Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to ABB India Limited's Q1 January to March quarter CY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded, and any unauthorized recording of this call is strictly prohibited. The recording will be made available on the company's and service website subsequently. I now hand the conference over to Mr. T. K. Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer of ABB India Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, Rucha, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining the Q1 2026 results. On the call with me is Mr. Sanjeev Sharma, Country Managing Director for ABB India. Kiran Dutt and Ganesh Kothawade, who lead business divisions and Electrification. Sanjeev Arora is not able to join because he's traveling. But we have Balaji, who leads the process automation division in. Right. Over to you, Sanjeev. I think we have the presentation up. The press release is in the process of getting uploaded, right? Some technical glitch, not from our side, but from the other side of it. I think they're trying to get it sorted out.
In the meantime, we will take the liberty of walking you through the presentation, which is definitely going to give some color about the press release also. Over to you, Sanjeev.
Thank you, Sridhar. Good evening to all of you. Thanks for showing interest and joining in on Friday evening this late. Yeah, we will keep it sharp and brief for you. As for those of you who are joining it for the first time and also those who would like to have a bit of a reminder. ABB in India at a glance is a company which is focused on Electrification, Motion, and Automation solutions. We have a very strong footprint for manufacturing in the country. We represent all ABB Group business divisions in the country, which are highly localized and also are connected with the customers.
At the same time, we serve our customers with from our 28 sales offices, an increasing number of channel partners who take us to the deeper side of the market and also do value-added services closer to the customer. From this country, we are exporting to about 30 plus countries, which are increasing as we progress with our portfolio and footprint of the manufacturing in the country. Next slide. Those of you who have been following ABB on a constant basis, last year we did see there was a bit of a market corrections, and I think that were also reflected in our number.
For last quarter of 2025 and the first quarter, we see demand has become resilient, and we are seeing quite a good uptick of it in our books. This is across all our segments. As you know, we have 16 divisions which are distinct business models, which are connected with 23 market segments. We see all the market segments which talk us to us. They are showing good resilience and good CapEx formation and also good ordering. We had a 25% order growth, 6% revenue growth, and we continue to have, you know, a good cash position within the company. Also we have a good backlog, which gives us the good revenue possibility.
Sridhar will take you to the profit after tax numbers when we break down the financials later on. Some of the highlights that we announced about $75 million investments to expand manufacturing and R&D in the country. We also dispatched first locally manufactured wind power converter from the Nelamangala facility, which is again is a 1 milestone and also opens up another revenue and order stream for the future. We also have ArTu Formula, a next generation low voltage gear platform, which is used by our partners in the market to give a value-added solution to power distributions industry. On sustainability side, we have Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse, you know, emissions down by 82%.
We have secured rank three in electrical and electronic sector and rank nine across industries in BW Businessworld Most Sustainable Companies award. Next, please. If you see the order momentum, it is coming across core and emerging sectors, namely in transport, building infrastructure, data center, food and beverage, process industries and renewables. Which gives us good visibility going forward because the customer interest and the order pipeline formation is robust at the moment. Given our backlog, we see very good revenue execution going forward. Of course, we will see what impact the West Asia issues come in, but those will be temporary as we go forward.
Please continue. You can see that we have a portfolio wherein we are seen by our customers in these segments like data centers, renewables, industries, infrastructure, and transport as the best-in-class supplier of products and solutions, and we continue to gain and enjoy that confidence from our customers. These are some of the examples that you can see. Next, please. Among the market segments wherein our six to 6 businesses are focused, which is the 23 market segments, you can see the emerging industries which are growing quite strong. Infrastructure and transport, that is on a healthy scale, as we have highlighted by colors. Core industries, which are modest, but they also form fairly large part of our portfolio.
We continue to see strength in some of these market segments, which are cyclic in nature. That's exactly what is interesting about our portfolio, 16 business models operating on 23, and we continue to show resilient results over a period of time because there's a cyclicity among the market segments. That's a good place to be, and that's what we have observed over a period of time. Let's continue. Just to give you an idea about what we do in the data centers, because that's a flavor of the day. We have a lot of products and solutions, especially in the low voltage power distribution, which essentially powers up the computer racks in the data centers.
Also the medium voltage and primary secondary distribution, which brings in the power into the data center. The alternate power sources like generators, Battery Energy Storage, that also become part of that solution. UPS is another power protection facility which goes from us. Then we have number of drives and motors that go into the cooling system components, and number of installation products, also automation solution for data centers, plus medium voltage substations. This combination is enjoyed by customers, especially the hyperscalers. We have a good demand globally for these products. In fact, very strong demand globally as well as in India.
We are kind of serving our customers quite effectively given our capacities available and our capabilities available locally to support not only in installing the solution, but also providing long-term service and support to the customer. Let's continue. Sustainability and practice, as I mentioned to you earlier, our GHG emissions are down by 82%. Water recyclability is up 46%. You can read our BRSR report, which we have released. There again, we have highlighted in a much more details about what kind of focused effort our company does in this particular area. We continue to get recognition for the work that is done by our teams across the country. Next, please.
On the CSR part, we continue to stay focused on 3 areas: education and skilling, diversity and inclusion, communities and environment. We have our track record for last 10 years that we spend 100% of our commitment. We really measure not by spend, but by impact. We also do audit for the impact of all the spend done in the areas we meant it to be done. Our board and the CSR committee always re-reviews it, and they have been quite satisfied in terms of the impact that we create with our CSR spending. Next, please. Factors that we are watching for 2026 are the economic power, green energy and sustainability, urbanization and smart infrastructure, automation and AI, consumerism and lifestyle upgrades, coupled with the global uncertainty.
This is a combination, a plate that we have. Quite frankly, we have seen many cycles in this country. We are manufacturing for last 75 years. We have probably seen most of the events that we can record in the history. Our team and the businesses are pretty resilient in terms of not to over kind of blow the uncertainties, because every year there is something. Last year it was tariff, this time is the West Asia, and few years back it was COVID. We have all gone through those cycles. The team really knows to keep focus on the customers, what the customer is demanding, and to keep fulfilling what customers' demands are. I think that's a simple recipe for us to stay resilient. Next, please.
On the financial highlights, now I hand it over to T. K. Sridhar, who will go on more granular on the results.
Thank you. Thank you, Sanjeev. Just to kind of give more insights about how did we perform in Q1. Orders were pretty strong. I think 25% base orders 9, large orders is something which we got, and it was from the data center space and the railway space, right. Not to mention what the order values, these are the two market segments from which we got these large orders. Overall, I think we are in a very solid position in terms of order backlog. INR 11,000 crore, I think is a good backlog, which gives a nice visibility for the in the coming quarters. That's what we can go through. Revenue, INR 3,184, slightly subdued, I would say.
I think we were well-positioned to go to 3,300, 400 levels. The last-minute topics which we had to deal with with the West Asia crisis, sort of stifled the offtake as well as the supplies, and that's something which we had to stay where we are at this point of time. This naturally had an impact, cascading impact on the performance and the profitability levels. Apart from that, we also had quite interesting development on the metal side of it, which is copper, silver and aluminum. Apart from that, we had the currency Indian rupee depreciating pretty sharply against the European and the US dollar.
That's something that which really led to a muted performance as far as profitability is concerned. I'm sure that this is not in line with the expectation of the market, I think that this is the best possible option with the revenue mix which we had and the crisis which we have to deal with at the last part. This is something about what is the factors which led to a profit growth. That's that's what it is. The cash is definitely strong. We have at this point of time, INR 6,042 crores. This is without the cash which we got from the sale of robotics.
If I include that, it is roughly around about INR 7,600 crores, right? That's the overall strong cash position, what we are in at this point of time. Yeah. We go to the next slide. To deal with what really impacted the profitability a bit more, the granular way, I think, other income of course included the interest which we had been getting on the advances and the cash balance which we have. That's been increasing. Apart from that, if you look at the material cost, same level as the 61.3 and 61.4 sequentially. But that compared to Q1 2025, we are definitely up by 3.5% or 3% to be precise, right?
That's what it is. Now if you look at what it lead to the dip of margin, I mean the higher material cost in 3.7%, I could say I would attribute, basically, three factors to that. Which is 1 is definitely competition intensity and the commodity and the rupee depreciation part of it and the revenue mix of it. The competition and the intensity, probably a possibly percentage. Commodity price increase and rupee depreciation almost 2% and the revenue mix, the balance 1%. Roughly, this is the cut between what was the material cost in Q1 2025 versus Q1 2026. That's the sort of stuff.
Personal expenses as a percentage, it remains the same, but higher in terms of value relating to a people increase and the salary increase which happened and a slight delta of the labor code impact on the revised salaries, what we have. That's how it is. I think on the expenses part of it, but now because we were well positioned to do a larger revenue, we had revenue linked expenses, which is slightly higher. If you look at it, as we mentioned, the swing, there is also a swing in the exchange commodity losses. Which is this time INR 27.5 crores impact on issues which are well known to us.
Overall, I think, this is a quarter where there has been a correction, there has been a bit of an unprecedented headwinds, and due to which, we could see profitability which is going down and revenue slightly could have been bit more higher compared to what we are doing at this point of time. But the good part and the more positive part of it, which we are all looking forward to, is the development in the orders and which is going to give a good runway for revenues in the coming quarters. Next slide. A bit of an color on how did the division, how did the business segments perform. Electrification. 36% up, right?
I think on a year-on-year, solid percentage is what we see, and that's more driven by the data centers and the building segment sort of orders, what we are getting from this. Revenues also driven by backlogs, but could have been still more higher. That could be something which you would have wished for. Profitability 21.4% to 13.2%. Last year we had a very big data center order which we got executed in Q1, which is not there in this quarter. That's what we meant by revenue mix, and more importantly, the cost impact on account of copper and silver price, which is being definitely to a high level in EL Electrification segment.
To add to that for the rupee depreciation. This is something which we saw, but I think we have a backlog of INR 200 crores, which is executed below the next 5-6 quarters. Motion. Motion is actually grew by 22%. They are maintaining their quarter on quarter growth consistently in a band of +20%, despite the competition intensity, what they see. It is more driven by orders from the rail segment and also the renewables and private industries, which we have also been able to do for the drives part of it. There's a slight decline in the exports, right?
It's more indicatable because of the crisis which we had to undergo in the last minute over here in the month of March. Revenues INR 1,200 crores and profitability at 12.8% as what we see. I think that's bit subdued. And also here the material cost was definitely higher, and that's also attributable to the same reasons as what we do. Overall, if you look at these factors, it might has impacted the major product divisions of Electrification and Motion to quite an extended system. Yeah. Next, Automation.
Automation, while Electrification and Motion showed a robust growth in orders, Automation, depending on which depends more on private CapEx and the public expenditure, is more subdued on the order intake part of it. But I think we have a good opportunity pipeline, but the decision-making speed is slightly slowed at this point of time as what we see. I think a good opportunity pipeline, but slow decision making is a characteristic of Automation is what we see at this point of time. We are confident that this will turn out to be potential orders in the quarters to come.
Revenues, they are driven by weaker order backlogs, the revenue pace is also different, slowing down. The profitability is higher because of a good mix between service and project systems and also some good profitability, profit margin marginalizations in the projects which are under execution and completion. This is the overall view on business end. Order backlog INR 2,100 crores. I think we will have to ramp it up forward. This is bit of the model of business models, what we see by business area, if you look at it, MO and EL are now 81%. We don't have robotics at this point of time. Robotics used to be 5%.
The 5%, but now, without Robotics, slightly changed, but not so 19% to Automation and 81% to MO and EL. In terms of offerings, projects at 7, service at, 81% for products and 12%. Larger I mean by exports, I think, it was 11 and 89, slightly higher because of a bit of an more export orders which came in in the quarter. More export revenue is very high. That's it. I think we could probably take, try to take some questions between now and 6:30 P.M. Because it's been a weekend, we don't want to extend beyond 6:30 P.M.
Just in case if there are difficulties to repeat some questions, take it up separately, later for next week also.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Participants are also requested to please limit your questions to two per participant. The first question is from the line of Renu Baid Pugalia from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good evening team. My first question is on the private sector investment revival that you were expecting, sometime around early this calendar year. Do you see, as you have briefly highlighted, do you see the customer sentiments getting materially impacted on decision-making and closure, beyond the process automation to even the core business segments? Also any likely budgetary impact on cash flows, can that derail or postpone the infra spend, which is in the moderate growth category that you have highlighted in terms of order flows? That's first question. Second would be on the recent CapEx that you've announced.
How do we see the export portfolio ramping up and our exposures to data centers, in terms of local product footprint expanding with the recent localization plans that you have announced on the new CapEx?
Okay. Renu, I think, the first question is around the markets. I think we have, and on the private CapEx, we have Kiran and Ganesh, who could give an Electrification view of how the private CapEx is happening, and we have Balaji. For the Motion piece of it, I think they will all, their commentary will also cover in a way that actually does because we don't have Sanjeev on the line. With that, I think we will try to answer that from this, right? On the CapEx part of it, which is the $75 million, what we said for, not $75 million, that's for the total ABB excluding the Hyderabad lab-
It was, yeah.
It's probably Yes, sir. I will give you a color at the end. Kiran, if you would like to take the question, and then we pass it on to Ganesh.
Thank you. Thank you, Renu, for the question. What we are looking at is quite a robust scenario in terms of investments.
Hello?
Does that answer your question, Renu?
No, I could not hear anything. I'm not sure, ma'am. I couldn't hear the management. Yeah.
Please stay connected while we check the connection for management. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for patiently holding. We have management reconnected. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thanks. We lost a bit of an connection in between, technical glitch, right? But in our thoughts, we are now gathered together as to what field to answer. Over to you, Kiran Dutt, back to you.
Thank you. Thank you. I think, we were speaking about private CapEx. Private CapEx is, and then I was talking about data centers as well. I was also talking about hyperscale and colocation both getting into investments, and we are able to get some very good investments coming in. At the same time, orders for us as well. I was also talking about railways and renewables. Rail, we are talking about both in terms of pulling stocks. At the same, we're also talking about the station development and innovation projects. Extremely good inflow of CapEx there. We are also looking at renewables.
Specifically, I was talking about the BESS systems, which is extremely promising for us, and we are able to get great orders in the first quarter. The last point I wanted to make is on the building side, it's quite mixed scenario at this point of time. On the commercial side, we are seeing a very good, you know, numbers, but at the same time, residential side, while the mid and the lower end is a bit of a challenge, but at the premium segments, we see a very good offer. That's what from my end. Maybe, Ganesh, if you can add your thoughts.
No, Kiran, you almost covered the segments which are looking promising. Like what you say, data center is very strong. Renewables is also coming up very strong, and it's reflecting in our order book also and the opportunity pipeline, which is getting shrink. There is a private investment which is coming in even the industry side. We have seen a couple of very strong inquiries which are in the pipeline. We are very optimistic about the investment which is coming from the private side. Yeah.
Very good. Balaji, if you're there, go.
Yeah. From an automation side, firstly, I just want to qualify that there is a certain life cycle and of a project, especially in the early stages, it follows a pattern, and typically automation comes towards the end of ordering. We see a strong pipeline. However, there are industries that are dependent upon petroleum products as their raw materials. There is a little bit of stress. We see that this could be a temporary one. Having said that, from both public sector and private sectors, the inquiry bank is quite strong. Those inquiries which is already issued, they are proceeding.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the stage, I'm not able to call out those specific segments. There is this very strong pipeline and quite a strong movement towards closure of orders.
Can we conclude that basis, while you have seen execution headwinds because of the West Asia crisis, the ordering momentum or process has not seen any derailment or postponement from customers because of the ongoing inflationary trends or the West Asia crisis? Is that right or there is some impact? That was my question.
See, you have looked at our order growth, right? That itself very clearly reflects the way we are in the position now. On Electrification side, we are driven by the. That shows the kind of robustness in terms of investment in India. That's where we are also able to get a portion of that pie. That's the reason why we are showing that execution.
Copy.
Sorry to interrupt. May we request Ms. Renu to please rejoin the queue, ma'am?
I think there was one question which Renu had raised about the investments, how much it is going to help us. I think, as you have already said in the past, ABB sees that there is an definitely a market which is developing for the products and services what we are manufacturing. They work easily the future market opportunities to serve the market, future market opportunities. We have then the service expansion for Motion and also Motion industry. Of course, we will have the EL, the smart products manufacturing also increasing quite extensively going forward, right?
That's the plan what we have, and I think you will hear more as we go into the few quarters as these projects are getting commissioned.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Mahawar from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, T.K. Sridhar. I just have two questions. First is, do you think this is gonna be a year where, you know, we will have a lot of lumpy orders, you know, which is basically gonna be part of the intake? More importantly, can you specify if this is gonna be a strong, you know, high double digits growth year for orders? Second is on profitability. If I look at the parent commentary, obviously EL was a very, very strong indicator, and we also saw that in, you know, some bit on in your results in terms of top line growth. Do you think the profitability, you know, this year can be significantly better than last year?
I understand the short cycle weakness is still, you know, holding up. Any color on the profitability? I know we don't give guidance, but, you know, and we have variations in this quarter. For the balance of the year, any color on profitability? I can see the, a lot of initiatives by the parents, so I just want to understand how is India positioned. Thank you.
Okay. With the limited knowledge of how the parents are profitable, if you understand, they have the balancing power of here for a gain in countries which are exporting, right, to economies which have a weaker depreciating currency and that's in a compensating upside, right? which whereas we don't have that's an intrinsic advantage what they have. also their growth, if you look at it in the
Which are highly profitable and is of course also in the supply. Their ability to get a premium is far, far higher, right? Therefore, what I mean to say is the yardstick of the global performance to compare the India performance is something I think we cannot walk it through, right? That's this thing. Now coming to India performance as such, I mean, going we have in backlog of INR 11,000 crores, I think we'll have to execute. What is, what is probably, which we will have the lever is around the absorption capacity absorptions which will really help us going forward. That means the velocity of revenue conversion has to increase, depending upon what the customer offtake is, right?
Whereas if you look at the pricing, the support to get more profitability is something which is now saturated compared to the previous years. Now you have a lever of volume which could pull up the margins, but you have the other impacts of the Forex and the commodity which is not in our control, which is basically more than offsetting what you can also do on an volume basis. I think what we expect is that I think we should be able to mitigate this risk of Forex and material volatility at this point of time with an volume which we see. I think we need to work more on how the market develops in terms of accepting more price increases to the market.
That which is more a color which I could give, at this point of time, Amit. Can I sneak in one small one?
Yeah. Please do.
Yeah. Sure.
Last one probably.
Yeah, sure. You know, when we talk to channel partners across you and your peers, there is a very clear short cycle weakness as we speak for different reasons. It's been there for two years. Do you think this is a year where your base business can grow in top line by 15% and large order I can already see last 2 quarters are very, very strong and we have a good pipeline. Collectively, the intake, you know, for it to move towards a different run rate, do you think this is too early for us to comment or in next 2, 3 quarters, we can see base orders, you know, shifting because there is a restocking cycle for last 2 years. Any comment on base business, T.K. Sridhar, that'll be helpful.
Thank you.
I think, Amit, base business we grew only at 9%, not the 15% what you see, right? That means we definitely see the channel partners, I don't know whom you've spoken to. I think what we see is that there is an in the market, you know, velocity which is there. It's not that market is bad, but I think it's more about the timing of it, right? It could be bit of an, as you rightly said, a choppy bit of situation. The good part is that there are opportunities and we are confident these opportunities will convert into orders for ABB.
Thank you and good luck with it.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. My first question is, what kind of inflationary pricing actions we have taken across businesses to mitigate the impact on stations that can quantify the price also have taken to mitigate this across businesses?
Inflation, okay. Inflation.
Commodity inflation.
Commodity inflation. Okay. We are a product business, product organization, that's what it is. If you look at it, we have more than 70% of our business is products. Always I mean, even though we call it a short cycle, it will have some lag. Therefore, we always have a quarter or two lag to impact the price. That's something which we as a business take a strategic decision to revise the prices. To give, add more color to it, I think I could invite Kiran to give a bit of a more insight on it as to how do we manage these price increases.
Absolutely. At the end of the day, any price increase we will manage. What we have done is to go for a price increase. We have already gone for 2 price increases. Market is public anyway, that's the way. As Sridhar said, there is a lag between the prices which are impacting, the costs which are impacting and the price increase in the market. That's what we need to manage, and that's what we have done already in the 2 price increases now.
Okay. Can you quantify, sir, how much is the % increase?
That's something which is very, you know, very sensitive for our, for us to divulge.
Okay.
-apt, answer which we could give, please.
Okay. Sir, second question is on data centers, sir. On data centers now, I mean, we are maybe going from 2 GW to maybe 10 GW in four to five years. There would be a significant ramp-up from the hyperscaler side. I think initially in your commentary you did mention about 4, 5 product lines there. Just wanted to understand how is our TAM increasing as hyperscalers gain market share and this impact, effects. Also if you can help us understand what are you doing on the substation side of it.
Substations. Ganesh.
Ganesh-
Yeah, sure.
if you Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. See, as you have very rightly said, quite a lot investment which is happening on the data center, not only in the hyperscale, but even the colocation and the edge data center. Our portfolio is very well positioned inside across the Electrification, as well as all other products to really take on into this particular job. We are also actually matching the capacities as per the requirement because many of these hyperscalers has already signed rate contracts with us, and we are very well positioned to capture this particular market. In fact, we are building up the capacity to meet their demand.
On substation side, what are you exactly going to do? Also the opportunity in terms of TAM, what is like our per megawatt opportunity, adjustable opportunity now with this ramp-up?
Maybe you'd like to say something, sir?
On the data center.
On the substation side.
On the data center, what is total content and why?
What is it?
Substation, of course, is not there.
What is it?
Total content of ABB on data centers.
Per megawatt. Yeah.
So-
Per megawatt, if the CapEx is INR 80, INR 90 crores or INR 50 crores-INR 100 crores, what will be our per megawatt opportunity there? On substation side, what are we exactly going to do? Is that an option?
As we have discussed in past and also in a slide today, that, we have different opportunities in the data center, which is a direct opportunity wherein customer buys the power supply, bringing a medium voltage input to the, to this where they want to, you know, set up the data center. That medium voltage, you know, kind of, switchgear and the, and the associated equipment, that's where our scope is. After that, it gets stepped down and goes into voltage distribution to the power rack, rather the computer racks. That's the another scope. Then backed up by the UPS and also in the utilities and ancillaries, we have drives and motors going. That's the typical scope we have in India as well as globally.
Yes, we do know what is the factored, you know, scope for per megawatt, but this is something we don't publicly talk about. Yes, it's a substantial scope, especially when you have the larger gigawatt opportunities. I think the size is a very large opportunities that we see. So far we have executed some contracts with the hyperscalers. I think the speed at which they're executing it and also the quality they are executing it, the demand of our products is preferred in the marketplace, and that's what we are enjoying at this point of time in India as well as outside India. I'm sorry I'm not able to give you a factor, but we do know the factor. Yeah.
The percentage of order book, current order book in data centers, if you've that data, if you can share out of the total order book, what is the percentage of data center order?
Data center orders would be roughly around about 12%-13%.
Okay. Sure, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah. It's not a fixed percentage. It does vary in a band based on when the order gets booked and what the size of the.
Okay.
size of the orders and the, and the book. It can vary between 12 to-
Okay.
12%-16% as well.
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Please continue.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Atul Tiwari from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thanks a lot. Sir, in the month of April and May, have you noticed any incremental weakness over the month of March for your short cycle orders because of the customer sentiment around war and fuel prices, et cetera?
That we do 90% of our business is in India and 10% is exports. Quite frankly, last year there was a weakness in the market for different reasons, but those few, 2 or 3 quarters we saw it. Starting last quarter of last year and so what we are experiencing, we are really experiencing robust demand at the moment. Quite frankly, it is not adding to our concerns directly what's happening in the West Asia at the moment. If there is a lag effect that comes up in the month and the quarters later on, of course, we will share with you. Right now.
Okay, sir. Good to know. sir, my last question is on price hikes that you mentioned. when you are taking these price hikes, are those hikes acceptable to customer? despite the price hikes, are you able to kind of broadly maintain your market share for the respective products?
We have had quite a good experience, you know, during COVID period, wherein a lot of supply chain disruptions came and we had to pass on some costs to the market and which we did. Now one thing, one phenomena we have understood and clients have understood pre-COVID and post-COVID is that post-COVID the customers have become more, kind of, they're more, they're kind of, you know, aligned with the thought process that when the market disturbances take place, they have to participate in the market with the suppliers to get the high quality products. One is that the demand for the high quality products like we is quite high and the customers appreciate it.
Whenever there is an inflationary issue or where the displacement of the supply chain takes place, whenever we go with the better price in the marketplace, I think customer responds positively. That's where our team is quite sensitive to it, not that we have to pass on everything. We also optimize with the productivity in-house and then whatever we cannot hold on, our customers are able to participate on that. The increases that we carry it out is basically calibrated around that. Yeah.
Okay, sir. Good to know. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question, ladies and gentlemen, before we take the next question, we request you to every participant to please limit your question to one per participant. The next question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, and thanks for the opportunity. I have my first question is: Do you have escalation clauses in long cycle orders like Metro Rail, which you signed in this quarter?
Escalation for the price.
Escalation, commodities, high commodity inflation. If it happens.
So-
are there escalation clauses which protect us?
Yeah. Mohit, I think it's a very, very good question. Thanks for that. Okay. I think there are escalation clauses, there are price variation clauses in all contracts which we do on a long-term basis. We should understand these price escalation clauses may also come with a ceiling, right, after which it is there. It's basically about risk mitigation and how fast we execute this particular contract. To answer to your question, yes, we do have price escalation clauses in our contracts.
Even when you sign with the private parties, right? Is that right?
Yes.
If I can ask you one more question. Are you seeing the conversation happening for large data centers of 100, 200 megawatt size or do you think it's too early and you expect it to materialize as we enter FY 2027 and FY 2028, FY 2029?
Best person to give the color to this, Ganesh Kothawade.
What's the question? Can you please repeat?
Question is, are you seeing the conversation happening for-?
very, very large data centers of 100, 200 MW quantum or do you think it's too early and those, like, conversation will start in maybe CY 2027 and CY 2028?
No, it has already been started because whatever hyperscalers had placed order on us in the previous years, those executions are ongoing. Even, whatever contracts now which we are signing or discussing, there is already delivery schedules which has been given for 2026, 2027 and even up to 2028. Conversation is already means going on. I will, I don't see any delay into that.
For the very large data centers.
Sorry to interrupt. May we request Mr. Kumar to please rejoin the queue. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we would request you to please limit your question to one per participant. The next question is from the line of Puneet from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you so much, sir. You know, in the beginning of the conversation, you talked about one percent impact from competition intensity. Can you give some more color on what are you seeing in the market and in what segments?
We have 16 distinct businesses, and if you pick up each and every business, they have a very different profile of competitors. If I collage it for the whole company, it becomes a very large kind of a country. I would say, yes, you're right. There is a competition intensity as the size of the market grows. You have participation coming from Japanese, you have participation coming from Koreans, from Chinese. You naturally have not non-traditional players which they're increasing the marketplace. It's not the majority of our market segment. It's on the certain market segments wherein it is more prevalent. It has to be increasing on the competition side.
Okay. That's it. If you can just give some more color on how should one think about the $75 million CapEx in terms of phasing and when do you expect it to capitalize?
It is about expanding our capacities, both in the development as well as certain businesses which we had, they were small, but now they have grown to a size that they require larger places to produce more. Also, we have introduced some new product pipeline, which are localized, and they also have not only mandate for India, but they also have mandate for exports. Those are the places in this expansionary investments are being carried out for us. This is a continuous process, and we will see that in future there's always a run rate for it.
Understood. That's all for me, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants are requested to only use handsets while asking a question. The next question is from the line of Sameer Thakur from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks. Can you give us the breakup of volume and price within the groups? Is that possible?
Volume-
Volume and price mix.
Sorry, sir?
Mix, volume, and price, mix.
I didn't, volume and, price mix of what?
The growth. I mean, within few sales growth, within that how much is the volume and price?
Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Thakur. Sir, can you please check your handset mode? We are unable to hear you clearly, sir. We have lost the line for the participant. We'll move to the next question, which is from the line of Rahul Gajare from Macquarie Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening. We have seen a sharp decline in margin, you know, over the last two years, and we understand this is a combination of QCO, Forex, and now the Gulf War being the latest variable. Based on your assessment and on the back of the price hike that you have taken, when do you think we can see ABB going back to, you know, 18%, 19%? Or if that is a 2-step process, when do we see, you know, the company going back to 16%, 17% margin?
Okay. I think, Rahul, I think we need to deal with the problems one at a time, right? But, unfortunately, the problems keep coming. It doesn't seem to be ending. But having said that, I think there are continuous efforts to mitigate this particular risk and grow the market. The combination of both volume and pricing and also the inflation being able to take the inflation of commodities into consideration. It's a very bit of an, I would say, not a simple game and work to do, right? I think all efforts are on. We also aspire to be in the so-called ones we had reached 15%. We have been, we said that we will be there at 12.
At 12 is what we ended up last year. That is actually, and a good, you know, the range to be in as what we see with the current challenges, what is ongoing in the market. Disconnection.
Mr. Rahul, is your question answered?
Do you see Yeah. thanks. Do you see the, you know, this entire year will be subdued in terms of profitability based on, you know, the backlog that you'll have and the limited price hike that you have been able to take?
Normally, we don't give any guidance about what could be the future, right?
No, no, I'm not looking at guidance. You know, this is your cost, and you have taken X price, you know, so price hike. Have you been able to take price hike higher than the cost? You know, that's the only thing I'm looking at.
You know, they're a short cycled order. The price hike which you take today is not valid next quarter because the commodity and the Forex rates faster than the price hikes what we have.
Okay. Regular price hike is the answer. Okay.
I think there is always a lag between what the inflation in the market is behaving on the input cost vis-a-vis the price which you could take. We are taking into account the competition intensity and the market dynamics.
Sure. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sameer Thakur from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks. I got disconnected earlier. In data center, we can say there's 20%-14% of backlog. It's mostly in electrification, if I'm not wrong. It should be so, like, 24%, 25% of the backlog in electrification. Is that margin accretive? Should be margin accretive. Mix can be positive going forward. Is that the right reading?
You mean, what is the % in Electrification?
Yeah.
We haven't calculated it top overhead, we have given you the, on the company basis. Yes, it's a substantial in the books of our Distribution Solutions led by Ganesh, and also on the smart product business Smart Power product group as well. Yes, this is definitely positive for our books as well as on the margin side. Yes.
Okay. I got disconnected earlier, so I'm not sure whether this is a repeat question. Any split on the price and volume in the growth? Okay.
As it is the first quarter, so we have another 4 quarters to go probably. We could be in a good position to say that what could be an aggregated impact of this.
Okay. Okay, understood.
Yeah.
Just last question. In data centers, generally they have the base orders or generally they are large orders only?
We have both. There are two ends of it. One is you have the hyperscaler asking for a very large scale power supply into it. Also you have the partners and integrators who supply into the, you know, the mid-level and colo data centers, and they supply power supply into those. Those are not as large, but that's where, you know, we are able to address different market segments in the data center.
Thank you. Thank you. That was all from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subhadip Mitra from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. My question was on the margin side. We've seen the impact over the last 4 quarters also because of the QCO impact, and my understanding was that the QCO impact should probably taper off over the next 1, 2 quarters. Just wanted to get an understanding that with the price hike that's already been taken and hopefully with the QCO impact going away, probably over the next few months, can we see some recovery in margins going ahead?
Yes, I think your answer is yes, and that's why we come every morning to office to make sure that happens. Our observation over a period of time is that whenever the markets are disturbed, whether it is because of the COVID reasons or some QCO reasons, these are not very good things. What you require is you require a certain amount of certainty and linearity for businesses to operate based on how the business models have been constructed. Yes, last year, because of tariffs, uncertainty, and then QCO, and this year now whatever is going on in West Asia, there is some kind of a disturbance that comes to the linearity.
The moment things stabilize, I think given our equation with the gross margins we get out of the market and basically if we do it on top of the stable supply chain, I think you have seen that whenever that happens, we have a good margin availability into our business. Right.
Thanks. Thanks very much.
It's a matter. We have to allow a little bit of sustained period of stability, not so much variations every few quarters. Yeah.
No, understood. Understood. Thanks. Thanks for a detailed explanation. Just one last question from my side on the data center bit. you know, while we are hearing of a 2 GW annual CapEx is what the government is targeting, are you seeing the annual ordering now in that 2 gigawatt range? Because our understanding was that the current bidding pipeline is probably somewhere between 500 MW-700 MW .
We do see it in the project pipeline. That buildup is there, yes.
Perfect. Would you be also catering to the overseas market for data centers, where you produce in India and supply to parent for data centers overseas?
We have organization all over the world, and we have capacities to serve. Right now, you're right, the demand in the global system is quite high. There are certain specific products, which, our global, you know, businesses pick up from India, and yes, we do participate in that.
Perfect, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. T. K. Sridhar for closing comments.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone for joining this particular call at a very short notice. We thought that we should complete it immediately because we have some extraordinary results to share about it. What I think we'll again definitely connect in the next quarter. In case in the between, if you have any queries, anything which you need to know more, feel free to drop a line to us. We will answer to your queries. Thank you very much, and to the team who could make it, join the call.
Thank you. On behalf of ABB India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.