Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Harsha Engineers International Conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on the touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vishal Rangwala, CEO of the company. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Rangwala.
Thank you, Dr. Ja. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Quarter 4, Financial Year 2025, Post-Reserve Update call. As per our normal practice, our CFO, Mr. Maulik Jasani, will take you at greater length with key numbers. However, I'm assuming that most of you would have had a chance to go through that already. To begin with, let me talk a little bit about the whole overall environment, what we are in right now. We are passing through a very prolonged turbulent period, starting with the geopolitical tension and economic turmoil from the Ukraine-Russia war, starting two years ago, to the Israel-Hamas war, as well as followed by this terrorist war started by Mr. Trump, and now post that unfortunate Pell Gram incident and escalating tension between India and Pakistan.
However, we feel that amid all these uncertainties and tensions, we are, as a country, going to see some positive GDP achievement and growth, hopefully over 6%. I sincerely hope that things normalize over a period of time, hopefully soon. With that, specifically at Harsha level, I'm happy to report that, notwithstanding one-off provisioning we have made in Q4 for the impairment of our investment in Harsha Romania, and a one-time bad debt write-off taken in our solar division, overall, India engineering business has continued to show a robust performance, and our prospect in relation to our overall India business continues to look very bright. Let me first talk a little bit about our pain point, which is continued stress in Harsha Romania.
As mentioned earlier, we are in the process of completing a major long-term strategy for Romania, which could involve a significant overhaul or resizing of Romania operations. In the meantime, on a conservative basis, taking into consideration the continued weak demand scenario in Europe and based on certain indications given by one of our major customers about their possible reduction in offtake, we have made a one-time impairment provision of around INR 95 crore in the value of our investment in Romania in our standalone books, which has translated into a net one-time provision of around INR 28 crore in consolidated financial statement for FY 2025. On a positive note, the performance of our China subsidiary has remained satisfactory in Q4 and has therefore positively contributed both in terms of EBITDA as well as PEP level for Q4 and FY 2025.
Going forward, we anticipate this positive contribution to continue from our Harsha China division. Our India engineering business has posted a strong growth in Q4, both in top line as well as the bottom line, aided by restocking and resumption of normal purchases by most of our key customers. We have also started getting early signals of revival in industrial demand in Q4, and we are hopeful that this trend will continue and become more distinctly visible in coming quarters. Our development of new SKU and our interaction with our key customers for medium to long-term outsourcing business also is strongly continuing. I'm extremely delighted to inform you that our bronze bushing business has really grown significantly in this financial year, and we have recorded a turnover in excess of INR 100 crore in this division for financial year 2025.
Going forward with the additional capacities in our new greenfield facilities coming in production very soon, I expect this business to continue to grow strongly, clocking at least about 30% growth in financial year 2026 over 2025. Similarly, the stamping business continues to grow at a decent pace, and we are also in the process of developing quite a few value-added stamping, which should start yielding results in coming quarters. Further, the sales to Japanese customers look flat, and we are getting signals from key Japan-based customers indicating that their offtake is likely to increase in coming quarter. Similarly, although sales of large-sized bearing cages appear to be flat, we believe that the sign of revival in industrial demand becoming stronger, the sales of this segment should also increase going forward. Another noteworthy feature is our solar division.
In this quarter, after critically evaluating the recovery possibilities of old sticky debts of two of our major customers, we have written off a bad debt of around INR 20 crore. We have also made an ECL provision of around INR 5 crore as per Ind-AS provisions, but we are quite confident of reversing the ECL part of the same going forward. It will be evident that if we adjust this one-off impact in the solar division, the EBITDA for the quarter and the year shows a decent growth in financial year 2025. This division continues to enjoy tailwind in terms of strong demand aided by a favorable solar energy ecosystem, and we are expecting a healthy growth of top line in the current financial year in this division based on orders on hand and in pipeline.
Needless to add, the philosophy and strategy remains same: continued focus on small and mid-sized projects and not involving major risks or not requiring significant capital allocation. Now, in terms of our targeted growth in coming financial year, we believe that while India engineering business should grow in low teens on a consolidated basis, we expect at least a higher single-digit growth in financial year 2026 in top line and a much stronger growth in the bottom line. As we continue to see volatility in the global market, it is difficult to project with very high confidence. However, that's what we right now see. With this, I thank you all for continued support, and I would like to turn this over to Mr. Maulik Jasani, who will talk us through numbers in more detail. Maulik, over to you.
Thank you, Vishal Rangwala, for the business overview. Hello everyone and good evening. For the quarter ended March 2025, for our engineering segment at consolidated level, we have achieved a top line of INR 330 crore. We have reported the consolidated EBITDA for engineering segment of INR 38.3 crore, however, adjusted EBITDA is of INR 66 crore after adjusting the impairment on consolidated goodwill, while the EBITDA in the previous quarter was INR 48.2 crore, and last year's same quarter four was INR 60.6 crore. For the whole year of 2024-2025, engineering segment at consolidated level have achieved top line of INR 1,269 crore, against top line of INR 1,227 crore in the previous year. We have reported the consolidated EBITDA for engineering business at INR 199 crore, while adjusted EBITDA is of INR 227 crore after providing impact of the impairment for engineering segment, while the last year EBITDA was INR 198 crore.
For the quarter end year ended, margin has improved, as explained by Vishal, mainly on account of increase in sales, legging slight pass-through, better product mix, better cost control, and financial income improvements. As discussed, in engineering segment, adjustment of impairment is INR 27.7 crore at consolidated level and INR 95 crore at standalone level, with reference to investment of our Romania subsidiary. While in our solar business, we have achieved annual revenue of INR 139 crore, and we have reported EBITDA loss of INR 14 crore after giving impact of the bad debt write-off of around INR 20 crore and providing ECL provision of around INR 5 crore. As an overall working capital cycle at consolidated level, remains around 126 days for the year end March 2025, against the 144 days in the previous quarter and 142 days in the previous year, March 2024.
The company has incurred a capex of INR 78 crore in the last quarter at consolidated level and INR 209 crore for the whole financial year 2024-2025, which includes capex incurred at our new site, Greenfield Sites of Harsha Engineers Advantage, as well as ground-mounted project of 10 megawatts in our Harsha Engineers Company, which is under installation. For this whole year, the revenue from bushing was around INR 102 crore, from stamping was around INR 55 crore, LSB business was around INR 43 crore, revenue from Japanese customer was around INR 65 crore. With this brief note on financial numbers, I request the operator to take the Q&A from the participants. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone 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. The first question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Exeta Security. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity, sir. Firstly, could you give us a flavor on.
Please go ahead with the question. Your line is unmuted.
Hello. Am I audible?
Mr. Patel, can you hear us?
I can hear you. Am I audible?
Yes, you are now. Please go ahead.
Yeah, now you're audible. Thank you. Thank you very much for the opportunity, sir. Firstly, could you give us a flavor on how pricing has behaved in the fourth quarter of FY 2025 as well as for the full year in both domestic market as well as exports that we do from India? Any material change to this trend that you envisage going forward in FY 2026?
Hi, Harsh. If we talk about the past year, I think we have seen some benefit of price reduction, which has come through specifically on the steel side, and that is being passed through to customers. We have seen some lag, and specifically, I would mention that in Q4, that lag was a little bit larger. Otherwise, we have not seen any major change in pricing overall with our customer, and as you know, we have a continued pass-through mechanism in place. That being the case for the coming year, also again, it's a lot of volatility, as I mentioned earlier, so difficult to predict what direction it's going to go.
So you benefited in the fourth quarter. Is my understanding right?
Yes, out of increased margins in fourth quarter, one of the parameters is also the lagging price pass-through.
Absolutely.
Understood. Perfect. My second question is on exports. How do you see exports panning out in FY 2026, especially since we had signed a major sourcing contract last year, which is supposed to give us good revenues in the second half of FY 2026? Do you see at least a single-digit growth happening in the regular export business, excluding this new contract for the next year?
It's a very difficult question to fully answer because our signals we are getting from our customers are very varying. Even though some of them have predicted growth, and thereby we are projecting some increased demand and preparing for it, overall, we are looking at some growth. Difficult to exactly quantify how much that is for our regular business.
Understood. We appreciate that. Thank you very much for answering my questions. I'll get back in the question queue.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Anwani from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Right. Thanks for taking my question. First question on Romania. You highlighted that the pain is very prolonged, and we have provided for INR 95 crore impairment for Romania. At one place, you also highlighted about the customer offtake not happening. If you could clarify now, what are we building in for Romania when we are guiding the growth numbers which you have given? Second, is this customer offtake related to India plant, or if you could clarify more on that also?
I'll start with the second question. This offtake is Romania from our Romania facility for our Europe-based customers. One of our customers has indicated that they are going to buy very less or a lot less semi-finished products from us from Romania, and that's what has triggered this bad debt impairment activity. What was the question?
What is the waiver?
In terms of the plan, actually, we are in the process of formulating a very comprehensive long-term plan, as Vishal mentioned in his initial opening remarks. I think it is going to be a long-term strategy. The idea is obviously to ensure that whatever assets we have, how gainsfully we can utilize, and how we can make the whole thing smooth. Very obviously, the fact that we have provided for impairment would mean that, yes, the Romania operations cannot continue at the current level in this form. Give us maybe two or three months more, and we will get back to you.
Okay. Understood. Are we factoring anything from Romania when we guide for high single-digit growth on console?
Of course, something coming definitely from Romania.
It is very good.
Okay. Sure. And sir, any reasons why the Japanese—I think that was also our long-term vision to increase the wallet share from Japanese customers—and currently, we understand that it is not what we expected? Any reasons and expectations for FY 2026 on Japanese wallet share?
What we shared is that due to various projects—I think we have shared this last quarter also—that due to various projects delaying due to sometimes technical reasons, some few other reasons, our this year's plan of growth with Japanese customers has not materialized to the extent we expected. Partly, also, the demand from a global demand also played a role. Based on various interactions with the Japanese customers, we are seeing more projects are coming online, more products are productionized from our side. We are expecting to go back on the growth path with Japan-based customers in the next financial year. The development pipeline for Japan segment continues. There is no real, I mean, material alteration. It is just taking more time. That is the whole thing.
Right. Lastly, on solar, is there any more doubtful debt, and what is the total debt on the solar side?
Yeah. So effectively, we have provided the major doubtful debt as a bad debt. As mentioned in our commentary, we have also provided for the ECL provision as per Ind-AS norms, which is around INR 5 crore. We already mentioned that we are expecting that this will be realizable very soon. Accordingly, we do not have anything on the books left.
Okay.
Yeah. These are intact protracted negotiations that are happening over the last two-three years, post-overtakeover. Quite a significant portion has already been recovered. Some portion is yet to be recovered. What we felt is probably not going to come, we took a conservative view and wrote off in one go. There are no further ifs and buts about it.
Sure. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks. That's all from my side.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikunj Doshi from Bay Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good evening. Just regarding this bad debt, I just want a clarification. Who are these clients? I mean, are these utilities, or who are these clients, basically?
These are the old receivables pertinent to the EPC contract done by the solar business. There are multiples, including two major. We would not be able to give the name. Yes, these are very old, and we are not having running business except wherever there is an O&M commitment. Even in some cases, the legal proceedings for recovery are going on. We have been advised not to really divulge more.
Sure. We have filed for NCLT, I mean, for recovery and bankruptcy for them, or how are we planning to recover?
No, we're at a different level. The litigations are at a different level, Meghwantji.
Okay. Any hope of recovery?
100%. What we are hoping to recover, we have not written off. What we are not hoping to recover, we have written off.
Okay. Okay. When we acquired this solar business, we knew about this.
Of course. 70%-80% thereof has already been recovered.
Okay.
There has been a lot of dialogue on this, and there has been quite a bit of recovery after all.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Thanks.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question, please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Yash Purbhe from Inved Research. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is, Ministry of Commerce has recently issued a draft on Quality Control Orders for standardizing the bearings in India, especially to curb the imports from China. How are we seeing this development? Do we expect the bearing sector in India to grow rapidly?
We believe that is quite possible. However, these bearings which are imported from China may not be the grade one quality all the time. I am not able to fully answer by saying how much of that benefit will come to us and all that. Having said that, we definitely see that long-term government is pushing to ensure that whatever is imported, if it can be made in India, should be made in India. We are very supportive of that. We should be beneficiary of that. We will support that at our level. It will not be that easy, and it will not be an overnight transformation. However, we believe this is the right direction, and we should benefit out of it. Directionally, China plus one has always remained our long-term strategy as well. This actually, in a way, supports this.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jason Soans from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, I just wanted to understand, just from a broader sense, of course, bearings find most of the applications in the industrial side and auto side. Of course, there were a lot of plans for localization and all these things by the big three as well in terms of your customers. Sir, how was that? I mean, of course, recently, there has been a slowdown in the industrial side, and there has been some CapEx pushback also. How is the demand, sir, now looking from your clients? Just wanted to understand. I understand there are a lot of uncertainties on the horizon. Just from a ground level, how is it looking? Probably you can give us a year's perspective, at least in terms of that.
Jason, it is extremely difficult for us to do a three-year version of this. Actually, our customers are struggling to give us a good one-year version of this.
No, sir, actually, I asked for a one-year version only, actually. I asked for a one-year version only. Three years, I understand there are a lot of things on the horizon. Uncertainties are there. I just asked you for a one-year version only. How is it? I know demand is on a slow wicket recently. Just wanted to know how was it from a ground-level perspective.
From our point of view, and remember, we are clear to, I mean, we are a supplier to bearing industry. I would not really be able to fully answer the bearing demand. Having said that, we are seeing some improvement across global demand. With the limited information we have, we see that there would be some improvement. However, our customers are cautiously telling us that this demand improvement is sustainable or not. We are not sure. The forecasts are, take this, but it will change again, kind of inputs we have received. There is a lot of volatility in general, is what we are seeing in the market. Still, at our level, there are two aspects. One, we are a major supplier to almost all key bearing companies in India.
Two, based on our own interaction with various customers, we still feel confident that overall, at India level, we should grow, as Vishal has indicated in his opening comments, in lower teens at least. It is a lower double-digit, not a single-digit growth in India that we are anticipating. That is on several counts. We have strengthened, we have bushings. We are seeing a lot of traction in bushings. For example, we are talking of a very significant 30%-40% growth in bushing segment. We are anticipating defense sector factors. I think at least in an immediate way for India, Harsha Engineers International, I think we will continue growing decently. This is all we can say at this point in time.
Sure. Thanks for that. Sir, just wanted to understand this valuation impairment. Now, if possible, I mean, on a standalone level, it is INR 95 crore, and on a consolidated level, it is INR 28 crore. Why is the difference? Is it possible to explain simply if it is possible? Yeah, because on a standalone, it is INR 95 crore, and consolidated, it is INR 28 crore. Yeah.
Yeah. Jason, basically, at a standalone level, it is like a fair value minus our investment. We have invested around INR 143 crore at a standalone level. We have raised it to INR 48 crore by providing for INR 95 crore of its appreciation.
Based on valuation.
Based on the fair valuation done by the registered valuer. Now, at console level, there has already been a lot of things happen since our acquisition. Since we have acquired, whatever loss booking at the console level, that has been removed because my book value of this investment at consolidated level has already reduced by INR 670,000,000. That is a loss we have already booked since 2017 of our acquisition. That INR 670,000,000 has been reduced, and accordingly, INR 280,000,000 have been provided as impairment in the consolidated books.
Sure, sure. Sir, when was this Romanian subsidiary acquired? Which year was it?
February 2016.
February 2016. Okay. Okay. And sir, just lastly, just wanted to understand, I mean, of course, you spoke about a major overhaul plan in the Romanian subsidiary. Are we looking at more such valuation impairments going down, or do you think it's one time, or is it too soon to say anything on this?
No, as we just said, this valuation is done by the registered valuer for our least possible estimate and forecast we have it as of today. Definitely, that is all unachievable, and we are working on that direction. As of now, it is not in our hindsight anywhere. Otherwise, we would have provided.
Putting it differently, we have fully provided.
Yes.
Fully provided.
Not anything for future at this point in time.
Okay. Okay. Sure, sure. Sir, also just one last thing I wanted to ask. In terms of the tariff war and the Trump tariff war, I wanted to understand, is there any, I mean, of course, there is a clear thing that China is getting isolated, and probably those benefits, that is one target aim of the U.S. government. Are we looking at some demand traction coming for Indian suppliers if that plays out and excess tariffs are levied on China? Do we think more business can come to players like us here?
Yeah, definitely. We have shared this from a China plus one perspective in the past as well that there is a direct business which can come our way from various geographies, specifically the U.S. in this current scenario. However, on top of it, we are seeing that our customers are also deleveraging their supply chain and their manufacturing base from China, and they are adding more and more capacity in India. We expect that we will benefit out of that also by supplying more products into India, which eventually goes for export to the U.S. and similar geographies.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks. Those were all my questions. Thank you so much for answering, sir.
Thanks, Jason.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Avnish Tiwari from Vaikarya. Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Yeah. On this tariff question, what is the level of tariff which currently you are paying if you are exporting to the U.S. versus how much, let's say, if it's being exported from China to the U.S.?
Tariff rates are not very specifically defined so far. Effectively, if you see in our current exports, maximum exports are such exports where the clearance from customs duty are on the customer's head. There is no direct impact to Harsha as of now. Just to answer your question, we personally as of now believe that we will fall under the country tariff, whatever country tariff will come as a rate, as a final rate whenever it is published. As of now, we see that we will not fall under any specific category. Yes, definitely, these all are very subjective. Once the things will be put in the U.S. customs official record, then only we will have a better clarity.
Given there is a significant tariff differential between India and China, are you experiencing an intensity of customer inquiries or interactions very different now versus, let's say, one and a half months or two months ago?
I believe it will have, and it is there. More importantly, it will have on a dimmed export side also. Because as Vishal has mentioned in his comment, we are a tier two. So we may not have a direct inquiry that much, but definitely, we will have an indirect inquiry because we are part of the longer supply chain.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one now. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the questions over to Mr. Vishal Rangwala for closing comments.
Yep. With this, we would like to thank everyone who has joined this call and appreciate the continued interest in Harsha Engineers. We wish a good evening to everyone, and thank you very much for joining.
Thank you.
Jayhil.
Jayhil.
Thank you. On behalf of Harsha Engineers International Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and email out to connect your line.