Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Q3 FY2025 Earnings Conference Call of Elecon Engineering Company Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Kapadia. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Nivedita. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Elara Securities, we welcome you all for the Q3 FY2025 and Nine-Month FY2025 Conference Call of Elecon Engineering Limited. I take this opportunity to welcome the management of Elecon Engineering represented by Mr. Prayasvin Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Kamlesh Shah, Group Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Narasimhan Raghunathan, Chief Financial Officer, along with their team.
We will begin the call with a brief overview by management, followed by a Q&A session. I'll now hand the call to Mr. Prayasvin Patel for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Perfect. Thank you. Good evening and a very warm welcome to everyone on our Q3 and Nine-Month FY2025 Earnings Conference Call. I'm pleased to be joined today by my colleagues, Mr. Aayush Shah, Non-Executive Director, Mr. M. M. Nanda, Head of Gear Division, Mr. P. K. Bhasin, Head of MHE Division, Mr. Kamlesh Shah, Group CFO, and Mr. Narasimhan Raghunathan, CFO.
We have uploaded the press release and investor presentation on the stock exchanges and on our company website, and I trust you have had an opportunity to go through the same. I will begin with a macro overview of the industry and the current business environment, followed by a detailed discussion on our financial performance by Mr. Narasimhan Raghunathan, CFO.
Elecon Engineering is a leading manufacturer of industrial gear solutions and material handling equipment, recognized for our technology, quality, and reliability across diverse industries.
We serve sectors such as steel, cement, sugar, power, and marine with a strong commitment. The organized industrial gear market in India. Our extensive distribution network reaches approximately 85 countries, strengthening our global footprint. Our business continues to be shaped by two key divisions: Industrial Gears and Material Handling Equipment.
The gear division, which accounts for around 80% of our consolidated revenue, has demonstrated resilience this year. We experienced a modest 2.1% year-on-year growth in Q3 FY2025 and a decline of 3.6% year-on-year for the first nine months of FY2025.
This performance is largely attributed to a slowdown in the steel and sugar sectors in India, where demand has been subdued specifically in the domestic market. Further, external macroeconomic factors, slowdown in the U.K., political instability in Europe, and other geopolitical uncertainty, have contributed to a cautious business sentiment and delayed capital investments.
These factors have led to delayed order inflows and slower-than-expected growth in the Gear division. Despite the above challenges, we have a healthy order book of INR 684 cr as of December 31, 2024, as against INR 572 cr as of December 31st, 2023, which will convert into revenue in the coming quarters. We are seeking strong growth in our MHE.
We are seeing a strong growth in our MHE division, which has shown remarkable resilience in the face of broader market challenges. Our MHE division witnessed a 52.2% year-on-year growth in revenue in the first nine months of FY2025, with a robust 75.9% year-on-year increase in order inflows for the same period. This performance is a testament to our effectiveness of our strategic actions and the growing demand for material handling solutions across sectors.
We are confident that the MHE division will continue to grow strongly, and we expect healthy performance in Q4 FY2025, underpinned by a strong order book. Although the Gear division has experienced flat growth this year, we are highly optimistic about the MHE division's strong potential and its ability to drive balanced performance across the company.
Despite challenges in the macro environment, Elecon remains focused on its long-term growth strategy. We are actively diversifying our business portfolio and expanding into new sectors and geographies. Our extensive product portfolio, combined with strong in-house R&D capabilities, continues to differentiate us among the peers. Our custom-engineered solutions enable us to provide and meet the diverse needs of our clients.
As we navigate through macroeconomic uncertainties, we believe that our commitment to diversifying revenue streams and focusing on high-growth areas such as MHE and untapped industries will provide us with greater resilience and a stable order flow. Further, we find it necessary to revise our revenue guidance to reflect the impact of the current market uncertainties, slower growth in key sectors, and geopolitical factors on our outlook for FY2025.
On the consolidated level, we anticipate we may miss our revenue guidance by approximately 3% for FY2025. However, we remain confident in our ability to maintain EBITDA margins of 24% for the full year. Sustainability continues to be a key pillar of Elecon's strategy. I'm proud to share that Elecon has recently reviewed approval for near-term science-based targets from the Science Based Targets initiative, London, U.K.
Elecon is committed to reducing its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gases, GHG emissions, by 54.6% by FY2033, compared to our FY2023 baseline. The commitments are a testament to our dedication to sustainability and our taking concrete steps to transition to renewable energy and reduce our carbon footprint across the value chain.
Our ESG efforts are not just about meeting targets. They reflect our deep commitment to responsible business practices, employee well-being, and communities we serve. Elecon continues to invest in initiatives that drive environmental and social value while upholding the highest standards of governance.
With this, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Narasimhan, our CFO, for financial performance of Q3 and nine months FY2025. Over to you, Mr. Narasimhan.
Thank you, sir. I will now take you through the highlights of our financial results for the quarter and the nine months ended December 2024. For the quarter ended 31st December 2024, our consolidated revenue from operations stood at INR 529 cr, reflecting an 11.7% year-on-year growth compared to INR 474 cr in Q3 FY2024. The domestic market contributed 76% to the consolidated revenue, while the remaining 24% came from overseas markets.
The exports market remained subdued due to macroeconomic uncertainties and slowdown in developed economies. On the domestic market front, we achieved a growth of 16.4% on a year-on-year basis, primarily due to the support from power, marine, and other sectors. The steel and sugar sectors remained muted in the same period. Our overseas revenue in Q3 FY2025 stood at INR 126 cr, a slight decline of 1.2% year-on-year compared to INR 128 cr in Q3 FY2024.
This was primarily due to a slowdown in the U.K. and European markets, geopolitical scenario, and global economic volatility, which adversely impacted business sentiment and project investments in these regions, affecting our export performance. Our consolidated EBITDA for the quarter was INR 143 cr, up from INR 120 cr in Q3 FY2024, representing a solid growth of 18.4%. Consequently, our EBITDA margin improved to 27% compared to 23.4% in Q3 FY2024, a 150 basis points improvement.
This margin improvement was mainly driven by a favorable product mix, improvements in after-sales service, and operational efficiencies. Our profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 108 cr, representing a 20.3% margin, up from INR 90 cr or 19.1% in the same quarter last year. This translates to a growth of 120 basis points year-on-year. For the nine months ended December 2024, our financial performance remained solid.
The consolidated revenue from operations stood at INR 1429 cr compared to INR 1373 cr in the same period last year, reflecting a 4.1% year-on-year growth. Our EBITDA for the nine months was ₹347 cr compared to ₹339 cr in nine months FY2024. The EBITDA margin for the period stands at 24.3%, which is stable despite the challenges faced in certain sectors and markets.
The PAT for the nine months was INR 269 cr compared to INR 252 cr in nine months FY2024, reflecting a 6.6% year-on-year growth. The PAT margin for the period stood at 18.8%. The Gear division contributed a significant portion of our overall revenue, contributing 79% of the total revenue in Q3 FY2025. For the quarter ended December 2024, the Gear division's revenue stood at INR 417 cr, up by 2.1% year-on-year compared to INR 409 cr in Q3 FY2024.
The EBIT for the gear division in Q3 FY2025 was INR 116 cr, up from INR 112 cr in Q3 FY2024, reflecting a steady performance. The EBIT margin improved to 27.9% in Q3 FY2025 compared to 27.4% in the same period last year, driven by changes in the product mix. The order intake for the quarter was INR 469 cr, reflecting a healthy 27.4% year-on-year increase.
As of December 31st, 2024, our order book stood at INR 684 cr, positioning us for sustainable growth in the upcoming quarters. The Material Handling Equipment division delivered outstanding performance, contributing 21% to total revenue in Q3 FY2025. The MHE division's revenue for the quarter was INR 112 cr, up by 71.9% year-on-year compared to INR 65 cr in Q3 FY2024. This growth was driven by a strong demand in both the product supply and aftermarket segments.
The EBIT for MHE stood at INR 35 cr compared to INR 12 cr in Q3 FY2024, reflecting a significant turnaround. The EBIT margin surged to 31.6% in Q3 FY2025, up from 18.6% in Q3 FY2024, an increase of 1300 basis points. This was primarily due to a favorable product mix and a higher contribution from the aftermarket business.
The ordering flow for the quarter stood at INR 185 cr, up by 17.8% year-on-year compared to INR 157 cr in Q3 FY2024. As of December 31st, 2024, the open order book for MHE stood at INR 421 cr, reflecting strong demand and growth prospects.
On the balance sheet front, we are pleased to report a strong cash position. Our consolidated net free cash surplus stood at INR 500 cr plus as of December 31st, 2024, providing us with significant financial flexibility to pursue growth opportunities and maintain operational resilience.
Given the market conditions and the challenges faced in certain sectors, we find it necessary to revise our revenue guidance for FY2025, with an anticipated miss of up to approximately 3% in revenue growth compared to our earlier forecast. However, we remain confident in our ability to maintain EBITDA margins of 24% for the full year. On that note, I would like to open the floor for questions you may have. Thank you.
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 the touch-tone telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the questions are assembled. The first question is from the line of Garvit Goyal from Nvest Analytics Advisory LLP. Please go ahead.
Hi, am I audible?
Yeah.
Good evening, sir. I have three questions. One is, in this quarter, while our order book has grown, our top-line performance has fallen short of expectations. In PPT, it is mentioned that domestic steel and sugar industries are experiencing some challenges on the CapEx investments.
Does that indicate our customers in these sectors are delaying the deliveries of our gears? That is one, and if so, what factors give us the confidence to achieve INR 750+ cr kind of revenue in Q4 and meet the FY2025 guidance despite these challenges? That is my first question, sir.
So far, as the order book positions are concerned, yes, it is delayed from these two particular sectors, from steel and sugar. As you might be aware about the steel sector, they are facing a challenge due to the dumping of steel from China, and the steel sector, they are waiting for the support from the government. So, that's the reason they are using the tactics to delay the ordering.
Though they are ready with their CapEx plan, but they are delaying that, raising the orders on this. And so far, the revenue guidance are concerned, we already said we may miss the revenue guidance by 3%, and we are confident that we will achieve whatever we are given the guidance, both for revenue as well as for EBITDA margin.
That means these industries will take the deliveries of the pending orders in Q4. Is my understanding correct?
It's not necessary. Yeah, it is not necessary that we have that order presently and we have to execute. But we are not dependent upon what these two sectors are. They are one of the major contributors, but considering the order book presently which we are having, where that we have the scope available and we are confident to execute the revenue what we are given.
Understood. And building on the same question, assuming we execute current orders in Q4 and achieve the guidance you are saying, would not that persistent demand issues in key end industries you mentioned will impact our future order inflows? And if that is the case, should not it affect our revenue visibility in FY2026?
Not necessary because what we earlier said, now we are one. We are not dependent upon one particular sector or one particular customer. As well as now, our geography is also wider. So, we have the scope available to generate the order flows also. So, while we give the guidance, we consider all the effects, either at the global geopolitical level or maybe at the domestic level, which is industry specific also.
But you mentioned steel and sugars are facing difficulties, and I think.
Current year, this is for the current year, what we have estimated at the beginning of the year, which we are not achieving, but going forward, it is going to, it is just a timing difference will be there, but it will come at any point in time also.
So how do you see FY2026 shaping up for these industries?
So, my team is working presently, so it's too early for me to spell out the numbers and what exactly it will be there. So, we will generally do this in Q4 earnings call when we do in the month of April sometime.
Wonderful. And one last question.
Let me interrupt slightly. Apart from this, next year we are seeing fairly positive requirements coming up in the Marine sector as well as in the Power sector. So, these are the two areas where we feel that there is likely to be a healthy growth. Okay.
Because of the clients asking us for quotations, for information, technical information, we believe that those orders will crystallize in the next year, which will be certainly coming to help us achieve our goals.
So, do we expect these orders in the middle of FY2026 or in the beginning as well? Because we must be having some execution time also, right, to deliver the thing?
So, it will be between first and the third quarter, somewhere in between. The reason why it is difficult to anticipate is quite often the clients take a long time in decision-making. If they hasten up, it will be in the first quarter. If they are normal, it will be in the second. And if they slow down, it will be in the third.
So, it's difficult to say as of now. But our intention would be, if possible, that we execute the order in that particular calendar year, at least most of it.
Can you hint upon the size of the orders, particularly from the Marine sector?
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Garvit. If you have any follow-up question, please rejoin in.
Okay, okay, okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashwani Sharma from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi sir. Am I audible?
Hello.
Yes.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, two questions. First is on the gear division again. If you can just give me the breakup in terms of sector-wise exposure that we have, like steel and then sugar that you mentioned. Some sense on the sector-wise exposure?
Yeah. We will separately mail to you through our IR, that is SGA. I'm just keeping a note of the same.
Sure, sir. Secondly, we are anyways approaching towards the end of the FY2025. If you can give us some guidance on FY2026 as well.
It is in process. Even though you want whatever I give the guidance presently, it may have some changes. So, please allow us time till April when we will have our earnings call in Q4. During that time, we'll discuss our numbers.
Perfect, sir. Okay. Those were my questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ganeshr am from Unifi Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Now, I'm just following up on Garvit's question. In terms of the Marine orders, if I remember correctly, in the previous quarter, you had mentioned that you would expect something to translate in Q3 and that the execution would be next year.
But what I'm understanding from your comments today is that the order might actually come in only next year. And also, if you could just give us the size of the order that you have seen, please.
Yeah. We have that order, which will be executable over the period of two years.
So, you received the order?
Yeah. What we discussed, we are just going to receive one order, and that is that. And the second order is what we said it is expected anytime in FY2026 next year.
Okay. So, I think you mentioned one quarter, which is the size of the order. So, what you're saying is you received one order, you're expecting another next year. So, if you could just quantify these orders, please?
Order value will be ranging from INR 60-70 cr somewhere. I don't have the exact figure at this point of time, but we'll just circulate the same to you also.
Understood. Thank you. And just the second question is, in terms of the customer profile in the MHE and Gearbox segment, because there's a bit of a divergence in performance between these segments, right? So, in terms of the end customer, how different are they? And what is the strength that MHE has that Gearbox doesn't right now in terms of customer profile?
Sorry, I can't hear you clearly. Hear you clearly.
Is it better now?
No. Can you just be near to your mic? I think then it will be more clear.
I'm just speaking out of the phone. I'm not sure. Is it better?
Yeah, I think so.
I just wanted to understand in terms of sector exposure and the MHE and Gearbox, how different is it, right? Because on one side, we have a downturn in cement and steel CapEx, which is hurting the Gearbox division, but you have the MHE performing so strongly. I'm trying to understand where the divergence is coming from.
The divergence is basically coming between products and a project kind of situation because MHE equipments are being consumed by them when they go in for a large project. Gearbox is looked like an individual product. So, there is a mindset difference, and quite often, the project, when it goes to a particular client, it gets converted into a product order at a later stage.
So, that is where the difference comes in. Apart from that, though Steel sector has shown less of Gear orders, however, the Steel sector has shown a strong requirement in the material handling business, so it is very contrasting. What it looks like is that the industry is holding on to CapEx plans for a while to put pressure on the government to reduce the or to increase the tariffs or the duty on Chinese imports.
Understood, sir. That's very clear. And the last question is, just on the OEM contract that you are pursuing overseas. I f I remember, the 11 or 12, do you have a status update on how?
Sorry, we can't hear you properly.
Is this better?
Yeah.
Yeah. So, this is the last question. On the OEM contract that you are pursuing overseas, right? I think there were 11 or 12 of them. Is there any status update over what's happened in this quarter and how that order side is scaling up?
I think what we said, I think in the Q2 calls also, we said that we started accelerating the revenue from these OEMs. Though we plan, at the beginning of the year, we plan that we may achieve a turnover of nearly INR 25-30 cr, but I think we are now at least expecting it will reach to INR 50-60 cr at the optimum level this year.
Okay. Is it across all the OEMs?
Yeah, yeah, across all the OEMs.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankur from Alpha Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you for taking my questions. And sir, congrats for a good recovery in order book, which was lacking for the last couple of quarters. Sir, my first question is on the MHE side. Given the strong outlook you talked about and in the presentation also, and so what kind of revenue mix in terms of MHE can get, say, over the next couple of years?
Revenue mix? So, revenue mix, yes. We are expecting the revenue mix between the Gear and MHE is now going to improve. Until now, they were hovering between 15%-20%. So, in the coming year, I think we expect that the percentage or that share will also improve going forward.
Got it, sir, and sir, my next question is, again, talking about FY2026. I think you even say you are not giving any concrete guidance, but given first half was quite weak of this year due to election and all overall delays, do we expect a second half? Do we expect FY2026 to be a decent, similar growth year or better growth year than this year? Or how should we look about, as in early sign, or is it like budget will depend, things will depend on budget?
We are reasonably positive that the budget should be bringing us better results. However, we feel that this first quarter of FY2025/2026 will be far better than last year.
Got it.
We have to turn out the numbers for it, which we will present in the April earnings call. But as of now, it looks like the first quarter is going to be reasonably strong.
Got it, sir. And sir, given full year to 2025, even if we miss it by 3% or so, our Q4 has to be quite good versus last several quarters. So, are we confident on that, sir?
Absolutely.
Got it, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pratik Kothari from Unique PMS. Please go ahead.
Hi, yes, good afternoon. Thank you. So, first question on MHE, I mean, we do hear across about the new steel, power, etc., capacity, which is yet to come up. So, one, what is driving this growth? I mean, this massive 70%-80%, even in our order book order inflow, so you can highlight because these projects which we were anticipating were yet to come. So, these are existing ones who are kind of giving us these orders, some on the MHE side, sir.
See, as far as MHE is concerned, the bigger projects or the large projects are on. These smaller projects are what is going through a turmoil right now, which is the reason why we are seeing this kind of a gap between the two. The larger projects would also mean larger requirements of gears, but that will come in subsequently. S o, what is going to happen is that while the MHE is doing well, as an after effect of that will be that the gears will also do well.
Correct. So, this MHE that we are executing or the orders that you're getting, these are all new projects which are coming up across industry.
Sorry, can you repeat that, please?
Yeah. So , my question was just the MHE, the strong order inflow execution that we are seeing, are these for projects which are already in place, or these are some new capacities which are coming up?
No, they are new capacities that are coming up. And that is what we are also trying to see to it that in the future, as many orders that we can hold up or take it under our sleeve, we will try our utmost to do that.
Correct. Sir, this kind of strong margins, 30% plus, I mean, this is lack of competition given what has happened in this MHE industry over the last 10 years or, I mean, because we still have a lot of capacity also in-house left to ramp this up. I mean, where can this operating leverage go up to?
See, this is only because of the product mix that we have been able to achieve this. There would be fluctuations in this kind of margins over a period of time. Okay. So, it is difficult to ascertain whether we will be able to maintain this on a year-on-year basis. However, we are always striving to improve our margins.
Got it. Got it. And sir, one question on gears. This OEMs that we had started, I think, two, three quarters back. So, one, how is the response for the orders that we have sent out? And I believe those were a few initial trials or prototypes which we had sent, which ultimately was to reflect into much larger orders. So, how is that conversation going about?
This is what I just said in the earlier questions. What we anticipated at the beginning of this year, the revenue of nearly INR 25 cr from these OEMs, but we are quite confident it will cross INR 50 cr to INR 60 cr of this also. And in fact, we are getting the repeat order or maybe somewhere they also increase the volume also, or they also have given some new product for us also for the development.
Got it. Got it, and sir, last, maybe, broad comment on ground, so you did talk about the slowdown or whatever tactic that the Steel industry itself is going through given the pain. How about other industries that we have presented, be it Rubber, Cement, Power? I mean, how are things on ground? Because post-elections, I mean, we do hear about, in general, some macro, not many capacities, etc., coming up, so I mean, how are we looking at things on ground?
See, there is a lot of planning that has been going on. However, it has not materialized or crystallized into orders. I believe that it is just that the momentum has slightly slowed down. Okay. We believe that it should catch up very soon. Okay. That is our analysis, and hopefully, we are right, okay, going forward. Because we believe that projects, it is not that projects are getting canceled. They're just getting delayed.
Got it. Got it. So great. Thank you and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mayank Bhandari from AMSEC. Please go ahead, sir.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Thank you.
Sir, what would be the breakdown of standard versus specialized gear in nine months?
So, for the nine months, now considering this quarter, we are in the better revenue from EP, that is Engineered Product. So, with this for nine months, we are now CPs at 51%, and EP, that is engineered Customized Product, it is 49%.
Okay. And you had earlier mentioned that this will be 50/50 going forward.
Yeah. So, what we said during, we just started getting the Engineered Product / Customized Product order from July onward. And considering the manufacturing period of three to four months, it will now start coming up from Q3, which is getting reflected now, and the Q4 is also there.
Okay. From Q4, it will be reflected?
Q3 is also reflected. Q4 will also be there.
Okay. Okay. So basically, I'm just trying to understand the slowdown is more in the standard gear part.
So, there is no such slowdown. The mix will always undergo a change due to any period-on-period basis, there may be a timing difference will be there.
Okay. Okay. And sir, what would be the CapEx for nine months that we have done so far?
We have made the CapEx of INR 75 cr until now, and the balance we are just going to complete in Q4. All machines are now started coming up, and by Q4, all the machines will be there except one or two, which may come up anytime in Q1 of the next year.
Full year CapEx number could be more than INR 120 cr?
It will be more than INR 150 cr plus.
Okay. And this is the earlier you had highlighted that this is for the standard gear, right? Doubling the capacity of standard gear.
It is right. No, no. That is not correct. This is basically there are two aspects. One is replacement of the old machines for enhancing the productivity and quality. And the other one is for taking up special assignments, especially for customers in the export area for their special requirements.
Okay. I think earlier we were looking forward to double the capacity of standard gears is what I had understood. Okay. But it will be to the Q2.
That is a separate project which is coming up. It is being enhanced to improve the delivery times. However, the capacities are not going to get further increased. They may increase by 5%-10%, but nothing more.
Okay. So, next year CapEx would be how much then?
We are still working. The team is already working for the next year plan. And they are just working for the next three or how they will require, what will be the business in-house. It is in process. Please allow us the time till April. We will spell out the numbers both on the revenue growth side as well as on the CapEx side on the April call. But please be rest assured that all the CapEx is being done from the internal revenues only.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pratik from Art Ventures. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Just as you mentioned that you are facing the slowdown in the Steel and the Sugar industry. But I want to understand on the contrary, which other industries are relatively performing better and have been able to give some growth to the Gear division?
Power sector has been doing reasonably well, and going forward, we believe that next year also the growth or the orders coming in, flowing in from Power sector will further enhance it. We believe that Cement is pausing for a while, which should also release some reasonably good orders next year. Okay. Marine sector for us also seems to be promising for the next year.
All right. And also wanted to understand, have we seen a stability in the freight costs because we saw some impact of higher freight costs in the previous quarter? So, where are we in terms of the freight costs? Are we seeing some stabilization during the quarter and the coming quarter?
Now the freight cost is stabilized. So, whatever the effect of the increase in the rate, both for vessels as well as containers, it is already there. So, now we can say it is stabilized now.
All right. All right, sir. Thanks for answering my question.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Rohit from Nvest Analytics Advisory LLP. Please go ahead.
Hi. Just one question. You mentioned we will get Marine orders in FY2026, but I think the number is very small. So, how do you think is it going to drive our growth in FY2026?
No, the numbers are not small. It is right now we have an order with us, which is a small order value-wise, and going forward, we see that we expect a healthy number of orders coming our way in the Marine sector.
Got it, sir. That's it from my side, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Hello? Can you hear us?
Yes, yes. Now I can hear you.
I think somewhere we get a disturbance also. We don't know what it is.
Yes, yes, sir. So, the next question is from the line of Aashna from HDFC AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening, sir. How sustainable are MHE margins? We've delivered very strong margins. So, for the next couple of quarters, how do we see that?
MHE margins will go through fluctuations, okay, positive as well as negative. So, it is difficult to ascertain because they will depend on the type of product mix that we are able to market and sell depending upon the demand. However, we are reasonably confident that we should be able to maintain anywhere between 20%-22%.
Between 20%-30%?
20%-22%.
Okay. 20%-22%. Okay. Understood. And you mentioned that a lot of margin expansion in this quarter was driven by after-sales. So, what portion of the revenue is now coming from after-sales?
For the nine months ended, it is approximately 49-52%. Approximately 50-50% for the nine months ended.
For nine months, after-sales, it contributes to around 49% of the revenue.
Our total sales from the composition between the product and the service, it is 34%. From 34% is from the service, and 66% is the product sales.
Okay. This is for nine months?
Yeah, nine months.
Do we have the claim number for this quarter?
For this quarter, it is 38% from the service and 62% from the product.
Understood. Okay. And sir, what portion of our order book would be slow-moving right now? Probably from Steel and Sugar if you could guide on that.
I'm just keeping a note of the same, and I'll just circulate this separately through our IRSG.
Okay. And within Power, you said that Power is a good going segment for us. And that I understand is for Gear division is what you were saying.
No, it is for both. However, Gear would have a higher impact.
Okay. But for Gears, what is the application for us within Power? If you could give some outlook on that.
It is conveyor systems. It could be just about any equipment. All equipment have a huge amount of gear requirements for the terrain.
Okay. Is the understanding correct that this would be largely the regular gears and not the catalog products and not the customized ones?
It could be both.
Okay. Understood. Okay, sir. So, how confident are we in terms of reaching the new revenue guidance that you have given? Because that is close to some INR 740 cr of top line in Q4.
Sure. Now it is only two months are remaining, if I say practically. So, we have that clarity and accuracy available also.
Okay. Sir, one last question on my side. So, the exports that you mentioned that we are doing right now, our estimate is delivering around INR 50-60 cr of OEM orders. Right? So, my understanding is these are still trial orders that we are doing for them. Have any of these OEMs converted to long-term sustainable orders?
So, these OEMs are with the sustainable orders only, long-term sustainable orders. So, the commercial production already started. Most of them are already started the commercial production also. And these are sustainable orders. These are sustainable, the OEMs what we sign up for.
Okay. So, how to analyze that in terms of if these are regular orders. S o, what kind of an annual revenue do we have a visibility of beyond 25 for these orders right now?
So, in the last question also I said, because there is some additional new product development is also offered to us by these existing 11 OEMs also from them. And we also anticipate that this should also increase, not only from these existing 11 OEMs, but this will also help me to get more OEMs to be basket in our portfolios.
I understand that from my question was basically we've done around INR 50-60 cr of revenue in FY2025. So, this will further translate to higher orders. But this INR 50-60 cr is what I understand would have largely come in Q3 and Q4, right? So, how much will this balloon to at least in 2026? We would have some sense on that right now.
Yeah. Because presently, the team is already working. Just I think my overseas team will just working on that, how much we can generate additional business from these 11 OEMs or what new OEMs they are anticipating in the coming year also. So, I think in April 2025, when we'll have the Q4 earnings call, we'll have more client. Even if I say anything presently, we'll not cover the purpose either on your side or on my side also.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants are requested to press star and one to ask questions on the touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Anish from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Good evening. Congrats for a decent quarter and comeback in H2. So, I just want to understand, typically, in terms of the order inflow over the nine months, we have grown at almost 9%, right, in the Gears division. But our revenue growth has been very divergent from the order inflow growth.
And given that now we have much more shorter cycle of the products that we are supplying, so why is that happening? Is it that the order inflow is not getting converted into revenues? And if you could just help to understand why. A nd also whether all of that will be executed in Q4, is that how to think about situation?
The situation is dynamic. I think what we discussed earlier, after the general elections and the first budget of the new government, all things started gearing up. And that's how we started getting the order. And this flow started from July onwards to get the orders also.
At present, it appears that it may be a while compared to what you are seeing quarter on quarter in the earlier period. But this year, there will be the India election as well as the U.S. election.
So, the margins have been fluctuating slightly. And the reason being or have dipped slightly in the Gear division is because of the fact that the product mix is such. Plus, the question is the supplies that have been manufactured have not yet a lot of them have not yet been picked up by the clients.
So, the expensive gear units have yet not been picked up by the clients. So, that is changing the scenario. However, over a period of time, it should even out.
Sir, so this quarter in Q4, the sales and the revenues that I mean, the revenues that we'll be doing, so would it be largely from our existing order book which will convert to revenues? I mean, the order book as of Q3, FY2024.
Yeah. It will be from the Q3 only. However, for the catalog product, to some extent, I can also convert the order into revenue up to February, whatever the orders I will get.
Okay. So basically, the Gears division order book is higher by 20%, right, versus the last year. So, this is giving the confidence to achieve this almost like INR 630 cr of top line from the Gears, right? Because how would this be split, the INR 740 cr that we'll be doing? How will this be split between the Gears and Material Handling?
Honestly, I don't have the breakup available for Q4 of that INR 730 cr of the revenue what we are estimating. But I'll just forward the same to you also through IR.
Okay, sir. All the best for the coming quarter.
So.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your question to one per participant. The next question is from the line of Tibin. He's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I had a couple of questions which are slightly longer term in nature since the quarterly number that already been discussed. Sir, if we just have to look at the next couple of years, earlier we had given not a guidance, but a number about 20% growth which we could expect in the next couple of years.
And Mr. Patel, in the initial remarks, spoke about some new products or diversification. Is there anything else on which you can throw some color as to any new products or new geographies which we are looking at? So, that's the first question. And then the second question, in terms of the margins, we are now guiding for a 24% margin in the current year.
So, over the next couple of years, what kind of levers do we have so that we can maintain the margins around these levels? Thank you so much.
So far, as the margins are concerned, we already said 23% is my sustainable margin. However, on the year-to-year basis or maybe on a quarter-to-quarter basis, that margin may undergo a change. Sometimes we are getting the better margin because of changing the revenue mix. Whenever we give the guidance for the revenue as well as for the margin, it is based on certain historical data and the margin profile for each product range or group of products.
Okay. Sure, and in terms of the overall revenue growth for the next couple of years, and anything which we should know of in terms of new products or new geographies or any other diversification, sir?
Mr. Tibin?
Yeah?
Will you be able to please come again to the question queue?
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akash. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. Sir, my question would be to Prayasvin, sir. Sir, I would like to understand from you the current on-ground picture in the Indian market, especially with respect to the CapEx that is happening.
So , we are hearing off and on that the government CapEx has slowed down, the private CapEx is not picking up. So, what exactly is happening? And going forward as well, which sectors especially do you expect to drive your Gears and MHE department respectively in FY2026 and FY2027?
See, normally the MHE business rotates around Power sector, Power, Steel, Cement. These are the three major sectors from which we get orders. Okay. There are also other sectors from which we get orders like Iron Ore mines and so forth. But I would say basically from these Iron, Steel, and Cement sectors.
Apart from this, in Gears, it varies tremendously because almost every sector is requiring gears. So, it's difficult to assert where exactly the thrust would come in from. Right now, the sectors which are hot are Steel, Power, and to a slight extent Cement. Does that answer your question?
Yeah. Any comments of yours on private CapEx and the government CapEx? How is it on-ground? Asking on-ground?
What I feel is the pace at which new projects were coming in has slowed down. The large projects are still continuing, okay, because they have whichever has been in advanced stages are continuing. So, they are not stopping.
The new projects are slightly getting delayed. Either it is due to a lack of clarity, or it is due to the fact that they might be pausing for a while, okay, due to various reasons. But I believe that over a period of time, they will continue to pursue these projects, and it will result in more orders.
Understood. Just a last follow-up question on that, sir. So, my last.
Mr. Akash?
Yes.
It's a follow-up question.
Yeah. Sorry. So, by larger projects, do you mean Greenfield CapEx is on, but Brownfield CapEx has been installed? Is that what you're planning to continue?
It is the Greenfield projects which have already started off, and they are in the pipeline of being executed. They are continuing. Okay. It is the Brownfield projects which are slowing down.
Understood, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kashyap from Emkay Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, Prayasvin and...
Thank you.
Kamlesh for this opportunity. Just wanted to reconfirm an earlier question, at one point, you mentioned that sustainable margin would be 20-22%, but later on, probably I heard in the other comments that it's about 23%. Now, if I go back a few years ago also in not-so-great periods also, our gear margins always used to be adjusted EBITDA about 22% plus kind of a number.
So, one, if you can clarify that number. And two, probably more modest commentary is because of the new OEM supplies to overseas market, which is supposed to start in some time. Is that the reason why we are not sort of giving a better than that number?
Yeah. In terms of the sustainable margin, I said, considering at the consolidated level, we said 23% is my sustainable margin. 20% margin is there. 20%, 22% margin is for the MHE division, specifically for the MHE division.
Okay. Understood. And the 23% in Gear would also take into account the OE supplies which will start for overseas market sometime next year?
Again, I'm repeating. 23% sustainable margin is at the consolidated revenue, which includes both Gear as well as MHE plus domestic, my India business as well as my overseas business. That is a standalone as well as consolidated both put together.
Understood. Understood. Understood. Thank you so much.
Yeah. And one more comment I need to make is that we, as a company, have been trying extremely hard to see to it that the margins are sustained or are continuously improving. Okay. So, that has been the endeavor of the entire organization, and that has been also the endeavor of every employee in the organization. So, that is what we are trying hard. And we also do a very vigorous exercise to see to it that we will be able to maintain this even during the rough times.
Understood. Understood. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. That was the last question. I will now request the management for closing comments.
In the closing, I would like to thank you all for joining this call and for your continued support of Elecon Engineering. While we face challenges in certain sectors, particularly in our Gear division, we are confident in the resilience of our business model. Driven by our strong MHE division and a diversified approach to growth, we remain focused on long-term value creation and are optimistic about our ability to navigate the current environment.
We have a solid order book, robust product offerings, and a clear strategy for expanding our international presence. While we are revising our revenue guidance of this year, we continue to focus on maximizing value for our shareholders. Thank you once again for your participation and trust in Elecon Engineering.
If you have any further questions or inquiries, please do not hesitate to reach out to our investor relations advisors, SGA, or our CFO, Mr. Narasimhan Raghunathan. Thank you all.
On behalf of Elecon Engineering Company, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.