Thank you. Good day, everyone, and a warm welcome to everyone participating in Triveni Engineering & Industries Q4 and FY '26 earnings call.

We have with us today Mr. Tarun Sawhney, Vice Chairman and Managing Director; Mr.

Suresh Taneja, Group CFO; Mr. Sameer Sinha, CEO Sugar Business; and Mr.

Rajiv Rajpal, CEO of Power Transmission Business; as well as other members of the senior management team. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature, and a statement to this effect has been included in the invite which was shared with you earlier.

I would also like to emphasize that while this call is open to all invitees, it may not be broadcast or reproduced in any manner. I would like now to hand over to Mr.

Tarun Sawhney to make his opening remarks. Over to you, Tarun.

Thank you, Gavin. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q4 fiscal '26 earnings call for Triveni Engineering & Industries Limited.

It's a great pleasure to be with you today, and unusually, for the first time, we're having this call a few days after the results due to certain business exigencies and travel commitments. We wanted all the senior management team to be present for this very important, and and in some ways, historic call.

I'm delighted to inform you that the composite scheme of arrangement is effective from the 19th of May 2026 after the approval of the NCLT. The revenue from operations of the company, net of excise, stood at 6,291 crore, and the PBT stood at 378 crore.

There was a strong turnaround in the operating performance of the distillery segment. In the power transmission business, the highlight was an order booking of 25% higher than than previously, a significant increase of inquiries as well during this period.

However, the engineering businesses' Q4 was impacted by global and domestic uncertainty, especially in in in well, in a wide variety of industrial sectors, and I will be talking more about that and the future through this call. The board has also recommended a final dividend of ₹1.25 per equity share.

Looking at the consolidated financial results, I'd like to mention that the 6,291 crore of revenues was a growth of 10.6% versus the previous fiscal year, and this expansion was propelled by stronger sales volumes in our sugar and distillery verticals, along with better sugar realizations. For the quarter under review, revenues stood at over 1,500 crore, which was slightly down from the previous corresponding quarter, primarily due to a calibrated scale down of some ethanol dispatches aligning with the OMCs' delivery timelines, and also because of some short delivery deferments in the power transmission business.

The EBITDA margins for the business rose to 16.9% to approximately 624 crore, up from 533 crore in the previous fiscal year. The we have accounted for an exceptional charge of 14 crore in fiscal '26, which reflects the estimated retroactive impact of the new labor codes on employee benefit provisions.

The net profit as a result for the full year reached 268.7 crore, which was up by 12.8% versus the previous corresponding year. Reflecting the sound balance sheet and commitments to investors, the board has recommended, as I mentioned, a final dividend of 125%, or ₹1.25 per share.

The balance sheet remains strong. Our consolidated debt stood at 2,148 crore on the 31st of March '26, which was slightly higher than the 1,969 crore on the 31st of March '25.

However, our long-term debt stood at on a consolidated basis stood at 472 crore at the end of March '26, which was lower than the period the previous period, where it was 506-odd crore. I'm very proud to announce that post the scheme having been approved, ICRA has reaffirmed our long-term credit rating as AA+ Stable, lifting it from its previous under watch status.

I think that's a return to be the highest rating of of Triveni Engineering historically, and something that we at the business are quite proud of. Turning quickly to the operating businesses, I'll first talk about the sugar business.

In this vertical, we delivered a stable baseline profitability. Despite the ambient agricultural challenges, the revenues grew by almost 13%, while the PBIT grew very marginally and ended up at about 272 crore.

The sugarcane crush for the 2025-26 season ended at 8.25 million tonnes, lower by 8.8%, and this was due to agro-climatic factors on cane yields, as well as aggressive diversion of sugarcane to local jaggery and production to local jaggery production in select areas. The steepest decline in cane crushing was witnessed in Western Uttar Pradesh, 17%, where our significant capacities are.

This was a little bit of a surprise, very honestly speaking, to the management team, and a lot of that had to do with aggressive diversion towards the gur and khandsari sectors, where they were paying aggressive amounts for for for harnessing sugarcane from local areas. I am, and I will like to mention, very comforted with the fact that the central government is looking at a revision in the Sugarcane Control Order, which will also look at a revision in the Gur and Khandsari Act and bringing that under the central ambit, which will then rein in the same kind of conformity that is much desired to have a a progressive ecosystem, and one that is truly fair to the Indian farmer and to the Indian sugarcane farmer.

Our Khatauli unit, having said that, in Western Uttar Pradesh, was the only one in the state to cross 200 lakh quintals of crushing capacity during this season. We are, of course, very hopeful for all of these, and I'll discuss that when I look give you the output on an outlook of the sugar business going forward.

Furthermore, our intensive cane development initiatives have yielded excellent outcomes, especially in the season under review, as compared to the previous year. Gross recovery rose by 26 basis points to 11.06%.

Operating entirely on C-heavy molasses, our net sugar production was about 913,000 tonnes, almost at the same levels as the previous year, despite a slightly lower level of crush, outperforming the Uttar Pradesh state average, where there was a decline of 3.4% as an average in that state. Certainly, a better performance by Triveni compared to the state average and most other groups in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Our domestic sales volume, up at 10.4% at 9.79 lakh tonnes, had strong realizations for the year under review at ₹40,680 per metric tonne. The higher recoveries and cost optimization measures insulated our margins against the ₹300 per metric tonne increase in cane pricing in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

That, I think, was a very well-absorbed hit because the cane price increase, as I had mentioned on previous calls, was higher than what we had anticipated certainly at Triveni and by the industry at large, but we were able to compensate that through better efficiencies in the system. Furthermore, an upward revision of export power tariffs with effect from 1st of April '24 under the UPERC regulations brought an additional 31 crore of income during the fiscal year.

The inventory of sugar as on the 31st of March '26 stood at a shade under 60 lakh quintals, and it was valued at ₹38.1 per kilo, absorbing the impact of the increase of of of ₹300 per metric tonne. Currently, ex-mill prices for refined sugar are approximately ₹42.20, with sulphitation sugar being about about a rupee per kilo to 75 paise per kilo lower than these average prices.

Turning quickly to the distillery business, the segment has achieved an outstanding operational turnaround, posting its highest ever production and sales volume in fiscal '26. Annual revenue, net of excise, reached 1,550 crore, driven by better availability of feedstocks, lower procurement prices for maize, and sharp cost optimization.

What I want to say is that actually it is the variance in grain prices that has been the biggest surprise, especially for the year under review, and it gives a lot of credence to the huge amount of work that happened in the supply chain activities of the company in order to be able to procure the feedstock from various states at the best possible price, transport it efficiently, and store it efficiently for it to be converted and reflect in terms of the profitability of this business. That has been a a big success of the distillery segment and something that actually one has we've we've talked about in previous calls as well.

While the average realization prices shifted slightly lower to ₹61 per liter due to the higher mix of FCI rice-allocated ethanol, which carries a relatively lower pricing than maize, the volume growth more than compensated for this variance. Grain-based feedstock constituted 56% of our total ethanol sales in the year.

We have secured a solid allocation pipeline of 17.18 crore liters under Cycle 1 of the OMCs and the private tender programs, and we expect further allocations of ethanol both from the OMCs and private tender in the subsequent cycle, which is anticipated very shortly now that the the legal hurdles are are getting sorted and are expected to get sorted very, very shortly. I think it is this legal issue that happened in the south of the country that has really played havoc with the ethanol blending program at a time when the nation actually needs as much ethanol, because there has been a a willingness, frankly speaking, by OMCs to even blend slightly more than 20%, and there's been talk of, at least in the metros, slightly higher blending percentages being attempted by the OMCs.

I I cannot certify as to where and when, etc., but these are certainly press reports that have gone out, and it kind of makes sense at a point in time where the rupee has has created a little bit of havoc and the import bill is only rising in one direction. Our branded IMIL business outperformed the broader industry growth metrics in Uttar Pradesh as well, solidifying its position amongst the top five players in this business within the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Turning very quickly to our engineering businesses, I'd like to focus first on the power transmission business. Our power transmission business has experienced a challenging quarter under review, and this was because of some order finalization issues in the steam turbine and other turbine markets for domestic projects as well as for some European and Middle Eastern projects, especially in the fourth quarter.

This was the geopolitical inactivity in West Asia plus, and in fact, I think that would be the most significant contributor, actually had some delays in terms of our customers and OEMs accepting completed or near-complete gearboxes, and it also had an impact on some finalization. Honestly speaking, looking at where oil prices are, looking at where industrial activity is going, and the kind of industrial growth that is happening around the world, because the addressable market is a global one, I I am very happy that the inquiry book has been even more robust.

In fact, our our order booking, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, is also has seen robust increases, and therefore the future, very honestly speaking, actually holds great promise for this business, especially the fiscal the the the present fiscal year. During the Q4, our business secured a landmark order of an axial compressor test gearbox from a premier defense establishment, the first of a kind in Asia, and one of the very few orders for this type of gearbox that's been placed anywhere in the world.

This is a breakthrough order for supply of a test rig, along with all the electricals and mechanical equipment, a very comprehensive scope, and actually gives a broader scope of just beyond just the gearbox, and adds a newer dimension of adding more bells and whistles and of great value to the gearbox value proposition not just for this stream, but also for other gearbox streams going forward. This test facility will support indigenous gas engine development and reduce the reliance on foreign test facilities, and we are hopeful that other such test facilities, not just in India, but also around the world, will be promising targets for this business.

They're high-value orders and very they they represent the pinnacle of high-speed gas turbine technology, and so our success here actually is a validation of the technology that we have in-house. Key machinery items have been commissioned at our defense manufacturing facility, which has been completely launched during the quarter during the fourth quarter, including our lathe machines, deep hole drilling machines, floor boring machines, etc.

The test facility as a testing facility will be installed sequentially over the next couple of quarters as well. We concluded this year with a very strong order book of just under 500 crore, 25% higher than the previous year, providing distinct revenue visibility for the coming quarters.

I would like to mention, and we've talked about it and I'm sure there may be a question coming up, I'm going to preempt it by saying that the the capex that the board of Triveni Engineering has approved in three tranches totals about 300 totals exactly 340 crore. For the gearbox business, this represents a an output of about 700 crore based on the the product mix.

It could be higher also, very honestly speaking, and does not reflect the output of the defense facility. I want to mention that, and of course, all of this capex is anticipated to be complete by, as I as we have previously mentioned, September '26.

231 crore has been incurred up to the 31st of March '26. Of the 231, 78 crore has been for the defense facility.

As you can quickly do the backward calculation, about 109 crore will be incurred in the next this quarter and the next quarter, completing the 340 crore. A lot of that is already planned, executed, underway, things being delivered in various stages of execution, final execution, frankly speaking.

We are exactly in plan with what we had targeted, pretty much, with a small slip-up in the defense facility, but the rest of the targets are pretty much as planned, and having no material impact on the operations of the company, which actually has been very, very important. Of course, as power transmission migrates into Triveni Power Transmission Limited, the company is armed with sufficient cash flows and a balance sheet to be able to incur all of this capex and opex and more.

Turning quickly to the water business, the consolidated revenues of our water business increased by 15% to 270-odd crore, driven by an acceleration in execution of our of our EPC portfolio. The prior year's PBIT also included a one-time favorable arbitration award, making the normalized underlying operational profitability for fiscal '26 quite encouraging.

Key operational highlights include the success the successful completion and formal handover of the Exim Bank-funded Maldives water and sanitation infrastructure project across six islands. Our closing order book for this business stood again around about the same level, at 1,500 just over 1,500 crore, out of which longer-duration O&M maintenance contracts comprise just over 1,000 about 1,077 crore.

I want to spend just a few minutes talking about the strategic outlook for all these businesses. In sugar, the overall domestic production for this season is anticipated to be 27.8 million metric tonnes, with Maharashtra and Karnataka registering a substantial increase of 23% and 16% respectively over the previous season, with Uttar Pradesh witnessing a decline of approximately 3.4%.

Of course, West UP has seen the greatest decline. However, on average, our performance in West UP is significantly significantly better than all of our neighboring factories and groups.

With an opening stock of 5 million metric tonnes, production estimated at 27.8 metric tonnes, our consumption estimates for this year at Triveni stand at about 27.5 million metric tonnes, and exports will be about just a shade above a half a million metric tonnes. Therefore, the closing stock for sugar season '26 is anticipated to be lower than the opening stock at about 4.6 to 4.8-odd metric tonnes, by and large.

Hopefully with the the quotas from the from DGFT being what we anticipate as well. Now this actually bodes very, very well for the remainder of this sugar year and beyond, as far as robust sugar pricing is concerned.

You will note that with an average sugar pricing of refined at 42.20 and sulphitation at about 41.50 today, and it is broadly been the same in in this in this quarter, it is a stark increase to the overall average refine of that we had at Triveni of 41.22 for all of our sugars for the previous fiscal year, quite a substantial difference in terms of average sugar pricing. I think that bodes very well and is reflective, in one part, of the balance sheet of the country, and also the second part, very honestly speaking, is about the anticipated emergence of a El Niño, some say super El Niño, and the concerns that that has on the impact of the monsoon for 2026.

A lot of that is unknown, although frankly speaking, if you were in Delhi today, the thunderstorms are of a very vigorous monsoon. The anticipation, of course, is that as the monsoon progresses, it will have an impact of El Niño, potentially a super El Niño is is occurring.

Both Skymet and the Indian Meteorological Department concur with the findings of major meteorological bodies around the world in their impact of the El Niño and especially of the impact of the Indian monsoon. Now, what does that mean for India and and for the Indian sugar industry?

Very honestly speaking, it means that there could be an impact especially where there are areas of water stress. Water stress is primarily in the central and southern part of the country and towards the eastern part of the country, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, etc.

These places can feel the stress because they do rely more heavily on monsoons and on monsoon, of course, filling not just groundwater, but also the dams. In Western Uttar Pradesh, I have always maintained that we are relatively insulated because we get a lot of Himalayan melted water, etc.

In fact, the problem for the last few years has been of excess water, not of less water. As you will remember from earnings calls for the last few years, it has been because of flooding, because excess water has actually been let off by Nepal, etc., and then we've not been able to control it by our dams, and the dams have been opened and it's led to flooding, flooding that has impacted the crop for and has had standing water for 3, 4, 5 weeks.

Now, that, frankly speaking, in a in a scenario of El Niño actually doesn't happen. There is a significant possibility of early maturity of the sugarcane crop.

I think that is what we're sensing. We've had excellent planting.

The planting, of course, is over, but we've had excellent planting across our sugar factories, and the anticipation is for Western and Central Uttar Pradesh that there could be an earlier maturing if there is less rainfall of the sugarcane crop, and that ties in very well because you have an early Diwali, and which frankly speaking, always is a is a is a signal for the start of the sugar season, which is I would say still anticipated towards the second half of October of '26, very much in line with with previous years of of an early Diwali. Turning towards the ethanol business, the the government bodies alongside NITI Aayog are actively formulating policies for applications in quote, unquote, "beyond E20."

There has been ample coverage in newspapers and ample discussion in government circles on applications of higher than 20%. I alluded to a little bit higher being tried in cities.

Certainly that is a distinct possibility with in an informal and formal basis, provided this issue of the the the court case that has prevented the tenders in South from South India prevented the tenders of India for the nation to continue, if that issue gets sorted out, I think we can handsomely see higher blends being attempted. It does help in terms of saving crucial forex also when the rupee now is almost touching ₹100.

In addition, draft notification amendments for the CMVR, the Central Motor Vehicles Rules of 1989, propose a higher inclusion of ethanol blends under the emission norms and providing a regulatory basis for formal introduction of FFVs and isobutanol-blended diesel capable vehicles in India. You'll be happy to know that one of the leading car manufacturers this year has had a very important launch of their flex fuel vehicles, and I'm delighted to inform you that we are one of the first five purchasers of said vehicle, and we hope to be get that get our officers at Triveni to be able to drive it around with suitable advertising across the streets of New Delhi.

We're, of course, very supportive of this entire entire program. The ATF norms, air line turbine fuel norms, have been redefined to include synthetic hydrocarbons enabling sustainable aviation fuel integration, which includes the ethanol-to-jet pathway.

It is laying the grounds, of course, for investment into that very important industry. Again, these are roots taking place, ladies and gentlemen, and I think it pro it it actually gives an insight to what can be anticipated over the next few years from this particular industry.

We look forward to well-coordinated policy action effectively utilizing the existing capabilities of the country, and we expect the government to follow a rational policy regarding the pricing of ethanol from sugarcane-based feedstocks to match cane price, and also of grain-based feedstocks to match the pricing of grain in the country. I and the hope is that as we approach October and the next tender, there is a a good deal of review that happens in a sector which actually has not benefited from any pricing increase of note over the last 2 years.

Within the power transmission business, our strategic push is to clearly move towards is, of course, the independent listing of TPTL. Our capital expenditure programs are progressing very smoothly, and I've already covered that in my opening remarks.

The export market continues to be the major growth driver of the business. The establishment of our Swiss subsidiary has provided huge engine of growth as we're seeing in terms of our order book as well as our inquiry book.

The qualification orders for pumps and compressors supplied to major customers will increase the power transmission business's presence in the oil and gas sector, a lot of which is under commissioning now, already having been dispatched from the business. We're very hopeful for that also to be add another significant push to the business.

Compressor test rig is emerging as a promising growth segment for supplies in Europe especially and in the Middle East. As you are aware, there are there's a very important pipeline being built urgently in the Middle East, and there's quite a lot of refurbishment of pipelines that are happening.

We hope to be a beneficiary of this capex as over the next couple of years. Finally, in the water segment, the market remains buoyant.

Stricter environmental clients, including the liquid discharge management rules and the expanding corporate ZLD norms, are driving commercial demand for water recycle and reuse infrastructure, where an area where our technological excellence is highly competitive. I'm hopeful that we will be receiving more orders in the very near future in this business.

Before I open up the floor for questions, I'd like to just offer a comment on the demerger. As I mentioned at the very outset of this call, the approval of NCLT has been granted on the 19th of May and has been informed to the stock exchanges and the ROC.

The appointed date for the scheme is the 1st of April '25, and the appointed date for the demerger is the 1st of April 2026. In respect to the record dates, we have two record dates.

The issuance of shares for Sir Shadi Lal, a group company of Triveni, is the 3rd of June. That is the record date for the issuance of shares to Sir Shadi Lal shareholders.

For the issuance of shares for Triveni Engineering shareholders, I anticipate that over the next 4 weeks, we will be able to set the the record date. This is subject to the approvals of the stock exchange for the for the disbursal of shares to the shareholders.

In a nutshell, one is anticipating that by the end of August, we will have a listing of Triveni Power Transmission Limited. I do want to assure all those on this call and other investors of Triveni Engineering that the end of August '26 will probably be after our Q1 board meetings for TEIL as well as TPTL, and we fully intend on publishing our results in the papers and on our web pages and holding earnings conference calls for both companies so that our shareholders are fully knowledgeable about the progress that the businesses have made in Q1 of fiscal '27.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to open up the floor for questions.

Hi, sir. Good afternoon.

I hope you are able to hear me.

Yes, I can hear you very well. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Sir, there were two questions.

First, I'll ask the first question and then I come on the second question. You had basically planned a capex for a multimodal facility with respect to the defense.

You were planning something on the propulsion part. If you could throw some light on that.

Also wanted to understand the next 3 to 4-year plan with respect to PTB, because I understand that you are in talks with Aramco, Rolls-Royce, and also you're targeting basically a good addressable market with respect to exports. If you could throw light on this, it would be very helpful.

This is my first question, sir. Second, I'll come when first is completed.

Thank you, sir.

Okay. The first question is actually two questions, but happy to answer that.

With respect to the capex for the defense facility, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, of the 231 crore that has been already incurred by the 31st of March this year, 78 crore has been for the defense facility. Of the balance 109, a small portion of that is also for the defense facility.

This multimodal facility is now fully operable in Mysore at a short distance from our earlier facility. It will cater to not just propulsion shafting, but also a wide variety of other projects that the company has won.

I'm combining the second part of your question with this in terms of the future market, both as far as defense is concerned as well as gearboxes. As far as defense, yes, we've had significant and good success with the Indian Navy as far as mechanical products are concerned.

For that, technology partnerships with some of the largest and best-known firms has been essential, and it will continue to happen in the future in order to be able to expand our value proposition to our naval customers. However, the defense business is looking at other parts of Indian defense and providing mechanical solutions to them as we speak as well.

We have not had a success with the Army or Navy, however, we anticipate that this year could be a breakthrough year for those two branches as well. Our hands are still full with the Indian Navy that actually has significant capex plans not just this year, but also for the years going forward in terms of revamping and new builds of vessels as per the DPP, which has already been published and is available for you to download.

With respect to the gears business, there are a variety of relationships that continue, primarily in terms of technology and development, etc. I'm afraid we do not give forward-looking and advance estimates.

The fact is that the gearbox business now is a global one. We compete with all the global companies both domestically as well as in their home countries.

We are now looking at that as the entire addressable market. Caveat to that is third parties where we do not have AVL, approved vendor listings.

Those are things that are being worked on very, very actively. One such company you've taken the name of in your question, and we are very aggressively working on getting those AVLs done so that we have absolutely no restrictions in the overall high-speed gearbox market.

Yet again, let me say that we don't give forward-looking estimates, etc., I'm afraid I'm constrained to give you any future-looking numbers. What is your second question?

Sir. Second question is with respect to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India programs.

They're creating significant opportunities for indigenization of imported gearbox installations in PSU units, and this trend is further expected to increase. Wanted to understand how is the company focused for this aftermarket business as well as this defense business?

Because the government itself is batting full like Sachin Tendulkar in this segment. How is the company targeting this vertical?

If you could throw some light. Thank you, sir.

Right.

In terms of indigenization of technologies, actually Triveni doesn't need to indigenize any further technologies. As far as high-speed gearboxes are concerned, we have the entire gamut of technology.

Neither do we need to partner with anybody, nor do we need to develop areas that we don't have technologies in. Yes, we continue to improve, and there's research and development to continue to improve.

As far as Make in India or Buy in India is concerned, we've had the support of all parts of the Indian government and we have a huge market share. I don't see that as being any different in years past.

With respect to specific defense applications, like marine gearboxes, in that area, yes, we are seeing a lot of support by the Indian Navy, and we have been successful in gaining some orders, and there are many important tenders that are pending. However, for marine gearboxes, we do intend on having some collaborations for that specific thing, but that is not a high-speed gearbox technically.

It's sort of in between, to be very honest. It's a heavily specialized gearbox.

We have a wide variety of relationships in that, and we are very hopeful of gaining the same kind of market share that we have in the high-speed space across the country. With respect to aftermarket, we have a significant aftermarket team in-house that is able to reach a customer within 24 hours.

I think a lot of our proposition for the aftermarket is very compelling, not just for India, and as we roll it out internationally, it'll be even more compelling. Now, this actually is catered towards other people's gearboxes, not Triveni-make gearboxes, and it's about not just replacing or repairing, but also about providing upgrades and downgrades technologically and providing unique technological solutions to other people's and other makes of gearboxes, of which we have pretty much repaired and refurbished almost every single make in our 50-year history.

I hope that answers your question.

Sir. Thank you so much.

Sir, can we expect PTB listing in next 1 year, please?

I think I've just answered that question already earlier in the call.

Yeah. Thank you, sir.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question.

On the high-speed gearboxes, you mentioned the pumps and compressors segment. Are we also working on the gas segment?

I think in the last quarter, you mentioned you're seeing a lot of traction there. Can that be a big growth leg for us going forward as well, especially in the export market?

100%, you're absolutely right. We are working on qualification orders because the gas infrastructure domestically is very, very little, and it's only for a few models of gas turbines of which we have been supplying those gearboxes.

The real growth in the gas market actually is in the medium and small-scale as gas turbines and engines get paired to data centers, especially in the United States and other parts of the world where there's been a boom in that sector. For us to partner with said OEMs that are supplying into that is a huge area of growth, and I anticipate successes in terms of being on their AVL of said companies in the next few quarters.

We are in active discussions with all. There's a lot of marketing that has been happening.

All the companies are familiar with Triveni, but for specific orders, we may need to have additional conversations, but it is something that the entire team and I are cognizant of as an opportunity and hope to develop quite significantly in especially this year and going forward.

Understood. From a technology perspective, I know you just mentioned actually that we have the full gamut and range of technology required.

That is not something we have to work on to get on these approved vendor lists for that end market.

That is correct.

Okay. Just my second question was, I think Renk, which seems to be a global competitor, has just opened a local unit last year.

May have ramped up fully. Then given our very high market share in this segment, are we seeing more competitive intensity from them?

Yes, we are seeing Renk pop up more in terms of tenders. I don't think it really has changed our competitive positioning.

I think the value proposition that we bring is still very compelling. I can't comment on that specific company, and I don't want to comment on Renk's operations.

What I can comment is on our history. This has happened in the past as well.

15 years ago, another very significant global firm had a test bench and packaging facility in India, and eventually, they decided that it was not competitive and they would focus on their home market also in Europe, another very significant name. As far as Renk is concerned, whether it is only for high-speed, because Renk actually has a huge portfolio of low-speed as well as defense gearboxes and activities.

I don't know what exactly is happening at that said facility. Competition for high-speed gearboxes, yes, we're seeing that name more.

Are they winning more? No, I don't think so.

Got it. Thanks for that background.

Helpful.

For the opportunity, am I audible?

Yes, you are. Please carry on.

A few bookkeeping questions, sir, if you can help with the crushing numbers for the fiscal year along with net sugar recovery for FY '26.

During the just concluded season for '25-26, we crushed 825 lakh quintals with a gross recovery of 11.06%.

Sir. Secondly, if you can help with the order inflow for the water business during the financial year.

Total orders received for water business during this year is 165 crores.

165 crores. Okay.

As you have already mentioned the capex for the gears business of 340 crores, can you quickly just recap how much is for the defense part?

Yes, of the 231 crore that has already been incurred by 31st of March, 78 of that has been for the defense business. Of the 109 crore that is balanced, which will be incurred in Q1 fiscal '27 and Q2 fiscal '27, a smaller portion is still pending.

I would anticipate about 40% of what is pending will be for the defense business.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Sir, lastly, if you can give a sense how much the maize landed cost come currently for your distillery part and how the margins are going on?

The maize cost over here right now is much lower than last year and we are anticipating that it would be lower to the extent of about 75 to 80 paise. However, we have to be careful in terms of the rupee depreciation because the exports to that extent increases, but otherwise, we are seeing a much lower pricing versus last year.

Sir. Thanks.

I'll get back to the queue. Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks.

My questions pertain to the power transmission business. If I just look at the business, there is a part of

Yeah. Is it better?

Yes, it is. Yeah.

See,

I just want to understand the PTB business and there is something that would come from capex-related projects and some of them would come from just refurbishment. For example, let's say in a cement factory, you have a captive power plant and they want to change the gearbox after a couple of years.

You would have a play there. Just want to understand, if you just look at the overall business mix, how much would come from the capex part and how much would come from these opex-related things, and whether that has actually changed in the last 1 year?

That is the first question related to domestic PTB business. Second, I understand that, as we expand in international markets, one of the key reasons to succeed is to have distribution partners or tie-ups with certain firms who would actually, in turn, work with the end clients, right?

It could be EPC contractors or whoever it is. In the second front, I just want to understand how our progress has been in the last 1 year, because I understand that we have been accelerating our partnerships in European markets in particular.

Okay. I'm going to answer the question in terms of the way that we actually disclose data.

It's slightly different to the way that you've asked the question, but I do appreciate how you've asked it. It is the way that one should actually look at sales, frankly speaking.

We don't typically give out data to segment between original equipment sales as well as replacement sales of original equipment, okay, because and I'll tell you why. The customer of ours is typically the same.

For a new project, if we are selling to either a Siemens or a Mitsubishi or a Triveni Turbine or to a Atlas Copco or a BHEL, and the list can go on, typically, it is our OEMs that are securing the overall order with the end customer for a new gearbox, okay? For aftermarket, the end third-party users, like a said cement company, contacts us and asks us for replacement.

It could be of something that we had installed 20, 30 years ago or even earlier. It could also be of a replacement of somebody else's make.

The vast majority are other people's makes. Now, if I look at fiscal '26, in previous years historically, it has just been above 30-odd percent that has been the aftermarket share.

However, in fiscal '26, the aftermarket share was about 40% of overall gears. That is part of the reason why, even with slightly lower revenues, our profitability, margins, etc., are very, very good and remained unabated despite a slightly lower revenue and higher overheads, obviously, as time has elapsed.

That's one. Looking at this particular market globally, it remains exactly the same.

You mentioned resellers and retailers. Unlike low-speed gearboxes, which are catalog unit products, are sold on an axis, frankly speaking, and can be stocked and can just, etc., ours are heavily engineered gearboxes which are customized to a particular requirement and a set of conditions, and therefore, it has to be engineered and then supplied uniquely.

We can't operate within the same type of retail-type system that other companies within the industrial landscape comply. However, how we operate this, and it's a very good question, I'm happy to answer it, is through a different type of structure.

The first thing, of course, is that our OEMs are the same, broadly speaking. If we are selling to the said OEMs, be it Triveni Turbine, Siemens, Atlas Copco, Mitsubishi, Sulzer, I'm giving you a smattering of names, the list is very, very extensive, it is the same OEMs that will buy in Germany, in France, in the UK, in the United States, in Korea, in Japan, wherever their offices are, wherever their plants are, they will be buying.

It is about marketing to the supply chain teams in said geographies, and that is something that we do aggressively, and we do that internally. We don't outsource that.

That is a critical part of our value proposition and something that actually creates a lot of stickiness. Why does it create stickiness?

Because we are able to give responses to inquiries in the shortest possible time. A huge part of our IT development continuously is about reducing the time it takes to give very complex quotations so that a OEM of ours has that comfort that they can get it so much faster than anybody else, that this is the firm to partner with going forward.

That has been part of our USP. Now, getting onto third-party AVLs is very important, especially when we look at the oil and gas segment, people who buy on American Petroleum Institute compliance norms.

That, of course, is an ongoing process. We have had a huge amount of success.

In the last 3 years, it has been a massive, much more than I personally anticipated. However, we are not fully there.

There are still some critical companies around the world We don't disclose names, but I would just assure you that we're working on, and we expect even more success this year, and hopefully, the next couple of years, we should be covered with pretty much everybody of note around the world or anybody of importance around the world. Having said that, our aftermarket business globally is one where we can work with partners.

We have accelerated agencies, having agents in local countries that can go out. These are small mechanical companies that have engineers, etc., that can go out, do dimensions, have relationships with third parties, third-party users, and secure aftermarket business for us, because aftermarket business needs proximity.

It needs somebody to be at the site, take dimensions, and convince end users that Triveni is the solution provider for any problem, especially when it's a gearbox of somebody else's make. That is a program that is ongoing.

That is a program that needs a lot of strategic attention by the business and by the marketing teams. Yes, we've had successes, but there is a long way to go as far as that is concerned.

Domestically, our aftermarket business is handled by a very professional and strong team in Mysore, which has decades of relationships with OEMs. We don't need anybody else to be able to do that.

In fact, we're the first port of call for not just our gearboxes, but everybody's gearboxes pretty much across the country. I hope that answers your question.

That's helpful. Just one more question.

If I just do a cursory glance across some of the results by steel companies, cement companies, and paper companies, etc., I get a mixed views that some of the cement companies are reviewing their capex, even the large ones, and some of the steel companies want to sharpen their capex and they want to actually debottleneck and things like that. Now, how much that is actually, which from your vantage point you are seeing, that would potentially give some kind of a pathway into 1 or 2 years ahead?

You've asked a very, very important question, very honestly speaking, and I can't offer you any core numbers, but I can offer you a picture, very honestly. In Q3 and Q4, we did see domestic Indian industry relooking at the way that they were incurring capex.

That had an impact in terms of our OEMs, etc. However, a lot of that has changed in Q1.

In Q1, we've seen a huge amount of domestic inquiries coming from the two sectors that you mentioned, plus a whole load more. It is the same trend that actually happens globally, except globally, it's a much larger market with the same industries and many, many more players that actually are there.

I think the rupee depreciation will make exports this year and then this quarter, next quarter, etc., going forward, very, very competitive and compelling. As you see a realignment basically rupees and dollars and euros being spent more carefully, with more care in terms of efficiency, etc., I think that TPTL will actually be a great beneficiary for that simply because of our price point, simply because of our efficiencies, and because of our time to produce and deliver.

All right. Thank you so much.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, can I get to know what is the EBITDA margin impact after the demerger, do we see any positive side or negative side in the PTB business?

As regards the PTB business, it is got its own dynamics as a matter of fact. Far, we have been maintaining about 35% PBIT.

I think the same trend is expected to continue in future also.

Okay. My second question will be, can you give me a breakup of how much was the ethanol production through maize, if that's not a this thing?

We can talk about the product mix of this year, wherein the total maize over here was about 33% versus come down a little bit from 44%, but that was largely because the ESY tender said that 40% of all grain allocation has to come from FCI rice.

Okay. What was the breakup of the entire grain portion of the total production?

In the total product mix, it was about 56% was the grain feedstock.

Okay. Can you give us a expectation about crushing numbers, will this season be better than the previous season or something in that line?

If one had a magic ball, we would certainly be able to tell you. If you if you refer to my opening remarks, in the month of in early June, it it is the only thing that we can talk about is planting.

The survey of planting, let

let me just go over the process, because I think it's important that you understand the entire process and what one can expect over weeks and calendar months. The planting in Uttar Pradesh classically starts off in the month of March and finishes just after wheat harvesting, and can can conclude by the end of May.

However, this year, it was concluded by the first half of May. By the 10th of May, pretty much all of it was was concluded in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

This was pretty good because one was expecting a very hot summer and planting is not ideal at very, very hot temperatures because the germination gets gets impacted. The next process after that is because internally, we have we have got enough checks and controls to figure out how much planting has happened, but you have an official survey that is done for the Uttar Pradesh state government.

That process starts in June and finishes in July. That is the next process that is underway, and we can happily report that there is an increase in area under cane, which will be certified during the upcoming survey process.

However, even until early July, the monsoon hits around about that time as far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned, and that is the most important hurdle in terms of the grand growth period, the voracity, strength, duration, spread, and quantum of rainfall that happens. All of these little factors make a very important are important contributors: how much rain, how well it spread out, how and where it is, and and and how dispersed it is.

These are important parameters that we will not know the result of that until we come to August. From August onwards, you have the second stage of grand growth period, which then continues, and then, of course, we have more detailed internal surveys that continue and we have a better projection of the crop.

Today, with the technologies that Triveni has invested in, including overhead drone and satellite coverage and a much better ability In fact, the work that we've done in the last 6 months should substantially improve our predictive capabilities for the upcoming season because of exposure to newer technologies and newer AI and ML models. I think that will give us a much better picture as we approach the start of the season to have more and analysis of how much cane is there.

At this point in time, it is very difficult to tell, because what we know is that there's been that the planting has happened and it's been better, and disease thus far compared to last year has been much, much better than before, and pest, not disease, pest has been much, much better than before. It looks good, but there is so much more to come.

Okay. Got it.

Thank you so much for that detailed explanation. Sir, just last question.

Compared to last year, your distillery business has performed very well. I wanted to know whether the conversion cost has decreased in the business or not compared to FY '25?

Yeah.

Compared to that, the conversion cost, definitely after accounting for byproduct credit, etc., has significantly come down, and this, coupled with the decrease in the raw material costs, has led to the significant turnaround in the performance of the business.

Okay. Can you give me a number how much the conversion cost has decreased?

We try not to give that.

Okay. Got it.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, everyone. I had a few questions, sir.

The first one is on the working capital. The short-term debt is very, very high compared to inventory position.

I would assume that a large part of it is also due to the water business. Is it possible to quantify the kind of receivables, etc., we have in the water business?

I think the total receivables are about 500 crores. If you look at water business, that'll be approximately about 125 to 150 crores.

That is because of the nature of their business. Mostly they do EPC business, therefore the receivables are normally higher in this kind of an industry.

Now, as far as the cash credit is concerned, you must realize that there has been an increase in the cane price also. As a result of increase in cane price, you require a higher working capital.

That's why the short-term borrowings is little higher. Now, this is something which you would find from the month April onwards, it would very rapidly start decreasing, so that by September or October or so, it would almost always be at zero level.

That's useful. Secondly, sir, this policy of maize versus broken rice, how do we read it?

You had earlier mentioned that because of maize prices falling, the ethanol profitability will improve, but that doesn't seem to be happening despite maize prices falling. Where is the guarantee that the government policy on rice versus maize will continue interfering with our ethanol EBITDA in the future as well?

Or if you could give us some color on the FY '27 kind of grain EBITDA on some ethanol, from maize, yeah.

In terms of the profitability of the distillery, it's gone up significantly, and that's also to do largely with the performance of the grain distilleries, which I just mentioned, wherein both the conversion costs as well as the raw material costs have come down significantly and therefore enhance the profitability. We have been very dynamically looking out all the feedstocks that are possible.

In terms of broken rice, we find maize far more competitive as of now. In terms of the EBITDAs going forward, it would all depend on what you are able to get next ethanol tender year, and what are the conditions over there that we need to be aware of and how much quantum do we get.

Having said that, let's say that maize has the largest margin, followed by C-molasses that we are seeing.

Rajesh, your question also alludes to the government's prerogatives and what they're looking at. I think a realization around that is very important, and while Sameer and I are trying to give you that rational expectation, the government's imperatives at a particular point in time, especially in October, November, become most paramount.

My reading is that the government is trying not to push maize after having pushed it a lot, to be perfectly honest. It is also because India has now been in the newspapers about its massive, a number one rice, we have huge stocks, etc., a lot of publicity about rice, the quantum of rice in the country and the balances, etc.

Logically, it showcases to me that the push is going to be towards rice. Now, there is a huge difference in the margin structure whether we look at FCI rice or we look at broken rice or we look at any other variant of rice.

Frankly speaking, I think that is the nimbleness and the discretion that MOPNG and the various government departments that have an impact on the EBP policy will have in terms of pushing out the margins, etc. The good thing, the very good thing, is that unless a proper price increase is given, you're not going to see huge increases in available quantities as we start looking at massive quantities for E85.

Will that happen for the ethanol blending year for '27-28? I think that's a bit premature, to be honest, but it will certainly still be something for to be considered for subsequent years.

Sure. One last question from my side is, what is the export mix in the PTB business for the year?

A related question is that we had earlier been talking about the fact that after the technology tie-up with Lufkin ended, we'd have access to a lot of global markets and the export share will continuously go up. What has happened in this regard and when do we see that kind of playing out in our numbers?

Yeah.

Rajesh, I am not going to answer your question. I'll tell you why.

The real reason is because Q4 was not a good quarter for the PTB business. It is a blip.

It is a significant blip, but it is a blip of one quarter in time due to global changes where we had a lot of gearboxes that were scheduled to be exported that are in finished goods in the business and are not exported, will be exported during this quarter and some in the following quarter. Now, the trend towards higher exports is certainly there.

The inquiry book is massively skewed towards export orders, both from domestic OEMs as well as global OEMs taking product out of the country. That has an impact on profitability, margins, etc., obviously, and is an exciting growth trend for the business.

To reflect on the data of the year gone by in terms of that increasing trend unfortunately does not give you the accurate picture because of the events of Q4.

Right. How should we read it going forward in that case?

If you could give us some color as to what proportion, say, 2, 3 years out, the exports would be as a percentage of sales from the PTB business, that could also be useful.

I think the growth targets is that exports, as far as original equipment is concerned, should be more than half in the very near future. A lot of that is going to come from Indian OEMs exporting their products coupled with a gearbox abroad, as well as deliveries of gearbox to global OEMs, more than 50% in the very, very near future.

Got it. That's useful.

Thank you.

Hi. I have three questions.

First one is, in the defense business, what kind of order size which we can have? Is it a smaller, piecemeal kind of orders or these are typically larger orders?

What is that we are looking for?

Okay. Resham, the orders in the defense business, I don't know what you would define as large or small, but if I look at it from the perspective of a gearbox, because that is the business where our defense business has been incubated and is growing, it is a much larger size than the value of a gearbox, okay?

From our perspective, it is a significant value and order business. Now, the orders that we've been receiving are in double-digit crore to triple-digit crore.

The delivery of said orders is between 1 or 2 years, sometimes to 3 or 4 years. We are yet to receive orders that have 10-year that are part of the 10-year programs, etc., but I think we're well, well on the way in terms of getting those orders and you can just multiply the size, frankly speaking.

The good thing, of course, is that a lot of the orders that we're getting are repeatable, which means that the government has and the Navy has the ability, without a fresh tender, of assigning it to the person that has won it the first time over. That is why technical decisions that are being taken now under the latest DPP are very important, especially for a company like Triveni.

Understood. Got it.

The second and the third question is with respect to the overall sugar business where, given the overall volatility in policies in the last 2, 3 years, the bit tilt towards capex is more in the engineering business, while we are little slow, I guess, on the sugar. Going forward, with the overall mix of ethanol being changing from sugar towards grains, how are we looking at the overall capex, let's say, in the next 2, 3 years, just from a thoughts perspective, and from where the growth can come in the sugar business overall?

Right. Okay.

There are multiple places where growth can come. Within sugar, of course, there's so much work that is happening on varietal replacement of 238, adding the yields and therefore top-line growth by processing more cane.

The addition of the Shamli factory and the return of Shamli to its crush levels that are expected by our management team is another area of increase. From a profitability perspective, the capexes that are presently being incurred is only to lower the cost of production within sugar.

Turning towards the distillery business, I think the ethanol tender this year has been a huge disappointment. R2, R3, we should have been at R4, we haven't even had R2 this year.

The growth organically in the ethanol business that should have happened has not actually happened this year, and I anticipate in future years, you will see that. Having said that, for Triveni, we are seeing some capacities being debottlenecked, and most importantly, we have the distillery at Shamli, which has not operated since we acquired the unit, that will add to our capacity and top line for the distillery business.

This is without incurring any new capexes for greenfield or brownfield expansion. This is just organic growth.

Of course, with the cash flows that the company is generating, you can look forward to a favorable policy-related greenfield and brownfield expansions within our commodities business of sugar and distillery.

Okay. Understood.

That's it from my side. All the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks. I just had one question on the aftermarket business.

I just broadly wanted to understand, why are the other manufacturers we are competing with letting this business go and letting us kind of replace or refurbish their gears? Is it just a question of cost or are there some other factors at play?

I'll answer your question in detail. It really depends on what the aftermarket solution is, okay?

What exactly is aftermarket solution? It could be, and is not limited to, a gearbox that fails, okay?

What you do is you get the exact same gearbox with the same dimensions and replace it. A second solution could be that your bull gear or some of your gear teeth get tripped off, and during the annual maintenance, you do some replacement of parts or perhaps the entire gear train, or you do a bearing replacements, etc., of wear and tear, that's a second.

The third could be a speed upgrade and a speed downgrade, okay? The fourth could be a complete refurbishment because the footprint of where the gearbox actually sits does not change, which adds value, and you can go and put in a much bigger gearbox in the same footprint designed by a company like Triveni, for example, as part of our compelling value proposition.

Then there are other variants of after-market sales and service. What distinguishes us in each one of these various segments is different, okay?

Now, in the classical aftermarket that you probably were thinking about, there, what our value proposition is that we can deliver much faster than anybody anywhere in the world. Even if we have to ship this 3,000 miles, 4,000 miles, we can do it delivered faster than anybody, which means our time to manufacture, sometimes because of our supply chain initiatives, because of our stocking policies, etc., can be 2, 3 months.

We have the capacity, we are able to do it. For global firms, I am led to understand by my teams that this could be as high as 12 months.

There's a substantial difference in terms of the time period. As you can appreciate, a gearbox is tied to a turbine or a compressor or a pump or an alternator.

It is a much smaller value than what it is coupled to at either end, but it is just as mission-critical. If a gearbox goes down, a plant goes down.

It's just as bad as if a compressor goes down, or a turbine goes down, or an alternator goes down, the plant goes down. It is the same type of criticality, frankly speaking, and therefore, for a customer that has broken gear teeth, for example, for them to find an appropriate solution is very, very important.

We have some other tricks of the trade in terms of how we do dimensional ready sites, and we do a lot of preactivity work and we work with third-party users in helping them with predictions, etc. All of these things are more on the relationship side, and they work very beautifully, which is why domestically, we have such an fantastic market share because of the service that we can provide.

That is not product, now I'm coming to the service side of it. Internationally, it's going to be a challenge, obviously, because we're based in India.

We don't have somebody sitting in Argentina. We don't have somebody sitting in South Korea.

I'm just taking two countries' names as examples. How we're going to develop solutions around that will be with local partners, and then as the business progresses with other Triveni staff that sit in international locations, etc.

That is something that we will have to bridge, not just on the product side, but also being able to add the service, which then leads into guaranteeing product orders. It's a complex arrangement.

I think the fact that we can do it at a lower price point also plays a very significant part of the value proposition. Sometimes we are a fraction of what is usually offered by the original equipment gearbox manufacturer to a client, a fraction, and yet, it's a highly profitable business for us.

Got it.

Sorry, just to clarify, you think our aftermarket time to delivery is one of our competitive strengths, the fact that we have a dedicated aftermarket bay of facilities just focused on that where maybe some other people won't?

I'm glad that you asked that question. Yes, the new aftermarket bay facility is to further accelerate the time for delivery.

We are looking at further beating what we do well already. Why?

Because today to be able to export an aftermarket solution needs even faster time because we can't do anything to accelerate shipping. What can we do from a production perspective to be even faster, and we've done that already.

The team that runs the aftermarket part of this business is extremely entrepreneurial. They are constantly reinventing the product and the solution.

Part of that, of course, the infrastructure for that was in the new repair facility in Mysore.

Okay. This is very helpful.

Thank you so much for clarifying all this.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us for this earnings conference call. I think we've had a productive discussion.

We're at a very important inflection point for Triveni. The growth trajectory for TPTL looks extremely robust.

We're very excited about the new journey as that company and that business also completes its 50th year, a year worth being celebrated. As far as Triveni Engineering is concerned, there's a lot of excitement in both the commodities parts of the business.

I think it's unfortunate that El Niño has such a devastating impact, but for the sugar industry, it can only be considered positive in some respects. As far as the distillery business is concerned, we've seen with what's happened with oil prices, with the rupee, and with the government's renewed push and look at higher blends and more ethanol, I'm personally very excited about the next path of that business as well.

Our water business too continues very, very well in terms of its progress as well. I look forward to discussing both Triveni Engineering and Triveni Power Transmission with you separately in August.

Thank you very much.