Bharat Forge Limited (BOM:500493)
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At close: May 12, 2026
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Q4 25/26

May 7, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q4 and FY 2026 earning conference call hosted by Bharat Forge Limited. This conference call may contain forward-looking statement about the company, which are based on beliefs, opinion, and expectation of the company as on date of this call. These statement are not the guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant line will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask question after the presentation conclude. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Kalyani, Vice Chairman and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge Limited. Thank you, over to you, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining our conference call today. As is standard, I will first introduce the people with me and then our Group CFO, Kedar Dixit, will take you through the numbers. I have with me my fellow Board Member and Head of the Components Business, Subodh Tandale. I have Kedar Dixit, our CFO. I have Rajhagopalan our Head of Investor Relations and M&A, and Chinmay and Samir. Over to you, Kedar.

Kedar Dixit
CFO, Bharat Forge

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll just take you through a few highlights for the quarter and for the year ended 31st March 2026. We'll start with the performance review of consolidated results, given that number of initiatives and investments we have made in new verticals as well as, in the Indian manufacturing space. We ended the year with revenues of INR 812 crores.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thousand.

Kedar Dixit
CFO, Bharat Forge

INR 16,812 crores and EBITDA of INR 2,921 crore, which has a growth of 11% in revenues and about 6% in EBITDA. Consolidated net debt equity stood at 0.41 as of March 2026. During the year, the company also secured new businesses worth INR 4,814 crore across all key businesses, which includes the traditional business of INR 1,210 crore, Defense, INR 2,816 crore, JSA, which is our casting unit, INR 292 crore, and K-Drive, which is a recent acquisition. It's about INR 500 crore. Talking about the standalone performance, the standalone business reported a revenue of INR 8,396 crore, which was lower by about 5% year-over-year.

This was mainly on account of regulatory uncertainties in North America and demand challenges in U.S. CV market, which has impacted the performance. As we speak, we are looking at good growth in this sector. Standalone EBITDA for FY 2026 was at INR 2,312 crore, translating EBITDA margin of 27.5%. PBT before exceptional items was INR 1,826 crore, which was about 8% lower YOY. Talking about the quarterly performance, standalone revenues for the quarter was up by 8.5% quarter-over-quarter at INR 2,260 crore. The quarter-over-quarter improvement in performance was driven by all around recovery in exports and strong performance in domestic automotive segment.

Q4 was up at 7.2% sequentially at INR 610 crore, translating an EBITDA margin of 27%. This also includes one-time cost, retrospective cost by NVVN, which had charges retrospectively, cess on the captive power, which is about INR 11 crore. Without that, the margins would have been closer to 28%. PBT before exceptional item was about INR 486 crore. During the quarter, company has absorbed tariff impact of about INR 12 crore. Balance sheet continues to remain robust with net debt to equity at 0.18 for the year. Talking about the overseas business, we have initiated the restructuring of our German steel business, which is CDP Bharat Forge. We expect to complete the process by end of next calendar.

For other businesses in Europe, we are simultaneously pursuing various business opportunities to leverage the scaled down manufacturing footprint. Performance-wise, EU operations registered revenue of INR 3,865 crores and EBITDA of INR 151 crore, resulting in EBITDA margin of around 4%. While U.S. operations recorded a revenue of INR 1,534 crores, EBITDA of INR 54 crores, translating into EBITDA margin of 3.5%. Now I will hand over to Amit sir for his comments.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. You know, 2026 was a very interesting year. It had its own set of challenges, yet I think our team rose up to the challenges and really performed exceptionally well. It also was a year with a lot of uncertainty, especially to do with tariff, which to some extent persists. We ended up towards the end of the year with a full-blown war taking place in the Middle East, which luckily enough seems to have, you know, subsided right now. If everything goes well, it should, you know, really settle down and get resolved. I think this has had impacts and uncertainties on markets, imports, transportation, and many factors that affect our business.

Given that background, I think we have weathered the storm well and ended on a stronger note with very good momentum going into the new year. I want to especially commend our sales and marketing, customer-facing teams, our supply chain teams, our operating teams, and all the people in our company for really giving it their all and making this year, let's say, painless for our customers. Driven by a combination of new business initiatives and M&A over the past three years, BFL is now an engineering conglomerate entrenched across processes, customers, and segments. This is an example of how we transform every five, six years. Our balance sheet continues to remain one of our key strengths, with a net cash position, a strong net cash position at a standalone level.

The aerospace business, which we have been talking about for quite some time, I'm very happy to report, is now a meaningful part of our industrial exports, and is now almost 26% of the last quarter's exports and is the second-largest contributor to our industrial exports now. This segment has seen multiple new business wins, both across jet engine, structure, landing systems, from global OEMs. We were recently selected by an aerospace OEM as their first supplier from India for any critical components. Our acquisition of K Drive is making significant progress and has also won a lot of new business from OEMs, which will start panning out from this year.

On the defense front, our business has spread well beyond artillery and vehicles and to include small arm naval solutions and a wide variety of unmanned platforms, both sea and air. The recent order wins are a testament to the progress made here. With an order book of close to INR 11,000 crores, the next three, four years will see stable revenue accretion in these sectors. In parallel, we are also focusing on expanding our product portfolio and participating in new programs to build a robust and scalable revenue pipeline over the medium to long term. I particularly see new opportunities in Europe for our defense business.

Our castings, despite the challenges in the export market, especially in the wind sector because of the slowdown in wind infrastructure buildup, we have seen JSA continue to grow and increase both revenue and profitability going forward. We are now expanding our customer base to cross-fertilize and to cross-sell these products into our existing customer base in the automotive and commercial vehicle sector. The recent capital raise from Premji Invest will help us drive capacity expansion and make this business an independent growth driver for Bharat Forge and the Kalyani Group. This week, we acquired a 30% stake in Fortuna Engineering, which is a company based in Nashik. This has a strong and experienced management team led by the promoters in machining.

It strategically is a very complementary fit to us because they do machining of connecting rods and some other high-value components, which are all complementary to what Bharat Forge does, and in fact, also allows us to supply into them, you know, the forged components that they can machine. The company has a strong balance sheet and a net cash position. In e-mobility, as I mentioned in the television interview earlier, we have decided to take a write-off of those investments where we don't see any immediate revenue and business ramp-up because it doesn't make sense to spend time and effort on those areas which are not gonna give us returns immediately. As you're aware, globally, the electric vehicle adoption has taken a different trajectory as compared to what was originally envisaged.

Additionally, our overseas business will also see a restructuring with our steel forging business undergoing a restructuring, as we have explained earlier. We also intend to evaluate additional business opportunities in the automotive sector to leverage our market position, our customers, and our footprint globally. To look at 2027 as a whole, I think it's gonna be a strong year for our India manufacturing operations as the growth impetus across sectors and the kind of strategies we have put in place will bring in higher execution and growth. Barring any further geopolitical crises and their impact on demand, we should see a close to 25% + growth in our India business. Our ongoing CapEx programs across forging, casting, and products platform will translate into INR 800 crore-INR 850 crore CapEx in a 15-18-month period.

We continue to evaluate potential M&A opportunities in India to address opportunities in high-growth sectors which may be complementary and a good fit to our existing business. Thank you. We, my team and I and Subodh will be happy to take your questions.

Operator

Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone 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. Our first question come from the line of Kapil Singh from Nomura. Please go ahead.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Good afternoon, sir. Congratulations on a good performance for the quarter. Firstly, I had a question on your target growth for FY 2027. Could you give some more color and break it down between different segments? Broadly, what kind of growth you expect in defense, U.S. exports for CVs, non-auto and domestic?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, I'm not going to break it up into that much detail. Let me just tell you, we will see the highest growth coming from our aerospace business and then defense business and the automotive business. When I say automotive, I mean the components business, which includes both automotive and industrial.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Okay. Sir, what is the outlook for domestic and global CVs?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Outlook is strong for both.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Okay.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

U.S. is very strong, and so is the India.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Okay. sir, you also mentioned that we have acquired Fortuna. Could you give us some color in terms of revenues? Where does it stand, and what is the potential here?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah. We have acquired 30% for INR 130 crore. The company has a revenue of about INR 360 crore-INR 380 crore, and they have a net cash position of about INR 20 crore. They are on a growth path to increase, you know, multiple x by setting up new machining lines. Also, we will open doors to them for our customers because they don't make the very large parts that we make. Large connecting rods is a big opportunity to supply globally.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Okay. Will it be safe to say that the growth target also includes inorganic opportunities like these?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

We don't currently have any other inorganic which is ongoing, but as we have mentioned, we will look at opportunities within India that make sense for us.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Okay.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

in the automotive industrial space.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

sir

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Sorry, just one last question. You mentioned that the electrification has taken a different path from what you were originally anticipating. Could you elaborate a little bit?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, you know, about five years ago, there was a very strong focus on electrification across the board, including commercial vehicles, including heavy commercial vehicles. However, it is definitely not seeing the same kind of, let's say, trajectory as what was anticipated. Secondly, the even the large European OEMs are not as successful in the passenger car sector on electrification. As you have seen, both, you know, Porsche, Ford, many companies have had massive hits and write-offs because they have not been able to build a platform that has been as competitive as those that the Chinese offer. There has definitely been a recalibration of everybody's EV strategy, globally, except the Chinese, of course.

Kapil Singh
Analyst, Nomura

Okay. Thank you, sir. That's all from my side. Best wishes.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Binay Singh from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Hi, team. Congratulations on.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry, we can't hear you. Can you speak a little louder, please?

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Hi, team. Congratulations-

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah.

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

-on good set of numbers. My first question is on your restructuring. You know, you highlighted that it'll conclude by end of CY 2027. Could you share your thoughts on that? In the intermittent phase, which is this year and next year, will the losses be at similar level like this year you had almost a INR 300 crore loss or so on the Europe and U.S. operations? That, happy to hear your comments on that.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

The restructuring of CDP has started. This is a 15 - 18 month process where we have to meet the customer requirements and also do a solvent liquidation of the company. This, we anticipate the losses will reduce because the CDP losses are not going to be there. Whatever is there will be part of the restructuring. Hopefully the, for the year that goes by, we will have a better performance from our overseas subsidiaries.

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Thanks. Thanks for that. Just on aerospace, what exactly was the number for FY 2026 for you?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

It was about INR 400 crores.

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Lastly, just on defense. You know, in the last call, we talked about a revenue guidance on defense of 30%-40%. Just looking at the order book, what are the key sort of milestones to watch out for? You've talked about opportunity in Europe and all, any key things that we should expect or milestones to see this year?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

The first thing that you should look at is the fact that the ATAGS FAT will happen, and then the ATAGS production will start and ramp up. The second is the CQB carbine also production will happen. Those are the two big milestones that will move the needle starting this year, and then it will continue next year and year after next as well.

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Anything on the order backlog? Any large project that you are bidding for?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

This will start in the second half of this year. Please remember.

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Yeah. Anything on the order wins, any incremental order book?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

We have as Kedar mentioned in his initial talk, we have won new orders in defense as well in the space of naval and drone systems. We have lots of other new products that we are both developed, developing and fielding that go into a variety of platforms, including navy. Hopefully those should all now start, you know, the orders, the bids should open, and then we should know where we stand.

Binay Singh
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Great. Great. Thanks, team.

Operator

Thank you.

Subodh Tandale
Executive Director, Bharat Forge

Are we stopped here?

Operator

Our next question come from the line of Gunjan Prithyani from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Just a couple of clarifications on this aerospace and defense. In aerospace, you mentioned INR 400 crore for full year, and you also mentioned 26% of exports in quarter four, which essentially means exit run rate of almost INR 300 crore. Is that the number we sort of work to for the next year, that it can be a INR 1,000-INR 1,200 crore aerospace business?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

What I said is that industrial exports for Q4, aerospace was about 26% of the overall export from industrial.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Okay.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Okay.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Can you, Okay.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

In any case, we are, you know, if we look at, INR 400 crores as the business we did for the whole year.

We will see a strong double-digit growth higher than the overall growth that we are anticipating as a company, significantly higher.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Okay, got it, which is similar like what we're saying for defense as well, that 30%, 40% sort of growth. These businesses sort of clock that number in that.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

As I mentioned earlier, the highest growth will be aerospace-

Defense, then the components business. In components I include, you know, all the components that we make.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Okay. Got it. Again, the clarification on the sub piece that you mentioned, the restructuring has initiated. Do the losses from this German subsidiary completely go away from the operating number because restructuring is bigger?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry, what? What will go away? No, it'll go away when it gets wound up.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Which is basically end of next year.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Next calendar year.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah. Yeah.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Okay. Got it. Now just moving to the data centers bit which was mentioned in the media. Is there something that you just want to give us a sense on what are we doing there and where?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

No, I don't wanna talk more about it, but let suffice to say that, you know, a data center has a large amount of manufactured input that goes into it, in the auxiliaries, in, you know, every element of managing, powering and supporting a data center. Those are all areas where we supply product into.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

Okay. Got it. Last question on the, you know, just the CV business both in Class eight as well as in India. I think just generally there is a concern that, you know, as energy prices, you know, particularly we've already seen them move up in U.S. How do we think about, you know, how confident are we of the growth outlook, both Class 8 as well as the India CV?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah. My colleague, Subodh will answer.

Subodh Tandale
Executive Director, Bharat Forge

Currently, that is a common problem everywhere in the world, the energy price is going up. You have to also take into consideration that there is a aging fleet in the U.S. and, they have a certain calculation for that in terms of what.

-what they have to replace and when. From that perspective, you know, the demand is expected to remain strong for the rest of the year for sure. There is also an emission change coming in early next year. As a combination of all this, there is a strong hope that the demand in the U.S. will remain strong. As far as India is concerned, yes, there is a, there is a increase, but there is also overall increase of economic activity. From that perspective, you know, the energy shock is there, but it is going to get absorbed in the system by, you know, passing it along the whole value chain. We expect that there should be reasonably stable demand.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

The existing, like, pipeline that you see.

Operator

Gunjan, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you may please rejoin the queue for more question.

Gunjan Prithyani
Analyst, Bank of America

All right. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the question from the participant, we request you to kindly limit your question to two question per participant. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Our next question come from the line of Arvind Sharma from Citibank. Please go ahead.

Arvind Sharma
Analyst, Citigroup

Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for taking my question. On the 25% growth target for the India operations, will it be possible to share how much would be in the standalone business? How much do you expect in the Indian subsidiaries?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

No, you know, I'm not gonna break it down into all that. That, it gives too much information. Let's just limit to say that it's gonna be at a overall India level.

Arvind Sharma
Analyst, Citigroup

Got it.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

What we manufacture in India.

Arvind Sharma
Analyst, Citigroup

Great. It will be between the standalone and the Indian subsidiary. I understand it correct.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry?

Arvind Sharma
Analyst, Citigroup

It will be the combined standalone as well as the Indian subsidiaries. That understanding is correct?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, correct. Correct.

Arvind Sharma
Analyst, Citigroup

Sure, sir. Sir, also on the orders that you alluded to, almost INR 4,800 crores, into the defense orders of INR 2,800 crores, what would be the typical gestation period of these new orders won? Just from our perspective, you know, when should we expect the revenue start accruing? Is this something that you can share?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, actually, we talked about this a little while earlier, that if you look at the ATAGS order, that will start revenue in the next half of the year. Same with the carbines. Some of the data center orders will also start slowly from the end towards the third quarter, fourth quarter, and then really ramp up next year. Everything will start ramping up from this year. I mean, product development will start from this year and ramp up next year.

Arvind Sharma
Analyst, Citigroup

Thank you, sir. Sir, if you just comment on the commodity costs, anything that you would like to stress upon?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Right now, the biggest issue on cost is energy cost, which has gone up quite substantially, and elements that depend very heavily on energy, those have gone up. That we are negotiating with our customers to get compensation. Correct?

Subodh Tandale
Executive Director, Bharat Forge

Yes.

Arvind Sharma
Analyst, Citigroup

That's all from my side, sir. Thank you so much for taking my question.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pramod Amthe from InCred Capital. Please go ahead.

Pramod Amthe
Analyst, InCred Capital

Yeah. Hi, thanks for taking my question. Continuing on the previous question in terms of cost, do you see worst is behind or it's still a very volatile environment? Also similarly, in terms of supply chain challenges, how are you seeing it?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

You know, you gotta take it a day at a time because you know, we are living in a time where what's happening in the world depends on which news channel you watch. You know, it's not really the old rules of the game anymore. Every hour, every minute, things are changing. You know, we are doing the best we can. As a country also and as an organization also.

Pramod Amthe
Analyst, InCred Capital

Okay.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I don't know if I can say the worst is behind us.

Pramod Amthe
Analyst, InCred Capital

Okay. The second one is with regard to the recent acquisition for machining facility. You already have a machining facility in-house, and this seems to be like your captive facility which you acquired. What's the reason to do it, and how do you see make versus buy in such form decisions? Is there any worthwhile time saving you are doing here or capability addition?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry, sorry. Say that again.

Pramod Amthe
Analyst, InCred Capital

No, I said you have bought this entity.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, go ahead, Subodh.

Subodh Tandale
Executive Director, Bharat Forge

Pramod, the reason of acquiring this entity is this is very synergistic to what we do today. And, you know, we also cannot do everything ourselves. We need the bandwidth to be able to grow in a quantum manner. We will also be addressing many segments that we have not addressed in India so far as a part of this, you know, this resource that we have, not just in India for that matter, even outside India. And, we have actually already started getting a lot of positive interest from our existing customers to be able to do that. The whole idea is growth related more than anything else.

Pramod Amthe
Analyst, InCred Capital

And for fast-

You mentioned top line and profitability.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I'll add to one thing Subodh said. It's not just growth, it is fast growth.

Pramod Amthe
Analyst, InCred Capital

Okay. What type of margins does it operate in? EBITDA margins or EBIT margins, that business?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

You know, it's mid-teens.

Pramod Amthe
Analyst, InCred Capital

Okay. Sure. Thanks and all the best.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nitin Arora from Axis Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Hi, sir. Just on the explosive side, on the defense, how are we thinking about this business? Because there is, you know, lot of demand globally as well. When do we see this CapEx happening, and when do you see scale start becoming bigger for you? Just on the direction side.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

First of all, we don't have an explosive business right now.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Right.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

As we have mentioned, Mr. Arora, that we are planning to set up a facility. The facility we are planning to come up in Andhra Pradesh, and we are going to do the groundbreaking of this month.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

FY 2027 is where we see, sorry, FY 2028 where we see, you know.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Let me just caveat that by.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

How much CapEx? Yeah.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Let me just caveat that by saying that you need a hell of a lot of approvals.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Right

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

both before setting up such a facility and after setting up a facility like this.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Yeah

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

before you can start production.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Right.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Our goal is to break ground this month and start the preparatory work, and then once we get our approval, start construction by the end of this year. That should be ready in less than 15 months. Then, you know, another six to eight months from then, we should be able to start pilot production. We are talking about roughly 24 months total.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Total. Got it.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

2024-2027.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Thank you very much, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah.

Nitin Arora
Analyst, Axis Mutual Fund

Thank you. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sonal Gupta from HSBC AMC. Please go ahead.

Sonal Gupta
Analyst, HSBC AMC

Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. Amit, very heartening to see we are aggressively moving, and you've done a lot of acquisitions this year in India, I mean, like with the K Drive as well as Fortuna. In that context, I just wanted to understand the capital raise, external capital raise in JSA. Why are we doing that, right? Like, I mean, that's something that we can internally fund as well.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

No, that was a minor thing, actually. Honestly, we see a large opportunity in JSA, but it's We wanted to make it an independent business and grow it because we see that that business could become, you know, a multi-thousand crore business per year. If you see, the biggest ingredient of, you know, in that industry is energy and raw material. Both those factors are not available in required quantity or price in Europe. We see a large opportunity to move that manufacturing into India, so we want to expand that fast. We want to do it with its own momentum and steam. That was the reason to do it. You know, I think there are other synergies that could come out of that relationship as well.

Sonal Gupta
Analyst, HSBC AMC

You're saying that by doing this external, they can grow faster than what they would have done if we'd done internally?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I also want to build a new model where companies that we buy, which are like that, you know, become more focused on their own growth and become self-sufficient. Yes, we will support them on, you know, whatever customer connect, et cetera, that we can do. I think they need to drive their growth more aggressively and not get limited by, you know, just what we can provide them.

Sonal Gupta
Analyst, HSBC AMC

Okay. Sorry, the second question I had was on the ATAGS. I mean, what sort of capacity have we now ramped up to, and when do we see this?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

We talked about this, that second half of this year, we will see that FAT getting completed and then hopefully production and supplies to start.

Sonal Gupta
Analyst, HSBC AMC

I think, earlier you mentioned that we were initial capacity is like five guns a month. Is that what we are looking at?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, that's what we can do. Yes.

Sonal Gupta
Analyst, HSBC AMC

Okay, great. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ronak Singhvi from NAFA Asset Managers. Please go ahead.

Ronak Singhvi
Analyst, NAFA Asset Managers

Hello. Thank you for taking my questions. Am I audible?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yes, yes, please go ahead.

Ronak Singhvi
Analyst, NAFA Asset Managers

I want to get specific about the 155 mm artillery shells.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry?

Ronak Singhvi
Analyst, NAFA Asset Managers

155 mm artillery shells.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yes.

Ronak Singhvi
Analyst, NAFA Asset Managers

What is the current capacity?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I'm not gonna discuss that. You know, let's just say that we have adequate capacity.

Ronak Singhvi
Analyst, NAFA Asset Managers

Okay.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

-producing, a large number of them.

Ronak Singhvi
Analyst, NAFA Asset Managers

Okay. like, can you just say whether you are gonna go into explosives or precision guidance or just the empty shells?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I've already answered this just before when Mr. Mehra, I think, asked a question.

Operator

Arora.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Arora. Mr. Arora asked a question. We are definitely going to get into explosives.

Ronak Singhvi
Analyst, NAFA Asset Managers

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nitin Jain from Fairvalue Equity Advisory. Please go ahead.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Yeah. Good afternoon, congratulations on a good quarter. My first question is on the aerospace business. If you could provide some outlook on the business, where do we see it in the next three years? What are the kind of margins we have here? Like, are they above company average or in line with the company margin?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I would say the margins are above the company average. If you remember, Mr. Jain, that over the last three years, we had said the first goal is to get to INR 500 crore, INR 600 crore, INR 700 crore and then, you know, get to INR 1,000 crore. I think we are on that trajectory, and sooner than later, we should cross that and then be on a very fast growth path after that. You know, getting to the first INR 1,000 crore is hard. After that, it becomes, you know, you create lines of business, you create product strategies, and then multiple products can become INR 400 crore, INR 500 crore each. Maybe even more. We're on that path.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Okay. Safe to assume that we are targeting around INR 1,000 crores in the next three years or so?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Easily. Easily.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Okay, great.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I would say even more than that.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Okay, great. Can you provide some color on the kind of revenue opportunity we are targeting in the server manufacturing business in the next two years?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

No, no. The, we are not looking at that business aggressively. You know, we were trying to look at that business to understand the data center market. I think we've understood what we want to do and what we don't want to do. There are some specialty opportunities where there are certain critical clients who want domestic-made servers made by an Indian company. Those we will look at. Those are not very large opportunities at this point in time. They are more a strategic opportunity, and it's an opportunity to get into the whole value chain of the data center. That's what we're looking at it as. I wouldn't look at it as a, you know, getting into electronics in a big way kind of thing.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Okay, that's quite helpful. Thank you and congratulations once again.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Mitesh from Aditya. Please go ahead.

Mitesh Kamdar
Analyst, Aditya Equity Investment

Yeah, I have a question regarding the Odisha project.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry, which company are you with?

Mitesh Kamdar
Analyst, Aditya Equity Investment

Aditya Equity Investment. Sorry, I forgot to write the full name. Hello?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah. Go ahead. Please go ahead.

Mitesh Kamdar
Analyst, Aditya Equity Investment

Yeah, I had a question regarding the Odisha project. When is the environmental clearance expected for the project, and when do you expect to break ground for the project?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

We're waiting still. I don't know, maybe another 2, 3, 4 months.

Mitesh Kamdar
Analyst, Aditya Equity Investment

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Het Raichura from Ananya Research. Please go ahead.

Het Raichura
Analyst, Ananya Research

Hello, sir. Good afternoon. I just wanted to understand that the gross block trajectory-

Operator

I'm sorry, sir, but your voice is not audible.

Het Raichura
Analyst, Ananya Research

Yes, sir. I just want to understand the gross block trajectory and the targets for the next three, five years.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Het, if you can take this offline. We're not able to hear you. I think you should call our team separately and talk to them. We're not able to hear you at all.

Het Raichura
Analyst, Ananya Research

All right, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Hello? Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Rakesh Roy from Boring AMC. Please go ahead.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

Yeah. Hi, sir. My first question, sir, can you, sir, give me the full year defense revenue for FY 2026?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

INR 1,300 crore. INR 1,300 and Sorry, full year revenue for defense.

Kedar Dixit
CFO, Bharat Forge

15.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry, 15.

Kedar Dixit
CFO, Bharat Forge

62.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

INR 1,562 crores.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

All right, sir. Right, sir. Sir, my next question, sir, recently Army issue one RFI for bulletproof troop carrier. Are we bidding for this one?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, we're bidding for lots of new programs with the Army.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

Okay. Can you highlight on this, sir? Recently one product is launched in defense, especially Vikram VT 21 with DRDO and Tata. How is the market size and where we are currently?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry.

Subodh Tandale
Executive Director, Bharat Forge

Vikram.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

Vikram VT Tata.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, we.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

So how's the-

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

We launched our wheeled platform and we also have our tracked platform there.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

Right. How is the market-

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I didn't understand the question.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

My question is, sir, how is the market size for this product, especially for army?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

That is for the product replacing the old BMPs that the Indian Army has huge numbers of.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

Okay. Any idea how much number for domestic market and for export market for your point of view?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Globally, the market is in tens of thousands.

Rakesh Roy
Analyst, Boring AMC

Oh, great, sir. Great. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mahesh Bindra from LIC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Mahesh Bindra
Analyst, LIC Mutual Fund

Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Sir, what kind of CapEx we're looking for next three years?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I'm telling you right now what we have ongoing between last year, this year and between last year and this year will be about INR 800 crores.

Mahesh Bindra
Analyst, LIC Mutual Fund

Okay. Sure. Sir, since the defense business is becoming bigger and, you know, with various dimensions, any plans of hiving of this business? Maybe creating this new entity.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I mean, we haven't thought about it. As you know, we already spun it off into KSSL.

Mahesh Bindra
Analyst, LIC Mutual Fund

Right. Right. In terms of creating value for investors, are there any plans?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I hope we are creating value.

Mahesh Bindra
Analyst, LIC Mutual Fund

In terms of listing, this.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

That we will look at separately.

Mahesh Bindra
Analyst, LIC Mutual Fund

Okay. Sure.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thank you.

Mahesh Bindra
Analyst, LIC Mutual Fund

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Nitin Jain from Fairvalue Equity Advisory. Please go ahead.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Thank you for the follow-up opportunity. My question is, given the importance of drones in modern warfare, like we have seen in Operation Sindoor and other operations, what kind of presence do we have in drone manufacturing?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

We are already making drones for land, sea, and air. I would say that under sea and the sea part we are very strong in. The air part we are getting stronger. The land we need to do more work. We have already one order in both the air and the sea domain.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Right. Would it be possible to provide any percentage in terms of defense business?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

No, not right now.

Nitin Jain
Analyst, Fairvalue Equity Advisory

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Kalyani for closing comments. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

If there-

Operator

Good forms.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I think if there are any last questions, you know, one or two, let's finish them and then we can close. I just saw that there are two names.

Operator

Sure, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Let's just do these last two.

Operator

Sure, sure. Our next question comes from the line of Akshay Karwa from Aviva India. Please go ahead.

Akshay Karwa
Analyst, Aviva India

Hi, Amit sir. Good afternoon. Just pertaining to jet engine.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Sorry. Hello? Sorry, Akshay can't hear us.

Akshay Karwa
Analyst, Aviva India

Am I audible now?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Go ahead.

Akshay Karwa
Analyst, Aviva India

Sir, my question pertains to manufacturing of jet engine.

With the recent companies coming, with private companies coming to foray for this, how long do you think we would be ready to create our own localized jet engine in the near term?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Are you talking about an engine for a manned or unmanned platform?

Akshay Karwa
Analyst, Aviva India

Manned platform, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Manned platform will take quite some time. I would say not less than 5-10 years. Unmanned can happen very, very fast. Already we are supplying small jet engines for number of drones, we are now going to be making bigger ones also for unmanned systems. These are completely made in India in-house.

They are designed, engineered and manufactured. Range of 40 kg-150 kg.

Akshay Karwa
Analyst, Aviva India

Understood, sir. My question revolves around the recent AMCA suggestion, the AMCA engines. Regarding that, as you said, 5- 10 years. Which of your companies do you think would be able to get this order, if it's to come?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

For AMCA, look, the whole program is going to be a down selection first of the consortium, and then first prototype in 2032. Okay? It's still a long way away. Initially, AMCA will be powered by imported engines.

Akshay Karwa
Analyst, Aviva India

Understood, sir. Thank you, sir. That's all from my side and wish you all the best, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Last question comes from the line of Radha from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.

Speaker 19

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My question was on K Mobility business. Can you give us some insights on how the growth will be driven in this business beyond the normal CV industry growth? Will it be exports and, or gaining new customers, or will it be from hybrids and EVs?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah, it's a good question, Radha. We are looking at the specialty axle business and the LCV and SUV axle business, including EV, for those. Both ICE and EV. That is what's gonna drive the growth there.

Speaker 19

Can this take the business to the 3x in the medium term? Is there this kind of scalability opportunity?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yes, there is. In, 2x in, you know, next three to four years is definitely possible. You know.

Speaker 19

Okay.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

If we are a little more lucky and we get into some you know, specialty axles, it could be even better.

Speaker 19

What is the peak margins that can be made, sir, in this business?

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

I think it's too early to say, but, you know, our goal is a good teen, mid-teens margin in this business.

Speaker 19

All right, sir. Second and last question is, how is the demand scenario in North America and Europe passenger car segment, and what is driving the demand here, if so?

Subodh Tandale
Executive Director, Bharat Forge

U.S. is strong, Europe is better.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Yeah. Subodh is gonna answer that now.

Subodh Tandale
Executive Director, Bharat Forge

Our demand in the U.S. is stable. When I say stable, you know, last year's total, the market size was about 16 million vehicles, 16.1. It's more or less gonna be the same forecast for this year. Demand is reasonably okay. They don't expect any changes. In Europe, we have to see because Europe will obviously face a little more challenges given the, given how long the war is protracted. We have to watch what happens in Europe. By and large, it is stable as compared to last year. That's the outlook.

Speaker 19

All right, sir. Thanks and all the best to you.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Ladies and gentlemen.

Operator

Over to you, sir.

Amit Kalyani
VC and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge

Thank you very much for your time and interest, and your support to our company. Really appreciate it. We will remain in touch, and our teams are available if you need any further inputs. Thank you, and have a nice day.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Bharat Forge Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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