Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 FY25 earnings conference call of ACME Solar Holdings Limited, hosted by ICICI Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ellery. Good morning. I welcome you all to the Q3 FY25 earnings call of ACME Solar Holdings. We have with us the leadership team of ACME, led by Mr. Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, Chairman and Managing Director. Without much delay, I would now like to hand over the call to the management for opening remarks, followed by Q&A. Over to you, sir.
Thanks a lot, Mohit. Good morning and a very warm welcome to everyone present on the call. I'm the CEO and director on the board of the company. I have with me our Chairman, Mr. Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, the founder and the chairperson.
Thank you all of you.
Ankit Verma, Head of Corporate Finance. Purushottam Kejriwal, our CFO. Arun Chopra, our Head of Finance and Accounts and Strategic Growth Advisors, our Investor Relations Advisors. So what I'll do is I'll briefly take you through the presentation which we have uploaded on the stock exchanges. So if you want to, you can refer it as well. I'll start from page five, but I'll do it quickly such that we have more time for Q&A. So in this quarter, it has been a very execution-focused quarter for us. We have essentially doubled our capacity from 1,340 to 2,540 we reached. So we have increased by 90%. And this is due to the commissioning of our 300 into 4, 1,200 megawatt of solar capacity, which is tied up with SECI. So now our operational portfolio is 2,540 megawatt, like we updated you last quarter.
In terms of gigawatt peak, it's 3.6 gigawatt peak. So that is a more substantial update in this quarter. In terms of the portfolio split, now the central off-takers constitute 67% of our portfolio, and states only constitute 33% of the portfolio, which is, of course, improving the credit rating of the overall portfolio and overall utility business we have. In terms of the new orders and growth side, we have won 1,900 megawatt of capacity in this financial year. So our total contracted portfolio is 6.97 gigawatt. And in this 1,900, we have FDRE, which is the peak power contracts of 1,000 megawatts, solar of 600 megawatts, and hybrid of 300 megawatt. In terms of the PPA signing, which is a very important metric for starting of our projects, because PPA is the zero date for us to monitor the two years we get for commissioning the plant.
We have successfully signed 2,340 megawatts of PPAs out of our under-construction capacity of 4,430 megawatts. Similarly, another important issue which has come up is the adoption of these tariffs, because that's another milestone which also is very important for us to determine the zero date of the PPA. For that, we have done 2,500 megawatts, which is, again, more than 50% of this capacity. In both these regards, we are up more than 53% of our under-construction capacity. 450 megawatts of our capacity is in advanced stages of construction. That is something which is in very advanced stages. Coming to the next slide, briefly, we have done the IPO in November. We have used all of their proceeds to reduce our debt, like we had mentioned.
Debt has been reduced by around INR 2,070 crores, which has resulted in a steep reduction in the net debt. Net debt is now at INR 6,882 crores in this quarter as compared to INR 8,755 crores in the previous quarter. In terms of the greenfield financings, we have sanctioned INR 16,500 crores. Basically, around 40% of our debt is now tied up in the under-construction projects. In terms of the refinancing, we have refinanced essentially 50%-55% of our debt, which is around INR 5,500 crores, so at an average rate of 8.8% per annum. This results in two positives for us. One is the reduction in cost of debt, and second is the cash release, which is one of the sources of accruals for us in terms of the future funding.
Grid connectivity is, of course, very important for a utility like us, which is connected to the central transmission system for providing power, so we have connectivity in place for 100% of our under-construction capacity, and of course, we keep on building our war chests, so we have around 2,000 megawatt available for future bids. In terms of the next slide, capacity roadmap, so 2,540 megawatt, which is operational for us, will give us a run rate annual project EBITDA of around 1,750-1,800 crores. That is basically something which we already have, so we will continue to keep giving this guidance from the operational assets. Right? And in terms of the ROC, which is basically pre-tax ROC, we do 14.5%, so this is another metric which we'll keep on giving to all of you as we move forward.
Basically, the operational project run rate, EBITDA run rate, and operational project ROC, basically the ROC from the company. In terms of, so we are at 2,540. We will make all efforts to achieve this, prepone this, but in the base case, we have 6,970 megawatts of capacity, which we'll be operating by FY27-28. All these projects have different timelines, but this is the last date for those projects' execution. Lastly, from my side on the operational highlights, we did a large improvement in our CUF. 23.7% is the CUF we did this as compared to the last year, and this CUF, I can say for sure that this is going to increase because the proportion of high CUF projects have increased in the portfolio, so from the next quarter, you will see a much better number on the CUF.
In terms of the generation, we sold around 250 crore units in this nine months, which is a substantial jump of 34.5% units. And in terms of plant availability, our plants are running at 99.4% availability and a grid availability of 99.6%. Thanks a lot. I'll now ask Ankit to give you an update on the financial highlights quickly.
Thank you, Nikhil. And very good morning to all the participants. So I'll refer to the presentation again, if you can refer to page number 10, if you have it handy. So here we have reported the Q3 numbers on a YoY basis for both as reported and on an adjusted basis. So adjusted basis means that we have monetized 369 megawatt in the last financial year in January 2024. So for a like-for-like comparison, it is pertinent to compare the performance on an adjusted basis.
However, I will give you the updates for both reported as well as on like-to-like comparison. Our total revenue for the quarter stands at INR 401 crore, which is up 45% on adjusted basis and 10% on reported basis. This is majorly on account of the phased commissioning of our recent SECI ISGS 200 megawatt plant. Our EBITDA for the quarter stands at INR 359 crore, which is substantially up 59% on a like-to-like comparison basis and 15% on reported basis. As far as marginal concern, they are like 90% on the reported basis on account of the higher operating leverage because now we have a higher base of operational assets. Our PAT for the quarter stands at INR 112 crore, which is up 52% on reported basis and which is up 317% on a like-to-like asset basis.
Our cash PAT for the quarter is 189 crore, which is up 52% on reported basis and up 150%, 149% to be precise, on like-for-like asset basis, and the last thing here is the PAT margin, which for the quarter is 28% as compared to 12% in the last quarter on YoY basis. Moving on to the standalone financial, which is page number 11, if you look at the nine months, so for the nine months, our total revenue for the nine months is 1036 crore, with an EBITDA of 917 crore, which reflects an EBITDA margin of roughly 89%, and on the standalone financial basis, which reflects our profitability from the in-house EPC business that we do for our own subsidiaries, our total revenue for the nine months is 1,203 crore, with EBITDA of 407 crore and PAT of 199 crore, respectively.
On page 12, we have covered the gross block and the net debt. Our net debt as of December 2024 stood at INR 6,882 crore, which comprises INR 670 crore of operational debt and INR 813 crore of debt for the projects which are under construction. And if you look at some of the key metrics in terms of net debt to EBITDA, so if you look at the net debt operational debt on an annualized EBITDA basis for the current financial year, it will be around 5X, which is below our guided range of 5.5X. And our net debt to equity after raising the primary capital from the IPO currently stood at 1.6X. So these are the major updates from the financials point of view. With this, I would now request to open the floor for questions, which our team will be happy to answer.
Thank you. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much, and congratulations on good performance, good capacity commissioning, and a detailed presentation. My first question is with respect to the capacity that are highlighted under the LOA status. Can you talk a bit about how soon can we see them getting converted, and if you think of any capacity which could be at risk of not getting converted into PPA?
Right. So if you have access to the presentation, we can go to page 24. Right? There we have given the detailed status of the tariff adoption, various steps in the overall PPA signing. So the first thing is LOA. Right? We have LOA for all of this capacity, right, which is around 4.7 gigawatt. Now, coming to the PPA status, PPA signed for 2,340 megawatt we mentioned. I think you're more interested in what will happen to the rest of the PPAs, which is around 2,090 megawatt. Right? So in terms of the two projects, 380 megawatt of FDRE with SECI and 350 megawatt of FDRE with SECI again, half of the PPAs have been signed. So these are expected to be signed shortly in terms of the first they'll be first to be signed because they have been partially sold.
So they are more likely to be sold. And of course, the order has been reserved for tariff also because now that is something we also track. And in terms of the other ones, so we are quite positive that the NTPC ones again will be signed shortly. So of course, we don't have because this is up to the agency to do it quickly. But what we understand in the last quarter or so, the PPA signing has really picked up pace because a lot of FDRE tariffs have been adopted, and a lot of states have already done. Like UP has done 1,200 megawatt for our NHPC bid, which we signed yesterday, 680 megawatt of PPA we signed yesterday. We don't have the SECI to state government status because that is up to SECI to do it.
But what we understand is the top two ones will be signed very quickly. The rest of them are also very advanced. But of course, and we are hopeful that they will be done in the next couple of months. But this, of course, we keep on tracking with the counterparty. We are not able to track with the state governments. But of course, we are updated that the central government is quite positive about getting these PPAs done because, as you know, ACME has also come into being. So the tariffs are expected to go up as we move forward. So these become quite attractive if you purely look at commercial angle in terms of these tariffs. Plus, as I said, the tariffs have been adopted in the recent past. So there is a good metric for all of them.
The tariffs are in the range of what we have done in the last two years. We are quite hopeful that they will be signed soon. In terms of the tariff adoption, we have given detailed status wherever the order has been reserved. Order reserved means the order will be out in the next couple of months because that is the time cycle CERC takes. We will be updating these petitions and order reserved for tariff adoption also in our quarterly presentation. In terms of the grid connectivity, we have the grid connectivity for all of them. In terms of if you look at our preparedness, grid connectivity is there with us. We are, of course, moving forward on the land and transmission line because that's a very low CAPEX item. Of course, it takes a long time.
So we keep our preparedness such that we get a head start whenever the PPA gets signed.
Just a bit of education on the solar one, 300 megawatt S, where you talk about order, but order reserved. This presumably is yet to see PPA done, right? And order is the CERC order you're talking about or the PPA?
So all of 2090 is yet to see PPA. So 2340 has seen the PPA, right? The 2090 is yet to see the PPA. There are two tables, right, in this slide. So the 2340 has seen the PPA megawatt. 2090, the whole of it has to see the PPA.
Understood. Okay. Second question is there was this CERC regulation which talked about not providing power charges for infirm power. Is that likely to impact any of your projects here?
No. Actually, we read that article, and we were going to release a clarification. Our regulatory head has drafted it also. He's going to shortly do it. So see, in terms of renewables, right, we don't have any fuel charges and other things. So we have no issues with that in terms of the merchant plant or in terms of the, you can say, the infirm power sale. We were, of course, impacted by it in the last quarter because we had to commission the plant to sell the power because this order became effective from December 22nd. So all of our plants got commissioned before this order became effective. And of course, in renewables, the merchant plant is also not at risk because we can run our plant without fuel.
But because they don't get a pass-through, the thermal projects, so they have an issue, which we don't have, so we will not face issues on the merchant plant.
But you will miss the extra earnings that you would have otherwise got?
No. Actually, those are not earnings which are factored in any base case. Basically, what happens is when you charge the plant, typically the inverters charge individually, so you have a phased commissioning, right? Your commissioning time takes around seven months, but that is part of the procedure because you have to give a 15-day notice to CEA to visit your plant because that is how the procedure works, so in those 15 days, you can prepare your plant to be ready, so it was not in the base case. What happened is, let's say if there was early commissioning which people had, and they got an NOC from, let's say, the purchaser that they don't want to buy the power for some time, then you could sell it in merchant. That was a very special case, and it was not factored in anybody's base case.
In those conditions, you could have sold power on exchange basis or firm power. So that is like an upside that is never part of any base case.
No, the other thing. I think this is Manoj here. I want to clarify it. Actually, now more and more distribution companies, they are hesitant to give any NOC. So the day you generate the power, even if you're generating the partial power, it is in benefit for them to buy that power. So they don't give NOC.
Understood. That's very clear and just two numbers on accounts. What is the actual cash tax paid during the quarter?
Cash PAT is what we have mentioned here. It is INR 189 crore cash PAT.
Cash PAT, you mean, right?
No, cash tax. Tax that you pay in cash.
Tax in this quarter, we will just tell you.
And also on the other income side, if you can break it up between how much is the interest-related part to it and how much is any other such charges incentive?
Sure. So in this quarter, on the standalone basis, we paid INR six crore of tax, right, from the INR six crore of tax in this quarter. And on the power sale, there is no tax.
On the.
Yeah, Arun will be confirmed.
On the other income side, the interest on FDRs is close to around INR 30-odd crores.
Fixed deposit.
Okay. And balance of 28?
The balance of 28 majorly includes the amortization of the deferred revenue of around INR 16 crores.
Understood. That's all. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankit Mittal from SBI Mutual Funds. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. A few questions. So firstly, on the cost part, costs seem to be fairly under control both on the employee and other expense front. And I think this is despite us taking over employees from Cleantech. So if you could just highlight on that what's happening over there and how do you look at these costs going forward?
Right. Right. So see, in terms of the cost, we have, of course, increased it from the last quarter because of the transfer of employees from the ACME Cleantech to ACME Solar Holdings like we had mentioned in our DRHP. So it has increased because of that. But in terms of the revenue and the EBITDA because we have operational leverage. So that is why the margins are higher because the HO cost doesn't increase because of capacity expansion. So going forward, we don't see the HO cost going up. But of course, as we do more projects, right, and that will be part of the project cost of that project, we will hire a lot of people on the project side. But that will be part of the project cost of that project.
Correct. So actually, to clarify it, it is basically as you add more and more megawatt, per megawatt cost at the corporate level will go down.
So basically, if you see the standalone financials, the costs have gone up, right, because there we are doing the EPC and all. But once they move into the, if you see our consolidated financials, the cost being majorly because of the project-related people, it gets capitalized and gets knocked off in the capitalization front. So you don't see a much steep hike in the consolidated financials whereas you see that in the.
Standalone.
Ankit, you can refer to the slide 26 of the presentation. On the standalone basis, our employee benefits have moved up from INR 24 crores to INR 36 crores. On a consolidated basis, they are reasonably constant.
They have also taken consideration of RSU?
Yeah.
Yeah. Because we have also factored the RSU will be issued to the senior management. That is also actually factored.
In the standalone value.
In the standalone.
That's around INR 12 crores.
That's around INR 12 crores.
Correct.
Understood. So a large part of this is EPC-related, and that's why companies are purchasing. On the other expense as well, on a YOY basis, that number has gone down fairly significantly. I understand there's been a part sale of assets.
Yeah. It is because of the 369 megawatts which we divested last year, right? So the main operational cost has gone out from there.
So the largest part of this other expenses is the O&M cost.
Correct.
Which has gone down because of sale of assets.
And anyway, what will happen? It will further go down because what is happening as we are adding more and more larger megawatt capacity. Earlier, we had a 15, 20, 30, 50 megawatt.
Margins will improve.
Margin will improve because the larger capacity per megawatt O&M cost is much lower than the smaller capacity, the old project.
Got it. The second question was on this 1,200 megawatt that you've commissioned. And I think 3Q would have been a softer quarter because it's not fully commissioned. But generally, what's the type of PLFs that you've seen at that plant for this quarter? And on an annual basis, what sort of PLFs should come in from this 1,200 megawatt?
Right. This 1,200 megawatt is designed to achieve 30% of CUF. When we started, for example, last few days, we are touching 32%, 33%, 31%, right? We are touching. This whole plant will operate at 30% CUF. I'll just mention the reason. It is located in the highest GHI zone. I think we have visited that plant. That is in Fatehgarh. Of course, that is one reason we can do this CUF. Secondly, the DC capacity here is, as you mentioned, around 1,740 megawatts. 1,200 megawatt of AC we are putting the CAPEX for around 1,740. These are the two reasons because of which this will do higher. That will also lead to a higher CUF for us overall because the historical projects had a cap on CUF, which newer projects since 2019, 20 don't have.
Got that. Fair. And just one last question. In terms of near-term commissioning, I think we have some 450 megawatt lined up, 150 megawatt of wind, and 300 megawatt of solar merchant. When do we expect those capacities to commission?
Yeah. Yeah. We are doing our best to commission the 350 megawatt in this quarter. So that is the intent that 350 megawatt gets fully commissioned. Of course, we will do our best to try and do that. It may spill over to April, 350 megawatt in worst case, but that is what we are trying. And the 100 megawatt wind, again, we will try in best case to do it by, let's say, between June to September quarter. So that's, of course, our intent. And that's what. And in terms of the other capacities also, we have not mentioned it in advanced stages, but we have done most of the activity relating to land and transmission line. Basically, we will only say that whenever we say advanced stages, it is basically when the CAPEX has crossed 50%. So that is what we mean by advanced stages of construction.
In some cases, it is 70% CAPEX has been crossed. So we will try and evolve some metric where we say advanced and where the stages of the construction of the project are. But as of now, these are the projects which are in advanced stages of construction. Just on this merchant plant, I would like to say that we have won a bid from SECI at INR 3.05, which we, of course, like we had earlier also mentioned, we plan to move this merchant to any of our PPAs. So this could be one of those PPAs where we transfer this merchant to SECI. That PPA requires you to supply power before June 25. So that is one PPA where this merchant could be shifted.
Got that. Fair. Thank you. Those are my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shivdeep Mittal from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. The question is with regard to the PPA signing. So I think it's clear from your presentation that we have to.
Sorry to interrupt, Shivdeep. I would request you to be a little louder.
Okay. I hope I'm audible now.
Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.
Perfect. Perfect. So yeah, of that 2340 megawatt of PPA signing, how much would have the back-to-back PSAs signed with the Discoms?
So Shivdeep, the process works like the PPA don't get signed if PSA is not signed.
Understood.
That would imply that the quantum has back-to-back PSAs. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Perfect. Perfect. So that's great. Secondly, given that there was a lot of noise around the fact that some of the older projects, I'm talking about on an all-India basis, not ACME in specific, but some of the older, let's say, tenders which had gone out were lacking PSA and PPA signing. Do you see any sluggishness or any, let's say, slowdown in terms of newer tendering because government may want the older projects to see PPA/PSA signing? Any of that sort happen?
So in terms of the newer bids, right, that's what you're talking about. We don't see a slowdown. Of course, there is a temporary sort of movement into ALMM regime, right, because that is a big change which has happened where the cells need to be domestically procured. That will result in shift in tariffs. We have to see where the tariff stabilizes in that regime. Of course, in terms of the bidding this year, we see all the four REIAs stepping up and trying to achieve the 50-gigawatt targets which the government has given. No slowdown per se because of any other issues. I think the ALMM will result in a tariff reset. On the solar side, it will not result in anything on the wind and battery side.
But on the solar side, there is a small ALMM-related adjustment which will be percentage-wise far less in an FDRE tender as compared to pure solar tender. So we believe that it will definitely set in next by March or so. And this is the quarter generally where the bidding happens maximum because the targets are generally monitored very well in the last quarter.
Understood. Understood. But then this also makes the bids that you have won far more attractive, right, because under the ALMM regime, you would probably see a move-up in terms of tariffs.
Yes. Yes. We have to see how much very attractive or more attractive because that ALMM tariff is yet to be out. But yeah, it will definitely make them better for the purchasers.
Understood. Last question is with regard to the newer capacities that you've been winning since the IPO, right? So we used to talk about, I think, 5.5-6 gigawatt number earlier. Now that number is already closer to 7 gigawatts. And you're planning to move towards a targeted 10 gigawatt by 2030. So for the incremental new capacities that are being won after the fundraise, how do you see the equity funding of those projects coming from? Will it be completely through internal accruals itself? Will there be any requirement for further equity funding if you can just give some color on that?
Sure. Sure, Shivdeep. So in terms of the planning of these projects, how we have planned it is that we will finish them by 2028. And that's the calendar because we have factored in a phased signing and a phased tariff adoption, right? And because of that, what we are seeing is that we will commission some projects possibly in 2026, some projects in 2027. So as soon as we commission, our ability to securitize increases, right, our ability to get cash flows increases, right, and our ability to get EPC margin increases. So as much commissioning we do, we generate very significant growth in accruals. So as we commission something, our ability to do all these things improves. So because of this phase-wise commissioning, we don't see that we will have an equity gap in terms of this capacity which we have won.
Of course, if we are able to win more capacities, let's say in a very short period, right now on this capacity, we don't think we will need to raise equity because these commissionings are taking us to 2028. Because of that, the cash flows and the securitization, the EPC margins from these three years will hold us in good stead in terms of funding these projects.
We want to clarify securitization means the top-up refinance.
Basically, top-up. Like we have mentioned in our presentation, we have raised INR 650 crores of securitization in these nine months, which you can see that we have refinanced on slide six, INR 5,500 crores of refinancing, which have yielded INR 650 crores of top-up. So you can see that whatever debt we have, so around 13% of it, we are able to get as the more debt. So that is what we mean by securitization. This is not sale of assets just to clarify.
Perfect. Perfect. This is amply clear. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tejas Fulbardua or Big HNI IPO Investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. First of all, congratulations on very good results. I believe the 1,200-megawatt commissioning that you did this quarter, that was a good achievement as well. I have three questions. Firstly, I wanted to know, do you have any exposure or any sale in the U.S., given that the noise around energy tariff on green renewable energy by the new government in the U.S.? I believe no, but just wanted to confirm.
Right. So we don't have any sales to U.S. because we are a utility. And in terms of the sale, all of our sale is in 25-year PPA to the utilities in India. So all of our revenues is in rupees.
Good.
So I think let me also clarify a little bit that there is a noise of this IRA review by the new administration in the U.S. In fact, if you ask that, first of all, we are not affected. We are not a module manufacturer or exporter. We are actually the power producer. And the power producer is able to produce the power and sell it to India under 25-year PPA. What it has given actually, if there is a delay, if there is an embargo in the U.S., I think there are two, three advantages what IPP will be able to get. One is that people were selling module at higher price in the U.S. If there is an embargo, I think those modules will be available cheaper to IPP even in India or other part of the world. So that's one advantage I see.
Second advantage I see that some of the ESG funds, which were really focusing on the U.S., now if there is a slowness in U.S. deployment, maybe they will come and do some projects here. So from my side, from IPP side, I think, I mean, I see that there is no effect. If there is effect, which will be the positive in terms of the cost and the capital resource availability.
Great. That's clear. Second question I wanted to understand is you gave an indication that you will see an annual dividend of INR 1,750-1,800 crores from the 2.5 gigawatt that's online. And in one of the questions, you responded that you expect around 350 megawatts going online Q4 this year or maybe April 2025. So should I expect maybe around 10-15% additional revenue from that, like INR 200 crores or higher revenue from that annually next year?
Yes. Yes. It is more than that. Yeah. You can expect that because, like we said, it will see, I can tell you more about those projects. So the 350 megawatt project, 50 megawatt is at a tariff of INR 2.97. It's a wind project. Wind projects typically have a CUF higher than 30%. So you can do the math in terms of the revenue. And in terms of the merchant tariff, in the past quarter or so, we have sold power in the range of INR 2.7-INR 3 sometimes. So that's the tariff you can assume on an average basis, more than INR 3 we have for the merchant plant of 300 megawatt. Of course, like I said, we have got a PPA of INR 3.05 for that. So if the PPA gets signed before June, so the INR 3.05 is the revenue on the 300 megawatt.
Otherwise, closer to three only. This will definitely be more than 10%. Yeah. This will also be operating at 30% CUF because these plants are designed with the 150% of overloading.
Okay. Okay. And lastly, 1,200 megawatts went online this quarter. And even the debt that you paid this quarter from the IPO process, that would have resulted in some interest reduction. Yeah. But that was not a full quarter impact. But I can see the EBITDA is around 89% and PAT is around 28%, just Q3 2025. So can we say going forward that similar level of EBITDA and PAT will be achieved or even higher given the full quarter impact, or is there any one-off that happened in this quarter?
Yeah. So see, this quarter is basically what represents a steady state in terms of, as you rightly said, the assets got commissioned in the phased manner. So in terms of the revenue, they have not added to the full capacity in the quarter. But in terms of the percentage margins, we will be here plus or minus 2%, right, in terms of the EBITDA margins and the PAT margins. And of course, like you rightly said again, the debt repayments also happened towards the tail end of the quarter only because we raised money around November. So until the time we could pay notices and everything, it was December. So yeah. So the full impact of this debt repayments and, of course, the plant generation will come from this quarter. But in terms of the percentage margins, I think we'll be here plus or minus 2%.
Yeah. And just to add, look, EBITDA margin will be sort of fairly consistent. And of course, like we said, we will have a lot of operating leverage here given that this capacity is commissioned and manpower costs. But on the PAT level, it is dependent on number one on interest and number two on the tax as well, right? Because in the consolidated financials, you have the tax from the EPC business as well, right? So in case in some of the quarters, they will be making higher EPC profit. So here your EPC profit gets knocked off in the consolidated financials. But whatever tax we'll be paying on the EPC side of the business, that will get reflected on the PAT. And in that case, while notionally, it will look on the lower side if at all there is higher tax payable on the standalone business.
EBITDA will be fairly consistent.
And in terms of the EPC profits, I think we will try and it will be in the range of 5%. So materially, it should not impact much because the EPC profits will not be basically in that range. So materially, this should not alter the construction profit also. So that's where I think plus minus 2% you can look at.
Great. Thanks a lot for all the clarification. We will pass on to the next member.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gopal from SBI Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Congratulations on good set of number.
Thank you.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, in this quarter, you commissioned this 1,200 megawatt. What is the contribution in terms of revenue and EBITDA for this quarter from these projects?
Yeah. So this project contributed INR 80 crore of revenue in this quarter. And in terms of EBITDA, it is 90% the same EBITDA you can take from that project. So yeah.
Okay. And is it like the full potential of?
No, no, no. No, no. It is not the full potential. It is, of course, this project can do an annual EBITDA of around INR 700+ crore, 720 or so crores if you take 30% CUF. So it can do at its best around INR 180 crore. But it is seasonal, right? So it will vary from INR 200 crore to INR 170 crore. Yeah, yeah. So in the range, you can say on an average basis, it can do INR 180 crore adjusted for seasons. In some quarter, it may do higher. In some quarter, it may do lower. But on an annual basis, so you can take the quarterly split from there.
Okay. Sure, sir. And second was on CAPEX. What is the CAPEX you have done till date? And what is the target for full year and next year?
Yeah, so CAPEX is very substantial gross block, so basically, this quarter, our gross block got strengthened because of the commissioning. The CWIP got commissioned.
Actual spend of money, not the commissioning?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
For nine months, how much you have spent?
Nine months, we have done roughly INR 3,500 crores CAPEX for this particular year.
Okay. And what is the target for this year?
So this year, like we said, this 350, we need to commission. So I don't have any idea on what's CAPEX left. I think INR 1,000 or around INR 800 crores. Around INR 800 crores of I think less than that. It should be less than that. Around INR 800 crores of CAPEX we will be doing in next six months, you can say, in this quarter.
Next quarter.
No, no. Next two quarters. Yeah.
Financial year 2026, what is the CAPEX target?
We have not yet chosen that because we keep on doing the land and the long lead ordering. We will try and incorporate that in our next quarterly presentation in terms of the CAPEX target for FY 2026. What we are doing currently is we are ordering the long lead items for those projects. We will be able to update you on the next quarterly call or maybe if we can earlier than that.
Sure, sure. And what was the Gross Block for this 1,200 megawatt?
It is INR 4,600 crores. If you look at the, I think the actual CAPEX, so INR 4,600 crores.
Okay.
I think this is one of the best projects that we have commissioned per megawatt basis.
Sir, on this ALMM and all, will it have any impact on our CAPEX number, the capacities which we already have, PPA or LOAs? Will that have any impact on or it is a pass-through for us?
It is no impact because the government has basically, if you read the ALMM circular, it is applicable only for the projects where the bids happen post that circular. So actually, those bids are yet to happen. They will start happening now as we speak. So none of our projects is impacted by those orders, whatever we have currently. None. We don't have any impact. There's no pass-through also because we will not be even required to follow that order for these projects.
Okay, and in your opinion, with the current sale prices in India, what should be the increase in the tariff for pure solar?
So that's something which we need to see because it's a very dynamic market in terms of because ultimately, you are dependent on China for the value chain. So we will not be able to comment on that, but it will result in some, I think, definitely a tangible increase. But like I said, in the FDRE, the percentage will be lower as compared to pure solar tender because the solar CAPEX is just a part of the FDRE, and it has wind and battery also. But it will be an impact. But of course, the market will decide that impact because how much of the industry absorbs that and how much it passes on is a function of the market dynamics. So we cannot decide in terms of the tariffs, we cannot say. But in terms of the CAPEX, sale prices, I can give you some idea that.
Yeah. That will help.
Yeah. So let's say without this ALMM, typically, cell constitutes currently around 25% of the overall module price if you look at the cell. So you can do your sensitivities. I don't know the amount of the increase these cell prices will have in India because that's something markets still have to clear because a lot of capacities are coming up in India. But typically, the sensitivity is like in terms of the module cost itself is around 50% of the project cost. And out of that, 25%, around 2.5% of the overall project cost is cell. So whatever increases there, that will be the sensitivity you can do.
Okay. Got it. Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhinav from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is, when are you getting the debt tied up for the new under-construction portfolio? And of this 4.4 gigawatt under-construction capacity, for how much have we achieved the financial closure? And also, I mean, post refinancing, what is the rate of interest and what was the earlier rate?
Sure. Sure. So thank you. We have covered. You can refer to slide 6. I'll answer that question. But you can also refer to slide 6 of our presentation. We have sanctioned for 1,700 megawatt of under-construction projects out of 4,400 megawatt of total under-construction projects. So this is essentially 40% of our under-construction projects we have that sanctioned, which is amounting to around INR 16,500 crores. And in terms of the signed PPA, this is essentially around 80-90% because, like I said, our signed PPAs are around 2,300 megawatts. So out of the 2,300 megawatts, 1,700 megawatt of projects have sanctioned debt. So in terms of the signed PPA, it is a number of around 80%. But in terms of the projects won, it is around 40%.
In terms of the rate for the refinancing, as we said, we have refinanced substantially a large portion of our debt. We have taken the sanction. The actual debt disbursements are going to happen in phases. So in terms of the debt sanction, we have refinanced more than 50-55% of the current debt, and the rates are in the average range of 8.8%, which we have mentioned in slide 6 as well.
Okay.
This will result in a reduction of roughly 70 basis points for the projects which are refinanced.
On an average basis.
On an average basis.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akash Mehta from Canara HSBC Life. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations on good set of numbers. So my first question is, sir, you mentioned in terms of the grid connectivity, that grid connectivity for under-construction capacities in place. So in terms of land, sir, how would you kind of look at it? I mean, what I mean, land also we have most of the land in place for what capacity we have.
Right. So land, of course, we focus on. We, of course, keep on acquiring land for each of the projects. But in terms of our prioritization for the signed PPA ones, we prioritize them in P1. We have basically to give you update on the solar side and wind side both. We have close to around 5,000 odd acres land for the under-construction projects. For the wind locations, around 104 locations, we have the land for these projects.
So that is equivalent to 500 megawatt of wind?
Yeah.
400-500 megawatts.
So this number is very dynamic. It keeps on updating every quarter. We have chosen not to update it because it's very, very dynamic. And in terms of the timelines, this is we are acquiring land even for projects which are far ahead sometimes. And of course, our aim is, like we said, in terms of the prioritization, our aim is that for the PPA signed projects, the land should be in place ideally within six months of the PPA signing, completely done. And in worst case, around 9 to 12 months.
Okay. I think that's helpful, and second is, I just wanted to clarify on this merchant capacity, so that will be 300 megawatt, and that 350 megawatt you mentioned, that will be separate, right? That's solar, so two projects are separate or is it the same?
The merchant capacity is only 300 megawatts. We don't have any more merchant capacity. And that merchant capacity also, our intent is not to have merchant for 25 years. It will be merchant till the time we find a good resting place for it in terms of a PPA. And we have found that with the SECI tender of 3.05, which we have won. So that is the only merchant we have in the portfolio.
Okay. So how are you looking at tariffs, merchant tariffs? I mean, moving on from last maybe quarter or so, I mean, are they improving or I mean, there is still more supply, I mean, in the market? So.
I think quarterly, if you see that quarter by quarter, it has improved. But our fundamental is that we don't want to have a merchant actually three, four, five months. That's what our plan is to run it. And after that, find a PPA, which Nikhil was explaining. And we have already found a PPA where we will transfer this project, right, at INR 3.5 per share per share tariff for 25 years.
So for us, merchants is like a strategic thing to get our projects commissioned earlier. Basically, how we are looking at this is that we can commission them as merchant projects. And of course, the bids allow you to use the operational project as one of the projects when you bid. So your revenue can come essentially very early if you have an operational project in that PPA. So that's the strategy we are using. Until that time, merchants are profitable because whatever the tariff is, it is definitely more than the 25-year tariff at this point of time, right? So it is profitable to run it as merchant. But definitely, we don't intend to run it on merchant for a long-term basis because we are not in that business of taking calls on tariffs as far as our utility business is concerned.
We will try and implement this accordingly.
Understood. Yeah. That's it for me. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Abhyankar from UTI Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you, sir. So just a clarity. So this gross block addition of 4,600 crores, is that of EPC margin that we knock off?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Hello?
Yes.
Yes. Okay. And now coming to the connectivity slide, there are three projects where we have applied for connectivity and not yet granted. So do you believe that this might be a challenge for execution going forward?
This connectivity applied is basically which projects are you referring to, actually?
Aatman, Veena, Surya.
Yeah. Yeah.
Aatman, Veena, Surya.
Yeah. So typically, this connectivity is in principle grant is there, right? So till the time we have the final grant, we don't say that we have secured the connectivity.
Correct.
But in terms of the in principle connectivity, this is definitely assured. There is no risk in terms of this not getting allotted to us because as soon as how the procedure works is within a month of your application, the connectivity is given to you on an in principle basis. But as you get the final agreement signed, this connectivity gets confirmed into the binding agreement. But there is no instance of this in principle not going to the final connectivity.
Okay. And so, and sir, we have refinanced our operational projects at 8.8%. Is there any scope of further reduction in these rates because there are some players who are doing it at lower level as well?
Yeah. Yeah. So even we have mentioned to you the average rate. Even we are able to get rates of 8.6, 8.5 also for some of our projects. See, sometimes what happens is it is a trade-off between taking securitization proceeds and the rate because you have to take a call in terms of the definitely lower rates are possible. Just to answer your question, definitely lower rates are possible because the rating of these projects already we have managed to get AA minus for our refinancing. So the rating upgrade is a company-specific upside, which will help us in getting lower rates because we have just done the IPO. We have just paid the debt on the corporate level, basically on the consolidated level. So we will basically get the upside of that in the upcoming quarters.
And of course, the rates from a company-specific reason, one is the rating upgrade because of the overall equity raise. And secondly, because of the rating upgrade, because of the counterparty is AAA for us in all of our PPAs which we are executing. So as we said on the operational side, also around 70% is AAA. So that is the upside possible on the company-specific reasons. Of course, that's again a macro call whether the rates will be cut or not because what we are trying to do is borrow more on the variable rates, which will help us come down to the as the MCLR comes down. So that's a macro call, which we can't. I think you guys know better on that. But on the company-specific reason, there is definitely room to improve on these rates.
And some of these loans we are taking have a rating-related rate reduction also. Let's say in some projects, we got a single-A rating. But if we manage to go to AA, the rate will fall by, let's say, 25-30 basis points. So because of the rating upgrades, the rates can come down depending on each specific project.
Okay. Thanks. And sir, now harking back on our equity requirement over the next three, four years, the back-of-the-envelope calculation shows a CAPEX of around INR 45,000 crores in the next three years to complete the entire 4.6 gigawatt of pipeline. This will entail, I mean, an equity requirement of almost INR 7.5 to 8,000 crores. So how do we exactly plan on achieving that?
Right. So it is, I think, three sources of equity for us, like we said. So we have raised INR 2,400 crores of IPO money, right? So that is a substantial part that is the most significant part of that INR 7.5 thousand crores requirement. Then, of course, securitization proceeds are the second most important part of that component, out of which we have already managed to raise around INR 650 odd crores, like we mentioned in these nine months.
Second.
And of course, the SECI project we just updated you will add at least 1,000 odd crores in terms of the securitization proceeds. So you can see securitization will add around 2,500 odd crores on top of the 2,400 crores we have from the IPO. And the third source of this thing is the construction margins. Like we guided you on the 5%-7% EPC margins on whatever we construct on this 45,000 crores. So you can expect EPC approvals of around 2,000-2,500 crores. So these are the three sources. On top of that, there is free cash flow from the running projects. So that will also give us buffer to have more cash flows than required.
Sure. Sure, sir. Thank you and all the very best.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of J.N.M. Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Sir, so when do we expect the conclusion of PPA signing for 190 megawatt plus 150 megawatt FDRE projects?
Yeah. So that's the question we also keep following on with SECI. So ultimately, the PPA signing is done by SECI. So what we understand is that they are in discussion with a few state governments, principally some of the states which they have already signed up with. So like the SECI has signed up with Chhattisgarh for 190 megawatts. So that is the one party which they are talking to for the rest of the capacity. And of course, they are talking to other states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for this. But that is up to them. So we don't have a day-by-day status for the PPA signing. But what we understand is they should be signed soon because the half of the capacity is already signed. So some of the state utilities are already fine with this tariff and fine with the PPA construct.
So they are more likely to be signed in a month or so. That is what we will hope. But it could take two months also.
Okay, sir. And sir, is there any bid which you have won in the last three months which is not included in the presentation?
I think we won 250 megawatts in the last three months. Yeah. But it's included. What was the?
It is included.
It is included in the presentation.
All right. Okay. And sir, do you start the work or commit capital before the order is resolved by the CERC or signing of PPA?
We take the connectivity because the connectivity is applied on the basis of the letter of award. So connectivity, we take. There is no cost attached to it other than the very small bank guarantees you need to give. Then we start acquiring land because land is something you can use for any project, right? So land is a useful resource, and it is an appreciating resource. So we start buying land at the place where we take connectivity. But that is less than 1% of the CAPEX. But of course, and this CAPEX is reusable. This is not something which is sunk if there is any issue on that option and all things. So we don't do CAPEX which is non-recoverable before the tariff is adopted.
Okay, sir. And the 1,000 megawatt capacity which you commissioned in October 2024, was that project commissioned with the tracker technology
No, actually, no. Because what we have realized is the Tracker makes sense more in the FDRE tenders where you get the premium for time of day because you need to give peak power. You need to basically have power at all times of the day. And you are incentivized with the peak power tariffs. So trackers, we plan to use mostly on the FDRE tenders. We don't have them in the plain solar projects. What we do have is, like we mentioned, a DC to AC ratio of around 40%-50%. So that is something we do. So that compensates for not having trackers more than adequately.
All right, sir. That answers my question. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments.
So my name is Manoj Upadhyay. I would like to thank you all for patiently hearing and asking the right questions. This quarter has been a very, very important thing for us because this 1,200 megawatt, one of the biggest projects we were making, and it was important for us to achieve it. We also wanted to show the performance improvement, especially on the PAC side as well as on our CUF side. I think our team has done exceptionally well on that. We are also able to create a pipeline not up to 26 but beyond 26 also. And our focus will remain there that any future pipeline, now whatever we create, we create towards 28 to 30 timeline so we achieve a 10 gigawatt hour our target. We are still building more resources on the team side.
So a very senior person who joined us as President of our Execution and Projects, he came from the very well-established ABB background where he was the MD of the ABB Execution India, and that company became a Linxon. On the quality side also, we are improving because we will do so many projects, and we have added many, many project directors. So they ensured that we are in cost and quality. We are managing that. And ACME is known for its innovation and this thing. So we want to also do that, put the new technology in test.
And I think in this quarter or next three, four months, we will set up one small FDRE project because I have seen in many interactions that people had something to some concern on FDRE, although for us, FDRE is not this thing because we have been forecasting our power under deviation settlement mechanism for the last four, five years. So technically, it is the same deviation settlement mechanism and forecasting with the battery inside, which will improve it further. On the IRA side, which I mentioned, this was the concern at various levels raised to me. And I believe that something will help on this because there will be enough capacity available at lower cost in India, especially on the supply chain side. Third thing, we expect that next quarter, if the government thinks on the or the RBI thinks on the interest reduction, we are hopeful.
And from our side, I think what we can do is we are focused to improve our credit rating. My team is working on that. So we expect that credit rating improvement because after IPO, we expect that to happen. So that's again one area we will work on that. I want to tell you that on behalf of the entire team, as a company, we are very focused on the cost, operational cost, operational excellence, timely execution of the project. That is what is known about ACME. We will keep on experimenting new technology, which will give us edge to not only reduce the cost in the current project but also to work and win in the future project. Thank you very much for, again, patiently hearing our information. And I look forward to your continued cooperation. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. You may now disconnect the.