Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the conference call hosted by GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. for quarter one of financial year 2026. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Megha Gupta from GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. Thank you. And over to you, ma'am.
Good evening everyone. Welcome to the GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. earnings call for the first quarter of financial year 2025-2026. I am Megha Gupta from the Investor Relations team. During the call today 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. I would like to highlight that today's discussion may contain a few forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on our current expectations, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. We encourage you to refer to our public filings and documents for a comprehensive understanding of the factors that could Impact our future performance.
Now I'll introduce GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. management team available on the call. During the call we are joined by 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, and Ms. Shweta Mehta, Company Secretary of the company. Now I'll hand over to Mr. Sandeep Zanzaria to begin the discussion.
Thank you, Megha. Good evening. Welcome everyone to our first quarter FY25-26 earnings call. Globally, investments to enhance the reliability and resilience of power grids are accelerating at an unprecedented pace, a trend clearly reflected in India as well. This growth is underpinned by the country's ambitious target of 500 gigawatt of renewable capacity and the expectation that peak power demand will rise by nearly 80% by 2032. To meet the rising demand, India's transmission must expand rapidly with 20,000 circuit kilometers of high voltage transmission lines and 125 gigawatt substation capacity required each year through 2032. Achieving this will call for an investment exceeding INR 9 trillion or $110 billion. In this context, the recent approval of 6 gigawatt 800 kV Bodmere 2 to South Columbia HVDC project by the National Committee of Transmission on May 30 marks an important step.
This is the first in the series of new HVDC corridors which are expected to be sanctioned and commissioned over the next decade, reinforcing the backbone of India's future power infrastructure. We are uniquely positioned to power India's electrified future with a fully integrated value chain. From R&D to local manufacturing, we combine scale and deep expertise to deliver world-class, reliable grid solutions spanning power transformers, GIS, circuit breakers, instrument transformers, grid automation, digital solutions, HVDC, and compensation systems. Our facilities continue to evolve, strengthened by recent investments that expand capacity in critical technologies such as HVDC valves and compensation, essential for grid stability and seamless renewable integration. This strong manufacturing footprint ensures we are future-ready to support India's ambitious transmission expansion and its transition to a decarbonized, 24/7 powered economy.
Above all, we remain steadfast in our commitment to serve as a trusted long-term partner in building the grid of tomorrow for India. Turning to our financial performance, we had a productive, strong quarter of robust demand, significant revenue growth, and EBITDA margin expansion. Our order book remains strong in Q1 as we saw bookings of INR 16.2 billion, up 57% year on year compared to INR 10.3 billion in the quarter ended June 2024. Our Q1 revenue stood at INR 13.3 billion versus INR 9.6 billion in Q1 2024-25, up by 39% year on year. New orders outpaced revenue, further expanding the order backlog to INR 129.6 billion as on June 2025, up by 2% quarter on quarter.
Our profit before tax and exceptional items for the quarter ended June 2025 was at INR 3.9 billion compared to INR 1.8 billion in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, growing by more than 2x. The cash and cash equivalent balance was at INR 12.2 billion as on June 30 versus INR 10.5 billion as on March 31, 2025. The cash generated in Q1 was INR 1.7 billion. Beyond the strategic market tailwinds, our focus remains firmly on operational excellence across all of our businesses. This commitment to continue the operational improvement is critical for us. It allows us to not only enhance our efficiency and cost structure, but also ensure we consistently deliver high quality products and solutions that meet our customers' evolving needs, ultimately driving sustainable growth and profitability.
On behalf of the Leadership Team at GE Vernova T&D India Ltd., our sincere thanks to our valued customers, our dedicated investors, and our exceptional teams. Now I invite Abhishek to share the insights on key chemistry for the quarter.
Thanks. Thanks Sandeep. Good evening all of you. It gives us immense pleasure to share the key contributions of your company in terms of strengthening the transmission network. We have been actively working on building up a good strong transmission network to cater to the power demand and to enable this renewable energy transition. Some of the key notable contributions made in the last quarter were augmentation of the transmission scheme at PGCR Kotra, wherein we added a transmission capacity of 3,000 MVA by commissioning of transformers and outdoor gas of 400 kV.
Another key thing was Adani Cover, which is a hub for renewable generation, and there we have been partnering with developers like Adani to set up GIS solutions, and we successfully commissioned 765 and 400 kV gas and additionally added a transformation capacity of 3,000 MVA. We have been working in terms of supplying our transformers and helping our customers to again augment more and more capacity. ADIT Aluminum Lapanga was one of the key contributions done by our company in terms of adding 315 MVA 400 kV ICT. Another one was WBSETCL earlier, which was 400 kV 125 MVAR reactors. These projects have been done in a very short timeline and in line with the expectation of our customers in terms of gas-insulated GIS. We have been working with data center customers, again working within tight timelines, focusing on operational excellence, and delivering to our customers' expectation.
We commissioned five bays of 220kV for NTT and another one for KPTCL. These contributions are just examples of our engagement with our customers, working in a time-bound manner and adding to the transmission capacity of the country. I hand over to Sushil to take us through further details. Thanks Abhishek and good evening all. Moving to the financial slide, slide number 5 to 7 in the investor presentation. Overall, we had a very productive first quarter positioning us well to continue to accelerate our growth and margin expansion. We delivered strong results in Quarter 1 2025-26 with continued growth in orders both in the venue, significant EBITDA margin expansion, and we also generated a positive cash flow and now maintain a healthy cash and cash equivalent panel as highlighted by Sandeep.
In the beginning, demand remained robust as we booked orders of INR 16.2 billion representing an increase of 57% year over year and 1.25 times of revenue during the quarter. In this quarter, most of the orders were booked from domestic customers representing 86% of the orders in the quarter. The rest 14% of orders were received from customers outside India. Once again in this quarter, orders were received from a very diverse set of customers and projects for all our served market across all our businesses. These included orders for transformers and reactors, GIS and AAS equipment, automation products from various utilities, TBCB players, and EPCs. As a result of strong orders, our backlog continued to expand both sequentially and year over year, now reaching INR 129.6 billion. We continue to build a strong backlog supporting long-term growth in our business.
We are growing this backlog in a very disciplined way through disciplined underwriting. With 97% of the backlog from private customers and central utilities and PSUs, the exposure to state utilities is limited to less than 3% of the backlog. We executed well during the quarter, delivering a revenue of INR 13.3 billion, making progress sequentially and delivering a significant result. At the same time, we maintain a strong focus and control over fixed costs. This helps in expanding the EBITDA and EBITDA percentage through a strong operating leverage in the financials. The second component is price. Through disciplined underwriting, we were able to realize better price in the last couple of years. This price increase, coupled with phasing out of the old backlog, has expanded the margin on the backlog, and the execution of these healthy projects is now supporting the EBITDA. Third component is productivity.
We have been able to execute well through lean, delivering on time and saving on the material cost and the overhead cost. While the EBITDA for the quarter is very strong and is reflective of the strong momentum in our business, we are in long cycle business, and the EBITDA of the quarter should not be construed as a new benchmark. Overall, the annual EBITDA performance is a good reflection of our business. Last year, we delivered an EBITDA of 19%. This was the high end of the range of mid to high teens that we called out earlier, and as communicated earlier, the endeavor of the management is to improve and deliver better than last year with a strong performance in the quarter. We have high confidence to deliver better EBITDA this year.
In addition to strong P&L performance, we continue to generate positive cash flow with approximately INR 1.7 billion cash generation in the quarter, driven by significant profit during the quarter, down payments on the new orders, and the disciplined working capital management. Despite 40% increase in revenue, as a result of this positive cash generation, we now have a healthy cash and cash equivalent of INR 12.2 billion with no debt. We continue to utilize this cash with a combination of return to shareholder and a meaningful investment within the business. We have announced a dividend of INR 1.3 billion, which is to be paid after the approval of the shareholders in the upcoming AGM in September. We have also announced a capex of INR 2.5 billion, excluding the announced utilization plan. Now we have an available cash of INR 8 billion for this. Management continues to evaluate the option.
Overall, we are very encouraged by our financial performance in 1Q25-26 with 40% revenue growth, 1000 point EBITDA expansion, and INR 1.7 billion of cash generation. Our growing backlog with healthy margins provides a strong foundation for continuing improvement in the financial performance moving forward. We can now take up the question and we'll be happy to answer your 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 1 on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking your question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Umesh Roth from Nomura India. Please go ahead.
Hi sir. Good evening and congratulations for very strong set of numbers. Sir, my first. Thank you. Thank you sir. My first question is pertaining to exports revenue growth of about close closer to 80% in the quarter and the contribution at about 40% of total turnover. How do you see this is sustaining going forward and in a way impacting in terms of better gross margins for the company?
Yeah. Hi, Umesh. Thanks. Overall, last year we had significant level of export contracts and overall our backlog mix has moved higher towards the export orders. Earlier we had export backlog as a percentage of total backlog which was in the range of 20-25%. Now we have a backlog of about 30%. Overall, on the long term, we expect that revenues to the extent of 30% should be contributed by the export side on a long term basis.
Got it sir. If you could also share the contribution from product, services, and projects within your turnover for this quarter.
Don't give quarter by split of that information generally because it keeps changing quarter on quarter. It's not a thing which remains consistent. I think we will request to evaluate this as a portfolio of product in the long term and that with better benchmarks to analyze.
Got it. My next question is pertaining to HVDC tendering prospects. If I look at, I think there are two projects now which are I think in the discussion. First is pertaining to Gouda, South Olfad and second, as you mentioned, Barn and South Dalam. How do you see finalization happening? Tentative timelines for these projects to kind of get awarded to OE.
Umesh, we expect that these orders to be finalized in this financial year.
Okay. By March 2026, is that correct?
Yes, yes.
Any assessment from your point of view in terms of comparison between the LCC based HVDC project, VAC based HVDC projects, and BESS system? Now that I think CA has already assessed for that option in one of the HVDC projects. What is your view between these three technologies?
As the cause, evaluating, we are also evaluating the impact if any it can create on the upcoming HVDC project. Looking into the growth aspirations, what the country has, obviously both will be complementing each other, but it does not compromise the project, you know, requirement of HVDC in the upcoming time. The demand expected is substantial. I don't think that it is going to be hugely impacted with the introduction of this.
Got it sir. Thank you so much. I'll join back the queue and all the very best. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Subhadip Mitra from Nuama Wealth. Please go ahead.
Good evening and many congratulations on a great set of results. Just wanted to dive a little bit deeper on the point on margins where you mentioned that naturally I think this particular quarter has seen exponentially high margins because of very high exports. Given that you are expecting export mix to continue at around 30%, if I heard you correctly, you were looking to better on the overall full year margins of 19% delivered last year, is that right? Yes. Perfect. In terms of the USF both and the Barmer project to get ordered out in the current year.
Can you repeat the question?
Yeah, I'm saying that both the HVDCs, the Leh Ladakh project and the Barmer project, are they expected to get ordered out in the current fiscal year?
Not the Leh Ladakh project, Shivadi, but South Alot Kavra and Barmer South Kalan is. We expect it to be ordered this financial year.
Understood. The configuration still remains similar. LCC for Barmer and VSC for the South Alot part project.
Yes, yes.
Understood sir. Lastly, in terms of the CapEx, I think Sushil mentioned an amount, I'm sorry I missed that particular number. Has there been an upgrade to the CapEx number?
I think what we declared in our press release and also to the stock exchange is INR 1.4 billion for walls and controls for HVDC and Smartcom and another INR 1.1 billion as a regular capacity of our capacities in the packet. Overall, put together INR 2.5 billion of capacity has already come.
Perfect, perfect. Lastly, would it be possible to also share what is the capacity utilization that your current facilities are working at?
I think it is the way our revenues are growing, the capacity utilization is increasing and of course we are adding people as well as documenting the capacity through lean. I would say it is pretty good in terms of GIS product and transformers. For grid automation and all, yes, we can take much more orders.
Understood, understood. That's it from my side. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir, and congratulations on a very good set of numbers. My first question is do we have the ability to produce Synchronous Condenser and are you seeing any demand from the Indian market?
Yes, of course. We work with other group companies and all external partners. Some part of synchronous condenser, because when you look at synchronous condenser solutions, this requires some part of transmission as well. We do that part. The actual synchronous condenser as a product comes from the other companies which are into the power generation side because it's a rotating machine. Yes, when we participate in various forums, etc., there is a talk which is going on that synchronous condensers will also be introduced into the Indian market. Understood, sir.
My second question is GE Vernova Global in its commentary has categorically said that they are benefiting materially from data center opportunity. I think they received up to $500 million in the first. To be as a GE, India, has any product suite to service the domestic data center? Are we looking to pick up some order from this particular segment?
We are regularly taking the order from the data centers. Mostly, for example, data center offtake rather at 220 kV level, which now, with higher data centers, is expected to grow to 400 kV. We offer GIS, we offer our projects, we offer grid automation. All the products, the power which is required for the data center, we are there, and in India we have these products. We have supplied to multiple data centers, including the controllers, CapitaLand's many data centers which are there have been our products, have gone in building this. My last question, did we execute any HVDC in this particular quarter which explains the high margin?
No, no. Presently, we don't have any HVDC project in our backlog.
Understood, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Best luck. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Arora from Axis Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Congratulations Sandeep sir and the team. Great execution sir. Just first question, if I just leave aside the HVDC opportunity, just your take on how the inquiry pipeline looks like, especially in the 400kV also, because you won a large order last time also from Power Grid. How's that overall inquiry pipeline look like? Second part to it, I think in the call it is mentioned now on a sustainable basis we look at 30% of revenues coming from exports. How's the pipeline looking like there? Do you expect any large chunky orders to come in and that's the reason you're looking for next few years this revenue to sustain as a mix. That's Paul's question if you can throw some light on that.
Thanks Nitin. I think inquiry pipeline, when we talk about, another development which has happened which is positive for us is that now even various states are also moving and encouraging, or I would say not encouraging but moving towards TDCB. Normally, as Sushil said, out of a, we have only 3% state portfolio, but once these states also move on a PBCB backlog, I think that market will also open up to us. Today also it is open to us because the various EPC players, when they take orders, the product goes from us not as a direct supply but through EPC market as well. That is again second.
Nitin, when I said that we have 30% of the backlog, and if you look at our numbers, the backlog is about INR 130 billion, which is 3x of last year revenue roughly, which means that even with the current backlog we have next three years of revenue. We have confidence that 30% of revenue can come roughly in that range, income from the export side. While answering that question, we are not factoring in the exported pipeline but just what we have in our backlog with us.
Got it. Second sir, I know we've been asking you this question for long now. Just if you can articulate something on the pricing environment and why I'm asking this to you again, we thought that the pricing would stabilize someday. I mean, I think I remember in the last call you said very clearly, very openly that you don't see pressure in pricing the way demand is. The way we saw two results, you know, people selling conductors or cables, their margins are also going very high. How would you like to look at that, I mean as an investor how one should look. These pricing is going to stay for the next two, three years is what one should keep in mind because the demand is something will remain strong. Just one articulation on that and second which you touch base on capacity utilization. When do you think, apart from that INR 140 crore expansion which you announced, is this something you're envisaging, another round of capex that would you entail?
Given if the demand from both domestic and the export, what you're looking is pretty strong, then don't you think you need a little decent size capex going ahead? Just on these two aspects sir, thank you very much.
So Nitin, I think on margin expansion I will not be able to comment on the conductor or the cable business part, that industry. Apart from a few pockets, I think in our segment the prices are stabilizing a bit. That is what I will say, and when I tell prices, it is normally you have to also understand price is also a factor of if there's an increase in input raw material cost. I think there is a difference between increasing price and increasing margin today. That is, I think, we need to differentiate between the two.
I think the more important question is that if the cost is increasing, do we still have the flexibility to pass on that increase to the market? Partially, I would say yes, that today also we are able to do that. On capacity utilization, I think in his comments Sushil clearly said that apart from this, we keep on evaluating how to use cash and how to meaningfully look at if there is any other possibility of capacity expansion and all. This is something which we keep on regularly evaluating, and when the timing is right, we'll take the decision and whatever decision is taken will be communicated to the market. Great.
Congratulations once again Sandeep and team. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Anwani from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi sir. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats for the strong set of numbers. First question again on the HVDC orders is related to the South OL Pad order. I think assuming that this would be about INR 12,000 crore and South Kalam should be about INR 25,000 plus. Just wanted to understand if at all we are bidding for this project, will this be in partnership? What could be our scope or addressable market possibly if these orders come to us? They wanted to understand the quantum since these orders will be getting tendered out in next 12 to 15 months.
One of the south part is already, the bid for the developers has been submitted and I'm not sure where the numbers have come like INR 24,000 crore, but I'll not be in a position to comment on those numbers. Any HVDC project which is there, definitely we have the capacity and capability to execute and we would be interested in bidding and taking those orders. It will not be sort of like jointly bidding. We'll be bidding individually for these projects. These are all commercial strategies, Amit. I don't think that this is something which we can talk on an open call.
Yeah, and sir, second question on the margin. I understand that you highlighted that the export was, or the mix was better this quarter and we had a kind of 47, 48% gross margin, but still would love to understand, shall we assume that the 40% margin last year will be doing better numbers this year since export consumption has been higher in Q1 and even going forward also as you highlighted the export should still be 30% and even the product components will be increasing. Directionally, are we targeting sustainable margins better than 40% gross margins?
Amit, this is Sushil and I highlighted multiple factors leading to the higher EBITDA in this quarter. Export was one of that element, the volume being another one because higher volume gives significant operating leverage because we are maintaining tight control on our structure cost and the other elements that I highlighted were also related to the productivity, material cost saving, etc. Overall, the endeavor of the management is to perform better and rather than just commenting on the gross margin and then going into the breakup of other costs, etc. Overall, we said that our endeavor now is to perform better than last year in terms of EBITDA performance and with the strong first quarter we have higher confidence of.
Lastly, we would love to also understand about the non-HVDC pipeline. What is the pipeline and are addressable, some color on the non-HVDC transmission pipeline. Also, Pramit, the pipeline remains strong for non-HVDC as well. I don't see at least in the near future any challenges on the pipeline. Any number? Any number with respect to the prospects?
No, I don't think so. We are looking at about growth in pipeline or the orders to be divided as compared to last year. We expect a growth at least in some single digits, somewhere between 7 to 8% as compared to last year.
Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much for answering.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Renu Beid from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good evening team and congratulations for strong performance. Just two questions from my side. One, while you did mention that long term margin improvement guidance remains intact, on a year on year basis we definitely expect expansion. 1Q has pretty strong numbers to look for. Does that mean that as we see incremental execution of our export order wins, especially comprising of HVDC equipment for transformers and others, we should see these healthy trends being sustained?
Yeah. As we mentioned, we are looking for improving. Last year we were talking about mid to high teens and we were able to deliver at the highest end of the range. This year we have endeavor to improve from that level and multiple factors I talked about being the volume, price, and other factors. Just one thing which I want to clarify is that we should not look at margins in a particular quarter. Ours is a long-term business, so probably a right benchmark to measure margin would be 12 months rather than quarter on quarter.
Got it, got it. Lastly, just a simple question there. From a market perspective, many investors tend to perceive that one needs to have HVDC projects to drive profitability and growth ahead of the market. If you look at these numbers, without having large domestic projects, we have been showing strong outperformance. From a longer term perspective, do you think it's important for you to do large projects in India, or even if you're able to execute HVDC product supplies for global projects, that should suffice in terms of the business mix for you and to deliver better margins.
I would say I think, Renu, that you know HVDC is basically, of course, the factories do get loaded, for example, the transformers and the technology part of that. There are other businesses, for example, AIS, GIS, where the role of an HVDC project in that, the contribution is very limited. Of course, we would be focusing on HVDC projects because the returns which we now expect on HVDC projects are also much better as compared to what used to happen about, like, eight to ten years back. It will be a focus area for us as well. Wherever possible, even if we are able to support any global HVDC projects, like, for example, what we have done in Korea, that will also remain on our radar and focus. Just to add on, Renu, the demand has been strong across the board in India as well as exports.
We have been highlighting for the past two, three years about disciplined underwriting, cash over revenue, and our selectivity in order booking. That has resulted into a better price on the backlog and now is coming in the P&L and execution stage. We look for the best opportunity, be it HVDC, AC projects, or in the export market, wherever we get the best for the company.
Got it. Thanks Martin. Best wishes to you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subramanyum Yagav from SBI Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Sir, you have spoken on the revenue trend that from the order book for the next two to three years we can execute 30% of the export orders. Just wanted to understand if you can give some color on the inflow also from the group companies or parent company, how much mix are you expecting this year?
Mr. Subramanyam, that's very specific information and depends on the pipeline of the projects. When we look at any domestic market or the export market it is irrespective of whether the channel is to the group companies or directly from the third parties. Most of the time the orders come from the group companies because there is a compatibility in the technology and we are able to participate and bid together. Otherwise also if we have the projects where GE Vernova T&D India Ltd.
can bid directly and win, we participate in those markets in the export as well. It's very difficult to give a specific number broken into by export and the related party because that keeps changing depending on the win by the parent company or the group company and about the pipeline in different geographies.
Understand that, but just to get a color because if you look at GE Vernova U.S. numbers they have been very strong. Just wanted to understand whether there have been any direct between Indian company and the parent company in terms of sourcing, incremental sourcing for more.
Definitely. Wherever there are opportunities for India to supply to the group entities and participate in a bid, definitely India is preferred. Generally the cost in India are lower compared to rest of the places. A lot depends on other factors meaning the proximity, qualification by the customer and so on. It's easy for Indian practices to participate in Asia and Middle East rather than something in Latin America because of the logistical distances and also the core technical qualification and the product that we make, many of the countries do not develop on different technologies like, you know, the GIS technology and so on. Also in this industry, the customers qualify a particular factory before the orders can be delivered from that factory. It's a combination of multiple factors. We keep evaluating and try to improve our market pipeline across both.
Okay, thank you. Finally sir, in this quarter of INR 1,600 crores of inflow, is there anything from the export order
in the quarter?
Yes, sir. Yes.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the call, about 14% of the current quarter order are from export and 86% from the domestic.
Okay, great. Thank you sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavin Vithlani from SBI Fund. Please go ahead.
Exemplary numbers. Thank you. My question is when we look back in history, I think INR 45 billion is peak revenues you guys hit in the last cycle, which also had HVDC embedded into it. If you take a 30% to 40% increase in the pricing levels, it seems like you're already getting closer to the peak utilization levels, and the kind of capital expenditure announcement of INR 150 million looks underwhelming. I want to understand about the kind of potential that revenues that you guys can do with the existing capacities, the innovation realignment that you would have done, and the new expenditure that you guys have planned for.
Thanks, Bhavin, for your question. You rightly mentioned that in the last year the prices have gone up. Now we have INR 150 billion of backlog.
Part of this backlog is long term, meaning having an execution cycle of three to five years. That's about INR 30 billion to INR 35 billion of backlog. The rest, INR 90 billion to INR 95 billion of backlog, is having an execution timeline of 18 to 24 months. This means that we have potential to grow even without HVDC, and that is also reflected in our performance where we have grown like 40% on a year-on-year basis. The question was, with the expansion plan and the current capacity, what's the peak revenue potential in your view, the current ones that you already have planned for. Bhavan, this will also depend a lot on, because for project orders or if you take HVDC order, etc., there's a large part which normally gets traded and not manufactured inside the factory.
With this, to define a peak capacity, and also export margins are better and domestic margins are now improved, but it is still measured near the export margin. There's a particular capacity, you load it with an export order or you load it with a domestic order. Your capability in terms of financial numbers becomes very different. To give a benchmark number on that, where we are going to max out, is very difficult.
I understand that. Secondly, when we look through some of your peer set, and especially the transformer manufacturers, we see that at least a couple of them have already gone for expansion, which is five or seven times the capacity that they had in fiscal year 2025. The industry seems like 150,000 plus MV expansion in a year or year and a half. How do you see the competitive scenario? Transformer is one piece of your business. You also have GIS and AIS and grid automation piece. If you could comment a bit on the competitive landscape that you see over a three year period, not just near term. If you could talk about transformers, AIS, GIS, switchgear, how do you see that competitive landscape out there? The automation piece, it will be very helpful to us.
Bhavin, I think on transformer of course you are right that people are expanding capacities, etc. On the other side also you have to see that for example you get one or two HVDC projects, a large part of the transformer capacity of a manufacturer gets booked by an HVDC. When one manufacturer gets booked or two manufacturers get booked, I think there is still a play for everybody in the market to supply those transformers.
If you really look into the market, the transformer deliveries are coming somewhere between 18 to 24 months earliest, I'm telling you. Whereas the demand of the market is can you supply prior to that, like can you do it in 12 months or can you do it in 10 months? There is some demand as well. When I look at three years perspective and same is there for GIS, AIS also, we are not seeing any very large expansion of capacities. Going forward on AIS, GIS, automation, I don't see that the pricing power or the competitive scenario or landscape to change much. On transformer also of course we have to see three years down the line once main capacities come in. Because building a transformer capacity also takes time. We like to see, maybe wait. If you look at most of the manufacturers in their backlog, they have a backlog which is equivalent to two, three years of their capacity already logged in. Let us see about one to two years down the line what happens when more capacities do come.
This last question to Sushil, I mean as you have been guiding in the past, in your view what is the sustainable level of gross margins that we could see over the next one or two years? You did mention that ignore the gross margin of this quarter. We are extraordinarily high on a sustainable basis. What's the level of gross margin that one should pencil in?
Bhavin, instead of gross margin I've now started to, you know, look at more talk about EBITDA because the strong increase in revenues gives us a strong operating leverage and EBIT expansion both in value and in percentage run rather than breaking down margin and stock. As I talked in the beginning, last year we did 19% EBITDA margin and from that level, this year and first quarter gives us good confidence that we'll be able to do better by a few percentage points.
Those were my questions. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Mehrotra from UBS Group . Please go ahead.
Thank you. Sandeep, I have two specific questions. First of all, congratulations on great profitability. I think first is if I compare India with some of the competing countries and GE Vernova has been a lead exporter on quality GIS products. The Korean companies have a higher share of exports vis-à-vis the Indian companies. Profitability of India is still undershooting some of the competing countries when they export. You have been an exception here. I cannot include you. In your assessment, is there a case for India to export, gain a higher share of overall T&D equipment in the next three to four years? That's one. You can help us with a cognitive assessment and then I'll ask the second question.
Amit, I think we have been constantly just communicating to the market that export has been our focus and it will remain a focus. It also depends upon the opportunities and there are various other factors as well. For example, Sushil also said and we also said in the past about technology, voltage, acceptance of factories, etc. I can just assure you that our focus is going to remain as growth of export. Of course, you would have seen that the energy transition story is not something which is happening which is purely for India, but it's a global story. For example, in Middle East, in Europe, in U.S., in Australia. In most of the big countries where you see the energy transition story is much stronger. I feel that export, like we have grown from 2018 to 2022 from 20% of our lower backlog to a 30% of our higher backlog, so you have seen the kind of focus we have put in. It is very difficult to give a guidance today.
What you have said about Korean companies and things like that, I will not compare that. We are not trying to copy their strategy, but our focus will remain growth of exports.
Sure. The second and last question, Sandeep, is you have HVDC. You have to choose between co-bidding with parent on HVDC or taking standalone product orders which are very profitable. You are primarily private focused, which reflects in the profitability, very different from your competition. Next three fiscal years, can you grow 15% in volume in MBA term even when you take, don't take HVDC? That's my final question. Thank you.
Can you repeat the question once again, next three years?
I'm saying next three to four years without any HVDC order, can GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. grow in volume terms in 15% on the production numbers? If you have to produce the orders that you take or you will need HVDC to grow more than 15% to 20% in volume growth?
I will say that it should not be too difficult.
Thank you, Sandeep. That's helpful and great going. Congratulations to the team.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Lanath Subramaniam. I'm an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello sir. Many congratulations on excellent performance. I had two quick questions. One is on the exports 8% target export contribution. Which key geographies are driving this push? Are you seeing any regulatory geopolitical risks towards either order flow or receivables? That is question number one. Two, on technology, are there any technology upgrades that give us a competitive edge in either domestic or export markets, especially in grid digitization? Thank you sir.
Thanks. Subramaniam. I'll start with the second question first. These are multiple geographies. We have orders from Europe, Southeast Asia, partly from Middle East, and even Korea as an end destination. Of course, the channel to market can be QR Group, families, or direct. We don't see in our portfolio any risk, regulatory risk, which can lead to a challenge on the receivable or inventory as of now. Now I'll request Sandeep to talk about the technological upgrades.
I think technological upgrade, for example, whatever technology is available at our parent is also available with us. We keep on working with them for localization of the new technology. We keep on working with Indian customers for new introduction of newer and newer technology. That's a constant push or endeavor what we do in the market. If you have any specific technology you want to talk about, but otherwise this is like a regular, regular, you know, KPI for our teams to push newer and newer technology into the market.
Sorry. That answers my question. Many thanks. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Suraj from Catamaran. Please go ahead.
Hi sir. Thank you for this opportunity. I wanted to understand why the gross margin for this quarter is very high. Like three quarters ago there was an instance where the gross margin was 41% where you had alluded that there is some one-time benefit in the P&L which was for INR 40 crore. Is there something like that for this quarter as well?
Thanks Suraj for your question. These are all operational margins and profits that we delivered in this quarter. As usual, we have called out that this had a significant contribution of highly profitable export projects as well. Overall, the export revenue was approximately 40% of the total revenue, which is higher than past and is higher in this quarter. Overall, the backlog is 34%. In the long term, exports should be around 30% of the backlog. That is one contribution.
Other factors, as I already highlighted, the volume is high, the pricing is high over a period of time, and then internal productivity, cost saving, et cetera. Multiple factors have led to this profitability. We've also mentioned in the call a few times now that one quarter profitability is not a benchmark. Overall, we performed better last year. We believe that we can improve from what we delivered in the last year on the EBITDA level.
Got it sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bala Subramanya from Arihant Capital.
Good evening sir. Congratulations for good set of numbers. My first question regarding this SF6 free switchgear. How do we like this product? How do we compare between us and global alternatives? Are there any pilot projects or any orders to validate this adoption? I think when we talk about technology, I think GE Vernova has been pioneer in developing this technology. In India what we have seen is that there is only one pilot project which has come in. We are constantly discussing with various customers and executing.
We are hopeful that maybe in medium term this technology adoption will become much faster in India. Our products are market leader in terms of technology and in terms of overall development on the SF6 technology.
Okay sir. On the data center side I think some of the orders have contributed 220 kV GIS. Just want to understand 3 to 5 years perspective. Whether it is 400, 765 kV demand will emerge, how do you look at in this industry on the business perspective?
You are correct. The balance is that as the data center size will grow up and up. First we'll see 400 kV demand and if the data center sizes go into gigawatts then we'll also see 765 kV demand coming for data centers. Got it sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parikshit Kanbal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi sir. Congratulations on a great quarter. My first question is on the order inflows. You said that you can grow this year at single digits. Just wanted to recheck that. On INR 10,700 crores you're talking about single digit growth and does it include HVDC or HVDC? You seen beyond that.
Good evening Prixit. If I remember when the question was about the pipeline and some people said that the pipeline will grow at single digit of 6% to 8% in this year. In terms of order inflow, last year order intake we called out that it had about INR 30 billion of, you know, one-off orders, INR 2 billion of export order and INR 8 billion of those who were the one-off deal. Excluding that we will be in the range like INR 70 billion. We'll see how much we can deliver through that number. Obviously we cannot, we don't aim, we don't think we can match this INR 10,000 crore number because we tied one-off all.
In terms of mix, like last year we had almost 30% plus export orders. This year also the mix will be similar. I mean overall mix in terms of inflows.
Last year we had a very large order coming from one of the specific countries. It's difficult to replicate, you know, such large orders coming from one country. It will be an endeavor to grow as much as possible the export volume. I will say that excluding that one-off large orders there will be a growth in export potential.
How much was that? If you can quantify. Just one last question on the excluding opportunity and related capacity and also certification to get .
All the possible efforts. We are getting qualified more and more into other customer bases and direct utilities in Europe, et cetera. There's a constant exercise which keeps on happening for product qualification, factory qualification. This is something which is a constant exercise.
Just on the last I remember you said that export margins of 500 basis points higher than domestic. Even if I take the mix this time and the margin differential, even then looks like the domestic margin also very strong this quarter. With the right understanding.
Yes Parikshit, as I mentioned that pricing has been strong in last couple of years as we phased out the old backlog with low margin. The overall backlog margin has become accretive. Also this quarter had the impact of operational efficiencies through cost saving.
Yeah, you told that. The only thing is every time you're saying this should not be a new normal for last many quarters you've been saying and every time the normal is shifting and you're repeating the same thing. The only thing is how much from here on we can increase for a year, for the year as a whole.
we are very disciplined and conservative in taking orders as well as, you know, calling out improvements. Instead of quarter on quarter performance, we more guide on the long term full year basis. Last year we did tell that the EBITDA margin range will be bit too high teen and we delivered at the high end. We were almost at the level where we guided.
Okay, sure sir, thank you. Those are my questions.
Thank you Parikshit.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subhadip Mithra from Nuama Belt. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity once again. My question was more on the export side. Is there a large TAM or a large pipeline on the HVDC side for exports that can probably pan out over the next two to three years?
No. The answer is no. Understood. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jainam from Soltra Investment. Please go ahead.
Congratulations on a great set of results to the entire team. What I want to understand is that in the previous cycle the peak EBITDA margins that we reached around was at around 18%. This time already for FY2025 we achieved 19% and we are confident to achieve better. What I want to understand, how is this cycle fundamentally different from the previous one? That's my question number one and question number two, whether it's 19.5% or 20% that we might achieve in FY2026, how long do you foresee it to sustain? Maybe like you said, you are conservative and the margins can probably even get better further. This new normal, how long do you expect it to sustain? I would want to know both A and B if you could throw some light.
Thanks for your question. To the first question about the peak margins, I think earlier in the earlier cycle in our company the backlog was more tilted towards projects and within that there were also projects for the utilities and some of the power sector companies which didn't do well later on. This time, for the last couple of years we have been communicating our focused and disciplined approach of underwriting project. The mix has changed towards export and product. Our company strategy is leading to better margin over and above the industrial margin. This probably is one of the industry leading margin that we are delivering in terms of sustainability. I think we have good backlog of INR 130 billion and the margins on the backlog have improved in the last couple of years.
Our endeavor will be to sustain this margin in next few years, at least for next two to three years because we have a significant backlog with us and then we'll see in couple of years how the demand and supply position shapes
and the new orders that you're getting now that you're seeking in the market, the pipelines that are there, are they also in the similar margin range or is it that the realization has kind of dropped off? That's a commercial thing. We'll not be able to disclose at what margin we take new order and all, but what matters is how we execute and deliver at the end. We have been able to improve margin in the execution over and above at what we take during the order stage.
This is a result of strong disciplined underwriting as well as strong execution by entire team, the India team. There are multiple factors including the control over fixed cost. Multiple factors lead to this improved execution that will be able to improve our commercial bidding strategy and pricing in the ground. Sure, fair enough. What are the supply chain? Are there any supply chain constraints or issues, particularly for the long-dated orders that you need to execute? Is there any challenge that you're facing over there in terms of the pricing of the global energy transition story? Supply chain is definitely a big challenge that we have. Not only we have, but it's a global challenge which is there. We have specific teams which keep on working to mitigate those challenges. When we take orders, we ensure that we are not taking any orders where our risks are not mitigated.
How are we, like you said, it's for everyone, for the industry. What is GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. doing differently that, like you said, mitigates the risk when it comes to supply chain? Are we booking the entire capacity for our vendors? What are a few things, or are we backward integrating like RPOs? What are we doing that is really helping us?
It is multiple things. It depends upon item to item. Somewhere we would be booking capacities 2 years in advance and those things. Sometimes we would be developing multiple channels or multiple component suppliers. Localization is also a strong theme on which we are working to localize more and more supply chain to India. It depends upon product to product or component to component. It's not like one strategy fits all.
Got it. Got it. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. If there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Ms. Megha Gupta for closing comments. Over to you, ma'am.
Thank you everyone for joining us today. We hope 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 maintain transactions, communication, and fostering 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 Vernova T&D India Ltd., that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.