Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Adani Ports Limited Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited. 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. Priyankar Biswas from JM Financial Institutional Securities. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We have the management of Adani Ports and SEZ, represented by Mr. Ashwani Gupta, Full-Time Director and CEO, Mr. Krishna Menon, the CFO, Pranav Choudhary, Head of Ports, Divij Taneja, Head of Logistics, and Mr. Rahul Agarwal, the Head of Investor Relations and ESG. We are here to discuss the Q4 as well as FY 2026 results and the outlook going ahead. Without any ado, I will hand over to Mr. Rahul Agarwal, the Head of Investor Relations and ESG. Over to you, Rahul.
Thank you, Priyankar. Good evening and hello and welcome everyone to APSEZ's fourth quarter earnings call. We will begin with Mr. Ashwani Gupta's opening remarks and then open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everyone. Thank you for giving this opportunity to us to share with you our financial announcement. To start with, we said 500 million metric tons and we delivered it as we said. Obviously this is not an operational statistic. It marks an India's infrastructure moment. Now coming to the financial announcement. Once again, we have exceeded the guidance. APSEZ outperformed the upper end of revenue, EBITDA and CapEx, while closing with net debt to EBITDA at 1.9x and return on capital employed of 16%. Another evidence of our healthy business growth with financial discipline. The FY 2026 revenue grew by 25%, EBITDA grew by 20%, and PAT grew by 16%.
During the year, we faced challenges and disruption, starting with Operation Sindoor, various geopolitical issues and West Asia crisis. We delivered, serving the nation by handling LPG vessels, managing transshipment overflow from Middle East, providing free storage to containers, and helping the country to continue with the trade. Despite that, we over-delivered what we promised. Every year we set a guidance. Every year we exceed it. This is not by luck. This is integrated in our culture. Our domestic ports handled 451 million metric tons. Revenue and EBITDA grew by 13% and 14% respectively. The market share at 27.1%. The return on capital employed increased to 23% from 21%.
The international ports revenue grew 34% and EBITDA increased 180%, led by ramp up at CWIT, Colombo West International Terminal, and completion of NQXT Australia acquisition. In the annual announcements, we counted only the Q4 of the Australia. The second business, logistics, revenue grew by 55% in FY 2026. The return on capital employed increased to 10% from 6%. In our Ambition 2030 plan, we said that we will take three to four years to bring the return on capital employed on logistics to double digit. I think in FY 2026 itself, we hit 10%. This was possible with the strong momentum in asset light and asset zero services, along with the utilization of the asset heavy, which are mainly the ICDs.
The marine revenue, which is the third business pillar, EBITDA increased by 134% and 125%. It was led by highest ever fleet of 136 vessels. I would really like to say thank you for keeping the confidence in APSEZ and having this support. We look forward to hear from you, feedback, questions, and thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ashwani. We will now open the floor for questions. Yashaswi?
Yes. 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 their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take our first question from the line of Alok Deora from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good evening and congratulations on a decent set of numbers. First question was on the, you know, the performance. I mean, if I look at the absolute numbers, you have still done pretty okay, but the margins have come off.
I mean, we are, you know, typically we see 59%-60% sort of, EBITDA margins. You know, now it's come at around 56. Is it like a one-off there? If you could just elaborate on that.
Thank you, thank you for that question. You know, when we talk about margins, you always have a seasonality. The fundamentals are there, and we are delivering the fundamentals. As you saw, that overall port margins remain consistent. Now, you may see a drop in the individual ports, but if you look at, I think you will have more time to go into the details. If you look at, they are mainly the cargoes where we have the dry cargo. You may see a little bit drop in Gangavaram, you may see a drop in Hazira, you may see a drop in Dhamra, but you may see a drop in Krishnapatnam.
This is the combination of on one side, we are investing on the expansions, like in Gangavaram Port, to capture the agriculture cargo, which we believe. Fertilizer and agriculture cargo. We are building the warehouse and so on. Because of all these disturbances which we have seen, we have seen the change in the business mix. To adapt to the business mix, we have to reschedule our operational processes. Of course, it takes time. For example, as I said before, you would have read in our public advisory that we gave the extended free storage for the containers in Mundra. We used 100 acres of land extra to keep the containers, because this is for the country, this is for the community, this is for the world.
If I'm giving a free storage to a shipping line, they are bringing the containers, which they could not, cannot take it to Middle East because of the, because of the crisis. They are keeping 100 containers with us, but then they want to take 20 containers back because the 20 containers have got necessities, you know, food and so on, which are only allowed to be berthed in the Middle East. Definitely this has impacted. As you know, these are all short-term, and our fundamentals are still there. That's why you would have seen that overall port margin exists and continuing.
Where we didn't have these kind of disruptions, like international ones, Colombo and so on, you would have seen that we have delivered a significant improvement in the EBITDA margins. Yes, in the dry cargo ports, because we are resetting the operational processes, the imported coal was less, so we shifted to coastal coal. Definitely we are talking about aligning the processes. This is what I can say. Yes, there are four ports where you will see a drop in the margin, but you will also see many ports where we have increased the margin. At the end, what we want to deliver is return on capital employed, right? That's what is the indicator which our shareholders, our investors are looking for.
If you look at overall return on capital employed on the domestic ports, we have delivered 2% more, which is 23%.
Sure. Thank you for the elaborate answer. Just on the return on capital, I mean, in the logistics business, actually it has shot up quite a lot in FY 2026 from 6% to 10%.
Mm.
Just some color on that. You know, in your guidance of FY 2031, your revenue in logistics is growing by a whopping 34%, and EBITDA is growing by 27%.
Mm.
There will be some sort of a margin consolidation there.
Yeah
You know, when the size is becoming almost, you know, an INR 20,000 crore logistics business by FY 2031, would the margins be slightly higher than the current levels, or it would be, there will be some sort of consolidation there? Just if you could highlight on that. Thanks.
No, I think, you know, the result of 10% is not by luck. I mean, we have a strategy. I think 1.5 years before we explained the strategy of combination of addressing this business by asset heavy, asset light and asset zero, and this is what we delivered. Obviously, if you look at the mix, you will see that the mix of asset zero and asset light has increased as compared to asset heavy, because we are doing really well on our freight forwarding business, on our trucking business. Definitely that has given a boost. Once again, on one side, we have to see independent businesses, because that's where I think, we are transparent in sharing with you each and everything.
On the other side, we have to also see that freight forwarding business at the end brings the volume to the asset heavy business. Both are interlinked and both are complementary to each other. Moving forward, once again, our objective is to give you 20% return on capital employed at APSEZ level. How the business mix will change, how we will move forward, we wanted to give you an hypothesis so that you have in your mind. For sure, when we talk about the logistics business, and there is no surprise in it, that EBITDA which we earn is not in direct proportion with the revenue. As a consequence, there is a business mix impact.
Having said that, what is important for us is to give absolute amount of growth and the return on capital. That's why FY 2031 and we launched this plan in 2024. We delivered in 2024, we delivered in 2025, we deliver in 2026. Now, it was right time for us to give you one year more, but with a better forecast. If you look at our deck, which we have uploaded already, Ambition 2031, we have taken all the feedbacks you guys have given to me in last one and a two years, especially the capital allocation. We have said very clearly, what is domestic ports, what is international ports. In logistics also, we have re-estimated our assumption.
We have given you the allocation for the marine, and we have also given the allocation for the decarbonization and the technology, which is driving our efficiency and the productivity moving forward. You may see other things also, I think we can discuss it after you have gone through it in one-on-one calls. To answer to your question, our commitment, our promise is to deliver twice the growth in five years with a 20% return on capital at consolidated level. Of course, domestic ports are really doing well, Dutch Port, and it will do well. International ports have picked up, and logistics and marine will be the booster to contribute to the APSEZ overall growth.
Sure. Thank you so much, sir. Just one last question, if I can. You have given a very detailed breakup on the capacity addition of December 2030.
Mm-hmm
There capacity goes from 653 to 1 billion tons, right?
Yeah.
We have given a guidance of 1 billion tonne of cargo volume handled, which includes 850 million tonne of domestic. Now, you know, if we do the math then, you know, out of the 1 billion capacity, is it really possible to kind of handle 850 million tonnes? Because typically, the utilization stands at around 80% or so, and plus entire capacity might not be fully, you know, functional, during this, during 2030. Some of it might come near the end of that period. So just any guidance on the volume, if any changes there or?
See, yeah.
Yeah, please.
No, no, you're right. You're right. At first, we have to know that when we do the theoretical capacity planning, we always consider 20%, right? Always capacity planning is done at 80%.
Right
That I have 1 billion, you can see it is at 80% of the total capacity. Then you would have seen another thing, which is the last, is we are investing in technology to improve the efficiency. You may be wondering why, you know, in one month Mundra is doing 770,000. If you try to calculate the capacity, what we have in Mundra and what we are delivering, which is 770,000 in a given month, you will hit 94% utilization.
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Within that 1 billion, you would be able to handle 850. The volume guidance does not change.
Yeah, 1 billion is a theoretical capacity. You know, it's at 80%. you can go up to-
Got it.
1.1, 1.2-
Got it.
With the same percent.
Sure. Our volume numbers, the longer term volume numbers, volume guidance has not changed.
No, no, we are not changing. You know, you will definitely ask that question.
Yeah.
Before you ask that question, I can tell you that this volume.
Got it.
Does not include, the merger and acquisition.
Yeah, yeah. This is all that.
Any headwind which may come, like it came last year with Operation Samudra Setu and West Asia crisis, definitely we have a buffer which we will do in next five to six years, the acquisitions to cover up. We have the money to do that, but we have not incorporated in our top line and bottom line, and also in the CapEx spend.
Got it.
Thank you, Alok.
Yeah. Thank you so much, sir, for the elaborate answer, and I wish you all the luck, sir.
My pleasure. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Manish Somaiya from Cantor. Please go ahead.
Good evening, Ashwani, and congratulations to you and the team on a strong close to fiscal 26. Since we just talked about your fiscal 31 plans, maybe if you can just help us understand how we should think about some of the more important milestones over the next 12 months that we should keep track of.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the management connection. I request you to stay connected, please, while we reconnect them. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management team back on the call. Manish, can you repeat your question, please?
Of course. Ashwani, congrats again on a fiscal, on a strong fiscal 2026. Since we were just talking about your long-term plans, pertaining to fiscal 2031, maybe if you can just talk about some of the important milestones over the next 12 months that we should keep track of.
No, thank you. Thank you, Manish. I said after listening to your congratulations message, we were so excited we wanted to have a glass of drink. Thank you. Thank you, Manish. I think, I think what is really important, not even the 12 months, I think the Q1 is very important, because in Q1 we expect to get the business mix change. I think, I think that, you know, all the free storages and everything and, you know, the business mix change between the containers and so on, may be improved in next three months. You may see a change in the container. The second biggest change which you should track is the coal.
As you know that, Indian government has given the direction to all the power plants to run at the peak, including the imported coal. The reason being that anticipation is there will be a comparatively weaker monsoon. Anticipation is heat is high, which we are already seeing now. You know, Ahmedabad is running at 43. I don't think that renewal capacities, even if India did a record in setting up 50 GW last year, I don't think the renewal capacities and the conversion of electron and into the transmission and transmission to the distribution will fulfill that demand. That's the second.
The third, I think the challenge on LPG will remain. I think people are shifting from LPG to electric stoves and so on and so on, though it does not change sort of mix for us because LPG is not a big mix for us. On the other side, definitely when the power plants will run at peak, you will see the uplift in the coal. That's why you would have seen that last year Tata Power was almost closed for the whole year. Now Tata Power is fully fired and running at its full capacity. So that's the second trend.
The third trend which we should see, that you have seen that after UAE is out of OPEC, the pipeline which is there, which bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, there should be a free flow of the crude. That's why we may not see any challenge on the crude oil. Which means what, Manish? Which means, we kept our guidance conservative considering that if the oil prices do not come down, India as a country may not see that much of optimistic growth and we may see a gap between supply and demand which may rise the inflation and blah, blah and blah.
If this route works and if what everybody's planning works, I think we should see a positive side and I think quarter one will tell us what is the positive. That's what I would say. Manish, I think quarter one we will come to know many tailwinds which will come. We want to be very conservative because we don't know what will happen tomorrow. You know, nobody knows, nobody has a crystal ball. Still we have made some assumptions. Based on those robust but conservative assumptions, we will maximize the opportunity and minimize the risk.
Okay. That's super helpful, Ashwani. I just had two other quick questions. One is on international ports. Obviously very strong margin performance. You know, clearly, NQXT, and the acquisitions that you made earlier, contributed. How should we think about sustainable margin for international ports going out?
See, you know, I know that's a great question, Manish. I think if, since two or three or four quarters I've been sharing, couple of things. The first thing is, the governance of all the international ports are now in Ahmedabad, which means we control it from Ahmedabad. That's first thing. The second thing is, the CEO and the CFO, we have put it with the Adani DNA. Which means, these two guys are running with the DNA which we have. That result is, you can see the results now. Now moving forward, our focus will be more on the market share. For example, Colombo, in the phase I we focused on transshipment terminal.
That's why our mix is 100% transshipment, whereas the whole country mix is 85% transshipment and 15% exim. We have not touched the exim potential. When we are building up the phase II capacity, which we'll be finishing very soon, we are getting into the exim trade. Keeping the profitability margins, growing the market share and then introducing the culture of partnership and the leaner organization which I have talked about this morning in the Ambition 2031 deck, will help international operations to deliver more margins than their competitors in that region. Obviously, they cannot match the margins which we make in India, definitely over there, they will be best in class as compared to their competitors in those regions.
Manish, just.
Okay.
We just want to take a look at the Q4 international ports exit rate on EBITDA, that will be a decent indication for you.
Okay. Thank you, Rahul. Just lastly on CapEx, I saw CapEx was a bit higher than guidance. Maybe, if you can just elaborate on that.
Yeah. No, thank you. I think you are spot on. We have accelerated the CapEx on. If you see Ambition 2031, slide number Which one?
Where we have done the four India growth story.
Yeah.
Which one?
It's.
20.
Huh?
20.
Slide number 20. This is, thank you to everyone's feedback, we have really introduced logic, rational why and where we are investing. We have accelerated our CapEx, A, in Mundra, because we are fully full and now we have CT5 which is coming up, but we have accelerated the future expansion. We have accelerated our CapEx in Dhamra, because of the huge volume which is coming up, especially because of the RSR, rail, sea, road, rail, coastal cargo movement. We have accelerated our CapEx in Hazira because of the liquid. In line with the India growth story, in line with the, with the growth pillars, we are investing accordingly. That's what I can say.
Spending more CapEx means, we will be providing more growth, but we have a logic where we are accelerating our CapEx. Vizhinjam, sorry, because Vizhinjam already we are at 100% capacity. In the West Asia crisis, we had many vessels who were waiting outside, so we are not waiting for the phase II, we have kicked off already the phase II. Phase II, we are again doing it with automated terminal, and that's where we want to go. In addition, we have already started a lot of automation investments to improve the productivity at each of the existing ports. We have accelerated the CapEx because we want to have more than 1 billion capacity investment by 2030.
Thank you. Thank you, Ashwani, and best of luck to you and the team.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Bharat Shah from B.C.S. Capital Ideas. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Ashwani G. Hearty congratulations. I mean, in a fast-moving world with lot of unpredictable challenges in a complicated multidimensional business like ours, to manage it so well, really requires depth and caliber of the management and the planning. I fully appreciate your comment that the results have not come by chance, but by good planning, efforts, risk mitigation and intelligent anticipation of what all many issues can come. I don't have really a question to raise, not because no question arises in my head, but simply because I think the transparency with which so many details have been laid down in the presentation, especially about future, is really remarkable.
I mean, the granular level of details which have been given year by year, spelt out each asset by asset on whether it is about ROC rate, whether it is about the cash flows and all, many arenas involved in that, I think it is remarkable. Secondly, I was really delighted and surprised how quickly logistics businesses reach a double-digit return on capital employed, because that is a Waterloo for many enterprises. I mean, logistics is something I must admit I was a little worried when it was embarked upon, but how quickly it has come by is remarkable, I must say that. Hearty congratulations, Ashwani G. And in Rahul Agarwal, you have got a fantastic deputy.
The way he handles all the business questions, not merely financial ones, I must compliment. Just wanted to put that word in.
Yeah. Thank you. Rahul is not available. Don't try to avoid him.
Sorry?
No, thank you. No, thank you very much for your appreciation. I think, you know, last two years, the quality of questions you all have asked, has really helped us in redrafting our disclosures. I know only one thing, that you are our ambassadors in front of investors, so we put ourselves in your shoes. That you are in front of investor and trying to convince the investor that they should invest and keep the confidence in APSEZ. Is that so? If I am you, if I am in your shoes, what all information I need to convince the investor? That's how is the mindset and the cultural change we have done. We talked about Rahul. He Originally, he's a ESG guy.
He was living in New York, we brought him from New York to India and made him the IR specialist, and he's supported by a good team. Now we have Mr. Krishna Menon, who's the CFO, with international experience. I think we have a good team. I think to your question of logistics, maybe I look at Divij to explain. You know, nothing has changed. I think one and a half years before, the strategy which we talked about, we are just executing it, little bit fine-tuning it. You would have seen that we have reduced the CapEx in logistics because we do believe that we can give much more profitable growth with a less CapEx. We are mindful and thoughtful of the CapEx.
One thing which has not changed, we said before, that we will do better than our peers. Why? Because we know how to maximize the utilization of the assets, and that can be only done by talent and technology. We invested in technology. We made our own digital platform. We are running it efficiently and effectively. You know, the same truck which can do one trip, now we are getting three trips with the same truck. Definitely, the margins are getting tripled. We are not perfect now. I think there are a lot of opportunities. We want to grow and keep delivering what we promised.
No, delighted to hear all of that. I was just kind of supplementing the broad observation that such multi-geography, complicated, multi-part day-to-day operations to be run across so many different business lines, it can't be easy. Obviously, lot of efforts and lot of intelligent planning and execution is at work to make it appear so smooth. Truly delighted. Just wanted to leave one indirect, but in my opinion, pertinent observation. You might be aware of these MITRE's intro of, you know, release of the software, the AI software. I think, lot of legacy technology systems are really vulnerable in terms of being exploited by this software, especially energy infrastructure assets, banks.
Many of these assets are really vulnerable because these were developed on open open source software code development. Most of these systems have been discovered with huge amount of lacunae and bugs. I would, given the scale and the depth and the complexity of our operations, I think our technology
Sure.
Internal technology needs to be gone through all over again, very carefully.
Sure, sir. I think we will consider that.
Yeah.
Thank you for your feedback, and I will personally study it.
Okay.
Thank you. Next time when we are meeting, we can have more discussion, sir. Thank you so much for your comment.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that management is able to answer queries from all participants, kindly limit your questions to two at a time. You may join back the queue for follow-up questions. We'll take our next question from the line of Koundinya Nimmagadda from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Decent set of numbers in a challenging environment, especially in the month of March. Two quick questions. First one, a bit on the near term, and second one on the Ambition 2031 plan, which may take a little longer. Starting with the near-term plans, right? You did guide for about 11%-16% kind of revenue growth for FY 2027. Can you help us understand what were the kind of assumptions that were built in here? Obviously, you briefly touched based upon certain assumptions as an answer to one of the previous participant. Within that, if you can also help us understand how is the current scenario on the ground. We understand that, you know, a part of March was also supported with transshipment volume. How is the scenario shaping up currently?
If you can throw some color on that, please.
No, thank you. You know, no, same as you, we also don't have the crystal ball. You know, our business has to continue. I think the main thing which we are doing today is resilience is at the core at our business, agility is driving it. Every day we have a new thing. More than 93% of the vessels are coming out of the window. If I keep the same process, I will not be able to entertain any vessel at my port, right? I can't complain, right? I have to continue to deliver the volume, I have to adjust, I have to be flexible, adaptable, to the changing environment, right?
We have to choose the crisis before the crisis chooses us. I think that's what is the new normal, and that's what we are working. Now, if LPG vessel comes, even after U-turn from another country, we have to be ready at 1 o'clock in the morning to get it faster and faster. That's what I would say. Having said that, because you guys are more expert on economics. What we have done is the minimum range is that, we grow exactly as India is growing in optimistic way. If India growth goes down because of fuel and so on and so on, we do 1.5x of India growth. That's our minimum.
We do believe whatsoever happens, we will deliver you that is 1.5x of India growth. If India is optimistic, which you would have seen today, you know, we have this news of crude, we have news of imported coal, and many other tailwinds. India growth will be normal, and we can go up to 1.7x , 1.8x without any acquisition. That's the most optimistic scenario which we don't want to commit to you today because nobody has the crystal ball. What we have considered in our guidance is the flat. For us flat is 1.5x of India growth. We can see how the India is growing.
That's how we have taken the guidance.
Okay. Got it, sir. I was trying to understand the kind of volume change that you worked around with. Anyways. Also my second question.
Yeah.
Is on the ambition 2031 or 850 million ton 2030 guidance, right? You know. If I were to look at it, the implied ask rate on a domestic port side, you know, the volume growth rate is anywhere closer to 14% odd CAGR. In comparison, if I were to look at FY 2021 to 2026 on growth, that was about 13% odd. Again, there you had some benefits of acquisition, something like Krishnapatnam Port and Gopalpur and few other additions as well. If, I mean, this context I'm just trying to understand how do you intend to achieve this 14% odd CAGR and-
See-
If, uh-
Yeah.
If I may add a couple of points.
No, I think you will agree that we can grow 1.5x without inorganic. If India is growing at 7%, we can easily do 10% or 11%. Let's not forget the fact that we have five years where we have the merger and acquisitions. You also know that many of the concessions are for renewal at the other ports before 2031. You should also keep that in mind. It's not question of greenfield, but many of the concessions in our competitive ports will be available. We will not disappoint you. That's what we can say.
Understood, sir. If I may ask, a smaller question. I mean, in the past, you did mention that a large part of domestic growth will only be organic, and we do understand that brownfield CapEx expansions, the CapEx intensity is usually lower. I can also see that, you know, from 653 to 1 billion ton, when you mentioned a significant part of that is also coming from technology upgradation. Can you just help us tie this up with the ROC growth path that you gave it? Maybe if you can put some numbers like, you know, what is the current gross block to capacity and what is the incremental CapEx per gross block. I mean, maybe if you can help us understand these details a bit better, please.
I understand the question. Currently, as we have highlighted, right, in our ambition deck, essentially we are looking at almost about 1% points. That is a 100 basis point increase in our ROC every year all through the next five-year time frame, right? Given how the business is structured, we do anticipate a significant chunk of that coming from domestic ports. To your earlier point, yes, a bulk of it will happen through organic, you know, where the CapEx intensity is actually likely to be in our favor, given these are expansion of existing ports. In a scenario like this, you should ideally see a continuous increase in domestic ports ROC going forward. Just as what you've seen in this particular financial year, we expect to maintain the same trend going forward as well. Right?
That's the trajectory that we anticipate will pan out over the next half a decade.
Sure. Thanks, Rahul. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. I'll follow back with you for more questions.
Yeah. No, thank you. I think this is also comment for everyone. You know, it's very important for us to give you our ambition for next 2031. These are not very perfect mathematics because, you know, every business is built based on some hypothesis, and hypothesis keeps on evolving. I think the important for us is to adapt and align ourselves with the evolving hypothesis. The speed with which we adapt is the expertise of our APSEZ. We have made a hypothesis. I think in February, before the war started, when we had, we never anticipated that this kind of business mix will change. You know, we were talking about imported coal will be gone forever. Now imported coal is back because of some other reason.
What I'm trying to say here is it's important to have a playground, but then we have to just adjust, based on whether it is raining or it is a sunny day or it is, it is snowing or it is something else. Just to add to that, Sri, is if you look at the current base assets, we are about INR 1 lakh crore, against which we get a return on capital employed of about 23%. What we are discussing is an accretion of INR 15,000 crores next year. Through this journey of five years, it's gonna be another INR 1 lakh crore. Coming to your point, Koundinya Nimmagadda, therefore, if we do the decisions at the right time in terms of capacity expansion and acquisition, we will still land the number. Yeah, I hope that makes sense.
Sure. Got you, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Nikhil Nigania from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is on the point you mentioned on, you know, other ports seeing concession, closing before 2031. Similarly, I mean, our largest port as well, its concession is due at that time. Wanted to check if there's some clarity on the modality on the extension of the concession agreements for ports in Gujarat or otherwise.
Yeah, I think the talks are going on, and the talks are positive. We have to just wait for the conclusion.
Will it be fair for you.
You will come to know because before us Pipava will be there.
Before us Pipava was due, right?
Yeah.
Would you expect this year sometime, we should have clarity and it might be on auction list?
No, we don't. We control the content of the discussion, but we don't control the timing. We are actively engaged in the discussion, but we don't control the timing and the decision.
Understood. Understood. No view on that. The second question I had was on the domestic volumes. I understand your perspective on coal, and as you rightly said, I mean, we also expect coal to come back this year. Even on containers, if you could give us some clarity on why, I mean, the growth has been a bit more modest, even in Mundra for that part. Is it largely Middle East, or what are the reasons for that?
See, first of all, you should see Morbi is all gone. It is zero because of LPG. There, the scrap is zero, from Middle East.
Right.
The paper is zero. You know, the impact of Middle East is not zero. Which means there is an impact. There is an indirect impact, which means that 86 or, I don't know, 85 or 90% of the Morbi is closed. There is zero container movement in Mallya.
Maliya.
Maliya. The export from India, and what is happening, is, you know, look at the freight cost. One is the Middle East impact, which is not much, right? Which is, I don't know, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 7%. We can't measure it, but it is definitely the impact, which is scrap and white and the paper and limestone and other minerals. The more impact is the indirect impact, like Morbi. There is also indirect impact on the exporters delaying their decision to export because of the high freight cost. This has to reset someday. Look at the inventories of the manufacturers.
They are running at the minimum inventory because they have been pushing their decisions forward because they are waiting that when, you know, these things will be gone away and the freight cost will be back to normal. That's why we want to see the quarter one, and we want to see that how it goes. That's why we have kept it very conservative for the next year.
Thank you so much. I mean, appreciate those answers. Thank you so much. Those were my questions.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Achal Lohade from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I must congratulate on an exhaustive deck on giving out lot of information. The question I had was, you know, if you could just clarify, sorry, kind of a repetitive question, but 2026 to 2031, you know, you're talking about touching billion tons of cargo. What kind of CapEx we should work with? You know, you've spent INR 15,000 crores in FY 2026, INR 12,000 crores-INR 14,000 crores is the guidance. How do you see sort of five year perspective?
Slide number 20. In the Ambition Plan 2031, you will find all the details. Then in subsequent slide, you will see which commodity and which port.
Okay. Sorry.
Achal, this is on slide 22 of our Ambition 31 deck.
Okay.
The port wise.
I think it was mentioned for domestic, if I'm not wrong, domestic capacity.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. We I mean, international, you know.
No, I was, I was looking more from the full, I mean, from a CapEx perspective at a consolidated level, how should we look at-
Yeah. Achal, that slide has the information at the consolidated level.
Okay. The second question I had was with respect to marine margins. If you could clarify, you know, is there any one-off out here? Are these.
No-
New normal margins we should work with?
No. Yeah, this is a business which is, which is, you know, driven by the customer contracts. Definitely, we should not conclude this business depending on just one quarter. I think it is just combination of renewal of the contracts and getting the new vessels in the fleet and the dry docking, which is the maintenance. There is nothing to worry about. Especially, especially with this situation in West Asia, we have absolutely no. There has been no force majeure which we have seen. As you would have seen that refineries are working, our vessels are there. We don't anticipate it.
Just question of maybe February or March, seasonality, which you would have seen.
The annual margin is more sustainable margin? Is that what we should work with, sir?
Yes, yes, yes.
Over the 40%? Okay.
Yes, yes.
The second, just a quick clarification on the SEZ port development income, INR 891 crores. If you could clarify what is this, how sustainable is this? The Mundra Port number in one of the slides, does that include this INR 890 crores? Because the revenue number of INR 2,700 crores looks actually pretty significant increase on a year-over-year basis or a quarter-over-quarter basis.
Achal, if you look at our investor deck page number 19, where we've given the port-wise breakdown. Right. There you have Mundra. Typically, SEZ is clubbed under that Mundra line. We've carved it out this time around, so you can see the separate margin profile of the Mundra port. Right. That's there on page 19 of the investor deck. The SEZ income, as you have seen in the past also, right, there is no set pattern to the SEZ income. It tends to be volatile. It really is a function of the underlying transaction activity that we have at our SEZ parcels. This is what has happened this quarter. Does not necessarily mean that the same Q4 volume will repeat in the next quarter, right?
It has historically been episodic, has historically been a transactional product, and it will continue to be the same going forward. I'm not sure, extrapolating Q4 will be the best step.
Got it. Thanks for those clarifications. I'll fall back in the queue so far. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Luke from Picton Mahoney Asset Management. Please go ahead. Luke, your line is unmuted. Yeah.
Hello. Hello. Can you hear me?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good evening. Thank you for taking my call and congratulations to Sri Ashwani Gupta. Also please send my regards to an old colleague, not of mine, but yours, as Jugeshinder Singh as well. You know, I've been following your sales for more than 10 years. Well done on improvement. Can I just ask something very specific? I'm on the debt side, I'll declare that. Thank you for optimizing our capital structure. I see that in the report, the main report, the net debt EBITDA is down to 1.8 or 1.9, depending how you know, put the numbers. Agree with that. Are you then looking to optimize it further? Because I'm thinking that, you know, what would be.
That's the first question. It's the same similar question because your answer might encompass what you think is our optimal structure right now of debt. Now that you bought back a bit here and there, you got some small lines in the front and if you want to do something in the market in the future. Thank you. Just another two questions. Thank you very much.
Yeah. No, thank you. Thank you very much. If you please, see our slide number in Ambition 2031, we have tried to answer that question. Slide number 36. First objective for us is to invest in the organic CapEx, right? Which is between 60%-70% of our annual operating cash flow.
Slide 26.
Slide 26. I have a different version. 60%-70%. That's what we have done. We have found the opportunity, that's why we have accelerated the CapEx. We have to know CapEx has got two things. Number one is money, second is the people who will execute the project. We are lucky to have a great team who executes the project like Vizhinjam, Mundra and so on. That's our first priority. The second priority is the strategic M&A, which brings the top line growth and the bottom line growth. Now, I'll let Krishna to speak on this. To keep net debt to EBITDA is our first objective before we start talking about gross debt.
Because we want to use net debt to EBITDA ratio to push our profitable growth. Reducing the gross debt, you would have seen that we have been doing it systematically.
Yes
After we go through the allocation for the profitable growth. You would have seen that we have done the dollar buyback because you would have seen that the exchange rate impact.
Yep. Yes
Is on one side positive for the revenue, but not positive for the gross debt. That's why we want to keep a balance between mid to long term. Slowly and slowly, we will of course, optimizing the mix of our debt, right? Maybe Krishna can-
Just to build on what Ashwani Gupta shared. Very specifically, it is capacity expansion in our existing assets. Second thing is acquisitions, and therefore any strategic M&A. From a guidance perspective, we stay with 2.5. While we do that, we will also continue to look for options where, you know, we can optimize the debt and the cost profile.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. This is, I mean, like Ashwini shared, we did a bond buyback, which we concluded in the month of March, about INR 199 million.
Yep.
The previous year it was about.
Yep
INR 100 million. We will look for opportunities both ways, but we will hold our guidance. Which means 2.5, we will hold it better than that. That's our plan for the next five years.
Okay. you know, at the end, it should give us benefit in terms of financial cost, right? If today somebody asked me to buy back bond, I will not go back even if I have INR cash in with me, because I may not get the same yield because of the West Asia prices. It's not that I decide because I have decided I will do the USD buyback, so I will do it. I will see at the market situation, I will see how much INR I can put it in front of USD buyback, how much yield, how much premium.
Whether, you know, you saw in February, which we did the buyback, 50% of our bond buyers kept with them because they believe that APSEZ will do much better than the today's yield. It's in our roadmap, we call it, when you talked about Robbie. We have a capital management plan as a playground, but we keep on fine-tuning it. Okay, understood. Thank you very much again.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Parag Sheth from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for taking my question. Hi, Ashwani Gupta. I have two questions then. Maybe first is a follow on from the previous gentleman. If you can help us understand, is the 2.5 time target a ceiling or is it something that you aspire to be to optimally gear your balance sheet? In that context, over the next five years span, is the buyback will be one of the tools that you will use to lever your balance sheet? Secondly, with what we have seen with respect to currency depreciation and Indian and U.S. Treasury spreads narrowing, how do you see by the end of this decade your debt mix.
Yeah
In terms of currency exposure will look like? Then probably I'll ask the second question after that.
No, that's great. I mean, I think the point is, we will keep on optimizing and redefining our P&L in a more healthy way, the way the world is evolving. Having said that, our priority will not change. Our priority, number one, is to invest in the capacity expansion and creating new capacities. Our priority for strategic M&A. Last but not the least, we do believe in creation of wealth in mid to long term for our shareholders. That's why for us, return on capital employed is much more important than a short-term benefit. That's why buyback would be the last option, but I don't think we will talk about it because we do see a lot of opportunities in front of us which we can maximize and execute.
Just to add to that.
Yes, please.
The 2.5x is our guidance. That's the framework that we work with, and that's the best way we feel we can optimize in this journey.
Okay.
I hope that this answers your question.
Yes. I mean, I just wanted to get the feel that 2.5 is like something up to which you are comfortable or you like will actively work to lever your balance sheet. I hear what Ashwani Gupta is saying.
Yeah.
In terms of that mix, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let me rephrase the answer. 2.5 is the ceiling, but even if I go to three with a quality asset, I will not have an issue with the rating agency.
Absolutely.
I mean-
Yeah, absolutely.
Our business is so healthy. I mean, 2.5 is just the ceiling which we have put. For example, if tomorrow I get a $9 billion merger and acquisition, you know, I will go for it because it will change the game of APSEZ. Maybe the net debt/EBITDA may go to 3.2, 3.3 for 2, 3 years. It's fine as far as I have means to fund it and I have means to provide return on the acquisition which I'm doing. I think today I would say, we finish with 1.9, but if we see the next year, if we don't With this CapEx, we will do one., how much, Rahul?
1.3, 1.0 -
1.3. Imagine the gap between 2.5 and 1.3 is 1.2. I can go easily for INR 1 billion of CapEx of inorganic acquisition. 2.5 is just the ceiling.
Mm-hmm
It is, it may change. That's what, Parag, I wanted to share with you.
Sure. In terms of currency exposure, with respect to your debt, is it like, are you trying to drive more towards INR versus USD or you are happy with the current exposure?
See, we don't have any issue with that, to be honest with you. Because, you know, we have a natural hedge. You know, we take the loan at APSEZ consolidated, we keep it below in our subsidiaries. At the end, when we consolidate, it gets knocked off. Also then we get benefit on the revenue. Having said that, I think if we are getting a better finance in Indian Rupee in a longer term, as we did with the local institutions last year, definitely we would like to replace it step by step, but we are not in hurry. At the end, it should bring a better financial cost. This is what we want to emphasize.
Okay. That's very, very clear. My second question is just like if you can let us know your thinking, how should we think about underlying operating leverage in your businesses? Because when you look at your five year target, it seems like probably logistics business will grow much faster. That's why on a headline number, the operating leverage is not very visible. If you can talk about that, and how should we think about yield given the mode that your businesses have, given the currency depreciation. Is it mid-single-digit yield improvement on a underlying basis is a reasonable number? What is the track record over the past few years on underlying basis, if you can just share some color?
So I think, so very, very good question. Thank you so much. As you have seen last five years, right? I'm saying very broad, yeah. I'm not giving you the accounting statistics. Cost per ton for us is almost flat.
Okay.
Revenue per ton is increasing. You can include the INR depreciation in it. The difference you will see that it is our pricing power and the services we are providing in addition to the only handling charges. There are three factors in revenue per ton increasing. Number one, we are adding services. Number two, the exchange rate. The number three is pricing.
Repricing.
Sorry.
Contract repricing.
There's pricing, exchange rate, and there's one more thing. I'll come back. I forgot. There are three things.
Sure
which are improving the revenue per ton. Cost per ton is almost flat. When I say almost flat, I'm talking about absolute inflation, right?
Yeah
Offset by productivity. Our target is to keep exactly flat for the next five, six years. How we will do that? By investing in the automation. Now if Vizag is doing 30 with automated cranes is doing 30 moves per hour, Mundra is doing 26, 27 per hour. You know, we will start improving, we will keep on improving the productivity. If my, you know, I have diesel trucks, I have GSUs which are diesel, replaced by electric. They are 24/7. Put up the charging stations at our port. As you know, within 1.5 year, 100% of our ports will be by renewable energy. We make our own renewable energy. Our renewable energy is competitive.
There are a lot of things which we have planned to keep our cost per ton flat and keep on increasing the revenue per ton. That's why we are saying that we are very comfortable even with the inflation, that we will keep 70% and above the EBITDA margin. At the end, goal is to give you better return on capital. That we can only do that if we have a healthy operational margin supported by a utilization of the fixed assets.
Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you. Have a great rest of the evening.
Thank you.
Thank you, Paras. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Sumit Kishore from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Good evening. I'll add my compliments to the long list already. I have a couple of questions. The first one is that it's been over three weeks since the ceasefire announcement, but the vessel crossovers in the Strait of Hormuz are still constrained. You know, if we can crystal ball gaze here, probably that if the situation remains like this for perhaps another month or two, what would the high charter rates mean for Adani container volumes or the crude and LNG volumes that are going through that strait? What has been your experience in April, and how does this graduate if we have another few weeks of this disruption? That's the first question.
Yeah. Thank you. I think, I'm on Twitter, I look at Twitter to know what will happen in next one hour. I can't, I can't say with you what will happen. What we are doing at our end is to make sure that we have adaptability and flexibility. I think what India has seen is absolutely no impact on the crude. There is a coastal shipment which is coming on the crude. There is now this new route which is open, crude will continue to grow or continue to be supplied. LPG is something which is a question, you know, LPG will soon slowly will be replaced by PNG and the electricity.
Electricity is again coal. I would say that imported coal or coastal coal, everything will be replacing. In terms of cargo, drop in LPG. Anyhow, LNG for us was just 6, 7 million metric ton out of 500. It doesn't change our narrative whether LNG is zero or LNG doubles.
Sure.
I would say, definitely, the impact, which I would say are the commodities like scrap or, you know, which comes to Nhava Sheva and Nhava Sheva to Tuna Port. You would have seen in the month of March we had a drop in Tuna Port. That was mainly because of scrap and paper, which is imported. These are the commodities which are not, to be honest, sorry for that, these are not very strategic mid to long-term businesses, right? They are very seasonal like iron ore. We must not be dependent on that.
Sure.
We have opened up the new businesses. You would have seen that typically iron ore is growing, which has the least impact of these commodities because they are, we have more industrial goods. I think slowly and slowly we have to adjust to the new normal. Let's not keep waiting that situation will be better tomorrow. That's what I can say today.
Exim container volume will also find another route, long, longer route, and ultimately the volumes will stabilize.
Yeah. This is what is happening even today also.
Yes.
That's why the freight cost is, has increased. They are not following the normal route, or they have more waiting time, or they have something else, or they have a shorter route. They have shorter route. In Vizhinjam we have shorter route vessels, but more vessels. Definitely our efficiency is getting impacted, but that's life. Let's adjust our life to the new normal.
Very clear. The second question is on cash flow from operations. I couldn't find any comment in the presentation or the press release. I think you're targeting around INR 180 billion+. Now that you've done a EBITDA of about INR 228 billion+, how has the CFO behaved? With the growth numbers that we are seeing or we are targeting for the next financial year, does that follow suit in terms of the CFO to the EBITDA to CFO conversion?
If you see, almost 85%-90% of our cash flow comes through from EBITDA. I think that won't change. That profile remains the same, and it will continue. Yeah.
Okay. This time around also in the full financial year, it would have been 85% of EBITDA number.
Absolutely. We are INR 20,300 crores as of this year. Yeah.
INR 20,300 crores. Okay.
Yeah, others will also see that.
Uh-
It's on. He's asking for this slide.
Go through. Go through.
Yeah, yeah. We have it on FY 2026. In the ambition plan also. Slide 22 of the ambition plan has that information.
Okay. Okay, okay. Just one clarification. Now
We made it very simple so that you don't have to go through our line by line P&L. You can see the transition from revenue till till end.
Perfect. Just one clarification. I mean, because the trial runs have happened and now at JNPT both upstream and downstream for DFC. What is holding back the final commissioning or in case you have any sense now?
I'm not the spokesperson, but only thing I know that it has not started.
Got it.
Even if it starts-
Thank you.
Even if it starts, as CONCOR MD, Mr. Sanjay Swarup has said officially last time, in his analyst call that still there are two choking points. Let's see that when and how it will be effective. Even if it is effective, the catchment area of JNPT and catchment area of ours are totally different. Second, we still have the advantage of two slabs on the rail cost. Definitely, JNPT carrying JNPT connecting with DFC will improve the delivery to their customers. Will have no impact on our business. That's what we said last time.
Very clear. Thank you and wish you all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ketan Jain from Avendus. Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Ketan, your line is open.
Yes, yes.
Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. First question is, are our ports Mundra and Vizhinjam benefiting from some realignment of shipping line services due to the West Asia conflict? If yes, then by how much?
We cannot see, we cannot. It's difficult to quantify it, but for sure they are getting benefited. They are also, at least Mundra is getting benefited, but Mundra is also getting impacted. For sure Vizhinjam is getting benefited, in terms of volume. That's why we are accelerating the Vizhinjam phase II. Soon we will also start working on the exim cargo for Vizhinjam because there's a huge potential in the catchment area of Vizhinjam for exim. We already, you know, you would have seen that. Already have the approvals for the rail connection and the highway connection. I don't know how many years it will take, but at least there are approvals. There's a huge potential. We are accelerating the investment in Vizhinjam for phase II.
Colombo. These two will really be great. Mundra little bit complex because it's mix of everything. Mundra is benefiting, but Mundra is also impacted.
Understood. Mundra container growth was at around 4% versus JNPT at 12%. As you mentioned, the primary reason is because of Mormugao?
I don't want to be very optimistic. Let me tell you, I think it's very important to understand how the JNPT works, right? They have the capacity. The capacity more than they require. We have the capacity more to be required. What happens? After this disturbance, more than 90% of the vessels are coming out of the window. I will try to be flexible, I will try to be adaptable, they have an empty playground. With a warm welcome, they are accepting every vessel. Definitely they will have a better advantage in terms of in terms of that. Now the question is growing at what cost and what profit? I think that is also the second question which we should ask.
You know, as I said before, we are waiting for our CT5 to be open. Again, we will do only the meaningful cargo which is bringing high realization. Of course, we can do this service which we are doing because that is for the country. At the end, I would say that in addition to the % growth of volume, it's also important to see what is the realization, what is the margin each port is creating.
Understood. Understood, sir. That answers the question. In our international volume of around 22 million tons, how much is NQXT contributed in this?
Roughly about 11 million tons.
INR 11 million.
11 million tons. And sir, also if you could split the rest in Colombo, Haifa and Tanzania, how much volumes?
Yes, maximum growth is coming from Tanzania, from Colombo.
Colombo. Tanzania roughly does about 1.1 MMT a month. Israel is running a number of about between 0.7 to 0.9 a month. Colombo does about 120,000 to 125,000 TEUs a month. That's the rate at this point.
Understood. Sir, if you can give us the number for the fourth quarter, you shared this the same last quarter as well.
11 now is your NQXT. You will have roughly a little over 3 million coming from Tanzania. Approximately, 2.5 to 2.6 coming from Israel, and the balance is Colombo.
All right. Yeah.
Understood. Just a last question on the ROC of logistics. What would be the capital employed in logistics for this ROC?
Sorry, you're asking for the-
Logistics capital employed in next five years.
We currently have.
As in the current capital employed.
Acha, current. Okay.
Yes.
$2,600 .
Understood. Those are my questions, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Pulkit, your voice is cutting out, sir. Yeah. Pulkit is free hold in case Sujeet.
Sure. Can you hear me loud and clear, sir?
Yeah, yeah, we can hear you well.
Okay. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is in your estimation of the 850 million domestic cargo, what is the rough estimate on what you'll be doing in terms of coastal shipping by then? If you could share any breakdown there.
Yeah, I mean, it's difficult to estimate because as I said before, all of a sudden we have growth in imported coal and coastal. Today, I would say that all India coastal is increasing roughly at 5% when exim went down by 3.5. If I look at the energy growth, I would say that still coastal coal will keep on increasing between 6%-7%.
That's useful, sir. My second question is, over the next five years we are estimating about $1.2 billion-$1.3 billion of CapEx on marine. Again, if you could outline what is the medium-term plan there? Are we looking at doing more in other countries globally? Like, just some thought process on how we look at our marine business outside of what we are doing for our captive usage.
Okay. Pulkit, I'll just clarify one point before Shunya responds. See, our marine business or our marine vertical does not include the captive ports. Okay? The ports, the tugs that work in our own ports for customers are consolidated under domestic ports. Marine is entirely a third-party business for us. All vessels under marine vertical are deployed exclusively for third-party customers. Right? Just one quick hygiene point.
I think building on that, this is what we did. Now we finished roughly 8% of our business, which is marine now in terms of revenue. This is the consequence of the strategy which we did. In India we have 77% market share on the near tugs. We acquired Astro with more than 20 vessels at that time. Those vessels are offshore tugs. Offshore vessels used as anchor hand-handlers, barges, but mainly the workboats. Workboats have an advantage of having mid to long-term customer contracts, but also not as much cyclic to the trade as compared to the shipping business, right? Very sustainable, robust, consistent business, right?
Because if our offshore vessel is deployed in oil and gas refinery in Abu Dhabi, it has a mid to long-term contract. Nothing to do with the shipping trade going up, going down, right? That is the reason we got into the offshore business. Now, when we bought Astro, we have more than 20 vessels. Now we have more than 50 vessels. We have Middle East, we have North Africa, we have West Africa, and now we are getting into Europe.
Very soon you will hear that our vessels are deployed in Europe, which means learning from West Asia crisis, we are redefining our offshore marine strategy to also include the Mediterranean Sea in our offshore vessel deployment, and this is part of corporate risk management.
Sure, sir. Since you've got, like, the business is significantly larger now, and obviously there's already so much disclosure, but would love to get more color on our marine plans and how the revenue profile there moves. My last question is, again, on CapEx for others. We're looking at INR 6,000 crore-INR 8,000 crore in technology, decarbonization and others, which also is pretty significant. Any, again, rough cut breakdown of what this would entail, like in terms of decarbonization and other CapEx? What exactly are we looking at over the next five years?
Pulkit, it's a combination of multiple line items. Let's say, as you know, we have a public commitment for net zero by 2040, and we recently signed up for TNFD as a biodiversity reporting framework, where we have a guidance for 2050 net positive biodiversity. These initiatives typically entail CapEx, which is in the nature of higher renewable electricity. It could be in the nature of higher sequestration activity, more plantation, mangroves, et cetera. It will also typically entail active reduction of our emission footprint, which means that we will have substantially higher volume of battery-operated trucks within our premises. We will have a very large part of our equipment running on electricity as opposed to diesel and things like that, right?
All of that is going to contribute to, significantly to the decarbonization plan and the biodiversity plan that we have over the next half a decade or so. In addition, technology is an ongoing initiative. You have seen various agenda items like strategic command center that we demonstrated at our last investor day. On the same line, there are multiple number of internal initiatives that are being taken from a technology standpoint to be able to step up efficiency levels, right? That's also going to be a very significant component. It's a healthy mix between tech upgrades, new technology adoption, AI adoption, and the fairly expensive decarbonization plans that we have.
So-
Sure
You know, sustainability is at our core, right, our core of the business. Sustainability for us is not cost plus. It's not regulation, it's not compliance, it's not disclosure. If you look at slide number 31 of our ambition 2031, you will see that all the investments which we are doing in sustainability has got an economical benefit. If I am investing in the electric trucks in Mundra, that is not only for environment, that is not only for ESG. You know, it is bringing me economical benefit. That's why I'm investing. Also in addition, it is contribution to the environment. The second, if I'm investing on the automation, it is bringing a better productivity of the crane, better productivity of the yard, better productivity of blah, blah, at the end it is bringing.
For me, technology is not a feature list of an equipment. Technology for me is a technology which brings economic benefit. Not only the decarbonization, but also the green port revenues. We know that, as per maritime world regulation globally, container vessels will have to adapt to the alternative fuels. In India, do we have the facility for the shore power, for example? You know, we are now making the provisions for the shore power because we know after 2.5 years, when international vessels will come to Mundra, they will need the shore power, and that will become our competitiveness as compared to our competition. Why we will be competitive?
A, because we are thinking and investing in advance. B, our shore power will be powered by the renewable energy which is affordable than the fossil energy. That's why it will bring the economical benefit. For us, investment in decarbonization and technology is to bring better productivity and to create new revenue opportunities.
Sir, can I take the liberty of asking one last question?
Yes, please.
Yeah.
Okay. Sir, no. Yeah. If... I mean, there were news flow around the group possibly looking at shipbuilding opportunity. If anything happens there on Mundra, is it fair to assume it will happen under Adani ports and logistics, or would it be a separate business?
You ask a shipbuilding and then in next quarter you will ask me what is your return on capital employed. What I will answer you, man?
No, sir. Every business requires seeding time, so we would not ask you that initially. I just want to understand.
Give me a break. You will not wait for 18 years. No, sir. I don't think that's our competency. Our competency is to build the infrastructure ecosystem and to run it efficiently and effectively. That's our competency. Our competency is not shipbuilding. If somebody comes and want to build the ship at our Mundra Port, we have the EC approval, we will give it. We are very helpful because it is good for country. Do we really want to ourself get into the shipbuilding? I don't think so. That's not our competency.
Perfect, sir. Thank you so much for that answer.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vivek from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Sure. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of results. I just have a couple of questions, one on the resumption of Tata Power's operations. With respect to that, what can we expect in terms of volume growth at the Mundra plant?
Boy, you can hear me. Where are you located? Mumbai?
Yes.
Yeah. You see the heat, right? They have to run at peak capacity. They have to run at maximum capacity.
Right.
I don't think. I think we have a weaker monsoon this year. Last year we faced the issue because there was a delayed monsoon, there was a heavy monsoon, and there was excessive renewable energy available because of hydro. If you remember, we had that discussion. This year I think we have this West Asia crisis where LPG is replaced, trying to be replaced by electricity. We have this peak summers, and we also have a weaker monsoon. We must have a tailwind over there. I don't know how much, but Tata Power has been asked to run full-fledged.
Sure. Just to understand in terms of volumes, like, what percentage of volumes from Tata Power can we expect to go to flow through our ports?
Vivek, look, in our previous transcripts, we have identified the volume loss that we've had in FY 2026 on account of CGPL. You might just want to refer to that. I would refrain from commenting on a specific volume from a one particular customer on this call. In the past, we have given references to the volume losses that we've had in coal in Mundra on this account.
Sure. Thank you. Secondly, in terms of Vizag expansion, what we see is we have a plan in place to expand the capacity from 1.6 million TEUs to 5.7 million by FY 2029. Will we expect the expanded capacity to be operational on a staggered basis, or will it be all at once as of FY 2029?
Step by step. Yeah. We call it phase II, but even inside phase II we have four steps.
Okay.
Don't ask when. Please, we can't disclose the detailed master schedule to external world, that's our competitiveness.
Sure. Okay. Yeah, that's it from my end. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Nidhi Shah from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my question. I wanted to ask what was the volume, revenue, EBITDA for the NQXT terminal that was recently added in our control?
Ma'am, we have not separately disclosed that, but I suggest you please take a look at the presentation we uploaded when we made the announcement last year in April. That has the detailed financials of Australia. That will give you a good sense of what numbers have populated into this quarter, this particular quarter.
All right. Secondly, in Mundra, you mentioned earlier in the year, because of Tata we had faced that issue, but specifically this quarter as well, we are seeing that coal at Mundra is slightly lower and all across the board as well. Do we expect this to resolve in Q1, or do you think this will take some more time for the volumes to come back up?
Where you are seeing, your April is not yet finished.
Sorry, we did not completely get your question. If you can just repeat.
In the annexures, in the Q4 presentation, it is mentioned that the coal import, basically the coal at Mundra is lower than Q4 FY 2025, significantly lower. Coal volumes across all ports in Q4 FY 2026 have been lower than the base year. Do we expect that the coal volumes will come up in Q1?
No, sorry. Sorry. You know, your question is great. I think Rahul Agarwal will make a separate call with you because I don't think we should look at coal as a coal. You have three kinds of coal. You have coking coal, where we have increased more than 7.5%. We have the coastal coal where we have increased 5.1%. Obviously, there is an imported coal which is reduced, but that is in line with the country's strategic direction. I think please have offline discussion with Rahul Agarwal. We will give you all the data. At the end, coal is increasing.
The coal which is increasing is in the strategic direction of the country, which is, more coastal coal and more coking coal because to support the steel production.
Okay. Lastly, logistics volumes are not up significantly, but we're seeing that the EBITDA and the revenue per ton on that is growing significantly. What is the strategy behind that?
The strategy is very simple. We wanted to demonstrate that we can give you double-digit return on capital employed. We adjusted our business mix to give you maximum return and build the confidence in you. Now we will push the volume.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Sir, we take one final question.
Please, one final.
Yeah.
That was the last question, sir. Over to you for closing comments.
Thanks.
Yeah. So, we'll just take one. Rajarshi. Moderator, if you could just allow Rajarshi, please. He has one last question and then we close.
Sure.
We'll go into.
Sure.
Next opportunity.
One question.
Rajarshi, please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you for this opportunity. My question is, if I see your ports, India ports EBITDA performance, that's a good growth of about 10%, whereas volumes have been kind of flat on India port volumes. Is that because a part of your revenue is in dollars and you are getting a currency benefit here? Or the other way to think of it, if we didn't have this currency movement, what would your EBITDA per ton improvement have been in this quarter?
Rajarshi, you're right in that the realization is ahead of the revenue growth is ahead of the volume growth. Your observation is correct. It's not just currency, right? There's a combination of factors. It includes currency. There is also the component of the pricing changes that we take when contracts get revised. It is also a function of product mix. Containers being the fastest growing commodity and marine growing alongside it because these are dollar-linked cargoes, naturally benefit us as the rupee depreciates vis-a-vis the dollar, right? It's not just one item, but it's a combination of all of these three that is working to our advantage at this, at this in particular.
Thanks a lot for accommodating me. How much of your revenue, broad number, is in dollars? Is it like 30%, 20%? How much would be in dollars?
If you look at our cargo, roughly 40-45% of our cargo is containers. That's dollar-linked. Our harbour income is dollar-linked. Adani Harbour's income is dollar-linked.
Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Great.
Any closing comments, sir?
First of all, I really want to say, thank you for your continued confidence in APSEZ. I want to thank you for very thoughtful questions and the feedback and the advice which help us in improving quarter and quarter in terms of our communication, in terms of our engagement, in terms of our disclosure. That has helped us in preparing this very comprehensive, very detailed, and very simple, Ambition 2031. Though we see uncertainties, as I said before, our fundamentals are in place. Our strength, which is scale, which is integrated, right, makes us different than others. Our, whether it is port or logistics or marine, even the ports across 11,000 kilometers, even the 12 ICDs, trucking, rail, warehousing, everything is integrated.
We have that advantage of having scale plus integration. Scale plus integration is run by capability and the capacity to run it in the most efficient way, and that is demonstrated in our very strong top line and bottom line growth. This all is coupled with the India growth story and as well as the international growth story, which is coming from IMEC and China Plus One and so on and so on. With that, with that story in mind, we keep the target of growing at CAGR of 18%-19%. In good time, like last year, we could grow up to 25%.
Still, you know, we want to keep our foot on the ground and keep delivering between 18%-19% CAGR moving forward for next five years. Every quarter we meet and we demonstrate that our execution is our execution of the strategy is working the perfect way. Thank you once again, and look forward to see you next time.
Thank you. On behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.