Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Q4 FY 2025 earnings call of Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd. This is Manish Abhinayotri, Company Secretary, and I'm joined with Mr. Girish Agrawal, Managing Director, and Mr. Santosh Breed, CFO. I'll hand over to Girish for his opening remarks, and then we will open the floor for Q&A. Meanwhile, I would request all of you to keep yourself on mute. I would request everyone to keep yourself on mute, and only when you are asked for a question, then you will be unmuted. Over to you, Girish.
Thank you, Manish. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Quick update on the quarter. Our quarter-on-quarter performance remained strong. We delivered a net profit of INR 1,090 million, which is higher by 57% over the same quarter last year, but that was also more due to a one-off provision of the previous year. EBITDA margins and EBIT for the quarter were at par with the previous year. Revenue was marginally higher at 1%. In terms of volumes, RoRo business continued to deliver strong performance with a volume of 49,000 cars and a growth of 42%. Liquid business delivered a volume growth of 4% with 402,000 metric tons. Both of these businesses delivered their highest-ever quarter volumes in Q4 2025. Overall, container volumes continued to be muted, but lower by 9% due to various geopolitical situations, which I guess most of you are aware of.
Bulk remained, bulk was lower by about 8%, largely due to lower minerals imports, partially offset by increased fertilizer volumes. In terms of the full-year financials, RoRo in terms of volumes, again, RoRo and liquid business continued their strong performance. RoRo increased by 70%, and liquid business increased by 14% year-on-year. Overall, container volumes were lower by 14%, again, largely due to various geopolitical situations, also due to lower transshipment volume, which we have spoken about in our previous calls. In terms of revenue, the overall revenue for the year was at par with the previous year. EBITDA and EBIT were higher by 1%, and EBITDA margins were maintained or slightly higher at 58.5%. Overall, again, net profit was higher by 13% at INR 398.4 million, but also largely due to one-off provisions and legal cases in the previous year.
In terms of outlook, we believe liquid volumes will continue its strong performance and expect a growth of 5%-7%. RoRo volumes are expected to continue its strong growth performance. We expect to grow by about 40%. Dry bulk will be flat. In terms of container, it's very difficult to, at this stage, really predict an outlook, but we believe on the container market, we still look at a 3%-5% growth. We will provide more detailed updates in the coming quarter. A tariff increase was taken of 5%, was implemented effective January. Considering various commercial contracts with our customers, we expect this to have an overall revenue increase of 2%-3%. Apart from this, the Board of Directors has proposed a dividend of INR 4.2 per share for shareholders' approval in the AGM.
This is over and above the interim dividend that was announced in November of INR 4. I'll pause here, and we will now take questions.
Thank you, Girish. Ms. Nidhi Shah, you can unmute yourself, please. Nidhisha.
Hi, am I audible now?
Yes.
Yes. My first question would be on the progress of the LPG of the terminal by AVTL. How on that, and what are the things in terms of volumes for FY 2026?
Sorry, I think there's some.
Can you repeat your question again, please?
Yeah. I wanted to ask you on the progress on the AVTL terminal. How is that going, and what are the volumes that we can expect for FY 2026?
Yeah. I guess let me answer this in two parts. One part is the new liquid jetty that we are building. We are progressing well in terms of various regulatory approvals. We expect to start work sometime in Q2 this year and expect go-live of the new liquid jetty in Q3 next financial year. That is the current expectation. The second part that I want to answer is AVTL is also in the process of commissioning two large cryogenic tanks, which is under progress. We expect those to be completed in the coming quarter.
Okay. What kind of volume can we expect from this expansion?
Our overall new liquid jetty, which we spoke about earlier, has a capacity of 3.2 million metric tons. As it gets commissioned, we don't expect it to have any impact this financial year. In terms of growth, as I was saying, we do expect a 5%-7% incremental growth on the liquid volumes. The full force of this expansion will only happen once the new liquid jetty is available.
All right. Thank you so much. My last question would be that for the containers, in the base quarter, we would have the Maersk service, right?
No. You mean the Jade service? Are you referring to the Jade service?
Yes. Yes.
No. No. No.
It was the same quarter last year. It was wrong there.
Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Yeah.
Thank you. Mr. Deepak Maurya, please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions. The first question was for if you could give us some color on the realizations as you do every quarter by the cargo categories. That will be helpful. The second question which I had was on the container outlook. We are now seeing a renewed push for front loading on the transpacific and carriers pulling capacity from every route possible. Does this mean that we could still see the kind of disruptions which we saw during the Red Sea diversions, which hurt your demand? If any color is possible on that, maybe. Thank you.
Maybe I'll take the geopolitical question. And you're right. What we have seen first in the April-May period, where both on the Asia West Coast and Asia East Coast, there was considerable decline in the capacity by over 25%-30% by multiple blank sailings that the various carriers did. But after the tariff pause announced recently, I think there's a significant update now we are seeing, at least on the transpacific. We haven't completely seen that on the East Coast, but it's only a matter of time that we see it. I think I would say it is possible. I think the pause today, my expectation is that the pause is around mid-August, which means the sailings from China should happen between now and mid-July at best, unless there is a further pause announced by the U.S. But at least at this point, that's what we are seeing.
There is also the other problem because of the blank sailings and capacity drop in the April-May period. The MT repositioning is also a bit of a challenge. It is not as simple as this, but we will see how that develops. That is why we are also a little bit cautious in terms of any outlook that we want to give on the container volume. We are watching the situation. As of now, on an immediate basis, we have not seen any immediate impact in the month of April-May, also with the filings that we have for June. We will see how that progresses. I think it will be better answered as we talk the next quarter.
Okay. Maybe if I can follow up on the same. We're seeing that after the exit of the Jade service, right now, we've had full four quarters of ex-Jade quarters, right? So the volumes are around 175-180 on an average per quarter. All else equal, should this be the new base from which growth should have rebounded if nothing else on the geopolitical or on the service rejigging had to happen?
Agreed. You're right.
Okay. Okay. Okay. On the same point, there have been some news as well about the Red Sea resumption, particularly by CMA CGM, right? There is little interest, of course, that there might be a few more carriers who might go that path. I know that this is a war-torn area, and it's very difficult to pinpoint when these services would resume. Just wanted to understand, as and when the services resume via the Red Sea, how does that impact capacity going through Gujarat Pipavav?
I think if that happens, capacity clearly gets unlocked, which could be put in the other trades. Currently, because of the Red Sea issue, there is a capacity outflow into that trade, which gets unlocked. Some of that capacity unlocking will help Gujarat Pipavav, especially on some of the COSCO OCL vessels.
Okay. Okay. That helps.
Again, I mean, we have to look at the timing, right? There is this whole, as you rightly called out, the capacity increase on the transpacific. We have not seen any on the east side, at least. I am very sure on the East Coast, also, the same thing will happen.
Okay. Okay. On the realization front?
Yeah. So the realization for container, the realization is in the range of around INR 9,000-INR 9,500 per TEU. For dry bulk, it is in the range of INR 550-INR 650 per metric ton. For liquid, it is in the range of INR 600-INR 650 per metric ton.
Thank you. Any possible guidance or color on what kind of margin level you should be expecting for the upcoming year?
Essentially, this full year was 58.5%, but there were a few one-offs. I think our underlying margins are more around 59%, 59.5%. I would still argue that our margin numbers for this year should be in the range of 59%-60%, EBITDA margins.
Okay. Okay. That's really helpful. Thank you. I'll fall back in the queue if I have any further questions. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
Okay.
Thank you, Deepak. Mr. Bhavesh Patel, please go ahead with your question.
Thank you for the opportunity and the great update, Girish, as well. I wanted to know about the progress on strategic CapEx plans that we are having in addition to the cryogenic storage you talked about. The second question is, do we see any competitive landscape change with the Vadhavan Port 2030 timeline? Anything that, if at all, we are considering? It is a long-term short, but again, from our strategic planning perspective.
In terms of investments, I just want to be clear. The cryogenic tanks is an investment by Aegis Vopak and not by us. Just so that is clear, our investment is more on the waterfront, which is the jetty that we are building. As of now, that is the stated expansion plans that we have. Apart from that, there are minor CapExs that continue within the port for a variety of reasons. Apart from that, there is no further announced CapEx. In terms of Vadhavan, as you also said, this is a little bit of a long shot, but I would still argue that there is enough and more local cargo in the port of Pipavav. Hence, we stand on our own, and that cargo cannot go anywhere. Also, as I think probably in other discussions, North India is landlocked.
Between us and Mundra, we continue to be the cheapest interland connected ports vis-à-vis Vadhavan or Nhava Sheva.
Great. Thanks. Yeah, that helps. Thank you. I'll fall back in line.
Thank you, Mr. Patel. Mr. Parimal Mithani, please go ahead with your question.
Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yeah. Firstly, give an update on your liquid jetty. Are we on track for the timeline? Secondly, in terms of Red Sea, do we see the worst is over?
On the first question, our goal lies with expected Q3 next financial year for the liquid jetty. I couldn't hear your second question for now.
Sorry. In terms of the Red Sea crisis, is it fair to assume that the worst is over in terms of the Red Sea? Or will it still have an impact on it?
No, no. I mean, the vessels are still not going through the Red Sea. Most of them are still doing the routing through Africa, under Africa, right?
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mithani. Mr. Kunal Tokas, please go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes, Kunal.
Just one quick question. If you can talk about the modal share for the port and if there have been any good initiatives from the regulatory side or if there have been any good situations or any hurdles encountered in the past year. Thank you.
Sorry. Which update module? Deepak?
Rail and road.
Sorry. Can you repeat your question, Kunal?
My question was on the modal share of rail and road.
Okay. It's broadly similar. I mean, we continue to have anywhere between 62% and 65% of our movement of cargo by rail, which is broadly stable. There's, in general, a 2% or 3% variation, but nothing fundamentally has changed.
All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Have a good day.
Thank you, Kunal. Deepak, please go ahead with your question.
Yeah. Hi. Sorry. I had a follow-up. You mentioned about some one-offs. I recall that in the third quarter, you did mention something in the range of INR 117 million towards repairs and maintenance and one-time IT and employee benefits, I think, if I recall. Were there any one-offs during this quarter, the fourth quarter?
No. There are no major one-offs in this quarter.
Okay. Understood. If you could also remind us if there are any one-off kind of events such as the dredging expenses, etc., which are due in the next financial year, that is, in the fiscal year 2026?
No plans as of now.
But we still continue to evaluate, at least at this point in time. Post the monsoons, we will do the evaluation, and then we will come to a conclusion on maintenance. We will have to do that post-monsoons.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Deepak. Mr. Bhavesh Patel, you have a question?
Yes. Thank you. Again, just checking on the Gujarat Maritime Board approval for our license renewal. I'm aware 2028 is the timeframe. You've been saying everything on track, but at the latest, when do we expect? The second question is around the CapEx for liquid berth. Will we be doing any debt raising, or if at all, it will be like internal accrual itself? Thank you.
On liquid, it's all internal accruals. There is no debt raising that we are going to do. In terms of GMB, again, I can say the same thing. Everything's all okay. There are no red flags. The final call timelines are decided by GMB. We are in no position to give a timeline.
Okay. Thanks for the response. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Patel. Mr. Rayaan Bhushan, can you please go ahead with your question? Mr. Rayaan Bhushan.
Sorry. Am I audible?
Yes, you are. Please go ahead.
Okay. Okay. Perfect. I apologize if this question has already been asked before. I'm just looking for some data points. What are the realizations for containers, dry bulk, liquid, and RoRo for the full year of FY 2024?
Yeah. So the current realizations are INR 9,000-INR 9,500 per TEU. For bulk, dry bulk, it is INR 550-INR 650 per metric ton. And for liquid, it is INR 600-INR 650 per metric ton. For RoRo, of course, we do not give any realization as of now. These are the only three business streams that we share.
Okay.
Sorry. You're not audible if you're speaking, Mr. Bhushan.
Can you hear me?
Yeah. Now we can hear you.
Okay. That's it. That's all I wanted to know. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you. Mr. Dhiraj Kripalani?
Yeah. Am I audible?
Yes, you are. Please go ahead.
Sir, what was our market share in FY 2024 or FY 2025? Sorry.
Overall, India market share is in the region of 4%.
Okay. Sir, in containers, if you could give only?
Containers only, I'm talking.
Okay. Okay. Sir, last quarter, you were talking about concession extensions. Any update on that?
No further update, Mr. Kriplani. Essentially, we continue to be engaged with GMB, and we await their decision. As I said before, there's no red flags, at least from what I know of at this point in time.
Okay. Okay. Sir, understood. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Anybody has any other follow-up questions? Doesn't seem to be the case. Thank you very much for—oh, sorry. Yes, Mr. Kunal Tokas, please go ahead.
Just one question. Can I know what your dividend policy is? Is it to maintain a consistent absolute number, or does it follow your profits?
It follows your profits.
Yeah. All right. And in case of a, say, a heavy CapEx investment, is it possible your dividends will go down?
It is possible.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Vipul Kumar Shah, please go ahead. Mr. Vipul Kumar Shah.
You're on mute.
You're not audible, Mr. Shah, if you're speaking. Okay. Maybe we get Mr. Parimal Mithani.
Hello. Can you hear me, sir?
Yeah. Please go ahead.
Sir, recently, in one of the business dailies, the bank paper, it was mentioned that Maersk plans to invest close to $5 billion in India. It mentioned the Pipavav Port as well on obtaining the approval from the Gujarat Maritime Board. Any further update on terms of what is the parent's position on that, sir, if you can highlight?
Yeah. No, I won't be able to articulate on the overall $5 billion number that you've talked about. I think that's more for the parent to clarify. From a GPPL perspective, there is an overall plan that you already have seen as a vision document of about $2 billion, subject to concession approval. We can only talk about details as we move forward post the concession extension.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Vipul Kumar Shah? I think we've lost connection with him. Mr. Rayaan Bhushan, please go ahead.
Hi. Sorry. Once again, just looking for some data points. Previously, I asked for the fiscal year of 2024. Could you give me the realizations for the same categories, containers, dry bulk, liquid for Q4 FY 2025 and full year FY 2025?
Sorry. The realization which I mentioned to you was for Q4 FY25. This is our current realization which was shared with you. As far as the full year is concerned, it was in the range of INR 8,500-INR 8,800 for container. Dry bulk and liquid continue to be more or less in the same range.
Okay. Do you have the same metrics for the fiscal year 2024?
For fiscal year 2024, it was in the range of around 8,000-8,500 for container. For liquid and dry bulk, in the range of around 450-600.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. You have your hand raised. Do you have any? Okay. Thank you. Mr. Shah, are you still connected?
Type of answer. He's in the chat.
Mr. Shah's question is, what type of revenue we will be getting from Aegis Vopak?
Yeah. The revenue from Aegis Vopak is more toward our marine services, what we provide them. That is the revenue that we get.
Yeah.
You have any other question, Mr. Shah? Mr. Mithani, please go ahead. You have your hand raised.
Yeah. I just wanted to have a follow-up. Any other further hikes in services in current year, sir, as last quarter, you guys were thinking we had an increase of 2%-3%? Any further hikes this year, sir?
Currently, there's no hike planned. We'll see how we move forward. Currently, there's no hike planned.
Okay.
Mr. Shah is asking, can you quantify the revenue from?
That is not possible. That's more commercial information, Mr. Shah.
Mr. Bharat Gupta, please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Just a quick question, sir. How much client addition were you able to do during the quarter? Also, with respect to the maritime service, was there any addition to our client port?
In terms of maritime service? Sorry, Mr. Gupta.
I think of APM, I think APM, we are dependent near about 30-odd %. So other than APM, were we able to onboard other clients as well?
For this quarter, in the container business, all clients remain the same that were there in the previous quarter.
For the next year, fiscal year, are you expecting something in terms of addition or in terms of approaching to the clients?
Of course. I mean, it's an ongoing exercise, Mr. Gupta, that we continue engaging with various customers at various levels. If there is anything that fructifies, we will get to know.
Sir, secondly, with respect to the Gorakhpur-Kandla pipeline, I think we'll be commissioning with respect to Q3 FY 2027. Is it in line with the Q3 FY 2027 with respect to liquid jetty record for the addition one? With respect to the pipeline, the incremental value addition which will happen will be primarily coming out from the new liquid jetty addition only?
See, again, our current liquid jetty has a capacity which we've spoken about, right? We can do anywhere between, depending on what commodities we handle, between 1.4 million-1.6 million. We are thereabouts, right? Yes, there is a clear Kandla-Gorakhpur pipeline that is coming up, which will potentially have the incremental capacity expansion for us. In this specific liquid jetty, our capacity is constrained to about 1.6 million at most. That's what we can handle. Any new volume coming in can happen in two ways. One, new jetty, which is a work in process, or B, increase of throughput on the jetty. That can happen either through different commodities or types of liquids that we handle. D, for example, cryogenic tanks that have now been put up. There's potential that the cryogenic tanks increase the throughput.
It is also important for you to understand that our current jetty cannot handle a fully loaded VLGC. We only can handle partially loaded VLGCs. That is also another constraint which gets rectified as a new jetty comes in. From our perspective, we only estimate an incremental improvement of 5%-7% in our liquid volumes this financial year.
Right, sir. Sir, last question. We were reading about some news article related to Pipavav getting connected to the expressway that has been held by Gujarat government. Do you foresee a substantial amount? Because currently, we are heavy on the rail side. Going forward, do you think the road side to pick up, and particularly we have a JV with the railways also? Do we see a drop with respect to the freight rates going forward as a move for loading the containers out through rail? How do you see it playing out?
No, we don't see a drop in overall rail volume. I think rail will continue to be the absolute best connectivity to the hinterland, especially in northern India. With this new expressway that you talked about, which I'm unsure when it's getting started, but not within this fiscal year, will help us get more road cargo to us, which currently doesn't come to us and goes to competing ports because they are closer.
Sure, sir. Again, thanks for answering my question.
Thank you. We have a question from Mr. Bhavesh Patel.
Yes. That is correct, Bhavesh. December 2026.
Right. Okay. Mr. Shah, you have your hand raised. Do you have any further questions? No? Anybody else? Anybody else has any follow-up questions? Does not seem to be the case. Thank you very much, everyone, for joining. Have a great day and a good weekend.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.