Ladies and gentlemen good day and welcome to the IndiGrid Limited Q1 FY 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sushil Dhoot from Nomura Wealth Management. Thank you and over to you sir.
Good afternoon friends. On behalf of Nomura Wealth Management welcoming you all to the IndiGrid Infrastructure Trust first quarter FY 2024 conference call. We are joined today by the senior management of IndiGrid represented by Mr. Harsh Shah, CEO and the Whole Time Director, Mr. Navin Sharma, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Meghana Pandit, Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Satish Talmale, Chief Operating Officer. We'll start with the opening remarks by the management followed by a Q&A session. I will now like to hand the call to Harsh sir for his opening remark. Over to you sir.
Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining on the call today. We've had a good beginning of the financial year. I would like to take you through the presentation first, and then we'll be happy to address any more questions on the presentation and the results. On the slide number three of the presentation we reiterate our vision. Our vision is to become the most admired grid vehicle in Asia. We believe that with a focused business model value accretive growth predictable distribution and optimal cap structure we'll be able to achieve that. On the next slide slide number four, is a portfolio overview at IndiGrid as we stand today. This does not include the recent acquisition that we have signed up for. Then this represents the current portfolio of IndiGrid assets.
We have about INR 22,900 crore of assets under management across 19 states and UT, about 8,500 circuit kilometers and 17,000 MVA of transformation capacity. Coming to the quarter 1 FY going for highlights on page number six. We completed our sixs years of value accretive growth and sustainable distribution versus corporate governance practices. Since listing it was sixth anniversary for IndiGrid in this quarter. We are proud to have delivered superior risk-adjusted return to unitholders over the last six years since listing. We signed for Virescent Renewable Energy Trust last quarter. Announced the details for unitholder vote. The transaction closure process is underway. We received unitholder approval as well as SEBI approval. We are targeting closure of the transaction sometime in the last week of August 2023.
We've also received both unitholder approval and subsequent SEBI approval for declassification of Sterlite Power Transmission Limited as a sponsor. In addition to the above three, we have received and started work on several augmentation projects, which are allotted to us on a Regulated Tariff Mechanism across our four of our substations in Kallam, Patran, Trikha and Amargarh. That's something which we have started CapEx on that. Financially, as we increased the DPU growth last year, last quarter, we are continuing with that, and we are distributing with a run rate of INR 13.8 a unit, and we are able to do it with our revenue and EBITDA both increasing around 11%-12% versus last year. Collections are at 86%, in line with usual quarterly trends.
Typically, the quarter four is higher and quarter one is marginally lower. Our AUMs stand at INR 22,900 crore, with a net debt to AUM at 60%, which is well below the 70% cap provided by SEBI. On operating performance, our average availability is at 99.5%. Solar CUF for small portfolio that we have is around 28.05%, there is a temporary impact on availability on NER due to some insulator flashovers, and we'll discuss that in subsequent slides. All in all, it's been a robust performance, which has allowed us to deliver the sustainable DPU and the growth that we promised last quarter. On slide number seven is about for industry update.
The power demand continues to, you know, reach past peaks, and it is again one of the highest power demand that we are seeing in the country. And we are confident that with growth in GDP as well as the rural electrification initiatives that have been done in the last five years, we do see this power demand growing year on year basis. Forecasting this consistent growth in the power consumption, there has been a lot of development on the transmission side, which are part of the National Electricity Plan, which is notified by CEA, which provides short-term framework, provides capacity additions, where there are both in the grid as well as the storage. It provides measures to have RE available for 24/7 through BESS and pump storage.
All of this has translated physically into about INR 140,000 crore of TBCB bids in the sector that we are seeing in near future. These are identified projects which are approved by NCP, and therefore, we think that this, this is going to result into a sizable pipeline for transmission business. On the slide number 8, which is just to provide a update on how IndiGrid would look post Virescent acquisition. As an update, as I mentioned earlier, we have received the approval from unitholders on June 23. On July 23, we have received July 2023, we have received SEBI approval for closing this, and August 23, we are targeting to close this transaction. With this transaction, IndiGrid's AUM is almost going to grow up to around INR 27,000 crore.
The watt mega peak capacity will grow almost 538 to 676 watt-peak , and number of employees will also substantially grow because we are taking over most of the employees of Virescent, which will allow us to operate the portfolio smoothly. In general, number of projects are doubling, almost doubling to what we had earlier. In general, it is a substantial growth that's taking place as we integrate. Coming to quarter four, quarter one FY 2024 operating performance, I would like to invite Satish Talmale to brief you around that.
Yeah. Thanks, Raj. Good afternoon, everyone. For quarter one operations performance, we achieved 0 fatality for the quarter, and there were some minor incidents towards first aid medical treatment, which are part of our continuous improvement program to achieve our 0 arm mission. On performance, on power transmission, we achieved more than 99.5% availability across the portfolio. Solar generation, this is relatively 6% higher generation compared to last year, which is at 61.26 million units at a 28.05% CUF. On NERSS, particularly, if you see there is a slight dip on availability, that is due to insulator issue, which we understood the root cause, and we are trying to mitigate that in next quarter. On reliability, we achieved 0.24 target.
Generally, in Q1, the number of trips due to weather-related events are higher. Still, due to all the reliability improvement measures, we achieved a lower score compared to last financial year quarter. Few technological initiatives, we have initiated our process to implement remote access server technology installation across our substation and also automatic fault analysis system, which will help us to troubleshoot all the faults in a timely manner and even help our ability to restore trips in a, a most efficient manner. On solarization, we installed a small capacity in Bhopal and Dhule substation, along with battery storage. We are also targeting to solarize all other substations. We are planning to implement those in coming quarters. On cybersecurity, there are no material threats which are identified and recorded via our 24/7 security operations center.
Yeah, that's it. I guess I will hand over it to Navin for next slides.
Thank you, Satish. Good evening, everyone. We are on slide number 10. Fourth quarter with robust performance as compared to the same quarter previous year. We have recorded a revenue and EBITDA of INR 629 and INR 567 crore, respectively, which translates into 12% and 11% YY growth. NDC generation for the quarter was INR 173 crore, and board has approved distribution of INR 3.45 per unit, which is in line with our guidance, and this translates into DPU growth of 5% on YY basis. Coming on to the collection for the quarter, it stood at 86% as compared to 79% collection in Q1 of FY 2023. Historically, Q1 collection remains a bit low after a superior Q4 collection.
In Q4 FY 2023, collections were at 114% level, which translates into 100% collection over last two quarters. The DSO as of 30th June stands at 66 days, which is similar to Q1 FY 2023 DSO. Coming on the slide, next slide, number 11. DPU for the quarter is INR 3.45 per unit. It will be distributed in form of interest, dividend, and capital repayment, which is INR 3.18, INR 0.06, and INR 0.21 respectively. The outstanding units at the end of the quarter is around 70 crores, and the gross distribution to all the unitholders at INR 3.45 comes to INR 242 crores. Record date for the distribution is August 3rd, and tentative date by which the unitholder will receive the distribution is August 12th.
NAV as of June 30th stood at INR 130.5 per unit. For this quarter distribution, IndiGrid would have distributed INR 75.31 per unit, with a total distribution of around INR 4,130 crore. On the right-hand side, we showcase the trend of distribution on year-over-year basis, which is stable and scalable growth of 3%-4% over the year. We are on track to meet this year's guidance on distribution of INR 13.8 per unit. Moving on the next slide, number 12. We showcase a waterfall from our EBITDA to the NDC generation and distribution. At an SPV level, we have a consolidated EBITDA of INR 573 crore.
Net of the finance cost, working capital movement, CapEx, and taxes at SPV level, NDCF generated at SPV comes to around INR 479 crore. The net of the trust level expenses, interest costs, and tax, we have generated NDCF of INR 173 crore. As we started off with a healthy reserve of INR 322 crore, we have utilized our reserves by INR 16 crore, INR 68 crore, and our closing reserve stands at INR 254 crore, which is in excess of one quarter's DPU, based on current guidance. That's all from, that's all from my side. I hand over to Meghana to take the subsequent slides.
Thanks, Navin. Hi, good evening, everyone. I'm on slide number 13. Snapshot of our balance sheet. We continue to remain AAA rated by all the three rating agencies. At the end of the Quarter One, our average cost of debt remains at a healthy 7.58%, with a cash balance of about INR 1,041 crore. This includes debt tra of around INR 370 odd crore and about INR 241 crore of distribution for the quarter, and balance as free cash. Almost 83% of our overall borrowing book of INR 13,600 crore is fixed rate to the extent of around at least 3 years-4 years. We ended the quarter with a net debt to AUM of 60.1%, and again, very robust interest coverage ratio of more than two times.
During the quarter, we drew IFC's loan of around INR 1,140 crore at a cost of debt of about 7.7%. The borrowing book remains fairly diversified between bank loans of almost about 53% and NCDs of 47%, which are subscribed by a diverse set of investors, including mutual funds, insurance companies, HNI, retail, corporate, provident funds, et cetera. The bottom chart talks about our repayment or refinancing schedule. For this fiscal, FY2024, the refinancing number is close to about 3.5% of the overall book, very small. The remaining years, as you can see, is very smoothly distributed, with not more than 10%-11% of the borrowing book coming up for refinancing.
Moving ahead on slide 14, just depicts our risk-adjusted total returns that we are providing to the unitholders right since inception. Our total returns is close to about 109% and annualized return of 13%, which compared to both debt and equity indices, continues to remain superior. Especially on the risk side, if you compare with the beta, we remain at the lowest, 0.08. Slide number 15, the business outlook as we look at it. The first one, currently we are focusing on completing the Virescent transaction. Along with that, the framework asset that we have, we are looking at from GR and Rajgarh, as and when it becomes operational, we will look to acquire that also.
In addition to that, with the significant attractive transmission bid opportunities coming up, we will look at synergistic greenfield bidding across both transmissions. Battery energy storage system is also an area that we are closely looking at. With the current guidance that we have provided on the DPU of 13.8, we continue to focus on that. Post the Virescent acquisition, as we have mentioned before, we are looking to provide a 2%-3% increase in the DPU after the acquisition is completed. Parallelly, our focus on improving the balance sheet continues to exist in terms of optimizing the interest cost on all the incremental borrowing that we do alongside ensuring that the tenures remain pretty long.
Remain, we have always focused on maintaining adequate liquidity to ensure any sort of emergencies that come about, can be looked at. We had taken unitholders' approval in June to raise equity to the extent of INR 1,500 odd crore. This was with an intention that after Virescent acquisition, our net debt to AUM would be somewhere about 65 odd %. With that in mind, we are looking to raise equity to the extent of up to INR 1,500 crore, which will bring the net debt to AUM back to around 60% level. Parallelly, asset management continues to be the focus with ensuring that the maximum availability is there across the portfolio. Self-reliant O&M practices continues, and the EHS and ESG practices that we have adopted, we will continue to improve on that.
On the industry part of it, we continue to remain very active across various industry bodies, and we are working on ensuring more and more private sector participation in the electricity sector. Similarly, on the National Monetisation Pipeline. We make representations across various industry bodies, and improving investor education about specifically IndiGrid as well as InvITs as a platform continues to be the case. With that, we'll take a pause here and we can move to the Q&A session, please. Over to you, Sushil.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question.
... Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Shirish Wase from Moneylife Advisory Services. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. My first question pertains to the agreement with GR Infra. Just wanted to understand this framework agreement is only restricted to one asset, or it will also extend to subsequent assets as and when they come up for acquisition? Thank you.
This, this agreement, or framework agreement that you are referring to, is only for one asset, and subsequent asset, there will be different agreements depending on what is the arrangement for each bid.
Got it sir. My second question pertains to, I just wanted to understand, are we also looking at metering infrastructure concessions to complement the portfolio of our current portfolio?
I mean, we keep evaluating different businesses, and certainly metering infra has become a large opportunity. Having said so, we are at a very early stage in evaluation of the same, and, and if it becomes interesting, we would pursue, but at this point in time, it's very, very early stage.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Then, let's get back in the queue.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, before we move to the next question, a reminder to the participant, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. Next question is from the line of Usha Virendra from Acharya. Please go ahead.
Mm-hmm. Your slide number 12 says the quarterly report of Q1 EBITDA to NDCF shows a reserve of INR 681 was used to distribute DPU. Am I correct, sir?
Yes.
What is the reason to dip into reserve?
Typically, what happens is that in our collections while they look very flat and 99%, 100%, on a quarter-on-quarter they typically vary. As Navin mentioned, last quarter it was 114% this quarter it was 86%. Therefore on a quarter-on-quarter basis quarter one is low, quarter two is little higher, quarter three is little low, and quarter four is high. That's what we have seen historically. We keep a reserve about the quarter of distribution, which is generated out of the 10% flexibility that SEBI provides, which allows us to streamline the quarter-on-quarter variability. Otherwise, if it was 100% pass-through, there may be more volatility that may come into our distribution.
We keep this reserve, and then this reserve gets refilled when we receive our collection back on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Q4 we added to the reserve, Q1 we are consuming. Next quarter, we will see what the collections are, and then it reflects that. The reserves are just amount that allows us to smoothen the quarter-on-quarter variability on the tax collections.
Sir how is this recent being financed like loan or equity? I think I heard some equity portion.
Sorry what is it? Can you repeat that?
How is the acquisition of Virescent being financed? How are you getting the funds then?
Acquisition of Virescent will be a mix of equity, debt, and internal accruals, all three put together. In the shorter term we might raise debt and then replenish equity as we raise it so it's gonna be a mixture of all.
Okay. Do the current unit holders get to apply for any rights or something, something like that?
If we come up with a rights issue as a mode of capital raising, yes, unit holders will get a right to apply.
Okay That's it, Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone phone. Participants to ask a question may press star and one. Next question is from the line of Pradyumna Dalmia from Lansdowne Investment Company. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity. No, just wanted to understand more, and if you could elaborate a little more on the, you know, INR 1,500 crore capital raising plans. You know, what are the timelines, et cetera, that you have in mind for this? What is likely to be the debt and equity split of this?
So just to clarify the INR 1,500 crore is the unit capital raise so it's entirely equity. In terms of timeline I think it's difficult to communicate what timeline will it be but we are evaluating all options including what earlier unitholder asked about rights issue, preference issue and institutional placement. This specific approval that we have taken was for institutional placement and each capital raising method has its own nuance or advantage or risk happening so we are evaluating that. At this point in time we don't have a timeline to conclude that. It's kind of an approval we have taken but we'll keep evaluating.
...You, you, cannot commit at this stage whether this will be completed in this quarter, next quarter, or FY 2024, at least?
Yeah, we cannot commit to that but I think the approval that we have taken is valid for a year.
Okay. You'll obviously make the, you know, necessary announcement et cetera as and when you do decide which route you're going to take.
Oh certain. Certain.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participant, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1. Next question is from the line of Pratik Kothari from Unique Portfolio Managers. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Congratulations, for the increased DPU. First, my first question is on, we signed an MOU with, G R Infra, and we're trying to bid for some green field. I mean, they will do the construction, but then we'll acquire from them. Similarly, you spoke about a large, bidding pipeline, which might come out. Just if you can highlight how are things moving on ground? What kind of deals do we see? What kind of deals are we, currently going through?
Sure. I think as I described there is a big, big pipeline with respect to the development pipeline in terms of number of bids that are getting bid out. It's, to be honest unprecedented number of CapEx that is getting planned in the sector. We, we do see a lot of bids getting participated in battle. Now, we are not a pure play developer and therefore we participate in bids where we have real synergies. However, having such a large pipeline helps that we can target on the projects that we want to work on. On the renewable side also we do see good traction in terms of several transactions. We are evaluating them, but at this point in time, you know, we don't have anything to announce or nothing signed.
We do see both on operating renewable side and on the construction transmission side a lot more opportunities coming in.
Right. When we speak about this heightened bidding which might come in, is it just the existing players who want to lighten their balance sheets to participate in this and hence, we'll get an opportunity to acquire those assets, or we participate along with this for the new bidding and maybe acquire those assets 2, 3 years down the road?
I would say it's a mix of both. It's a mix of both. We don't bid for all projects, right? In, in a development stage, we have limits in terms of maximum 10% of our size. We don't bid, and we only are far more conservative than a normal developer. Our target assets are slightly different and specific. We don't participate in all bids. We do see both happening, that, people who might want to offload assets to build new assets, as well as, we might find some good opportunities and build themselves, so both.
Correct. That has already started playing out?
Oh, yes, yes. The, the number of bids that we announced, I mean, in the call, INR 120,000 crore, they're already identified bids, with bid process coordinators to be conducted in the next 1, 1.5 years, or maybe 2 years. That's, that's already identified. It's a matter of time in terms of when they will be bidding out.
Correct. Sure. Post this very recent acquisition, in, like you mentioned, in the next month itself, our EM share of that for solar goes to 70%. At least for the timing, at least now, this would be the cap on non-transmission assets, given we always wanted to keep it below 20?
The cap is 25, where we are working towards. I mean, as you said, we are within the cap, we are agnostic. If we get a good solar projects at a good value and good quality, we don't mind buying it right now also. The cap we are working towards is 25, but 25 is not the goal, right? The difference is it's not the goal, but that's the cap. I won't say we are capped at 17.
Correct. I believe you include battery energy storage as part of transmission. In non-transmission, except solar, what else can be a part of it?
I mean, we haven't done anything till now, but hydro is part of it. Wind, we are not doing for sure, so wind is not something which is link, which, which is quality of link to what we do. They are pretty much it remains in the sector. I mean, somebody asked me about smart metering. That could also be, but that's very small and very early stage, so it could be any of these two, three things.
Hmm, correct. Sure. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vivek Sureka, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Just to check, am I audible?
Yes, you are. Please go ahead.
Hi. First to clarify, in the opening remark, we mentioned, that DPU would grow by 2%-3% post the acquisition of new assets. Is this after considering the equity dilution, or is it before equity dilution?
The guidance is after equity dilution. Okay? Again, these are guidance, so depending on when we acquire and all that variations. The timing of this bump up may change, but yes, it is after repeated valuation, to your question.
Thanks. That's fair enough. Another, more request, right? In last two presentations on quarters, you were giving a kind of a clue of how the dividend distribution would work over the next 2 years-5 years. This presentation, that view was taken out. That view was very helpful. I know we read that you first we have identified new asset, that view was very helpful. Can we kind of include that going forward in our presentation, if that's not a big thing for the management?
Yeah, I mean, it's not a big thing. It's a standard slide, which hasn't changed, I mean, this quarter is more largely around the current changes, quarter update slide. Typically, we add that slide when we acquire a new asset, right? To give a perspective. Even if you download that slide, which we published in last presentation, it still holds true, right? It's a good input. We'll definitely consider to include it subsequently. It remains the same, what we published earlier.
Yeah, and that, that would be helpful. Just 1 last question from my side. Looking at all the kind of monsoon thing which is happening across the country, have we seen any adverse impact on our side? Hopefully not, but it's coming, and are we well covered by insurance on that?
The question is valid. We do see, I mean, not just... Fortunately, to start with, we are not impacted by the floods that we have seen in Himachal and, and other parts of the country. I mean, we are just fortunate around that. On the, on the impact on the seasons, every season, you know, in a large portfolio, there is some kind of impact that comes in. Sometimes it's snow, you know, in, in the quarter one, typically, in quarter two, there are high winds in the central India. In quarter two, quarter three, there are rains in the northern and, you know, western India. A variety of impact that comes in, but nothing that is material enough to impact our stability or our operations.
There is one impact that is, Satish spoke about in, in ER project, where we are dealing with a specific issue, with respect to insulators, and especially that is in the, in a, in a hilly terrain, in a monsoon, which makes it difficult to restore. Those incidents keep happening across the portfolio. We're not really materially impacted by that, and whenever it's significant or, slightly important, it comes out in availability as it has in this quarter as well.
Thank you. That's all from my side. All the best for future results.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one. We have our next follow-up question from the line of Pradyumna Dalmia from Lansdowne Investment. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks again. Now, I just had one clarification, which I wanted to ask. I believe there has been some recent changes in terms of the treatment of taxation on InvITs and REITs. Can you clarify on that? Is, you know, distribution by way of interest and dividend, are they kind of taxed the same currently, or is there any differential now, whereby, you know, one may be more tax beneficial versus the other?
I would give you a perspective, but I would advise you to, you know, refer to the tax advisor because each, investor category gets taxed differently based on their, you know, status and jurisdiction and other things. At the high level, there is as such, no change that has taken place with respect to the taxation of InvITs. There was a amendment that got introduced in the budget, and subsequently it got streamlined, and that was pertaining to capital repayment and not with respect to interest and dividend.
With respect to capital repayment, what is clarified is that as long as an InvIT or REIT has distributed up to the capital that it has issued, so let's say if IndiGrid was issued at INR 100, till that point in time, IndiGrid repays a capital repayment is up to INR 100 a unit, there'll not be a TDS, and it will go out of the cost of acquisition of the unitholder, and therefore, taxed as in capital gains. Not immediately, but when the unitholder sell. Okay? Other than that, let's say beyond INR 100, if somebody pays capital, in IndiGrid scenario, it's extremely unlikely, but some REITs or other InvITs are paying, then it will be taxed marginally like other income or interest. That's the only clarification that has come in this budget.
Other than that, it remains what was last year. Interest gets taxed based on marginal income. Dividend, if we have received the dividend from subsidiary, which is under old tax regime, then it remains as a tax dividend. If the SPV follows a new tax regime, then it remains a taxable dividend, again, part of financial income, just like interest. There are three, four categories that exist, and therefore, we disclose all of them in a, a detailed manner in our distribution sheet, so that it allows people to consult with the chartered accountants.
Okay, great. Thanks for the clarification.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments.
Thank you. I think we had a very action-packed quarter last quarter with a large transaction. We are still working towards closing that. We look forward for the continued support for all our unitholders who have consistently supported the decisions taken by management, both on asset acquisition and capital raising and others. Very thankful and grateful to all of you to join today, and look forward to meeting you in the next call. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of IndiGrid Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.