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Sorry for the inconvenience and because of the technical glitch. We will restart again now.
Morning, everyone. This is Manish Agnihotri , and we are welcome to Q1 FY 2027 earnings call of Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited. We have Girish Aggarwal, Managing Director, and Santosh Breed, CFO. Girish will start with the opening remarks, the financial performance of the company and the overall business, and then we will open the floor for Q&A. Over to you, Girish.
Thank you, Manish. The company delivered a strong financial performance this quarter. Year-on-year revenue for the quarter was higher by 33%. EBITDA was higher by 45% with margins at 64%. EBIT was higher by 58% and net profit was higher by 46%. This includes duty benefit scrips of FY 2015, 2016, FY 2016, 2017, totaling at INR 31.6 crore. Excluding this, the underlying performance revenue was higher for the quarter by 20%. EBITDA was higher by 25%, with margins at 61%, which is a 200 basis points expansion. EBIT was higher by 31% and net profit was higher by 24%. In terms of volumes, containers were up by 3%, this is in spite of the Middle East conflict. RoRo was up by 53%. Dry bulk was down by 7%, largely minerals. Liquids was down by 47%, with a significant 63% decline in LPG volumes.
In terms of overall financial year outlook, we now are looking at an overall EBIT growth between 20% and 24% year-on-year. RoRo is expected to have a volume of about 260,000-270,000 cars. Liquids is expected between 1.3 million-1.4 million metric tons. Bulk is expected between 2.4 million-2.6 million metric tons. Containers is expected to have a 4%-5% increase at approximately 700,000 TEUs. I will pause here and then answer any questions that you may have.
Thanks, Girish. The floor is open for Q&A. Vito, please go ahead with your questions.
Yeah. Morning, Manish. Thank you very much for the guidance over here. Could you please repeat the guidance again because you were a little fast and it is very difficult to grasp over the line?
EBIT growth of 20%-24%. Containers approximately 700,000 TEUs, about a 4%-5% increase. RoRo at 260,000-270,000 cars. Liquid between 1.3 million-1.4 million metric tons. Bulk between 2.4 million-2.6 million metrics.
Okay. Thank you very much. Now, coming back to the containers performance right? I recall that during the last call you had guided somewhere around 5%-7% growth during the first quarter. Volumes did grow by about 3%. I just wanted to understand where was the gap. Do you think that the new service which is coming through from the July quarter and also what is the situation with respect to normalization of services? Any comments around that would be helpful with respect to the container cargos. Then I will move on to the other questions.
Container, essentially, it has been a difficult quarter with the Middle East conflict. We have one service, Shaheen, which is a Middle East service between us and Jebel Ali, which has remained suspended so far. We are now assuming it will remain suspended for the full financial year or the remainder of the year. That is a substantial 70,000 TEU - 80,000 TEU volume that we will lose this year because of Shaheen. What has helped is the growth from the new service, which started towards the end of June. We believe, of course, the full year impact will be in the next nine quarters. FI2, this is a Maersk service. What we have also done now is multiple opportunities of transshipment that are available. We have captured some of that proactively, and we expect that to stay with us for at least the next three to four months, and then we will see how that progresses.
Overall, the guidance is still around 4%-5% growth on the container volume for the financial year.
Okay. For this FI2 service with Maersk, which has started since the end of June, what is the contribution of this particular service? Is there some information available on that?
Yeah. It is early days. It is about four calls that have happened so far. Usually the services start small and then they start to grow. I would expect that Shaheen will be gone for 12 months and assuming nine months of this, but like to like basis, it will eventually turn out to be similar to Shaheen volume on a weekly basis.
Okay. With respect to the gas outlook, 1.3 million metric tons - 1.4 million metric tons is somewhere about 8% decline year-on-year. This implies that there is sequential improvement during the rest of the quarters compared to where we were in the first quarter. What are the trends which you have seen so far in July and middle of August? If you could allude to how the second quarter is performing with respect to liquid particularly, and if you can, about the rest of the cargoes as well.
No. I will not comment on this quarter's how we are doing from an overall volume perspective. I can give you overall guidance.
Okay.
Roughly a 0.3 million metric tons decline over last year's 1.6 million metric tons gives us an overall decline of about 18%. So we expect a 15%-20% decline in volumes on the overall liquid side. Liquids is obviously the first quarter is difficult, but now LPG has started to come from the U.S. So we do expect some catch-up happening in the remainder of the year.
Okay. And if Santosh can help us with the realizations, because it seems that on a like-for-like basis, excluding the scrip for the duty reversals, the realizations seem to be on the higher side. So if you could run us through the typical numbers, which you help us with. That will be insightful.
Sure. The realization for container is around INR 9,500-INR 10,000 per TEU. This change which has happened as compared to the previous quarter, driven mainly by two things. One, of course, the favorable exchange rate benefiting in this quarter. Second is the tariff increase what we have taken in January. Some of those have started materializing based on the contractual arrangement with the customers from this quarter. Those two are the key reasons for the change in the realization. Having said this, what you see in the numbers are substantially higher. One is the SEIS or the duty scrips, what we have mentioned. Apart from that, we also had some one-offs on the provisions reversal, as well as opportunities what we got on the ad hoc opportunities what we got for transshipment volumes.
The storage revenue on those also helped us to push the revenue up. That one-off is also sitting in this number. That's why you see the realization on the higher side.
Okay. For the bulk liquid, is it the same run rate as what we saw last quarter, or are you seeing—
That's right. Bulk remains at INR 650-INR 750 per metric ton. Liquid is a bit better with the cargo mix for this quarter, around INR 650-INR 700 per metric ton.
Okay. That's very helpful. Girish and Santosh, both of you, if you can help me with, we have seen a lot of news flow about containers being backlogged in most ports in India, be it Mundra, be it Nhava Sheva. There are even reports of carriers having to skip calls because they cannot load or offload because of the excessive waiting times. If you could help us understand what kind of congestions, if at all, there are any in your port and if there's no congestion or if it is a manageable level, are you seeing an opportunity to capture ad hoc calls because your peers are unable to handle those vessels?
No. Currently, there are no congestions in Pipavav. Monsoon, of course, always remains. At times it is difficult, but in general, our port is fully functional. No berthing delays largely for any vessels, which is the situation. That's why I said, in spite of the fact that we have [monsoons, Shaheen ], we are aggressively looking at tapping opportunities of transshipment, which we've done this quarter. We see that continuing to happen. Yes, that's going to happen. It is also, of course, subject to the draft and the vessel requirements, et cetera.
Okay. Is it fair to conclude that you might get some opportunities because—
Yes, we are already getting.
You are already getting that. Okay, okay. That makes sense. And the standard question with respect to the concession, any developments since we last spoke three months back?
Yeah, I think things are progressing positively with the Gujarat Maritime Board. Again, there are no red flags. Also nothing further to report where we are today vis-à-vis three months back. I will be coming back to you as soon as we have something from the GMB, but things moving in the right direction.
Okay. Thank you. My last question is, what are the CapEx outlay for this year, if you could help us understand that. Any changes since we last spoke? If you can put a number to what you expect the CapEx to be for this year, including the expansion which you are doing in the liquid jetty.
So no major changes what we spoke from last, but we expect close to around INR 200 crore to be spent. Again, major spend is happening on the liquid jetty, what we are going to commission in this financial year.
Okay. Thank you, gentlemen, and good luck with the recovery in liquids and containers.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Rajeev Rupani, please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. This is my first call and I am new to the company. I have a follow-up question on the concession agreement. You have said that the talks are progressing well. When do we come to know, because the concession agreement expires in September 2028. We will come to know in the year 2028 only or one year before or what? This is my first question.
It is difficult to answer that question. It entirely depends on the Gujarat Maritime Board and Government of Gujarat. I can confirm as soon as we get to a close, we will disclose it.
Okay. My next one follow-up question. Once we get the approval right? You have mentioned that a parent APM will invest about INR 17,000 crore for expansion. This total investment will be made by the parent only or GPPL will make investments? Could you clarify?
This is a GPPL investment.
The whole investment will be made by GPPL?
Yes.
Okay. Could you also guide us to how much will be invested in phases and how much time will it take? What will be a capacity afterwards? Some brief idea, please.
I can't give that brief idea today, Rajeev-ji. It is not possible. There's a lot of things that will go before we get to that discussion. I think the overall contours of INR 17,000 crore are broadly known, but we are still working with our master plan, business plan. We will discuss this with Gujarat Maritime Board whenever they want us to have that discussion, agree with them, and then come back. At this point in time, it is very premature.
Okay. My next question was this CapEx for the liquid cargo and our capacity is going from 2 million metric tons- 5 million metric tons . So when does it get complete, and how much will it add to our revenues approximately?
Yeah. Current closure is March 2027. So there are no impact this financial year. Then it will progressively grow. So I don't have ready information to give you in terms of what's the revenue additive in 2027, 2028. Are you looking at 2027, 2028 or?
Yeah, 2027, 2028, approximately.
Okay. But that we can get back to you separate.
Okay. What will be the capacity utilization you expect of this 5 million metric tons approximately once it is complete?
This will be phased over a period of time in terms of growth. Not the entire thing will come. I mean we will not fill the jetty up immediately as it gets commissioned. So it will progressively improve. But we expect over the next three years, we should be back to three to four years, we should be back to full.
Thank you. Thank you. That's it for my side .
Thank you. Nilota, please go ahead with your question.
Hi, sir. Good morning, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. I j ust wanted to ask on this additional revenue that we have secured aside of the duty scrips , these one-off provisions and ad hoc opportunities, can you quantify approximately how much did they contribute additionally to the revenue? Secondly, is that something we should assume at a sustainable rate for the year?
First of all, these are very ad hoc, right? These are not something which you can say is sustainable. The opportunities will keep on coming on transshipment, then of course, we'll use those opportunities and we'll have some additional, but I wouldn't be able to quantify what those revenues will be. Even on the provisions, again, these are one-off, so I would not like to quantify anything on that front as well.
Just a clarification, our realizations on the transshipment volumes compared to non-transshipment would be lower or—
Yes.
—[inaudible] if they are lower?
They're lower. However, what is also happening, and there was this question also on the congestion, et cetera, in the other ports. There is a additional, it comes with additional storage, it comes with additional. Even a lot of these transshipment is also reefer, so that also comes with additional charges. In general, I think we've been able to. There's not too much of a difference, at least what we saw this quarter. Let's see how that goes the next quarter.
Got it, sir. My second question was with respect to this Kandla-Gorakhpur Pipeline. Is that spur now complete? On the last, last call, I think you mentioned around eight- odd kilometers was pending.
Yeah, seven- odd kilometers. We are now expecting October this year. That's the current timeline that I have.
All right, sir. Those were my questions. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Mr. Rajeev Rupani, you have some more questions. You have your hand raised.
A follow-up question. What will be the dividend policy going forward since—
Yeah, sorry. The board will decide the dividend policy. As of now, there is no change to our policy. As and when the board decides a change, we would communicate that.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Parimal Nathani, please go ahead with your questions.
Can you hear me?
Yeah, please go ahead.
Yeah. Sir, recently the parent has made a lot of statements regarding the Indian markets. Is there any thought process? How do you see your business over the next three to four years?
Sorry. What were you talking about the parent? I am sorry. You are not very clear.
A.P. Moller has made a substantial commitment about India growth prospects and about investments in India in terms of ports and all. If there is any guidelines, how do you see your business going for next three to four years from here?
No, no. The guidelines, et cetera, or guidance given by A.P. Moller, I cannot comment. I can only comment only on a GPPL meta perspective. If you are saying what is the GPPL's outlook for the next three, four years, is that how I should see your question?
Yeah. If you can.
Yeah. I think, of course, a lot is dependent on the concession extension, so hence we do not go out and give our overall guidance for the next three to five years. So the right thing would be that we secure the concession and then we initially come back to what we plan to do. There are a lot of questions about the investment, et cetera. So, as the business plan unfolds, then we can talk about it. Again, as I said, a little premature. Let the concession thing get closed out first.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Any questions from anybody else? Yes, Kondanya, please go ahead with your questions.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions. First, on the realization side, even bulk looks slightly high. If I understood the numbers, it's INR 650, INR 750. Is there anything that we should notice?
So, yeah. The question is on bulk realization?
Yeah.
As I mentioned, suppose the realizations have been maintained, so there is no impact to realization. The change in volume sales is mainly because the cargo mix that has been handled.
Understood, sir. And sir, setting up the concession agreement, what is the kind of conversation that is happening with the Gujarat Maritime Board? Is it that they will call for a bidding and then there will be a RFI kind of thing, or is it some methodology that has been discussed, or is it a one-on-one negotiation? What are the options that are happening there?
That cannot be discussed here, Kondanya. I think it is suffice to say that we are progressing well with our discussions with Gujarat Maritime Board. Anything that comes up, we will then disclose. I mean at this point in time, there is nothing to disclose, neither there is any red flag that we are, at least at the management level, worried about.
Okay, sir. Good to hear that. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you. Urvisha Agarwal, please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Hi. I just had one question on the bulk side of the business, sir. In the last concall, we had a guidance of a decline of 8%-10%, while we see actually that we have seen a 15% rise in the bulk side of the business, which is entirely led by the minerals and others, when the fertilizers stayed flat. So my question would be, is it because of coal? Was coal the primary driver of it, or was it iron or cement or steel? If you could just put some light on this.
No. I think, I do not know what numbers you are talking about, but just from a numbers perspective, there is a 7% decline in the total dry bulk volume April, June 2025 versus April, June 2026. Which has a 2% decline on fertilizers, largely flattish. And when we spoke last time, I think the government came out with additional tenders and there is a strong push from the government to increase the fertilizer in the monsoon season. And that is something that we are seeing. The large decline that we see in dry bulk is essentially owing to limestone decline, which again, also comes out of the [RoRos].
Okay, sir. That works. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Nilota, please go ahead with your questions.
Hi, sir. Just a follow-up. On this SEIS income front, are there any more claims, any more amounts that we have claimed and could potentially receive over due course of time?
We have one scrip which is still pending, but that is not a substantial amount. It is not a one now for last financial year. Nothing major coming now.
Understood. Has this been paid out in cash as well, or is this something that has been accepted and not credited by the government yet?
No, these are scrips which are tradable. You can go and monetize it in the market, which has been done.
Understood. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Any follow-up questions with anyone else?
We lost her.
Please go. Any last questions? Yes, Karthik, please go ahead.
Just to understand the realization part a bit better, can you highlight other factors that are supporting this about 20%, 25% increase in [bio realization] on a quarter basis? Some more color on how much of this we should build in for the upcoming quarters.
As I mentioned earlier, if I look at containers, container realization we give for TEU, and that has changed from INR 9,500- INR 10,000 as compared to the previous quarter, an increase. This increase is mainly coming because of, one, we have taken tariff increase in January, but some of the contracts which were effective April, that increase got implemented in April, and also because of favorable exchange rate as our container tariff is in dollars. That is helping to improve this realization. Non-container more or less remains as is. No major changes in the non-container realization. I also do not see any major change happening in the coming quarter as well because the tariff increase now has been taken in and has been built in these numbers.
Can you just help us separate whatever the one-offs are in terms of the simple realization, how much of the realization by way increase coming from the structural factors and the mix and whatever is coming from the one-off that you mentioned?
Also, we don't really quantify the one-off, but on a very high level, just for guidance. On the total revenue, excluding the SEIS, you can say around 5% is the impact.
Understood. Thank you so much. That's all now.
Thank you. Srikanth, please go ahead with your questions. Srikanth, can you hear us? Please go ahead with your questions. Maybe Deepak, you can go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Are you able to hear me?
Yeah.
Okay, cool. Given that the cargo mix has, or revenue mix has changed over the past couple of years with liquids and RoRo coming back on stream right? And containers being flattish or slightly declining versus a couple of years ago. Could you help us remind what is the U.S. dollar exposure in terms of your revenues? What contribution it is for the overall revenues?
Almost 60%-65% of the top line is from container business and t hat container business is in U.S. dollars.
Okay.
The rest are dry bulk contracts, signing contracts, everything is in the local currency.
Okay. So liquids, RoRo are all in local currencies?
That's right.
Okay. Thank you very much. That's very helpful. That's it from me.
Thank you. Any more questions from anyone? Doesn't seem to be the case.
Yes, Urvisha.
Sorry, Urvisha, please go ahead.
I have just one follow-up question on the liquid jetty. For the past few quarters, we have been continuously seeing a decline on the liquid side of the business. Although it was all guided, we are also coming up with the liquid jetty. Do we already have some customers or contracts signed? Any guidance on that? Because then, the kind of guidance that we have for the year-end, for that, we will have to cover up a lot. Do we have any guidance on that?
Sorry, Urvisha, are you saying liquid volumes are declining every quarter?
Just one second. Yes. We've been seeing a decline in the liquid side of the business, if I'm correct.
That's not really how we see it, Urvisha. Fundamentally, the liquids have grown over the last three years, from a little less than 1 million metric tons to last year, financially, 1.6 million metric tons. That's sort of a 60% growth over the last three years. This quarter, there are minor variations quarter-on-quarter, 417,000 metric tons to 388,000 metric tons to 404,000 metric tons to 383,000 metric tons , which is part and parcel of the business. But fundamentally, if you look at, liquids business has steadily grown and we sort of stopped our capacities. That's the rationale why we went ahead with the additional jetty as our customers continue to ask for more volume. Yes, this quarter has been a fundamental decline, but that's because of the Middle East conflict.
We do see now some parts of LPG now coming back to the U.S. channels. Let's see how that develops. Aegis is also busy commissioning their 36,000 metric ton ammonia tank, which we expect to start work sometimes in September, October. That will add additional volume and additional liquid stream to the Pipavav Port. We do see continuous improvement and growth on the liquid side from a fundamental business perspective.
Right. That really helps. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Aditya, please go ahead with your questions.
Yeah. Thanks, sir. Apologies, I am reading something over here, ended up coming late on the call. That being said, just some clarification. When you say that you will see the Middle East line remaining closed, the Shaheen one remaining closed for the remainder of the year. Why would that be the case and why would then, is there a risk that it never comes back next year?
Sorry, this is an assumption we have made. We haven't seen Shaheen coming back since March. So March till now we are ending August. We don't see it in September as well. At this point in time, we have made that assumption that the conflict may continue for a little longer period of time and hence Shaheen will not come back. Of course, if Hormuz opens up, it is highly possible that it will come back again in its same shape and form. Definitely possible. But that's the assumption when we are giving the guidance.
Understood. So how much will you end up gaining once the scenario on this Middle East line normalizes and you've added the new line that you have to add?
So—
On an aggregate basis on future gains.
How much will depend entirely on when it starts, if it starts. There's just so many questions. It's best from a prudence perspective, to assume at this point in time, we do not see it coming in the financial year. When it starts, of course, we'll come back and talk about it.
Understood. On the liquids front, where you are and where you can be based on your capacity expansion. If that gap is [100], what is the visibility that you have today from customers already? How many more customers do you need to fill that gap in some sense or the time frame, sir?
There's no point talking about at a customer level. In general, if you look at India, in general, if you look at the growth, in general, if you look at how much LPG is imported into India and what will be imported as we keep moving forward, putting up the ammonia tankages, et cetera, we believe we would be needing additional jetty, and that is why we have built the additional jetty, which also is fully VLGC compliant. I would argue that this 3 million [metric tons] we would fill over three to five years.
Understood. Those were my two questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Sir, Rajeev Rupani, please go ahead.
Yes, sir, I have a follow-up question. The RoRo units have scaled up well from 42,000 units to 65,000 units. What kind of volume do you see over next, let's say, after two to three years? How much can this scale up further? Thank you.
Yeah. The guidance for this year, we have already given. We do not give guidance beyond this, at least at this point in time. A lot will depend on concession extensions. I have already given a guidance for 260,000 - 270,000 cars for this financial year, and we will stick to that.
Thank you.
Thank you. Urvisha, you have another follow-up question?
Sorry, sir. I missed the figure of where you mentioned that on an underlying basis, your total realization growth at SEIS should be, did you say 5% around?
Yeah, that's right. On an overall revenue basis, what I mentioned was that because the question was the impact on this one-offs on the revenue. That's why I tried to give a high-level quantification. On the total revenue, what we see is roughly around 5%.
So 5% would be the underlying realization growth or 5% is the total quantum of the one-off?
It is quantum of the one-offs.
Got it. Got it. Thank you.
Mr. Mohit , you can please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, please go ahead with your question.
Yes. [audio distortion]
Sorry. Your line is not clear, Mohit.
Yeah. Hello? Hi.
Sorry, Mohit. We can't hear you.
Can't hear you, Mohit.
Aditya, please go ahead with your question.
Yeah, just a follow-up question as in your margins have been steady at 60% if I take SEIS out. Obviously there are one-offs in the revenue. Some of the costs also have gone up meaningfully. Our sense is that this other expense item is now looking fairly vivid. Could you give us a sense of what is driving the growth in other expenses and what should we expect incrementally if there are any one-offs inside?
Yeah. In other expense, of course, we have in the current quarter, some additional CSR expense which was done as compared to the previous quarter. We also had made some provisions w hich has resulted in this increase.
Apart from this, there's no major change as such in other expenses. Otherwise, everything is as per the business. This variation, you see, depend on what activity we have taken. We have taken some activity for replacement maintenance this quarter. Those variations will be there. There was no significant increase in cost as such. This is maybe the quarterly variations.
Understood. If I have to put it simply, your ability to maintain and go beyond 60% margins as things normalize, SEIS goes out and existing operational numbers is pretty much there. That does not change.
Yes.
Got it. Thank you. That is the only question on my side.
Thank you. [Anjanir], please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the follow-up. Just one question. I think a couple of quarters back, if I recollect correctly, you spoke of some dredging-related activity which you need to incur. Can you please remind us on what is it about? Is it still on and therefore, what is the cost that you may need to incur for it?
You mean dredging, is it?
Yeah.
Sorry. [inaudible] Dredging cost what?
I think you spoke that you may need to incur some dredging-related expenses in FY 2027 or 2028, if I recollect correctly, about a couple of quarters back. If my memory serves me that. I'm just trying to understand is that on or is it something that is currently under or is it something that you need to incur? If you can help me understand that.
Sorry, un clear. Did we talk about capital dredging or did we talk about maintenance dredging here?
Maintenance, I think. I think maintenance.
Maintenance dredging is difficult to say. I mean this is like evaluation that we do every year, and based on the evaluation that comes out, we then take the dredging activity if needed.
Okay. Understood, sir. Any capital dredging activities planned, sir?
We have just done it for the liquid jetty.
Understood, sir. Thank you very much. That is it from my side.
Thank you. Any last questions from anyone? Seems to be [okay . Thank you very much for joining and have a good day.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you very much.