Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call of IndiGrid Infrastructure Trust. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in a 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 has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Bharanidhar Vijayakumar from Spark Institutional Equities Private Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for logging in for this 1Q FY 2027 earnings call of IndiGrid Infrastructure Trust. From the management, we have Mr. Harsh Shah, Managing Director, and then we have Ms. Meghana Pandit, Chief Financial Officer, followed by Mr. Sanil N amboodiripad, Chief Operating Officer. Without further ado, I would hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, post which we will take the Q&A. Over to you, sir.
Hi. Good evening, everyone, and a very warm welcome to our Quarter 1 FY 2027 results call. As we have done before, I am going to take you through the presentation on the first part, then my colleague Meghana and Sanil will take certain sections of the presentation, and we will address the question and answer subsequently. I am on slide number three. Our vision is to become the most admired grid vehicle in Asia. We focus on a business model with long-term contracts, low operating risk, and stable cash flows. We strive to do value accretive growth by doing repeat accretive acquisitions year on year and creating a pipeline for future. We focus on delivering quarterly predictable distribution to our unitholders, and while doing all this, we focus on an optimal Cap structure. On slide four is our portfolio. As on date, with assets under management of approximately INR 34,000 crore.
Our presence is across 20 states and two union territories, across 94 different revenue-generating elements, which includes 59 transmission lines spanning 10,000 circuit kilometers, 20 substations with a capacity of 34,335 MVA, 1.5 GW peak of solar capacity, and 2.5 GWh of BESS projects at different stages of construction. Many of our projects are build, own, and operate, so therefore, there is a physical asset that belongs to us that is captured in steel and aluminum. But beyond that, our average residual contract period for transmission is approximately 26 years. For solar, about 18.8 years, and for battery storage, 11.5 years. On slide number six is the highlight for this quarter. This quarter, EnerGrid, where we have partnered with two financial investors to develop more projects on transmission. We received two letter of intent, one for Shongtong-Tidong transmission scheme awarded through TBCB mechanism.
It's an ISTS project comprising of 450 circuit kilometers of lines and a 400 kV to 220 kV, 630 MVA substations to be developed. This is in the state of Himachal. Second project is also in the state of Himachal, where the transmission system for evacuation of power from Sunni Dam, and Luhri Stage-I is awarded through TBCB to us, which comprise of about 104 circuit kilometers of transmission lines and about 1,000 MVA of substation capacity. Both projects put together have approximately cumulative CapEx of INR 5,800 crores. This is something which IndiGrid will acquire as and when the projects are revenue generating and operational, and add approximately a little over INR 6,000 crores of AUM to IndiGrid AUM subsequently. In terms of the quarterly financial performance, our operational revenue stood at INR 930 crores, up approximately 19% year-on-year.
The growth primarily is driven by the addition of new projects into the portfolio through the year. The revenue growth translated into operational EBITDA growing approximately 23% year-on-year and stood at INR 860 crores. Our EBITDA margin stood at 89.1%. Our AUM and net debt to AUM ratio remains very low. We are at 58.5% net debt to AUM, which translates into roughly another INR 10,000 crores-INR 12,000 crores of assets that we can acquire without necessarily raising more capital. On Q1 2027 collections are at 95% on transmission and 100% for solar. Transmission collections are relatively lower. However, this is a usual trend that we have seen across last 10 years, where quarter one collections are typically lower, and then collections pick up in quarter three and quarter four subsequently. So we see the same trend panning out this year as well.
In terms of distribution, as you know, we increased the distribution to INR 16.48 a unit last quarter for the full year this year. In line with that, we're distributing INR 4.12 a unit for quarter one 2027. Our weighted average quarterly transmission availability remains at 99.64%. Solar CUF at 26.5%, and best round trip efficiency of the portfolio is at 88.44%. We believe that this strategy is something which allows us to continue to deliver superior total returns and sustainable DPUs and stable operations. On the next slide, I'll take to the industry updates. Our demand as a country and capacity trend, we see are on a continuously increasing trend. As you can see in quarter one FY 2026 and quarter one FY 2027, there is a 12.5% growth of peak capacity, which is a significant growth by any standards on such a large portfolio.
And we do feel that this is still lower than what India could achieve. Therefore, over the next 10 years, we are certain that these capacities and the growth is going to continue to remain in the energy sector. Some of the signs of that are evident in the developments in the transmission and renewable sector. See increase the earlier 500 GW of non-fossil capacity target to 900 GW of master plan. These master plans are very essential because they give a visibility of a next decade of growth. For us, this translates into clearly about INR 8 lakh crores of outlay in transmission and transformation capacity over the next 10 years. Same goes for storage, where we see 174 GW of capacity being planned for grid balancing. The second key update on the NITI Aayog and capital recycling from NMP.
Phase II target is set at INR 16.72 lakh crore and power sector allocation is about INR 2.77 lakh crore for brownfield asset monetization. We do feel that at some point in time, we will get an opportunity to participate in such monetization proceeds. On the next slide number eight, I will take through some of the key strategic market pillars. As I described in the details, the scale of opportunity is massive. India's energy transition continues to drive a multi-decade transmission opportunity, specifically driven by rising renewable integration, grid expansion requirement, and increasing need for evacuation infrastructure across RE projects and storage projects.
The second is the rising need of energy storage, as BESS and pumped hydro storage are increasingly emerging critical enabler for renewable integration and grid stability, even peak management as we move towards more and more renewable projects in the grid. RE ambitions will drive growth while it builds with challenges, while renewable energy additions remain structurally strong and competitive. I do see near-term execution to face bottlenecks considering the transmission congestion curtailment under signed PPAs and evolving DSM regulations. However, we feel that these are short-term hiccups and has pretty much no impact on the long-term decadal growth that we are seeing in the sector. On the NMP side, I already covered that we do see a great opportunity for India to really monetize some of the operating assets and create liquidity for itself.
Following was is the proof that we see there is a significant activity in the transmission and BESS sector. As we speak, there are over INR 2 lakh crores of tenders that are out at different stages in transmission and BESS sectors. About INR 60,000 crores of RFPs are already released on transmission. Another INR 1 lakh crores of RFP are approved by NMP, and we will see those RFPs getting bidded out over the next 12 months or 18 months. Battery storage side also, there is significant amount of pipeline in terms of projects that are announced. We will see how these projects pan out. I will invite my colleague, Sanil, to take you through the operating performance for the quarter across our businesses. Welcome, Sanil, please.
Thanks, Harsh. Good afternoon. We are on slide number 10. In the quarter one, we continued maintaining superior availability and performance. With respect to the safety stats, we had zero medical treatment cases, zero first aid cases, but we had one lost time incident, which was a minor accident to one of the persons while dismantling an emergency restoration structure. With regards to the performance, the solar generation stood at 669 million units at 26.5% capacity utilization factor. The transmission weighted average availability was 99.64%. The battery storage projects, [GPTL] and GBPL, the Kilokari BESS completed one year of operations, and the weighted average availability of both these projects put together was 98.39%, which is much above their 95% requirement as per the contract.
We also achieved a round trip efficiency weighted average again, 88.44% above the contractual requirement of 85%. The reliability statistics, we had trips per line of 0.27, and most of these trips occurred due to lightning, thunderstorm, stubble burning and foreign materials. The substation trips per element was 0.03, which is as per our regular standards. The solar average availability was around 98.1%. It got pulled down a little bit due to some inverter failures, string failures, and some communication failures in a couple of our solar plants. If you look at the bar chart on the right side, you can see that all the transmission assets had achieved availability much beyond the normative availability requirements, except Gurgaon Palwal GPTL, where we had a failure of one bus reactor, which is covered under insurance.
Coming to this table on the right side, if you compare the quarter of FY 2026 versus 2027, pretty much stable. Number of trips over line had reduced, actually. Training man hours continues about 10,000. Lost time accident, one. Unsafe conditions reporting remains steady. The near-miss reporting also have been steady. The utility solar generation has improved. This is mainly due to acquisition of a project last year. The plant availability has remained steady, or it has slightly improved over the last year. Thank you so much. May I hand over to Meghana next?
Thanks, Sanil. Hi, good evening, everyone. I am on slide number 11, where we will be talking about the Q1 FY 2027 financial performance. Another quarter of strong performance with the reported revenue being recorded at INR 1,087 crores, which is an increase of about 29% over Q1 of last fiscal. On the EBITDA side, around 29% growth again, at INR 906 crores over INR 704 crores last year, same time. The right-hand side graphs talk about the operational asset and the service concession accounting contribution breakup, where you can see that the revenue and EBITDA have recorded a growth of 18.9% and 23.6%, respectively, over Q1 of FY 2026. The collection and receivable days across transmission and solar business units again remained quite robust. Q1 typically, for the transmission assets, is slightly lower compared to the fourth quarter, because fourth quarter generally is much higher.
So we recorded the collections at around 95%, with receivable days at 38. Same thing on the solar side, 100% collections with receivable days at 34. Moving to slide number 12, which is talking about the DPU update, the distribution update for Q1. In line with the annual DPU guidance of INR 16.48 for FY 2027, the quarterly DPU approved by the board stands at INR 4.12, breakup of which is between interest, dividend, capital repayment components. Outstanding units remain the same, about INR 95.26 crores, with the gross distribution around INR 392 crores. The record date for the distribution stands at August 17th, and the distribution will be on or before August 24th. The NAV per unit stood at around INR 146.93 as on June 30th, 2026. The right-hand side talks about our annual distribution trend. In line with what we have maintained, 3%-5% growth in the DPU.
The 5.4% of CAGR is what we are looking at achieving the INR 16.48 of distribution for this fiscal. Moving to slide 13, which talks about the waterfall from EBITDA to NDCF. The EBITDA for the quarter stood at the SPV level, was at about 924 crores, in which working capital movement, some CapEx related movement and the minor tax impact, the NDCF stood at 782. In that, the finance cost largely at IndiGrid level and minor working capital movements. The NDCF generated during the quarter was at INR 370 crores. Distribution for the quarter at INR 4.12 stands at INR 392, because of which we are dipping into the reserves to the extent of around INR 22 crores. But even after that, the NDCF reserve balance will be at INR 522 crores, which is almost more than one and a half quarters of distribution.
Moving to slide 14, where we are looking at the balance sheet strength. We continue to remain triple A-rated by all the three rating agencies. Our average cost of debt as on June 30 stands at around 7.4%, with cash balance of about INR 1,511 crores. Out of the total gross borrowing of INR 21,100 odd crores, almost 89% of that is fixed rate borrowing, and the leverage ratio again stands at very robust number of 58.5%, leaving a reasonably high debt headroom for future acquisitions. The interest coverage ratio again was very healthy at 2.29 times. The borrowing again remains very diversified between all kinds of investors, banks, corporates, mutual funds, insurance, and so on. The repayment schedule that you see at the bottom of the chart talks about a fairly well-diversified and termed-out borrowing profile.
For this particular fiscal, we are looking at around 1,900 odd crores of refinancing coming up, which is again lesser than 10% of the overall gross borrowing that we look at. Slide 15 talks about the superior risk-adjusted total returns. Total returns which consisting of distribution, which is 121% for IndiGrid since the time we got listed till now, and the capital appreciation, which is about 77%. Put together, total return of 198% of absolute and about 13% of annualized return, which when compared to both pure play debt as well as pure play equity indices, is much superior considering the beta, which is the element of risk, which is at very close to 0.09. So we again consistently being outperforming on risk-adjusted basis. In terms of the business outlook remains very robust.
We continue to focus in terms of our portfolio strategy, ensuring that we maintain stable operations, and thereby look at predictable and sustainable distribution on the back of the acquisitions that we have been consistently doing. On the greenfield development side, which is through EnerGrid, we are likely to acquire three, four projects during this fiscal, worth around INR 2,000 crores minimum from EnerGrid. Besides that, any other M&A opportunities that may come through. Besides that, we will continue to participate in greenfield opportunities along with EnerGrid in other power transmission and BESS projects. Similarly, the idea is to ensure we deliver on the DPU guidance of INR 16.48 for FY 2027.
On the balance sheet side, our focus continues to be in terms of the refinancing opportunity that we get and the asset acquisition that we finance to ensure that we optimize on the interest cost, as well as try and elongate the tenor profile, as and when this opportunity lends itself. Similarly, ensuring we maintain prudent leverage with adequate headroom to enable organic and inorganic growth. Resilient asset management is another important pillar for us. We have to ensure we look at sustaining at least 99.5% of availability across the operational portfolio of transmission desk put together, and equal robust number on the CUF delivery. Besides that, try to continuously improve on self-reliant O&M capabilities on the back of digital predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and also ensuring how we can use AI-powered image analyzer and other mechanics to improve the asset health index as well as predictive maintenance.
Similarly, uphold world-class EHS and ESG practices to ensure long-term portfolio sustainability. Industry stewardship, again, is a proactive measure that we have been looking at to participate actively in policy shaping and industry dialogues across InvIT, similarly in the electricity sector. We continue to do that. With that, I will take a pause and will move to the question and answer session, please.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset 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 Rushabh Sharedalal from Pravin Ratilal . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Hello.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on delivering on the higher DPU that you had promised to the unit holders. My question is actually basically twofold, and it is basically on the cash balance that we hold. I was just doing some maths and looking at some of the numbers. If I look at March 2024 till up to September 2025, we had an average cash balance of at least INR 2,000 crores. It has been falling continuously. From December 2025 onwards, we have at least reduced our cash balance by another INR 500 crores. I also did some maths around the trailing 12-month NDCF compared to distribution, and we are actually dipping into reserves quite a few times. Can you please explain, is there some collection efficiency issue or something happening?
Yeah. Thank you. First, to answer your question, I think I do not know whether trailing 12-month is the right measure. We look at financial year basis.
Okay.
On a financial year basis, at least we do not feel that we are dipping to reserve to pay DPU. Quarter on quarter, there can always be changes. For example, even this quarter, we have dipped into reserves because typically quarter one collections are lower, and that is why we keep a reserve. In quarter four, many times we catch up. Sometimes what happens is that in the middle of the quarter, if there is a capital raising, that may have impact on either DPU or NDCF or it may have impact on the cash balances as well. Last year, we did two capital raising. One was a QIP, one was a pref, and therefore, depending on which quarter it was, there may be, I would say, relatively higher cash balance that might be visible. They might also have, in some quarter, impact on the NDCF.
But from an operating cash flow perspective, we have not seen anything concerning or worrisome in terms of our collections. On the solar side, we are doing very well. The receivable cycle has come down to 30-40 days, which is very good.
And on the transmission side, it's been collecting as per trend of 45-50 days. So on collections front, we are not seeing any challenge whatsoever. Obviously, quarter-on-quarter things can change. We do not have the exact reserve data on a quarterly basis, but we publish it. But for example, we ended the reserve with about INR 522 crores.
INR 522 crores.
Yeah, exactly INR 522 crores. If you look at it on a quarter-on-quarter basis or even year-on-year basis, this number has remained typically, reserve remained around one to one and a half quarter worth of distribution. And that's what we try to maintain it. So simply put, to answer your question, we don't have the analysis that you have done to comment on it, but we have not seen any impact on operating cash flows or receivables cycles.
Right. My second question is on the equity raise. We have done an equity raise just three quarters back. Is there any other equity raise planned for the next two years?
That's a very long-term question. I do not know. As and when there is an equity raise, we will make an announcement. Right?
Right.
It's obviously a price-sensitive thing, but as and when there is, we follow the guidelines and come to market as and when there is a plan to do equity raise. I can say at this point in time, there is none. But two years is a very long period of time.
Right. But we still have some headroom on the debt to raise funds, right? We are at 58% and we can go up to 70%. Is my understanding correct?
Yes, your understanding is correct.
Okay. And typically what I've seen is that we have stopped at around 60%. Is there a plan to remain at around 60% only, or will we be comfortable going to, let's say, 65% also?
We can technically go up to 70% as well. As a business strategy, what we have done is that when we reach 65%, we look to do capital raise to ensure that there is a further growth headroom possible and available for us.
Right.
It has nothing to do with 60% or 65%. We can go till 70%, but we start looking to raise capital at 65% so that we keep more headroom available for us in future.
Right. Once again, congratulations and best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deep Vakil from Bandhan AMC. Please go ahead.
Am I audible, sir?
Yes, sir.
Yes.
Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Sir, two, three questions. One, a fundamental question. Since IndiGrid, usually all SPVs follow old tax regime. So usually dividend is ideally exempted in such situations for unit holders. A follow-up on that is that lately there has been some announcement on tax implication for unit holders that irrespective of whatever regime the SPV or the InvIT follows, it will be tax exempted to them. However, surcharge is higher in new tax regime versus old tax, but effective tax outgo is lower for InvIT. So any market chatter around that, and what are your thoughts on this announcement?
I think, see, I do not know about market chatter because every InvIT or every REIT will have a different impact on it. I think it is, first, making dividend tax-free from business trust in the hands of eventual unit holder is a very welcoming move, right? Because eventually we are struggling with a two-tier tax structure where investors are paying tax on dividend component after the InvITs or its subsidiaries have paid tax, you know. So there is an inefficiency, I would say, in the market. So that is something which I would say is welcome and people should be. I would say it is a positive move. Having said so, adding a 10% surcharge is obviously a bit of a negative surprise. So each InvIT and REIT will have its own impact. We are also evaluating impact on our capital structure and tax.
We do not see any material impact on our cash flows. To answer your question, most of our assets are in new tax regime. Only one or two regulated assets are in old tax regime. So we do not see ourselves materially impacted. Even in our DPU, if you look at it, the dividend component is relatively small. Obviously it can evolve over a period of time as the assets become more mature and older. But typically dividend income is very small. Out of our INR 4, or our annual INR 16.5, typically the dividend is less than a rupee that is getting paid, right? So it is not a material change for unit holders of IndiGrid for sure. But as I said, different InvITs and REITs might have a different eventual impact on that.
Sure, sir. Thank you. Sir, one more last question. Sir, our NAV was around INR 146 and it was around INR 148 as on March 26, right? INR 146 is after the distributions have been paid, right? Just trying to understand, sir, in couple of last con calls you have been saying that whatever assets that we own in EnerGrid would eventually flow to IndiGrid as Meghana also highlighted that around INR 2,000 crore of AUM will get added to IndiGrid's AUM by the end of this year. Sir, any trajectory on the flow from EnerGrid to IndiGrid in FY 2028, and how do we see NAV accretion over time? Do we have some internal thresholds that we try to have a consistent increase in NAV by X percentage, or how should investors view that?
Yeah. Okay. I think there are two, three different questions there. I will answer the first questions on asset flow. As we speak, EnerGrid has approximately INR 12,000 crore-INR 13,000 crore of projects under construction. Eventually, those projects will come to IndiGrid once they are operational over the next two to four years. Okay. Because some of the projects are 36 months, 40 months timeline, so over a period of time. Out of that, about INR 2,000 crore of projects which are closer to commission are the projects which Meghana spoke about, which they are going to be acquired by IndiGrid this financial year. Okay. So that's the way strategy looks. I cannot give you a year-on-year projection because it's a project business, and as and when the projects get commissioned, there are different sets of assets and different commission streams.
Broadly, total size that we see is INR 12,000 crore-INR 13,000 crore of assets coming to IndiGrid over the next two to four years. Out of that, about INR 2,000 crore of assets are going to come in FY 2027. So that's the first question. The second question on NAV accretion. NAV is made up of a variety of components. NAV is made up of current assets valuation, volatility in the market, cost of debt in the market, risk-free rate, and the impact is new assets. It is not only new assets that change the NAV. So, our formula has not changed over the last 10 years. It is the same formula that is getting published, so each investor can do the work. But for us to project NAV is impossible, right? Because we can't project risk-free rate, we can't project volatility, we can't project cost of debt.
All of that remains floating. So it is inaccurate. It's kind of unfortunately inaccurate for us to really project NAV. So that's why we do frequent reporting of it. Are all the acquisitions that we are doing from EnerGrid NAV accretive? Answer to that is yes. Right? So that's something. How much accretive, what will be NAV two years down the line, is trying to look crystal ball, which we can't do, but I can say that we are acquiring at a NAV accretive level. So typically, if you compare NAV a quarter before acquisition, quarter after acquisition, NAV should have gone up. Right? That's the simple answer I would give to that.
Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants that you may press star and one to ask question. The next question is from the line of Mr. Bharanidhar Vijayakumar from Spark Institutional Equities Private Limited. Please go ahead. Bharanidhar, sir, could you please go ahead, sir?
Sorry, I was on mute. Apologies for that. My question is regarding the inorganic opportunities we are talking about for our growth in the future. Can you highlight how and quantum and in what areas these opportunities are shaping up for us?
We keep looking at projects in our three focus sector, which is transmission, solar or rather renewable, and battery storage. Size-wise, we can acquire up to INR 6,000 crore, INR 7,000 crore, INR 8,000 crore of projects as well. But at the moment, I don't think we are at a level where we can announce anything or we have signed anything. But yeah, these are the three main sectors that we look at assets. As and when it happens, we come back to market and announce.
Anything in the solar side that you are seeing in the near term?
We keep seeing assets, but none of that is where we have signed anything to communicate, sir.
Okay. Got it. That's it from my side.
A reminder to all participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. A reminder to all participants that you may press star and one to ask questions. As there are no further questions from the participants, I would now like to hand the conference to the management for the closing comments.
Okay, thank you. Thank you all the investors for joining the call and spending your time. Very happy to deliver the results for this quarter, and looking forward to connect you for the next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of IndiGrid Infra structure Trust and Spark Institutional Equities Private Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.