Hi, thank you. Good afternoon everyone.

On behalf of Asian Market Securities, we welcome you to the 4Q FY26 earning conference call of Techno Electric and Engineering Company Limited. We have with us today Shri P.

P. Gupta Ji, Chairman and Managing Director; Mr.

Ankit Saraiya, Director and COO, representing the company; Shivani Chandok, VP Strategic Initiative and Investor Relation; and Mr. Amit Agarwal, President Data Center.

I request Shri P. P.

Gupta Ji to take us through an overview of the quarterly and yearly results, and then we'll begin the Q&A session. Over to you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vidit. Very good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us to discuss Techno Electric and Engineering Company Limited's financial results for the Q4 and the full year ended 31st March 2026.

Before I begin, a quick note on forward-looking statements. Anything we say today about the future should be read along with the usual risks and uncertainties that affect our industry, sector, and in turn our company.

Let me begin with the key highlights in financial year '26. We continued our trajectory of delivering all-time high revenues for the company.

We executed with discipline across all our business segments, delivered resilient operational and financial performance, and are entering the new fiscal year from a position of strength. Two structural trends gives us strong confidence as we look ahead.

First, the Union Budget's continued support through tax incentive for cloud and digital infrastructure is a significant positive for data centers business. Second, India's transmission sector continues to present a strong multi-year growth opportunity, and we believe we are well-positioned to participate in this expansion as a key entity in this segment.

Importantly, we are at a critical inflection point where reliable power infrastructure is becoming crucial and central to the data center ecosystem. This convergence is creating new opportunities across both our transmission and data center businesses and strengthening the strategic alignment between the two segments.

However, the operating environment driven by global wars and supply chain disruption have added some cost pressure in the near term, and we expect this may continue to impact the next few quarters as well, unless resolved as promised in near future. The company is geared up for the same.

We are actively managing costs, optimizing our procurement, and staying disciplined in execution. We are confident that as these external factors normalize, our margins will steadily move back to their structural levels or better.

Our priorities still have not changed: disciplined execution, efficient use of capital, and long-term value for the shareholders. We first take up businesses segment-wise.

First is the T&D business. Our transmission and distribution business continues to demonstrate very strong momentum.

India's energy demand is rising rapidly, driven by industrial expansion, the growing scale of data centers, and the accelerating transition towards renewable energy. As power demand increases, the need for robust transmission infrastructure becomes inevitable, and this is precisely where we are strategically positioned.

We are witnessing a steady pipeline of opportunities across extra high voltage transmission corridors as the country continues to strengthen and expand its energy backbone. Our unexecuted order book as on 31st March 2026 stands at almost 9,600 cr.

We have secured fresh orders after March '26 for about 386 crore, a very interesting order we'll detail later, and L1, we are placed L1 in another bidding worth about 810 crores, which adds to our execution pipeline and gives us revenue visibility going forward. As India advances towards a more digital and intelligent grid, digital substation represents the next frontier of power infrastructure modernization.

Our early investments and positioning in this space provide us with a meaningful competitive advantage as the country accelerates its grid transformation agenda. We are among the early movers in this domain, and our recent order for a 132 kV digital substations at four locations in DVC grid command area is one of the most advanced of its own kind in India, and this marks a significant milestone in our smart grid journey.

It reinforces our capability to deliver generation next infrastructure aligned with the evolving needs of the power sector. This reflects not only the strength of the underlying market opportunities, but also our disciplined approach to growth, remaining selective in bidding, maintaining strong execution practices, standards, and staying focused on prudent risk management.

Market outlook: India's power story is unfolding faster than anyone projected. Over the last four to five years, India's power sector has undergone a significant transformation characterized by rapid capacity expansion, accelerated renewable energy deployment, grid modernization, and major policy reforms.

The sector has moved steadily towards cleaner energy while simultaneously ensuring reliability and energy security to meet the rising electricity demand driven by economic growth, urbanization, and digitization, apart from electrification. As per the CEA's long-term National Resource Adequacy Plan of March 2026, the peak demand in financial '25 year—in financial year '25 stood at 250 GW, up from 190 GW in the financial year '21, and by January '26, before summer even began, we already had touched 245 GW.

The summer broke every record. India met an all-time peak of 271 GW on May 21, 2026, and the CEA projects demand reaching 289 GW by financial year '27 and 459 GW by financial year '35, nearly doubling within a decade.

To meet this, India must build a 1,120 GW generation portfolio by financial year '35-'36, from about 520 GW today, and largely through renewable sources. By financial year '36, 70% of India's installed capacity will be non-fossil, up from 52% today.

As you are aware, none of this generation reaches consumers without transmission. As electricity demand continues to grow at an estimated 6.4% CAGR through 2030, pressure on India's transmission network is expected to intensify significantly.

The challenge ahead is no longer simply to adding generation capacity; it is about building a transmission infrastructure capable of evacuating and delivering renewable energy efficiently across the country. This becomes particularly important as renewable energy capacity continues to expand in resource-rich states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, while demand centers remain geographically dispersed in this context.

HVDC transmission is emerging as a critical technology for long-distance renewable power evacuation with lower transmission losses and higher grid efficiency. According to Kotak Neo, India's HVDC market is projected to grow from $15 billion in 2025 to $30 billion by 2035.

As per CEA's transmission plan between financial year '27 and financial year '36, 1,37,500 circuit kilometer of new lines and 8,27,600 MVA of transformation capacity through new stations will happen, which will entail an investment of almost 8 lakh crore approximately, or US $85 billion. Techno Electric and Engineering Company remains deeply aligned with the infrastructure needs of the energy transition.

Our expertise in 765 kV AIS and GIS execution, the highest voltage class in India's grid is precisely what this transition requires. Every solar park evacuated, every wind corridor energized, and every pumped storage project integrated all run through high voltage substations.

Just to remind, in last three decades, this country has, say, around 500 stations of 400 kV and above, out of that no less than 350 are built by Techno Electric itself. Even presently also, we are delivering no less than six to seven stations out of 10 new stations in construction in the country.

We have capability, we have a track record, and we have a decade of policy-backed investment certainty behind us. Now I hand over to Mr.

Ankit Saraiya for data center business update.

Thank you. Let me now take you through our data center industry outlook, as well as business vertical, which is a transformative chapter for Techno Electric.

India's data center industry has clearly moved from potential to execution at scale. As per MeitY, the total data center capacity in the country has increased from about 375 MW in 2020 to around 1,500 MW by 2025.

While by conservative estimates, the industry is expected to grow to 4.5 GW by 2030, as per many sectoral reports, the capacity may as well jump to 8 GW, driven by the surge in data consumption, rapid cloud adoption, regulatory data localization rules, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence. The expansion will require an investment of more than $30 billion, driven by massive investment in digital infrastructure and GPUs.

The Union policy is also providing strong structural support to the industry. The Union Budget 2026-27 introduced a tax holiday until 2047 for eligible foreign cloud service providers operating through India-based data center infrastructure, a move experts estimate could unlock almost about $100 billion in investments, significantly strengthening India's position as a global cloud and AI infrastructure hub.

In this environment, our differentiation is clearly power-led. As AI workloads and high-density computing push up power requirement, the industry's biggest constraint is increasingly reliable power infrastructure and ability to execute it.

Given our track record and heritage in transmission and mission-critical electrical systems, we believe we are well-positioned to capture the next phase of growth in India's data center industry. Some key operational highlights around the data center business, starting with our data center at Chennai: it became operational around September 2025.

Just to give a basic idea about Chennai itself, the Chennai micro-market has historically trailed Bombay, reflecting the limited presence of hyperscalers and BFSI customers, the two segments that drive the bulk of data center absorption, especially today in India and Bombay. That said, Chennai has consistently seen steady demand from its large industrial base and IT/ITeS sector, and it remains strategically important destination as it's the only other city besides Bombay connected to multiple submarine landing stations.

The Chennai market currently has six to seven operators, including Singapore Telecom, Nxtra, AdaniConneX, Sify, Equinix, NTT, and Digital Connexion, which is a JV between Digital Realty, Reliance, and Brookfield. Amongst all these players, Techno Digital, we are the newest entrant and just been in operations for last six months, and with no prior presence in this segment, we have already tied up half a megawatt of capacity.

We have active pipeline discussions for over 2 MW of capacity with enterprise customers and cloud operators. We must recognize that establishing ourselves in this kind of competitive landscape with such large organizations will take time, but we remain confident that we'll be able to lease out the entire commissioned capacity within this financial year.

Looking ahead, we are seeing and market is seeing growing interest from global players. Chennai's proximity to Singapore, access to multiple subsea cable landing stations, and competitive power cost, along with availability of renewable energy, positions it as a critical gateway for international connectivity.

Evolving geopolitical dynamics in the Gulf are also reinforcing the case for network diversification and alternate routing beyond the Arabian Sea corridor. The demand arising out of these global factors tend to be available in near term, but in large in size, requiring immediate capacity, and therefore we may as well plan for a Phase 2 expansion, ensuring that we have large capacity available for such requirements, which can be met on immediate basis.

The time becomes essence in delivering these capacities, specially of demands coming out of such evolving structures. The first edge data center that came online was Gurgaon under partnership with RailTel, which commenced operation in August 2025.

We are fully subscribed in Gurgaon today. Customer billing started in September 2025 and contributes today almost little above ₹2 crores of annual revenue.

The facility in Gurgaon provides colocation and cloud services to marquee clients across government and public sector utilities, and it is currently delivering on positive operating margins. Our second edge data center went live in May 2026, and we today have active funnel of prospective customers across government and private enterprises, especially BFSI segment, and we are close to filling out the entire capacity.

Customer onboarding will commence soon as our network services become operational within Bombay edge data center. In addition, we plan to expand our edge data center footprint in Indore, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Vizag, Prayagraj, with construction commencing at least two to three of these locations within this year.

The rollout under the RailTel contract for edge data centers has been slower than anticipated owing to land acquisition challenges at RailTel's end, but once the land is handed over to us, we will deliver these edge data centers within a year at each of these locations. This is a 25-year long contract, and within that period, we are confident of delivering multiple edge data centers across the country.

Our Noida data center is on track, which is also being constructed in partnership with RailTel. Our first phase, or you can say Phase 0 actually, of half a megawatt will be commissioned by June 2026.

We are already seeing strong demand, particularly from the government, and we expect that this half a megawatt will be fully occupied by December '26. The construction of first phase, which is 5 MW, is also on track and will be completed by May 2027.

The Calcutta data center is under construction and is progressing as planned and remains on schedule for commissioning by end of calendar year 2028. As our data center assets steadily move towards operations, we expect them to start contributing to our overall financials.

Based on what we see today and the customer discussions we're having, we target around ₹40 to ₹50 crores of revenue from data center business in financial year '27. The pace of ramp-up will depend on leasing closures, customer onboarding timelines, and market conditions, but the demand environment and the positioning of our assets give us real confidence.

We have also received a license from DOT to provide network services. We expect to gradually ramp up this business through financial year '27.

While on the business front we have been moving increasingly towards digitization, including distribution through smart metering projects, smart grid, and digital infrastructure, we are also undergoing a digital transformation within the organization, and it has become a core strategic priority for Techno Electric, and this is well beyond simply digitizing records. Our digital agenda is anchored around two clear objectives: first, achieving full organizational visibility to support both internal and external audit requirements; and second, to build a robust framework to identify and mitigate operational risks proactively.

A central enabler of this has been our EBS Connect platform, which we have rolled out across the organization to embed data accuracy into the way we work. It captures and reports data in real time across all project sites and functions, significantly improving the quality, consistency, and reliability of our financial and operational reporting.

We have also meaningfully strengthened our underlying digital infrastructure during the year. The cumulative impact of these initiatives is tangible: we are seeing significant annual cost avoidance, a more predictable order-book-to-cash conversion cycle, and measurable improvements in our operating cash flow outcomes—outcomes that reflect the real business value of our digital investments.

Now Shivani Chandok...

Thank you, sir. Now let me take you through the financial performance for Q4 and full year ended March 31, 2026.

I'm pleased to share that Techno Electric has closed FY26 on a strong note, demonstrating both resilient and sustained growth across our standalone and consolidated operations. Our results reflect the project-driven nature of our business and the nature of seasonality of execution.

Historically, our performance has followed a 40-60 split between the first and second half of the year. Q4, being the closing quarter, has again contributed strongly toward full-year numbers.

On a standalone basis for the year, our revenue stands at ₹3,252 crores, demonstrating a growth of 35.42% over FY2025. For the full year, our EBITDA reached ₹448 crores, giving a growth of 36.44% over FY25.

Our profit after tax for FY26 stands at ₹507 crores, a robust growth of 34.8% over FY25, reflecting strong operational leverage and capital efficiency underpinned by our debt-free philosophy. Our standalone EPS for FY25-26 stands at ₹46.6 compared to ₹37.65 in FY24-25, a growth of approximately 24% year-on-year.

For the quarter, our revenue for Q4 is at ₹1,043 crores, with a growth of 28.5% over Q4 FY25, and EBITDA reached ₹132 crores, a growth of 28.6% over FY25. On a consolidated basis, our full-year results are as under: the consolidated revenue for FY26 is at ₹3,250 crores, a growth of approximately 43.3% over FY25.

EBITDA grew to ₹462 crores, with a growth of 36.13%. EBITDA margins remained healthy at 14.2%, although there was a slight decline as compared to the previous year.

Consolidated profit after tax reached ₹449 crores, a growth of approximately 18.7% over FY25. Our consolidated EPS for FY25-26 stands at ₹40.74, as compared to ₹37.19 in FY24, a growth of approximately 10% year-on-year.

On a quarterly basis, our revenue for Q4 is at ₹1,010 crores, with a growth of 23.8%, and EBITDA at ₹132 crores, a growth of 4.26%. The quarter was impacted by certain macroeconomic challenges, including supply chain disruptions due to the conflict in GCC region, which also led to high energy costs.

As a result, our expected top line for the quarter was impacted, and procurement costs also increased a bit in Q4. We believe that these are temporary and short-term challenges, while the company has continued to invest in digital transformation and capacity building, which is inbuilt in our opex cost.

We believe that these are important foundation for long-term value creation for our stakeholders. With this, I now hand over to Mr.

P. P.

Ji to cover our smart metering, other businesses, and closing remarks.

Thank you, ma'am. In smart metering, as of March '26, we have already executed approximately 70% of our smart metering order book of about 2.24 million meters, up significantly from 50% at the end of Quarter 3.

Our current priority is clear: complete all ongoing projects on time and with full efficiency. Given the margin pressures we are observing in recent tenders, we are consciously adopting a selective and disciplined bidding approach.

We are focused on protecting execution quality within our existing portfolio rather than aggressively pursuing incremental volumes at the cost of returns. Progress remains healthy across all project sites.

Our digital execution tools enable real-time monitoring, early identification of bottlenecks, and swift corrective action, ensuring we stay on track across geographies. On the implementation front, we are on track to implement 100% of the smart projects in current financial year.

We have four ongoing concessions: while Indore and Ranchi will be completed within H1, Kashmir and Tripura project will be completed in H2 of the current year. FGD, over the last few months, policy uncertainty and delay in regulatory clarity had slowed down new FGD tenders.

We are watching developments closely and remain well-positioned to participate when tendering picks up. The Kota-Jhalawar project execution is on track, and we expect Kota project by March '27 and Jhalawar by June '27.

With this, we now put the house to question-answers.

Hi, am I audible?

Good evening, sir. My first question is on the data center side.

Management has built impressive brand visibility for Techno Digital on the platforms like LinkedIn, where we are showcasing the capabilities that appear superior to the industry peers, right? There seems to be a disconnect as this has not yet translated into the tangible top-line growth or the improved consolidated EPS.

In fact, if we look at the numbers, the gap between the standalone EPS and the consolidated EPS is getting widened than expected initially. Although in the opening remarks you highlighted the reasons for it, but what are the specific go-to-market hurdles which are causing these slower than expected utilization and ramp-up in the data center business?

Because as far as I remember, in our earlier calls, we were targeting 100 cr of revenues for FY27 from data center. Now you mention only 40 cr.

What are the challenges are we facing here, sir? When can we expect a meaningful contribution to the bottom line?

That's my first question.

Let me take that question. Firstly, see, we've been in operations with data center only for last six months.

Our commissioning of Chennai data center, in all honesty, happened in September, with first client moving in from October 2025 onwards. Within six months, we've seen a consumption of about half a megawatt of capacity within Chennai.

Now, as I mentioned in the opening remark as well, that we need to appreciate the fact that we are new to the industry, and we do not come with a background of even an IT/ITeS sector, far being data center. With the competition landscape that we are dealing with, with most players well-established over the last couple of decades, and with large organizations such as Adani, Reliance, Sify, NTT, STT, which are multinationals, we are still trying to find a foothold for our own selves.

In an industry like data center, which is largely mission-critical in nature, where it takes a lot of time to develop confidence with customers and industry at large, it is going to be a slow but rewarding journey, but a long journey, as I have mentioned earlier. With RailTel as a partner, it has helped us in achieving some footing much before than any other new entrant would have taken.

Therefore, we've seen absorption of capacity in Gurgaon and Bombay faster than other locations. Chennai being our first data center of being operated 100% of our own, one can expect that we will take some time in this competitive landscape.

Secondly, as also mentioned, that Chennai micro-market is quite different than micro-markets we hear most about, which is Bombay. With Chennai having limited presence of hyperscalers and BFSI segment, the absorption largely comes out of the industrial base within that city and out of the IT/ITeS sector within that city.

The good part about Chennai is, though, that there's always a trickling demand in the industry. It may not be large, but there's always a constant demand which is available for us to fulfill, but it takes time to fill up capacities of this size.

Because you are catering to more enterprise and retail customers in a city like Chennai, margins are superior than bulk customers which come out of hyperscale or BFSI segment. In all honesty, I would say we are still gaining ground in the industry.

We are competing with large organizations who've been established for decades in it, but the journey is solid, it will be rewarding, but it will take some time. Therefore, what we are seeing today will start improving from FY27 and onwards.

Let me add more to it. You see, from given background of Techno Electric, we are probably the first to be in this space, number one.

Secondly, I will say no expansion of high-tech deployment like this becomes profitable in the very first year. At least it takes two years to gain ground and be profitable and rewarding.

I can assure you, by 2030, our takeaway is that the data center or digitization will become the face of this company, and transmission will be the second side of the coin, which is presently the face of this situation. Coming to the targets, I will say this 100 crore or more we have never said, number one.

Yes, investors may have been anticipating. Now, the capacity of 5 MW can deliver that kind of rewards, but nevertheless, we are conscious of investor expectation in this segment, and I can assure you, have patience, we'll outperform the industry like transmission.

Understood, sir. Secondly, on our standalone business, we had targeted the EPS of 50, but we ended at 46.5, which is due to a combination of commodity price headwinds that we mentioned and slower than anticipated execution as well.

Apart from that, there is a significant spike in trade receivables balance as well, which is clearly weighing on our operating cash flow. Given this environment of persistent commodity inflation and current working capital challenges, how confident is the management in scaling up the revenue target of 4,400 cr for FY27 with EPS of ₹75?

Look, dear,

nobody anticipated Gulf War so soon. In December, it was nowhere visible.

War has definitely shaved off 200 crore top line, and as well as gas non-availability have increased costs of certain vital equipments in our sector, named insulators, aluminum, metals, commodity prices all-time high. Macros nobody has a control on, as we said in the beginning, and you have to perform within the macros and micro opportunities as it happens.

I will say that a loss of only ₹3 EPS is no great; it will definitely be made up going forward. Definitely we stay committed, a EPS of ₹75 by 2028, as we have always been maintaining.

Current year will be at around ₹60. It will be better than this year, much better than this year, because we'll definitely be changing our product mix in station work in which is focused more on GIS component than on AIS.

Let's hope the war gets soon over and the impact only lasts for Q1 and not beyond. That's what we can wish you.

Otherwise, India is very vulnerable, as you all know, to the fuel costs, impact of fuel costs, and impact on interest rates emerging out of CRDs. Already rupee under pressure, that will also add to the cost of the equipments having certain import elements in it.

These challenges are on table of the sector, which will also be impacting us a bit. I can assure you, among all the entities in this segment, we will be the least impacted.

Just a quick clarification, sir. I think earlier 75 was the target for FY27, isn't it?

No, you see, we were expecting even today you may achieve more than 60 also, but we are factoring this war, number one. Secondly, certain bottom lines were to happen out of the InvIT exits of our smart meter projects happening, which with foreign funds flowing out of the country may impact that.

We want to be conservative in conveying it. If that happens, that will definitely add another ₹10 to the bottom line if we are able to take exit out of our InvIT in AMI.

There are hidden profits in that, in exits. Profit margins are yet to be part of our operations.

It's how it evolves going forward.

What is the top-line target for FY27?

Garvit.

Hello. Welcome.

You are audible.

Sir, for FY27, what is the top-line target?

4,000 cr plus/minus.

4,000 crore plus/minus. What is the EBITDA margins range, sir?

EBITDA margin, you take around 13%, believing war impact lasts no more than H1. Certain cost impact will continue to be there.

The oil prices are not going to roll back so easily, despite war being not there. Some cost impact will continue in H2 also, but still we should be able to have 13%.

Sir, from 3,200— Sorry

[foreign language]

sir. Non-current investments have jumped from 648 crores to 1,316 crores in FY26.

What would be the break-up among smart meter and data center? What do we plan to invest in FY27 and '28 in both the businesses?

In data center, we intend to invest 1,000 cr during the current year and 250 in and 650 cr in smart meters, but the capex outgo will be 250 and 400 will be self-funded. That will be generation as a internal accruals from that business segment.

What you see basically as a CWIP, the major difference has happened because we are executing two EPC contracts rather in joint development along with IndiGrid at Dhule and at Ishanagar. There Ishanagar project will be completed by June end, Q1, and Dhule may go up to December because of the delay in acquisition of the right of way by the SPV.

Those deployment of funds have created contract assets which will no longer be visible in the current year closing. That is the only impact.

Out of this, you can take for these two projects alone, the contract work in progress is almost about 600 cr on these two projects. If you minus that, you will find that it is at par with last year.

In the ₹1,300 crore number, ₹1,300 crores?

Pardon?

In this ₹1,300 crore number, non-current investment, what is data center and smart meters?

In smart meter, our investment today is about 500 cr already done, and 250 this year, 750 total. Rest is out of the internal accruals.

In data center, we have invested about 600 cr by now and further 1,000 cr during the current year.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Sir. Good afternoon.

I think a good set of results, sir, when you see the P&L, but I have some questions on the balance sheet side. Question number one, which is one of the emphasis on the matter which has been highlighted by auditors also, and this is regarding the receivables from three large partners, the old outstanding sum amounting to some 88-odd crores.

I think management is of the opinion that no impairment is required for that. Request you to put a color on that, because considering the last PAT we did in FY26, the amount is fairly meaningful.

That is one. Second, I think again on the receivable side, the receivables actually have increased a lot.

Is there some reason, is there some rationalization we are actually looking forward to in terms of collection of money from these trade receivables? Last question on the working capital side is on the other current assets, there is a meaningful increase again from 80.7-odd crores to 160-plus-odd crores in FY26 from last year, and I'm talking about the consolidated numbers.

What is the break-up of this meaningful increase, sir?

Simple issues. Firstly, coming to the book debts, this is the first year when book debts have been considered along with the retention money receivables.

Earlier, we were giving this in two parts: receivables and retention money. If you look separately, the receivable is 950 cr, and another 240, 250 cr is our retention money, which is unbilled, you can take it.

Definitely in Q4, you see our turnover is almost 1/3 of the top line. It skews the book debts rise of March closing, which comes down till today, we have almost collected 400 cr out of this 950 also.

If you look on our type of firms, we are lowest in book debts by September end and highest by March end, number one. It is generally not more than two to two and a half month cycle, which generally anybody takes to process, including transit time of material reaching sites, documenting, approvals, and payments.

Coming to your 88 crore issue, let me say this is a contract we had in Afghanistan, which was due to political reasons was suspended four years back. Now UNOPS have taken responsibility.

ADB, the lender, has taken responsibility to pay out the work executed till 15th August 2021, the day of closeout of the previous government at that time. I can only say with satisfaction that all our bills have been approved.

Now they are about $8 million plus. They have been sent to the ADB for payment, and we are very hopeful to get it by Q1 and or maybe Q2 at best at maximum.

In our books, this outstanding is no more than, I will again say, 50 to 55 cr only. But $8 million we are to receive today that rupee depreciation has definitely made it rewarding, number one.

Number two, simultaneously we do hold retention money payable to our suppliers also against the very outstanding we have. That also is about another 20 cr with us.

Net impact is no great in the books of the company.

Will you be able to adjust this, the retention which you have kind of hold for the creditors against the receivables we have on this account?

Absolutely, that is back-to-back, sir. That is always back-to-back.

Okay. My one question which is still pending is on account of—

I'll join the queue.

Am I audible?

You are welcome, sir.

I just wanted to understand the impact of the war, as you mentioned that it impacted around 200 cr of top line and the margins in this quarter. Could you just touch upon the exact reason?

Were you not able to execute those 200 crores worth of orders, or how does it really impacted your top line and the margin? Secondly, if this situation goes on, where do you look at in the terms of top line and the bottom line for FY27?

You see, coming to the 200 crore, it was first the supply chain, which is basically dependent on gas. The gas got most impacted after this Middle East war, and the industries could not supply the materials or could not produce the materials.

Their capacity utilization has come down to less than 50%. That's what I will say.

The materials could not be made ready by our reputed suppliers like MEIS or like GE. They could not get the insulators for their switchgears, particularly in highest V category like 765 kV.

Those impacted us, and it continues to impact even now, number one. Number two, in the current year, we have already said our top line is about 4,000 crore and EPS of ₹60.

Okay. You mentioned

next year— Next year again I will say '28, we will be definitely giving you a EPS of 75.

EPS of 85?

75.

75.

In '28 March. Okay.

For the FY27, it will be around 75 EPS, right?

No, current year it is current year it is ₹60. We have again not to be wrongly quoted.

Next year it is 75.

Got it.

Sure.

Hello, thank you for the opportunity. I want to ask year-wise roadmap for the data center business over FY27, '28, '29, and how much capacity is expected to go live each year across Chennai, Noida, Kolkata, and other edge data centers?

Ankit, will you address this?

Yeah. We are already, as I mentioned, we are live in Chennai with 5.6 MW, and hopefully by end of calendar year '27, we should have another phase of Chennai commissioned if we are able to onboard customers for the initial capacity of 5.6 MW, which is already commissioned.

Maybe by December '27, we'll have another 5 MW commissioned. In meanwhile, by May '27, we'll have the first 5 MW in Noida commissioned.

By then, we should have at least couple of more edge data centers of at least half a megawatt each commissioned, apart from the one which we have in Gurgaon and Bombay. By December '27 we should have a commission capacity of about 15 to 20 MW, this 20 MW-odd capacity will be expandable to another 35, 40 MW on immediate basis, because the common infrastructure would have been developed for all these data centers.

So 20 MW is actual live capacity, expandable to 40 MW, and that should be the target for December '27.

Thanks, that was fairly detailed. I just want to have a follow-up question upon the same.

How should we think about the utilization ramp-up post the commissioning?

Come again, I couldn't hear you.

My question is a follow-up question on the same: how should we think about the utilization ramp-up post commissioning of these data centers?

Please consider that after commissioning of a capacity, it can take about 12 months to reach occupancy levels of close to around 75% to 80%, which is quite ideal to begin capex for the next phase of the same project.

Okay. Thank you so much, sir.

Hello.

Please.

All my questions have been answered. Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, is there any possible collaboration with MNCs in chips in constructing a data center, and do you see this austerity measures by the government, is there any reduction in the transmission segment that will be happen?

I couldn't hear you clearly. Your voice was breaking in the middle.

Sorry, sir. Let me come again.

Sir, is there any possible collaboration with MNCs for data center, seeing chip segment or constructing a data center or sharing? Then, my next question is regarding the austerity measures the government is announcing.

Is there any reduction of capital lay-offs by government in transmission sector? Are you seeing any in the future?

If I hear your question rightly, asking whether there is a potential collaboration with a multinational in data centers?

Yes, sir. Correct, exactly.

Or by when we can expect it, sir?

We have potential discussions going on with multiple organizations who are strategic in nature to the data center industry and to our company. We are constantly exploring partnership with them to expand our footprint, expand our products and services, as well as to onboard large customers.

That may trigger at any point of time. Difficult to put a timeline to it, but that may trigger at any point of time when both the parties see potential opportunities to do something more than what we are already doing.

That's always on the cards.

Do you see any reduction in transmission business? Oh,

no. We see it growing only manifold going forwards with so much of capacity, as I highlighted, to be added.

I will also include answer to your question in my closing remark.

Sir. Sir, can I ask one more?

Hello. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, I just wanted to know out of 9,500 crores, how much is the T&D order book, because what I see, your execution has ramped up massively, and going forward, with smart meter completion, we'll see a sharp fall in the order book. Your book-to-bill ratio will correct significantly.

In terms of visibility and who are our clients for the pipeline order book that we have? That's my first question.

See, I think these details are already available on our website also. As you see, our transmission order book is about 7,000 cr, another 1,000 cr is you can take FGD, and another 1,500 you can take in AMI or distribution business, I will say, by and large.

With the 4,000 crore execution, and with the order already in hand, it is almost about 2.5x of the current year turnover projected. Which is quite healthy in the given environment.

We hope to add another business of no less than 4,000 crore in the coming year as we execute. This ratio will be maintained of 2 and a half or maybe 2.4 to 2.5 to the top line going forward.

Okay.

Major customers are well known who are the asset holder in our country. They are namely Power Grid, Sterlite, Adani, IndiGrid, and similarly they are the major ones, but others are also now coming in the field.

Any concessionaire is our customer, like we are working with ABEIMA, called KSEB earlier, China Light and Power, they are also our customer for deploying their assets.

There's

no dearth of customers' opportunity in this segment.

Got it. Sir, my second question on the same business: what is your working capital cycle or requirement for the core T&D business?

Is it currently being positively impacted because of the data center build-out? No,

data center has nothing to do with working capital. Please don't mix the two.

Transmission working capital is met by its own operational generation of cash and operational obligations to meet at project sites and suppliers. It is self-funded, by and large, I will say.

As far as data center is concerned, is a capex for us. Then data center subsidiaries, they have their own opex operations in their own companies.

At the moment, they are yet to become cash-positive or cash-accretive, but AMI business has become already cash-accretive now. This year, we expect a cash generation from AMI business of about 400 to 450 cr, whereas the additional capex will be no more than 650 cr.

That's why I said our additional capital deployment will be limited to 250 cr, as 400 will be met out of the internal generation.

Thank you for the opportunity. I'm sorry if the question has already been answered, but sir, what would be our standalone guidance: revenue, margins, and order inflow?

I've already narrated, dear, 4,000 crore as a revenue, 13% EBITDA, what more, depending on how soon we complete the war, which is not in the control of even government of India, and EPS of ₹60 we'll be targeting. Sir,

this is on standalone level and not— All are correct here, on

standalone basis, absolutely.

The order inflow? How many order inflows?

Order intake will be 4,000 cr.

Okay. Thank you.

Good evening, sir. I just have a very small question on the depreciation part.

If you see on the December quarter, the depreciation touched almost ₹9 crores, and again in this quarter, it has moved back to ₹3 crores. I was figuring out what has happened.

I cannot answer this question offhand, and I'm not so familiar with numbers. You kindly write us an email, we'll reply you.

Sure, sir. Sure, sir.

Thank you. Thanks.

Sir. This is regarding data center.

What is our steady-state expectation of EBITDA margins on data centers? Say if we take a financial year FY30, what percent of business we expect from data center side as a percentage to our overall revenue, sir?

Look, let me answer this question as against Ankit. By 2030, our target will definitely be to have a top line of almost 400 cr out of this business, if not 500 cr.

EBITDA will be around 50% in this segment, which is generally prevailing, or maybe more, depending on how India plays out in data center or cloud services or AI more largely. All these factors will influence this segment.

We should be holding a capacity at that time, to my mind, no less than 250 MW by then operationally. We need a one eureka as a breakthrough, maybe AI-based some capacity of 100 MW or so with some hyperscalers in some part of India, and that will create magical transformation.

With power procurement and power delivery ability with Techno, I'm very sure it will happen sooner than market may expect. We'll give you a surprise.

That's good to hear, sir. Your conviction on 50% EBITDA margin is strong, sir?

No,

that is the industry mark, because these are lease rentals largely, and the only cost you carry with you is debt and finance and O&M, which is not very great. Now it depends on mix of the services, which I have not included.

That will be upside, like our IP services, which we have acquired the license additionally, or power supply business, which may further give us a delta. All those are not added here.

I'm only talking of pure leasing of data center space.

Got it, sir. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, ma'am. I will again repeat what I have said today.

With a strong financial foundation, execution track record, and a growing order pipeline, we are very well-positioned for India's next phase of growth in energy transition, energy consumption growth. As I've already said, we'll be targeting a top line of 4,000 cr in the current year, with a EPS of 60, and for next year a top line of 5,000 cr and with a EPS of 75.

To support this growth, we have outlined a capex of 1,250 crore this year, which include 1,000 in our data center business and 250 for smart metering. The investment will be 650 cr in smart metering, and net of internal accruals of 400 cr, the additional capex from the parent will be 250 cr.

Importantly, nearly 60% of smart metering capex will be funded through internal accruals from the business itself, reflecting the improving financial strength and self-sustaining of this segment now. Our EPC business remains fully self-sustaining, generating its own working capital requirements, while continuing to maintain a debt-free, cash-surplus balance sheet.

This provides us with the flexibility to pursue growth opportunities while preserving financial discipline and balance sheet strength. While near-term geopolitical tensions, particularly in the GCC region, may continue to impact supply chains, these developments are also accelerating investments in renewable energy and grid infrastructure to support this transition, energy transition, and creating a long-term business opportunities for companies like ours.

Any energy crisis in Gulf will create alternate forms of the energy in rest of the globe. We remain committed to delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders through disciplined execution, prudent capital allocation, and highest standards of transparency and integrity, while continuing to maintain our debt-free, cash-surplus situation.

Thanking you all for joining. If anybody remains unattended, is welcome to write a mail to us, or if you happen to be in Kolkata, you are welcome to drop in our office and see how we personally physically work.

Thank you very much.