Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to GE T&D India Limited earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Megha Gupta from GE T&D India Limited. Thank you and over to you, ma'am.
Good evening, everyone. A very warm welcome to the GE T&D India Limited earnings call for the first quarter of financial year 2024/25. I'm Megha Gupta from GE T&D India Finance and Investor Relationship Team. We are delighted to have you all here on the call today. We have with us Mr. Sandeep Zanzaria, CEO and MD of the company, Mr. Sushil Kumar, full-time director and CFO of the company, Mr. Abhishek Srivastava, head business operations, Ms. Kanika Arora, communications leader, Mr. Nimay Verma, company secretary of the company. During the call, we will discuss the company's financial performance, including operational highlights, and we'll share key updates. Towards the end of the presentation, we will have a dedicated question-and-answer session. The presentation we are going to discuss today and financial results for the quarter are already available on our company's website.
Before moving forward, I would like to highlight that today's discussion may contain a few forward-looking statements which are subject to risk and uncertainties. These statements are based on our current expectations and as to results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. We encourage you to refer to our public filings and disclosures for comprehensive understanding of the factors that could impact our future performance. With this, now I'll hand over to Mr. Sandeep Zanzaria to open up the discussion. Thank you.
Thank you, Megha, and good evening, everybody. Appreciate your taking the time to join us today and for your continued interest in GE T&D India Limited. India's power transmission system is emerging as one of the largest unified electricity grids in the world, with the inter-regional capability of transferring 118 gigawatts on one frequency according to the latest economic survey, 2023-24. As India continues to take bold strides towards its goal of becoming a Viksit Bharat by 2047, the demand for reliable and efficient electricity supply is expected to surge. This necessitates the domestic power sector, supporting this ambitious growth plan over the next 23 years to make it happen. Our involvement in key projects for commissioning of grid solutions for renewable energy integration and offering T&D solutions for large-scale data centers reiterates our commitment to support India's energy transition.
Additionally, our innovative offerings in digital solutions for grid automation and asset performance management have sharpened our technological edge and market competitiveness. Building on our strong momentum, we are excited to report another quarter of robust order growth. Our order book in Q1 saw a booking of INR 10.3 billion, up by 2% year-on-year, compared to INR 10.1 billion in quarter ended June 2023. A highlight of this quarter was the orders we received from PGCIL to build the State Load Dispatch Center and Renewable Energy Management Center in the Union Territory of Ladakh. Our order backlog stood at INR 62.8 billion as of June 2024 versus INR 39.4 billion as of June 2023, up by 59% year-on-year. Our Q1 revenue stood at INR 9.6 billion versus INR 7.2 billion in Q1 FY 2023/24, up by 34% year-on-year, with a notable increase in our profits.L
Our profit before tax in Q1 2024/25 was at INR 1.8 billion, compared to around INR 386 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. Another strong performance on cash, where cash and cash equivalent balance improved and stood at INR 4.4 billion as of 30th June 2024 versus INR 2.8 billion as on 31st March 2024, and a net debt of INR 1.1 billion as on 30th June 2023. The improvement in the balance sheet paved the way for the company to generate cash of INR 1.6 billion during the first quarter of 2024/25. Operational efficiency has been a cornerstone of our strategy. We have made significant strides in improving the on-time delivery, optimized cost structures, and facilitated lean operational processes. Our focus on selective market participation has further enabled us to engage with clients, offering favorable payment terms and higher margins, thereby reducing exposure to high-risk markets.
We will continue our way forward with a laser-sharp focus on efficiency. We could not be more excited about the path ahead, and we thank you for your continued support. I now invite Abhishek to provide further insights on the execution.
Thank you, Sandeep. So we as GE T&D remain committed in terms of adding capacity to the transmission network of India. So in this pursuit, in the last quarter, we added 400 kV UPPTCL Sahupuri transmission line, which was commissioned, and that helps us serve the area of Varanasi and the adjoining areas. In addition to that, we also commissioned one critical substation for TPDDL in Delhi. In continuation of our pursuit for adding critical elements to the transmission network and for stabilization of the Indian transmission network, 500 MVA ICT was added for Power Grid at Rampur and 23 bays of 220 kV added at multiple substations. Also, we have been picking up some critical extension jobs for our customers with whom we have long-term relationships, like IFFCO at Paradip, similarly for WBSETCL at Durgapur, and RVNL at Kharagpur.
Our pursuit is to keep on augmenting and strengthening the network for transmission in India. These are some of the critical additions that we could successfully commission in the last quarter, and our journey continues. I will invite Sushil to take us forward.
Thanks, Abhishek. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This was a very strong quarter in terms of financial performance for us. Talking about orders first, on page number 5 of the presentation, we booked orders of INR 10.3 billion in this quarter compared to approximately INR 10 billion in the same quarter last year. This represents a 2% increase versus the last year. However, in addition, in the month of July, which is for the current ongoing quarter, Q2 of this financial year, we have already booked orders worth INR 13 billion, and these were significant orders, and we have made appropriate disclosure to the stock exchange. Out of this INR 13 billion, approximately INR 8 billion was related to the orders that we booked from our good companies for export, and about INR 5 billion orders were from Power Grid for, I think, SCADA for the global participation services.
Out of the INR 10.3 billion orders that we booked in this quarter, the major orders were basically supply of 765 kV shunt reactors for reactive power compensation from Power Grid, and we secured an order from Adani Energy Solutions for 765 kV, 400 kV GIS bay extension at Khavda. We have secured an order from Damodar Valley Corporation for renovation and modernization of work of four substations in the state of West Bengal. We also secured orders from Power Grid for establishment of State Load Dispatch Centers and renewable energy management centers in the Union Territory of Ladakh and northern region of India. And we have secured orders from ReNew for 400 kV extension under RTM mode at Koppal and Gadag sites.
There are other orders from major EPC players for 400 kV and 200 kV GIS extension at Amargarh, and one order, large significant one, booked for a customer in Nepal for 245 kV GIS from an EPC player. So these were the significant orders that we booked during the quarter. Similarly, we had a very robust financial performance in the profit and loss account. During the quarter, we had a revenue of INR 9.5 billion, which was 34% higher than what we achieved in the same quarter in the last financial year. However, a very significant improvement happened in terms of EBITDA level. We achieved an EBITDA of INR 1.9 billion, and this represents an EBITDA of 20.2% as a percentage of revenue.
This is a very strong improvement of 11.5 points versus what we achieved in the same quarter in the last year, where we had only 8.7% as the EBITDA. Similarly, our financial performance on profit before tax also improved significantly. We achieved a profit before tax of INR 1.8 billion compared to only INR 386 million in the last financial year, first quarter. Sandeep also mentioned at the beginning of the call that we had achieved INR 1.6 billion of cash in addition during the quarter, and cumulatively now we have a very strong balance sheet position with approximately INR 4.4 billion of cash and cash equivalents in our bank accounts as an investment.
Moving to the next page in terms of split of order and revenue, out of INR 10.2 billion of orders, approximately 80% orders worth INR 8.3 billion were from domestic market, and approximately INR 1.9 billion orders representing 20% of the overall order mix were from the export market. In terms of revenue split between export and domestic market, approximately 70% of the revenue, or INR 6.6 billion revenue, was from domestic market, and 30% of revenue, approximately INR 2.9 billion, was from the export market. End of June, we have a strong order in hand position of INR 62 billion. Of this, 60% is from the private customers, approximately 9% from state utilities, and 31% from the central utilities. With this, we can now open up to the questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening, sir, and congratulations on a very, very good quarter. My first question is on the gross margin. The gross margin improvement has been very, very sharp in the last, especially Q1, Q2, and YoY. I think it was 40% this quarter compared to last year's same quarter, 32%. How much of this is sustainable, and do you think some rotation in the margins as we go forward? That was the first question.
Thanks, Mohit. So in our business, because we are a long-cycle business, and the gross margin also depends on a combination of various factors, including the mix of revenue between projects and products and export and domestic. So generally, we kind of evaluate the gross margin performance more on a yearly basis. And if we compare our financial performance, the last financial year we have achieved a gross margin of about 32.4%. This quarter, the first quarter is a very good start, wherein we have achieved 40.3% of gross margin. And this kind of gives us a better confidence that our end user, which is always to take the margin to a higher level, is working in the right direction, and we should be able to achieve a better margin compared to last year that we had achieved.
In terms of the guidance, as a tactic, we don't give any guidance, but yes, as a management team, we always work to improve the gross margin or the overall profitability.
Understood. The second question on the order inflow. The order inflow for the quarter was subdued.
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Kumar, your voice is sounding low.
Yeah. Is it better now?
Yeah.
Yes, this is better. Please go ahead.
My question is on the order inflow. Order inflow for the quarter was slightly on the lower side, given the fact that we have seen that last year a number of projects were bid out. And so the question is, are you seeing a larger inquiry and you think that this will translate into higher order inflow as we go forward?
So Mohit I'll jump in here. So yeah, I think there was some impact of decision-making because of elections as well. But I think if you will see that we maintained the order inflow number of INR 10.3 billion, which was like a 2% growth. But also if you see that in July, which is like we have already declared an order to the stock market of about INR 13 billion. And if you also look at our order backlog, so we have a very impressive growth in the order backlog of we are presently at about INR 62 billion as compared to, I think it was about INR 39 billion at the year. And similarly, in the last year, the same quarter, it was about INR 39 billion. So it's an impressive, I think, growth there. And yes, definitely we are looking at the pipeline.
Yes, the renewable or the TBCB pipeline is a we look at it as a more sustainable and a growth pipeline.
Okay. My last question, sir. Are you participating in the upcoming HVDC tenders for Bhadla, Fatehpur, and the STATCOMs?
So Mohit, I think not the right forum to discuss it there, which would be us advocating or not, but I can tell you that yes, globally we are one of the top three players of HVDC and also for STATCOM. So yes, it will be our endeavor to take some market on HVDC and STATCOM both.
Understood, sir. Thank you, and Sandeep Zanzaria. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mohit.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Umesh Raut from Nomura India. Please go ahead.
Hi sir, good evening, and congratulations for the excellent set of numbers. My first question is again on the gross margin. So if I look at your trend on the gross margin or your commentary since last few quarters, sometime back you were saying that about 30%-35% is kind of more of sustainable gross margin that one can look at. But now we have already touched closer to 40%. So how much of this gross margin expansion you can attribute to, say, healthy pricing power, to say, internal efficiency where you have localized incremental product offering from domestic market? And thirdly, on the account of, say, even the product mix, especially from export execution and domestic execution point of view. So if you can highlight certain things on the gross margin side in a more granular way. Thank you, sir.
Yes. Thanks, Umesh. So as I mentioned that, yes, we did well in terms of gross margin in the quarter one. And this gives us the confidence that we should be doing better versus the last financial year, which was 34%. The direction of 30%-32% that you are talking was about a couple of years ago. And at the same time, we continue to also highlight that as management, our end user is to work towards the higher side of or improving the margin further. And you rightly mentioned a few factors which are leading to the gross margin improvement. The mix of the projects, contribution of higher export sale, improvement in pricing, plus also in the last two to three years, we have highlighted multiple things about our internal improvement actions, especially the lean and the productivity, which has led to the gross margin improvement.
And we also talked about selectivity of the projects, which are not only profitable in terms of the reported margin, but also leading to the cash generation or cash collection for the company. So as you see, the gross margin is also getting converted into the higher profit before tax and also the cash generation, which we made this quarter was the seventh consecutive quarter of positive cash generation for us. And we have now accumulated INR 4.4 billion of cash generation. Yes, the three to four factors that you mentioned, a couple of further factors that I highlighted, and there are many more actions that we are taking to make sure that we improve margin versus the margin that we anticipate at the order booking stage.
Got it, sir. So my second question is on the export ordering, especially from group entities. So I think if I look at last 12 months, those have been really fabulous for us in terms of getting larger and sizable contracts from group entities. If you can throw some highlight on, say, next 12 months in terms of outlook from incremental ordering from group entities and also beyond group entities in terms of export ordering?
So hi Umesh. So for example, even the outside entities, they take the support of Indian manufacturing, and then they bid to the end customer. So as of today, it is difficult to predict that what kind of orders they will be winning and what kind of orders will be coming. But yes, definitely, the Indian manufacturing setup is a very strong support in many geographies to go win the orders, not only from group entities, but also GT&D is also directly bidding and taking export orders as well. So it's very difficult to give a number today that, okay, this is what we are going to achieve in the next three quarters or four quarters in terms of export. But definitely, as Sushil said, that yes, the endeavor would be that to grow on export orders because they have a slightly better margin of compared to the domestic ones.
Got it, sir. So my last question is pertaining to capacity utilization. If I look at current trends in the industry, I think there is really a good visibility of sustaining this demand for maybe multiple years, especially from domestic as well as export markets. So just wanted to know what are your plans in terms of capacity expansion and what is exactly current utilization rate as well for especially major products like, say, transformer and on the HVDC side as well, STATCOM and other things.
So Umesh, here I will say, I think you have answered this question in the past as well. So two things here. So capacity utilization also depends upon multiple factors, that what kind of rating we have got in combination for the orders and transformer and reactors and a lot of factors which are there. I would say that, okay, whenever we are seeing that there are any bottlenecks in terms of taking orders for capacity utilization, of course, we try to identify the bottlenecks in the whole process, and then we're trying to see that removing those bottlenecks, how can the capacity be increased. And for many of the products, yes, I would say that we are at a much better capacity utilization today, especially when I look at transformers and a few other products.
But in other products, we need to catch up in terms of capacity utilization as well.
Okay. So is it fair to assume that at a peak capacity utilization, we can touch closer to about, say, INR 60 billion in terms of turnover?
That would be a kind of a forward-looking statement, and we would refrain from.
See anything.
Yes, sure. As an analyst, you can see the historical trend of how our backlog has got converted into revenue, and you can extrapolate the numbers at your own. And revenue in the future here is a factor of multiple things, which is not just the backlog, but what is that we can achieve in the future, including HVDC and STATCOM that we just talked about. Because that can give a boost to the revenue depending on if we win those contracts on a time basis. But I'd request you to take the past trend to extrapolate.
Sure, sir. Sure. Thank you so much, and all the very best for the future.
Thank you, Umesh.
Next question is from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please proceed.
Hi, Sushil. Hi, Sandeep. Congratulations on a great quarter with fantastic numbers.
Thank you.
I'll just keep asking you that when you reach the INR 1,000 crore quarterly target, I think you're almost at that milestone and with the great margins. So my first question is on, you said that now in July you've announced INR 800 crore of orders from group companies. So if I remember correctly, last year you had taken RPT approvals to the extent of INR 3,000 crore of limits. So do you think that this year you'll be able to fill that? Is there any pending backlog from the last year which would get finalized over and above the $1 billion? So how do we see this number of INR 3,000 crore in this year?
So Parikshit, I think the numbers that you're referring to are quite different than what we have sent to the shareholders for approval. If I recollect well, we took an approval of about INR 1,000 crore, roughly INR 1,000 crore from one of the group companies. I think it was UK Grid Solutions for transformer business. And that order was already booked in the last financial year. I think it was booked in the month of December 2023. Subsequently, in the month of February, we have taken another related party approval for, I think, again, about the INR 1,000 crore value for another group entity for the other product business. And that order was booked in the month of July, another INR 800 crore. So INR 800 crore in December last year, INR 800 crore roughly in July this year.
I think beyond that, whatever RPT approval we had sought, they were more related to the cash flow management. They are more for the banking and the financial fund management rather than the order booking. And now we have an upcoming AGM, and for this ongoing financial year, 2024, 2025, whatever anticipated orders that we foresee beyond whatever we have already booked, we will be sending a new notice to the shareholder in the upcoming AGM notice.
As a trend, do you think what you did last year, I mean, similar kind of trends could be maintained from group entities?
See, last year in terms of export order booking, we did approximately, let me look at the value. We did about 32% of orders were from the export side, right?
Yeah.
And this time, if you see, we have already done INR 800 crore of orders in the month of July. Now, this would represent almost, if I'm not mistaken, maybe 15% of last year's order booking. So yes, we have got a significant order in this year as well. As Sandeep explained, export orders, we always prefer to export orders because they are slightly better margin than the domestic margin. But there is no trend absence. Meaning, we cannot say that, yes, whatever orders we are getting, we'll continue to get. Because it depends on a lot of factors. It depends on whether the group companies are winning the orders, whether we have the technical capabilities, and we are factors of qualifying the export. So our indicator is always there. The trend thus far is better, and we will continue to work in this direction.
So Parikshit, just one thing here. So every quarter, we have kind of a regular flow of orders of, for example, automation and products and things like that. And then there is one-off which comes, like for example, last year it was transformer from Grid Solutions. This time, it is like one-off which has come for the product, INR 800 crore what we have reported. So I think the sustainability of the export order quarter on quarter, we don't see a challenge. One-off, for example, we have got this INR 800 crore. We will continue to work during the year for more such opportunities.
Okay. Got it. So that explains. So the second question is on HVDC side. So the Power Grid keeps talking about two technologies, LCC and VSC. So do you have preference?
I mean, can you do both these technologies in India and given some of these projects may get designed on these two technologies? So for you, are you preferring both these technologies? And will you bid for these HVDC joint ventures with your parent company?
So Parikshit, I'll just answer this that yes, definitely, because Champa-Kurukshetra, we have already done on LCC technologies. And if you look at our global reference, for example, today in Germany, UK, multiple places, GE has taken orders of VSC projects of evacuation of offshore wind and things like that. So we have the technology both for LCC and for VSC. Bidding for a specific project or not project, that's a bidding strategy what we take a decision. But yes, we have the capacity and capability both to deliver LCC and VSC.
Okay. And so the last question is around the product side. So do you think, given the demand in the markets, do you think that we may slowly start rotating the lower end of the product for the transformer and prioritize or minimize or push more towards better margins AIS kind of products? So what's your thought process there on the factory line side?
So I think Sushil had during his initial remarks as well said that we are very much focused on selectivity as well. So we would like to operate in domains where we are really doing a value add for the customer, as well as we are doing a value add to the shareholders as well in terms of earning margins. So we take a call based on that. But whether, for example, at the lower end, the market is totally cluttered and there are multiple players, then maybe we might decide not to operate in that segment as well.
But your production lines are flexible. I mean, you can allocate it to more premium end products. I mean, you can reroute it.
It depends upon which factory we are talking about.
Got it. Okay. Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Subhadip Mitra from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Good evening and congratulations for an excellent set of results. My first question is to look at your current order book. Typically, I understand that gross margins would be a function of the pricing that you have bid for the tenders, which would already be there in your order book, as well as lean raw material sourcing, etc., which we've already highlighted. Just based on the pricing that's already there booked in the order book, could you give us a range of what the current order book looks like in terms of margins?
We don't typically share that kind of data. But as I mentioned in my initial response to the earlier question, last financial year, we did 34.4% of gross margin. And as a management, our endeavor is to improve it further. We have done well in quarter one, and we hope that we can continue this journey and make an improvement on the gross margin on an overall financial year basis, as is the last financial year.
Okay. Secondly, in terms of the size of the market available out there, right? So it's split between, let's say, large HVDC orders in India and exports, and then followed by the non-HVDC piece, which is also large. And I think thirdly, the renewable-related, let's say, non-GIS-related order input that's coming. So would it be possible for you to paint us a picture in terms of what kind of TAM you're looking at across these three or four different buckets?
So Subhadip, I think the focus is, of course, TBCB as well as R&D data centers. So these are the markets that we are, including the digitization, load dispatch centers. So I think these are the markets that we are targeting. And of course, it is difficult to put a TAM to them because in some parts we are participating, in some parts or in some developers, we are not there. But I would say that our focus strongly remains into these domains only, like the export, the TBCB market, the industry market, the data center market. So these and, of course, what I said, the load dispatch centers and all.
Of course, when we look at our product ordering, definitely it doesn't matter to us whether it is a state utility or wherever the product is required, and if the orders are coming through EPC customers, then the end client doesn't matter too much to us. I think this is what we are targeting. Definitely, selectivity is playing an important role because we are not running after anything and everything. That is what we have made very clear, and we want to continue this journey.
Understood. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Sushil.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mahesh Bendre from LIC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you so much. Sir, this quarter, I mean, you answered this question many times, but still, this quarterly, this operating performance has been quite strong. So we are reported on 19% EBITDA margin. Just wondering, is there any one-off in this in terms of any foreign exchange gain or, I mean, anything that is not regularly raised in the business?
Good evening, Mahesh. Thanks for the question. There's nothing significant to be highlighted. It's a very operational regular profit that we have seen in this quarter. I would like to highlight one more thing because earlier questions were more on the gross margin side. I think one important thing here to be highlighted because your question is more related to EBITDA is our expenses other than the gross margin, meaning the employee benefit expenses and the other expenses. If you look at the trend, they have not increased significantly because we have been able to make a very tight control over those expenses. There's very some increase related to the revenue, but not as significant. As a result, while the gross margin improvement is maybe 5-6 percentage, 5-6 points, but the EBITDA improvement because of the operating leverage impact has gone up by 10 percentage points.
That is also one area where we want to continue to focus as a management to make sure that whatever improvements we make in the gross margin directly flow to the profit before or profit after tax.
Sure. Sir, capital expenditure plan for next two years?
We don't typically share this in the investor call because whenever there'll be large capital expenditure plan, we'll be making disclosure to all the shareholders through the stock exchange. At the same time, our regular replenishment expenditure in the range of, say, INR 40-INR 50 crore, which is equal to depreciation. In addition, there'll be some CapEx with some key highlights in terms of the debottlenecking of capacity, which will directly help us to make sure that we are able to produce more from the existing plant.
Sure. As a last question from my end, I mean, it is expected over the next 5 to 6 years, around INR 300,000 crore will be spent on transmission in India. So given the renewables, number of renewables and number of generation capacity that is coming up, do you think this number looks very low in terms of CapEx on transmission side?
I think we have to also understand that INR 300,000 crore includes the transmission lines and everything included in that, including the HVDCs and everything. But this will also depend upon what is the speed of generation coming in, the capacity is getting added, and all these factors as well. So I think the number looks to be reasonable because there are other forms of generation also which the government will be pushing in terms of offshore wind and other forms as well. So I think this looks to be the minimal number which is there, but yeah, definitely there can be an improvement from that as well.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Rahul Modi from Nippon India Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Congratulations. Really appreciate it to see.
I believe we lost Rahul.
Yes, sir. The line got disconnected. Meanwhile, we'll move to the next question from the line of Amit Anwani from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations for the good set of numbers. And thanks for taking my question. First question, I would like to understand the break-up of product versus projects this quarter and the base quarter. And any sort of you did highlight a couple of things in terms of focus on operational efficiency and cost control. I wanted to understand any internal targets because of these savings which can add to EBITDA margin.
I think the answer to the first question is roughly 20%-25% of the revenue comes from the project business and just from the product business. I'm sorry, I missed your second question. I'll request you to repeat that again, please.
Yes. So second thing, sir, you did highlight that there's a lot of focus on operational efficiency within the firm, and there's focus also on the tighter cost control. Just wanted to understand any target because of the operational efficiency which we are aiming, which can add percentage to EBITDA only because of efficiencies?
Yeah. So maybe just to reword what I said earlier. When I said we are maintaining control over cost, it didn't mean that we are targeting to reduce the cost, but means that the revenue increase, the significant revenue increase of 34% that we are seeing in the quarter, and we hope that our revenues will grow. We would like to execute the revenue with the existing structure and a small or lesser increase in the other cost compared to the increase in revenue. So with that revenue, let's say if our revenue is going by the report again and the other expense and employee benefit is not going to the extent of revenue, we will see a direct benefit or improvement in the profit before that.
Sure. Secondly, sir, on the order prospects, so I recollect a few months back, we did highlight some INR 25,000 crore prospect. So just wanted to understand very recently, PGCIL also announced a higher CapEx and capitalization for FY 2025, 2026 and the longer-term plan. Does that anyways improve our prospect? And if you could throw some light on the order prospects again, if possible.
Sure. I think Power Grid is one of the largest transmission utilities in the country, and any increase in the CapEx by Power Grid is a direct reflection of the strength of the market. And also because it's one of the largest customers for us as well. So I think any increase in the CapEx which Power Grid has announced is going to directly benefit us in terms of order intake, definitely. But we have to also see that, as I said, that the amount of generation which is going to come in and the new projects of TBCB which are coming in. So the impacts of that in terms of today declaring that this is going to be the value of orders which we are going to get is difficult for the year because we have just completed the first quarter.
I think we remain optimistic about the year in terms of order intake, much stronger.
Sure. Lastly, sir, again on the product versus project you highlighted, 75, 25, can we assume that this will be the trend for the next three quarters also?
As I said, it will be P&L analysis. It depends on the execution timeline of the project. It can be very different quarter to quarter. But generally, yes, this has been the mix. If the new order booking remains in the same ratio, then this trend on revenue will remain the same.
Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. All the best.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Amit Mahawar from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you. So Amit, I just want to understand if you look at the last 15-20 years of transmission equipment market, we had a peak of roughly around INR 25,000-28,000 crore back 12 years ago. And when GE was a pure T&D, they had a peak margin, which is actually what we've reported just now, the range. The market has very much changed, right, since then. So do you think, take a three-year, four-year view, our scale will be very different in four years' time, or do you think because the market might be INR 30,000-40,000 crore per annum, best case next three years. So how do you see next three years for GE T&D capacity framework? Because most players are very, very judicious in expanding capacity.
This is considering your own mix is a third skewed towards exports, which is ever-growing demand from a parent company. Next three years, how should we think about GE in terms of capacity to manufacture and scale up? Commensurate with that, how will the India opportunity look like to you?
So thanks, Amit. And I think you are right. For the next 3-4 years, as far as my thinking is, but looking into the potential of renewable and not only renewable, but I think the thermal capacity expansion which is coming. So I think there is going to be a sustained demand in terms of and with HVDCs coming in and also the interconnection between the various countries which is being talked about. So I think there is going to be a sustained demand at least for the next 3-4 years in the country, no doubt on that. And because the energy transition story is being played globally, whether you look at Europe, whether you look at Australia, whether you look at the U.S., I think the export requirements will keep on cropping up of large projects as well.
Maybe whether it's going to be one opportunity, two opportunities in a year. But my feeling is that, yes, definitely, it's going to be there. And the utilization, as I said in my prior answers as well. So everything is like we are not there at the top of utilization benchmark. So for a few products, we have some scale capacities also available with us. And I think these things are going to help us in the further growth which we are looking forward to.
Fair. And second, a quick question is for GE, even during the old times, the business mix has been skewed towards private, right, always. Even today, you have more than 60% of business or orders are from private sector. How should we look at this, say, three, four years down the line? Because do you think this will change? And the reason I'm asking this is also because different businesses have different profitability metrics. So do you think from a three-year view, your mix will shift?
One thing is very clear that as a strategy, I think we are not so much inclined to go on the straight side. So for example, when it's customers like Power Grid, NTPC, yes, definitely, it's a different way because the way the contracting is done there and the execution is done is more or less matching the pace of the private players as well. So if I look at the next two, three years, definitely, we are going to be more driven by private. But for example, a large project which is coming from stateside can also change the numbers in terms of dynamics. But looking into our conventional portfolio, yes, private will play a more important role than state.
Sure. So I'm thinking reverting to ask this last quick question. Any specific, maybe additional powers or flexibility you get from parent company to decide your growth in India for the domestic market, export market? Anything that you want to cover? Thank you.
No, we are fine. I think with the set of results, I think the combination between the parent and the subsidiary or our own Indian management, I think, is very well demonstrated in our results.
Sure. Thank you, Sandeep. And good luck to the entire GE team.
Thank you, Amit.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rahul Modi from Nippon India Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Thank you. And sorry, I got dropped out due to some technical issue. So I just have two quick questions. Most of the questions have been answered. One is if you could just make us understand a little better because globally, the market is also expanding in a very fast pace. We've seen demand growing significantly. So when you are making your strategy, how do you what is the thought internally between exports and group companies and Indian markets? That is one. And secondly, in terms of obviously, you mentioned about margins being better there. So in terms of, again, any thoughts on how the parent and the local entity is working in terms of the Indian entity being a supplier to the global entities? To what extent are we on a priority list versus the other entities globally? Thank you.
Thanks, Rahul. I think one thing I want to make very clear is that we are a very important part of our global strategy as well. That is one thing I want to make clear. Also, for example, our acceptability, for example, in many of the geographies also depends upon the customer acceptability as well. For example, in the next geography, if I want to supply, but the customer wants to buy from a nearby factory and things like that, maybe it is not possible. But today, for example, when I look at the whole world, we are supplying consistently to, for example, Southeast Asia, Australia, South Asia, Africa, Latin America, and we have also started now supplying in parts of Europe as well.
So I think when I look at the whole world, I think there are many geographies which we are covering from our Indian factories. And this is slowly, slowly depending upon the need of the business there, and the customer acceptability is also going up in terms of Indian factory. That is one thing. Second thing, when we look at our strategy, your first question was that how do we balance between the India and when we balance about our export strategy? So for a few things, suppose, for example, the HVDC transformer support, which is there, which was one of the export strategies that we decided. But normally, our focus for transformer business is more in terms of domestic business. For project business, it is more in terms of domestic support for the Indian customers.
And when I say domestic, it also means apart from India, I'm including Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the neighboring countries as well, Sri Lanka, because that we consider as part of our region as well. But when we look at our automation, when we look at our AIS product and GIS product, where our capacity utilization is also not like the high-end, so there we are comfortably able to support, and there the turnaround time is also much faster. So there we are able to support the export. And not only in terms of supporting group entities, but also taking direct orders from the end customers as well. It could be utilities based out of Australia or Latin America or Africa, or also supporting the EPC customers based out of India who are operating in Africa or other geographies as well.
So we take a conscious call of supporting the Indian networks as well and also balancing between the export and the domestic strategy. Hope my answer made sense to you, Rahul.
Yeah, this was very helpful. Just last question from my side. Again, I'm not getting into numbers, but directionally, over the next two years, do you see that because of a large opportunity both in India and globally, do you think that there will be a need for a major CapEx and just not debottlenecking, if at all? Maybe a little thought, but no numbers, just asking from a directional point of view, your sense on this?
Rahul, as and when it will be required, I think we will be taking that call.
Sure. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you, Rahul.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mayank Chaturvedi from HSBC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi there. Thank you for the opportunity. So taking your comments in the last question, just wanted a clarification on the export order inflow order book. Can you give us a split between the third-party orders that you book and the group entity orders that you book from the book entity? And within that, would you say that third-party orders have relatively better margin to hold you, given that you won't be restricted by transfer pricing mechanisms with your group entity? I think, so Mayank, your voice was not very clear, but whatever I could understand. So one thing is what we said, that the export margins are slightly better than the domestic one. But in the export, we have not differentiated in terms of margin, whether it comes from group entities or it comes from third party. If that answers your question.
All right. Any indicator mix there? How much would be the third-party orders and how much is group entities? Just ballpark number there.
Okay.
Within your order and floor mix?
No, we typically do not share that kind of split.
All right. No issues. And just one other thing, just taking context from Power Grid's commentary that came this week, that they are going for bulk procurement in advance for the next 18, 20 months. So would you say that they have already booked their requirements with you for the next 18, 20 months and that it has already flown into your ordering flows?
So I think that would be more for Power Grid to answer, that whether whatever procurement they have done, is it for their next 18, 20 months requirement, or they are still to do it. But whatever requirements are coming, we are regularly participating, and whatever we are winning, we are declaring to the market.
Sure. Okay. That's all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you, Mayank.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Prathmesh Salunkhe from PL Capital. Please proceed.
Hi sir. Congratulations on a really good quarter. Thank you for taking my question. So I just wanted to understand some bit more details about your automation business, like what are the growth prospects in it? Where is it exactly going? And what could be the contribution of this business to the overall revenue or margins? Is it a high-margin business? Is it a low-margin business? Any color would be appreciated. Yeah. So thanks, Prathmesh. And I think one of the things which I can say is that when the overall market is growing, obviously, the automation business is an integral part of every substation. So everywhere where the demand is growing, the automation demand is also growing. And also, I think looking into, for example, I'm not sure whether you know, but the regional logistics centers have come up for an upgrade.
That's what we have declared, that the first northern region upgrade order work we have declared, it has been built in July for close to about INR 5 billion. We'll not be able to comment on the individual business strategy and margins, but definitely, automation business remains our key focus and is an integral part of our growth strategy as well.
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for the details, sir. That was very helpful. Another thing, sir, coming to STATCOMs, I think in the last quarter, we did have some commentary that about 15-20 STATCOMs are available in the next 2-3 years, each costing about INR 3 billion. So is that still the case, or are there any incremental orders? Not orders, incremental opportunity in the market we are seeing apart from the 15-20 range?
As of today, that remains our assessment of the market.
Are we actively participating in this 15-20?
So that will also depend upon our timelines and other factors as well. But yes, it would be we would like to win at least a few of them.
Okay. Okay. Got it. Thank you so much for answering my question, sir. Have a good evening. Thank you. Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Jonas Bhutta, Birla Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Sure. Congratulations, Sandeep and team, on a phenomenal result. I'm just trying to sort of further dig deeper on the gross margin bit. It's been asked multiple times, but I'll just have another go at it. So if I derive any comfort on the gross margin, it's largely driven by the sales mix. And if I see we've had exports sort of accounting more or less for the same quantum of sales as it did around the same time last year, and in fact, slightly lower on a sequential basis, is it fair to say then the entire gross margin expansion has largely come from a better pricing environment in the domestic side of the business?
Multiple factors. We're not attributing only to one factor. The Gross Margin is a result of better pricing in the last better priced orders that we booked in the last few quarters. That's for sure one of the reasons. Beyond that, mix is a very important factor. When we talk about mix, it's not just the mix between product business and the project business, but also within that business, which particular products, so for example, product business, which products we are selling more? Within the project business, which kind of projects we are executing? Are they better than the previous projects that were executed in the past and were challenged in terms of profitability or challenged in terms of execution timelines?
Beyond that, one of the things that I always highlighted in the last couple of years that whenever we book an order at a particular margin, our endeavor is to improve the profitability through the execution improvements. Those execution improvements are more in terms of sourcing savings, in terms of mitigation of risk, as well as in terms of better improvement in the productivity of manufacturers and locations. So multiple reasons. Fortunately, all of the reasons are working in the right direction, and our endeavor is to continue to work in this direction.
Understood. And from a product mix, if at all, I can ask, is the level of demand-supply mismatch that we see in transformers also in AIS and GIS? So other way put, is this quarter's sales mix reflective of a greater transformer sales versus a switchgear sales?
So I think it will be very difficult, I think, Jonas, to comment on that part. But yes, definitely, the transformer volume, that much we can say that transformer volumes are going up. So when we are looking at a 34% growth in the revenue mix, yes, transformers have also contributed to that.
Understood. My last question was on the status of the HVDC projects. Other than the Fatehpur-Bhadla that we are aware of, that was underway bidding, etc., could you give us an update on where are we in Khavda-Nagpur and Khavda-Olpad? Do you think that these are prospects that can be awarded by the end of financial year, or these are prospects for FY26?
No, I think at least Khavda Nagpur definitely we expect getting it awarded this year itself. Khavda South Olpad can be a possibility for next year.
Understood. Got it. Great. Thanks a lot and all the very best.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Indrajit Chakravarty from Scrip Trading Corporation. Please go ahead.
Namaskar and good evening, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask this question. Now, I have three small questions. First is that in the budget, setting up of small modular nuclear reactors was spoken about. Can I know if the company has an opportunity evolving there at? The second question is this INR 6,200 crore order backlog which you have, what is the total timeline for execution of this order? And third question is, are we having any evolving opportunities in the setting up of these data centers which has been spoken about? Thank you very much.
So thank you, Mr. Indrajit. So one is that our company is basically concentrating or basically designed to address the opportunities of transmission segment. So we are not there into the SMR, which is the small modular reactor on the nuclear side. But if, for example, SMR projects do come and there is an evacuation substation associated with that, yes, then we will have a play. But nothing on the SMR technology, yes, GE T&D has no role to play directly. That is the first thing. Second thing, in data centers, yes, again, today's data centers have a much higher power demand requirement. Like, for example, it could be 300 MW, 1,000 MW. And the power which is required for the data center is definitely comparable to 220 kV.
But as the data center sizes, because of AI and ML, are growing, eventually, if it comes at 400 kV and all, so yes, definitely we have a play in data centers as well. So last year, there were multiple orders, and this quarter also, we have taken orders for products which are going into data centers. Third, when we look at our order backlog, I think it's close to be about, so we have multiple product lines inside the company. So some of them are very short cycle. For example, we look at automation or we look at AIS product, which normally from order to delivery kind of the timeline, which is like about 6-9 months or maybe 6-12 months. But when we look at the project and transformer timelines, then they are much higher.
Also, when we look at export, larger projects, they can be more than that as well. Typically, when we look at the INR 6,200 crore, I think this should be we should be in a position to look at it in two to three years, something like that, with the execution timeline for this backlog.
Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Prathmesh, for the clarification.
Thank you.
Best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Jainam from Saltoro Investments. Please go ahead.
Hi. Congratulations on a great set of numbers. All your efforts have paid off in terms of product mix and gross margin that we talked about. What I want to understand is, while things are going great, are there any particular risks that you are looking at and trying to manage that is probably in the top of your mind? That would be my question number one. My question number two is, is there any upper cap that you're looking at in terms of exports that beyond this number, we don't wish to go given the fact that we would want to maintain relationships in the domestic market and share of trade? Thanks, Jainam. Your first question, which is regarding risk. Obviously, in every business, there are risks.
As part of our objective of the GE T&D leadership team, we continue to manage or mitigate the risk for the business. There's nothing specific I'd highlight, but I think a lot of the euphoria or the expectation around the power sector is about the energy transition. And this is, again, government policy. Government policy could be on how we deal or implement the projects internally, how the funding of those projects are done, and also the cross-border relationships. So those are the factors which are general market-related risks, not specific to our company, which can impact both ways. I mean, this can impact negatively as well as positively the future order booking for the company. And regarding your question about, I think, the capping, those are capping that we have in mind.
I think while there's a lot of discussion about export to domestic, CR management, as Sandeep mentioned, our focus is very clear. Whichever order gives us a better margin and a better cash conversion cycle gives a better, let's say, value for our customer and for our shareholders, we go for that order. At present, we are looking for small CapEx in terms of capacity expansion. As Sandeep mentioned, if the time comes that we need to, we'll think about that at the future stage and make due disclosure to the stock exchange.
It seems that we have dropped the connection from Mr. Jainam Shah. That was the last question for today. I now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Megha Gupta for the closing comments.
Thank you all for joining us today. Do you believe the insights provided by our speakers have been informative and valuable to you? We value the trust and support of our investors and analysts and ensure to remain committed to maintaining sustained communication and strong relationships. If you have any further questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or our communications leader. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of GE T&D India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.