Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to IRCTC Q1 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Dolat Capital Markets Pvt. Ltd. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in telephone- only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. If you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital Markets Pvt. Ltd. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Nadi. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Dolat Capital, we welcome you all to the Q1 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call of IRTC Ltd. I take this opportunity to welcome the management of IRCTC, represented by Mr. Sanjay Kumar Jain, who is CM D of the company, Mr. Sudhir Kumar, who is Director of Finance and CFO, and also we have today with us, Sh. Rahul Himalian who is Director of Tourism and Marketing segment, and Mr. Manoj Sharma, who is Director of Catering Services of the company. I would like to hand the conference over to IRCTC management to take the proceedings forward. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Rahul. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Good evening, everyone, and a warm welcome to the IRCTC Ltd. earnings call for the quarter ended June 30th, 2025. Yesterday, our company has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the financial year 2026, and these results have been disclosed on both stock exchanges. I will begin with a brief overview of Q1 FY 2026 performance, following which our Director of Finance and CFO, Mr. Sudhir, will provide a detailed analysis of our business segment performance. Afterwards, we will open the floor for the question and answer session. I am pleased to report that Q1 FY 2026 has been a stable and profitable quarter for the company, with a PAT of INR 330 crore, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 7.14%.
This performance is primarily driven by a strong contribution from the Internet ticketing, rentals, and tourism segments. Our EBITDA for this quarter stood at INR 397 crore, up 5.86% year-on-year. It is driven by improved operational efficiency. Further, our EBITDA margin also expanded to 34.27% compared to 33.55% in Q1 FY 2025, reflecting continued emphasis on cost optimization and better revenue mix management. Revenue from operations grew by around 4% year-on-year, reaching INR 1,160 crore. It is driven by continued growth in tourism and Internet ticketing segments. Overall, these results reflect our company's strong fundamentals, its strategic focus, and continued adaptability in a dynamic market environment. We are confident in sustaining this positive trajectory in the coming quarters, backed by operational excellence and a strong judicial backbone. Thank you very much. Now over to my Director of Finance, Mr. Sudhir Kumar.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I wish good health and happiness to you and your families. I'm eager to share with you a brief overview of our quarterly performance. I will also compare it with quarterly performance on a year-on-year basis. It will be followed by a question and answer session. This year, we have recorded profit after tax from INR 330.45 crore in quarter one. It is 7.14% higher on a year-on-year basis. Our revenue in the first quarter has stood at INR 1,220 crore. It is 4.36% higher on a year-on-year basis. Our EBITDA rose to INR 397 crore, which is 5.86% up on a year-on-year basis. EBITDA margin is 34.27% in the first quarter of this year, underscoring our operating efficiency and prudent cost control measures. Now, I come to segment-wise highlights. The first segment is Internet ticketing.
This segment continues to be a solid revenue driver for the company. Revenue from this segment has stood at INR 360 crore, marking a 9.12% growth on a year-on-year basis. 87.78% of total legal tickets on Indian Railways are now booked through our portal. This segment is the most profitable. EBITDA of this segment in this quarter is 84%, which is better than that reported last year in the same quarter. Last year, it was 83%. Now, I come to my next segment, statistics. Revenue from this segment has stood at INR 547 crore, which is slightly lower by 2.15% in comparison to last year in the same quarter. The EBITDA margin of this segment has also moderated to 13.1% in comparison to 13.9% last year on a year-on-year basis.
Even though margins are relatively moderate compared to other segments, this segment is a reliable revenue stream with constant growth potential. Now, I come to the next segment, that is Rentals. Rentals segment has reported a steady revenue growth of INR 106 crore, putting INR 1 crore less in comparison to the same quarter previous year. EBITDA from this segment is also almost 10, to be precise, INR 1 crore more than last year. Now, I come to the last segment, that is Tourism. This segment has reported an impressive revenue of INR 148 crore. It is 21.3% up on a year-on-year basis. This growth is commendable. Considering the fact that our business suffered a bit due to geopolitical events, EBITDA margin of this segment has also improved in comparison to the previous year. EBITDA margin of this segment was 7.6% last year in the first quarter.
It is 8.7% this year in the same period. Our performance of this quarter and growth initiatives undertaken by IRCTC reflect resilience, strategic discipline, and operational efficiency, setting a strong foundation for the remaining two years of this financial year. This concludes my remarks. Now, the floor is open for question and answer session. 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 their touch-tone 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 Jinesh Joshi from TL Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is on the declining revenue in the catering business. I believe we had multiple levers at play here, like, say, for instance, the rising count of Vande Bharat trains, Diet Fits, Easy and Tomato, expansion of business outside of the village, and I guess the price hike was also helping us. I think even in this quarter, like last quarter, the growth is a bit subdued. Can you just call out what is the problem area over here? Because in an ideal scenario, growth in catering should mimic the passenger traffic growth. If I look at your Internet ticketing revenue, that is up by about 8%, 9%. Somehow, that growth in catering seems to be missing since the last two quarters. Your thoughts on that?
Yes, thank you, Dinesh Joshi. I have to tell you that overall, our revenue increased by around 4%, and our tourism grew by 21%, and IT business also grew by 9%. Our growth in revenue remains flat and a slight dip in catering, the reason being there was a temporary phenomenon. Last year, same quarter, we ran election specials and a sizable amount, around INR 32 crore worth of revenue generated from that business, whereas this year it was only INR 4 crores-INR 5 crores. That was the main reason why I find about catering. Otherwise, you see the e-catering part. E-catering grew by more than 30%. In addition, we are in a transition phase whereby an opportunity through ABS station, Amrit Bharat Station, where a variation of stations are taking place, so the static unit on those stations could not generate a license fee for this quarter.
You can understand a little pain for a final release. Ultimately, this ABS station, once it is put in place, is opening a very big door for IRCTC business, catering business.
Understood. A follow-up on this part is that how many stations, or rather static units, were impacted because of this transition that we spoke of? What was the lost revenue because of that? If you can specifically call out.
That figure we'll give you later. We'll send you a call.
Sure. Sir, secondly, even on revenue side, I believe all our 20 plants are operational, and ideally, we should have visibly seen the benefit of improving utilization come through on that side. Even if I look at revenue, the top line was more or less flat in this quarter as well. Many earlier quarters did have registered good growth. Any specific reason that you may want to call out for this segment as well?
As you correctly pointed out, our installation, in fact, has improved. Earlier last year, June 2024, our capacity reduction was 86.8%, whereas this year, this quarter, it is 87.04%. There are two issues. One is our Glass Food Plant. It is not working at the moment because of some issue with the state government regarding the extraction of water. In this quarter, we are hopeful to start it again. The first thing is that. Secondly, the election special, which we ran last year, has a component of rental also. That is not there this time. Thirdly, we have introduced a new 500 ml bottle for Vande Bharat trains. You see that compared to the last quarter, the last year quarter, June 2024, there were a number of Vande Bharat trains that have been introduced, in which we are getting only 500 ml bottles.
Despite our inflation has improved, but effectively, because of 500 ml bottles, the revenue capturing is less.
Understood. Understood, sir. Just one last question from my side. If I look at our depreciation expense, it is relatively flat on a Q2 basis. If I remember right, I think in the last quarter, we capitalized our new office building worth INR 400 crore. Potentially, the expense should have increased, but it continues to remain flat. If you can just explain the reason behind it.
Actually, if you see the things, our building has two parts. One part is land. As per the accounting incentives, land value has to be taken separately from the building part, from the construction part. Out of INR 400 crore, the major chunk of our amount of investment in this building is of land, which appreciates generally, doesn't depreciate. We have capitalized only INR 40 crore of total investment, and depreciation is counted onto that. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Karthik Gada from Multiple Wealth. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yeah, please continue.
Yeah, thank you. A couple of bookkeeping questions first. Can you provide the breakup of Internet ticketing revenue into convenience fee and the other components, non-convenience?
Yeah, sure. Actually, it is 2/3 of total IT revenue is a convenience fee, and 1/3 is non-convenience fee. Do you want a figure?
Yeah, that's fine. That should be useful. That can be calculated. Similarly, can you provide the breakup of the, like one is processed tickets and the breakup of tickets booked AC, non-AC setting?
Yes. See, this quarter, we have booked INR 12.63 crore of tickets. I think if you AC tickets are INR 6.4 crore, non-AC tickets are INR 4.74 crore.
Okay. The next question is, there was a news recently about a rebate of 20% on holiday packages during the festive season. I just wanted to understand two parts here. One is about this rebate of 20%. Who will be bearing that? Would it be railways, which is my guess? Second, would this be counted as one transaction only, both the onward journey and return journey, or would there be two transactions, which would be regulatory for the convenience fee component for us?
First of all, I must compliment the Ministry of Railways for bringing this 20% discount in this festive season of Diwali and Sharks. I must tell you that we have no impact on our convenience fee because both we will be having two PNRs, one for onward journey, another is for return journey. Convenience fee will be charging the same rate. This will certainly add to our business because of running of many trains, but no impact on our revenue.
Okay. Got it. That's it from my side. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, I would like to remind the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Hash Dwada from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Okay. My question is regarding the catering business. I wanted to get an update on the total number of trains that are equipped with onboarded catering services and also how many of them are managed via the tendering process.
All the units which we are working is through tendering process only, and this is around 1,300.
Okay. Okay.
1x to 9x the number. It increases every time a new train is introduced or new service is added to that.
All right. I had one more question regarding the Rail Neer business. You had guided for adding three new bottling plants in FY 2026 and increasing capacity to around 2 million bottles per day. I just wanted an update on this expansion timeline and also wanted to know if you have the number for the average volume of bottles sold per day in Q1.
Thank you, Rahul. Actually, our Board of Directors already approved the expansion of our two major plants: one at Jannapur and another at Ambernath There are a few plants in the pipeline at Prayadhar, at Ranchi, Madalpur, and Mysuru. We are in the tendering process. We are already on to finalize the tender. It starts the tendering process, and then it takes around a year and plus.
Okay. Do you have the number for the average volume of bottles sold per day in Q1?
Average number of bottles sold per day is 1.412 million bottles per day.
Okay. Thank you so much for this. I just had one final question regarding the tourism business, which is more like a general question. I just wanted you to give some light on the forward booking trends for Q2 and H1. Specifically, if you could talk about the new services like Bharat Gaurav, Maharajas' Express, and the general services also.
Exact figure I will not be sharing, but I can just give you a glance that we are adding one more rake of Bharat Gaurav train this financial year. We have already crossed a good figure mark in Maharajas' Express booking, and it is much higher than the last year's figure. We are very hopeful to get a very good business in tourism. Already, in the first quarter itself, we have shown a growth of more than 20%.
Okay. All right. That's about it. Thank you so very much.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, I would like to remind the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Rahul Prakash, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. First of all, thanks for the great takeup number. I just had one question regarding the train tickets for Q1 2020, for this year Q1. May I know what is the total count of tickets for this Q1?
Yes, please. We have booked 13.88 million tickets.
This subsequent ticket?
No, not at all. No, you want the total number of tickets? Yeah, it is INR 12.63 crore.
12.63 crore is the total number of tickets for Q1.
Got it. Got it. Yes.
Any guidance for Q2 market growth in terms of tickets?
You see, this is all our IT business. All the business which we do is a single business. It will be comparable to Q2 last year.
Got it, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. This call is no longer being recorded. A reminder to the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital Market Pvt. Ltd. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Actually, if you could share about the new initiatives that we have taken in the tourism segment. Of course, you mentioned about the one wave that we are riding in the Bharat Gaurav train. Any other newer initiative around any newer plans highlighted in your zone or categories that you want to operate in the tourism space?
Do you want to know about our initiative in tourism only or overall?
Yeah, first on the tourism, if you could expand on other elements.
In tourism, we are already, as I told, that we have already started a process of adding one more Bharat Gaurav rake. In addition, the Golden Chariot of Karnataka government, which we are running on an MOU, is also getting hooked this season. We are expected to run three to five departures this financial year. As I explained, Maharajas' Express has already seen a 20% growth. In addition, during this financial year, we are including many new circuits, like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Circuit . We have already run one. In the offing, we are running the Devbhoomi Kedarnath Karthik Swamy tour. This is in the month of June. Ganga Ramayana Yatra from Sikandra Wat in the month of June. Bharat Bhutan Mystic Mountain Yatra in the month of June. Many, many such new initiatives are already in the pipeline. Rahul?
Yeah, that's very helpful. We recently also saw the press release from IRCTC about the payment verification approval. If you could help us in understanding the timeline by when we could go live and start to monetization of this business.
We are already into this business. With the license which we are trying to get from the Reserve Bank of India, in-principle approval we have already got. Six months' time has been given by them to submit our paper. It will take around six to eight months in getting a license. Total from now, if you see, it will be around 12- 18 months. We'll be able to get this license. That will help us in capturing business of other than our ticketing also.
Okay, so basically what you're saying is that it might take another 12 t- 18 months before we could head to the external customer list. Of course, we are working on our own portal at this point.
Exactly.
Right. In the ticketing segment, if I look at the non-convenience parts of the business, what we have seen is that it has not seen very meaningful jumps. We used to be pretty optimistic about this space, especially around monetization on the advertisement and some other segments. Is there any key aspect of the business which you think can drive growth, aware of the convenience fee growth, or do you think it would moreover move in line with the convenience fee or ticket book growth itself?
I think, Rahul, you should shake your finger again because in non-convenience fee, we on a year-on-year basis, in this quarter, we have grew by 17%. Any double-digit figure in this, to my knowledge, is a good one, but we are not satisfied. We are planning to do many things in today. First of all, you talked about ads. We are already planning to float a tender for like a sole tendering rights for advertisement, wherein we'll be using artificial intelligence to get the ad and to get the cross-selling also. First thing is this. Secondly, in the non-convenience fee type, we are planning to have our OTA platform released, which is Unified Portal. This is also in the tending process. That will give us a very good conversion of our business by cross-selling. These are a few things which will give us.
As you see, the UPICC, which has a share of 12% and is growing with 18%, that will also help us in getting good business out of it. That also we are planning to implement.
Sir, just one thing, what you are essentially saying is that double-digit growth on a full year is a possibility in the non-convenience fee part of the ticketing business.
Sir, I'm simply saying that we grew by double digits this quarter, and the momentum is already there, and our plan is also there to grow exponentially in this space.
Sure. That's it from my side. I'll run back a bit. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Gurpreet Singh, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. My question has been answered. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on their touch-tone telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Rattan Joneja from CoValue . Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks. I want to know what is the trend of AC bookings over the past few quarters.
We will send you a call. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Motwani from Tara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My question was on the margins that we did quite better versus last year in the Internet ticketing segment. Can you just walk us through what has come of the initiative? Was this, you already, I think, spoke about operational efficiency, but was it also that the share of UPI was higher or it was better cost control? If you can give some sense on the segment margin, better margin.
Would you like to know about the margin in Internet ticketing, right, has increased?
Yeah, yeah. Any particular factors that you want to add to this? Also, the share of UPI, which was there for the Internet ticketing segment in this quarter versus the previous quarter?
UPI share 48.72% this quarter. The margin increased because of non-convenience.
Okay. Thanks. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on their touch-tone telephone. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you very much, everyone. I'm Rahul Himalian, Director of Tourism and Marketing. There was robust growth in Internet ticketing and tourism sector, and almost flat because of some obvious reasons in catering and this thing. With your continued confidence in IRCTC, we as a team will grow, wishing you a very happy Independence Day and a festive weekend. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Dolat Capital Markets Pvt. Ltd., that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.