Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Lloyds Metals and Energy Limited Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call hosted by Nomura. 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 call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Jashandeep Chadha from Nomura. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We at Nomura are pleased to host Lloyds Metals and Energy 1Q FY 2027 earnings call from the management. We have with us today Mr. Rajesh Gupta, Managing Director, Mr. Riyaz Shaikh, CFO, Mr. S. K. Naredi, Director of Finance from Thriveni, Mr. Hemankur Upadhyaya, Director of Finance, International Strategy and Operation, and Mr. Chintan Mehta, IRO. Now, without much ado, I will like to invite Mr. Rajesh Gupta for his opening remark. Over to you, sir.
Good evening, Jashandeep, and everyone else on the conference call. A very warm welcome to all of you joining us on our Q1 call. Thank you to Jashandeep and the entire Nomura team for hosting this call today. We deeply value the engagement and the platform you have given us to share the Lloyds Metals story with the investor community. Before I speak about the quarter, I want to pause on a milestone that is very special to all of us at Lloyds as well as I hope for all the people on the call. This quarter we achieved and crossed a market capitalization of INR 1 lakh crores, a level that would have seemed a distant dream not very long ago.
This milestone does not belong to the management or the team, it belongs first and foremost to every investor and to the community that stood with us through the early years of uncertainty, through the ramp-up, and through every project that we have executed since. It is a reflection of the trust and the faith we have placed in our ability to execute. We are deeply grateful for it, and I want to assure you that we carry the responsibility with all the seriousness that it deserves. Q1 has been an outstanding quarter for Lloyds Metals on a standalone as well as a consolidated basis. Revenue of INR 7,354 crores, more than tripling year-on-year, is of course a milestone for the group. While Riyaz takes you through the numbers and details, I would like to talk about some of the interesting events that have happened.
Our second plant of pellet was commissioned in May 2026, and again, in a very short period and as scheduled and within budget. I am proud to say our pellet operations reached 100% capacity utilization within just four months. Pellet production stood on this quarter at 1.65 million tonnes at a very healthy realization. A large part of the realization comes from the geographical mix of our sales. We expanded our export reach to Kenya, South Korea, Indonesia, and of course, China. While the bulk of our sales are across central and southern India, most of the markets in southern India or central India are more or less catered to entirely by us. This spread of markets, roughly three-fourths of domestic and one-fourth of export, is helping us to place volumes where they put it rightly.
Why I have been focusing on pellets is because that is a big factor of the margin that we are reporting of, including the slurry pipeline that has drastically lowered our logistic and freight cost for iron ore. A very effective fuel mix, including shift partly from LSK to LNG, which is of course a greener mix, has given better cost control across the value chain. Capital logistics and a growing share of value-added products together means that these are structural margins and not cyclical ones. We are confident that these margins get sustained in the cyclical commodity because we continue to actively pursue better and higher value market for every product we make, gaining realization and not just volume. This is exactly the discipline that we intend to replicate as we commission our first 1.2 million tonne long product steel plant very shortly.
The same integration, the same cost focus, and the same market-first approach will carry into our steelmaking journey and of course, into copper. Even as we deliver these results, the next leg of our project pipeline is already taking shape. BHQ beneficiation, the third pellet plant, and the next line of our total slurry handling and iron ore handling system without trucks. Together, these projects deepen our integration, expand our value-added capacity, and further lower our deliverable cost. We are confident that this pipeline will continue to drive meaningful value for the company over the period of time. Riyaz will now walk you through the standalone financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Rajesh ji, and good evening, everyone. Let me take you through our standalone financial performance for the first quarter of FY 2027, which has been our strongest quarter yet across every metric. Revenue from operations for the quarter stood at INR 5,413 crore, a sharp 127% growth year-on-year and 10% sequentially over quarter four. EBITDA came in at INR 2,120 crore, growing 172% year-on-year and 31% quarter-on-quarter. This growth was driven by higher iron ore EC limits, a faster-than-planned ramp-up of the pellet plant, and improved sponge iron volumes. PAT for the quarter was INR 1,527 crore, up 141% year-on-year and 43% sequentially. Profit before tax stood at INR 2,008 crore. I want to dwell on margins because this is the real story of the quarter. Our EBITDA margin came in at 39.2%, the best margin the company has ever reported.
Importantly, this has scaled on both fronts, up 639 basis points year-on-year and up 631 basis points quarter-on-quarter. Very few quarters see margin expansion of this order on both a year-on-year and a quarter-on-quarter basis at the same time. Three factors drove this. First, the commissioning of the slurry pipeline lowered logistics and freight cost on iron ore and pellets. Second, higher realization across products strengthened the overall mix. Third, and more structurally, a better product mix with a higher contribution from value-added products like pellets led to meaningful margin expansion. The shift is visible in our mix. Value-added products now contribute 41% of standalone revenue and 40% of EBIT, versus just 13% and 2% respectively a year ago. This is a structural re-rating of the earnings base, not a cyclical spike. Product-wise performance.
Iron ore production for the quarter was 6.05 million tonnes, up 53% year-on-year, and sales was 5.46 million tonnes, up 58% year-on-year. Realizations stood at INR 6,068 per tonne with an EBITDA of INR 2,230 per tonne. Our monthly run- rate is now upwards of 2 million tonnes. DRI and power. DRI sales volume stood at 183,920 tonnes, up 133% year-on-year at a realization of INR 27,376 per tonne and an EBITDA of INR 6,273 per tonne. Power volumes were up 87% year-on-year. Pellet production was 1.69 million tonnes, reaching 100% capacity utilization within four months of the second plant coming on stream in May. Realizations stood at INR 11,783 per tonne and EBITDA at INR 5,803 per tonne. The slurry pipeline and captive ore, coupled with strong realization drove these robust pellet margins. Our sales mix was 75.3% domestic and 24.7% export.
Coming to CapEx and the net debt. The company incurred CapEx of INR 30,513 crore during FY 2024 to FY 2026, and a further of INR 3,005 crore in quarter one, FY 2027 alone, as we continue to build out our downstream and beneficiation projects. Standalone net debt as of 30th June stood at INR 5,616 crore, very comfortable related to the EBITDA the business is now generating. Let me add one point at the consolidated level. The consolidated net debt remains around INR 19,000 crore. A significant part of this pertains to the Chemaf acquisition, which we are actually working to renegotiate on more favorable terms. We will keep the investors informed as and when this materializes. To summarize, record revenue, record EBITDA, record PAT, and our best ever margin expanding on both a year-on-year and a quarter-on-quarter basis. With that, I will hand over to Naredi for the Thriveni performance. Thank you, everybody.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you, Rajesh ji and Riyaz ji. For us at Thriveni, the growth has always been about disciplined execution and getting the fundamentals right quarter- after- quarter. Let me take you through Thriveni's performance for Q1 FY 2027. For Q1 FY 2027, the revenue from operations for the quarter stood at INR 2,672 crore, which is up 63% year-on-year. EBITDA came at INR 658 crore, which is up 145% year-on-year, with margins at 24.63%, an expansion of 827 basis points over the same quarter last year. Cash PAT stood at INR 447 crore, up 145% year-on-year, with cash PAT margins improving 522 basis points to 16.72%. Our margins this quarter were marginally impacted by higher fuel costs due to this Gulf crisis. We are actively pursuing passthrough of these costs to our clients, and those negotiations are currently underway.
Having said that, I want to be very clear that our guidance of 28%-30% EBITDA margins on a full- year basis remains intact. We are confident of getting there as passthroughs conclude and as volumes scale through the year. Operational performance. Iron ore volumes, including BHQ, stood at 19.09 million tonnes for the quarter. That's nearly doubling from 9.87 million tonnes in Q1 last year. Coal volumes from Indian operations, including overburden, were 26.02 million cubic meters, with overseas operations at 5.93 million cubic meters and Dayarat at 2.14 million cubic meters. Gadchiroli operations. Following the environmental clearances obtained in FY 2026, our ROM handling capacity at Gadchiroli has been enhanced from 10 MTPA to 55 MTPA. That is a 5.5 fold increase. The mine achieved a total production of 12.83 million tonnes, including BHQ, during the quarter.
Full-scale operations have commenced at Central Hill, and the FY 2027 equipment mobilization plan is on schedule. On greenfield, 88 electric equipment units are now operational at the mine with a further 20 at the railway siding. We have also mobilized 14 mobile crushers and 26 HEMM units for BHQ crushing and are deploying higher capacity 240 tonner dumpers to support the enhanced production. In other operations in Odisha, the Lasarda-Pacheri mining operation commenced in Q1 FY 2027 with a target of 1.5 MTPA, and the Dalpahar mine is expected to commence in Q2 FY 2027 with a target of 3 million tonnes. Several existing mines have been scaled up, and we expect Odisha volumes to grow 39% year-on-year to 34 million tonnes-35 million tonnes in FY 2027.
On the coal side, our Thriveni Sainik operations retained a five-star rating from the Ministry of Coal, and the number one position among open cast mines in India for the second consecutive year. In our logistic business segment, at present, we have around 150 electric and LNG vehicles, and we propose to add another 200 vehicles, of which 50 will be LNG and 150 will be EV to our fleet, aiming to make a fleet of green vehicles. Already 20 charging stations are installed, and we are in the process of installing another 30 charging stations. It will give us 30%-40% cost savings and increase in EBITDA of this particular operation from 32% to 40%. On gold, Geomysore, which is India's first private integrated gold mining and processing operation, this was formally inaugurated in July 2026.
It delivered ROM production of 0.17 million tonnes and drilling of over 14,000 m in its first quarter. Thriveni's focus remains clear: scale responsibly, execute efficiently, and protect margins through productivity and cost optimization. The pipeline into FY 2027 across Gadchiroli, Odisha, and coal is strong, and we are confident of sustaining both growth and profitability. With that, I will hand it back to open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may please press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants in the conference call, please limit your question to two per participant. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Vikas Singh from ICICI Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on very good set of numbers. My first question pertains to our copper division. We have given in a slide like 8x growth in the next couple of years in the copper production, basically from almost 8,000 to 86,000, 96,000, including the cadmium. If you could give us the roadmap and the CapEx, how much you have already invested, the equipment ordered for this, it would be really helpful.
Can you just repeat the question? There are some disturbance.
Yeah. In the copper division, we have given a roadmap to almost over a lakh tonne of production of copper as well as the cadmium. What kind of CapEx you have already done? What if the CapEx would go in FY 2027-2028? Because if you want this ramp- up to happen in 2029, the capacity it has to be completed by 2028, I believe. CapEx-
Basically, we have two assets. Actually, one of them, the CapEx is already completed, which was part of the acquisition. So that CapEx is already done. A large part of it was already done last year. So that number is a total of around $130 million, which has been invested into the asset. So that is for the current operating asset, which is operating at the rate of around 800 tonnes per month. So roughly 2,400 tonnes per quarter is the average production from there. The larger asset, which is the JV company, which we have acquired together with the U.S. partners. That CapEx actually has already been ongoing because this was an asset which was under construction. So, when we acquired it on the books, along with the liabilities, there is a total asset book size of near about $800+ million.
It would take a total CapEx of around $300+ million to get it to completion. As of now, we have done part of it, and we intend to complete that CapEx over the period of the next nine months. And we intend to have the assets operational somewhere in Q1 of FY 2028.
For both the projects combined, $300 million in the next nine months we would be spending. That assumption is correct?
Correct. The CapEx that we are talking about, that is together as a JV company. Effectively, our CapEx will be part of it. The balance, basically, we have to do the contribution as per our share.
Out of that 50% contribution, how much you are planning to invest from the India business and how much you are taking loan on there?
We are looking at all options. We are in discussion with multiple financing parties, which includes U.S.-based financial institutions as well as Africa-based institutions and the Indian institutions. We will be looking at partly equity infusion, and also partly debt infusion. I think we will get the clarity on it in the next three months when we intend to achieve the financial closure for that.
Noted. My second question is further two parts. Firstly, any update on the projects with Tata Steel, if any progress has been made there. Secondly, can, in our existing capacity, we have a headroom to further expand the EC limit in case if we want to.
Yeah. Tata Steel, we have made reasonably good progress, right from starting operating the plant, which was already there, part of the JV company. We reported an EBITDA of around INR 99 crore, which is as per the long-term conversion contract that the company has. That will continue as it is. Over and above that, we have started a few long-term projects with them, which are primarily on two fronts. One is the MDO contract. We have started a very small mining operation, which is in the Joda West mines. Secondly, we are also evaluating in some of their mines, if we can ramp- up the production faster. We can also increase the EC capacity for some of those mines. There, the value addition of this JV company will be much higher.
Current MDO contract is a small step towards that direction, but our teams are evaluating and making a plan on how we can increase the production capacity in these mines over the next three to five years. That's the longer-term plan. Also we are evaluating slurry pipelines, which will be developed as a service model, which is on the BOT model. The JV will develop the pipeline, and they'll be providing it as a service to TSL, and it will be connecting the Tata Steel mines with their steel plants. That evaluation and technical studies is also currently going on, and we'll get to know more on it in the coming year.
Sir, just a clarification. These are the NINL or Bhushan mines for which you have been jointly developing or as an MDO or how is the status?
No, currently, we are looking at mines, some of the mines which will be scaling up. The final set of mines where all will be taking up the MDO is not clear. We are still evaluating that. But yeah, whichever mines are ramping up. Some of the mines which you mentioned will be ramping up. It is a decision which will be made by Tata Steel. But we are evaluating all the mines, wherever scaling up is required, and if we can help in the faster scaling up, it may be taken up by the JV.
Noted. And second part of the question in existing-
Sorry to interrupt, Vikas. Sir, may we request that you return to the question queue for follow-up?
Fine. No issues.
Yeah. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that management is able to address questions from all the participants in the conference call, please limit your question to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Jai from PhillipCapital. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good afternoon. Firstly, congrats on a good set of numbers. My question is actually on the pellet segment. We have seen pellet profitability go up this quarter. I just want to understand how much of that is your export mix and pellet premiums versus how much of it is captive on slurry pipeline. As we scale up in the next few quarters, is this a margin that we can build in or is there something one-off about this?
25% of our production is being sold as export right now. The slurry pipeline saving is around INR 700 a tonne, and that will remain. Sorry, INR 500 a tonne. That will remain. We assume that the export quantity will more or less remain the same. Right now, given the vagaries of the market, sometimes export is better, sometimes local is better. But we hope to maintain a product mix which will serve all our customers regularly, including the international and the Indian ones.
Okay, got it. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Kunal Kothari from Nuvama Wealth. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah. Thank you, and congratulations for the set of numbers. My first question is in regard to our iron ore business, where volume has increased sharply by 58% year-on-year, but EBITDA per tonne has remained flat year-on-year and has not seen any operating leverage benefit. Can you provide some guide on it, sir?
See, the sales price has basically remained the same over the last year-on-year, if you see. It has been on INR 6,000. Therefore, the contribution, which is the EBITDA, has obviously also remained at the same. We have got more and more usage of material which has gone internally. The sales quantity has reduced. That is the reason why it has dropped.
But sir, volume has increased sharply, so there must be an operating leverage benefit that has not been seen in terms of higher margins.
That is what I said. Internal consumption has increased. When we talk of the margins, that is all based on the outward sale. That has remained the same. The margin is then getting transferred to the value-added products.
Okay. Secondly, on MDO business. Over here, again, the numbers are fantastic, but can you help us to understand the EBITDA year-on-year growth breakdown in terms of what led to how much of EBITDA growth and margin earned as well?
EBITDA, we have improved from last year. Currently also, we are going to maintain the same rate since the volumes are now picking up. For the Odisha operations also, we are going to ramp- up the production. For the Gadchiroli also, the production is being ramped- up. As I stated in my remarks, for this logistic operation, we are converting our conventional diesel vehicle to green vehicles. There also we are going to improve on the EBITDA. We are pretty sure that we will be able to maintain the EBITDA level of around 27%-30%.
Sir, can you give more clarity because our EBITDA is up around 145% year- on- year. The volume is up in iron ore around 80%. Just want to cover the bridge of what led to such high. Is there any contracts which is giving us the higher margins now compared to the last year? Can you just detail out something over here?
In Odisha this year, we have already started two new mining projects. One is Lasarda-Pacheri, and another we are going to start is in Dalpahar. In both the mining contracts, we have a better EBITDA margin as compared to our other Odisha mines. In these two, our EBITDA margins would be much, much better as compared to other mines. Also, on the fuel cost and all this in fuel efficiency, we are going to improve upon, and our EBITDA would be stable as compared to the last year. EV vehicle fuel saving, we are going to get more due to these EV vehicles. These two mining contracts, where the margins would be around more than 40%. We will be able to maintain the higher EBITDA margins.
Okay. Lastly, on the control level.
Sorry to interrupt, Kunal sir. We request that you return to question queue for follow-up.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Amit Dixit from GS. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. Couple of questions from my side. First of all, congratulations for a very good set of numbers. Sir, if you could let us know the progress of BHQ plant. You have mentioned in the PPT that yield is 38%. Just wanted to understand what kind of grade we are getting now, and when is this project expected to be complete. Is there any delay or something like that, if you can comment on that. That is the first question.
In BHQ, we hope to commission it by March 2028, as per our original schedule. The recovery of 38% against original 35% is more or less confirmed with all the tests that we've been doing on the test bench through the pilot plant. And so is the cost is also more or less within that range that we had originally assumed.
Sir, what is the grade in terms of iron ore and alumina content, if you can highlight?
The total gangue will be less than 3%, alumina and silica of the finished product, and the finished product will be in the range of 66%-67% at the mine- end.
Wonderful, sir. The second question is essentially on CapEx. If I look at the CapEx, this quarter it has, of course, increased quite a bit. Just wanted to understand the peak CapEx for the company. Which year we will be having the peak CapEx? What is your plan for CapEx in international geographies, particularly if you want to further increase the operations in Congo, let us say. Also if there is any CapEx apart from that $300 million that you mentioned in your opening questions to discuss, yeah.
CapEx, currently as Hemankur mentioned, we will be having for the foreign operations, we are around $300 million, is what is planned, which should be in this financial year is what would be expected. Plus, for the ongoing projects, we should be having apart from the ISP Konsari, we would be having around INR 8,500 crore of CapEx in this year. So we have done around INR 3,000 crore already in the first quarter. So it should be at around INR 11,500 crore over the next two years. That should be the CapEx. Going forward with the steel plant coming in, it should be on a higher range. Plus this does not include anything for the copper project in PNG, the Panguna mine. So we are just exploring that. Once that is clear and we have a clear picture on it, then we should be coming back to you.
Okay, sure, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, sir. Congrats for the strong set of numbers. The first question is on the India business. If I look at the production and sales volume this quarter, it seems that we had some carry forward inventory of iron ore. Can you quantify that? One. Secondly, the INR 325 crore of cost savings on the slurry pipeline, can we annualize that annually on a per tonne basis?
I didn't get your second question. Can you repeat it?
Sir, the cost saving on the slurry pipeline was around INR 325 crore you mentioned in the presentation. Can we annualize that savings on a per tonne basis for the full- year?
Yeah, I guess Rajesh ji has mentioned it around INR 500 to INR 550 per tonne because of the slurry line, the slurry project. That is the saving what we are getting on the pellet costing. To the first part of your question, we had around 1.5 million tonnes of opening stock of iron ore, which we would be selling out in this year. So this year the sales would be more than 26 million tonnes with this 1.5 million tons.
Okay. Sir, second on the PNG, any timelines and any initial thoughts on how much would be the investment on that project?
Like both Siddharth and Hemankur had mentioned, sir, the PNG ABG project is still under study. It is very much in the pipeline stage, and it would be very difficult to hazard any guess at the moment. It is a very positive moment for the company. We are studying it. We have our team for the exploration, for the studies, for everything. For the CSR to start with also. We hope to replicate what we have done in Betul, both in Chemaf and in Panguna. But to give figures for Panguna at this stage is impossible.
Sir, just last question on the steel plant. Any changes on the steel plant CapEx and timelines of when are we expecting to start the steel plant CapEx?
Which steel plant, sir?
The Maharashtra steel plant we had announced.
The first steel plant is already under execution. We hope to commission the plant by the end of this year, March 2027. For the second one, the original one, which was estimated at around 3 million tonnes in Konsari, like I mentioned last time, we have put that on the study block, studying how we can get maximum wastage of the land that has already been allotted to us, already in our possession, and whether we can increase our capacities in that area. Given that we already have the iron ore availability and seeing that the operations are going very smoothly, we might be increasing the capacity. No decision has been yet made on that.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Vinit Thakur from Plus91 Asset Management. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations on great set of numbers. Sir, I just had a question regarding the guidance for CapEx for next three years.
Yeah, as I just mentioned, we should be at around close to INR 11,000 crore for the next two years, and a bit higher around between INR 15,000 crore to INR 20,000 crore in the year after that. So the third year. So that is what it should be.
And sir, coming to the EBITDA, the previous participant asked the same question about the EBITDA per tonne. What do you think would be the next for this coming quarter? How market has been subdued, as said by other players in the market as well. The prices have fallen off pellets down and so has iron ore prices have fallen down. Do you think the results for coming few months will be depressed for pricing?
I don't count any pricing ever as depressed or bullish. It's a commodity, changes with every season and every year. I believe that the average for this year, quarter-on-quarter, has been the same like last year, which is exactly the same. I believe this year will behave the same like last year. How we can improve is by placing our materials better geographically, which we are forcing our sales teams to do to ensure that we get better realizations with the same market, whatever it is. It has helped us that some of our iron ore that we were selling in longer distances need not be serviced to those customers because we'll be adding value by making pellets. So that will probably add to our long-term margins, which we have seen with a 6% growth this year. We hope to continue similar
Results, but pricing is impossible to predict.
Sir, what is your sustainable margin going forward?
Sorry?
What will be your sustainable margin going forward post copper?
It is a commodity which all of you guys call cyclical. How can I predict any margin?
Fair enough, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Meet Bhua from Entigrity Ventures & Partnerships. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, sir. This whole copper division, you mentioned you are renegotiating terms on FEMA for project feasibility. I want to know your views on that.
Sorry to interrupt, Meet. Sir, your voice is not that audible. Please can you speak a little louder?
Sure. Sir, wanted to ask on copper division. Also, the management has mentioned that you are renegotiating the terms on FEMA. What is the status of the project, and what is the longer-term view of the management on this project?
So, the terms are already negotiated. We are looking at total financial closure. The project is under active development. I think we will reach financial closure in the next three to four months, and we will have the firm timeline on closure out of all the agreements which have been signed.
Okay. What is the longer- term view on this project? Is the project expected to generate a significant EBITDA margin for the company life?
Basically, we do have feasibility reports from the past, but I think it would be more prudent, and as we said, it is a commodity business, so it depends. If we consider current copper prices, of course, the margins are very high. But it would be a pretty early comment on what margins we will be making. We do have a plan. We do have projections. I think we will be able to disclose more on that when we are confident and get final commissioning timeline, which I think should happen in the next three to four months.
Okay. This project must be contributing to the depreciation, et cetera, other expenses in the current quarter. Is that right?
Yes. The assets will work in complete. All the depreciation benefits will remain and will be claimed by the company which has been acquired. That 100% will help in the tax benefits that will come along with the assets being there.
Okay, got it. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Ritesh Bhagwati from Alpha Plus Capital. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, congrats on great set of numbers. My question pertains to the NTPC wage receivable that was raised, as you and in auditor's note. Right now it stands at INR 300 odd crore, and it is still growing every quarter. Even though NTPC has walked away from the settlement two years ago. My question simply is, and I believe we have not provided anything for that yet. What is the thought process behind that, and what would make us provide that? Do we wait for the final court verdict, or is there some earlier trigger for that?
We were not able to understand. The line is not clear, and we were just not able to understand any of your questions.
Okay. I will just repeat it. My question pertains to the NTPC wage variable that was raised by the auditor's note in our P&L. It currently stands at INR 300 odd crore. I believe NTPC has walked away from the settlement two years ago. Somehow I believe we have not yet provided for this INR 300 odd crore in our books. What I want to understand is, what is the thought process behind that, and what are we waiting for? Are we going to wait for the final court verdict and only then we are going to look for the provisions or how is it like?
No, we do not intend to make any provision for that. We are in negotiation with NTPC and the other parties, not only for this but for our escalation on fuel cost and all these things also. Negotiations with NTPC are on, and hopefully for this wages also, this matter would be sorted out because this what they had to pay, and they have not yet paid. In arbitration, we had won this award, and since NTPC did not accept the arbitration, the matter remains sub judice still now. We are hopeful in next two, three months, NTPC matter will be resolved.
Okay. Has taking this largest coal customer to court affected our working relationship with them in any terms like contract renewals or anything?
No, because we are the largest MDO producer for NTPC, and their NTPC entire power plant and everything is dependent on our MDO operation. So there is no relationship conflict between the two companies. In fact, we are their preferred MDO contractor, and we are the largest producer of coal for them. So there is nothing as such in this.
Okay.
In fact, they have awarded us a new contract also. There is another PV Northwest, which has just started production last year only. That is again of 3 million tonnes. So it shows our relationship with NTPC. So there is no issue in relationship and anything to do with all this because these are part of normal business that gives that business. So both the companies are doing their own job. But yes, we are their preferred partner and they have full confidence in us.
Okay. My next question is on our CapEx.
Sorry to interrupt you there, sir. May we request that you return to question queue for follow-up?
Okay, fine. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Vikas Singh from ICICI Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity again. Sir, my first question regarding you just pointed out that your CapEx will be INR 11,000 crore for each of the two years, then INR 15,000 crore. Can you just give us from which year the integrated largest steel plant CapEx would take off? How much time are now the new timelines for you to complete the new steel plant? Because that could be a next leg of larger portion of the top-line growth to be coming from.
To reiterate, Vikas ji, the original capacity plan was around 3 million tonnes. With new technology and new experiences of the Indian steel fraternity, we believe we can do a larger plant in the same location. Number one, with the confidence that the capital markets have given us, as well as our success in the mining of the iron ore with both those factors together, we are hoping to increase our planned capacity for our plant. Those plans have not yet been finalized, nor been approved by the Board. We are doing various studies, technical, commercial, financial, and seeing where the capital should be allocated. Right now, there is no pucca plan made that we can have any announcement on.
Understood. Noted, sir. One more question regarding Thriveni. Currently, we are doing larger part of the revenue coming from our own mining contract. Could you list two, three larger mining contracts which could come in the next two or three years, which could give us a little bit of more satisfaction towards the Thriveni growth path?
Going for-
For the third- party.
Hemankur mentioned about the Tata contracts.
No, that was smaller. He said that it is a smaller portion, basically.
The definition.
We had a plan to grow the top-line at 30%, so just wanted to understand from where that 30% plus 30% growth for the next two years would come.
The Tata contract could be, again, I'm giving a guess, would be 3 million tonnes-4 million tonnes. The NTPC contracts are going at around 3%-5% growth.
OMC
OMC contracts.
The two, this new mining iron ore for Dalpahar and Lasarda, this is going to add 5 million tonnes and with a better margin. This year will be the full year's operation. One mine, 1.5 million tonnes full- year operation, and 3 million tonnes will be at least half of that. 3 million million tonnes we are going to increase this year, apart from the normal increase in other mines. We are quite confident that in Orissa itself, we will be able to achieve around 35 million tonnes.
Apart from that, our Geomysore contract is also there, which is the company not owned by Lloyds Metals. It's a group company. There also the contract will be worth. The growth that we are predicting includes all these contracts.
Noted, sir. In our contracts, do you design all the power from cost—
Sorry to interrupt, sir. May we request that you return to question queue for follow-up? Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Sir, just one last question on the Chemaf debt. Has the restructuring of that debt completed this quarter or it will happen in the next quarter?
No, it will happen in the next quarter. There is still timeline left for it. Basically, it will be completed before the timeline that is due and agreed with the creditors. Part of the debts have been done, like some of the EPC contractors, et cetera, they have been done and settled. But some of the other ones are pending, and they will get completed before the timeline expires for them.
So technically, our debt will come down by INR 700 million-INR 800 million on a control basis after the restructuring?
Yeah. Once we complete the complete final closure, it depends upon how actually we are refinancing because we are still looking at complete financial closure. That includes taking some of the debt which is there. Some of the new debt may replace the older debt which is there. Yeah, but there will be a significant reduction in the overall debt because that debt does include some of the accrued interest penalties, et cetera, from the past. But yes, it will come down by near about 40%-50%.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Nidhi Awasthi from BigMint. Please proceed with your question.
Good evening, sir. Many congratulations for the numbers and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is as the company ramps- up their iron ore production to 26 million tonnes and pellet production to around 8 million tonnes in FY 2027, what proportion of the incremental iron ore and pellet volume will actually enter the merchant market and what proportion will be consumed within the integrated value chain?
So at the moment, going forward to FY 2028, we will have our 1.2 million tonne plant commissioned. So between the iron ore and the pellet, around 2.4 million tonnes on a round figure basis would be consumed within the company. Out of this, right now, around 1 million tonnes is being consumed. So 1.4 million tonnes additional will be consumed in the steel plant by FY 2028. Beyond that, like I already mentioned, we do not want to hazard a guess regarding the bigger steel plant.
Okay. And sir, my second question is, once the BHQ beneficiation plant is operational, what annual saleable output can the company expect from the plant 30 million tonne capacity?
Can you repeat your question, please?
Once the BHQ beneficiation plant is operational, what annual saleable output can the company expect from the plant 30 million tonne throughput capacity?
We would be putting in around 16 million tonnes of output from that, roughly 16 million tonnes to 17 million tonnes, depending on the yield that we get from the material.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
That is in two phases. There are basically nine modules, and once we start commissioning the modules one by one, continuously it would be ramped up like that.
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am. The next question is from the line of Amay Sharda from Purnartha Investment Advisors. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Just wanted to ask, what is the reason for this fundraise in Thriveni Earthmovers and Infra, INR 650 crore or so fundraise they are doing, and we are helping them?
In fact, we just wanted to reduce our high-cost debt, and at the same time, we are going for CapEx, capital investment, and we have to invest in our outside subsidiaries also for doing the MDO contract. For these purposes. As I said in my opening remarks, that we are converting a few of our conventional equipment to the electrical equipment. For that we need funds. We just wanted to replace some high-cost debt also, which we have replaced. At the same time, we are putting in funds for our overseas subsidiaries, where we intend to start the mining operation. These are the main purpose of raising the funds.
In fact, can you also highlight what is the current interest cost that you are paying for this Thriveni business?
Current interest cost for this quarter?
Yeah, as a percentage, what is the interest percent?
Interest is around 9% to 9.5% is the interest. This gives blended. Q1 we had paid interest of around INR 115 crore.
Okay. The second question was, when do we expect the copper business to become profitable, and what kind of margins can we expect from the same?
I think, sir, this question has been raised earlier by your previous participant. I would request you to refer to the transcript later.
Sure. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure management is able to address questions from all the participants on the conference call, please limit your question to one per participant. The next question is from the line of [Anjali] from Mirania Family Office. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I need to ask two questions regarding this. One was that, in one of your previous concalls, you highlighted a structural savings of INR 4,000 per tonne. Can you please provide a granular breakdown of this savings? I also wanted to know the standard conversion ratios across our value chain from BHQ to iron ore to pellets to DRI. I also wanted to know about the 950-km slurry pipeline that is mentioned in your website, and how much of direct shipping iron ore is there in our mining?
The longer pipeline is part of the long-term vision of the company and not really a financial plan at the moment. The INR 4,000 per tonne included the, I do not remember the figure exactly, but INR 2,000 included the Thriveni savings, the savings by consolidating of Thriveni, the slurry pipeline saving, the saving due to fuel efficiencies, et cetera. It was-
A mix of everything.
It was a mix of everything. I would not have the breakup of that, but overall, since the plan is working well within the plan that we had, and that is why you see an increase of 600 basis points or more in the EBITDA margin. One question I think I missed, if you want to repeat that.
Yes, it was about the conversion ratios from iron ore to pellets to DRI to steel.
Iron ore to pellet is around 1.07, which is much more competitive than most of our competitors because of the lesser alloy quantum. From pellet to DRI is around 1.5, roughly. From DRI and blast furnace is a factor of various aspects, but I always consider 2 tonnes of iron ore per tonne of steel. Give or take a few percentage points within that. That is a very complicated formula to explain right now.
I got this, but just one more thing, like-
Sorry to interrupt, ma'am. May we request that you return to the question queue for follow-up? Thank you, ma'am. The next question is from the line of Divya Agarwal from Ficom Family Office. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, I just wanted to know about the recent announcement that was done by the DRC government on the ban on exports of copper. Could you throw some light on the potential impact of this move on your business?
DRC government has announced that, but just to give a perspective, actually, DRC has mostly been exporting cathodes. There has been very little concentrate which goes out of DRC, and it is limited to mostly some of the players with Chinese shareholders. In our case, both the assets will be producing final cathodes. It does not impact us. It might impact some of the players who might have to find extension and maybe put capacity to convert to cathodes ultimately. But on our plant, it does not have any impact.
Got it, sir. Next, I just wanted to know on the gross margin front.
Sorry to interrupt, Divya sir. May we request that you return to question queue for follow-up?
Sure. Thanks.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Jhalak from Chhattisgarh Investments Limited. Please proceed with your question.
Hello.
Yes.
Am I audible?
Yeah. Sir, my question is that the other income has increased to INR 128 crore this quarter. Last quarter it was INR 11.21 crore.
Part of this increase is due to the Investment Promotion Scheme from the government and part of it is from interest and revenue.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am. The next question is from the line of Harsh from Seven Rivers Holding. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, sir. My question is on Thriveni. If we exclude the captive revenue, then I think we have sequentially, there has been very sharp uptick in Thriveni from almost INR 1,100 crore to INR 1,800 crore. Should we take this as a base for rest of the year and sequentially should we grow on top of this?
I couldn't get your question. Please could you repeat?
My question is for Thriveni. In Thriveni, if we exclude the Lloyds revenue, then sequentially between Q4 FY 2026 to Q1 FY 2026, we have seen a pretty sharp uptake. Almost to the tune of INR 1,800 crore-INR 1,900 crore of revenue. How do we see this for the rest of the year?
The rest of the year, as I said to you, because the other two mines are going to have their full potential. The numbers what you are saying are not fully correct. For Q1 FY 2026, our revenue was INR 1,600 odd crore. Now this year it is around INR 2,700 something.
No, I am speaking excluding Lloyd's revenue.
Yes, excluding Lloyd's revenue, because we are going to increase our production in two mines in Odisha, scaling up the operation in other mines in Odisha. Gold mining also is going to increase the scale-up. PV coal mining also, that 3 million tonne is going to increase the full production. We will be ramping- up our revenue in these mines also. Parallelly, and at the same time, Lloyds also, because this 26 million tonnes to 55 million tonnes, this year full production will be there. There also we will be getting the full revenue. One more thing I would like to add to this, many of the participants are excluding Lloyds or internal sales from the operations of Thriveni.
One has to understand that it is a very integral part and both are very much married and very beneficial to each other, and that is why it is a group and that is part of the company. That has to be understood that it is a very symbiotic relationship, which is beneficial on an overall basis. One plus one is not two in this, but it is 111, not even 11. One has to appreciate that.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Thank you very much everybody for your participation and all the wonderful questions. Hope we have replied to all your questions. If you have anything else, you can get in touch with us directly. The numbers and the email IDs are all there on the websites as well as in the earning presentation. You can just get in touch with us for any further questions. Thank you, Jashandeep and the Nomura team also for holding this conference earning call. Thank you once again to everybody. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Lloyds Metals and Energy Limited and Nomura, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.