Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY 2024 earnings conference call of Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited, hosted by Ambit Capital. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amar Kedia from Ambit Capital. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Kedia.
Thank you, Michelle, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Q1 FY 2024 earnings call of Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited. From the management, today we have with us Mr. Shobhit Uppal, Deputy Managing Director, and Mr. Satbeer Singh, CFO of the company. I'll now hand over the conference to the management team for their opening remarks, post which we'll open up the floor for the Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thanks. Thank you. So welcome, everybody. Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited has announced their financial results for Q1 FY 2024. During Q1 FY 2024, the company has achieved a turnover of INR 763.61 crore and a PAT of INR 49.73 crore in comparison to a turnover of INR 609.24 crore and a PAT of INR 37.78 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year. The company has registered a growth of 25.34% and 31.63% in turnover and PAT, respectively, during Q1 FY 2024 in comparison to Q1 FY 2023. EPS of the company for Q1 FY 2024 is INR 7.42, as compared to INR 5.64 in Q1 FY 2023. During Q1 FY 2024, the company's EBITDA margin is 10.83%, as compared to 9.94%, and a PAT margin of 6.51%, as compared to 6.20% in the corresponding period of the last financial year. Net order book of the company is INR 11,779.64 crore to be executed in the next 24 to 30 months.
Total order inflow during FY 2024 till date stands at INR 4,377.41 crore. At present, we are L1 in one project amounting to INR 2,840 crore. Thank you. We are ready for the Q&A.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking your question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants, you may press star and one to ask questions. We'll take the first question from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations on the good set of numbers. Sir, yeah, and particularly on the order inflow. So just to clarify, you mentioned you are in L1 in INR 2,840 crore. This is which project?
This is the India Jewellery Park Mumbai.
Okay. And where the LOA and the work to start in next two, three months?
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Shah. There is a background disturbance on your line, sir. Can you go to the speaker, please, and talk, please?
Is it better now?
Yes, sir. Please continue.
Yeah. So here.
Likely two to three months, yes.
So now with this, so now including this, we are having an INR 7,217 crore order inflow. So how much more now we are looking at?
How much more we are looking at? Maybe another INR 2,000 crore-INR 2,500 crore in this year.
Okay. And so accordingly in terms of the.
Look, the tendering activity is expected to slow down a bit as the general elections come closer. So yeah, another INR 2,000 crore.
Okay. So with this, in terms of the revenue that we were looking at, 20% plus for this year and for even a couple of years, 20% kind of. So are we now revising upwards to kind of a 30%?
No, at the moment, we are sticking to that. There are expected to be, as I said in the last call, and the same point, as elections come closer, there is a degree of slowdown. So we are sticking to our original guidance on the revenue.
Okay. And on the margin front, sir, two things wanted to understand. So on QOQ basis, though, it is not a pure comparison, but still from last quarter, we had a 12.8% margin, which is now 10.8%. So we are looking at 11% kind of a margin. So there is one aspect in that is the employee cost, which has increased QOQ significantly to 66 odd crore. So is there any managerial remuneration one time that is part of it? And also this INR 66 crore quarterly run rate is now the new run rate that one should factor?
So this is the new run rate that one should factor, one. Secondly, we have announced increments. So that payout has happened. That is why this figure is higher. Thirdly, because of the large orders that have come in, we have also beefed up or increased our staff strength. That impact is seen in this.
So now.
The execution on these projects will now happen over the subsequent quarters. So as a percentage, this figure will come down. But as an absolute number, this is a run rate, or this is the quantum that we should be looking at now.
So at EBITDA margin level, excluding other income, we should only look at 11%. So is there a chance once we are scaling up in terms of the execution, will this 11% EBITDA margin next year, can one look at 11.5%-12%?
Yes, we can. I had mentioned that last time. We can.
Okay. Okay. And a couple of balance sheet items, Satbeer sir, inventory, trade receivable.
Actually, I'm handing over to Satbeer. He will take you and everybody through the balance sheet or the financial numbers. And if you still have any questions after that, he will answer that. Yeah. Over to you, sir.
Yeah. Sir, inventory trade receivable, trade payable, mobilization, retention money, and unbilled revenue.
All I will tell you. Just inventory INR 322 crore, and debtors is INR 552 crore, retention INR 244 crore, mobilization INR 309 crore, unbilled revenue INR 379 crore, interest bearing mobilization advance 44%, and this is the gross debt is INR 7.42 crore. There are the segment-wise order books. This is the commercial 8.69%, infrastructure 31.56%, institutional 24.69%, residential 13.61%, hospital 21.01%, and sector-wise, government 25%, 25.35%, rest is government. And region-wise, east 25.29%, north 30.69%, west 37.72%, south 2.76%, and overseas 3.54%. And besides that, working capital days is 95 days, and fixed-price contract is 30%.
Okay. And trade payable is how much, sir?
Trade payable is INR 638 crore.
INR 638 crore.
INR 266 crore. INR 280 crore, including non-current.
Sorry, bank is INR 280 crore.
Yes, yes.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions, may please press star and one now. We'll take the next question from the line of Gunit Singh from Counter Cyclical Investments Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Most of my questions have been asked. Who are the main competitors in this space?
L&T, Shapoorji Pallonji, Nagarjuna Construction, Kalpataru.
All right. That's all from my side. Thank you .
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, anyone who wishes to ask questions, may please press star and one. We'll take the next question from the line of Ashish Shah from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, first of all, I may have missed the initial guidance you gave, I think, on the revenue growth, etc. I'm not sure. The line wasn't very clear. So if you could just please repeat that?
So I gave no fresh guidance. This was a carry forward from my last call, which I think you would have pared. I maintain the guidance which was given last time around of a 20% growth.
Okay. All right. Also, sir, if you can just update the status of maybe the top four or five projects, some of the projects and, for example, especially on the station redevelopment now, what is the progress? When do we expect to start booking the first revenue out of that project? As well as some of the older projects that we had, for example, the AIIMS project and the Bihar Animal Sciences University, etc.
So the AIIMS Jammu project is slated for completion towards the end of this year, last quarter, November, December. So we are on track for that. As far as the Bihar, this thing, the Bihar Animal Sciences University project is concerned, their construction is happening, and it's picked up pace now. So we have about the total value is about INR 890 crore. We have executed about INR 75 crore-INR 80 crore there. And over, I think we expect to log a run rate of about anywhere between INR 10 crore-INR 15 crore every month. In Bihar, the NIT project, since this is also a design-build project, the designing phase is almost over. And we are now logging their monthly run rate of about INR 15 crore-INR 20 crore there also.
The two hospital projects, the Rahui or Nalanda dental project in the Chief Minister's constituency, that will be completed in the next three months. And the Chhapra hospital project will be completed in the next five months in December in this calendar year. As far as the station redevelopment projects are concerned, we have now started the revenue earnings have started from this quarter, say, July quarter for the Chandigarh project. As far as the CSMT is concerned, the revenue booking will start in about two months from now. Any other specific project that you have in mind?
Yes, sir. Just had the Sion Hospital one in mind because that was kind of an elongated construction duration. So just wondering at what.
It is moving at its pace. The projected pace of we are logging a billing of about INR 4 crore-INR 5 crore there.
INR 4 crore-INR 5 crore per month kind of a bill.
Yes.
Right. Just to further dwell on the CSMT station redevelopment, at what rate we expect we will commence the booking? I mean, what kind of build-up we should assume maybe this year, next year, if you could guide in terms of a monthly run rate? It will just help us to be a little more scientific in our estimation.
I think it will pick up pace in the last quarter of this financial year, that is January, February, March. By then, we should be hitting a run rate of about INR 30 crore-INR 40 crore a month. Prior to that, since this involves intricate design work, as also traffic management and other such issues, this quarter, as I said, billing is going to be meager. Last quarter of the calendar year, that is October, November, December, we should be billing about INR 10 crore-INR 15 crore a month. Major billing will start happening in the last quarter and which will pick up in the next financial year.
Right. And would it be at peak in the next financial year? And what would be that peak rate?
We should, in the first half of the next financial year, we should be looking to bill at about anywhere close to INR 60 crore-INR 70 crore a month.
Sure, sir. Right, sir. That helps. Thank you very much and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Kishan Tosniwal from Polar Ventures LLP. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. First of all, I have two to three questions. Basically, you said that the unexecuted order book that you have is likely to get executed in the next two to three years, right? If I have heard it correctly?
Yes.
Right?
Hello?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yes, yes.
Okay. The second question, is most of our projects basically from state government and central government, or we are basically doing work with the government entities only?
No, no, so we straddle both the sectors, the public sector as well as the private sector. The breakup of the public sector and private sector is 75%, 25%, and we work with both central as well as state government.
So 75% is towards government and 25% is towards private, right?
Private, yes.
Yeah. Another question that I have. When you have such a healthy order book and you are expecting that we are going to grow by 20% year- on- year, should I assume that due to the election that is due in 2024, you are guiding on a very conservative basis, or is it something else that I am missing in this piece?
No, no. Guidance has always been conservative.
Okay. And one more question.
Since you attended our earlier call.
Yes, yes.
That is how we are conservative in our guidance, and we try and achieve what we target.
So what is the difference that you see just being an election year? What is the difference that you see from the other years, or what is your expectation? Just being the election year, what could be the difference that you think?
There is a bit of a slowdown, especially, but since our order book is healthy and a lot of these projects, the state and the central governments are looking to showcase, so we feel that is why we feel that the guidance that we've given will be able to match.
Okay. And what is the average EBITDA margin that we should assume in the business that you are? Does it have some cyclicality in this business? Is there some quarterly cyclical in nature as such?
Look, infrastructure, like other industries, is always cyclical, but we seem to be riding a wave upward trend, and we feel, because of our order book and because of the general state of the economy of the country, we feel that the next four or five years, the growth should be good, and we should be able to meet our targets, so that is where we are at.
What is the EBITDA margin that we, as an investor, should look at?
We've given a guidance of 11 %+. We should be able to match that.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, anyone who wishes to ask questions, may press star and one. We'll take the next question from the line of Vasudev from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. So sir, if you can tell us, what is our bid pipeline currently, and are there any projects where we've already bid and are awaiting results?
Bid pipeline is about INR 2,500 crore. We have bid for a few projects. We bid for a couple of private hospitals. We have bid for a couple of data centers. We have bid for a couple of residential projects on the private sector side.
Okay, sir. Next question is, what is the CapEx that we have done in Q1 and our target for the entire year?
CapEx Q1.
This is INR 24 crore.
Okay, and sir, what are we looking for the full year?
This year around the.
The run rate, the rate will remain the same for the subsequent quarters also because we are now looking at adding to our machinery bank and shuttering for the projects which we've been awarded in the last three months.
Okay. Got it. And sir, then next, what are your views on the competitive intensity right now?
The competitive intensity remains high, but we are as I mentioned earlier, there is a bit of a slowdown expected in the fresh tenders which are going to come out this being the election year because we have a healthy order book. We are in a position to pick and choose, so.
Okay. All right. And sir, lastly, if you can quantify that, what is our total share of order book from the state governments, and are we facing any issues in regards to payments from them?
This is Central Government approximately 45% and State Government 32%.
Okay. And so, are we facing any issues?
There is, as far as we are facing a bit of an issue in Bihar, but that, as I mentioned in response to an earlier question, both our Bihar Medical Hospital projects, they are slated to, since they come in the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister's constituency, they are looking to complete them in this financial year. So we are expecting that our payments will also come through there. Otherwise, for the Bihar Animal Sciences University project, that the payments are now happening on time.
Okay. So that was helpful. I will turn back to you for more questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. Participants, if you wish to ask questions, you may press star and one. We'll take the next question from the line of Jiteen Rushe from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for taking my question.
Sir, I have a question on this Tata Memorial project. So it is in the order backlog. How about the execution? When will we start the execution?
The execution on Tata Memorial will begin in this quarter. We've actually broken ground there, and we should be starting to generate revenue, substantial revenue in this quarter.
We can safely assume around how much?
It's difficult. What I'm saying is that we'll start generating revenue, but in the third quarter of the financial year, we should be logging a run rate of about INR 10 crore plus every month.
The other projects in the order backlog, like the other project Gurugram and the Dharavi wastewater project, so these are also like new projects, but any execution we are expecting from Q3, or how are we placed now?
It's already Q2. Our Q2 revenue generation, in fact, has started, similarly from Puri, which is the Aravalli. So that also, in fact, Puri, we've already billed for two months.
And.
Which was the other project that you mentioned?
The Dharavi wastewater treatment.
Dharavi wastewater treatment also Q2 revenue generation will start.
So, in fact, in terms of the execution, have we faced any issues because of the heavy monsoon this year? So we see that the execution can get impacted or got impacted in July, and Q2 can be a tough quarter. Any view on that, sir?
Actually, if you see, if you've done a peer comparison, Q1 has been slightly slow for all construction companies. Monsoon is one factor, yes, but majorly, the factor has been a slew of festivals, especially festivals which have affected the Muslim community. There were two Eids, which were there in the first quarter, and since today, 60% of our workforce is from the Muslim community, that has slowed down progress across the construction sector. As far as the impact of monsoon in the second quarter is concerned, yes, in July, we have been impacted virtually across the country, so that will show, but Q2, I expect, will definitely be better than Q1.
Okay. Sir, just last thing from Satbeer sir. For the cash, you said INR 266 crore and bank is INR 280 crore. Right, sir?
Yeah, please. Yeah.
The cash balance, you said 266?
This is INR 266 crore cash position and INR 280 crore bank position.
What is the bank position? Sir, fund-based and non-fund-based limit and utilization?
This is around limited to INR 1,940 crore, including fund-based and non-fund-based, and out of which, around INR 200 crore is unutilized.
Okay. I think fund-based will be hardly utilized, but your non-fund-based must have got utilized.
This is hardly. This is INR 7 crore that I just mentioned and dropped that.
So basically, INR 200 crore is still unutilized from the non-fund-based.
Yeah. Yes, yes. And we are also looking for the announcement of the limit that will be around might be INR 2,100 crore-INR 2,200 crore. That is in the process.
Got it. Thank you, sir, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants, you may press star and one to ask questions. We'll take the next question from the line of Ashish Shah from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity again. Sir, I just wanted to come back to the gems and jewellery park, L1 position that we have. So what is the kind of the payment mechanism that we have, how sort of secure we are in terms of getting timely payments, what kind of BGs, etc., we need to get? Because it's a large project and tends to have maybe different set of conditions. What's the time period of execution, etc.? Any more details you can share, it would be really helpful, sir.
Ashish, since this is a project which has yet not been awarded and it's sort of a private project, I would be averse to sharing details about this project as things stand today. Once the project is awarded, it's not purely a project which is though the government is involved in this project to the extent that they have allotted the land, but it's not purely an L1 project. So I would be averse to sharing details since it's time that the project is awarded to us. I hope that's okay.
No, that's very fair. That's understood. Maybe we'll touch base on this next quarter. So.
Yes. Yes. Let it be awarded. We'll be open to answering all questions.
Gotcha. That's it from my side. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Deepika Bhandari from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Sir, as you had mentioned in this call earlier, that station redevelopment project, the Chandigarh project, Tata Memorial Hospital and Dharavi project have not been contributing in revenue in quarter one. Is my understanding correct?
Yes, it is.
Apart from this, any other projects in which the designing work was going on and they were not contributing in our revenue?
I mentioned that NIT Patna.
NIT Patna. Sir, altogether of these five projects, what would be the combined value if you can share?
The combined values. Okay. So 2450 is the CSMT project. Approximately 500 is the Chandigarh railway station project. 530 is the NIT Patna project.
Which is the other one?
No, Ashish didn't ask. That revenue was targeted. Any project that I missed out?
Just the Dharavi project, what's the value?
Tata Memorial, INR 750 crore, and Dharavi Memorial, INR 550 crore. So that's 13, 18, 23, approximately INR 4,800 crore.
Okay, sir. Got it. Just one more last question, sir. You said that our CapEx would be at our usual range, but this year, the order book is very strong, and we will be in the next coming quarter, we'll be starting work on very big projects. So don't we see our CapEx to go up?
Sure. Part of that CapEx, we've already started building capacities as far as all these projects, some of these projects are concerned, and as the designing starts getting completed, we'll add to it, so the CapEx, the rate of the CapEx will remain as it was in this quarter, around that.
Sir, around INR 100 crore for the FY 2024?
No, we've done, I think, about 25. Yeah, about INR 100 crore.
Okay, sir. Thank you. That's it from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, anyone who wishes to ask questions, may press star and one. We'll take the next question from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Sir, anything on the land monetization of West Bengal? So we were previously looking at to jointly either develop. So any update? Can it happen this year?
No, I don't think, Shravan, anything will happen this year.
While next year?
We're doing our base work. I think whatever steps we take will be in the next financial year.
But mostly, we will be doing in JV, we will be developing.
I can't really say. I mentioned last time around that if we get a good price, which we should, we are not averse to disposing it off also. But whatever we do, we'll let the general elections get over, and after that, we'll take a step on that. But we are in no hurry to sell it also.
Okay. Okay. Got it. And just, although you have mentioned that you will share details in next call on gems and jewellery, but broadly, in terms of the timeline, this will be a three-year execution period?
It's a three-year project. Yes.
Okay. And then is there a renegotiation or any scope on that front? And that's what we are slightly hesitant to share in terms of to start the project. Is there any scope in terms of renegotiation or something like that?
Look, this is on the lines of the Surat Diamond Bourse or the Diamond Bourse in Mumbai, where a group of jewelers have come together, and they are pulling in the money for the construction. So that's why I said it's not strictly L1, but there has been a stringent QCBS criteria also. They've evaluated each bidder's technical bid as well as financial bid. And so the chances are that we will get this job, but I don't want to say too much till the time that we are announced as the successful bidder.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Okay.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you.
Thank you, everybody. So we look forward to talking with you again post the second quarter, Q2. Thank you once again.
Thank you, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Ambit Capital, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.