay?

Across all the businesses.

Okay. What was the inflow last fiscal?

From Adani?

Yeah.

I don't have the exact number, but I think we've got one one HVDC and one I think we got two or three orders from them. Must be close to ₹1,000 crore or slightly more than that.

Around that number you can take it.

Okay. Not much.

That answers. Okay.

Thank you so much.

Sir, thanks for the follow-up. Sir, only one question.

Are we guiding anything on margins for this year?

No, not yet.

We should see it improving quarter-by-quarter every quarter now? Or Q2 would be weak?

That that

at least from Q3 onwards. Q2 Q2 mein matlab it will not be that low, but I don't see a significant increase right now happening.

See, it will all depend when the war ends honestly. Okay?

I I mean so we have not given a guidance, but yes you're you're right that it has there has to be an improvement.

For '28, we may see it being better than '26?

100%.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Yeah. Namaskar, Vimal ji, and thanks for

the opportunity. Namaskar, Saket ji.

Hum log aapko dhoondh rahe the. Main bola kahan hain aap?

Boliye.

Thank you, sir. Sir, aapne yeh jo in the cable segment, sir, you have mentioned about some new product introduction in your investor deck.

If you could just explain to us what kind of potential these products have, and then my follow-up. Dekhiye,

ultimately our view is that these products should add around ₹300, ₹400 crores of revenue sab milake. Okay?

How it pans out is a new product, lekin ummeed yahi hai ki isse ₹300, ₹400 crore ka hamara next year mein revenue badhega. That is the size.

These are specialized products used for ships and all that, jo soft rubber cable hai, yeh treated hai. Dusra kya hai, some of this like E-beam, etc., may not add too much in revenue, but kya hoga ki usse aapka insulation wo sab kam ho jata hai.

Your costs will go down, your margins are supposed to improve, specially on your LT and HT cables.

Right, sir. These elastomeric cables are for the shipbuilding ke liye jayega, ship Ha, matlab kai jagah use hota hai, data centers mein hota hai, kaafi jagah pe istemaal hota hai.

Jahan pe thoda sa flexible waghera hota hai and all that, na?

Okay. Sir, currently, sir, we are running the cable at optimum, for this ₹600 revenue, easily we can annualize it at ₹2,400, ₹2,500 for the year, or we will have a higher number?

It could be

more than that. Maine pehle answer diya, aap shayad the nahi, ki our revenue could be around ₹3,000 crores.

Saket kya hai, Saket ji, usme ultimately metal plays a role. Aaj agar aluminum ₹32 ka ₹3200 ka ₹2400 ho gaya, to obviously the per kilometer price will start coming down.

Based on numbers today, I think we can do around ₹3,000 crores with the present capacity.

Okay. Sir, now coming to the financial results.

Aap jaise bata rahe the ki second quarter bhi maybe koi bahut material change nahi dikhega. Sir, as investors hum abhi kya expect kare KEC se going ahead?

Kyunki these are not the numbers which KEC is associated to. Na yeh operating profits, na hi margins, yeh sab exceptional hain.

To abhi hum jis phase mein hain, in terms of the execution as well as the financial results, what is the path to profitability or improvement in profitability going ahead as per your understanding, sir? You are at a long-held mayor.

To yeh jo abhi samay chal raha hai, iska aur kitna kuprabhav rehne wala hai, sir, hamare financial results pe? To

Saket ji, abhi humne jawab yehi diya tha ki next year se to margin improve hona chahiye. Is quarter mein is quarter se bhi humne bola ki aage number nahi diya hai, but bola hai ki bhai margin mein improvement to abhi se to hoga hi hoga.

Okay? Isme jo jo dekhiye, negative do, teen cheez thi abhi, jo hum headwind bol rahe hain.

Ek to ladai ka kisi ne umeed nahi ki thi ladai hogi aur itni lambi chalegi aur uska straight off almost band kar denge, yeh kar denge. That was not the expected impact.

Uska ek major impact ho raha hai revenue pe aur order book pe. Roz baat ho rahi hai ki aaj band ho jaye, kal ho jayega.

Hopefully agar Q2 mein band ho gaya, to we will start seeing improvements happening in Q3 onwards. Okay?

Usme kafi sara rebuilds waghera ki baat ho rahi hai, to agar wo hota hai, to there could be a tailwind coming from orders in that area. Okay?

Aur normally humne yeh dekha hai ki ladai ke baad ke jo orders hote hain, unme margin zyada hoti hai. Typically humne dekha hai because most of them are fast-track and we can do those projects.

Ek to yeh hai. Dusra jo hamara railway mein aur civil mein jo bhi humne order book liye the aur pehle civil ko 0 se ₹10,000 crore ka order book liye hain, to some of the orders were obviously at challenging margins, to those orders are now coming to an end.

Jaise jaise aapke purane order khatam hote jayenge naye ka revenue badhte jayega, jo jo shabd aapne istemaal kiya na kuprabhav waghera, wo wo nikalte jayega. To I think by the end of this year, hopefully we will start seeing a much, much more positive things.

The other thing was on the working capital, jo EPC mein zyada hi prabhav hota hai. Rajeev ji ne bhi explain kiya aapko ki ₹1,000, ₹1,200 crore hum kam kar denge.

To aapko kya hai ki ek to EBITDA margin dekhna chahiye aur aapko PBT bhi dekhna chahiye. You will also start seeing a positive impact coming at the PBT level also.

Plus, jaise jaise hamara Middle East waghera ka revenue badh raha hai, hamara tax rate aur efficient ho rahi hai kyunki wahan ke taxes kam hain thode. To jab baki log 30, 35% tax bharte hain, hamara 20, 22% hota hai.

To overall mila ke agar aap PAT waghera ka improvement dekhenge, to definitely you will find some improvement happening.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued interest. Thank you so much.