Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to INOX India Q2 FY 2025 earnings conference call, hosted by ICICI Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your telephone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, sir. Good evening. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q2 FY 2025 earnings call of INOX India. Today, we have with us from the management, Mr. Deepak Acharya, CEO, Mr. Pavan Logar , CFO, and Mr. Sunil Awari, Investor Relations. We'll begin with opening remarks from the management, followed by Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon. Very good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to the earnings call for our second quarter and half-year end date September 30, 2024. I'm sure you all had a great festive week. On behalf of the entire INOX India team, I extend best wishes to all of you and your family members. I hope you all have gone through the results, investor presentation, and press releases, which are available on the exchanges as well as on our website. Before discussing your financial and operational numbers for the second quarter and half-year, I would like to touch upon a few macro numbers as well as the industry update to set the context. My colleague and CFO of the company, Mr. Pavan Logar , would like to take you through the financials in detail before we open the forum for questions and answers.
India is on the transformative journey towards becoming a seven-trillion economy by the end of this decade. This growth is driven by significant advancement in digital and physical infrastructure, which are attracting multinational corporations in manufacturing and services, strengthening our economic landscape. Our country's growth rate, kept ahead of most major economies in the world despite the global headwinds, not only underscores the resilience of the country's economy but highlights its position as an economic catalyst at the global level for decades to come. A critical area fueling this growth is the energy sector, with India relying on imports for about 85% of its oil and gas needs. The government has prioritized expanding domestic production to reduce these discrepancies. Initiatives like opening over 1 million square kilometers of exploration through the Open Acreage Licensing Policy highlight these efforts.
The second round of bidding for oil and gas assets is for the early next year. The country's energy mix is also witnessing a double-digit growth in the installed capacity of renewable energy sources. For INOX India, leader in LNG and cryogenic solutions, this transformation brings vast opportunities. India's emphasis on LNG as a cleaner energy source aligns perfectly with INOX expertise. As a key player in LNG storage, transportation, and recirculation system, INOX is well-positioned to support this energy transition, both within India and internationally. The government aims to increase the share of natural gas to 15% of our energy mix by 2030, which opens up extensive possibilities for INOX to provide solutions that meet the growing demand for natural gas infrastructure. Moreover, India is championing LNG as a sustainable alternative for heavy-duty vehicles.
By 2030, the goal is for one-third of our long-haul trucks need to run on LNG, reducing emissions and cutting fuel costs. To facilitate this shift, measures like IOCL, BPCL, and HPCL are setting up LNG fueling stations alongside high-traffic routes, including the Golden Quadrilateral. With 1,000 stations planned in the next few years, INOX cryogenic technology from LNG storage tanks to terminals is essential in establishing this infrastructure. INOX India is also set to play a role in globally scaling hydrogen value chain. Our production solutions will be critical components in every aspect of the value chain, right from creation to the consumption. With newer markets across the globe coming into the fray, looking to build applications for hydrogen as a clean energy source, we are also evolving our processes and supply chain to better anticipate the surge.
As we expand our energy and transport sector, INOX India stands ready to play a crucial role in building a cleaner, more sustainable India, delivering advanced solutions that align with the nation's vision of growth and resilience. I'm also delighted to inform you that INOX India has received the prestigious ET Energy Award, not in one but two categories: EPC Company Award for engineering, procurement, and construction companies that have excelled in delivering high-quality projects and services in the energy sector, and the Equipment Manufacturing Award recognizing manufacturers' equipment and technology solutions that have demonstrated excellence and innovation in the energy sector. Now, I would like to inform you about our company's Q2 and half-yearly 2023 performance. Let me begin with our largest business segment, Industrial Gas Solutions.
The inflow of orders in industrial gas vertical during the Q2 FY2023 was very good, resulting in overall order booking of INR 262 crores, which is almost 84% higher than our Q1 FY2025. We have received several orders for standard equipment for domestic gas majors as well as private players. We also received orders for special cryogenic transport equipment for ethylene oxide from one of the largest petrochemical companies in India. Orders have been received for bulk quantity IMO tanks received from one of the largest oil field companies in South America. We have received industrial gas trailer orders from the Middle East region, large value orders for engineering systems from the Far East region, and domestic customers have been also received. We have secured bulk storage tanks for the largest solar project and also dispatched large-sized ammonia tanks to the Middle East region.
We are witnessing a sustained business for disposable cylinders in North America and the domestic market. We have successfully completed the DOT audit for disposable cylinders and liquid cylinders. For the full year, we are confident of achieving targeted revenue for the segment that we have already guided you earlier. Now, I would like to throw some light on the performance of our LNG business segment. The order book for the Q2 20% stands INR 98 crores, which is higher than Q1 FY2025 by almost 23%. We have observed substantial growth in RFQs for LNG business from the domestic as well as international market. We received repeat orders for LCNG stations and LNG semi-trailers from OMC companies. We have successfully commissioned LNG fueling stations for BPCL and Adani, Chittorgarh.
Automotive LNG fuel tanks supply to OEM manufacturers in India is growing rapidly, and we have approved our products and also received orders for LNG fuel tanks from all the four major OEM manufacturers in India. We also received orders for 990 LNG fuel tanks from South America. We have received a large order for LNG semi-trailers from South America. We also received big orders for the supply of LNG storage tanks and recirculation units from major energy companies in South America. With successful Caribbean LNG commissioning of a mini LNG terminal at Antigua for supply of LNG to the 50-megawatt power plant, we are hopeful for receiving similar projects in the coming future. I shall now talk about the business performance of our Cryoscientific segment. We have successfully installed cryolines and warmlines on the plant bridge at ITER site.
We have successfully repaired vacuum vessel thermal panels and dispatched them to ITER site. The same was well appreciated by the ITER organization in France. We have successfully completed and dispatched two branch components for the WOS project. We received new orders from ITER for intermediate valve box for LHeB. We have received orders from CERN for HTS cryostats. We are in discussion for big tanks projects for FAIR Germany. With consistent performance of LNG delivery at ITER site of cryolines, INOX India has become one of the most reliable suppliers for European research projects in the cryogenic space. Let me talk about our youngest business segment, which is the steel kegs and container business.
Our state-of-the-art Savli facility for keg manufacturing is fully geared up to cater to the requirements of the domestic and international market and has developed more than 25 variants of kegs required for the Europe and U.S. market. We have dispatched more than 11,000 kegs to breweries in India, the United States, Belgium, Germany, and Brazil. I'm happy to share that audits for major breweries such as AB InBev and Heineken are planned in Q3 FY2025. The South America market for brewery kegs looks very promising, and we are geared to service that market as well. We have received positive feedback from most of the customers of the breweries for the sample kegs provided to them for their approval. We have active RFQs for more than 1.5 lakh kegs received from potential customers from India, Australia, Belgium, the U.S.A., Norway, and Spain.
We are hopeful to get major breakthroughs for the supply of kegs to breweries in Q3 FY2025. Let me share the quarterly business numbers with you now. Order backlog as of today, September 2024, is INR 1,178 crores, with 54% orders from industrial gas, 25% orders from LNG, and 21% orders from the cryoscientific division. Our exports comprise around 53% of the total order backlog. In terms of segmentation, 69% of income has come from IG, 19% income has come from LNG, and 18% from cryoscientific, and 4% from other businesses. Total order inflow during the Q2 was INR 366 crores, comprising 72% from IG, 26% from LNG, and 2% from cryoscientific segment. I would like to thank you all for your patient hearing, and I now hand over to Mr. Pavan Logar, our CFO, who will share the financial numbers in detail with you. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Deepak, and good evening, everyone. I hope you all had a good rest of the week. I shall summarize financials for the quarter and half-year ended on 30th September. Let me share the numbers for Q2 and H1. The total income for Q2 was INR 320 crores, which grew by around 21%. The half-yearly income showed INR 622 crores, grown by 6.9% on YoY. The EBITDA for Q2 was up by 17.7%, which is INR 277.3 crores. The H1 EBITDA grew by 5%, at around INR 153 crores. Employee expenses have risen by 16.7% to INR 27.3 crores, from INR 23.4 crores, due to Savli units started in September 2023. Other expenses have risen by 25% to INR 75 crores, from INR 60 crores, due to higher overheads for ITER France repair orders, for which free material was supplied by ITER.
Our quarterly PAT grew by 10% to INR 50.1 crores and decreased by 1.9% to INR 101.3 crores in H1 level, due to higher tax expenses because of removal of discretionary benefits on LTCG by Indian Budget 2024. The total debt as of Q2 FY2025 is almost nil, which provides us adequate room to raise debt in the future. The company has a net cash position of INR 191 crores as of 30th September 2024. That concludes my update on the financial highlights of the company. I shall now request the moderator to open the floor for question and answer session. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and two.
Participants may request that you 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 Sameer, who is an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening. My question is that the results were very good, and in the future, when do we hope to get that dividend from the company? Thanks.
Dividend, actually, it is to be decided by the board of directors at the year-end only, not at present. But yes, definitely, we have already cash available for this INR 191 crores, so we will definitely consider dividend. We are a dividend-paying company all over the years, so it will be decided by the board. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankur Sharma from HDFC Life. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening. Thanks for your time. A couple of questions. One was, if I remember right, Q1, we had seen decline in top line and some attributed to some container shortages because of the issue of higher freight costs, etc. So all of that, if you look at the data, how are things on that front? Have these issues kind of settled down? If not, how are we kind of managing it? And is there also a component of higher freight costs taking another effect?
Yeah, the issue is still continuing, but its severity is a little reduced. And we are finding that we are getting containers now. There is no issue. Earlier, the freight cost was very high. Now it has reduced also, but not yet come to the original level.
So still, there are issues, but with proper planning, we are managing the show, and we are confident that it will not impact our sales or revenue this year.
Okay. And could you remind us what kind of top line and margins are you kind of targeting for the full year FY2025? Please, Dev. If you could just remind us, what would be your sales and margin guidance? What would be your sales top line guidance for FY2025? And also, what would be your targeted margin guidance at the current level?
So whatever figures we have provided to you earlier for the year-end, we are 100% sure that we will achieve those figures, which is almost like a growth of 20% over the last year.
Our margin will be also in the same fashion, between 20% to 21% to 25% at that level, and around 13% to 17% at that level.
Okay. And on the cash flow, which seems to be negative for the first half, if you could just help us, what is driving that? How do you see we are operating cash flow? Do you expect an improvement going forward?
Actually, we are already expanding our new units, and we already expected about INR 86 crores' worth of value this year for CapEx because a lot of expansions are going on. But still, we are still having a net cash end of INR 191 crores, and our order book is already increasing a lot. To keep up with this order book, definitely, our working capital will also definitely increase by some value, but not much.
So we will be cash positive only in the year.
So I was asking more to the operating cash flow, so you expect that to improve as you maybe bring down your intensity and expectations?
Yeah. Operating cash flow will definitely improve. And because of the CapEx only, which has been a little bit unavailable, has been increased, but which will be recovered. And INR 100 crores worth of CapEx we are incurring in this year. So that will definitely reduce the cash flow to that extent. But because of the funding, it will be again recovered. The funding of 2024-25 will be there.
Okay, sir. Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants that you will press Star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Mohit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening.
Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is in the beer keg segment, order inflow, as you said, is expected in Q3. Have you seen any interest in the month of October since it just passed?
Yeah. The beer keg business, what we are seeing is normally the season starts from January to July. This is a typical season where there is a peak. The inquiries start flowing in from mid-October, November, December. We are seeing that the market, which was slightly sluggish in the initial period because that was a lull period. But now we are seeing a lot of inquiries. RFQs are coming in. Whatever breweries we have supplied so far as a sample to Indian breweries as well as outside in the U.S. and Europe, everywhere the product is approved.
We don't find any difficulty from quality and other aspect point of view. Just we are waiting for their final confirmations. And I'm hopeful this Q3 will substantially and Q4 will be better with orders.
Okay. And what would be the contribution to the revenues in FY2025 from this segment?
We are expecting around INR 50-60 crore business from the keg for this year till March.
Okay. And on a whole, sir, in the first half, revenue growth was at about 7%. Can we achieve a growth of 15% in FY2025 as a whole? What would be our target for FY2025 revenue growth?
To improve quarterly, you must have seen we are almost at 21% growth this year. Coming third quarter and fourth quarter, we are also improving. We have very good order book, and we have expanded our facility. We have improved our production capacity.
So we are quite hopeful by end of the year we will achieve these targets.
Okay. And the significant order that we won yesterday, is that part of the current order book?
Significant?
The order that we won regarding the LNG and energy storage tanks. So is that part of the current order book?
No, no, no, no. So actually, the order book which we have shown you is on 30th September.
Understood. And what will be the value of this particular order? INR value?
This order will be around something around INR 50 plus.
Okay. One last question. The other income for this quarter is high. What is that on account of?
The other income is actually we have this cash flow of INR 190 crores, which is actually we took these mutual funds with us. It is a debt mutual fund.
The earnings which we are getting is very, very high than last year. So that's why our other income is increasing.
Okay. And for the year, next quarter, what is the estimate on the other income part?
Similar only because Indian market is doing very well, and the debt market is also doing very well. And since April only, we are getting very good margins in these mutual funds.
Okay. So we expect the cash levels to remain the same as well?
Yes, yes, yes.
Okay. Fine. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, if you will press Star and 1 to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Bimal Sampat, who is an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So my first question was asked by the previous participant about the order size of that.
What is the addressable market for this kind of product which we got from England yesterday?
Yeah. This is perhaps the first order in the world, I can say. This is a very special technology for green energy. I think this is the first. There are so many applications which can come up. Because here, what they are doing is they are liquefying the liquid air. When the power is not available, then they will expand this and run the generators and convert it into a green energy for 60-megawatt projects. If this is successful, there are so many projects which are lined up now. We are hopeful that once we complete this project by 2026, there will be plenty of opportunities for similar projects as everybody is thinking of green energy in coming years.
This is a very typical example and first of its kind order for us.
Okay. And second question is about this. You said 1,000 LNG pumps are coming up by 2030, correct? Yeah. So what is, I mean, for each pump, what is the quantum of equipment which will go in?
It depends on the size of the pump which you are putting. But approximate value for the fueling station is from INR 3 crores to INR 5 crores.
INR 3 crores to INR 5 crores. Okay. And at present, what is our market share in this?
Our market share is almost 65%-70% in this.
Okay. In future, you hope to have the same market share or?
We wish to have. Wish to have.
Okay, okay, okay. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Shah from Dalal and Broacha. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. So since I started on the previous question on the LNG station, out of the 1,000 stations that you will plant, how many have you constructed?
Total, to our knowledge, around 50-plus stations already have started. And 30 more are in line now. So depending on the progress, maybe another 6-8 months, another 30 will be added. But 50 have already started working now.
Any number that you can give, like how many can come in the next three years?
The three years should come around 400-500 minimum.
400-500. And out of that, we would be doing with respect to 60%, let's say 240-250 or so.
We are doing around 60-65%. Going forward, let us see when a lot of opportunities are there, many people try to come into the market.
But because of our start and our product quality being the best, and we manufacture the entire equipment, people are inclined to come to INOX India.
So what would be your average revenue in recent years?
Pardon?
What would be your EBITDA margins in recent years?
EBITDA margins for we don't look at the EBITDA margin station-wise. From all our products, we convert into EBITDA margin, which is ranging from 21%-25% on an average.
Okay, okay. And so the next question is, so if you exclude the other income which has been quite significant this quarter, have you seen margin dips across your EBITDA margin compared to any specific region for this year?
Yeah, yeah. There is a specific reason. This year's budget, which the government of India has actually, especially these mutual funds, all these mutual funds are long-term with us.
Suddenly, the government has changed their policy, and now the tax is applicable, and the indexation benefit has been gone out. There is no indexation benefit, and now we have to pay the tax on the total income which we already accrued on these mutual funds at the rate of 14.3%. Due to that, we have a.
My question was to think you are completing last year. You're doing your income quarterly. We have seen the margin. Your EBITDA margins have been around 200 basis points, YoY basis. Any particular reason for this range?
No, no. EBITDA margin always goes with the range. It depends on order to order. It's a range. It cannot be the same every time. It must be in the range only. 1%-2% is here, and it will always be there.
Right, sir.
If you can go through like an LNG truck fleet, we have a target of one-third of the country's fleet to be dependent on LNG in the state of Dalal & Broacha.
Yeah. This is a very nice question. Let me tell you, INOX India is working with these OEM manufacturers for the last one and a half year now. So we are now qualified with almost all four OEM manufacturers in India. If you see, recently, Tata has inaugurated their LNG trucks in Ahmedabad. They are expecting a good number of trucks, even in that venue and when I was also present during the corporate presentation of Tata. They are saying 1 million trucks they will sell by 2035. This is the ambitious project, a target Tata has taken. Similarly, Eicher, Volvo, similarly, Ashok Leyland, and Blue Energy Motors.
These are the four major players, and we are approved by all of them. And we are just waiting for them. And even we have recently supplied to South America to Scania trucks. And we are getting a good number of inquiries, and our product is being established. People were just looking for the fuel stations. Almost 50 fuel stations are available. And during one fill with a 450-liter tank, it goes to almost 600-700 kilometers, whereas a 90-liter type of tank can go to 1,200 kilometers. So the market is picking up. We are seeing a lot of traction and decreased product. And people are very bullish. The performance of the engine, the efficiency, the theft rate, everything has improved. And the pollution has also drastically reduced. So all the benefits are there with this LNG. Availability of LNG is also good nowadays.
So all these, I think there is potential that in coming years, we'll see many, many trucks on the road with LNG as a fuel.
Okay. Thank you. And just a second, Steven, one last question. For any cryogenic equipment, what would be our market share in India and globally? If you can have any numbers on that.
For the cryogenic tank business, we are almost like 60% plus market share. And on the global basis, we have almost less than 10%, I can say. Less than 10%?
Yeah. And who would be the largest player globally?
Largest player is Chart from U.S.A., and another one is Chinese, called CIMC Enric. These are the two major players which are against where we have the competition with.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
A reminder to all the participants, please press Star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sanjay Shah from Pratishtha. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. I hope you can hear me. Yeah, yeah. So a couple of quick questions. One, are you seeing any traction in the semiconductor industry? That's one. And second, just given the kind of looking at what that includes in a variety of different industries, what would be your three- to five-year vision in terms of top line? If you could just elaborate on these two. Thank you.
You are asking a very nice question on the semiconductor industry. As semiconductor industry is growing very fast, recently, three, four projects have declared, one in Ahmedabad, one in Mumbai, and in Chennai and Odisha. Almost every project is more than INR 50,000 crores.
So we find a lot of opportunities for this because we have recently supplied equipment to Micron and Foxconn. And way back, around a decade back, we have supplied similar equipment to Singapore as well. A lot of piping work is also involved, which requires very clean piping. The storage has to be very clean. And our current company also provides industrial access to them. So we find that the semiconductor industry can be really helpful in improving our business going forward.
Thank you. And what would be, I mean, given everything that's happening, the kind of industries in which you are involved, what would be your three- to five-year vision or an outlook for revenue?
So we are going at around 20%. And if everything goes well, like green energy, hydrogen, nuclear, semiconductor, I think the sky's the limit.
But we are trying to see how we can really cater to these requirements. Yeah. But we expect that you are into the areas where very few have dared to trade before.
So that's fair. That's fair. Thank you. Thank you. That's really useful. Thanks.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants that you may press Star and one to ask a question. Participants who wish to ask a question may press Star and one. A reminder to all participants that you may press Star and one to ask a question. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, all of you, for attending this call. I hope we have answered most of the questions. If something is still you want to ask, you can send a mail to us, and we'll reply.
Thank you so much for attending this call. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we conclude this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect.