Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Larsen & Toubro Limited Q1 FY 2025 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 this conference, please signal an operator by pressing Star and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. P. Ramakrishnan, Head Investor Relations from Larsen & Toubro Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Darwin. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to all of you into the Q1 FY 2025 earnings call of Larsen & Toubro. The earnings presentation was uploaded on the stock exchange and in our website at around 6:30 P.M. As per the normal practice, instead of going through the entire presentation, I will take you through the important highlights for the quarter, followed by our financial performance summary for the same quarter in the next 30 minutes or so. And after that, I will be taking the Q&A.
Before I begin the overview, the customary disclaimer, the presentation that we have uploaded on the stock exchange and our website today, including the discussions we may have on the call now, may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning L&T Group's business prospects and profitability, which are subject to several risks and uncertainties, and the actual results could materially differ from those in such forward-looking statements. I would request you to go through the detailed disclaimer, which is available in Slide 2 of our earnings presentation that we have uploaded today. To start with, the Indian economy continues to display a strong growth momentum despite the global headwinds. With the conclusion of the general elections in the country, we expect policy continuity going forward. The union budget for FY 2025 that got announced yesterday has reaffirmed the government's commitment towards enhanced public CapEx in the medium term.
The central government budgeted CapEx at INR 11.11 trillion crore, which is around 3.4% of the GDP. Further, to promote state government CapEx spending, an amount of INR 1.5 trillion has been set aside as long-term interest-free loans. With a combination of improved domestic demand conditions, a good availability of bank credit, further backed by government's incentives for manufacturing, and finally, with the election risk behind us, the stage is set in a way for a revival in overall CapEx in the country. The government budget yesterday also mentioned about promoting private investments in infrastructure through a viability gap funding and enabling policies and regulations. In our opinion, the Union Budget strikes a fine balance between prudent resource allocation and achieving fiscal deficit reduction at the same time.
Elsewhere, the countries in the Middle East are continuing to focus on investments in oil and gas, infrastructure, industrialization, and energy transition. Before I get into the details, let me share some important highlights for the quarter. Two coveted global credit rating agencies, the Standard & Poor's and Fitch, have assigned BBB+ rating to Larsen & Toubro. This rating, with a stable outlook, by both the two rating agencies, is two notches above the country's sovereign ratings and essentially underscores the company's exceptional credit quality and robust financial health. Secondly, MSCI ESG Research has also upgraded L&T's rating from BB to BBB on account of company's improvement in various parameters, including ESG.
Thirdly, L&T Semiconductor Technologies Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, has entered into a share purchase agreement this month for acquisition of 100% stake in SiliConch Systems, a Bangalore-based company. This subsidiary has also signed a master collaboration agreement with Aditya Infotech Limited to develop and supply state-of-the-art systems on chip, that is SoC and other system solutions for CCTV cameras. Coming to the financial services business, that is L&T Finance, we are happy to report that the company has achieved, that is L&T Finance Limited, has achieved a 95% retailisation as of June 2024 of its loan book. The retail book and the retail disbursements for Q1 FY 2025 has registered a growth of 31% and 33% respectively.
The company also reported an entity level PAT at INR 686 crore for Q1 FY 2025, that has registered a 29% growth over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. I will now cover the various financial performance parameters for Q1 FY 2025. This quarter was a quarter of robust performance across the various financial parameters. Our group order inflows, revenues, and PAT for Q1 FY 2025 is up by 8%, 15%, and 12% respectively. Our working capital to revenue, NWC to revenue, at 13.9% in June 2024, registers a sequential increase of 190 basis points, whereas on a y-on-y basis, it has improved by 310 basis points. Moving on to the individual performance metrics.
Our group order inflows for Q1 FY 2025 at INR 709 billion crore, registered a y-on-y growth of 8%. Within that, our projects and manufacturing businesses secured aggregate order inflows of INR 544 billion crore for Q1, reporting a growth of 8% over the corresponding period of previous year. Our Q1 order inflows in the projects and manufacturing portfolio are mainly from Infrastructure, Hydrocarbon, and the Precision Engineering Businesses. During the current quarter, our share of international orders in the projects and manufacturing portfolio is at 40%, as compared to 35% in Q1 of the previous year. During the quarter, orders were received across multiple segments, sub-segments like offshore vertical of Hydrocarbons, Renewables, Transmission and Distribution, Roads, Nuclear Power, Hydro and Tunnels, Ferrous Metals, Health, and the Precision Engineering Business. Moving on to the prospects pipeline.
We have a total prospects pipeline of INR 9.07 trillion crore for the remaining nine months of this financial year, as compared to INR 10.07 trillion crore at the same time in the last year. This represents a drop of around 10% on a y-on-y basis. This decrease is primarily due to a fall in the hydrocarbon prospects pipeline. The broad breakup of the overall prospects pipeline for the remaining nine months of FY 2025 would be as follows: infrastructure is at INR 6.02 trillion, vis-à-vis INR 5.86 trillion last year. Hydrocarbon is INR 2.17 trillion, vis-à-vis INR 3.48 trillion as of June 2023. Energy power is at INR 0.45 trillion, in and around the same as the last year.
The heavy engineering and the precision engineering and systems businesses in aggregate have order prospects pipeline of INR 0.31 trillion, vis-à-vis INR 0.25 trillion last year. The Green Energy business has started off with an order prospects pipeline of INR 0.10 trillion, vis-à-vis INR 0.04 trillion last year. Moving on to the order book. Our order book, as of June 2024, is at INR 4.91 trillion, up 19% vis-à-vis June 2023 of last year. The projects and manufacturing business is, since it is largely India-centric, 62% of this order book is domestic and 38% international.
Of the international order book of INR 1.86 trillion, around 92% is from Middle East, one percent from Africa, and the remaining 7% from various countries, including of Southeast Asia. Like I said earlier, the various countries in the Middle East are continuing to focus on investments in oil and gas, infrastructure, industrialization, and energy transition. The breakdown of the domestic order book at INR 3.05 trillion, which I said earlier at 62% of the overall order book, is as follows: Central government orders share is 14%, State Government's account or State Government contracts account to 28% of the domestic order book. Public sector Corporations or State Owned Enterprises have a share of 37%, and private sector at 21%.
Approximately around 18% of this total order book of INR 4.91 trillion is funded by multilateral and bilateral funding agencies. Against this total order book of INR 4.91 trillion, 90% of that belongs to or is coming from Infrastructure and Energy. The details of this are already there in the presentation slides. During Q1 FY 2025, we have deleted orders of INR 6 billion from the order book, and as of June 2024, the slow-moving orders is well less than 1% of the order book. Coming to revenues, our group revenues for Q1 FY 2025 at INR 551 billion, registered a y-on-y growth of 15%. International revenues constituted 48% of the revenues during the quarter.
The strong execution momentum in Infrastructure, Hydrocarbon, and the Precision Engineering & S ystems, which is the projects and manufacturing portfolio, enabled the overall group revenues for the quarter. The revenue for the projects and manufacturing business for Q1 FY25 is at INR 386 billion, up 18% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Moving on to EBITDA margin. The group level EBITDA margin without other income for Q1 FY 2025 is 10.2%, at the same levels as Q1 of the previous year. The breakup of the EBITDA margin business-wise, including other income, is given in the annexures to the earnings presentation. You may note that the EBITDA margin in the projects and manufacturing business for Q1 FY 2025 is at 7.6%, as compared to 7.4% in Q1 FY24.
I will cover the details a little later when I talk about the performance of each of the segment. Our consolidated PAT for Q1 FY 2025, at INR 28 billion, is up 12% over Q1 of last year. This PAT growth is reflective of improved activity levels, partly offset by lower other income. The drop in other income is a function of lower treasury investments in the current quarter, as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. And here again, the drop in treasury investments is largely due to the share buyback concluded by the company in the previous financial year. The group performance, the P&L construct, along with the reasons for major variances under the respective functions, is provided in the presentation. You may go through the same for further details.
Coming to working capital, our NWC to sales ratio has moved from 12% in March 2024 to 13.9% in June 2024, mainly due to the buildup in the gross working capital during the quarter. However, on a y-on-y basis, the net NWC sales ratio has improved from 17% in June 2023 to 13.9% in June 2024. The group level NWC that excludes L&T Finance for Q1 FY 2025 is INR 459 billion, as compared to INR 439 billion in Q1 FY 2024. This itself registering increase of 4% on a y-on-y basis. You may go through the cash flow statement as part of the annexures to the earnings presentation. Our cash flow from operations for Q1 FY 2025 at INR -5 billion, vis-a-vis -INR 9.9 billion in Q1 FY 2024.
Finally, the trailing twelve months ROE for Q1 FY 2025 is 14.7%, vis-a-vis 12.8% in Q1 FY 2024, an improvement of 190 basis points. The improved profitability, with every passing quarter, along with the return of capital to shareholders in the form of the buyback, is contributing to this improvement. Very briefly, I will now comment on the performance of each business segment, before, we give our final comments. First, infrastructure. Coming to order inflows, this segment secured orders for INR 401 billion for Q1 FY 2025, largely flat on a year-over-year basis. During the current quarter, the orders were largely received in Renewables, Transmission and Distribution, Roads, Nuclear Power, Hydel and Tunnel, Ferrous Metals, Health, and the Precision Engineering sectors.
Our order prospects pipeline in infrastructure segment for the remaining nine months is INR 6.03 trillion, vis-à-vis INR 5.86 trillion during the same time last year. This represents an increase of 3%. The Infra prospects pipeline of INR 6.03 trillion comprises domestic prospects of INR 4.27 trillion and international prospects of INR 1.76 trillion. The sub-segment breakup of the total order prospects in infra is as follows: Water & Effluent Treatment share is 20%, Power Transmission & Distribution, including Renewables, is at 22%, Transportation Infra, 23%, Buildings & F actories, 12%, Heavy Civil Infrastructure, 18%, and the share of Minerals & M etals, the residual 5%. The order book of this segment at INR 3.25 trillion as of June 2024.
The book build for infra is around 3 years. The Q1 revenues at INR 269 billion registered a strong growth of 22% over the comparable quarter of the previous year, largely aided by the strong execution progress across international jobs. Our EBITDA margin in this segment for Q1 FY 2025 is at 5.8%, vis-a-vis 5.1% in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The margin improvement is primarily explained by execution cost savings. Moving on to energy segment that comprises Hydrocarbon and Power. Hydrocarbon received multiple domestic offshore orders that enabled to increase its order book. The segment has a strong order prospect pipeline of INR 2.62 trillion for the remaining 9 months of the current financial year.
The breakup of this 2.62 Hydrocarbon comprises INR 2.17 trillion and Energy Power projects of INR 0.45 trillion. The order book for this Energy segment is at INR 1.18 trillion as of June 2024, with Hydrocarbon order book at INR 1.13 trillion and Power at INR 46 billion. The Q1 FY 2025 revenues for this segment at INR 85 billion registers a healthy growth of 27%, mainly driven by execution ramp-up of international projects in the Hydrocarbon sub-segment. Low revenues in power is largely reflective of a lower order book. The Energy segment margin in Q1 FY 2025 is at 8.7%, vis-a-vis 9.1% in Q1 FY 2024.
The Hydrocarbon margin in Q1 is of current year is reflective of jobs in the early stages of execution, which is largely in line with our original plan for the year. The Energy Power margin improves on account of a favorable claim settlement accrued during the quarter. We will now move on to Hi-Tech Manufacturing segment that comprises the Heavy Engineering and the Precision Engineering & S ystems businesses. The receipt of a shipbuilding order contributed to order inflow growth in the Precision Engineering & S ystems business, whereas Heavy Engineering business order inflow is largely in line with that of the previous year. The order book of this segment at INR 338 billion as of June 2024. Our order prospects pipeline for the remaining nine months in this segment is around INR 320 billion.
Strong execution momentum drove revenues in the Precision Engineering Systems business, whereas heavy engineering revenue was impacted due to a lower opening order book, consequent upon order deferrals and jobs in the early stages. Coming to margin, execution cost savings helps the margin improvement in the Precision Engineering Systems business, whereas Heavy Engineering margin benefits from a favorable job mix. Since we are on this heavy, Hi-tech M anufacturing segment, I would once again like to reiterate that the Precision Engineering & S ystems business does not manufacture any explosives nor ammunition of any kind, including cluster ammunitions or anti-personnel landmines or nuclear weapons or components for such of these, munitions. The business also does not customize any delivery systems for such, ammunitions.
Moving on to the next segment, that is the IT Technology and the technology services, that comprises the two listed entities, LTIMindtree and LTTS. The revenues for this segment at INR 115 billion in Q1 FY 2025, registers a modest growth of 6%, that is largely in line with the subdued global macro conditions impacting discretionary IT spends. Despite the ongoing macroeconomic concerns, the deal pipeline for this segment is healthy, with a good visibility across all the sub-segments. The segment margin variation vis-a-vis the previous year is explained by a lower operating leverage. As both the companies in this segment are listed entities, the detailed fact sheets of the performance are already available in the public domain. We move on to financial services segment, represented by L&T Finance, one of our another third listed subsidiary.
Here again, the detailed results of the company are available in public domain. But very briefly to sum up, the Q1 revolved around strong retail disbursements, improved profitability and better asset quality. Further, the balance sheet is strong on the back of adequate provision coverage ratios. L&T Finance Limited today is well ahead of meeting its Lakshya 2026 targets. The retail book growth, asset quality and the return on assets are highly satisfactory. The business is building itself on the five pillars of growth, that is, enhancing customer acquisition, sharpened credit underwriting, implementing futuristic digital architecture, improved brand visibility and capability building. And finally, sufficient capital in the balance sheet is available to pursue the growth in the medium term. Moving on to Development Project segment. This segment includes the Power Development business comprising of Nabha Power and Hyderabad Metro.
You may be aware that the company, on April 10, 2024, concluded the sale of its stake in the erstwhile L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Limited, which was a holding company that was engaged in the toll road and the transmission line business. Coming back to the current quarter, the majority of revenues in the development project segment is contributed by Nabha Power. The improved ridership in Hyderabad, Hyderabad Metro and a higher PLF in Nabha Power contributed to the segment revenue growth. Whereas lower interest rate expense in the Nabha Power aided the margin improvement at a segment level. Some ridership statistics for the Hyderabad Metro assets.
The average metro ridership has marginally declined from INR 4.42 lakh passengers a day in Q4 FY 2024 to INR 4.32 lakh passengers per day in Q1 FY 2025. On a year-over-year basis, the ridership are improved. The ridership in Q1 FY 2024 was INR 4.22 lakh passengers per day. The metro at a pack level, we have consolidated a loss of INR 2.14 billion in Q1 FY 2025, vis-à-vis a loss of INR 3.35 billion in Q1 FY 2024. Moving on to the other segment. This segment comprises Realty business, Industrial Valves, Construction Equipment, Mining Machinery, Rubber Processing Machinery, and a small residual portion of the Smart World & C ommunication business. The Q1 FY 2025 revenue decreased by 37% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
This was largely contributed to a lower handover of residential units in the Realty business. The sale of a commercial space in the realty business and increased sale volumes in the Valves business enabled the segment margin improvement. Coming to the last part of my presentation, the outlook. India's domestic activity has remained resilient, with manufacturing activity continuing to gain ground on the back of strengthening domestic demand. The service sector maintained its buoyancy, as evident from the available high-frequency indicators. Private consumption, which is the mainstay of aggregate demand, is recovering with steady discretionary spending happening in the urban areas. The revival in rural demand is getting a flip from improving farm sector activity. With an expected normal southwest monsoon, the kharif production is likely to get a boost and the reservoir levels likely to be replenished satisfactorily.
With the union elections behind and the likely political stability, the government's continued thrust on CapEx and business optimism augur well for investment activity. However, the pace on infrastructure progress could slow down due to skilled labor shortage in certain sectors. The Indian economy is at an inflection point in its path towards greater transformational changes that will bring about more stability and growth. The Union Government budget presented yesterday a detailed roadmap for the pursuit of a Viksit Bharat by 2047. The budget envisages sustained efforts on the nine different priorities in order to create ample opportunities for all. Number one, productivity and resilience in agriculture. Two is on employment skilling. Three, inclusive human resource development and social justice. Four, manufacturing services. Five, urban development. Six, energy security. Seven, infrastructure. Eight, innovation and R&D. And lastly, nine, next-generation reforms.
It is good to note about the government's emphasis on the all-round development of the eastern part of the country through the Purvodaya Scheme. Our plans will hopefully get formulated for the development of states like Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh. Secondly, the government is also likely to facilitate development of investment-ready, plug-and-play industrial parks with complete infrastructure in nearly 100 cities. Thirdly, promoting water supply and sanitation projects in partnership with the various state governments and multilateral development banks is the need of the hour. Finally, a policy for promoting pump storage is also in the works, and since nuclear energy is expected to form a significant part of the energy mix going forward, there is a plan to develop small and modular reactors, nuclear reactors as well.
Moving on to other parts of the world, the global economy is expected to witness a rebound, though the run-up to the U.S. presidential elections in November can exhibit economic volatility. With the change of government in the U.K. and a hung parliament in France, the concern about European economic recovery remains. China's economic recovery remains a little offset with rising trade tensions threatening to overshadow growth in the exports. The central banks in the West are closely tracking inflation data and may announce a couple of rate cuts later in the current calendar year. Also, regional conflicts remain contained as of now, without having major adverse implications for the global economy. The countries in the Middle East, like I said, are continuing to focus on investment in oil and gas, infrastructure, industrialization, and energy transition projects.
However, headwinds continue to linger around geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions, and commodity price volatility. Amidst all of this, the L&T will continue to focus on profitable execution of its very large order book in the backdrop of a relatively stable environment. It is well positioned to exploit the emerging opportunities across its diversified business portfolio and limit its exposure to non-core businesses. The company remains committed to maximizing sustainable value to all its share, stakeholders. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the patient hearing. We can now commence the Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles... The first question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening, and congratulations on a very good set of numbers, especially the order inflow. My first question are the order prospects. I think you mentioned that the order prospects decline q-on-q. I think this is a very large drop. And also in the annual report, I think there was a comment that Saudi Aramco is postponing the capital to come, which could have led to this decline. Can you confirm that this is a decline is primarily related to Aramco, and does it anyway impact our, you know, the order inflow guidance for this fiscal?
Okay. So thanks, Mohit. Yes, the at the start of the year, the order prospects that we talked about was around INR 12 trillion, and now it has come down to INR 9 trillion. The drop is largely witnessed in the Hydrocarbon segment, and I would not like to specify answer to a particular customer. I think there has been some amount of tendering that has happened where we have not secured. Some of the projects have been shelved, and some of them have possibly been deferred, but this does not have any color in terms of whether there is any potential change with respect to our guidance for the order inflow for the full year. We still maintain what we gave at 10% order inflow.
That guidance is still getting, is being maintained, but you can have some amount of order prospects getting deferred and something we have lost also in that particular segment. However, I would not like to comment on specific customers, please.
Understood, sir. My second question is a news article in the Mint. It stated that L&T is eyeing the opportunity to make investments worth $50 billion-$60 billion in projects converting oil to chemicals and petrochemicals in the Middle Eastern region. So are we looking to invest in those businesses? Are we looking to invest in equities in some form? Is it the right understanding?
We are pursuing EPC opportunities in the Oil to Chemicals, environment in the Middle East, which we believe will have overall investments made by our clients of the amounts that you are referring to.
We're not looking to form any JV, blah, blah, blah. Is that right understanding?
As far as things stand, with specific reference to oil to chemicals, it is all the customers' investment, which is a sort of EPC opportunity for L&T.
Understood, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, and all the best, and thank you.
Thank you, Mohit.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumit Kishore from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. My compliments on a start of the fiscal. My question is, has there been any outreach by Andhra Pradesh to revise the Amaravati contracts that were dropped from L&T's order book in the past? And, any expected roadmap, you know, for Amaravati going forward?
So, Sumit, yes, sir, there has been, I think, initial discussions with the state government has commenced. But at this juncture, too early to comment on the exact how it will shape up. Hopefully, I think by the time we end September, Q2, I think we will have a better visibility in terms of the revival of the various opportunities in Amaravati, but at least the discussions have commenced.
My second question is, you know, your exchange filing is mentioning that your renewable EPC portfolio was of 18 GW cumulative capacity, comprising solar and wind generation projects already commissioned and in the making. So I just want to understand, what is the size of renewable EPC, solar EPC in your order book presently, and what is the size of order prospects or opportunities that you see for RE EPC in the Middle East, specifically?
So in terms of solar renewable, no, the order book, I think the approximate share would be anywhere in the range of INR 55,000-60,000 crore. And as far as opportunities are concerned, that would be in the range of a similar number of INR 60,000-odd crore in the near term.
In the order prospects, you will have roughly about INR 600 billion for the balance three quarters?
Yeah. No, but yeah, for the balance nine months. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Understood. Just one, you know, question on any color on the rationale of the ESG upgrade by MSCI to BBB from BB, you know, is there anything to do with your defense exposure, which they have taken a different view on, or is that something else?
As far as we know, the rating rationale of changing from B B to BB B is on the back of an improved, I would say, environmental and the safety statistics that L&T has been pursuing. I think that is one of the reasons which has enabled us to get this rating upgrade. And so far as our exposure through the precision engineering systems business to defense, I don't think there has been any change in the outlook of MSCI.
Got it. This repositioning of the Energy Power segment to CarbonLite, does it mean you will not bid for coal power project, or what? How should we read that?
We are looking to focus on carbon capture projects and whatever manufacturing facility, technical talents, over a period of time, we get into taking opportunities on those segments, Sumit. Having said this, we still have an order book of almost INR 5,000 crore in the Thermal Power business, which we will execute. We will look at opportunities which are, you know, like for example, we will continue to focus on any gas-based power plant opportunity that may come, and any other cleaner fuel opportunities that we will be able to leverage our current manufacturing in the, as far as the coal-based equipment is concerned, over a period of time, we'll get repurposed.
Understood. Thank you, and wish you all the best.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Aditya Bhartia from Investec. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, sir. So my first question is on the reduction in prospect pipeline, especially on the Hydrocarbon side. Now, given that we are having a 10% reduction in overall prospect pipeline, and we require almost like a 10%-12% kind of a growth in order inflows to beat the guidance, where exactly are things changing? Are we anticipating a much better strike rate in the domestic business, which it appears had fallen a bit last year? Or is it that we are seeing competition being a little lesser on the domestic side this time?
Okay. So where I at this juncture, no, Aditya, it's not correct for me to give a cult- I mean, overall, the perspective for the nine months, which kind of orders will, you know, will enable us to maintain the order inflow growth guidance. But I wish to tell you, given the fact that we still have INR 9 trillion of order prospects, okay? And that is more or less balanced, because last year, of course, the hydrocarbon part of the business did have a good set of orders. It's not necessarily that every time you can have the same business having the same, run rate.
Given the fact, if we look at just basic arithmetic, if I have to come out, if I have to talk about meeting our order inflow guidance, what we see from the order prospects, I think a 22%-23% conversion or a hit rate will enable us to reach there. This 22%-23% is not that something which is theoretical, we have demonstrated that in the recent past as well.
Sure. Just the second thing, you've spoken about labor availability issues, and the potential of that to be slowing down execution. Where exactly are we seeing challenges, and have they worsened over the last year or so?
Okay, so two things. Let me be a little, I would say, topical here. In the Q1, when we have given the overall guidance on revenues of 15%, it was- it had baked the fact that the Q1 would have been a little subdued for the largest part of what you call the infrastructure or the construction business, in India. Because of the, the, I would say, for because of the elections, general elections, and you know very well that all these labor have the tendency to go back to their respective natives and vote. And plus, this was further worsened because of, the very, very hot weather, that was prevalent in large parts of the country. So this we hopefully, from, with the start of monsoon, of course, the monsoon has had a good start.
This also has some implication into labor going into working on the agriculture side. But as far as we are concerned, I guess we should see back the normalcy of labor coming back to fulfill our our execution of our order book. I think the point that is coming up is as India goes on expanding into investments in infrastructure or any industry, it is the time that we are looking at a shortage of skilled labor. Because it's also important while the country goes into a CapEx mode or an investment mode, across the investments of all these sectors, it is also important that we have a steady supply of skilled labor to ensure that the projects are getting completed on time. Now, that has a developing implication.
Now, as far as L&T is concerned, we are focusing to ensure that whatever labor we have through the various subcontractors, we continue to engage with them, because we have a large order book. And simultaneously, we are also taking up steps to also ensure that, the future inflow of labor now is appropriately skilled, because the order book that we are looking at, given the positive investment climate that we are witnessing in the near term, I think it is important that, the labor doesn't become a constraint in the GDP growth of the country. To that extent, I think the government also has realized it, and if you see the honorable Finance Minister coming out in her pronouncement in yesterday's budget, there is also, sufficient mention of how they managed to, you know, bring this, particular important resource.
Last but not the least, one more development is, it's not that, the labor is only working here in India. Some part of the labor is also getting exported to the neighboring countries, especially Middle East, given the set of opportunities. So we are working at, I would say, not necessarily in optimum level, but yes, if things persist like this going forward, there could be a, an implication.
Understood, sir. Last question, anything that you can share on the potential of monetization of Nabha Power or Hyderabad Metro?
... At this juncture, nothing to share. We are pursuing as far as, I mean, it is still going on. As far as Nabha is concerned, Nabha Power is doing well. It is back on to, I would say, a reasonable set of, profits it is doing. We are evaluating, but nothing to comment at this juncture.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Mahawar from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, PR. I have just two quick questions. First, on the Middle Eastern market, can you throw some light on the execution, positioning, you know, in the last 6-8 months? Have we seen some delays in execution or on most of the large Saudi Arabia project things are on time? And I want to broadly understand your comment on the competition, especially from the Korean, Chinese players, given that European and Japanese are not very active. One.
Okay. So in the Middle East today, Larsen & Toubro primary, I would say, is engaged in Hydrocarbon projects and Solar Renewable projects. As it stands now, the Q1 execution momentum that we have witnessed, there is nothing for us to bring to your attention to say that there is something unusual, increase or decrease. So it is as business as usual. Okay? So as far as competitive intensity is concerned, I would like to, I would like to mention here that, we believe that the size of the market, which markets are we referring? We are referring to the renewable part of investments that are happening and also the hydrocarbons. And possibly going forward, there could be major investments happening on to transit, be it on metro packages or rail packages.
I think going forward, there is a large, I would say, investment activity expected to happen, and I feel that given the large size of the pie, each of the contractors have a fair share. So it's all a question of in some quarter we may get, in some quarter, other competition may get. But structurally, I don't think there is any change for us to comment from the earlier comments that we made in the month of May.
Okay, thank you. And the second question is more on the core margins. If I say we started the year with a good 60, 70 basis point margin expansion in the infra side, and the reason we've given is execution cost savings. Is this execution cost saving maybe one-off quarterly in nature? Or, do you think, you know, for the full year, we have a much better margin expectation? Anything on that? Yes. Thank you.
So, Amit, let me tell you, I think I did conclude on my, on the speech saying that, we are on track to more or less meet our targets at this juncture. I think we have started off very well as far as the margins is concerned. The overall P&M margin, last year was 7.4%, so we have managed to bring a 20 basis points improvement. And that improvement is actually coming from a, I would say, a reasonably large improvement that we have seen in the infrastructure segment. But as you're aware, the projects business, the quarter-on-quarter, the job mix, the projects going into recognition threshold, completion of projects is still keep on happening.
But we have had a good start, and hopefully, I guess, we should be maintaining the slight improvement in the margin momentum, but too early to comment on any change in the guidance. Finally, I think maybe another two quarters before we finally see where the margin will likely to end in the current year.
Thank you, PR, and good luck to the entire team.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Priyankar Biswas from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations to the team. So my first question is, PR, if you can explain about, since we have a FY 2026 ROE target of 18%, and so we are kind of just a little below 15. So what is the, the bridge from this current 14.5, 15% levels to, attaining this 18% level? If you can shed some light on that first.
So, Priyankar, I guess, this we have been talking in multiple calls like this and also in the investor meetings. So today, if you talk about, I guess, if I have to make it very simple, the 1% increase would be if Hyderabad Metro were to make zero profit, zero loss. So as I was talking, the, that particular investment had a loss of almost INR 214 crore in Q1.
Mm-hmm.
So over a period of time, if you are able to bring that down, so that will demonstrate at least a 1% increase in the ROE. The second 1% would be, as we have been talking about, that the L&T is looking at, given the fact that we are having a cautious approach to increasing the size of our balance sheet. So we are also looking at keeping the balance sheet a little more leaner, which also means we are looking at a 1% improvement on the account of higher payouts to shareholders. Now, in what form? I guess that we have to see, especially in the development in the budget yesterday. So we have to look at it, but definitely, 1% can be attributed to, I would say, payouts to...
I mean, capital restructuring in terms of larger payouts. And the last 1% is the overall margin improvement in the P&M part of the traditional business of projects and manufacturing. I just give a simple explanation of the bridge from 15% to 18%. In what forms, what happens, only the next 2 years will say.
So since last year, particularly, the payout levels were quite high, so should we be expecting, like, I am not going into what form of the payout, but, similar payouts like last year?
I have given you our bridge. You asked me a question about the bridge, which I have given you. Now, when the payout will happen, in what form, I guess only time will tell.
We have just one more question from my side. There has been this news and probably OTC was so there has been this news of the collaboration for Saudi Aramco projects. We have also seen that in Saudi Aramco's own CapEx guidance for this year, they seem to have factored in a y-o-y increase, especially with the in the gas projects. Is there any reason why the Middle East and hydrocarbon projects have been cut prospects have been cut down? What exactly is it been led derived from?
So of course, I wish to tell you that structurally, I believe Saudi hydrocarbon spend for FY 2024 is almost USD 48 billion, and next year is going to be around USD 60 billion or so. And this is as per the, public domain, whatever, messages are coming out. Yes, there can be some reallocation of projects in that overall pipe. Maybe oil, the percentage of oil could come down, oil exploration and production. But as far as gas-based opportunities are concerned, oil to chemical opportunities are concerned, I think all those plans are still on, and we are working with the clients, like any other contracting company, closely with the client, and hopefully, we should, get some of those opportunities in our favor in the near term.
So, PR, it was more like on the cutting of the Middle East Hydrocarbon prospects. So since you highlighted the Saudis, it's actually going up, so here are the prospects going down. So I was just trying to reconcile that. So is it from-
No, no. This is a point of... So, Priyankar, it is for the next nine months, okay? It's for the next nine months, no. So we also are working closely with the various clients. Let's not stick to only Saudi Arabia. We are also looking at other countries as well, be it UAE, Qatar, also some of the oil-producing countries in North Africa. There are some opportunities out there, but I feel it is specific to one quarter, this has come down. But I don't think this is any, at this juncture, for us to say there is a structural drop in the overall opportunity landscape.
Okay, thanks, PR. That's very clear now.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parikshit Kanpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, PR. Congratulations on a decent quarter, sir.
Thank you.
So my first question is on increasing exposure of international in the order book. So will it have any impact on the margins from given that we have given 8.2% guidance for P&L margins for FY 2025, and the share of international has been increasing. So will that impact our guidance on P&L front?
So this, I think, Parikshit, yeah, the only thing which I would like to mention is, all the international projects are largely fixed-price contracts. And if we continue to perform in line with the completion deadline of those contracts, and the input costs remain what they are, so I think the margin trajectory should not at all worsen. In fact, if you are able to complete the projects on time, I don't see a reason why margins, even for these fixed-price contracts, can improve. But as it stands now, since we refer to margin guidance to the extent of that particular year, this year, this is the construct of the various projects that are getting into execution mode across the segments, across the geography. We have maintained the target at 8.2% to 8.25% for FY 2025.
Q1 has started off with a, I would say, good start. In fact, if you see the margins for the energy segment actually has come down, but it is only because of the state of execution of the jobs in the segment. So hopefully, I guess, you should see an improvement out there as well. But I wish to tell you that if you are able to complete the jobs on time on the international order book, definitely margins could be more positive than what we are looking at today.
Okay. And my second question was on domestic orderings, domestic prospect pipeline. So some of the segments we are seeing that government may increase the PPP share. The government intent is, intent is to increase the PPP share. Like in T&D, we are already seeing the TBCV, and then in roads, BOT is getting revised. So do you think there's a case for you, and maybe in railways also, some kind of PPP may emerge. So is there any case for you to come back and have a relook at equity way of investing into these projects, given that it may reduce your prospect pipeline if you don't do that?
Parikshit, the order prospects that I've given for construction part of the business, you know, they are all what we are planning to bid for, and these are all projects that are on out and out EPC basis. There aren't any, I would say, significant BOT opportunities, and I think L&T has made a clear statement that we would not like to pursue the investments onto the concessions part of the business.
Okay. And just the last question on the arbitration bit. So, I mean, So if you can help us quantify what is the total arbitration claims are in, currently under progress, and do you think some point of time in this year, if the Amravati thing plays out and there's some revivals, do you think there could be some tailwinds to a margin, uptake positively with the claims coming back, by the government? So if you can help us understand a bit or give some more color on the arbitration team.
So, Parikshit, I think I answered to this question as far as Amravati jobs are concerned. So discussions have started, that itself is a positive development, and hopefully, I guess, the discussions have commenced itself is positive. Now, how will the discussions pan out in terms of revival of which part of the projects, recovery of which part of the money? I think it's still too early to comment upon, but this is a very, very positive outcome. Now, its impact on margins and all of that, how arbitration awards, whether come in our favor, going against us, I think it's a part of the overall contracting business, but specific to Amravati thing, it is a positive development.
But what will be the overall arbitration pipeline? Because I understand AP alone was about, if I remember, it was in past calls you mentioned about, I think INR 1,500 crore-INR 1,600 crore was the pending receivables. So, correct me if that is still the number, and overall, what could be the arbitration being perceived right now in terms of the overall company?
So, Parikshit, I think, if we have to really give a data statistic of how much of claims that the company is pursuing against its various projects with its customers, and it's also important that some of the customers also have counterclaims on L&T. So this all goes into a negotiation mode. It is very, very inappropriate for me to come out with the call to actually put out a number. It is only when we believe that a claim is coming out to a place where the customer and L&T are in principle agreed to, you know, settle. It is that point of time, it is reckoned in the P&L.
Okay. And just on the Hyderabad Metro, if you can help, because of the government issue. So how are you chasing it now? So how do you think that expected ridership will play out? And in terms of government support, what has anything come in versus the last quarter, support which was supposed to come? So if you can update us on that.
Yeah. Okay. So the ridership in Q4 was INR 4.32. Sorry, Q1, this current quarter, was INR 4.32. Some amount of impact is there because of the free bus scheme to ladies. But definitely one of the reasons for a small drop in ridership is compared to Q4, you know, which was at INR 4.42, is because Q1 was, as you know, summer months and holidays and so on. So as we are getting into Q2, the average ridership on a weekday, that is Monday to Friday, it goes up to almost ranging between INR 4.8 - INR 5, and during weekends, it comes down to maybe INR 3.5 - INR 3.7.
So there will be a steady increase in ridership, but I guess the ridership improvement is not the resolving the issue that we have. I think it's more to do with the fact that how do we reduce the current debt of almost INR 12,500 crore, the entity. So till now, we have received around INR 900 crore from the government in terms of the soft loan. Hopefully, I think the government should be proactive enough to provide the balance INR 2,100 crore of loans that has been cleared in the assembly in the last year or so. So I guess still discussions are happening. Once those things come, definitely will enable us to bring down the current loans and lower the interest cost, and thereby at least reduce the losses.
Okay. Sure, sir. Thank you. Those were my questions, and wish you all the best.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Nidhi Shah from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes, you are audible.
Yes, Nidhi.
Thank you so much for taking my question, and congratulations on an amazing quarter. So I have two questions. Firstly, what do you think about the offshore wind business in the medium term? As per the annual report, it looks like the company is pursuing bids in offshore projects globally. That is the first one. And the second is that, how is Green Hydrogen opportunities panning out? Are the discussions progressing, like we had hoped, and are there more closures of projects in the near term?
Okay. So, Nidhi, as a start now, I guess during the current quarter, we did get an offshore wind project. It was an international project, that is almost just above $100 million or so. I think it's the first foray for L&T to get into this business, where we are leveraging, primarily our offshore skills in the hydrocarbons part of the business into the offshore, into this to this offshore wind part of the business. So it's one of the first orders. I think, it's a good thing to start with, having got such an order from a very prestigious client. And we believe that this part of the business is a little more complicated than any other normal wind business. I think we have to, you know, be carefully.
And it's a little more CapEx intensive. We will pursue these opportunities because we feel that this is a sustainable, I would say, CapEx, that is going to happen, in this particular renewable energy segment. Not necessarily like in emerging markets, India is also talking about it, but I guess some of the European markets will definitely look into, these kind of investments. That augurs well for us. But to start with, as I said, we have secured one of the first orders, so hopefully, I think we should be getting more and executing them properly as well. And your second question was on, I missed that, sorry.
Green hydrogen. So what, are the opportunities panning out, and are the discussions progressing like we had hoped, and are there any new closures on projects on specifically green hydrogen?
So we did get a first, you know, project opportunity from green hydrogen with a private sector client to set up an electrolyzer unit. So we are, we are evaluating various options and various opportunities. But in terms of what we call a meaningful opportunity is the IOCL tender that we are looking to bid through our, through our joint venture with the IOCL itself, IOCL and ReNew. So it is too, too early days in terms of trying to, you know, look at the overall size of this market. As I mentioned, the order prospects pipeline as of June for this green energy part is still around, I would say, INR 10,000 crore. So it's too early stage, but we believe that this will get scaled up in the next 1.5 to 2 years, to something very more, much more meaningful.
Because all the players, be it the developers or be the customers, all of them are evaluating the opportunity in terms of scalability, the scalability of the end product, because obviously there is some amount of cost that has to be higher than what is the current end product, which is using either a black or a blue hydrogen. I think we'll be a transition phase, but we are looking at both domestic and also adjacent geographies for, you know, EPC solutions in this particular area.
All right. And you mentioned the IOCL project. So what is basically the progress on the bidding part of it? And when this gets tendered out finally, what do we expect the timelines to be on this?
So the bids have been opened, so it is a 10 KTPA kind of a project, and there are two bidders, I believe, apart... I mean, ours and another bidder. So the bids have been submitted. It is up to IOCL to take the next steps on this.
All right. So at this point, there is no visibility on when the bids could be closed and when the contract is in?
As I said, the bids have been submitted, the price bids, there are two bidders, so the customer will have to take a call, which I believe should be in the near term. We cannot comment on the timelines per se, no.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Amit Binde from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Amit, the line for you has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question. As we're not receiving a response from the current participant, we will proceed to the next question, which will be from the line of Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, PR. Just one question. This has been a quarter where the domination, both on top line as well as order inflow, has been by the international business, and your margins have, at the margin, improved a little bit. So any read across on how we should look at margin in the next few quarters, given that domestic should actually come back in terms of its bigger contribution on the overall revenue footprint? So any sense on how we should look at margins in the next few quarters in light of what we saw in Q1?
So, Pulkit, if you were to break up this P&M revenue now into domestic, international, I think the international part of the business did well, considering that there were no constraints per se. Whereas on the domestic side, there were constraints in terms of the heat and also the election season. So going forward, I guess, we will come back to, I would say, complete normalcy. Not that when we gave the guidance of revenues of 15%, we were not aware of this aspect, that the domestic part of execution could be a little more subdued in Q1. All of that is based in the guidance. Insofar as margins are concerned, margins would be a combination of the project mix and, you know, whatever we talk about, utilization, execution, ramp-up, some of the projects to cross the margin recognition threshold.
All of this is an aggregate, including, you know, favorable claim settlements or settlements with the clients on the other side. It's a combination of those. We have had a good start into Q1 as far as the margins are concerned. The P&M margins, as I said earlier, has improved by 20 basis points. And I, we believe that we don't have anything for us to comment for the balance nine months, where we have a indicator to say margins could be a little softer than what we have demonstrated in Q1. So, but too early to comment on the landing part of the yearly FY 2025 guidance on margins. But at this juncture, we have had a good start.
Sure. No problem, Piyush. That's the only question. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharanidhar Vijayakumar from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Am I audible?
You are Barani.
Okay, great. So can you reflect us on your capabilities on nuclear and what are the upcoming opportunities there? There was a recent Karnataka order, which just slipped by. So can you just talk on that nuclear portion?
So the nuclear. See, okay, as far as nuclear is concerned, we cover almost, I believe, the length and breadth of a nuclear power plant, right from full-scale construction, including the turbine island, the nuclear island, and all of the balance of plant. So of course, there can always be hits and misses in any highly competitive landscape that we have. But as far as the construction part is concerned, going forward, I think the order prospects that we have in the nuclear construction part, I think would be in the range of, maybe around INR 7,000 to INR 10,000 crores. The near next nine months of prospects in this particular part.
Okay. And, this would be largely NPCIL's project?
Nuclear in India is largely NPCIL.
Got it. Second question is on- [crosstalk]
No, on this aspect, no, these are what I said was nuclear power plant construction and related mechanical works. When it comes to specific, because the government is also talking about diversifying into the smaller and modular reactors, the BARC reactors and all, these are all will be opportunities besides this, beyond this. What I just gave you, INR 7,000 to 10,000 odd crore, relating to only the further projects of NPCIL, in this particular, segment.
Right. So the on, or the upcoming initiatives by the government and its plan, so where would we come in, in that? Like, where would we be contributing? Is it significant?
I think as I mentioned earlier, no, we do have a full-scale capability in this segment, having worked very closely with NPCIL across most of the nuclear power plant installations in the country. I think it's a question of joint effort, and we will be able to meet up to those requirements. Incidentally, our heavy engineering division, which is forming part of our projects and manufacturing, is already pre-qualified on the smaller and modular reactors to supply them. So technically, we are qualified. So all a question of when the customer wants to start investing on those.
Understood. My final question is on Saudi Arabian opportunities. So there, are we looking at these, NEOM projects like the New Murabba, The Line, these kind of projects, apart from Hydrocarbon and Renewables?
The focus of—I mean, as far as Middle East is concerned, we continue to focus on renewables and Hydrocarbons, apart from road and railway projects. Road and road projects means I'm referring to, railway projects and, also metro packages in various parts of the Middle East.
Understood. So, basically, these other urban infrastructure projects like The Line, the New Murabba, so that we are right now not focusing.
We are not. The order prospects that I talked about, with respect to the international order prospects, largely factors the kind of proposals that I just now referred to.
Okay, then. Understood, all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Nigania from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I had just one question. Now that we are such a big exposure to the Middle East, we are talking about local employment requirements, but what we read from other EPC companies globally is that there are local sourcing requirements as well. So wanted to check, does L&T also have local sourcing requirements, and do we see a risk of delays due to these requirements in the Middle East?
So, Nikhil, I mean, as we have grown big in many of these places, I guess we are also in line with the requirements that are being put forward by these jurisdictions. In fact, most of our Saudi orders are actually getting awarded to the local subsidiary of L&T there. It's not getting awarded to the parent, Larsen & Toubro, in India. And as part of the local subsidiaries, I would say, capabilities, there is need to put a proper project management, resource staffing, everything else is being done, and all of this is getting appropriately priced in the contract.
Understood. So you don't see, broadly risk of delays, given your experience there and given the setup there. That's, that's what I should take away, yeah?
At this juncture, no.
Understood. Got it. Thank you. That's all I wanted to ask.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Srinidhi Karlekar from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on good set of numbers. Couple of questions from my end. PR, just wanted to hear your thoughts on the domestic private CapEx cycle with election uncertainty behind us. How is L&T seeing from this end market?
So, Srinidhi, the domestic private CapEx that we are looking at, and we see a lot of traction, I think is first in the area of real estate, okay? Now, when I talk about real estate, I take all the colors of real estate, so from residential to commercial to, I would say, hybrid city development or to even data centers. I guess there has been a big jump into this particular segment, and all of that is happening through private sector CapEx itself. As far as the other part of private CapEx is concerned, one can look at only either two areas. One is the concessions part with the public-private CapEx, and the other one is investments into pure industrials or new-age sectors.
As far as investments in the industrials are concerned, all the entities that are directly related to the construction part of the overall infrastructure space, that is cement, steel, paints, fittings and all, all the end manufacturers are looking to increase their capacities, either greenfield or brownfield. And in some of those expansions, L&T also has got, I would say, some amount of contracts. Having said this, the value of such contract of building a factory building will be in the range of, say, INR 200 crore to INR 300 crore. So that's not going to materially, you know, move the needle for us, but I would like to reaffirm that segments that are directly related to the overall infrastructure, especially on the real estate, I think there is a positive momentum.
The one aspect where the momentum, which is possibly a little subdued or possibly even missing, would be the private, public-private CapEx part, because that is a large investment. Now, in that case of investments happening, L&T also has a good chance to bid for such kind of projects as an EPC contractor. I think that is still some time away. But having said this, I believe going forward with the continuity and the stability of the government's focus on investments, on the GDP led through investment-related growth in the next five years or so, I guess we could see some large-ticket investments happening into the new age sectors. Apart from data centers, which is again an extension of real estate, but into data centers, but new age sectors are electronics manufacturing or semiconductor manufacturing.
Those things could come up in sizable amounts, but it is still early days for us to conclude on that.
Right. It's about three years. And, sir, what I wanted to also ask is on the Hyderabad Metro TOD pipeline. Last year, we have had good numbers. How is prospect pipeline for the TOD monetization looking like for this financial year?
So we still have a TOD monetization of almost 14.9 million sq ft, but each of those monetization requires the prior approval of the government. So out of this 14.9, we already have a 1.3 million developed infrastructure in terms of either malls or commercial establishments. We will be looking forward to monetize them over a period of time, and upon receipt of the approval, that particular transaction will get consummated in that specific quarter. Like, the way it happened, I think, in Q2 of the previous year.
Right. And the last one, if I may. So you gave a number on the solar EPC backlog that you have. May I ask you to please repeat that?
It's INR 60,000 crore. Around INR 60,000 crore as a backlog, and order prospects also in and around the same value.
Sir, how is this split across domestic and international?
Largely international.
Sir, what is really happening that in domestic solar EPC, L&T seems to be less aggressive or, say, less active in winning the bid?
So the kind of solar or renewable packages international, the sizes are large, okay? Whereas we don't get such kind of large parcels in India for this kind of investment. So obviously then it becomes sub-optimization of your entire resources, no? So we are focusing on the renewable, so, international opportunities only on the solar side. As far as renewables are concerned, in India, I guess for the benefit of all, what we are looking at something as a good investment that are happening, which L&T also is getting, I would say, some amount of traction in terms of orders, is on pump storage projects.
Great. Well, thank you for answering my questions, and all the very best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Minde from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir, Girish here. Sorry, we had a technical issue, got dropped off. Sir, the question was, and sorry if I'm repeating it. So you mentioned that domestic revenue growth was weaker because of possibly two things. One was heat wave and excess heat wave, and secondly, also because of the election cycle. Now, quarter two is also having a lesser number of construction days, because possibly because of all the rain, excess rain that we are seeing right now. So is it possible that the domestic revenue execution likely picks up more in second half? And then I had just one follow-up question on the prospect list.
Okay. So, Girish, why we gave a guidance of revenue uptick on the 15% at group level, in fact, the projects and manufacturing part of the portfolio also will be in and around the same levels itself. As factored, subdued domestic growth in Q1, a little more improved traction in Q2, and H2 will be the best second half as far as revenue or execution of projects in India is concerned. Okay? So that is built in. Hopefully, I think the Q2 conditions is far more better than what we have seen in Q1, because Q1 we had the twin problems of shortage of labor due to elections and also extreme heat.
Although we tried to bring down the effect by having, you know, shifts early in the morning and late in the afternoon, but that will not enable the full productivity for a continuous working eight or nine hours at the site level. So Q2 should be more better, and hopefully H2 will take the lion's share of the growth as far as domestic is concerned. As for international is concerned, I guess Q1 was like any other quarter, and I don't foresee per se, unless there are other geopolitical events that we are not aware of happen. I think the ramp-up of execution on the international side will be more or less equal over the four quarters.
Perfect. Understood. Sir, if you—because you do a bottom-up analysis of the prospect pipeline, if it's comfortable to share, on a year-on-year basis for the first quarter ending now, prospect list in terms of how center versus state, versus private, versus, you know, how that has moved, and for international, any delta around country level, whether it's Saudi Arabia or it's Qatar, if you can share any qualitative colors or quantitative color there?
So, Girish, I think the amount of construction or breakup we are giving between domestic, international, and across the sub-segments, I thought is quite detailed enough. Now, if you were to talk about, you know- [crosstalk]
The reason I asked this because, as you know, I mean, this is a shortened year. I was more focused around how states are behaving versus central PSUs. That was largely it, and if any color that you can provide at a country level in international, that is just help.
So as far as India-based prospects are concerned, if I had to break up the India-based prospects, then the central state, PSU and private, I think will be the- we don't see anything unusual from the other than 15, 25, 35, 25 combination, which is 15% central government-sponsored projects. State government projects account for almost 25%. Public sector corporations or state-owned operating companies, 35%, and private sector in largely the real estate and some of the various sectors that I'm looking at, is at 25% odd. Okay, that's the way, if we have to look at the India prospects is concerned, the breakup.
Now, in terms of the international prospects, which I talked about, which is almost INR 3.87 trillion, as for the balance nine months, I think, the major share of that is almost 50% of that is coming from hydrocarbons, and the balance is largely coming from a combination of the various sub-segments under infra, but led through the power transmission distribution. So going through that methodology, one can say, if you are to take a breakup of the geography out of this three point eight seven, almost 45% could be from Saudi.
Okay. And sir, one small follow-up, bookkeeping. Other income has dropped sequentially by 12%. I don't know if you've covered this, but is there any one-off in the base quarter in Q4, or how should we read the Q1 number at INR 920 crore odd?
We have given the other income has dropped in Q1 of the previous year because of the drop in investment that we had as a standalone.
Okay. It's dropped sequentially also, but, is it because of yield or is it just the number of, you know, the cash balance being the way it is?
It's more of a cash balancing. Other income, as far as Q1 of previous year is concerned, as a standalone, there is almost a drop of almost INR 10,000 odd crore in surplus between June 2023 to June 2024 because of the buyback. That had an impact on the other income drop.
Okay. The CapEx number for this year would be about INR 3,000 crore, INR 3,500 crore?
Around that range. Yeah, around 4,000. Yeah, 4,000. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have no further questions. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. P. Ramakrishnan for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you everyone for attending this call at this late hour. It was a pleasure to interact with all of you. Good luck, and wishing you all the very best. Good night.
Thank you. On behalf of Larsen & Toubro Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.