Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to KPI Green Energy Limited Q3 and FY 2025 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 update by pressing star then zero on dashboard four. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harsh Patel from Share India Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. On behalf of Share India Securities, I welcome you all to Q3 FY 2025 earnings conference call of KPI Energy. We are pleased to have with us the management team represented by Mr. Alok Das, Group CEO, and Mr. Salim Yahoo, Chief Financial Officer of the company. We will have the opening remarks from the management, followed by the Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
All right. First of all, a very warm welcome to our investor con call for KPI Green Energy. I'm Siddharth Thakur, part of CMD office, and I'm delighted to have you all join us today. Over the last 10 years, KPI has been at the forefront of India's renewable energy transition, evolving into one of the country's leading integrated players in the sector. With a strong focus on solar and hybrid energy projects, we continue to expand our footprint domestically. As of today, if you look at our overall group level, we have an overall portfolio of 5.2+ GW, with 1.4 GW already commissioned and a strong 3.8 GW, 3.8 + GW order book. Our expertise spans end-to-end EPC services, O&M capabilities, and the RESCO model, ensuring that we deliver reliable, sustainable, and scalable renewable solutions.
With a solid execution track record, a robust project pipeline, and a growing presence in India's renewable energy landscape, we remain committed to accelerating the clean green energy transition, scaling capacity, and strengthening partnerships and delivering long-term value for our stakeholders. Today's discussion will focus on our recent performance, ongoing projects, strategic initiatives, and growth outlooks. To take us through the updates in detail,
I'm also pleased to announce Dr. Alok Das, who is our Group CEO. Dr. Alok Das brings extensive leadership and experience in the renewable energy sector, business strategy, and project execution. A senior leader with over 30 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, he brings exceptional track record in the renewable energy sector from giants like Suzlon Energy, Reliance Energy, and NEPC. As Chief Editor of IIT Dhanbad, who has earned his PhD in renewable energy, I will now hand over the podium to Dr. Alok Das.
Hi, good morning, dear investor. I'm glad to be here in front of you. You know, basically, I want to give the preview of where KPI Green is today. You see, basically, now the future is green. Probably you all know that the country is moving towards the Net Zero, and our Prime Minister has given a set target, 500 GW by 2030 and Net Zero by 2070. As of today, there are 205 GW that have been installed, and there's a solar gap of over 300 GW. That means every year, the country should witness about the value addition of 59 GW-60 GW that consist of solar, wind, hybrid, and other things.
So, looking into the trajectory and year-on-year connection, so we are KPI Green in a better position because any project requires three things: number one, resource creation, and number two, project execution and supply. And we are here in a position for all kinds of resource creation and project execution. You know what Siddharth told just now, 4.2 GW in the pipeline. And there are, at the group level, we have a target about 10 GW participation up to 2030. So that means our future path is very clear for the stakeholders, what we want today. And lastly, by whatever the present budget declared, there are also, you know, three positive things happening. Number one, there is a, you know, manufacturing facilities, the PLI scheme under Make in India Initiative. Number two, there's the export possibility.
Number three, Green Corridor creation, what is infrastructure development, laying transmission line, and other things. We are all there to create every kind of support on behalf of KPI Green. In a nutshell, today we are doing solar, we are doing wind, we are doing, you know, this hybridization, and also in the future, we are also adding some more, you know, verticals. So from time to time, we'll let you know what kind of KPI Green is venturing into. So with this trajectory, we are all positive, and in a nutshell, the future is very much green. With this, let us start our discussion today and for all kinds of deliberation with you, and we can give you all of your queries. Thank you very much.
Now I'll hand over the call to Mr. Salim Yahoo, CFO at KPI Green Energy.
Thank you, Siddharth. Thank you, Dr. Alok. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for KPI Green Energy Limited investor con call. I'm Salim Yahoo, the Chief Financial Officer of KPI Green Energy Limited, and it is my pleasure to present the financial performance and key highlights of our company for the quarter ended and for the nine months ended December 31, 2024. We are proud to report another outstanding quarter marking record-breaking results as we continue to achieve our highest-ever turnover for the third consecutive quarter.
This consistent growth underscores our strong market positioning, strategic execution, and operational efficiency. Over the past quarters, we have delivered strong results with total revenue of INR 466.1 crores, a super 40.6% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Our EBITDA for quarter three reached INR 144.54 crores, reflecting a 38% year-on-year growth, while our profit before tax surged INR 114.94 crores, marking an increase of over 60%.
Most impressively, our profit after tax climbed INR 85.15 crores, up by 68.26% compared to the previous year quarter. These figures underscore the effectiveness of our operational execution and strategic financial plan. Expanding our focuses to the nine-month performance, we have truly set a new benchmark. Our total revenue for the nine-month period has reached INR 1,177.35 crores, representing a 59.5% increase over the INR 737 crores in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, and let me highlight that what we have done in the previous fiscal year, the entire full year, we have surpassed that also. This robust performance is further highlighted by our EBITDA, which grew INR 411.44 crores, an impressive increase of 66% that already surpassed the full-year EBITDA again for FY 2023-2024.
Our profit before tax for the nine months stood at 302.2 crores, a significant 93% increase from the last year, while our profit after tax reached 221.1 crores, reflecting an 86% growth over the previous period. So in short, we have surpassed all our previous financial year figures in all the parameters, whether it is top line or the profitability. In quarter three alone, we have secured major contracts with Coal India Limited for a 300-MW AC ground-mounted solar PV project, reaffirming our leadership in large-scale renewable energy projects. As you are aware that we have entered Maharashtra through the biggest Mahagenco project which we have taken, so we have also started our execution in Maharashtra with a 100-MW AC solar project. And further, we have expanded our renewable portfolio through strategic MOUs with the Government of Rajasthan and Odisha.
Notably, our flagship project, 240-MW DC solar project at Khavda in Gujarat, is progressing ahead of schedule, which is a trademark that we always try to close our project before the schedule that is given to us. This shows that our integrated advanced technologies are contributing to the local employment that we always keep in our minds. On the operational side, as of January 15, 2025, installed capacity has grown to over 533 MW, supported by a strong order book of 2,869 MW, that is 2.86 GW, with a power evacuation capacity of 2.59 GW and a land bank exceeding 4,180 acres. We are well-positioned to capitalize our future opportunities and drive our expansion in the renewable energy space. Our performance in both quarter three and nine-month period reflects our commitment to excellence and our strategic focus on sustainable growth.
We continue to build on our strong foundation by optimizing our operations, expanding our project portfolio, and entering new markets, all while delivering increasing value to our investors. With this, I thank you all for your continued trust and support, and now open the platform for questions and answers. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchscreen telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question queue, you may press star and two. Participants, I request that you use handsets while asking your question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Garvit Goyal from Invasset LLP. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, you're audible.
Good morning, sir. Congrats for a decent set of numbers. I have three questions. One is on our IPP segment. In this segment, I was looking at your PPT, and what I found is both installed capacity and OIH number for this particular segment are similar to last quarter. So is there any specific reason for it? And if yes, can you please help us to understand, like, why are we facing any challenges in this particular segment?
So, if I correctly understand your question, you are saying the installed capacity in the last quarter and this quarter were the same, right?
Order in hand also for IPP segment.
So IPP segment, we have already taken. You need to understand, in IPP, we have to invest our own capital and set up the plant and sell the power. So that is our IPP segment. So in IPP segment, we already have sufficient order book on the IPP side, and for which we have tied up with the bankers and the financial institutions for the debt capital which is required. Now, we cannot. We have a lot of inquiries where we want to do IPP, but we have to keep in mind our leverage, and we have to keep in mind our repaying capacity, all those our rating and everything and then. So that's the reason we have enough book right now for IPP.
Once we see that, you know, this book starts getting executed and completed to a certain limit, then we will start adding more and more IPP. That's why IPP, we have taken approximately 1.3 GW from GUVNL itself. So that we will start working on that, where we have already started working on the first 50 MW, then 370. So once we start moving progress in that, then we will add up more IPP.
We are not facing any challenges in execution, right?
Not at all, not at all. In fact, we are welcomed by the institutions and by the customers also to add more and more IPP.
Understood. And second thing is just a clarification on this year's guidance. Like, in the last con call, you mentioned 60%-70% at least revenue growth for this particular year. But in recent interview, Faruk sir has given a number of 50%-60%. So, what is the right number for this year, sir? And years going ahead, I said.
Yeah, so I said 60 to 70 in the last, and Faruk said 50 to 60, so both have 60 common. You can take 60 as a common factor both.
Minimum guidance.
Minimum.
Okay. So, thirdly, on, like, looking at the geopolitical tensions, and we all know that we are having our own plants in India, and our customer base is also based out of India. So we are having no connection as far as revenue is concerned with the rest of the world. But looking at the supply chain things, like, are we facing any issues related to supply chain that may impact our margins going ahead, or a shortage of the components that we use in our project execution or anything like that, sir?
We do a well planning before even taking the orders for the CPP side. And on the IPP side, if there is an increase in the module cost or anything, the tender gives sufficient space for increase in the, you know, what we say, the rate also, equivalent. So that is also mentioned. So I don't think we will face any problems on the supply chain side also. As far as the, you know, execution is concerned, we are well geared up for executing those. And supply chain, we take care of that. We do a proper planning for that. So I don't think we neither the price will impact us, neither the availability will impact us.
Sir, this quarter our margins showed a dip, Q1, Q2 basis. What is the specific reason for it, and what is the guidance for the rest of the year and years coming ahead?
Right. If you see the EBITDA margin has, you know, gone a little bit lower compared to the previous quarter. The reason is that if you see trend in the previous quarter, that's when the seasonality, the rainy season is there. So in this quarter, a lot of our billing is on the service side, which includes less of material and some components like lightning, you know, land collection, and all those things are done. So we do a lot of billing on that side. So in that thing, the margins are a little bit higher because there is no what we say co material component in that much. So that's why it is, and automatically this quarter we have done a lot of material purchase. So again, you'll find a little bit shrinking that. So it's a seasonality factor.
It's not something that the margins have gone down. It is just that you see the trend of last year also. You'll find similar. If you see last year, we had around 33%-34% in the second quarter and third quarter against 30%-31% against something like that. So it will be a small dip because of the way the billing is happening. It's a milestone billing that we do.
Understood, sir. That's it from my side, sir. All the best for the future. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Garvit.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rachit from PINC Wealth. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, Rachit. Good morning.
Hi, sir. Good morning. Congratulations for the great numbers.
Thank you, Rachit. Thanks.
So my first question is that, what is a portfolio PLF as on 31st December?
In IPP sector?
Yeah, yeah. Plant load factor.
Yeah . I'll tell you. See, in IPP, we have two kinds of plants. One is fixed in the solar side, and another is tracker-based. Okay? Because when we started long back at the time, fixed was something which was in fixed. So we have done. So some portfolio is fixed. On the fixed, we have around 18%-18% of PLF on an average. On the tracker-based, you'll find we have at least 23%-24% kind of, depending upon the location and everything. And as far as the wind portfolio, we have hybrid also. So the wind itself will give you 34%-35% of PLF, the wind component.
Sir, what is this tracker-based? Like, can you explain this?
So, there are two types of, you know, what we say the solar plant. One is fixed that, you know, it has a tilt which is fixed. The panel doesn't move. And one is tracker-based. It is run by a motor which tracks the sun and always remains perpendicular to the sun. So the generation is higher because the panels are always perpendicular or direct in parallel to the sun. So it gives a better quality. So it keeps on moving. It's a moving and it's a non-moving, you can say, in a simple language.
Sir, then currently, out of 171 MW, which we have solar installation capacity, so can you, like, tell how much will be tracker-based and how much will be the fixed?
I think you can say, In terms of...
Yeah, installation megawatt.
75-25. Yeah. At present, it's 75-25.
75 is fixed and 25 is tracker-based.
75% fixed and 25% would be the tracker-based.
Okay. And sir, like last year, we generated, let's say, 21.3 crore units kWh. So what will be their PLF? What will be the PLF of that, because since this year, we must have added, so on an average, you know, PLF might have come down, portfolio PLF, because we added some. So if I see the...
Is.
Sorry?
To find the exact PLF, it is difficult to arrive at an exact PLF of all these 21,000 crore units. The reason is that we have different plants. We have a hybrid plant. We have a tracker plant. We have a fixed plant. So all will have a different, different PLF. So now you have to calculate a weighted average and everything. It will not give you a, you know, a picture which you can decide on anything. But believe me, all the three plants are giving one of the best PLF that we have.
Okay. Sir, what will be our unit realization? What will be our realization in IPP, blended as on today?
See, as on today, I have approximately INR 6+ kind of a realization. That is at the gross level.
Gross level. And net level, sir?
So, sorry, I'm saying net, that is at a net level INR 6. You think gross will go around 7+ something. Sometimes it goes up to 8 also. There also, you know, you have different, different factors. So if it is not utilized, then we get APPC rate also, and we also get the customer's minimum utilization rate. So it's a different, you know, calculation that has to be done.
Okay. And, sir, going forward, like, since, you know, a lot of capacity is coming under IPP also, so going forward, do we believe that, that realization will be the same or we'll see some dip in realization?
See, going forward, what we have, we are setting up the IPP now for GUVNL, where the rates are fixed, so on an average, I get INR 3+ kind of a, INR 3 kind of a rate for the GUVNL project, and the GUVNL projects are bigger, so if I look at the entire portfolio, which I am getting INR 6 or on today for my existing portfolio, if I combine both of them, I would reach at around 4 or 4.5. Because then the INR 3 also will play fixed. But believe me, my IRR won't reduce, because the plant that we are setting now are at a lower cost compared to one which we have set earlier, so automatically, my IRR is better, and the earlier plants all are debt-free, so that revenue is, you know, free cash flows for now.
Okay. Sir, this INR 3 per unit will be like, then we don't have to pay any transmission charges, nothing. It will be like pure net. So government will bear it, like transmission loss and all, right?
Yes. It will be pure net, and it is signed with GUVNL, one of the best paymasters. So all payments will come mostly in advance also.
Okay. And sir, like, second question is that, you know, recently we have been seeing there is an anti-dumping provisional duty on glass. So do we see that going forward that solar module price will rise and that might impact in our EPC contract as well as in IPP?
See, in the IPP, as I just highlighted on one of the questions earlier also that in the tender itself, there is a clause which allows you to increase the price of the rate depending upon the change in the prices of the module. So through that, the rate will automatically, so I'm not going to get hit by the change in the module prices. Because ultimately, the glass price will increase the module price. So, that is there we are safeguarded on the IPP side. On the CPP side, we always, you know, do back-to-back tie-ups with the module manufacturer whenever we book an order and everything. So that is, that also mitigates to some extent my risk on the CPP side also.
And sir, just last question is that, you know, we are looking to different geographies now, Odisha and, you know, and Rajasthan. So like, since Gujarat, you know, we had a, like, good hold, like, you know, in terms of land acquisitions, in terms of finding lands, and, you know, setting up the plant. So like, like going now out of geography, like going to other geographies, you know, where we'll be like starting from scratch. So do you see, like, like what are the, what do you that do we find any land-related challenges, you know, to set up the plant or to do any CPP product, like, you know, what we have been able to do well in Gujarat?
Yeah. So, as I told you that, I mean, in Maharashtra, we have already started execution. Okay? So Maharashtra, we have already acquired land, majority of the land has been acquired. See, over a period of time, we have learned all the expertise. We have all the expertise now with respect to the acquisition of land, with respect to the ROWs. And I understand there will also be a challenge, but we will face the challenge because we have that experience how to resolve ROWs and land issues and everything. At present, as you know, as it is told that, you know, 4,000+ acre of land bank is there in KPI itself. And the group company level, you can count it is, it will go more than 10,000 acres. So, that expertise, that team has that expertise, and there is a strong team which looks after all these things.
We take support from the locals also when we go to any states and everything. So local tie-up will also be there. So we'll try all our expertise and we'll rope in the locals to get these issues also resolved. Because if you have to grow, you have to expand to different territories. Not only in different states, but mostly we will be going internationally also very soon.
Sir, any strong order inflows we are seeing in CPP segment or EPC segment?
So as I told you, you know, CIL is already on the book. We'll be signing the final contract with them. We are bidding for all the new upcoming orders also, like there are upcoming orders from SJVN and other players. So, you know, this is the boom time for renewable energy, and we'd like to, you know, make hay when the sun shines. So we believe in that. So we will surely expand on the CPP side. On the IPP side, as I told you, we have already taken. Once we start progress in this particular order to an extent, we'll again start adding more room and more IPP. Smaller IPP will keep on adding, but a bigger one will shortly, once we show progress in this particular.
Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as management is able to address questions to all the participants in the conference, please limit your question to two questions per participant. Do you have a follow-up question? We request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Rajat Gupta, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yes, Rajat.
Hello? Am I audible?
Yes, Rajat, you're audible.
Yes, sir. Congratulations on the fine set of numbers.
Thank you, Rajat.
Overall, macroeconomics, with the new U.S. president assuming the office and the overall tariff war going on, I want to know, if, if it is going to impact our business, in any way? I mean, I understand.
You need to understand. Let me just explain.[crosstalk]
-through the last.
Your voice is cracking. I mean, Rajat, we lost you. Hello? Moderator, can you just ask Rajat to repeat that?
Mr. Rajat, can you repeat it?
[audio distortion] Yes, yes, yes. You know, U.S. president assuming the...[audio distortion]
Line is not clear. Can you just rejoin the queue? This participant left the queue and moved to the next. The next question is from the line of Aman Soni from N vest Analytics Advisory. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yes, Aman.
Sir, I missed on that CPP part, like how we are protected on margin side in CPP segment?
Yeah, on the CPP segment, I mean, profitability margin at EBITDA level would be around 20%, a little bit here and there. 20% at EBITDA level. CPP margins will be there.
No, you mentioned we are protected, on that particular side for metal prices.
So, what? Let's say there are two ways. You know, we mitigate the fluctuation in raw metal price rise. One is by the moment we, you know, decide to take an order, we back-to-back, you know, sign a contract or we confirm with our panel manufacturers or turbine suppliers, and we hedge that pricing accordingly.
Got it, sir. So that means it's our internal department which is hedging the prices, right?
Yes, yes, yes.
Understood, sir. Thank you very much, sir.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hardik Gandhi from HPMG Shares and Securities Limited. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, Hardik, you're audible.
Hi, sir. So thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. So I just wanted to know a few fundamentals about the IPP model. So, if you could help me with the cost of putting up just 1 MW?
So 1 MW, I have a cost, right? Is it fixed or it will be a tracker-based?
Just a tracker-based since that's more efficient for you guys. So I'm assuming you would put, you would be putting up that one.
Okay. It goes from, you can say that depending upon the customization, depending upon the size of land and everything, the design, it might go from 3.25 to 3.85, 3.95 also. Depending upon how the land is. If it is straight land, it will be less costly. If it is, you know, land which is not totally straight, then it will be a little bit costly up there because then every row will have a different structure and you have to put a tracker for every row and this.
Yeah, I'm here. I'm very helpful. It's a pure technical question you asked. It's basically what happened, based on the land that's identified. We have to see what is the transmission line up to the local power evacuation center we call transmission. So that distance matters and the land where it is situated and transmission line and all. Based on this, our transmission cost and adding to the tariffs will be added. So what Salim was telling, it varies. That variability factor depends on the exact site which is coming up for the project execution.
Understood, understood. Sir, and what would be a good payback period for the IPP projects which we are taking up since we are purchasing the land also? Along with that, we are putting, I'm assuming, the INR 3.5 crore approx cost, depending, is excluded the land also, right?
We are taking all land on lease only. So we are not investing in land, per se. But, you know, the payback period ranges from seven to eight months, seven to eight years, for IPP projects.
Okay, and so what is the actual useful life? I know there's, I've read it online that the useful life of a solar module, even the latest technology, they mention it as a 20-year frame. But in reality, it's somewhat different, so what would be an actual useful life of a panel?
See, the APPC says there is a lot of simulation which is done on the panel, you know. They have our machines which test the simulations and everything. Because at present, I don't think, Dr. Alok, there is any plant which has passed 25 years, right?
It's a single-plane landscape, solar industries, which was first installed in the commercial scale setting of Gujarat. 20 years generally is the design life. So after the design life, based on the depreciation of the panel, so we have to just see that or that survival, whatever this thing. So not a single panel crossed two decades as in your design life.
So it is ongoing on. This is for the solar part. But generally, government is also very clear, you know. Suppose after 20 years or 25 years PPA raise, so they want to see the healthiness of the collectors, of the solar panel as well as the wind machine. Based on that healthiness, they will recertify for next couple of, you know, whatever the residual time, they generally permit. So that is the trajectory fate for wind industry. Solar, because it is not crossed yet. Obviously, time will tell us how to deal with it.
Understood, sir. Understood. So since you mentioned there's a long eight-year payback period and along with that, the asset keeps on depreciating and since we don't know, so is there a possibility that, you know, that just in the sixth or seventh year, there's a drastic reduction in the output of the solar panels?
No, I, I don't think so. There is a linear degradation which happens on the panel which is tested and which is at the end. That's why I told you, there are a lot of simulations which are done on the panel and that's the reason they give a warranty of 20-25 years kind of a warranty, and eight years is a very small period for the panel to, you know, have a drastic change or something. Usually they don't because we have, you know, panels which are set up six years back and they are still generating, you know, the kind of a PLF that we expected.
What kind of PLF would be, just on an approx basis post eight years if you have that number?
As I told you, you know, okay, that what we are getting is, on the fixed, we are getting 18%.
18%.
Which has been for six years.
Yes.
Which is one of the best in the industry, I can tell you.
Okay. And if for a brand new one, what is the PLF? Just in order to compare.
I told you the linear degradation is a brand new also. I mean, it depends upon brand new might be some couple of points, you know, bits more. The degradation happens, it's very small degradation that happens over a period.
So you mentioned 80%, eight zero. Is that correct? Or no?
18, 18% is the PLF. One eight, 18% PLF.
One eight, one eight. Yeah. Okay. Understood. Thank you. That's all from my side. Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kush Banaf [Uncertain] from Banaf Wealth Finance[uncerain]. Please go ahead.
Sir, am I audible?
Yes, you're audible, Kush[Uncertain].
Many congratulations to Faruk, sir, you, and the entire KPI group for a fantastic set of results and always walking the talk. I had a couple of questions, sir. First was, any plans, to reduce the pledging and also to get into, positive, operating cash flow?
Yes, see, pledging, let me be clear on this. This pledging is a collateral. We have given a collateral long back even before the listing of the company. We had given collateral when we had taken funds from PFC, Power Finance Corporation. So it was a collateral which is still there. There is no fund raised through pledging of shares. Let us be clear on that. There's a lot of rumors both in the market which people say that since the prices have gone down, the banks are selling because of pledging. Let us not get into those rumors because a lot of people don't have, don't understand the business and they start spreading rumors. So pledging, we have already given a letter to SBI. Now those loans are with SBI.
So SBI has already shown a positive and they said that they will start releasing this pledge in a, you know, peaceful manner. Slowly, slowly they will start releasing. So that proposal is already in discussion with State Bank of India for the release of the pledge.
Right, sir. Regarding operating cash flow?
Cash flow, see, cash flow will be positive. And, if you see, I mean, this quarter, we don't see the balance sheet. So next quarter you'll surely see cash flow positive. I think last year also cash flow were positive only.
Right, right, sir. Right, sir. And I wanted to know, sir, if there is any government policy which can have an adverse effect which we should be wary about?
See, at present there is no such government policy. I think if, you know, all the policies are pro renewable energy. You have seen a lot of, in fact, in latest budget also they have shown, you know, inclination toward increasing the renewable energy. And, as we all know, our honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, sir, is also very keen to increase the renewable energy portfolio in India and want to project to the world that India is one of the leading players when it comes to renewable energy and reducing carbon emission. So I...
So I want to add in here, you see, now this our, this renewable energy, the formation of policy, now the country is telling about one country, one grid. That means what? If you have a project in one state, you can take the power to other state also. So that type of facility is being created by the government so that suppose let's say for Rajasthan there's a lot of solar and Tamil Nadu there's a lot of wind. So how does the wind and solar can be transferred to another, state like Odisha? So that type of situation is coming to the green corridor. So that is why I've been telling you the, you know, opening speech, it is a future is very green. So what Salim is telling, emphasizing on that point only. So may not be audible for that. Yeah. Right, sir. Thank you.
One final question, sir. I noticed that in the last three months the pace of land acquisition has increased from September to December quarter. How do you plan on this land acquisition, the speed of it? Is it as per the future contracts which are coming or you just keep collecting and then you bid for contracts?
So see, we have Dr. Faruk Patel, our CMD, Chairman and Managing Director, has a vision of till 2030 and we have those plans set up. So this all mathematical calculation is done by our CMD, sir. And accordingly he gives us guidance that, you know, how much land will be required when. So it is, it is not a gut feeling or something. It is a mathematical calculation done by him and he decides, and he guides us through that. And accordingly we work on that and that's the reason you have seen such a growth. And the land bank, as you know, the order book is there. So naturally the land bank will, we don't want to create land bank as a hurdle. So we are, of the resources also land bank or evacuation, everything is tied up accordingly to the order books.
Similarly, we, you know, bid for the orders also depending upon the availability of resources also. All this guidance is done by Dr. Faruk Patel and he himself guides the entire team for all this resource allocations.
Right. Thanks a lot, sir, and all the best, sir, for the future.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akhilesh Kumar . Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you for giving the opportunity. My first question is regarding our IPP projects where we do PPA for 25 years, mostly with GUVNL and, and I think, NTPC as well. How strong those PPAs are they? Like say tomorrow if merchant prices come down and the generation cost comes down, do they have provisions for canceling out our PPA with some certain notice? How we are placed for that kind of thing?
Sir, PPAs are not canceled. These are long-term PPAs signed by the institution, state government institution. These are power institutions. Secondly, I would also say that the prices, you know, the parity has come into the solar per unit prices. So if you see that PPA prices, I don't think they will go further down.
This will be some, you know, the price which is feasible for the operator, for the developer and for the institutions or the discoms also. So this is a win-win situation because any business to prosper, there should always be a win-win situation for the customer and for the seller also. So accordingly I think this is the right prices which will not go further down. But nevertheless, there is no such condition in the PPA which says that we can cancel it. Until and unless there is a, we keep on supplying them the power and required and committed to this.
Okay. Thank you. One more question I have is, we did a couple of times QIPs and both times we have noticed that the, I think we have done road shows and management might have impacted a lot of investors and I think they were very well-known, FIIs. But I don't able to understand why they keep dumping immediately after getting allotted. You might be in touch with them, like say Morgan Stanley and all. They get allotted in August, they start dumping in September itself in the last. What may be the rationale? I am not sure like you are the right person, but yeah.
No, I, I'll tell you, see, we keep on doing calls with them, you know, quarterly calls, every call when they do, we do with a lot of bigger players whether it's Morgan Stanley whether it is other bigger players also. Now you need to understand the international, you know, the sentiments of the sector also. As somebody was asking about the U.S. and everything. So they, sometimes they have that mandate that, you know, this particular sector we will not increase or we will try to exit, we'll try to exit this sector. So internationally there are different, these institutions have different their own calculation on the sectors and everything or depending on that.
But I would like to highlight over here that KPI Green is not a manufacturer of panels because if you see a lot of bigger players which have hit, like majority of them which are hit are the manufacturers. We are developers. We develop and majority of our contracts are within India at present also. So there is no impact on our, we have seen our results. We have given a superb result and, if you see, you know, the, compared to other players, we have recovered, what price we fell down also because of those, by sellouts. We have recovered that also and we will surely. But it is a sentiment you cannot because as we all know the market is, you know, depending upon the supply and demand. So if somebody demands automatically once they are, out then automatically other people also will, buy.
So we still have a lot of bigger players like Vanguard which is one of the international biggest investors. We have. I still have a question with Morgan Stanley. We have other bigger players which are far more bigger than the people who have dumped also. So they have entered because they understand the decision and they have entered into that.
Okay. That sounds great. I think that is excessively like unrelated thing people are putting to the KPI, which we are totally domestic oriented and nothing related to that U.S. activity.
One more last
Yeah. Last thing, as we are presenting that we are well ahead of time for that IPP project for 200 MW of GUVNL. So can we expect that thing to be happening in March itself this quarter? Like, if we are ahead?
So we are quite ahead of that, you know, depending upon the, you know, the work progress. We will try to majority of the portion will be completed by March. Majority of the portion. There might be some because, you know, what the, the government, the substation, the GSS what we call it the government substation, that is in the scope of the GUVNL or the government institution. And it happened first time ever it has happened that, you know, we have completed the project and they are still struggling with the substation. So automatically the clause says in the PPA that if they are not completing, they will have to pay us without taking the power also. They have to pay us because our plant is ready. So we are in a win-win situation over here also.
Oh, okay. That is great. And the plant will be, like say, deemed operational only when we have the entire 200 MW energized, or it will be in phases?
The plant will be 240 MW AC. It will be energized, depending upon the phase also. There might be some, depending upon the GSS again, I am telling, the GSS. But we will complete the plant before, you know, we'll try. Majority of the plant will come completed before March.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks a lot, congratulations for the great performance, and wish you thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thanks, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please limit your questions to two questions per participant. Do you have follow-up questions? Please request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Ashish Rampuria from family office. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Ashish. Hw are you?
I'm good. How are you?
I'm good. I'm good.
No, so I think congrats once again. [crosstalk] Congrats once again for the wonderful performance. Let me ask a couple of questions. This land bank that we show is the land bank which is free for us to put plants or it includes the land bank where we already installed our solar plants?
No, no, no. So, so, this land bank includes everything what we have installed also. But installed is not too much. You'll still have a majority portion is available for us. And land bank is something which we keep on adding. You know, it's a real-time exercise. We keep on adding as and when because these are not one land parcel. These are multiple land parcels which have taken over a period of time. So we keep on adding and that is one of the key USP of KP Group that, as I told earlier also in the guidance of Dr. Faruk Patel, that we keep on adding these resources so that it are we have them ready for use whenever the need arises.
So out of this 4,000 acres, right, what percentage would be today free to be deployed or not used at this point in time?
So basically 2,000 acres you are approximately. I think 2,000 acres would be utilized and 2,000 acres which is yet to be utilized. And we are adding more and more. So you'll see a rampant growth in the availability of land banks because we are taking big, big projects. So we'll keep on adding at a faster pace.
Got it. This MOU we have done with Rajasthan government and Odisha government, can you throw some light in terms of the capacity we are talking about? Is it IPP, CPP, what time duration and so on and so forth?
Yeah, I will. Basically we have first signed an MOU with Rajasthan government with an intention, because Rajasthan government, we want to go for local, small and medium scale that industry, those who need power and local employment generation. So we have done that whatever the local subsidy available, we have requested government to list down all the land availability. Generally in Rajasthan, government revenue lands are available on a lease basis and local subsidy where I can fit in the power. So we have during our MOU and followed by two, three meetings with the government body. So they said that, okay, we are under study and give it to us. And once we get the power evacuation and land facilities, we want to ensure some other facilities also to be inserted. We have already created one of our establishments in Jaipur already.
We want to create this job by maybe next three to six months. And not only that, what are the progresses happening? CMD office is regularly following with us. What are the development? What kind of support is required? So that means the willingness of the government, political will is also there and followed by our on a fortnightly or monthly basis follow-up. We are going ahead for our target. We have signed almost, you know, 500 MW kind of wind solar at the beginning and followed by that is to be escalated. So these are jobs that are going on as far as Rajasthan is concerned. Odisha recently we have signed, so we have also done the similar kind of approach for wind and solar and some power other technology. So we have requested at least 1,500 MW kind of solar potential. That's it.
So they are also that GRIDCO, which is a local body. They said that we want to call in after their Utkarsh Odisha happened recently. So they will call upon, I mean all sort of investors to sign the MOU and they will give us the resource where it is available. So accordingly we will plan for the state of Odisha also in the similar way what you are planning for Rajasthan.
This will be CPP or IPP for each of the states, Rajasthan and Odisha?
Both.
That's a true combination of both. Okay. Understood.
Yeah.
I also see that we have marked out Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, right, in the PPP that we every day use, in that light blue color, right? So where are we on that? Is it something that is already happening in those states or that is a work in progress?
Yeah. At present, you know, still we finalize everything. We'll not be able to disclose on that. But yes, we are venturing into those states also.
Oh, understood. And something you also mentioned about that soon you'll hear about international. Any pillar that you want to share right now or should we wait for your disclosure?
I think it's better to wait. It will give you a surprise on that.
Sure. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it and wish you all the best.
Thank you. Thank you, Ashish. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subhir Bheda from Bheda Family Office. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Subhirji.
Morning. How are you, sir?
I'm fine. I'm fine, sir. Good evening.
Congratulations on the solid set of numbers. Sir, just one question. So see, we are growing at, say, 100% on top line, maybe a little less than, I would say, 70%-80% on the bottom line since last three years. So now I just want to ask whether there are enough opportunities for next two, three years that we can show good growth on a higher base. So just wanted to know the opportunities in next couple of years so that, you know, our growth momentum can continue with this kind of growth we can continue.
Right. So, on the opportunity side, you can, you are able to see that in the market itself there is a lot of boom for the renewable energy. And, there are multiple tenders, multiple orders from the government institution, from private, conglomerates, from private players, individual, MSMEs, you know, mid-corporate kind of companies also. Everybody wants to go for renewable energy. So there are a lot of opportunities. It's only that, how much to take and how much to because we believe that, you know, just taking opportunity is not important, but executing them before time or on time is an important part. And KP is known for that. So we are cautiously, you know, treading into that.
As far as opportunity concerns, believe me, I mean we can get double or triple of this order book also if we keep you know, you know, more and more bidding and if we go to the market with full force. So we are cautiously treading that we have to execute also. So from that point of view, we are a player who will keep up to the commitment and will execute. On the IPP side also, I told earlier that you know, it's a decision of also on the leveraging because IPP will require capital. So we cautiously do over there also. But I think the growth will continue with the opportunity that we have taken. We have taken the opportunity thinking that we will keep on maintaining the growth level that we have committed to the market.
Great. Great. That is a nice, so nice to hear. So all the best, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you for your support.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vaibhav Lodha from commercial flight movers[uncertain]. Please go ahead.
Okay. So thank you for the opportunity. I wanted to understand two things. So, so firstly, when we are tendering for the newer CPP projects, are we facing any margin, margin issues over there?
See, margin is a factor of various, you know, input that we take, you know, whether it is execution. We have expertise in execution. We have expertise because we have our own plants. We are doing it for, again, we have, you know, you can say a little bit, our group company supplying us the infrastructure which is on a timely basis. And again, so, as you have seen that, and the margin has always been, I mean, on the CPP side, there will be other players also.
But also the market looks at who is the player who will give me a long-term commitment, who is a player who will maintain the quality, who is a player who is capable of executing within the timeline that is committed. There we stand, you know, differently compared to other players. And that's where, that's the reason you are seeing that we might be pricing higher, but people are still coming to us because of our ability to execute, because of the resources that we have, because evacuation, we also provide evacuation. We also provide land sublease. So from that point of view, we stand aside and we are able to maintain the margins in that.
Okay. Great. And so as we are going forward, like, more portion of our revenue will be from IPP segment. What type of PAT margins can we expect at blended levels for FY 26 and going ahead?
PAT margin will be able to maintain the PAT margin because our business is a combination of CPP and IPP. I can tell you that going forward, our IPP component, which at present I think is 13%, and 17%. 13% is IPP this quarter and 17% is the CPP, which we plan to take it to the level of 22%-21% kind of going forward. So automatically once my CPP increases, both of them, so we will be able to maintain the margin.
Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you, sir.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mitesh Vora[Uncertain]. I'm an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. So thanks for the opportunity. I wanted to ask regarding the pledging that the earlier person told regarding the pledging. Do we see that all the pledging would be removed? And also, what is the pledging percentage currently? And the second question is regarding. I know there is a separate subsidiary, KP Green Hydrogen, but do we also plan to take the orders for the hydrogen as well as the orders for biogas coming to us? Yeah.
Fine. I think pledging question I already answered that this is not a pledge for raising fund. It is just a collateral given, and that was given in long back in 2019, 2020 when our first plant was setting up and Power Finance Corporation at that time wanted a little bit comfort because we were a small player at that time. And the same pledge is being carried on till now by SBI because that loan is already paid and also, but SBI is giving new loans and they are but we have already given a letter and we have approached SBI also and they have given a positive response that they will start releasing the pledge also. So at present, you know, the pledge that is there, I think it's 45% of what Faruk's total share is.
So it would be around, on the total pledge, it would be around 21%-22%. But this is again, I'm highlighting people are getting that, you know, this pledge is not for fundraise. It was earlier given and it is just a collateral. So the price of the share wi20ll not because the loan that we have from SBI at present is around INR 400 crores for the new solar project. And the amount of pledge you can understand is around 3,000 crores-4,000 crores of that. So there is no, you know, margin issue or anything with the promoters which are going into the market.
Yeah, and the second question regarding the hydrogen. Thanks.
On the hydrogen, yes, you will again see a surprise on the hydrogen side. We'll be shortly, I mean, giving you a smaller plant we will be setting up. We'll be building the prototype and everything. But we are coming very strong in the hydrogen space also. I mean, you, I request you to keep watching KP for the hydrogen space also. There is a lot of surprises on the hydrogen space because the vision of our Dr. Faruk Patel, our CMD chairman, is that, you know, if there is a new technology, if there is a thing, I, KP has to be there in that particular, you know, segment also, and we are keen on increasing that. So we have a lot of things, but right now we have kept them undercover because we would like to give surprise to the market also.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajat Gupta. I'm an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hello.
Yeah, Rajat.
Yeah, Rajat.
Yes, congratulations on the wonderful set of numbers.
Yes, Rajat.
So my question is regarding the growth trajectory. I mean, last week, in the December quarter of 2023, we have shown similar set of increase in revenue and.
Your voice is cracking, Rajat, again. What is, is there any issue from our side or it is from Rajat's side? I'm not able to.
Am I audible now?
Rajat, Rajat's side.
Yes, you're audible, Rajat. Yeah.
Yes. We have shown improvement in December quarter in 2023.
Yes.
And later than our EBITDA and revenue fall in March quarter. So is that any seasonal factor affecting?
No, no. And I explained this particular question that you need to understand that we do billing on the milestone basis. And some milestones are there where the service component is built. And mostly these components are built in the middle of the where there is a slack period where the materials or anything take a slack. So in those milestones, we put the service component as billing is done. So automatically you can see that the EBITDA during that portion, that is, you know, the second quarter usually goes up, then it tapers down to third and fourth. So there is no pressure on the EBITDA. It's just the cyclicality. If you see the trend, it has always been a little bit cyclical on that second quarter and then taper down in third and fourth quarter because majority billing then is done in the fourth quarter.
Similar challenges in upcoming quarter due to the same problem?
So these are not challenges, I would say. This is just a characteristic of the business. It is not a challenge. We know that these are going to taper down there because when we take material component in the billing, so at that time the margin reduces a little and service component, you have a better margin.
But is it, it is going to be the same like the last year, right?
Yes, but you know, our margins will be maintained year on year. If you see, our margins have been maintained and they have been strong. One of the best margin in the industry, you can say still .
Okay. And one other question is regarding the macroeconomy that the U.S. president still doesn't have a very positive attitude toward the renewable energy sector. So is it going to affect our business model considering that our peer competitors might can shift their competition towards our domestic trade?
See, you need to understand the U.S. market major decision will impact the manufacturers. We are not manufacturers. We are developers. We set up the entire plant, and all my contracts at present are within our country. Okay, so there is no direct or indirect link to the U.S. market or anything, but I understand the sentiment is there, and that's why the, you know, the market has got hit.
The sector has been hit. You know, all the players in the sectors have got hit, but we are not linked to the manufacturing of panels or anything. And majorly these people will, you know, the manufacturing panel will get hit or something, so from that point of view, we are very much safeguarded, and that's why we have seen the better result compared to all other players in this quarter also. So I don't think any impact on the U.S. will impact our business or the operations, you know, metrics.
No, sir. Perhaps my question wasn't really clear. My concern was that, hypothetically, if our competitor faced any challenges due to the tariff plan or whatever the U.S. president’s attitudes toward renewable energy, and they might can shift their trade towards competing in the local domestic segment. So is it going to affect our EBITDA margin or trade in any way?
No, no . In fact, if, for example, if one of the panel manufacturer also wants the competition in between will be between the manufacturers. And if the manufacturers, if there is a cutthroat competition in the manufacturers, naturally the prices of the raw material will go down and they will cut down their prices and everything. And it will be benefit for me because I'm a developer. I'm not a manufacturer. So naturally it will be benefit for all the developer if the prices go down. So I see it from different point of view that, you know, if there is a cutthroat competition in the manufacturer and the U.S. impact is on them, they will cut the prices and I will be in the, you know, beneficial, for that particular.
This is number one. Number two I want to add, Salim, today we know that India is really under Make in India initiative, whereby today what is the production capacity in India? In the solar manufacturing capacity over 40 GW-50 GW. That is the target for next 50 years. Today there could be 16 GW-20 GW. What phase we are going today in India market? There is a last year we have completed solar wind both together 23 GW-24 GW.
So under Make in India, under PLI scheme, under target of 500 GW, India is a self-reliant India making their own target. So whatever, the policy, regulatory or tariff imposed by U.S. government, in our opinion in India will be self-sufficient. And what Salim is telling is some manufacturing is facing some tariff issues. Obviously they will be importing that panel here in India. We being a developer, we are not a manufacturer. So we are in the best position to deal with.
Noted, noted, sir, and one more last question regarding the IPP segment. The revenue seems to be started generating as per the PPA after seven, eight years, as you mentioned, so the earlier project we have set up, is that the revenue has started from our earlier project that is being set up under IPP?
No. And what we said, that is not very limited. It's a payback period. Whatever we have invested, that entire payback happens in seven to eight years. After that, it is only the profits you can count out as, right, right? So that earlier projects we have already, as you are aware, that the QIP that we raised on that, we have repaid all our loans and that earlier projects are now just cash generating cash cows for me because there is no debt or anything for or repayment on those earlier projects. So we have cleared all those things and the company is getting a good, you know, unencumbered or untied up cash flows from those projects.
The new project that we are setting up, they have a, you know, what we say the payback period or what we call the breakeven point of seven-to-eight years. That after that, now there's a life is of 20-to-25 years. Automatically, those will also be a very big cash cow as we go forward.
Okay. That's it from my side, sir. Thank you very much and we appreciate the hard work you are doing, sir. Have a nice day.
Thank you. Thank you, Rajat.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Govinda from Natvarlal and Sons Stock Brokers. Please go ahead.
Hello, I'm audible?
Yes, Govinda.
Yeah. Firstly, congrats on a good set of numbers. My question is, I mean, you have, as you said, that you have, good orders in the, IPP, but due to, you know, the Cap, the CapEx amount, you are looking forward for raising the debt. I mean, you have strong cash flows and, I can, you know, see that it, it will be going to sustain. So why don't you execute, you know, start executing now onwards? And what would be the CapEx amount on, each plant in the IPP segment?
We have already started execution. As I told you, you know, one of our solar projects is ahead of schedule. So we'll be energizing on the COD of that plant will be done ahead of schedule. The other plants also, like 50-MW GUVNL, again, we have started the plant. Even before the financial closure, we have invested our own equity and we have started working on that plant also. So, believe me, you know, usually the gestation period or the period for construction given by the PPA is two years from signing the PPAs. We target that we will close it within 12-15 months. So we are ahead in all our execution. There are a lot of things which need to be gathered right from the land to the evacuation substation, evacuation permissions and everything.
Just because we are very much, you know, ahead in collecting the resources, we are able to execute before time, and believe me, all those will be done before time.
Okay. So secondly, I wanted to know that any geographical impact because you are exploring new regions, right? I personally think that Gujarat is one of the hottest states out there. So any, you know, views on that?
See, there is no impact because, see, we are not a new player that's entering the market for the first time. We have been in this industry for more than decades. And, we are the only player which has capability of wind as well as solar. So very few players, you know, very few players have these capabilities and, in development. And we have done a lot of bigger projects, you know, more than, almost three gigawatt of projects we have done overall, in this, industry.
So we have those expertise and I understand there will always be challenges, but we are well prepared for those challenges and we have a good team which includes, ex, GEDA, GETCO, you know, retired IAS officers, IPS officers. They give us guidance and they help us in, you know, facing these challenges. So there will be challenges, but nothing that which cannot be handled there.
Okay. Lastly, may I know the total order book value at present?
It is very difficult to value because orders are different. Like at present, I have more than, you know, 1.8 GW, 2.86 GW of order book which is there, as shown in the presentation. Out of this, there will be orders which are some orders like from conglomerates, like Aditya Birla order which will be without materials like panels and anything. There will be orders without windmills and everything. And there will be orders with windmills, with panels also, like Mahagenco or anything. So exactly, you know, by footnoting them is not because the figure will not tally up with that because every order has a different what we say, calculations for the value. But I can give you MWs as we are showing in the presentation, we have approximately 2.86 GW as of January 15th.
Okay. Any side or, you know, expansion strategy on CPP? Like how, what would be the, you know, cost reduction and what would be the power evacuation grid transmission cost and how that would be, you know, come down as you will grow with the orders in the CPP segment?
As I told earlier, you know, our CMD, Dr. Faruk Patel has always, you know, guided us to leveraging on the latest technology, so we are working on latest technologies for the reduction on the cost also. We have robotic, we have network operation system which is one of the few big players who really have this network operation system and everything. So it helps us also to check which panels give a better generation and everything. All those history is there with us. This helps us to work on a lot of things on acquiring more clients, on reducing the cost, you know, a lot of designing also happens on that. So we are working on that cost reduction and everything, and we play it in the market where while acquiring the new customers, these all things play as a USP of our company.
Okay. Thanks. That's it from my. One more. The CapEx on each plant in the IPP segment?
You mean to say CapEx on each plant? Like, their IPP, we have different plants. We have hybrid plants. We have solar plants.
On an average? On an average, it would be?
See, a hybrid, I mean, if I say around 6-8 for the wind portion, you can say 6-8 per MW for the wind portion. And when it comes to the solar portion, it ranges from 3- 3.75-3.85, depending upon the land and everything. All factors are there. It's not a, it's just a ballpark figure, but exactly depends upon the land and depends upon the evacuation, how far, as Dr. Alok Das has said, told us that, you know, evacuation, all these factors play a role when it comes to the pricing of the IPP also.
Okay, sir. That's it from my side. Thank you so much. Wishing you for your future endeavors.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Agastya Dave from CAO Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yeah, I'm in here. Agastya, sorry. Agastya.
Thank you. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Sir, you have answered most of the questions that I had. One question was, this is the remaining one, probably at the earlier part of last year, mid to early part of last year, a lot of bottlenecks started appearing in the supply chain. So there was shortage for particular ancillary parts. For example, transformers was an issue. There were a number of issues. So how are we placed now? How do you see the supply chain and the supplies of various components that you need for execution? How is that placed as of now?
Yeah . See, as I told you earlier, you know, a lot of planning goes into this. When we set up these plants and everything, we do a thorough planning. We are guided by our Dr. Faruk Patel, our CMD, that, you know, how to manage the supply chain impact and everything. So, you know, we are always proactive when it comes to the execution because we have a target that, you know, we will complete all our execution beforehand. So accordingly, we plan for the supply and we plan for our other components of execution also. And as I told you, you know, on the supply side also, the major portion of supply component which sometimes takes more time is the infrastructure. That is the MMS structure, windmill towers.
Right, right, right.
These are built in-house by our KP Green Engineering, our own factory, so there we have that lever that, you know, we can get it at any time kind of, and that's why this gives us a upper hand compared to our competitors that we can execute projects within timeline or before timeline.
Yeah. I have full faith in your capabilities. My question was slightly different. So let's suppose you get a brand new order today. So how long will you, and you start working on it. So how long will it take for you to execute the entire project? Let's say the project is 100 MWs solar with tracker and you have the land available with you. So with that, how long does it take for you to execute that project?
See, executing, I mean, believe me, I mean, we might, if we go full-fledged and we put all our resources, we can do within, if it is pure solar, it can be done within, you know, 6-8 months also. This is very short period depending upon all other factors. If the evacuation is on the other side. Like if you see Khavda project, we are, again, doing it as a record time period, timeline. And that is also a tracker-based.
Right. Right. So, another thing that you mentioned in one of the answers was that if you want, you can bid for and win 2X the number of orders that you already have on your hands.
Yes.
So, again, sir, in terms of demand going forward, so the execution side is very clear. You have the order book, you have everything planned, and whatever your targets are for the next two to three years, you will execute those. But in terms of further demand, what is the state of the demand? Is it accelerating? Because from where I stand, I see that the renewable side is the biggest source of private sector capex as of now in the country. Every industry is going for it. So is there a let-up in demand or the demand, do you see it continuing at the current pace or do you see an acceleration?
So, I see the demand rather increasing in this space because, you know, a lot of players are entering into it, a lot of benefits. Government's push is more important. You know, in light of, you know, government has started on the renewable. They are also thinking of going into offshore windmill and everything. So, demand I don't think will, you know, reduce or something. In fact, I see it to be increasing going forward because bigger projects are coming and a lot of, because our target, the national target is so big that, you know, we have to accelerate the demand to achieve that target within the timeline specifically.
There was one particular allocation which was made in the budget this year, which saw a substantial jump, and that was the rooftop project that the Prime Minister has been speaking about.
Right.
The government has actually committed a lot of funds in the budget. So, I was just wondering, sir, since you are a large-scale EPC developer, I was just wondering, sir, are you going to be part of that project, the entire program, the loop rooftop solar? I don't remember the name, sir, whatever the permissions given.
Yeah, yeah. See, see, there are two programs. Here, government has been, you know, giving assistance or a subsidy for that. That is for larger solar, that one project, program is there. From that program, we are also setting up, you know, a couple of orders over there. But, we are at KPI, we are basically more on a ground-mounted and a bigger project.
Understood, sir. That is okay. I just wanted to clarify, sir. I just want—so thank you very much for conducting the con call again this quarter. I hope you also do it for KPEL.
Surely, surely. We'll be shortly.
Thank you very much, sir. All the best for the future.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parin Gala from Sage One. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi Parin Gala. Good afternoon. Salim, I wanted to understand that, module price is what percentage of the CapEx per megawatt?
It depends. I mean, around 60% would be the module price.
Okay. I'm just a little curious that module prices over the years have significantly corrected, right? I still wonder if bidding still happens at three, at least the government levels, the IPPs at 310, 315, 325. Why would per unit cost not come down?
Can you repeat the question? I'm not clear. I mean, you want to understand why the prices of the tender are not coming down or why the prices are fixed?
Yes. In the reverse bidding or whatever in the auctions, when the module prices over the last few years have crashed almost 60%-70%, and, you know, in the 2020 time, we have seen NTPC and SECI orders bid at INR 2 also. I understand at that time module prices were high and you would not have been able to make money. But today at that price, that is a possibility. I'm just trying to understand, okay, why the unit prices in the auctions are still at 3-3.5 or whatever it is.
See, 60% of the cost is module cost at the end of the day. Yeah, I understand. I understand. See, when the earlier, if you say there were very less off-takers for those projects, if you see, earlier a lot of tenders were, you know, were not allocated because of the disparity between the module prices and the rate that was raised. Now with the module prices coming down, there are a lot of off-takers have added and they have also, you know, because see, until and as I told you earlier, there should be also win-win situation for the buyer and the seller. So if there is a profitability, only then the people will enter and then the sector will progress. So from that point of view, I think now with the.
I'm sorry, the profitability of the sector is a little too, I mean, too generous, I feel sometimes, the kind of margins that everybody's making, not just our company. The kind of margins are being made, the kind of ROEs that are being made, I think it's more than generous, actually, isn't it?
Naturally, see, because we are creating a differentiation in the market, no? See, there are players who will crash. But until and as I said, a lot of players will take the orders, whether they will execute within time period, whether they will give the same quality, whether they will, you know, use, you know, the same design what they have been wearing. So a lot of factors, you know, drive the margin. We are doing a good margin because of our.
The margin part is less, as I said. I'm just saying, and when there is a lot of competition, you know, there are a lot of bidders for one particular project itself and reverse auction, still the prices are pretty high. I'm just trying to understand that when cost of per megawatt has come down, the unit prices, in fact, instead of going down, have gone up. That is what I'm trying to understand that, logic.
If you see, on average, three to four crore per megawatt is the cost. And the unit prices that government tenders and everything is giving around INR 2.75-INR 3, INR 3, which is in parity, which has been because I know the sector long back when government started the subsidy through JNNSM, Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. So at that time, the cost per MW was 15 crore and the cost per unit was INR 15. Today, they are in parity again. I mean, the cost per megawatt is on 3- 3.5- 4, and the parity is. I mean, that on average, we get INR 3 per unit.
I can hear, seeing like what Salim was telling, if I'm just saying, previously your question was why the reverse auction price is not coming below as because your panel cost is coming reduction, right? That's the opposite question. So now.
No, that is the larger part, which was the biggest part of the CapEx .
Yeah, yeah. So now, today, whatever the reverse auction is coming, based on the developers who are bidding, no? So there are two components. One is panel cost, another for the balance of plant cost. Now, this balance of plant cost, previously, whatever the BOP cost was there today, because of the competition, BOP component price is going high. So that is what all the bidders, those who are bidding in a sustainable manner, on a levelized cost manner, so they are coming on a, in a reverse auction, you can see it is coming to 3-3.1 to something in that range.
Correct.
So that is coming to on a levelized cost. If it is coming certain kind of fixed that every year where you are telling the name of the NTPC and all, so they need certain firm power. Obviously, you have to plan in your system design. So that is why that rate is coming over INR 4 as a reverse auction, something like that. So the costing is coming based on because life cycle basically you have to come with the power, kind of, firm power you have to give. So that is what that, costing which is coming previously, B component is coming high, even the A component little, you know, reduction with the value addition. So that is what, it is coming towards the APPC value.
And if it is not coming to the levelized cost nearing to that APPC value of a, you know, the distribution company, so that is to be approved by regulator. So regulator also sees that why the prices should not cross beyond the APPC value. So that is why it is coming in between 3 to 3 and 3.25, something like that.
Sir, is cost of land a major component for, the cost being high also?
What? Sorry, which one?
Cost of land.
Cost of?
Cost of land.
Land is on lease. We are taking land on lease.
Yeah, it is on lease, but even lease prices are higher, right?
No, so private, I mean, it still, I don't think it is a major component of the entire project cost. Because it goes towards the panel only. The panel derives the profitability also to an extent, I think.
Sure. So my other question is, Parin Bhai, in this entire order book of 2.8 GW that we have, what portion of that order book also has an O&M component to it?
I would say 100% of the order book has come, includes O&M.
Okay, so then, sir, in the next.
On the TPP side. On the TPP, see, IPP is my own, so I can, I mean, that is my O&M only. TPP side is initial three years, minimum, the condition always is there that minimum two to three years O&M has to be handled by us, and later on they will think. But believe me, we have technologies and everything which are, you know, robotic cleanings and everything. So naturally, they will continue the O&M with us only, most of them.
So, sir, in the next two-to-three years, what kind of O&M revenues can we expect out of whatever we will execute, approx?
See, for what we say a C&I, CPP, there my revenue, you know, for O&M, I charge approximately four to five lakh per megawatt per year with an escalation of 2%-3% year on year. So at present, if, for example, I have an IPP installed capacity of 362. So you can say that per year going forward, you'll see around, because some particular year or something, we give you free O&M. So from, you can say once this all matures, you will have around this 362 MW will give you 36 crore of O&M and lease because we also charge five lakh for lease per annum per megawatt. So approximately 36 crore, which would be what we can say a ballpark figure for this 362. And whatever we add, we'll keep on adding to that.
No, sir, land is over and above the INR 500,000?
Yes, yes. Land is up there. INR 500,000 lease and INR 500,000 O&M.
Understood. And, sir, last question, are we doing something on the battery storage side? I mean, not maybe the manufacturing side, obviously, but any orders where we, I mean, in the press, we have not heard anywhere where there is a battery storage component to the auction. But are we, are we looking into that vertical as well?
Yes, we are, yeah. Yes, we are at nascent stage. We are looking into that. See, as I told you, no? If the technology is needs to be supported, we will leverage on the technology. So we are in discussion. But at present, they are at nascent stage, and we will shortly be coming in public domain once we finalize all those things.
Sir, last question, this 5 lakh of land lease is also per year, per megawatt, right?
Yes, yes.
Okay, sure. Sir, all the best. Thank you so much. Yes.
Sorry, per MW, I'm saying. That is around three acres or something, what we get.
Yeah, yeah. Understood. You're right. Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Krishnakumar from Lion Hill Capital. Please go ahead.
Sir, congrats, sir. And a lot of questions have been already asked. Just one point, you know, if you could talk about, sir, we talked about efficiency in terms of timeline on projects. So if you take CPP projects, you know, what kind of timeline do you kind of complete projects from signing contracts compared to other competitors? Can you give some color of the advantage?
Yeah.
Efficiency you have.
Yeah, Krishnakumar. Yeah, Krishnakumar , see, every project has its own characteristic. So if the project is pure execution without any land, without any evacuation or anything, I might complete, as I told you, within I put full force and I can complete 100 MWs within 6-8 months also. Not an issue. Before that also. But when it comes to land, whether it's construction, so usually, you know, like Mahagenco, we have got 18 odd months or something. So we have to complete that. Because the land, you know, collection is also and evacuation is an important part. So any project, timeline, major time goes into the evacuation and the land. Whereas the solar projects, it is very, you know, I would say it's a setting up a solar project will not be a big challenge for them. So our execution capabilities are very fast.
We have done projects, in record times, whether it is us, whether it is customers also. But only think that, what kind of project is that? That depends upon that, you know, the characteristic of that project.
Okay. Second question, sir, is there are some states, like for example, in Tamil Nadu, you know, the land is also acquired basically. There is nobody kind of leasing out land at this point in time. So would you be interested to work in such geographies also, sir, or you would only like to work in areas where leases?
So you talked of your questions about Tamil Nadu, right? Very specifically you're asking?
Yes, sir.
Tamil Nadu, if you see the geography of Tamil Nadu, there is only private land acquisitions available. So government land probably they are not. I mean, near term, we are attempting a modality where government is supporting by way of long lease of their government revenue land. So Tamil Nadu is not our first, that kind of priority as of today.
Sure. Understood, sir. So you wouldn't like to invest into land basically, as a model, you would like to have more leasehold land, to where you can work basically. That's a...
Yeah. That's an issue. See, we have resources. We need to allocate those resources accordingly. I mean, buying land would curtail my capacity of expanding further. So I don't want to put that on the debt side. Accordingly, we are going with the lease because that will be a little bit asset-like model for me.
Okay. Sir, you talked about two MOUs with Rajasthan and another government. So these are exclusive to you, or can the government also open up another MOU with some other player also similarly? How do you see it evolving, sir, in these two states?
No, basically what happened, those who have signed for MOU with that particular state, the state has gone, got certain moral obligations to provide the resources. What we have asked out of that, that MOU, we need certain resource creation to establish the project for these two states. So government is proactively working how to allocate the resource to the developer so that project can be developed. So this is as of today, this stage is happening. So we are trying to first create a resource, and after that, we'll be doing both like CPP IPP projects there also.
Super. Thank you very much, sir. Wish you all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pawan Kumar from Sharde Capital. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, yes, you're on. Go on.
Yeah. Most of my questions are answered. Only one question, like you have mentioned that you are looking for opportunities in overseas also. So could you tell me the reason behind it, considering you are telling me like already there are a lot of opportunities in the domestic market?
Pawan, your voice is cracking. Can you step a little aside from the mic because it's bursting? I'm unable to get the clear question.
Yeah. Is it clear now?
Yeah, it is clear now. Yes.
Yeah, but my question is, like you are mentioning that you are looking for some international opportunities also. So what is the reason for that, just to understand?
See, as I told you, no? International opportunities, we are approached by international players. We are looking out for international. We are doing study on international markets also. So, but all these are at nascent stage. We will not be coming out in public domain until unless we have some constructive roadmap for that.
Okay. And do we see some, like, advantages vis-à-vis the domestic markets?
Naturally, naturally. See, there will, until and unless there is an advantage, we'll not step into those markets, so there is an advantage. There is a benefit for which we will be, you know, pouring into those markets. Okay.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's the question. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashish Rampuria from Family Office. Please go ahead.
Thank you. One follow-on question. I think you mentioned that there's something also in green hydrogen that might get announced. What will be the KPI Green slate for that green hydrogen opportunity?
See, it's a KPI group, right? So we will be under, but we, wherever it is, like for example, you understand KPI, green is a, what is a power generator, okay? Now, green hydrogen, biggest raw material is what? Power. Green power. Right?
Got it.
So naturally, if KPI has the biggest raw material for the hydrogen, automatically KPI will play a role. But at present, we will not disclose anything more.
Got it. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Samrat Shah, who is an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. First of all, I would like to congratulate the entire team, especially Faruk Bhai and Salim sir, for giving such a robust quarter. I've been an investor of the group since the last three and a half years now, and I have immense faith in the group. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, regarding the milestone billing which was talked about, I wanted to know for the big orders, like the Khavda and Coal India project, what kind of milestones have been completed and when would the billing be accounted for? Like, how much has been accounted already and what percentage would be accounted for in the coming quarters?
See, Coal India Khavda project, which we have taken, okay? There is till third quarter, there is no billing done in Coal India. We will be starting billing from the fourth quarter onwards, for the CPP Coal India project.
Okay, and regarding the Aditya Birla project, sir.
They are doing, you know, executed according to the milestone that is set up. And we have been doing billing, whatever, completion of work, we do billing. Various milestones are there. So according to that milestone, we are doing the billing.
On a rough, approximate basis, the Khavda project is of 900 crore, Coal India is of 1,300, and Aditya Birla is of 450 crore. If you add up, it comes to around 2,000.
Khavda project, yeah, INR 900 crore we are talking about is the IPP project. That is my own project.
Yes. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
That is my KPI. So I will not do the billing for that, okay? Now, Coal India, as I told you, yeah, Coal India. Aditya Birla, again, I mean, it is an EPC contract. So we are doing billing. It's spread over, more than one and a half years. So your, billing will be also spread over, those periods. Regarding billing, how much that is, that, so I cannot disclose the exact how much billing we have done for because Aditya Birla will object on that, how much billing and all. So no details will be available.
Right, so I just wanted a rough.
Yeah. Okay. So I just wanted to have a rough idea of the revenue figures in the next coming quarter and year. That's why I was. See, we have given an, you know, we just spoke in the beginning that, you know, 60.
Correct. The 50%-60%. Yeah.
And we will minimum is 60%. We will surely survive, inshallah.
Yeah. And oh, one last question, sir. The land bank which you have is around 4,000 acres. I would like to know what is your target land bank in the coming, say, two years?
See, that my target depends upon my target of the orders that I have, okay? So we keep on adding land banks. You know, land bank is acquisition of land bank is a real-time process. We keep on adding to that. So it depends upon how much orders I have, and accordingly, we plan the land bank.
All right, sir. And one last, sir, a personal request. Whenever Faruk Bhai is free, I would like to fly from Chennai and meet him because of creating immense wealth for me and my family. So, just from your end, if you could arrange this. Yeah. Thank you.
Surely. I'll surely pass on the message, and I'll request him also from my side. Yeah?
All right. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And Dr. Faruk Patel.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pawan from Sharde Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So IPP capacity went up from 140 MW in Q3 FY 2024 to 170 MW in Q3 FY 2025. But the power generation went up only from 5.7 crore units to 6.1 crore units, which is like a 7% growth versus 21% growth in the IPP capacity. What is the reason for the difference in the growth rates?
See, when we set up an IPP project, for example, if the quarter three, immediately on the first day of the quarter four starting, then you can say that, you know, 1st of October.
But your 170 MW has been live from Q1 FY 2025.
Yes, yes, yes. No, so period. So your revenue generation depends upon the period, how much period that plant was energized. For example, if a plant is energized from December, so automatically that capacity will get added, but the generation will not get added because it gets energized from December. So somebody's gonna energize from October. So it's a linear calculation that is based.
What I mean to say is that the 171 MW has been live from June quarter end, at least. So for the entire decision.
This was not live from June quarter. It was live on September. If you say that earlier one, previous quarter, whatever capacity we said, that was live on the last day of that, so it can be started from earlier also. It can be even starting on September or.
171 MWs has been live for the full of Q3 FY 2025. And similarly, Q3 FY 2024, at least 137 MWs has been live fully, full quarter, okay? If not 141.
Yes.
So, you know, there is a growth in capacity by 21%, 21.27%. But the unit generation grew only 7%. What is the reason for the fall in the production efficiency?
That's what I'm saying. No, sir, 1,130, you are saying that previous quarter 131 was live. So 131 was already live for the entire. In my plant, which is generated, the addition capacity may have started in the month of December itself. So there is no addition to that unit because it has started in December. It didn't. It was not there in October or November. So it depends upon when I started.
The quarterly presentations that you have shared.
Yeah.
From the quarterly presentations that you have shared, 171 MW has been live as of at least June 2024 end. So it is 171.
So it is from the present quarter, it has been live. It is, sir, let me explain you. Capacity, IPP installed capacity since January 15, we are mentioning IPP present, the presentation that we have shared, right? This quarter. So it is still, that is, as on that day, it is 171. But it's not that that 171 started from the first day of October. So that must be the difference.
I have looked at the Q1 FY 2025 presentation, which is as on June 30th, 2024 end. As on that date itself, 171 MW has been live. So for the full quarter, the 171 MW has been live.
Right, so but you know, see, plant gets live. And then also there are factors like, you know, your generation depends upon availability of grid and everything, so all those factors also taken into consideration.
Yes, sir. Just trying to understand what are those factors, sir?
See, that's what I'm saying. The growth cannot be linked to the entire, you know, the new plant when they add the capacity. You cannot, until unless, at least I think, six to eight months or one year, you understand that, you know, that the plant capacity, because there are a lot of things which need to be, corrected and everything. And as a, plant generation, again, is taken into consideration, the grid availability is taken into consideration. So there will be a growth, but it's not that it will be very adjacent or proportional to the growth of the capacity in the initial phase.
Got it, sir. Sir, can I have another question?
Factors can be your grid availability. Factors can be your seasonality. Factors can be your, you know, the off-takers also. So all those factors have been taken into account.
Sir, my question was because the 14% seems to be a large drop. That's not the question. But, I understand the. So the second question is, Coal India order is of 300 MW DC, right? How much would it be in DC?
DC, Coal India would be around, just around 400 plus will be the DCs. Yeah.
So 30% will be the 1.3 is the conversion, both factors?
1:3. Yeah, 1:1.
Okay, sir, does the entire 100% of the order book has PPA signed?
PPA? Yes. The PPAs are signed for my IPP project. PPAs are already signed.
What about the CPP project, sir? Are you aware whether all the projects are signed?
CPP project, CPP, CPP project. I do the EPC. So the PPAs are signed. For example, Coal India has signed PPA with GUVNL. And after that, only they have given us the order. So all CPP project, PPAs are signed, and after that, only they give us the order.
Got it, sir. The last question from me, what are the module prices per watt right now that you are procuring approximately?
The pricing is very, you know, what we say, confidential information. From what I can tell you, we buy from tier one like Waaree, Emmvee, we purchase. But pricing is something that you and my supplier will not allow me to disclose this pricing in the public, for you.
Okay, sir. You can tell us whether it is above $0.14 per watt or less than $0.14 per watt?
No, no, sir. Those are different differences. We have long-term relationship.
No, on average.
These, I tell you, and the average, whatever the model prices in the market are, they will offer the same prices. But there are a lot of things which will play into, you know, the quantity that we give, you know. We also take into consideration timeline by when they will be giving us. All the factors are taken into consideration for the model prices. So exact prices, I will not be able to disclose in this public quote.
All right. Very good, sir. Thank you. No other questions from me.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we will take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone. I will start how we decide. I would like to thank all the investors and all the regions who took part in this meeting. It was a very fruitful meeting. We have answered all the key questions. We appreciate your trust and in our growth and in the investment that you have made with us. We'll continue to deliver these strong returns going into next quarter as well. Until next time, we'll see you, signing off from KPI management. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Bye.
Yes.
On behalf of KPI Green Energy Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.