VA Tech Wabag Limited

VA Tech Wabag Limited

1,710.40
INR
-61.80
(-3.49%)
63.82EPS
31.01P/E
125.19BMarket Cap
Nov 06Next Earn

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 6, 2026

Operator

Good evening, and welcome, everyone, to this earnings call post announcement of Q3 and nine-months FY26 results of VA Tech WABAG Limited. On the call today from the management team, we have Mr.

Shailesh Kumar, CEO - India Cluster, and Mr. Skandaprasad Seetharaman, Group Chief Financial Officer.

Kindly note that during this call, the company may make certain forward-looking statements concerning the business prospects and profitability, which may be subject to risks and uncertainties, and the actual results could materially differ from those in such forward-looking statements. The conference call will be archived, and transcript will be made available on company's website.

The company result update presentation has been uploaded on the website and stock exchanges, which provide an overview about the company, core offering, and analysis of the results for this period. We trust that you had an opportunity to look through the same.

I will now request Mr. Shailesh Kumar to take you through the key business highlights.

Over to you, sir.

Shailesh Kumar

Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

A warm welcome to you all to the earnings call following the announcement of Q3 and nine-months FY26 results of VA Tech WABAG Limited. We sincerely appreciate your continued trust and support, which remains invaluable to our growth journey.

Joining me today is Mr. Skandaprasad Seetharaman, our Group CFO.

We are pleased to report another period of profitable growth during the fiscal year driven by disciplined project execution, strong operational delivery, continued progress on our strategic priorities. Despite a one-time statutory impact due to the implementation of new labor codes, our bottom line grew by 24% year-on-year.

EBITDA increased by 20% year-on-year, while we maintained our EBITDA margin at 13.7%, well within the guided range. Revenue growth remained healthy at over 18%, fully in line with our medium-term guidance and supported by robust execution across our project portfolio.

We remain firmly focused on profitable growth while preserving balance sheet strength. During the period, we further strengthened our balance sheet through debt reduction and continued to remain net cash positive for the 12th consecutive quarter, closing with over ₹1,000 crore of cash balance, a milestone moment in our group's history.

Our focused efforts to expand on the international front are yielding tangible results, with international projects contributing 50% of revenues for the fiscal year-to-date, underscoring WABAG's growing global presence and in line with our strategy to continually increase our global footprint. We will continue to strengthen our leadership in the Middle East region, which is emerging as our next key growth engine, while expanding our footprint in CIS and Southeast Asia regions that offer strong opportunities in water treatment.

At the same time, WABAG remains firmly focused on further consolidating its market leadership in India. Our order book continued to expand with strategic wins and currently stands at over ₹163 billion.

It remains well balanced with 64% EPC and 36% O&M projects, providing strong revenue visibility and deeper client relationships. International projects account for nearly 50% of order book, supporting margin improvement, cash flow, and reinforcing our global footprint.

Let me now briefly update you on some of our key ongoing projects. The JICA-funded 400 MLD Perur desalination plant in Chennai is progressing as planned, with remaining marine works nearing completion by the next quarter, steady advancement in civil construction, key equipment deliveries in progress, and plant piping and pre-fabrication underway, keeping the project on schedule.

The World Bank and AIIB-funded 200 MLD Pagla project in Bangladesh has picked up pace, with p規 casting and drilling activities progressing satisfactorily. The World Bank-funded wastewater treatment plants project for the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board is gaining traction, with site activities initiated and subcontractors mobilized.

The breakthrough Reliance solar cell manufacturing facility order covering ultrapure water, effluent treatment, and ZLD system is on schedule, with engineering completed, key equipment ordering nearing completion, supplies commenced, and installation set to begin upon plant handover of the civil front. In the Middle East and Africa region, 200 MLD Al-Hayer STP project in Saudi Arabia is moving swiftly on all fronts, and project activities are in full swing.

In the 300 MLD Yanbu mega desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, while the effective date of commencement is expected soon, early works like basic engineering is largely ready, key personnel have been deployed, and procurement activities of long-lead items are underway. The EIB and KfW Germany-funded Lusaka sanitation project in Zambia is progressing on track, with procurement activities for critical equipments advancing well and civil subcontractors mobilized at site.

We are also pleased to share that Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam HAM project has achieved final COD on 1st January 2026, and the operations are in full flow. Tendering momentum in India continued to gain pace across municipal and industrial water segments, supported by diversified EPC, DBO, and selective PPP pipelines that leverages our execution and O&M expertise.

The Middle East presents sustained opportunities in desalination, wastewater treatment, and reuse, backed by strong infrastructure investments across the GCC and our disciplined bidding approach. In Africa, multilateral and government-backed projects focused on water and sanitation are expected to drive steady medium-term growth, with Southeast Asia offers diversification through active tendering driven by urbanization and stricter environmental norms.

Additionally, our Europe cluster is witnessing improved bidding activity recently, particularly in high-technology and complex water treatment opportunities across Eastern and Western Europe, which we will pursue without losing sight of our strategic priorities. Looking ahead, we continue to be well-positioned in orders over Indian rupee 3,000 crore and also witness a strong order inflow visibility across our key geographies, supported by a healthy order pipeline and strong alignments with our core capabilities.

This gives us confidence in our ability to sustain profitable growth while remaining disciplined on risk, capital allocation, and returns in line with our medium-term strategy. Before I conclude, I'd like to thank all our stakeholders for their continued confidence in WABAG and for supporting our mission to deliver sustainable water and environmental solutions globally.

With that, I will now hand over to Skanda to take you through the financial performance.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you, Shailesh, and good evening to everyone on the call. I trust you have reviewed the financial results and investor presentation already shared on our website and filed with the stock exchanges.

I'll briefly walk you through the financial performance for the nine months ended December 2025. Over the first nine months of the fiscal year, the company has delivered a strong and consistent financial performance, continuing on its path of profitable growth while maintaining margin discipline and balance sheet strength.

Importantly, our performance remains fully aligned with the medium-term outlook that we have shared with all the stakeholders. For the period, consolidated revenue stood at ₹2,530 crore, reflecting year-on-year growth of over 18%.

This growth was driven by steady execution across projects, with newer and larger projects progressively ramping up during the year. Our business mix continues to evolve favorably, and the O&M segment delivered a strong performance, contributing 18% of total revenues, while international operations accounted for 50% of the revenues, further reinforcing WABAG's global leadership in water technology solutions.

On profitability, consolidated EBITDA for the nine-month period stood at ₹347 crore, translating into an EBITDA margin of 13.7%, which is well within our medium-term guided range of 13% to 15%. Consolidated profit after tax stood at ₹242 crore, representing a margin of about 10% and year-on-year growth of 24%.

In the first nine months, interest income exceeded interest cost, reflecting strong operational cash flows, efficient working capital management, and disciplined treasury practices, while reinforcing our focus on maintaining a healthy balance sheet to support growth and execution. For the period, the revenue, EBITDA, and PAT on standalone basis stood at ₹2,118 crore, ₹306 crore, and ₹212 crore, respectively.

Our long-term financial trajectory remains encouraging. Over the past five years, consolidated EBITDA has grown at a CAGR of 19%, while PAT has grown at a CAGR of 30%.

This reflects sustained value creation driven by disciplined execution, a high-quality order book, increasing contribution from O&M and international projects, and a continued focus on efficient cash and capital management. Turning to the balance sheet, our financial position continues to strengthen consistently.

Net current working capital days improved significantly to 101 101 days for the nine-month period, driven by tighter receivables management, continued improvement in billing discipline, and a sustained client engagement. This structural improvement in cash conversion has enhanced liquidity, supported operational flexibility, and enabled us to maintain a net cash positive position for the 12th consecutive quarter, reinforcing the resilience and quality of our balance sheet.

As of December 2025, our gross cash position stood at ₹1,080 crore, while net cash stood at ₹891 crore. Excluding the transient debt under our HAM entity, net cash stood at over ₹1,000 crore, a historic high for the group, reinforcing the strength of our balance sheet and capital discipline.

Alongside this, we have continued to reduce debt levels year after year through prudent financial management. With the continued expansion of our international business, we have onboarded two additional international banks across the Middle East and Africa region to support the increasing requirements for both funded and non-funded facilities.

This diversification strengthens our banking relationships, enhances financial flexibility, and improves our ability to support project execution across geographies. In parallel, we have actively initiated the use of insurance bonds as a substitute for traditional bank guarantees, enabling cost optimization while also enhancing our non-funded limits.

This approach supports more efficient capital utilization and strengthens our overall liquidity management framework as we scale our operations globally. We are pleased to share that our credit rating has been reaffirmed at AA- stable, reflecting the sustained strength and consistency of our financial and operational performance.

Our robust credit profile is underpinned by healthy ROCE, a strategically diversified order mix across EPC and O&M segments, and strong revenue visibility. Our continued focus on high-technology, engineering-led projects and expansion into new geographies further enhances our growth prospects.

Additionally, majority of our projects is supported by multilateral funding agencies, sovereign counterparties, or letters of credit, ensuring strong payment security, mitigating receivable risks, and reinforcing business resilience. Importantly, our credit rating has improved sequentially over the past five years, translating into progressively lower costs for both funded and non-funded facilities and strengthening our overall financial efficiency.

Staying true to our asset-light business model, we continue to generate healthy returns. For the period, return on capital employed stood at approximately 19% and return on equity over 15%, reaffirming our commitment to sustainable and capital-efficient growth.

Our financial discipline and balance sheet strength have also been recognized by the rating agency, with India Ratings and Research reaffirming our credit profile during the year. With a strong order pipeline, a resilient balance sheet, and consistent execution capabilities, we believe the company is very well positioned to sustain its growth momentum while remaining firmly aligned with its medium-term guidance.

Anchored by our VRIDDHI strategy, our focus remains on profitable growth, maintaining a net cash positive position, and creating long-term value for all stakeholders. In closing, I would like to thank our bankers, investors, customers, vendors, subcontractors, partners, and most importantly, our WABAGites for their continued trust and support.

With this, we will open the floor for the interactive question-and-answer session. Over to the moderator.

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session.

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

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

Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that management is able to address questions from the participant in this conference call, please limit your question to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue.

The first question is from the line of Kishor Kumar from Unifi Capital. Please go ahead.

Kishor Kumar

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on the good set of numbers, sir.

Sir, my first question is on the order book, the bid pipeline, particularly in the domestic market, because if I look at the order book, closing order book for the past four, five quarters, the growth in the order book is slightly driven by the international projects, while the domestic order book remained more or less flat at similar levels. Also, the Q3 domestic market execution has actually declined.

Just wanted to get your sense on this and how do you look at the bid pipeline as well?

Shailesh Kumar

Thanks, Kishor, for the question. As far as the India order backlog is concerned, we have a healthy position as of now.

Going forward, as I told earlier, we have a many of the prospects almost on the verge of conclusion, and as I told you, ₹3,000 crore of order is already in visibility. As far as pipeline is concerned, we see a very strong pipeline.

Some of them have only got deferred, which is going beyond this quarter, but early next year, we see many of those prospects converting. When I say that, it's a mix of government, private investment, municipal bodies.

There is a diversified portfolio which is there in front of us, and those are looking that many of those conversions will be happening in near future.

Kishor Kumar

Got it, sir. Got it.

Any update that you can give us on that investment platform that has been progress with the Norwegian fund? Any status update on that?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Kishor, the due diligence is largely over, and we are right now in the process of negotiating the definitive agreements. In the next couple of months, we are hopeful, subject to, of course, the multilateral funds or the large funds will have their own internal investment committees, board procedures.

We feel that it is only a couple of months away in terms of the agreements being finalized, and then, of course, they'll have to put it to their boards and get the formal approval, after which we can in. Right now, it's only a few months away, yeah.

Kishor Kumar

Sir. Sir, just one clarification on the other expenses in Q3.

Is there any one-off thing that has accounted like provisioning?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, there is no one-off, Kishor. There is a ECL policy matrix that we follow here in WABAG, and every two to three years, we'll obviously have to restate the policy in line with the recent mix.

There are a few cases where it's more a matrix provision that is driven by the formula in the policy. Other than that, there is no one-off.

It's a standard other expenses otherwise.

Kishor Kumar

Got it, sir. Thank you so much.

I'll join the queue for further questions. Thank you.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nidhi Shah from ICICI Securities.

Please go ahead.

Nidhi Shah

Yes. Thank you so much for taking my question.

My first question is on how many bids are we preferred bidder in and where are these bids? Are they international bids, domestic bids?

Could you tell us a little bit more about this?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Sorry, Nidhi. We heard you asked how many bids are we preferred bidder in, and what was the second part of the question, please?

Nidhi Shah

Where are these bids? Are these international bids, domestic?

If they are international, then what are the geographies?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Yeah. These are largely jobs in the Middle East geography and in India.

This would be about two to three major jobs. Of course, there are smaller jobs, but it spreads over two to three major jobs where we know that we are well positioned, either announced as a preferred bidder or we know we are the L1.

It's a mix of India and international jobs.

Nidhi Shah

Got it. My second question is on Indosol.

What is the progress on Indosol? Have we started procurement over there?

Shailesh Kumar

Indosol project engineering has quite matured, and we have started scouting for potential suppliers that we have gone in the market. The customer is finalizing the plot where it would be setting up the plant.

That is what is somewhat taking some time, but now, recently what we have heard from them, they are almost on the verge of finalizing the layout and land and the plot. We have restarted contacting our suppliers to that effect so that deliveries happen on time.

Overall progressing well, and in coming days, it is going to gain further momentum on this.

Nidhi Shah

All right. My last question would be on the Hadda STP plant that you mentioned that you are a preferred bidder in.

Do we expect the awarding to happen in FY26?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Fingers crossed. We also hope the awarding is close.

This is a job where we are a preferred EPC partner to the developer who is a preferred bidder here. Obviously, in development jobs, there are additional conditions precedent, financial closures, which happen at the developer's end.

We are also following this up. We are working with them in terms of supporting them on the activities for the conversion of the job.

It is in progress. Fingers crossed, possible that it could happen this year, but it's only a matter of time.

Nidhi Shah

All right. Thank you so much.

Those were my questions.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Adarsh Singh from ASK Wealth Advisors.

Please go ahead.

Adarsh Singh

Hope I'm audible.

Shailesh Kumar

Yes.

Operator

Yes, sir. Please proceed.

Adarsh Singh

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity.

Given that our revenues, almost 50% of our revenues come from international and roughly similar in terms of order book, I just wanted to ask what is the execution time, margin, and the working capital for international orders vis-a-vis Indian orders?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, generally, international orders are a little faster than the Indian orders. On a broad basis, you could take about 2.5 to 3 years as the general timeline for a large EPC project.

Of course, it depends project by project, what scope it is, what kind of project it is, size of the project will determine the timeline. In terms of working capital, of course, the international mix brings a lot of advantage to the working capital because the cycle times of collections are better, especially in the Middle East and African geographies.

Middle East, of course, sovereign counterparties, and Africa, multilaterals. That's one of the cornerstones of our strategy where we said we will go more international where there is a higher appreciation for water and projects are larger, better in terms of cash flows, and at our threshold margins, and references are good.

From both a working capital perspective and a cash flow perspective, the international projects are certainly better as compared to equivalent Indian projects.

Adarsh Singh

Thank you so much.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you, Adarsh.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shahzath Shroff from Demeter Advisors.

Please go ahead.

Shahzath Shroff

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

I had one question. Sir, how do you see the project pipeline shaping up in the international business, especially in the Middle East GCC side?

The reason I ask this is oil prices have been soft in the past one year and which could have capex implications for these GCC governments. Do you see any slow down in projects getting added to the pipeline or any slow down in conversion of projects already in the pipeline, say, one year back versus today's?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, Shahzath, the geographies that we work in, whether it is Middle East or Africa, for them, water treatment is not an option. It cannot be dependent on whether the oil prices go up, come down.

That may give them a fillip to do more, but they will have to still do the basic water treatment that is required. Even for the oil and gas, obviously, you know that water treatment forms an integral part.

We have generally not seen, quote, unquote, any slowdown, as you mentioned. Jobs are good.

You've seen exactly the last 12 to 18 months, we have secured all these large marquee jobs. As we said, we also announced this preferred EPC contractor status in the Hadda project.

We are a preferred bidder in over ₹3,000 crore worth of projects, which also includes projects in the Middle East. Also the way to look at it is it's not only Middle East, our geographies are around Middle East, Southeast Asia, the rest of the India cluster like Nepal, Bangladesh, as well as the African continent.

We have a diverse set of regions over which we acquire business. There is one, fundamentally, water will not go out of vogue.

Second, our geographical diversity in terms of business helps us keep getting business despite any of these challenges. Third, of course, the kind of projects we pick, multilaterally funded, sovereign-backed, LC-backed, allows us to get larger projects with good payment security and insulates us fairly from any of these risks.

Shahzath Shroff

Fair enough, sir. I agree that from a long-term point of view that there is no other option for Middle East, but my question was more from the short-term point of view, which it also you say that there is no slowdown even in the near term.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

That's right, Shahzath.

Shahzath Shroff

Sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aniket Jain from YES Securities.

Please go ahead.

Aniket Jain

Good evening, sir. Hope you can hear me.

Actually, I had one question. You mentioned about the European clusters and you're exploring some more opportunities there.

Could you provide some more color on the opportunity that can come in the European cluster, and are those more of UPW opportunities or would those be more of traditional water treatment opportunities? How's the margin profile there?

Because I was under the impression that since these are quite mature region, the margins could be slightly lower than what we are seeing in Middle East. That's my question.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Aniket, if you heard Shailesh well, he mentioned that we are seeing these opportunities, but we will not lose sight of our strategic priorities when we pursue these opportunities. The region is mature, but yes, all mature regions also go through a cycle of infrastructure saturation, and they will have to come back to ordering.

Yes, we are seeing high-technology and complex jobs that are coming up. We're very selective in this cluster in terms of the jobs that we will pick.

We will continue to maintain our financial prudence and put it through all the parameters that we are looking for in jobs in other geographies that we are in, and we rest assured that our margins will not be lower than what we have been guiding the market. Of course, Europe, we took a strategic call to exit from Europe in terms of entities, and at that time, we said this is a market which is a technology hub for us.

We will remain there, look at what is there for the offering, but again, it will be in line with our strategic priorities, I repeat.

Aniket Jain

Understood, sir. That was my question.

Thank you so much for the answer.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you, Aniket.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tanmay Chowdhary from Ventura Securities.

Please go ahead.

Tanmay Chowdhary

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats for the good set of numbers. My first question is, as I can see, the order intake this quarter was around ₹1,200 crore.

Can you just give me what is the breakup on the geographic side and on the order type?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

This quarter, we received an order from BPCL, which is a large order for RODM, RWTP, and ZLD. That's one of the major orders that we received.

The other one was from Nepal, which also is, if I remember right, a large order. Those are the two large orders, but we can tabulate and tell you.

In Middle East, we got a brackish water reverse osmosis order at Al-Jouf. Again, that is also a large order.

These are the three big orders. Apart from that, of course, we do receive orders below the threshold which are also accounted in.

These are the three major orders out of the 1,200.

Tanmay Chowdhary

Got it, sir. Sir, where do you see the order inflow over the near term?

I would appreciate if you can give any range, it would remain in the same range of 6,000-odd crores and maybe more than that given the good traction from the MEA market?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, Tanmay, we've taken a conscious call of giving medium-term outlooks because we are a multi-annual project company. We don't necessarily look at it from a quarter perspective.

We look at it multi-annually, and that is why we said one of our medium-term outlook guidances is keeping the order book level to revenue at over 3x. That's comfortably there.

Even today, we have more than 4x. Even just taking the EPC, we would be comfortably in the 3x range.

Our aim will continue to retain the levels at these and keep improving on this. Of course, I'll leave the maths to you.

We've stopped giving these short-term guidances because it's not an annual company that we are running. You have to look at it multi-annually.

Tanmay Chowdhary

Fair enough, sir. Sir, going on the future energy solutions, are we seeing any traction or tender participation in, specifically, data center and solar manufacturing, especially after the government push?

Can you just throw some light on it?

Shailesh Kumar

Yeah. As I was talking that Reliance Solar, that is a solar manufacturing plant where we are supplying the ultrapure water.

That project is already on. That demonstrates our capability to address this new energy sector.

Many of the hydrogen developers are also in touch with us, and we are connected with them for their prospects. Even in Hyderabad, which has been recently announced, we are in bidding process with them.

We are there for new energy, to be precise. Even in terms of compressed biogas, we had recently bagged one order, and we are developing that project for one of the municipal bodies.

That is also a sector in which we have started working, that is a new energy sector. Another part, data centers, yes, they have a huge water requirement.

We are connected with some of those prospective developers or who are developing there. The water requirement is high, and we are ensuring that those solutions are cost-effective for them.

The water reuse potential is very high, which is our huge strength area, and we are unparallel there in water reuse. Those are helping us in reaching to them and finding a cost-effective solution for our customers.

That is where our expertise there, we are leveraging to connect with them.

Tanmay Chowdhary

Got it, sir. Sir, just one last question.

When we can expect the GNN HAM project-related borrowing to get excluded from our books of accounts?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Our aim is to do it by the year-end. Of course, as I said, we are at a very mature stage.

We should be done with most of the activities subject to the timelines of the investors' investment committee and board approval. I think it's fair to target this year-end.

Of course, as I said, it is subject to their investment committee timelines. Again, just for the sake of clarity, I will repeat.

The diligence is done. The agreements are under advanced stage of closure.

What is left is only the administrative part largely, and we should be able to close it very soon.

Tanmay Chowdhary

Got it, sir. Got it.

Thank you so much. That's all from my side.

Wish you luck.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vinay Rai from Kamkya Wealth Management.

Please go ahead.

Vinay Rai

Hey, thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on the great set of numbers. Sir, can you elaborate on what is the scope of new business of ultrapure water for the likes of data center and semiconductor?

Have you seen some order booking in this segment, and how big this can be in the years to come?

Shailesh Kumar

See, I was saying about it. Ultrapure water for solar manufacturing, for hydrogen is a requirement.

As I said, we are already delivering a project on ultrapure water, and project is on advanced stage. That makes us eligible or ready for bagging or working on all these new prospects.

Ultrapure water is coming for semiconductor manufacturing, then for solar panel manufacturing. There we are already there.

We are talking to many of those semiconductor manufacturers. As far as hydrogen is concerned, there also we have all the wherewithal and capability.

Only those projects have to be made commercially viable in terms of hydrogen as such as a sector. You must have known that there it is coming very close to that viability.

From that point of view, some of the people have already signed off-take agreement and are talking to us, and we are in advanced stage. That gives us not only ultrapure, that also gives opportunity for desalination corresponding to those requirements because they have a huge requirement.

Sometimes we are also giving solutions in terms of reuse for making it up. In combination, we are using various technologies to address this requirement.

Many of those developers are very much in touch with us because they see the strength what we have.

Vinay Rai

Okay. Sir, going forward, what do you think how much would the international project be as a percentage of revenues and order book?

Would it shift to an higher level of 60-40, or are you comfortable with this 50-50 levels as of now?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, we are at about 50% right now, and we've already stated that we want to keep expanding globally and look at improving our international business while continuing to remain a market leader in India. As we move forward, we expect that the trend would be more on international.

We'd increase the international business. We're happy increasing that because, one, they're good on margins, they're good on cash flows, they're good on working capital.

It only helps us improve our numbers. We hope, in the next few years, India will also grow along with that, and both engines firing will help us deliver very good results.

Vinay Rai

Sir, the international growth will be predominantly from the Middle East geography, right?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

No, no. Middle East is one of the geographies.

We have Africa. We're also looking at CIS.

We're looking at South Asia and Southeast Asia, all of these. While Middle East and Africa will lead the pack, but it is not necessarily dependent only on Middle East and Africa.

From an international perspective, we are spread across all the emerging markets, whether it is Middle East, Africa, CIS, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Vinay Rai

Sure, sir. Thanks a lot.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Praveen from Trade Genie Financials.

Please go ahead.

Praveen

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on the strong quarter.

Since most of the participants have asked questions that I had, I just have a couple of questions. Your net working capital days is pretty good.

There's a lot of significant improvement. What do you think is a sustainable level that you're targeting?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, we focus more on net cash positive, Praveen. Working capital is a derivative.

As long as we are improving our net cash position, our working capital levels will be better. We are comfortable at the range we are in.

100 to 120 is a range that we have been in, and we will continually try to keep improving on this, especially with the higher international mix, the higher O&M mix strategically that we are targeting, more industrial jobs, will all help us continually improve the working capital position. We are happy with the continuous improvement.

You've seen us move from a net cash position of ₹100 crore about 5 years back to ₹1,000 crore today. That also reflects on the quality of the projects and quality of our customers too.

Praveen

Okay. One more last question, sir.

Now most of the government tenders are L1-driven, right? How to balance winning the orders and also maintaining an EBITDA of 13% to 15%?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, it's never been different, Praveen. What we should understand is as the sector has matured, it is not limited to a L1.

It is a T1 plus L1. Parties who are technically qualified and technically best move to the round of price.

Slowly customers are looking at value over merely price, though a large amount of government contracts understandably run on L1 because of the procurement policies. At the end of the day, it is about the competition that you have.

What are the kind of projects we pursue? We are focused on high-technology desalination, reuse, industrial water projects, and complex wastewater treatment plants.

The competition is very limited, competition is international, and WABAG will stand out on all counts when it comes to that. Whether it comes to technology, we are second to none.

We have our delivery centers at the most competitive geographies, and we have 100 years of experience. We are confident, and we have also proved in the past that we are able to deliver this value.

The 13% to 15%, again, is not a number that we merely stated. We have delivered it for more than 2 years now.

We have consistently maintained it. Despite all the commodity price changes that you're seeing, even amidst these vagaries, we are delivering these kind of margins that we promised.

This is also something that reflects from the contracting that we do, the kind of projects that we pick. This gives us confidence that we will maintain it at the 13% to 15%.

Praveen

Sir. Thank you, sir.

That makes sense. Thank you.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhimant Shah from ITI AMC Limited.

Please go ahead.

Dhimant Shah

Hi. Hello?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Hi. Hi, Dhimant.

Good afternoon.

Dhimant Shah

Good afternoon. Just a quick one.

Apart from the good order book that we carry, can you also enumerate what are the new sectors emerging and can we see fruition very shortly in any of these new areas that we were targeting?

Shailesh Kumar

See, one of the area where we are seeing definitely desalination is the one which is feeding to all the new energy sectors, which are all few of the new sectors where it will be feeding to. Further, as I have been saying, solar manufacturing is picking up the country in terms of new sector, and there many people are contacting us, and we are in touch with them.

We are almost on the verge of concluding in terms of pipeline that I was talking about on those solar manufacturing panels. In terms of hydrogen, we see there are clusters where hydrogen developers have started going into advanced stage, and that is what is also demanding water.

We see that one of the prospects is in advanced stage in terms of hydrogen. Bio-CNG, we have been talking about it, and we have had success.

We see many other prospects there in different states in the bio-CNG sector also. You'd have seen that we are also promoting some of the technological solution to these new energy sector through our BlueSeed investments.

There are many technological partners across the nation and across the globe with whom we are connected and they are connecting. We are reinforcing their technology, their offering through us, and that is helping us to be competitive with those new sectors.

The last which has been our strength is reuse for all these sectors. Reuse is one of the area where government is focusing, many of the private developers are focusing, be it their stereotype requirement in terms of traditional business requirement or for new energy.

That is also a component which is helping us in connecting with them. In overall, in all these sectors, we are there, and some of those prospects are almost on the verge of conversion.

Dhimant Shah

Nothing from the semiconductor side? I thought even that would be sort of at an advanced stage with almost four, five factories likely to see fruition very shortly.

Shailesh Kumar

Semiconductor probably you would have seen the sector as it is moving. There are two components of it.

One is assembly, and second is fabrication. Fabrication is some of those possibility which were there.

Those had earlier initial setup which was there. That is somewhat maturing, and newer ones are looking at in other geographies beyond India.

We would be connected with them. In India, now mostly it is the assembly part, which has a lesser of water requirement.

Nonetheless, for them also, we are connected. We are seeing that semiconductor manufacturing in other geographies other than India also.

While some of those plants which are there, that is taking some time, but we are tracking that sector very well. In Singapore and other locations also, we are connected with these semiconductors where there can be a possibility.

Dhimant Shah

Great. Second question would be, sir, between the desalination and the ETP STP, do we have some mix in the current order book that you can disclose?

Shailesh Kumar

We have given in our investor presentation the mix of various segments. Desalination is definitely one of them.

To be a specific number, we can probably later send to you. What we see, we have a good component of desalination with respect to other sectors, water treatment and effluent treatment.

Going further, we see that the desalination component is going to further grow beyond what we have, and there is a lot of prospects we are working on.

Dhimant Shah

Would it be very broad-brush? Would it be 40 40-30-30 kind of between O&M, ETP STP, and the larger component of desalination, which would be residing close to 40% in the existing order book?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Dhimant, we can look at these numbers specifically. Of course, it moves over periods.

Dhimant Shah

Just a broad-brush. It need not be supremely to the last decimal.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

I think about 1/3 would certainly be desalination, because if you see our top 10 order book, three of them is desalination. In fact, in the top five, three is desalination.

Super. About 1/3 is our O&M, as you rightly said.

In the ₹16,000 crore, about 4,000, 5,000 crore is O&M. Then again, you will see that we have industrial jobs, which would be ETP, UPW, RODM, ZLD, all of those.

What is balance would be about 20%, 25% would be STP. That's the broad estimate again.

Dhimant Shah

Excellent. Which means that we should be seeing the higher range of your margin very shortly.

Directionally, you can say yes or no, because given that the larger O&M contracts are yet to fructify very soon or possibly will be a larger portion of our executable order book, that should be a very strong tailwind for our margins and going forward. Is that observation correct?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, certainly, as part of our strategy, we want to keep improving our O&M base. You're right on that aspect.

At the same time, we also want to keep increasing our international presence. Directionally, you are right.

That is the guidance we have given of 13% to 15% in terms of EBITDA. Of course, God willing, inshallah, we should move in that direction.

We don't see a reason why the margins will not move up with the volumes and with the better prospects that we see.

Dhimant Shah

Lastly, if I may, are we formalizing some dividend policy given now, we can be amenable to a reasonable distribution?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

We have an internal guideline, but of course, yes, in terms of a policy, we will certainly consult with the board if they want to make changes to the current level of dividend that we have restarted last year. We will certainly consult with the board if they want to make changes to that going forward.

Dhimant Shah

In summation, next medium to small term, we can grow at 15% plus. That would be a fair assumption?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

We have given a medium-term guidance of over 15% 15% to 20%, and we are confident that that is something we will be at.

Dhimant Shah

Super. Many thanks for answering all these questions.

Really appreciate it.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. A request to all participants to please limit your question to two per participant.

If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue again. Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Suyash Bhave from Wealth Guardian. Please go ahead.

Suyash Bhave

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, regarding the 1,000 crore net cash balance, now that constitutes a pretty big chunk of our net worth as well. What are the plans for the utilization of the same?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, Suyash, we we also stated in the past we're an asset-light organization. We'd like to put the cash to the best use.

One is, of course, of course, we will need cash for the projects to keep churning, and that will that will give us This kind of cash balance gives us advantage to be be negotiating stronger in terms of our of our procurements. Number two, the municipal platform will require some amount of cash.

We will take a minority interest in order to pursue PPP opportunities. Third is, of course, distribution to the shareholders.

You've seen we've restarted dividend. That is that is one aspect.

Broadly broadly, this would be the use. We are hardly taking any debt today.

The cash generated by the business is sufficient to to run the business as well as provide us surplus cash which we require. I I think contextually, we are in an we are in we are in EPC organization.

Cash on the balance sheet is also in is an important factor when it comes to to kind of having strength in terms of bidding and negotiating. We also need this for for bidding for larger jobs.

Broadly, this will be the use, and and we will remain asset-light even as we move forward.

Suyash Bhave

Understood, sir. My next question is in our O&M business, we have almost around 5,500 crore of order book in O&M, predominantly which is municipal.

Can you throw some light on what is our margin differential between a municipal O&M and industrial O&M, and what are the factors that drive those margins, if you can?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, Suyash, we generally don't discuss margins at a segment or sector level. Broadly, most of our O&M is generally municipal because the industrial customers usually have their own plants.

Obviously, between an EPC and O&M, generally the O&M is far better than EPC, and that's one of the reasons why we want to improve the O&M share. We generally don't look at margin at a segment level from our discussion perspective.

Suyash Bhave

All right. All right, sir.

No problem. I have just one more question in our total order

Operator

Hello? Sorry to interrupt, sir.

May we request you to please rejoin the queue as there are

Suyash Bhave

All right. I'll rejoin the queue.

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you so much, sir. The next question is from the line of Kishor Kumar from Unifi Capital.

Please go ahead.

Kishor Kumar

Thanks again. Sir, on the closing order book position of around 7,800 crores in the India position, can you give us how much proportion is municipal and how much is industrial within the domestic market?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

It is there in the investor presentation, Kishor. I think India would

Kishor Kumar

Sir, India total is given, but within India, how much proportion would be attributable to municipal?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Just one moment. If we go to the order book analysis, we can check this and come back to you, Kishor, the investor relations.

Kishor Kumar

Yeah. Sir.

Got it, sir. Got it.

That is fine, sir. Skanda sir, can you actually give us the cash flow from operations for Q3?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Sir, sorry, I didn't get your question. Sorry, Kishor.

Kishor Kumar

Can you give us the cash flow from operations for the current Q3 quarter, sir?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, for the nine months, of course, there's no cash flow reporting. For the nine months, roughly the free cash generation is about ₹300 crore.

Kishor Kumar

Free cash after capex. Okay.

Yeah.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Hello? You just do it on the balance sheet, it's about ₹300 crore of free cash.

Of course, we hardly have any capex, Kishor. As I said, we are asset-light.

₹5 crore, ₹10 crore of depreciation is what we do, hardly any capex.

Kishor Kumar

Got it, sir. Got it.

Thank you. Thank you so much, sir.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mihir from Prithvi Finmart.

Please go ahead.

Mihir

Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. As the company is targeting CIS and Southeast Asian countries for growth, are there any ongoing tenders where the company is a preferred or L1 bidder or any meaningful orders under evaluation from these regions?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, as far as CIS is concerned, we are in the business development phase. As soon as we have any strong L1s, we will surely come back to you.

Of course, on Southeast Asia, we have a running business. We are present in most of the countries in Southeast Asia.

We are, let's say, well placed in this geography to access projects. Of course, I recollect, CIS, we have about two to three prospects where we are working on at this point.

As soon as the tenders are out and things, we will go ahead with the bidding. This is the status of both the regions.

Mihir

Okay. Thank you.

That's it from my side.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Suyash Bhave from Wealth Guardian.

Please go ahead.

Suyash Bhave

Yeah. Sir, on the EPC side, we have around 9,700-odd crores EPC book.

Just to understand from a revenue recognition perspective, how does this flow into our P&L? On a rough basis, say, in year one, how much percentage will flow?

In year two, how much will flow? On a rough broad basis, if you can help us understand.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, it will be very difficult unless we go project by project, Suyash. If you're looking at from a modeling perspective, I would say broadly linear.

You can take it over a 2.5 to 3-year period that these revenues will flow through to the P&L.

Suyash Bhave

Sir. All right.

Understood. Thank you, sir.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manish Maheshwari from Equity At Work Family Office.

Please go ahead.

Manish Maheshwari

Hello. Thanks for taking my question.

Are we envisaging any green shoots from Yamuna, Delhi Yamuna opportunity?

Shailesh Kumar

Yes, that is throwing a lot of opportunities. We are already working on those tenders.

We have submitted few of the bids. Many of them are yet to open, but that is definitely throwing opportunities.

As you would be knowing, we are very much present in Delhi. We are already working on many of the EPC projects, which one of it we have recently completed, and we have two, three O&M sites which we are working, which gives us some advantage to be knowing that geography.

We have worked with DJB previously and working with them. That is a definite prospect we are looking at, and we are confident that those pipelines we are going to convert them.

Manish Maheshwari

Okay. Sir, what is the quantum or maybe quantity of order that we are expected to get or obtain from Yamuna?

Shailesh Kumar

Quantum, I would refrain from giving you because it's a bidding process. Though as we are very selective and we are very judicious in our bidding that we are a technology company and we maintain our margin position and that's how we evaluate the risk.

Number I would not like to give you at this moment because those are in pipeline and conversion is somewhat in coming days, in coming weeks and months, it would be evolving. We are fairly confident that we would be able to bag some of those prospects.

Manish Maheshwari

Okay. Sir, another question is on the rest of the world segment.

Sir, there is a about 28% quarter-on-quarter growth in terms of in terms of the top line, gross top line from rest of the world and about 57% year-on-year. The margins margins, I mean the EBIT margins are only have actually sort of only I mean the uptick is only about 40 basis points, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.

26 about 20 top 27%, and the previous quarter was about 26.25%, and same quarter, corresponding quarter last year was also about 26.25%. The the uptick is uptick is only 40 bps, 40 40 45 bps.

Right? Margin expansion is is not I mean we are not seeing margin expansion here.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Manish, I think the numbers, as is seen, will not give you the story. You will have to understand the context of it.

If you see the last year, we had two projects in the rest of the world which are EP, one was Senegal, one was Soborg. Both these projects, as the EP projects are usually better in margin than the EPC projects, whereas EPC projects will give you volumes, though we have always said that construction is only a pass-through.

In this year, the rest of the world, again, you have projects like Al-Hayer, you have projects like Zambia, which are contributing to the revenue. It's also the mix of projects that you'll have to see.

I would probably encourage you to see the margin profile over a period of time to understand how international mix brings better margins instead of merely comparing two periods, which can be completely different in terms of mix of projects. This is the main difference.

Other than that, you will see that the international projects usually add better to margins, and also when it is EPC, add better to the volumes as well.

Manish Maheshwari

Right, sir. Sir, also last question.

What is the operating cash flow pretax for the first nine months FY26, if you can share that, sir?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

I'll have to check this. I don't have a pretax, as I just told, if I remember right, Kishor, we generated free cash of over ₹300 crore.

Manish Maheshwari

Free cash flow you stated about ₹300 crore, right? Yes, correct.

Just the previous participant you stated as a ₹300 crore of free cash flow for the first three quarters put together, that is about nine months FY26 so far, right?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Correct. Correct.

Manish Maheshwari

Pretax I was looking at this number, yeah.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

I think largely Pretax number would be helpful. Broadly you will have to let's say, I would say about add ₹30 crore, ₹40 crore to that.

I can check this specifically. The current tax is about ₹73 crore, you just have to take that up.

Manish Maheshwari

Sure.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Because largely it is driven by India, and in India, you more or less pay the taxes that is accrued.

Manish Maheshwari

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Wish you luck for the future.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you very much.

Manish Maheshwari

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Santosh from SKK HUF.

Please go ahead.

Santosh

Thank you for giving the chance. Am I audible?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Yes, Santosh, but we are hearing some background. If you could come closer to the device and speak, you'd be more audible.

Santosh

Better now?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Yes, better now.

Santosh

Hello?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Yes, Santosh. Please go ahead.

Santosh

Okay. I have two questions.

One is 16th Finance Commission recently announced by the government. Finance Minister said that there would be a huge allocation to the municipal corporations.

It's something

Shailesh Kumar

Santosh, your sound is not very Hello? Sorry to interrupt.

Santosh

in terms of municipal projects. What is our in terms of more business?

Operator

Mr. Santosh, as there is a lot of background noise Hello?

Santosh

Hello. Am I audible, madam?

Operator

Yes, you are audible, but there is a lot of background noise. We are not able to hear you properly.

Santosh

Let me try again. I'm saying that under Finance Minister announced the 16th Finance Commission award to the municipal bodies, and it turned out to be something like next 5 years $39 billion would be given.

Are we looking at this in terms of more opportunities from the market?

Shailesh Kumar

Yes, we are definitely tracking those investments which are going into these municipal bodies, and we are looking at the prospects which are getting there. You would be knowing that, parallely, we are also ensuring that those prospects are multilaterally funded.

Even with the many of those municipal bodies, along with these finance commissions allocation, our main focus remains on multilaterally funded prospects or projects, and that gives us better security. We have known that some of the government recent challenges which were there.

Those are definitely a prospect, and many of thoseities will be going those investments. We are getting into those details and finer prints of it, where those investments are heading towards.

We would be tracking them very closely to ensure that opportunities are created for us.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Of course, Santosh, whatever be those opportunities, we will continue to put it through our filter that the projects are either multilaterally funded, sovereign-backed, federal government scheme like AMRUT, like Namami Gange on the back of it, or a letter of credit. We will not take any exposure on the states, and this is a stated position from our side.

Santosh

Great. Secondly, my question was about competition in the international market.

Are you facing some kind of competition from Chinese players in the projects that we are taking, or it's been like as it was 2 years or 3 years back?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, generally no, would be the answer I would say, at least on the technology side. We see more European competition: the Spanish, the Israeli, the French.

That's the competition in the international market that we do. Our core is technology, we will worry only about that competition.

When it comes to construction, where we generally find the Chinese better, we cooperate in some of the jobs where they could become construction partners or construction subcontractors. Generally we don't see them in competition when it comes to the technology side.

In the kind of jobs that we are bidding, desalination, recycle reuse, effluent treatment, industrial water, we generally see only the European competition.

Santosh

Okay. Thank you so much, sir.

Wish you all good luck.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you, Santosh.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vicky, an individual investor.

Please go ahead. Mr.

Vicky, please proceed with your question. As there is no response from this participant, can we move forward with the next question?

The next question is from the line of Suyash Bhave from Wealth Guardian. Please go ahead.

Suyash Bhave

Yeah. Sir, building on the question asked earlier by an earlier participant, from what I understand is that our entire municipal order book or a large chunk of it is what is backed by the MLI, the multilateral institutions, and sovereign guarantee.

How do we ensure payment security on the industrial side of the business?

Shailesh Kumar

As we have been talking, we are very focused on the risk profile of any project. We do evaluate those customers with whom we are working beyond municipal.

Many of them are covered with LCs wherever private customers we are working. Looking at the health of the organizations for whom we are working and coupled with LCs, we are ensuring that payment securities are intact and we don't see any risk on that count wherever we are working.

We have not generally encountering any of those payment risk with the private or industrial customers.

Suyash Bhave

Sir. Thank you.

Shailesh Kumar

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mr.

Hitesh, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Hitesh

Hi. Good evening.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Good evening, Hitesh.

Hitesh

I have two questions. As seen in the discussion and maybe a couple of questions I have already gone through, as I can see that you have a split order book like India as well as abroad, which is approximately 50-50%.

Seeing the political challenges in the past 1, 1.5 years, do you feel that these kind of abroad orders may take some kind of backlog or a tough market may arise in future for the company?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, geopolitical challenges are part of the game. I don't think that is going to pose challenges.

It's not been new, whether it is the African continent or earlier in the Middle East. We've always seen that we have an opportunity to work there.

In fact, if you see some of the times when we worked on these, let's say, difficult projects, it was right in the middle of these geopolitical challenges. We don't really see that affecting the business in any way.

Plus, we are anyway very diversified. We are not concentrated when it comes to the international geographies.

We are spread across CIS, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia. This spread allows us to also mitigate some of these concentration risks that may come on account of very localized political or geopolitical issues.

We don't generally see, one, by virtue of our diversification, and two, by virtue of the fact that the kind of projects that we do. Number three, most of these projects that we do internationally are multilaterally backed.

Despite having any of these, we have very, very good payment securities. When it is multilaterally backed, you can be sure that the payments are secured and the project will progress forward.

The multilaterals, we don't see are going to reduce their investments, especially on a priority sector like water. For us, as a sector, we remain positive, and we feel there's a lot of tailwinds that are there in terms of the sector.

Hitesh

Right. Very well.

The second question would be that as I can see that over the past one year or so in '25-'26 financial year, maybe I'm talking about, the results are pretty good, maybe quarter-on-quarter as well as year-on-year basis, despite that the stock has seen a significant correction. Plus the company's shareholding is pretty less.

Company's doing pretty well across different parameters as you've told, but over the past six to seven years, I cannot see company increasing their shareholding or thing like that. You have decent amount of cash capital also in your balance sheet.

Despite that, the share has seen a significant amount of correction. Maybe if you could put some light on that?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, what we cannot control, we will not worry about. You have seen this correction is broad-based.

We'll work on what we can improve. I think you mentioned that our results in the last one year has been growing.

I just want to jog back, and if you see from 2020 onwards, we have been on the growth path, especially profitable growth. Our PAT has grown at a CAGR of over 30%, 35%.

It's not isolated to this last one year. Second, you have also seen the stock move from ₹80, ₹100 at a COVID level to all-time highs.

Fundamentally, we have been performing, we have been improving, and that is what we will control. What happens in the market, there's no point of worrying about, right?

We will continue to perform as is, and I'm sure what we have seen in the past, the market ultimately rewards people who are consistent. That is what we will focus on: continuing to remain net cash positive, continuing to deliver profitable growth, and maintaining a very good balance sheet.

I'm sure, as we move forward in the longer term, a company like us should get the appreciation that it will get. We will not run behind that.

That's something not in our control. We'll run behind performance, which we have delivered and we will continue to deliver.

Hitesh

Thank you so much, but just one question remains unanswered. In case a promoter increases his or her shareholding, that gives some amount of positive sentiment to the investors also, to the shareholders also.

From that point of view, your investment in the past six to seven years has not increased in any form.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Hitesh, the promoters have not sold even a share, if at all. In the earlier years, they have done some increase in shareholding.

These are professional promoters who are there in the company. They've held on to their shares in the best times or in the worst times, as you may call it, and that should give enough confidence in the market is our feeling.

See, promoters adding shares if that is going to change the sentiment, I think then we are too myopic in the view. What we should also look at is that the promoters' holding has not gone down at all.

They've remained steadfast with this company, and I'm sure even going forward, they will be here. These are all professional promoters.

Everything is invested into this organization, so that should give you a lot of confidence that the promoters are completely committed to this venture.

Hitesh

Theek hai. Thank you so much.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you, Hitesh.

Hitesh

Okay.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Santosh Keshri from SKK HUF.

Please proceed.

Santosh Keshri

Sir, I have one more question regarding APGENCO write-off that we did in 2023 23-24. Recently, I don't know if this was reported by WABAG, but somewhere I read that Supreme Court rejected the arbitration request of Techpro, and I also understand that WABAG has been able to complete the project.

Where do we stand in terms of the recovery from APGENCO? Can we expect some recovery in the next six months or one year?

That amount is large, I understand, something like 300 crore plus interest and compensation. It could be a big amount.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

See, what we are talking about is the 140 crore-odd TSGENCO, which is the retention money. That's where the Supreme Court ruled in favor.

Of course, the legal process, the administrative process takes elongated time, which is not in our control, which is the reason why we said we will take out from our books what is not immediately receivable and let us focus on our core business. That's what we did a couple of years back.

We are continually following this, Santosh, and we are pursuing all legal routes to see how fast we can recover. Obviously, this is also one of the focus of the management.

While we've taken it off the books, we have not taken it off our sights. I think we can't put a date or timeline to this because it is completely depend on actions beyond our control.

We will leave it at that at this point in time, but I'll give you the assurance that at a management level, we've not lost sight of any of this.

Santosh Keshri

The amount is legally still recoverable, right? Because we completed the project, and APGENCO has been able to extract power out of this generation unit, and they have been able to build the customers also.

Right, sir?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Yeah. The project was completed, started commercial operation date more than 5 years back, Santosh.

Of course, in APGENCO, there are balance of plant, small balance of plant, which is there. On TSGENCO, we have completed our project, and that is why even the Supreme Court rejected the arbitration request of Techpro.

As it stands, it will take a few more steps. Obviously, everybody will try to see what they can do.

We have not lost sight. We continue to pursue all legal routes to recover this money.

What is most important to understand is none of this is affecting or important from the current scope of business that we are running. If and when we get this, I'm sure it will be a bonus.

As investors, I think you should not worry about this because the business is anyway performing well despite this.

Santosh Keshri

Yeah. That we understand, sir.

Only thing was that since the amount is big and if recovery of this would be really giving a boost to the company's finances. We are just on that account.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Sure. We also share your sentiment.

I'm sure if things go well, we should be on the better side of things. That is not in our control, as I said.

As and when it comes, fully agree with you, it's going to be a good fillip for us also.

Santosh Keshri

Yeah. Thank you so much, sir.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Thank you, Santosh.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subhankar from Sanghai Family Office.

Please proceed.

Subhankar

Hi. Thank you for this opportunity.

Can you hear me?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Yes, we can.

Subhankar

Yeah. My first question is could you share the current mix of your domestic order book between government and private sector clients?

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

Sorry, what was your question?

Subhankar

The mix of domestic order book between government and private client.

Skandaprasad Seetharaman

82% of our order book is from municipal clients and 18% from industrial clients.

Subhankar

Okay. My second question is after the budget, right?

Are you seeing any traction or demand in government orders?

Shailesh Kumar

As we were looking at earlier, there are investments plan in various cities. There are multiple cities with a defined and growth.

It is plan on that. They are to be provided with next level of infrastructure, and we see them as a potential opportunity.

That area government investment, in addition to that, Ganga cleaning, other river cleaning prospects are also there. Overall, as a part of budget, we see government continues patronage in this sector, and investment is crucial sector, that is getting maintained.

That is definitely opening up opportunities for us.

Subhankar

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participant, I would now hand over the conference to Mr.

Shailesh Kumar for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Shailesh Kumar

Thank you once again for your active participation in our Q3 and nine-month FY26 earnings call. The analyst presentation is available on our website.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to our Adfactors IR team or contact us directly. We appreciate your continued interest and support, and wish you a pleasant evening.

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of VA Tech WABAG Limited, that concludes this conference.

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