Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the GE T&D India Limited conference call for the third quarter and nine months ended 31st December 2022. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Suneel Mishra, Head of Investor Relations, GE T&D India Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Darwin. Good day, and welcome to this conference call that has been organized to present and discuss financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended on 31st December 2023. Let me introduce GE T&D India management team available on this call. We have with us Mr. Sushil Kumar, who is the Whole-Time Director and Chief Financial Officer. We also have with us Mr. Sandeep Zanzaria, who is our Commercial Leader. Let me also take the opportunity to welcome our new Company Secretary, Miss Anupriya Garg, who joined the company in January 2023. We have with us Mr. Anshul Madaan, who is our communication leader. Please note that this conference call is scheduled up to 6:00 P.M. I hope you would have received the investor analyst presentation, and the same has been uploaded on our website.
I hope you have also read out the disclaimer as per slide number two. Mr. Sushil Kumar will begin this conference call highlighting key events of the quarter. Thereafter, Mr. Sandeep Zanzaria will take us to the pages on order book and the grid market. Further, Mr. Sushil Kumar will also provide his insights on the pages presented on financials. Moreover, both Mr. Sushil Kumar and Mr. Sandeep Zanzaria will be available to provide answers to your questions during Q&A. I would now request Mr. Sushil Kumar to begin the conference with his opening words. Over to Mr. Sushil Kumar.
Thank you, Suneel. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Thanks for joining the call. We hope you and your family members are healthy and safe. Let me start by giving you a brief overview about the last quarter. Then we'll move to the commercial details, as Suneel just talked about. During the third quarter for the financial year 2022/2023, we saw an increase in the orders compared to the previous quarter. Our orders were up by 59% at INR 7.8 billion compared to INR 4.9 billion in the previous quarter. We were up by 53% compared to quarter three of the previous financial year. Our orders from the industry segment, such as refineries and data centers, continued to grow gradually, adding diversity to our backlog and by providing more opportunities for efficiency.
Sandeep will cover more about this in his address. On revenue front, though, our revenue saw a decrease in the third quarter to INR 7.8 billion compared to INR 9.1 billion in quarter three of financial year 2021, sorry, 2021/2022. Primarily, this reduction was due to lower backlog resulting from reduced order booking in last couple of years caused by COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to successful project execution and various improvement efforts, our profit before tax increased. In quarter three, we posted a profit before tax and exceptional item of INR 134 million compared to INR 4 million in quarter three of the previous financial year. Our execution team continued to show great re-diligence, and through their consistent implementation of lean initiatives and cost saving measures, we were able to improve our productivity.
Likewise, in cash, we posted improvement and generated about INR 1.5 billion of cash in the third quarter of the current financial year. As a result, our net debt as on December 31st, 2022, reduced to INR 2.1 billion versus INR 3.6 billion as on September 30, 2022. We had many significant execution activity and many projects were commissioned. The details are given on page four of the presentation. I would like to touch upon the few key ones during the quarter. During the quarter we commissioned four bays of 765 kV GIS substation with six 765 kV lines reactor at Vadodara for LVTL Sterlite Power Transmission Limited. We had commissioned 1 32 kV GIS substation at Ramnagar for West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited.
Nine bays of 245 kV with substation automation system augmentation for Power Grid at Salakati substation. 18 bays of 400 kV GIS with 3,600 meters of GIS busbar for L&T at Talapalle in Andhra Pradesh. Six bays of 220 kV GIS with 1,200 meters of GIS busbar for Sterlite in Vadodara, Gujarat. Before I hand over to Sandeep, I would like to take this opportunity also to talk about key developments and updates which happened in the budget presented by the Finance Minister in the beginning of February. In terms of key announcements, the Finance Minister's latest budget of 2023/2024 has laid emphasis on the government's commitment to move towards net zero carbon emission by 2070.
Green energy, in fact, is one of the seven most important priorities of the budget. It includes allocation of INR 35,000 crores of priority capital investment towards achieving this net zero by 2070. The budget also has set aside a vital INR 8,300 crore from the central funds towards the INR 20,000 crore worth project for building the inter-state transmission system for the evacuation and grid integration of 13 GW of renewable energy from Ladakh. This reaffirms the government's commitment towards harnessing renewable energy through the planned mega solar wind hybrid plant at Leh. This project we have been talking about in the past as well. With the inclusion in the Union Budget, the project is expected to pick up its pace.
The clean energy acceleration, along with government's focus on introduction of policy reforms, such as reforms in the EV sector, as well as overall manufacturing landscape, will also boost the transmission industry. In terms of our priorities, we will pick up the orders and help to grow the profitability, keeping in mind the long-term sustainability and profitability in these orders. We'll continue to be selective for the orders which give us the revenue, margin and cash, rather than being aggressive at a very low price. With this, now I hand over to Sandeep to share more details on the order booking and the market scenario. Over to you, Sandeep.
Thank you, Sushil. Yes, definitely.
I think there is a strong push by the Government of India for the net zero to be achieved, and also to achieve the target of putting renewables of 500 GW till 2030. I think it's going to demand a lot of investment in transmission sector as well, apart from the generation side. Of course, the generation side also has some part of transmission piece. If you really look at the last quarter, the orders grew at about 53%. We closed at about INR 780 crores as compared to INR 510 crores. For a nine month, we have INR 1,865 crores versus INR 1,616 crores.
The major orders have been I think the orders have been all along in multiple domains, but the major order has been a 400 by 220 kV GIS substation for a private refinery in Gujarat. Also a 220 kV GIS substation for Kutch Copper, for Adani Transmission. From Tata Power, we have won an order for 400 kV AIS substation for their 1,000 megawatt plant in Rajasthan. There were multiple orders for the upgradation or supply of new substation automation systems, whether it's with cybersecurity at 11 sites in NTPC, or it is for L&T data center at Kanchipuram, or we have won it from Techno Electric for their 400 by 220 by 33 kV substations at Bardahi, and also from Megha for Gudivada.
We have also won a renovation and modernization project for 400/132 kV substation with the automation system from Rihand, the stage one of NTPC. I think overall from the orders it was a much better quarter, but of course the endeavor is to do much better than what we have achieved. Thank you.
Thanks, Sandeep. Before we open up for question and answers, I'll just briefly touch upon the financial performance of the company, which is given on the page six of the presentation. I talked about revenue in the earlier section. While the revenue overall is down 15% for the quarter compared to the last year, and similarly on a nine month basis, the overall revenue at INR 20.7 billion is lower by about 14%.
However, a significant change or improvement is happening on the profitability side. Our gross profit for the quarter, current quarter, was 30.4%, and on a nine month basis it was 29.8%. This happened because of better project execution and the cost-saving initiatives, as we talked about. As a result, the EBITDA improved to 5% on a Q3 as well as nine-month basis. Whereas previous year, we had a quarter EBITDA of 3.3% and a nine-month EBITDA of 2.2%. This improvement in EBITDA also resulted into an improved profit before tax. For the quarter, we generated INR 135 million of profit before tax and exceptional items, compared to almost a break-even scenario in the previous year.
On a nine month basis, we generated INR 338 million of profit before tax and exceptional items, compared to a loss of almost equivalent amount in the previous year. I talked about the improvement in net debt. During the quarter we generated a positive cash flow of INR 1.5 billion, resulting in a corresponding reduction in the debt from INR 3.6 billion end of September to INR 2.1 billion at the end of December. On page seven we have as usual shown the breakup of the orders and revenue between export and domestic. For the quarter, about 32% of the orders were from the export segment and about 68% orders were from the domestic market.
On a nine month basis, order have almost a similar trend of 33% from export and 67% from the domestic market. On revenue front, during the quarter, 26% of the revenue came from export and 74% of the revenue was from domestic market. On a nine month basis, 30% of the revenue out of the total INR 20.7 billion of revenue was from the export segment. About INR 14.4 billion or 70% of the revenue were from the domestic market. Overall in terms of orders hand, we had about INR 34 billion of order, of which 66% is from the private customers, about 17% is from the state utilities and 17% from the central utilities and PSUs. With that, now we'll open for question and answer. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on their touchtone telephones. If you wish to re-withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question you may press star one. We have the first question from the line of Mohit Kumar from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Good evening, sir. Two questions on my side. First is on the order opportunity. How is the order opportunity looking at this point of time, and are you, given the fact that there are too many HVDC projects which will be up, which should be up for bidding in FY 2024, can you please comment on that?
Hi, Mohit. Sandeep here. Basically order book position is looking, I would say, you know, the Rajasthan TBCB projects were stuck because of GIB issues and Khavda was stuck for the clearance part of it. I think in the last few days what we have seen that the reverse auction for those projects have started happening. In fact, the packages, the reverse auction has also got completed and the parties who have got probably would get these orders in like maybe about three to four weeks' time. I think the market has started moving. That is one good thing. We expect now the market condition to improve much better.
Also for the HVDC, yes, I think in 2023, 2024, we are expecting into 2023, 2024, probably it might be one project or two projects. We are not very sure because there are two projects on the horizon immediately. One is Bhadla-Fatehpur, which will come on TBCB route, and second would be Leh-Ladakh as Sushil covered in his initial remarks that the government has already allocated part of the fund as viability gap funding for that project. Yes, definitely the horizon for 2023/2024 or 2024/2025 in terms of HVDC looks to be a very bright one. Also for the general market, for example, transformers, substations also looks to be a much better market. We expect a good substantial market growth in the coming year.
Mr. Do we see any activities in distribution which should help us in terms of order inflow going forward?
On distribution, see our area of participation is very limited. Our area of participation is mostly on two fronts, whether it is the grid automation, which is very minuscule, I would say, in terms of the overall packaging or overall the numbers of distribution market. Primarily the company is operating into 66 kV and above segments, because all of our GIS, AIS, transformer, all products are offered on 66 kV and above.
On the control center sides and the upgradation of the distribution companies, which is eventually going to happen with lot of cities coming with control centers and all, that's the market we expect to grow and probably that area we have a good strong presence because a lot of regional load dispatch centers and renewable loads dispatch centers have been made by us in the country. That area, once the government investment picks up, we expect a good amount of ordering to happen. Also we expect the company to take a decent amount of market share in that. You know, the timelines have been shifting, so I think next year should be much better on that front.
How do you see this, private CapEx cycle? Do you see that helping you in the getting some order inflow, going forward, especially in next 12 months?
Private CapEx, when we see that, for example, TBCB project is totally on private CapEx only which is coming. I think it's quite robust. It's basically either Power Grid or that. Apart from that, we are also seeing in terms of private CapEx, there is a good amount of investment which is coming in in the solar wind hybrid projects which the developer companies are putting up. In addition to that, even when we are looking at the private CapEx in terms of, for example, green hydrogen, green hydrogen is going to require a huge amount of renewable capacity for feeding them. That will also require a good amount of transmission infrastructure to be put in. Apart from this, also one area of transmission infrastructure in private CapEx is industries as well.
For example, last year or this, the year which is going, we are seeing a good amount of investment happening in metals and oil and gas. Yes, there is a substantial, I would say, sustainable investment happening on the private CapEx side also.
What is EBITDA margin aspiration in the medium term?
You're asking about the margin target?
Yes. Your aspiration, your target, your goal, which you want to achieve over next, let's say two, three years.
Sushil, you would like to take that or should I go ahead?
Yeah. Two parts on the margin. The first one is on the execution side, and as I mentioned in my comments earlier that for the quarter we achieved a margin of 30.4%, which is a much improved situation compared to the last two years, which were impacted by COVID. Similarly, on nine-month basis, we had about close to 30% of margin. The view here for us is to find the improvement opportunities further and try to improve it further by a couple of percentage point, if that is feasible through better negotiation and better project execution.
Similarly, Sandeep, you can probably guide if the price in the market is trending upward or not, and can we see a better margin on the orders in the future? Yes, I think looking into the capacity additions, which are happening or which are planned to happen, we expect a slight increase in the price realization in the market.
Understood, sir. Thank you. All the best, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavin Vithlani from SBI Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you for the opportunity. A few questions. First is on the orders. In the previous quarter, we kind of highlighted that there were INR 500 odd crores of L1 which could not be finalized, but there is always INR 100-150 crores of L1. INR 350 odd crores was a spillover. If I take that out from the current quarter's order flow, then the order flow in this quarter looks pretty subdued at INR 430 odd crores. Your views on this and what do we see as a trend for the year as a whole and the next year?
Bhavin, hi, Sandeep here. Basically out of the INR 500 crores what we were the lowest and we were expecting the orders, out of that, close to about more than INR 200 crores had slipped and it has actually moved to the Q4. Out of that, partly close to about INR 200 crores has already come in also. It was that INR 500 crores, but due to procedural issues and multilateral funding requirements, the orders had actually slipped of about more than INR 200 crores to this quarter.
Sure. Now going forward, given our cost structure and I think we need a INR four and a half thousand crores to INR 5,000 crores kind of a run rate to achieve a double digit margin, given that you have been highlighting 30%-31% as sustainable gross margin. Do you see that trend, at least on the order fronts, in fiscal 2024, at least directionally, are we moving to that kind of a run rate on the orders front?
Bhavin, I would say here that I would not put any number to the target what we have because we don't forecast or we don't for example, give such guidances. Two, three things what we are very clear in terms of our strategy is that we follow a very disciplined process of orders taken at kind of secured payment terms, at least with private clients, and also at a different margins. That's what you have seen also in the improvement in the performance of the company as well. Yes, with the growth in the market which is happening, yes, definitely we expect growth in orders also to come in the next year.
Sure. We do understand. Could you give us an update on the HVDC projects bidding, especially the Leh-Ladakh and if you could name the other which are at least in the active discussions phase?
Bhavin, Leh-Ladakh, as Sushil had said that, the government has given an allocation of close to about INR 8,000 crores-INR 9,000 crores. In the budget, the finance minister has declared in the present budget as a viability gap funding for this project. We expect now this project to move forward and of course it would not be possible for us to comment on the competition part on the project side.
Maybe we can probably highlight about few other HVDC that we saw just seeing.
Yeah. I think if you would have seen there is a government of India renewable plan which has been issued for the projects which are like up till to be commissioned up till 2030. The government of India wants to increase their capacity, the installed capacity from about close to about 167 GW to 537 GW. In that report, the government has clearly defined. There are about three projects which will be close to about 8 GW. Sorry, 6 GW, 800 kV each. One is Bhadla-Fatehpur, which we are expecting to come in next one to two months. Subsequently, there are two other projects also, which will be Balmer- Jabalpur and Khavda-Aurangabad.
The project will be equivalent to, if you remember, we did Champa-Kurukshetra 1 and Champa-Kurukshetra 2. Each project is Champa 1 and Champa 2 put together in one consolidated. This is 6 GW, 800 kV each project.
Suneel, we can probably also highlight the timing when we expect these three.
That's what I said. Bhadla-Fatehpur is going to in TBCB of course the award process will take bit of a time, but we expect in next one to two months to be announced, to be issued by the government. Subsequently, probably in next, I think every year kind or, maybe with a gap of about 12 to 18 months, we expect one after the other project to follow from the three projects. What we understand, in this case is, there are some I read in. The talks between the government of India and government of Sri Lanka has also started for HVDC to be built between India and Sri Lanka.
The government to government talks also has been reported and, probably that once it gets cleared, that would also be an opportunity, but maybe I am expecting it in two years from now.
Sure. That's helpful. Just a question on the profitability front. We've been kind of guided that we are betting in the 28%-32% gross margin, and we have now come to that level. Are you actually seeing, Because when we look at the profitability of some of the standalone transformer companies there, that actually the numbers are pretty encouraging and we see mid-teen kind of EBITDA level margins. Is it that our profitability is very good in the transformers and it's the switchgear piece of it where we are lacking? A little more color on that will be useful. When do we see that our margins moving to the double-digit trajectory?
It has, Bharath, a combination of few things. One is the volume. At historically we also in the year 18 and 19, we had about double-digit, more than double-digit kind of EBITDA levels. Those came when the HVDC projects were under execution. If we see next couple of years scenario, and then when we talked about three HVDC projects other than Leh-Ladakh, being one being expected every year. Those HVDC projects add significantly to the volume. When that kind of volume comes, operating leverage comes into play and the EBITDA levels increase. The second dimension is the has the execution side of the existing backlog.
Last couple of years there was a significant commodity price increase, which means the margin on when we took those charges in the last financial year, unfortunately margin on some of the existing backlog reduced very, to very low levels, and those projects are under execution. Over the next 12 months when the low margin backlog phase out and the new backlog with the healthier margin comes into picture, then we expect a further improvement, provided there is, there are no other factors impacting. Meaning we stay very tight on the sourcing negotiation, making sure that the projects are delivered as per the as sold margin and all other risks are mitigated in the project. At the same time, since the volumes catch up, we will also continue to focus on reducing our structural cost also.
Further reduction in the structural cost. A combination of volume which can come in future through HVDC, change in the mix of the projects and reduction in the structure costs are the three factors which the management is working to make further improvement in the profitability.
Sure. This last question from my side. After retirement of Mr. Pitambar, what is the new leadership looking like? Pardon me if this has been spoken about in the call. I joined a little late.
The NRC committee is evaluating the right potential candidates for this position, and hopefully in next two to three months, there should be an announcement. Sure. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Best wishes. That's it from my side.
Thank you, [inaudiblle].
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subhadip Mitra from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. My question is two parts. Firstly, just wanted to get an understanding that with regard to these large HVDC projects which are expected, would there be any ballpark, you know, understanding of what would be the cost of these, each of these projects?
You mean the size of the
The value. Yes. The value of each of these projects. Correct.
Sandeep, if you can answer this.
I think if you look at the transmission planning document or this planning document which has been issued. Bhadla-Fatehpur , the estimated cost, which is given is about INR 12,500 crores, but our assessment is that it will be higher than that. But apart from the HVDC, there is a component of transmission line also involved in that project, which is close to about 1,000 kilometers.
Understood. If one were to look at, let's say, this INR 12,500 crore-INR 13,000 crore kind of project cost, within that our addressable, you know, value would be ballpark, how much? 60%-70% or higher?
Yes, it will be higher than 50%.
Okay, understood. Secondly, with, you know, regard to the non-HVDC funnel or pipeline of, you know, projects that you're seeing coming up, you know, in your best guess, what would be the estimated, you know, order basket out there over the next two to three years?
I expect, close to about, it will be close to about INR 250 billion or something in that range would be every year for the substation.
Every year.
Yeah, every year.
Okay. This includes substations and what else did you mention? Sorry.
The, you know, certain utilities would buy transformers as loose product or certain utilities buy circuit breakers or instrument transformers or grid automation as those. The complete, the scope in which we participate, I'm talking about that will be the market, what we track for our purposes.
Understood. Typically what kind of market share would you target?
It will be difficult to say that we, Because, you know, there are a lot of large projects which will be there, so winning or losing one large project actually, you know, distorts the market share. definitely
Excluding HVDC also. Excluding HVDC also, you're saying?
Yeah, even excluding HVDC also there are projects which will be like maybe INR 700 crores- INR 800 crores. Those volume of projects will also be there. One project can distort the market share in a big way.
Understood. Understood. Perfect. Thank you so much for answering my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. My question is on the breakup of the order book in terms of fixed price and variable price on the backlog.
Parikshit, I don't have that information readily available at this moment.
Because I think in the past you have said that you are moving more towards variable contracts. I thought maybe directionally if we are moving towards that. Maybe I'll take it later. My second question is on the base orders. Do you think that pipeline is now much better than it was like couple of quarters back? Can you touch upon that?
Definitely. The base pipeline today is much better. As I was saying that, for example, If I look at last about a week's time, there are about five projects of TBCB where the reverse auction has happened and there is a big pipeline of about maybe about seven, eight projects more, which is going to happen by end of March. The pipeline which is there for Rajasthan, Gujarat and other parts is today much stronger. Of course, we are seeing some traction happening even in state utility market as well. For example, West Bengal is there and other few utilities also we expect new tenders to come in. Overall I would say that, yes, the pipeline is much robust at, as compared to last two, three years.
If you can quantify between now and March, what could be, like potentially our prospects where we have bid for or planning to bid?
I think there are a lot of bids what are already in place, but the decisions are yet to be taken. Of course, you know, there is a market, for example, I said the TBCB reverse auctions have happened in last one week or. The developers, if they are able to decide by 31st March, then there'll be a different pipeline. If they are not able to decide, then it will move into next year. Still I feel that probably this last quarter could have close to what more than INR 5,000 crores of decision making need to be made.
Okay. You're saying in fourth quarter, about INR 5,000 crores of decision making has to happen. That's kind of a floating decision making, but it may happen. If it doesn't happen, it will flow through into FY 2024.
Yes.
That INR 4,000 crores is the overall universe or beyond that, like, you have further pipeline where you could participate, I mean, in export markets and other opportunities outside just TBCB?
No, definitely pipeline is there and it is going to continue to get generated. The, for example, decision making, if it shifts to the Q1 of 2023, 2024, then it will be a robust quarter, that one as well. Otherwise, normally what we are seeing that the Q1 is a slower quarter. Looking into the government push for 2024, a lot of commissioning and meeting the renewable targets, I think the pipeline is going to remain robust for the next year. Definitely very strong one.
Okay. This is from the capacity utilization, sir. What is the capacity utilization we are running at currently, our operations are running at?
Different product lines or different product units have different capacity utilization. It is difficult to answer in one number, but overall, in terms of, let's say, capacity to execute revenue, historically we have been able to achieve about INR 4,300 crore of revenue. At the current rate, this financial year looks like INR 2,800 crore of revenue. Which means that we can easily with if we get the large HVDC orders or the other the TBCB kind of orders, we can increase our execution by 50%. That has been demonstrated in the past.
Okay. Just last thing, why was there negative other income in this quarter, sir?
Yeah. This quarter we have a significant Forex impact. That impact overall in the current quarter PNL is to the extent of $290 million. As a accounting practice, last quarter we had a gain. In terms of financial presentation, to the extent the loss was offsetting the income of the last quarter or the first six months has been reversed in the other income. There you see a negative $67 million. The balance impact is in the expense side of the PNL.
What was?
Forex impact is largely on account of mark to market of the hedge contract because the Euro and dollar moved upwards.
What will be the total adjusted EBITDA if this impact was not there? I think you've reversed INR 67 million and to show the adjusted impact on EBITDA. If this was not there, or if it was a normal quarter, what would have been our EBITDA margin?
The EBITDA that we have presented in our presentation, I think instead of taking quarter, we should talk about nine months because.
Okay.
Some of the quarter there was a positive Forex, there was a negative Forex. We have on a nine month basis, INR 270 million of Forex impact in the PNL.
Forex loss. Loss on
Loss. Yes, loss.
How much of that is in other expenses?
Largely it is a part of other expense because on a YTT nine month basis, there is the earlier impact on the income side has been nullified. Mostly it is in the other expense. If you add this, let's say if you want to evaluate EBITDA before Forex impact and TM impact, then we have to add INR 270 million to the EBITDA of INR 390 million. That will be roughly, we'll just quickly make a math, but roughly it should improve the EBITDA by at least 3 percentage points for the quarter and. Sorry, for nine months it should be 1.5. Nine months it should be 1.5.
Roughly we should have an EBITDA of, on a nine month basis, INR 1.3 billion broadly, and it should be around 6.5%.
6.5. What will be the loss. What will be the Forex impact for the nine month YOY of FY 2022? What, like INR 29 crores, which you said was a hit this year.
INR 270 million is the loss for the current nine months. Previous financial year, nine months, we had income of INR 150 million. INR 148 to be precise.
Okay. This is the last thing on the export opportunity. You gave about INR 250 billion, INR 25,000 crores market price for domestic non-HVDC opportunity. What could be the similar number for exports? Because order booking has been good. How are we addressing the vacuum there? How do we intend to grow that market? What could be the opportunity, prospect opportunity in the export market?
See, I'll make few comments and then I'll request Sandeep to add on. Globally, due to Russia and Ukraine war and the energy independence concept that Europe is driving right now, there has been a very significant increase in the demand across Europe and U.S. Overall the transmission and distribution market, which was earlier hardly growing at a rate of 1.5%, overall we think in European market, the global grid business sees a demand of more than 8%-10% for next few years, maybe next five to seven years, which is a very significant increase. Our export opportunities depend on the grid business winning, and it is very fragmented. I mean, we don't as an independent entity bid across all the projects globally.
More than half of the business in the export segment comes from the group entity, then we also have some selected third-party bidding in the other market. Definitely, because of this increase in demand, our export volumes are increasing. As we have shown in the presentation, 32% of the orders have come from the export segment. I don't have the number of the last year available, this is definitely higher than the last year. Okay. Let me just see if I can basically get the last year number. Last year we had 20% from the export segment and 80% domestic market. A shift of mix from 20% to 32% happened in the period of last one year. Mm-hmm.
Maybe you can add if I missed to answer any part of this opportunity. No, I think, Sushil, you are right. Of course, yes, there is a constant endeavor that, for example, the Indian factories keep on getting qualified. Because ours is a more regulated market, so you know, the individual factories for a company needs to get qualified with various customers. It's a regular endeavor which we keep on doing to get the Indian factories qualified. Then, of course, we keep on pushing products. Yes, as Sushil said that, direct product, is of course a different thing. In projects we are totally dependent on other geographies to win the project and then buy the product from GE T&D. I think there's a lot of interdependence there. Okay.
And if you can just say what could be the opportunity prospect like exports, opportunity prospect, like you said, INR 25,000 crores of domestic? What is the addressable market right now you are catering in terms of prospects in export market?
That will be very difficult to quantify today that what is the prospect of export market. Primarily because, like for example, we look at global transmission market, it is in the range of close to about $52 billion-$55 billion. Of course, when based on because we have factories at multiple locations, then addressing different geographies.
That's why, you know, it's slightly difficult to quantify the export potential. Maybe, maybe what you have bid for nine months or how much you have bid in export market for nine months, if you can quantify that so that we can get some sense on what you have won out of that. What could be the bid-win ratio or what would you have bid for last nine months, that number. I think there our market share would have been close to about 30% to 35%.
Okay. Got it. Thank you. I wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask questions, you may please press star and one on your touchtone phones now. The next question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity once again. First question is, sir, do you enter into a prepaid tie-ups for TBCB opportunities? As I understand, the Power Grid floats your tenders for pre-bid.
Yes, we do enter into pre-bid agreements whenever and wherever possible.
Understood, sir. Second question, sir. Do you have price protection in the HVDC project generally? Given the fact they are going to large projects and you need to have some kind of pre-bid tie-ups because there are limited number of players and they also need to get no more clarity on the pricing part.
The TBCB, on TBCB route, the HVDC projects have never been awarded. This will be the first opportunity where the HVDC project is going to come on TBCB route. Yes, definitely we'll enter into negotiation with the developers to protect our interest in terms of price variations and things like that. Definitely. This will be the first of its kind, so it will be more of an exploration and developmental process which is going to happen.
Understood, sir. Lastly, sir, on the export market, which are the key export markets for us?
We supply to, for example, complete Southeast Asia, even to Australia. We have got orders from Japan as well. For African market, Latin American market. Few very selected products go to even European markets also. It depends upon the product and it also depends upon the acceptance of the end customer in various geographies. Africa, Southeast Asia, these two are consistent markets for us.
Understood. Lastly, sir, are we looking to expand our suite of products, for tapping the opportunities?
I think globally, whatever manufacturing is being done by GE globally, I think except for one or two products which have a very limited demand and, you know, for limited applications. Everything what is manufactured by GE is manufactured by GE T&D in India. Product wise, yes, obviously we are not looking at, but we keep on adding new product ranges to our existing product portfolios. Like for example, whether it is relays or even in GIS or circuit breakers, we keep on adding different voltages and localization. That's how we expand the product portfolio. For example, as of today, we are not planning to add a new product line itself to the existing portfolio.
Understood, sir. Understood. Thank you. It's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one. As there are no further questions, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Suneel Mishra for the closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Yeah. Thank you, Darwin. Thank you everyone for your participation. With this, we conclude today's conference call. In case if you have any other question, please feel free to contact me or Mr. Anshul Madaan on the email ID given at our website. Thanks once again.
Thank you. On behalf of GE T&D India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.