Pitti Engineering Ltd.

Pitti Engineering Ltd.

949.20
INR
-8.00
(-0.84%)
31.72EPS
21.70P/E
25.41BMarket Cap
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Q1 FY2027 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 11, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you all to the Q1 FY '27 earnings conference call of Pitti Engineering Limited. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectation of the company has on date of this call.

These statements do not guarantee the future performance of the company, and it may involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. 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 the conference call, please signal the 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. Akshay S.

Pitti, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Akshay S. Pitti

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining the Q1 FY '27 earnings call of Pitti Engineering Limited.

Along with me are members of senior management team and our investor relations partners from SGA. Our financial results, investor presentation, and related disclosures are available on the stock exchanges as well as the company's website.

I hope you have had an opportunity to go through the same. Let me begin with a brief overview of the broader operating environment and growth drivers.

The first is localization and China-plus-one opportunity. Historically, China has been the largest capacities across industrial areas such as electrical steel laminations, casting, and machining.

We are seeing customers increasingly look at India as an alternate manufacturing and sourcing base. This is particularly visible in mining equipment, data center generators, as well as specialized industrial applications.

Second important trend is the shift of manufacturing from Europe to India. The sharp increase in energy, labor, and material cost in Europe has impacted the competitiveness of European manufacturing.

In motors and generators, as well as casting and machining, customers are increasingly evaluating India for sourcing and manufacturing. Importantly, this opportunity is not limited to direct exports, as a increasing portion of what we supply to the Indian operations of our global customers are eventually getting exported, creating an indirect export opportunity for us as well.

The third driver is electrification. Electrification is creating structural demand for electrical steel laminations at both sides of the consumption spectrum, that is the energy generation as well as consumption.

We believe this is a long-term trend that will support our growth of lamination business in the future. Within this environment, we are particularly well positioned because of the breadth of our capabilities.

We have progressively expanded from lamination into casting, machining, shaft manufacturing, and integrated assembly. What differentiates us is our ability to provide multiple components and processes under one roof.

This becomes particularly valuable in complex applications such as railways, wind power, speciality motors, off-highway equipment, where customers increasingly prefer integrated solutions rather than a smaller supply base. Importantly, our capacity expansion has historically been gradual and closely linked to customer demand.

However, the level of demand and opportunities that we are seeing today require us to undertake larger capacity additions. We have recently commenced operations of the previously announced ₹150 crore capex, which was announced last year, increasing our sheet metal capacity to 108,000 tonnes and augmenting our casting and machining capacity.

We are now progressing with the ₹290 crore investment for our greenfield casting facility in Hyderabad. This facility will help consolidate our foundry operations and provide the infrastructure required for the next phase of growth.

Our objective is to build capacity ahead of the demand curve. Speaking of sectoral demand and growth opportunity is broad-based.

Data centers have emerged as a strong near-term opportunity given the significant power requirement for both primary and backup power generation. We are seeing strong demand from customers such as Cummins, Marathon, Nidec, and are also developing opportunities with a couple of more marquee customers.

At the same time, we remain mindful that the pace of AI data center investments may not be sustainable indefinitely. Therefore, we are confident about the underlying growth in regular data centers driven by the cloud adoption and data localization.

We remain measured in our approach to the overall data center opportunity. Beyond data centers, we are seeing strong visibility in railways, metros, mining and off-highway equipment, and specialty end-use applications in industrial sector.

Modernization of North American railways and increasing mining activity are all supporting demand for our products. Over the longer term, we are also seeing automotive and electric mobility as a important opportunity.

While our presence in automotive is currently limited, we are actively looking to participate more meaningfully as India's automotive manufacturing ecosystem expands and electrification creates new opportunities. Overall, we believe Pitti is at an important stage in its evolution.

The combination of global supply chain realignment, India's manufacturing competitiveness, electrification, and expanding capacities and capabilities across lamination, casting, machining, and integrated assemblies provide us with a strong platform for sustained growth. Coming to the operational and financial performance for the quarter, our revenue mix of traction motor and railway components remain the largest contributors, accounting for 28% of revenue.

This was followed by power generation at 15%, industrial and commercial applications at 12%, mining, oil and gas at 10%, special application motors at 9%, and data centers at 5%, renewable energy at 3%, other segments at 17%. This diversified revenue profile reflects the broad-based nature of our business and presence across several structural growth segments.

Moving to volumes, total lamination and assembly volume stood at approximately 19,200 tonnes, registering a healthy 18% year-on-year growth. Importantly, within lamination, higher value-added assemblies including integrated rotor shaft and stator assemblies grew faster than loose lamination.

Growth reflects a continued improvement in the product mix and increasing contribution from value-added offerings. Total casting and machined components volumes stood at 13,191 tonnes during the quarter, a growth of 4.2% y-o-y basis.

On capacity utilization, we witnessed meaningful improvement across our operations during the quarter. Sheet metal utilization increased to 73% Q1 FY '27 compared to 70%.

Machining utilization also improved to 86% compared to 82%. Casting and fabrication utilization stood at 72%.

Turning to the financial performance, revenue from operations for Q1 FY '27 stood at ₹529 crores compared to ₹457 crores in Q1 FY '26, a growth of 16% y-o-y. Adjusted EBITDA stood at ₹89 crores compared to ₹78 crores for Q1, that is representing a growth of 14%.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.8% for the quarter. Adjusted PAT was ₹32 crores compared to ₹26 crores in Q1 FY '26.

As our recently concluded capex comes on stream, we are confident of achieving significant growth in the remaining year. Therefore, we are revising our annual target to 82,000 tonnes for lamination from 78,000 tonnes as previously stated in Q4 conference call.

Overall, we remain focused on executing our expansion plans and deepening our relationships with existing customers and capturing new opportunities across both domestic and global markets. With that, I would now open the floor for Q&A session.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session.

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

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

We take the first question from the line of Balasubramanian from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.

Balasubramanian, please unmute your line and proceed with your question.

Balasubramanian A

Sir, am I audible?

Operator

Yes, please go ahead.

Balasubramanian A

Yeah. Good evening, sir.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. Sir, I'm looking at high-value stator and rotor assemblies.

The volume growth is nearly 37%, which is outpacing loose lamination growth of 16%. Which are the applications and sectors we have supplied especially for high-value stator and rotor assemblies?

Secondly, earlier call mentioned about raw castings EBITDA per tonne, that's around 30,000 to 35,000, while machined castings around it's 80,000 to 1 lakh. If you could mention about high value-added assemblies and integrated assemblies EBITDA per tonne also?

Akshay S. Pitti

The growth in high value-added lamination assemblies is primarily driven from data centers, it's driven from special industrial use, mining, off-highway, and railways. These are the areas where these higher value-added assemblies are typically used, and that is the sectors, as you can see, which have grown in the recent past.

As to the EBITDA per tonne of the integrated assemblies, it's very difficult to say because it depends on the kind of casting and machining which has been integrated to the lamination assembly. The margin you cannot literally go on a EBITDA per tonne basis there.

It's a mix of all three verticals, which is machining, casting, and lamination.

Balasubramanian A

Sir. Sir, data center side you mentioned revenue share is around 5%.

If you look at most of that demand is coming from US and UK or Europe market, especially for data centers. Whether majorly we are supplying to domestically or we are also getting a lot of traction from exports market side?

If you could share is there any new customer additions across geographies, and whether it's primarily for high-value stator, rotor assemblies for cooling and power backup system, for any other components we are supplying?

Akshay S. Pitti

What we currently classify as data centers in our revenue mix is primarily the power generation side of data centers. Anything that we might be supplying for cooling application, we would not have that distinction given by the customer to us.

It would still be classified under industrial use. As far as the data center that is classified in the PPT, which is for the power generation side is concerned, we have direct exports to US for one customer, and for a couple of other customers we're supplying this product in India, which is both used for local market as well as re-export to other countries.

Balasubramanian A

Sir. My third question: the planned capex of ₹290 crore, if you could share the break-up between machined components facilities and castings or assemblies.

If you could share the roadmap. I think it's planned to commission by Q1 FY '29.

How much capex by FY '27 and '28 we can expect?

Akshay S. Pitti

We've already incurred about ₹60 crores of capex from that ₹290 crore capex announcement. It's a greenfield and expansion, we have started with the land acquisition.

I would say that as you can see in the PPT slide 5 of Q4, we have given the break-up between machinery and infrastructure investment. Infrastructure investment is about 30%, and 70% is going towards plant and equipment.

I would not have a quarter or year-by-year expenditure plan, but the capacity are expected for commissioning by Q1 FY '29 as we have mentioned in the previous call.

Balasubramanian A

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question, please press star and one.

We take the next question from the line of Mohit Jain from Deven Choksey PMS. Please go ahead.

Mohit Jain

Hi, Akshay, sir. Congratulations on a good set of numbers again.

Sir, I have just this question on exports. In absolute terms, exports were roughly flat.

Last year we did about ₹137 crore, this year ₹139, or vice versa. We have been highlighting this China-plus-one and tariff-driven sourcing shifts as a tailwind for you.

On the other hand, domestic grew 20%. Is this export flatness just the order shaping within the year or you are really seeing customer delays?

See,

Akshay S. Pitti

exports will again pick up in Q3, Q4. The direct exports are remaining, kind of steady, registering nominal growth.

What's a bigger opportunity for us is the indirect exports. Like I said in my speech, we are seeing increasingly a situation where we are supplying to the local operations of our global customers, and those products are getting made in India and then exported all over the world.

Mohit Jain

Okay. You think in the second half, we'll see a surge in exports?

Akshay S. Pitti

I think Q2, Q3, Q4, quarter-on-quarter you should be seeing improvement in direct exports as we ramp up the new capacity.

Mohit Jain

Got it. Sir, lastly, we checked that we had some LPG issues, not only we, the entire industry because of the war.

Has that issue subsided, and we were also planning to do some electrification there, what's the status there?

Akshay S. Pitti

We are currently doing the electrification, a lot of it is already done. Right now there's no LPG issue, we have steady supplies of LPG coming in.

Whatever is the incremental cost obviously is being incurred by the company and it's being compensated by the customers as well.

Mohit Jain

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Akshay S. Pitti

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Rahul Kumar from Vicaria Fund.

Please go ahead.

Rahul Kumar

Hi. Thanks.

I think congratulations on the great set of numbers actually. Just one question on this margins.

Actually if you see the value-added product mix has actually improved for the lamination. As well as the machine component also have improved as a share of overall business.

If I look at the margins actually, they are more or less flat. What would have driven that?

Akshay S. Pitti

If you look at the cost in the P&L, our manpower costs is slightly higher when compared to the previous time. That's primarily because for the capex that we have incurred, we have put in all the manpower and expenses in place.

As we start using the capacity and the operating leverage kicks in, the margin will improve.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Is there also a case that the traction motors which you supply are of higher margin versus a company average, and given the fact that I think this quarter there is some more softness in the traction motors, did that also lead to some margin softness?

Akshay S. Pitti

No, I would not say that would be the case because if you see the other three segments which have really grown very well this quarter, namely your mining and oil and gas segment, as well as the special-purpose applications, these typically have a superior margin when compared to even railway products in certain cases.

Rahul Kumar

Okay.

Akshay S. Pitti

Okay. It's just that the operating leverage needs to kick in because we have finished the capex of ₹150 crores, and obviously the staffing and variable costs have all come in, and the leverage has not come in in terms of the operating leverage.

Rahul Kumar

Understood. Got it.

Got it. Got it.

I think you mentioned in the opening remarks of the upgrading the volume guidance for this year to 82,000. Just extending this let's say to FY '28 and '29, what are the targets for that and do we have the capacity or you will decide to expand let's say at the end of FY '28 or something like that?

Akshay S. Pitti

If I have to look beyond FY '27 towards '28 and '29, like I had mentioned I think in the one of the previous calls, we are strategically we would look to have a fully owned facility in Bangalore akin to something like a facility that we own in Aurangabad today. Eventually that is something that we should start working on.

If I look at the capacity side with this 82,000 tonnes being the target for current year and 108,000 tonnes being the capacity, we only have a headroom to grow about 8,000 tonnes with the current facilities, assuming a 80% operating efficiency. Definitely for FY '28 there would be some incremental capex to increase the capacity, but we will do it closer towards Q3, Q4 time frame because we can still modularly expand in some of the facilities.

Or maybe '28 and '29, we should be looking at doing a capex in Bangalore for that facility which I mentioned.

Rahul Kumar

Understood.

Akshay S. Pitti

Understood. We will be tracking it very closely with the market trends and how the demand is shaping up because we don't want to be exposed on making the investment and not having the business.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. Okay.

In terms of volume growth, let's say if we are looking at 17-18% growth for this year, for next two years, do we also want to look at similar kind of a growth or because of all these?

Akshay S. Pitti

If I just look at the outlook and the demand forecast from the customers, we do see that kind of a growth over the next three years. It's coming from segments which are I would say can change very quickly.

Like mining and oil and gas are segments which go up very fast and can correct very fast. Data center is obviously very new segment and it's growing very, very fast.

It's something we don't want to invest ahead of time too much for.

Rahul Kumar

Understood. Understood.

Understood. Okay.

I think did we have done the expansion of casting facility also in this quarter. I think that is finished.

If I remember right, the last time you had mentioned that the volumes for the casting target would be somewhere around 16,000 for this fiscal, right?

Akshay S. Pitti

Yes.

Rahul Kumar

I think the currently the share of your machine components is I think 50 50% plus, so That's a pretty sharp jump actually, almost 60% kind of a jump over the last year. Do we have the demand visibility for that?

Two, I think what will be the share of machine component in that? See,

Akshay S. Pitti

I would say that both the product categories are growing, casting and machine components. Obviously, the growth in machine components is higher as more and more customers want machined components rather than just a raw casting as a supply chain solution for them.

We have very strong visibility in the machining space. Part of the capex that we have announced, ₹290 crores, taking the machining capacity to 10,80,000 machine hours will be progressively implemented over the next few quarters.

Every quarter-on-quarter we'll be having capacity addition. You should see machining volume increase.

Casting capacity has gone to 24,000 tonnes. We would be upward guiding the casting numbers towards 17,000 tonnes as well.

Out of that, what will be the share of machining would depend on how quickly our machines come in and we are able to put them to use because the current capacity utilization on machining is almost 86.33%. That is the biggest bottleneck for us in terms of ability to grow the machine components.

It's not the order book, the ability to get machines fast enough. Understood.

Rahul Kumar

Understood. In summary, I think we can see a casting volume sharp jump over this year.

Depending upon the machining capacity, we can also ramp up the higher value-add machine component as well.

Akshay S. Pitti

Yes.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. That's great.

Just last question on that debt plans, right? I think last time when we had discussed the debt was a bit elevated because of the higher inventory situation, right?

What is the situation now, and where would the debt settle over let's say next one year or two year?

Akshay S. Pitti

Right now the net debt is somewhere around ₹491 crores as of last quarter-end. We have already incurred, like I said, about 60-odd crores of expenditure out of the ₹290 crores.

Despite that, we've been able to meaningfully reduce the net debt. I think there is still potential to further rationalize our working capital to the tune of about ₹25-30 crores.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. Actually our interest costs haven't actually gone down.

Even though the debt has actually reduced.

Akshay S. Pitti

Yeah. That's the finance cost.

Actually this quarter, if you see, the dollar has moved quite sharply due to the [unclear] crisis. There's a forex impact of about 2-odd crores, which is accounted into forex finance cost.

The interest and bank charges are about ₹19.6 crores, and the forex impact is about ₹3 crores, not ₹2 crores, by mistake.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. Understood.

That is more related to the currency translation rather than actual interest.

Akshay S. Pitti

Yes. Yeah.

Okay.

Rahul Kumar

Understood.

Akshay S. Pitti

If you have to take a comparative number for Q1 FY '26, it was I think about 1-odd crore, which was the forex impact. The rationalization of interest and cost and bank charges have taken place, but the forex is not allowing it to be visible on the P&L.

Rahul Kumar

Understood. Just the last question I think on the other income part.

If I remember, we had done I think ₹400 crore of kind of capex, and every year we are getting this incentive from the state government. You are having some shift of this 7-year plan to 9-year plan.

Can you just help us understand how would it pan out in terms of impact on P&L for this year and the next year?

Akshay S. Pitti

We had done a ₹220 crore capex, which was giving us the incentives in the previous years. From this year, we are supposed to move to the expansion plan, which we had done of ₹400 crores, which would have typically yielded us somewhere around ₹40 crores a year.

However, the eligibility certificate that we have received is for a 7-year reclamation period. The run rate for us to recover the money is much higher than what the current sales are.

We're evaluating whether to start claiming the incentive from current year or next year so as to maximize the net cash flow. We are more or less coming to a conclusion that this year we would not be taking the incentive income because we would not be able to recover a large chunk of the money that we can recover next year.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. The last year I think we had some 20-odd crores in the quarter two.

That was basis the previous capex. Which will not reoccur this year.

This ₹400 crore, you are actually discussing with the government for a 9-year plan. Possibly then next year onwards, you will start accruing that.

Is that correct?

Akshay S. Pitti

If we are able to successfully get the 9-year plan, then we'll take it this year because then the required

Rahul Kumar

run

Akshay S. Pitti

rate to claim would be much lower. Otherwise, we'll try to defer it to next year so that the sales increase and then the opportunity to reclaim the money is higher.

Rahul Kumar

Understood. Okay.

Understood.

Akshay S. Pitti

It's all dependent on the government's decision. We may or may not do it this year.

Definitely from next year, we shall be getting it.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. Understood.

That previous incentive is already exhausted?

Akshay S. Pitti

The previous one is already exhausted. In terms of cash flow, we are yet to receive roughly about 70-odd crores from the government, which is expected to come in the next 9 to 12 months.

Rahul Kumar

Okay. Got it.

Understood. I'll get back in the queue.

Akshay S. Pitti

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question, please press star and one.

We take the next question from the line of Srikanth from Twin Point X Capital. Please go ahead.

Sir, thank you. We have capabilities in making stator, rotor, and shaft.

Whether we are supplying our motors to industrial robot-making companies at presently?

Akshay S. Pitti

We don't make the motor, we make the components for motors. I'm pretty sure that some of our customers will be supplying these motors to many robotics companies.

For example, we supply machine laminations to ABB, and they also make robots. We supply to CG, we supply to Siemens, and I'm pretty sure they supply to companies like KUKA and others for robots as well.

Okay. Then next question is that we are increasing the capacity in casting and machining.

As we have presently wind energy customers, are we planning to provide some new casting components to this same wind energy company going forward?

Akshay S. Pitti

Wind energy for us is a lamination-side business. We don't do much for wind energy in the casting.

On the casting side, our largest customers would be coming from the mining segment and the railway segments.

How about...

Akshay S. Pitti

The wind energy castings are very, very large. Now if you see, nobody is making a 1 or 2 megawatt turbine, people are doing 3, 4, 6 megawatt turbines, and the castings are 20 tonnes, 30 tonnes.

That is actually beyond our manufacturing capability today in terms of equipment.

Got the point. Sir, how is the traction from mining companies from USA and Europe presently?

Are they inquiries something like this India? It's

Akshay S. Pitti

very good. I think that's one of the key sectors which we are seeing which will grow for us in the casting and machining space.

You can see in quarter one already mining as a segment has grown substantially for us, from 5% of revenue to about 10% of revenue.

Final question, it will be very helpful: can you give application of our components in green hydrogen and marine applications? What is the usage of our components in that two industries?

Akshay S. Pitti

In the green hydrogen space, we make anode and cathode plates for hydrogen electrolyzers for a customer in Europe. These are basically stainless steel components which are machined and supplied to that customer.

It's not a very large business, if I'm not mistaken, it's about 2-odd-million-euro kind of a business with a potential to grow. This is something they keep saying all the time that there's a potential to grow, but we always see it stuck at 2 million.

Coming to your marine thing, we classify that under special-purpose motors. We do make components for marine propulsion, electric propulsion for marine ships, basically.

We make marine generators.

Okay. Whether there is scope to increase order book from these two segments going forward?

Akshay S. Pitti

If I think about it structurally, there are good tailwinds. Europe and most of the world has mandated that in the coastal waters, people should not use diesel engines, they should use cleaner electric propulsions.

There would be tailwinds. In terms of our ability to expand, it all depends on how quickly the market expands.

We have large market share with the key customers who make these propulsion systems in Europe. As they grow, we will grow that segment as well.

One final question, sir: we have superior capability in machining, we are planning for any gear segment machining concept, Pitti is planning to introduce for new capex?

Akshay S. Pitti

See, I didn't get that. You mean are we planning to do gear machining?

That's what. We have very strong capabilities in machining, and we have some industrial customers who need gears.

For a gear, you need a

Akshay S. Pitti

high

complexity of machining. Whether we are targeting such type of customers?

Because gear machining is machining heavy component is a very critical. We have some strong experience for last many years.

That's my question.

Akshay S. Pitti

No, we are not planning to enter the manufacturing of gears per se. The industrial gear manufacturing would be a capability that we have and we can do.

However, in terms of a margin profile, we find that the products that we are making for mining, off-highway vehicles, and special-purpose applications are far superior. Eventually, yes, that can be a opportunity to expand our business into.

Sure, sir. Thank you, sir.

Operator

Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Sai Shreyas from Scientific Investing.

Please go ahead.

Sai Shreyas

Hello. Am I audible, sir?

Akshay S. Pitti

Yes.

Sai Shreyas

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions.

The first one is, can you confirm whether the current utilization numbers are on the latest expanded capacity? If yes, given the company is operating at higher utilization, why is the margins in the same range, and is there any meaningful margin expansion opportunity going forward?

Akshay S. Pitti

If you look at the capacity utilization, it's on 108,000 tonnes for lamination in Q1. The higher utilization is on the higher capacity.

Sai Shreyas

Okay. Is there any chance of margin improvement and any guidance for FY '27?

Akshay S. Pitti

Definitely our overall margins will improve as the utilization percentage inches up towards 80%. How much it will improve quarter-on-quarter is something I would prefer not to say right now.

Sai Shreyas

Okay. Thank you, sir.

The next question is, what would be the full-year tax rate? Because in the last year Q4 you had told that it will be around 33%.

Is it the same or is there any reduction?

Akshay S. Pitti

Sorry, I couldn't hear your line clearly. If you can repeat the question?

Sai Shreyas

Sir, what would be the tax rate for FY '27? Because in the Q4 you had mentioned that it would be 33%.

Akshay S. Pitti

No, it would be about 25%, not 33. It's effective tax rate is about 25%.

Quarter one, we have a lot of right-of-use assets for our leased assets, and that has incurred deferred tax, and therefore we have a lower tax rate on the P&L for quarter one. The full-year tax rate should be closer to 25%.

Sai Shreyas

Okay. One last question: so given that the ₹150 crore capex project is completed, is there any target towards debt reduction that by FY '28 or '29 we will retire the debt?

Akshay S. Pitti

See, the debt number is going to be dynamic. We already have a ₹290 crore capex ongoing, of which ₹60 crores is spent.

Like I mentioned to someone in the previous call that if I look towards FY '28 and '29, definitely there will be requirement to enhance capacity in lamination if the market continues to grow. Then towards FY '29, definitely there would be a need for a facility in Bangalore.

The capex needs of the company for growth will continue. However, there will be earnings.

Now how that will impact the net debt year-to-year again will depend on how quickly we do the capex or we defer the capex.

Sai Shreyas

Okay. The one last question is, is there any opportunity for the inventory reduction and lower working capital, and do we expect the cash flows to better increase?

Akshay S. Pitti

Like I said earlier, that about ₹20-25 crores is further potential to optimize the working capital, and beyond that there would not be any opportunity to further optimize the working capital from today.

Sai Shreyas

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Akshay S. Pitti

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Pulkit Singhal from Dalmus Capital Management.

Please go ahead.

Pulkit Singhal

Thanks for the opportunity. When I look at the business last 3 years, the return on capital has fallen from 19% to almost 15%.

Obviously, there were a spate of acquisitions also. Whatever you're saying in terms of FY '27 also, this business seems to be just around even for the future.

How do you see this trajectory? Would it change for any particular initiatives that you're doing to raise the return on capital?

How should we think about it?

Akshay S. Pitti

See, the large-ticket capexes will be behind us. Apart from the Bangalore capex, I would not see that there would be any large-ticket capex required to invest in land and infrastructure.

Beyond that, the investments would center mostly around equipment, and that will kind of again push up your ROCE. Currently, if you see the mix of capex which was done, and therefore the increased deployment of capex, a large chunk of that has gone towards land acquisition and building creations.

Pulkit Singhal

Okay. The capex for next 3 years, what would they likely be, and what kind of incremental turnover can they provide?

Akshay S. Pitti

If you have to really look at it, again this is not something we have currently approved as a board or announced, but if I were to assume that we go ahead and make a facility in Bangalore, that would entail a capex of roughly about 200-odd crores, and then in terms of another equipment, about 200-odd crores. So, ₹400 crores plus the ₹290 crores which we have announced would be capable of taking us to a top line of closer to about ₹3,000 to ₹3,300 crores, comfortably to that level.

Pulkit Singhal

Okay. The business mix is also changing in terms of machining, etc., and that probably reflects better in terms of the margin aspect.

Historically your margins have been 14-15%, and now closer to 16, 16.5%. How should we think about it 3 years out?

Is it going to be closer to 18-20% or will it just be a very slow, gradual increase from here on?

Akshay S. Pitti

No, for sure it would be upwards of 18% for sure with the capex on the casting and machining coming online and the value-added products increasing, as well as the rotor products increasing. Your margin should be closer to 18, 18.5-odd percent.

Pulkit Singhal

Okay. The casting capex would probably impact margins negatively first, right?

In terms of...

Akshay S. Pitti

That is unfortunately the case, Pulkit, as you are seeing. We are always having that capex which is pulling the ROCE.

Before the operating leverage comes from the capex done, the other capex kicks in.

Pulkit Singhal

Right.

Akshay S. Pitti

Because we have done the ₹150 crore capex, and quarter two, quarter three, quarter four is the output of that capex. However, the ₹290 crore capex has kicked in.

Pulkit Singhal

Yes. What is the peak revenue let's say from the current facilities?

The current capacity whatever we have?

Akshay S. Pitti

On the current capacity, if I exclude the ₹290 crore ongoing capex and look at it, it should be about 2,500-odd crores.

Pulkit Singhal

₹2,500 crores, and this goes to let's say ₹3,500 crores, ₹1,000 crores by incremental ₹700 crores of capex which you talked about?

Akshay S. Pitti

By incremental ₹700, but then that's not the full potential because you're investing in land and building in Bangalore as well as the foundry, which will be capable of much more.

Pulkit Singhal

Okay. Lastly, as the forging business also, we had some thoughts.

Do we have some thoughts around?

Akshay S. Pitti

See, right now if you look at it, in terms of capital deployment, we are having a handful over here, and we're trying to manage the deployment of capital as judiciously as possible. While that is an opportunity which is quite enticing, I am more inclined to stay in my lane and do the business that we know well.

Pulkit Singhal

Fair point. Sir, last question just: so tax rate is expected to be 25%, is that understanding correct, this year and going ahead?

Akshay S. Pitti

Yes.

Pulkit Singhal

Other income, we will not get for this year, and it will start next year onwards only,

Akshay S. Pitti

the

Pulkit Singhal

incentive?

Akshay S. Pitti

Yes,

Pulkit Singhal

okay. Got it.

Thank you.

Akshay S. Pitti

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Rahul Kumar from Vicaria Fund.

Please go ahead.

Rahul Kumar

Hi. Sorry.

Can you just give us your guidance, your targets for EBITDA and PAT for next 2 years? Whatever your targets.

Akshay S. Pitti

Hello? Sorry, I think I was on mute.

If I start from current year, I would look at a EBITDA of roughly ₹370-odd crores based on the current outlook. For the next year, we should be looking at a turnover above about ₹2,500 crores if you don't do the capex.

I'm obviously going to talk ex of the incremental capex for lamination. At a 90,000-tonne operating level, we should be looking at a ₹2,500 crore turnover and an EBITDA margin of about 17, 17.2%.

Rahul Kumar

Got it. Understood.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, this was the last question, and we conclude the question and answer session.

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

Akshay S. Pitti

Thank you, everyone, for your time and joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest and support as we move into FY '27.

Our focus remains on disciplined execution and improving working capital, completing ongoing capex, and scaling machined components, strengthening our position as an integrated engineering partner for customers across India and global markets. Thank you.

Operator

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

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