Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 Kirloskar Brothers Limited 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. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of the future performance of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of the future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director from Kirloskar Brothers Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Kirloskar Brothers Limited, I extend a very warm welcome to all who have joined us on our call today. I hope everyone has had an opportunity to go through the financial results and the investor presentation, which have been uploaded on the stock exchange and on the company's website. On this call with me, I have Mr. Alok Kirloskar, Managing Director, Kirloskar Brothers International B.V.; Mr. Rama Kirloskar, Joint Managing Director, KBL, and Managing Director, Kirloskar Ebara Pumps Limited; Mr. Bhavesh Chheda, our Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Devang Trivedi, our Company Secretary; and Strategic Growth Advisors, our investor relations advisors. Let me begin my remarks by giving some business highlights. Pleased to report that for Q1 of fiscal year 2027, our consolidated revenues stood at INR 11,049 million, registering a healthy 13% growth year-on-year.
This performance was driven by robust demand across our diverse portfolio of products and services, reflecting our strong market positioning, customer-centric approach, and execution capabilities. Growth was well supported by sustained momentum across both domestic and international markets, where we continued to capitalize on emerging opportunities and strengthen our presence. Our consolidated EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 1,306 million, registering a 2% year-on-year growth with EBITDA margin of 11.8%. During the quarter, we also recorded good order inflows across both domestic and international markets. Our consolidated order intake grew by 4% year-on-year to INR 13,954 million, providing continued visibility for future growth. Turning to our standalone domestic business for Q1 FY 2027, revenue increased by 9% year-on-year to INR 6,738 million, while EBITDA grew by 16% to INR 920 million. Profit after tax stood at INR 540 million, reflecting a 15% year-on-year growth.
Our healthy order book, coupled with our focused approach towards high potential business opportunities, provides us with confidence in our growth outlook. We remain confident of delivering double-digit revenue growth in FY 2027 over FY 2026 for our standalone business. As on June 26th, our standalone pending orders amounted to INR 25,577 million, excluding small pumps order book, reflecting a strong pipeline. Further, we are seeing good order inflows across segments. On the international front, we reported a 19% year-over-year growth in revenue during Q1 FY 2027. This performance was primarily driven by strong execution across SPP USA and Kirloskar Brothers (Thailand) Limited. SPP USA continues to witness encouraging traction in data centers, fire, and HVAC projects. EBITDA stood at INR 207 million with EBITDA margin of 5.1%. This moderation was primarily attributable to a lower contribution from the services business, which traditionally carries higher margins.
We are actively focused on expanding the services portfolio, which we believe will support improvement going forward. Our overseas pending order book stood at INR 15,045 million, providing strong visibility for the coming quarters. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the company's growth trajectory backed by a healthy mix of domestic and international business, a robust order pipeline, and continued focus on operational excellence. The company is well positioned to deliver sustainable growth in periods ahead. This is all from my side. We can now begin the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question round. 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. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Manish Goyal from Thinqwise Wealth Advisors. Please proceed.
Yeah, thank you so much, sir. I have a couple of questions. Just on the standalone business observation on the stock adjustment, it seems that dispatches are being delayed, or because we have an inventory buildup, like in Q1 also, stock adjustment is INR 82 crore. FY 2026 annual report also shows that inventory work in progress has jumped from INR 180-INR 241. Advances to suppliers have jumped from INR 32 crore -INR 91 crore. Sir, does it imply that a lot of dispatches are withheld, or is there any constraint on that front which is probably hindering the double-digit growth for us? That was the first question. Second question is, sir, you did allude that SPP U.K. had a revenue mix issue with lower services contributions.
By when should we be able to see the benefit of expansion of the service portfolio to start reflecting in improvement in margins for SPP U.K.? Rodelta has again seen a jump in losses in the current quarter. How should we look at, in context of SPP U.K. and Rodelta, overall overseas subsidies performance going forward? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Goyal. Inventory has gone up. As we had explained in the previous quarter, we were improving our foundry, that exercise is complete. What had happened was some of the orders were half completed and half not, that is why we couldn't ship out the whole order. This month itself, we've seen huge improvement, which we believe will be reflected in the current quarter.
Mr. Goyal, you asked two questions. One is about SPP U.K. and Rodelta. As I mentioned, I think last time also, we expect that in their third quarter, the numbers should improve because that's how the order book was structured, because a lot of the historic, as you know, chemical and petrochemical oil and gas order books. Sorry, the service order books were effectively delayed, or they were not really placed in large numbers because the plants were idling. I think I saw it circulating a lot, even on LinkedIn, about how the INEOS chairman has been talking about oil price.
Sorry, Alok. There was a disconnection after Mr. Sanjay Kirloskar spoke about dispatches.
Okay.
We could not hear him.
Can you hear me now?
Now, yes, Alok.
Okay. I just said that you mentioned about SPP U.K. and Rodelta. I mentioned last time also that the services business should start kicking in 3rd quarter for them, which is second quarter for us here, and that's just because of the way the product mix was. I had explained that the chemical and petrochemical business service contracts related to chemical and petrochemical businesses were idling. I only said that you probably saw even a letter on LinkedIn where the chairman of INEOS was mentioning how the high prices of energy have been killing the chemical industry in Europe and the U.K. I mean, that's reflective of that.
As I mentioned, we've got contracts with power plants, with water utilities, and a lot of those should come into effect, which will again get the blended margins back to a better level going into the last two quarters for them and three quarters for us. On the Rodelta side, I would say it's really delayed execution because you are seeing them all together, all our Dutch entities together. We expect in the next two quarters for that to get better. We are quite optimistic about both the entities, and we expect it to be in line with what we've always said that all the entities will be profitable and that we will look to have better than previous year numbers.
Alok, if you can also talk about how are we looking at U.S. operations now going forward?
Yes, the U.S. operations, I think you have the numbers. It is growing at quite a fast pace. In the breakup of this presentation, I think you've seen that it's grown about 20%+ quarter-to-quarter, and a lot of it is from data centers as well as U.S. infrastructure projects. We continue to be strong. We are under NDA, but we are looking to sign in the last steps of signing a further multinational framework contract with a major U.S. operator of data centers, which is not just for pumps but modular systems. We are still very optimistic about how we look to see the U.S. growing in the future. Does that answer your question?
No. You said multi-year framework contract for which industry in U.S.?
No, for data center operator.
Okay.
Yeah.
In U.S., right?
Data center operator, yeah. Historically, we worked with them in the U.S., but now we'll work with them globally wherever they put up data centers. They're a very large- I mean, I can't mention to you because we have an NDA, but it's a very large operator.
Okay. I have few more questions. I'll come back in the queue. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raj Shah from Enam AMC. Please proceed.
Yes. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Sir, my first question was on the order inflow side. Though the prospects have been good, as you have mentioned in the opening remarks as well. Order inflow number was just up by 4% and in standalone it was up just by 3% as well. If you can throw some light on why this number was low single digit. If it could have been better, in which areas?
Some of those orders were delayed to this quarter. That's one of the reasons why you don't see that.
Okay.
The growth on a standalone basis is around 14.9% for booking.
Year- on- year.
Are you talking about a certain sector?
No, I was talking about the order inflow.
Yeah, that is the booking.
Yes.
It's about 14.
It has been delayed, so in the following quarters you see good order inflow.
There was a certain large order got delayed, but other than that, we were as per plan.
Okay. In the order book-
If you look at the growth, over the last year's first quarter, there has been a 14.9% growth in order intake.
Okay. When I see your standalone order book, the breakup that you have given on the PPT sector wise. In the customer support and engineering services division, I see on an average every quarter there is an INR 80 crore -INR 100 crore amount every quarter order book. In this quarter, that order book has increased to INR 233 crore. Is there any significant large order that we have received? That is my question.
Yes, there were certain orders that we received, I would not take that as a pattern because it purely depends on the customer's requirement. I hope that answers your question.
Is that a fair assumption?
I hope that answers your question. Am I audible?
Yes, you are. I said, as a follow-up, do you see that this year help us improve our standalone EBITDA margins?
Yes, definitely.
Got it. Lastly, in the oil and gas side, as press release mentions, we have received a 5,000 petrol pump order. My question was, is this a repeat order from the previous customer or we have been able to get entry into a new customer as well?
There are only three to four large PSUs that buy this, we are qualified by all. Now as of the end of Q1, we have around a booking of approximately INR 217 crore in this business.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nirmam from Unique PMS. Please proceed.
My first question is on the standalone business. We've seen our sales growth picking up after a few quarters now. Do we see this momentum continuing and improving from here on? As a result, will margins and operating leverage also kick in? Hello?
We just did a huge foundry project which we've come out of. Yes, that should enable higher revenues.
Okay. Secondly, on the order book breakup, we've given the split for industry where our pending order book has come. Do we see any challenges on that side?
No. Actually it is in line with our annual operating plan for the quarter. This was based on what we thought were going to be customers' orders, the orders that they would release. This is why I've always said, don't look at our business quarter- to- quarter. Look at it at least half yearly or better yet annually, then you will see the difference. Because these are capital goods that we supply and sometimes the orders get delayed and sometimes they all come in a rush. This is as per what we expected it to happen.
Okay. Alok bhai, one question on the international business. We've seen top line growth, but margins have impacted, as you mentioned because of SPP U.K.. Given the increased traction in the U.S. business and U.K. coming back, we see double-digit growth and margins improving from here on?
Yes, I mentioned that earlier to Mr. Goyal that one is that we expect the service business to sort of come back in based on our order book in the last two quarters for them and the last three quarters for us here. As you know, they're one quarter off because their calendar year and financial year is the same.
The second point, I think, is at overall level that as the execution of orders takes place in Thailand and in the Netherlands, they're a little bit delayed on order execution, those numbers also should get better.
Sure. Thank you, all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Bala Subramaniam from Arihant Capital. Please proceed.
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Sir, on that U.S. business data center share, it is around 23%. I am trying to understand which are the products we are supplying for data centers. In the U.S., around 4,000 data centers are operating, and I think another 2,000 is coming up. How do you plan to scale from 46 distributors to capture a large share in the market? If you could talk about the specific addressable market for your specific pump solutions for a data center, and how does that compare to your current average ticket size?
Market in the U.S. has, as you know, there are different players in the market. There are the operators, I am just naming the operators. They are people like Google or Amazon, who have their own data centers. There are private equities, as an example, Brookfield, let us say, who puts up data centers and other companies hire space or book out their data center for a 20-year period, and these companies basically make a utility-style cash flow. There are other sort of versions of how these work, in terms of data center size, scale, et cetera. Usually our target market is hyperscale data centers. Hyperscale data centers require different packages. One is the intake water package, which gets the water to the data center.
From there is a treatment facility usually, that requires some pumps, not usually bought by the data center, but bought by the person or the company that makes the treatment facility. After that are the main pumps of the data centers, which is the cooling pumps, the firefighting pumps, and the booster pumps. There is another system called on-chip cooling, which we don't do, but our booster pump sends the water as well as receives the water back. Sends the cold water to the on-chip cooling system and receives the warm water back from the on-chip cooling system and sends it to the chiller. I would say this is the overall package. We don't sell just the pumps, as you know, anymore.
We sell modular systems that are in a container, plug-and-play, along with the piping and the control systems, everything for the fire as well as the chiller system, as well as the pumps for the chiller systems, as well as the booster package. That's usually what we supply. In the past, we used to say that about 1%-1.5% of any CapEx really has pumps, relevant CapEx, if you talk about power plants or whatever else, and that was also the case of data centers. Now, usually the data center package for a hyperscale data center, excluding the intake water system, is between $7.5 million-$10 million. Sometimes it will go to $12 million, but this is the usual kind of package that is there. The intake water system changes because that's really dependent on what type of water you're pumping.
If you're pumping seawater, then the price is totally different from pumping river water or lake water, because obviously the corrosion and all those kinds of things. It's not worth me telling you a number because that number varies significantly based on what kind of media you're pumping in terms of water, whether it's saline or non-saline. I think that gives you a picture of what is happening. I think the question was how many data centers. I have mentioned it in the past, but I think there are approximately 4,000 odd operating data centers in the U.S., and there are another currently 2,000 data centers that have received planning permission, which includes power and water in the U.S. From that point of view, there's a good opportunity.
To answer your other question about distributors, yes, we are taking on national distributors, but those are not necessarily connected to data centers because data centers have, like I said, operators, financiers, private equity players, and all these have some key consultants. I'll just name one as an example. Let's say AECOM as an example. Really our work goes in working with the consultants as well as the end users to ensure they understand what we are supplying them and what is the specialty. As an example, hyperscale data centers claim anything from 99%-99.2% uptime. Usually this means in a whole year that there is a couple of hours, between eight and nine hours, of total downtime available for maintenance. In our case, we have some specialized pumps where maintenance can be done from the outside.
This obviously saves time for the pumps. Key items of the pump can be replaced and upgraded from the outside. These kinds of things are what an operator or a consultant would appreciate, but is not something a contractor would appreciate, if you see the difference. I would say definitely we are working to grow the distribution channel, but that's not necessarily connected to our data center business. I hope I have answered all the questions you asked.
Yes, sir. My next question, the subsidiary, KPML, I think it majorly deals with stampings, motors, and castings. I am trying to understand the margin impact from 12.5% - 7.3% in this quarter. Is this impact because of the transition to EV, or are there any other reasons? If you could mention demand for stampings, motors versus traditional ICE components.
KPML, many times we have had questions as to why we have so many subsidiaries. Internationally, we are structured just like our major competitors around the world, because almost every country demands that there be a local company doing business in that country. Domestically, we had two subsidiaries and two joint ventures. The joint ventures being Kirloskar Corrocoat and Kirloskar Ebara, and the two subsidiaries being Kolhapur Steel and KPML. KPML makes stator, rotors, and motors for specialized applications as well as motors that KBL uses in captive power plants, and TKSL makes steel castings for KBL as well as other customers. As you are aware, TKSL has been loss-making, but now they have started turning around the corner.
The output has started increasing, we expect that TKSL will also be a profitable company going forward, especially as requirements for power, whether thermal or nuclear pumps are required, this is where steel castings and large steel castings are required. As KBL builds on its order board and the fact that BHEL is also a very large customer of TKSL, we expect that this company will grow going forward. At the moment, as you are aware, TKSL was making losses, and the reason for the drop in margin at KPML has been that. We expect the margin to improve going forward.
I got it, sir. Thank you.
I hope that answers your question.
Yes, I got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Nishita Shankulesh from Sapphire Capital. Please proceed.
Yes. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yeah. I just wanted to understand, why have our margins on a consolidated basis fallen so much in Q1, from 13% in Q4 to 10%? It's a 3% margin drop. Just wanted to understand the reason for that.
Can you repeat your question?
Hello.
The question is, why has there been a margin drop-
Yeah.
-in the consolidated order book?
In consolidated order, as Alok mentioned earlier, there's a little drop in the SPP U.K. business. Otherwise, the standalone profit is more than the last year. The margin for the KBL was at 12.8% and currently at 13.7%. The drop is observed in a KBL business in the U.K. business, and that's why the consolidated numbers are lower.
Okay. As you mentioned that we expect the services business to improve from Q2 for us. Now we can expect the margins to improve as well, right?
Correct.
Okay. You mentioned that on a standalone business, we expect a double-digit growth for the whole year. What is the revenue growth we expect on a consolidated basis for the full year?
There also, as we have mentioned, we will strive for double-digit growth.
Okay. Understood. That is what we want. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Priyesh from Mahindra Mutual Fund. Please proceed.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Congratulations for the good set of numbers. Just a couple of questions. First, on order book and domestic, which is around at INR 2,500 crore. How much it is executable in FY 2027?
Almost two-thirds of this order book we believe we can execute in this year. However, I'd like to tell you that this does not reflect the retail sectors, the small pump business order book, because there is no order book. Everything that is ordered is delivered in the same month. That is approximately 45%-50% of our business.
Only standalone business. Okay. Sir, another question with respect to if you look at standalone gross margin. Your revenue has declined by around 26% quarter-on-quarter. Your gross margin has improved. Is it just because of the product mix, or how do I interpret the same?
Yes, it is essentially the product mix that has changed. The price rise that has been done.
Okay. How much price hikes you have taken, let's say since January?
10%, approximately.
Is it sufficient to actually cover up the, let's say, your raw material cost, which I have seen in the last six months or so?
Yes, we believe that will be sufficient.
Okay. Another question also on power order book, which has grown by 30%, we have also spoken about nuclear opportunity for a couple of times now. Of the, let's say, INR 600 crores of order book, how much it is related to nuclear as of now? If any, then which segment is actually driving this growth in the power order book?
The exact number I would not be able to give you, but I would say that possibly a large portion of that would be nuclear. As you're aware, we have also received orders for primary circuit pumps already, close to about INR 70 crores in the first quarter, we expect some more orders. In the secondary circuit also, we've received almost INR 40 crores worth of orders for nuclear power plants. There is a pending order board of nuclear pumps. On the other hand, we are supplying to some of the new thermal power plants that are coming up. I think one large order was also mentioned in there.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll get back in touch.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rehan Syed from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please proceed.
Okay. Good afternoon to the team, and thanks for taking my question. I just want one clarification regarding your segment-wise business. Sir, if you look beyond FY 2027, I just want to understand what's your view, which business vertical, like power, water, marine, and defense. We have multiple segments. As per your understanding, which segment is expected to deliver the highest incremental growth on EBITDA, on EBIT level? Yeah. This was my question, sir.
Um-
What was the reason behind it?
What are the?
What was the reason for growth?
What is the reason?
Yeah.
I think power will grow. Power, oil and gas, marine and defense, and building and construction, with thanks to urbanization and if the data center opportunity grows in India, I think these will be the areas where we will see growth. These will be the main growth drivers in India, to my mind.
Okay. Sir, is there any target or benchmark we are keeping in mind for EBITDA margin or EBIT margin we are targeting?
As I've always said, we will strive for double-digit growth year- on- year.
Oh, okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Participants who wishes to ask a question, you may press star and one now. The next question is on the line of Manish Goyal from Thinq wise Wealth Advisors. Please proceed.
Yeah. Thanks for another opportunity. Question for Rama. You mentioned that for petro pumps, till date, we have received orders of INR 217 crores. Is it 17,000 + 5,000, so 22,000 pumps are you referring to?
Approximately.
Hello? Sorry, the volume is very-
It would be approximate figure, Mr. Goyal. I don't have.
Yeah
the volume with me just now. Yeah, that's approximately what it will be.
Okay. This order booking is all the orders put together till date.
Yes, until Q1 end.
How much of the last year large order what we received would have got executed? When I look at your oil and gas order book, it is roughly INR 150 odd crores. I'm just wondering that definitely out of the first order, large part would have got executed?
Yes, we executed a bit of it last year. We did around INR 74 crore dispatch from this entire quantum.
Okay.
Yeah.
Rest of it should be done in the current year?
You know what happens, we can dispatch it. We actually dispatch on the basis when the end customer wants it. As per the timeline, we can do it within the year, subject to the end customer accepting it.
Sure. Also, one more observation that industry-related order book has declined significantly this quarter. Probably we are seeing a downward trend for quite a long time. What could be the reason and how should we look it going forward?
Besides the industry order, what you're looking is INR 556 million. Actually, it is a wrong rate. Actually, the order book is INR 1,497 million. The marine defense is INR 556 million.
Can you, sorry, repeat? What is the actual order book?
No. The industry order book, you said it is declined. Actually, the number INR 556 is pertaining to marine and defense. The industry order book is INR 1,497.
1,497. Oh, okay.
It got switched in the thing.
Okay. Sure, sir. The marine is- Okay, so this number has declined. Okay. Sir, as you were mentioning, Mr. Sanjay Kirloskar, in terms of the going forward order inflow should be very strong from oil and gas, thermal, marine, and defense. Ideally, would it mean that this would lead to higher revenue contribution from the engineered pumps and probably help us improve our overall margin profile, and it could be sustainable going forward?
Yes. This would help the Kirloskar vadi factory, because some of these orders would come in large pumps, and some of these orders would come under small and medium pumps. As you're aware, the numbers now from the foundry are improving significantly, and we expect that our orders will be executed much faster than we were executing them earlier.
Ideally, what I probably missed in the first round of my question was, as you are alluding to double-digit growth, now onward, we should probably see a better execution and double-digit growth. On the margin-
Fortunately, I think the orders will also come in better now, especially power, building and construction, I think. Oil and gas as well, we expect that orders will come in faster.
Okay.
Marine and defense, I wouldn't say, because that depends a lot on budgets approved by the government and then the rate at which the companies that are building ships, the rate at which they place orders.
Sure. How would be the pipeline in thermal power? Like last year's annual report says we received order inflow of INR 228 crores. Can we receive much higher than that in current year, number one? Number two, related question, are we probably dominant player for concrete volute pumps for water intake for these thermal power plants, sir?
I think now we are the world's largest manufacturers of concrete volute pumps. We've made more than anyone else in the world. We are one company, we believe that concrete volute pumps is far better for our end customer on a lowest lifecycle cost basis. That's why we promote concrete volute pumps over vertical turbine pumps that need a lot of spare parts. Concrete volute pumps, the ones that we supplied our first supply in 1994, you'll be happy to note that the efficiency had dropped by only 2% in 30 years compared to normal pumps losing one to one and a half percentage points per year. This, when it's pumping seawater 24/7. Also, the spare cartridge. They asked for a spare cartridge to be supplied along with the original pump. That spare cartridge is still lying there.
It is our belief that customers who understand the lifecycle costs are not so worried about being L1, and see the value of concrete volute pumps will go for concrete volute pumps. We are hopeful that the new plants that will be ordered in the coming years will also have concrete volute pumps based on their inherent performance. It depends on when they place the order. For nuclear power plants, currently they're asking for metallic volute pumps, where instead of a concrete casing, they have a sheet metal casing. There also, I believe we have 100% market share at the moment.
Okay. Sir, how is the progress on the development order for the primary circuit for the fleet ordering, sir? Where are we reached, sir?
Where an order can be placed?
No, sorry. Your voice was not.
I said we've reached very close to when an order can be placed after the tender comes.
Okay. Will you be able to participate in the current tender?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah. What has happened is, we have proved the hydraulic performance. It's far superior to what we had promised. Mechanically also, we've proved the pump. Metallurgically, we had some hiccups because we couldn't get it made in India. Since these are civilian nuclear power plants, there is nothing stopping us from imports. What we've done is, we expect that we will get orders, and therefore we have a company, a foundry in Europe, as well as another foundry in India, making all the trials so that metallurgically also it'll be proved. We expect that by the middle of the month or by the end of the month, everything will be proved.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Himanshu Upadhyay from Speedcore. Please proceed.
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon. My question is to Rama. Rama Kirloskar, we have that JV, Ebara, where last year the revenues fell quite significantly, and which is also in industrial and power and some of those segments. What is the outlook on that company, and how are you looking about that company moving in, let's say, one or two years ahead? Hello?
Am I audible? Hello.
Yeah, now you are audible.
Yes.
As far as last year is concerned, one of our large packages, we were not able to dispatch because the customer did not want that package at that point in time. That was the first case, it's for a domestic order. Then there were some international orders that got hampered because we couldn't ship them. They will go out, and they've gone out in Q1. I don't see that as a long-term issue. As far as booking is concerned, we see significant growth and export opportunities coming from the Gulf as well as from Africa. We are quite hopeful to see that double-digit growth there, both in booking and in revenue.
Okay. Secondly, we have focused on, in our presentation also, we give certain slides on subscription platform and all those things. We have said that IoT is an important pillar for us for growth. How is the progress on industrial side in domestic markets? Let's say, what is your thought process from here on how big can it be? Some thoughts on that business will help us on scaling up or it is not scaling.
We do see an order board in industrial. Now we are coming back to KBL. One of the reasons why our revenue seemed flat this time for industrial is because of our foundry modernization program. That did affect some of our dispatches. We do see that picking up in Q2.
As far as your question on IoT, I think it's going quite well. We've now made the second version. We made 2 versions. One is a very cheap version, which can be used for lower cost pumps. The other one is one which can be used with multiple pumps. The first part of IoT devices, each pump needed one device. Now we've made sure that more than one pump can go per device, theoretically reducing the cost for the customer for adoption. We are quite bullish about the future of this. It can be connected into other programs, we expect that customers will order this in larger numbers going forward.
Other than critical sectors where you would expect such condition monitoring systems to be adopted, we also see significant traction in municipal water and irrigation projects. They, too, are asking for these. A lot of times, the pump houses are in very remote areas where it's difficult to find skilled manpower for maintenance. We do see a lot of demand for these systems in those tenders as well.
Okay. How large would be our base, let's say, also where we have applied IoT in India market-
It's in hundreds at the moment.
-at what rate that base will be increasing, something like that?
It's in hundreds at the moment.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Actually, we are the only ones who can supply this at the moment in India. When governments come out or customers come out with requirements, we are the only ones participating.
Is it helping us in our aftermarket business also?
Yeah, because we are able to monitor the performance of the pumps.
Secondly, let's say we have that EHD or business, okay?
Sir, can you speak up a little? You're very soft. Can you speak up a little bit? We can't hear you.
Okay. What I am saying is, on customer support, okay, though there is one large business what we have got this quarter, is it helping us in our customer support and EHD, can we think it can be large chunk of, let's say, 10% of our order booking or revenue over a period of time with IoT and everything also?
Yes. We do believe that that'll happen over time. It will still take time. Specifically for critical applications, it does help us for customer support because it helps us to ensure that the customer has no downtime.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. To ask a question, you may press star and one now. The next question is on the line of Sakshi Pratap from Pratap Securities. Please proceed.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I had two questions. Firstly, finance costs and other expenses have increased by 31% and 21% respectively. Could you help us understand what factors led to this rise, and should we expect these levels to remain elevated over the coming quarters?
The other expenses increase is on account of two things. One is about the digitization expenses, what we are undertaking, and the advertisement expenses, what we are incurring.
Okay. Understood, sir. Secondly, what would be our planned CapEx for the entire year, FY 2027? Also if you can highlight where we would be using this for investment.
Yeah. Normally, our capital expenditure is equal to depreciation, and it is mainly used for modernization, de-bottlenecking, and quality requirements wherever they are.
Understood, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Bhavesh Chheda for the closing comments. Over to you, sir.
We thank everyone for joining the call today. We hope we have been able to give you a detailed overview of our business and also answer your queries. Should you have any further queries or clarification, please feel free to reach out to SGA, our investor relations advisor. Thank you once again for your continued trust and support, and I wish everyone a very pleasant day.
Thank you. On behalf of Kirloskar Brothers Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you.
Thank you.