Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to JNK 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this conference call 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, Sudhanshu. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome everyone to JNK India Q2 FY 2025 earnings call. We have with us today Mr. Arvind Kamath, Chairperson and Whole-time Director, Mr. Pravin Sathe, Chief Financial Officer, Annie Varghese, Senior Manager, Investor Relations. Without further delay, I will now hand over the call to the management for the opening remarks, which will be followed by Q&A. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Mohit. This is Arvind Kamath here. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for JNK India Q2 and H1 FY 2025 earnings call today. We appreciate your continued confidence and interest in our company as we progress on our growth journey. The first half of FY 2025 has been a period of diversification and strategic milestones for JNK India, demonstrating the resilience of our business model and our ability to adapt to a dynamic environment. From a financial perspective, we delivered total revenue of INR 1,981 million in H1 2025, which is a year-on-year growth of 47%. Our order book remains strong at INR 13,116 million, which is an all-time high with an inflow of INR 8,782 million during the first half.
This performance reaffirms our ability to execute and scale operations efficiently while maintaining trusted relationships in critical sectors such as oil and gas, petrochemical and refining. The first half of FY 2025 has been marked by numerous significant milestones for us, including the introduction of and receipt of orders for new product line, the transition from a private to a publicly listed company, and the establishment of a strong presence in the heating equipment sector. During H1 2025, we secured several major orders both domestically and internationally. In Q1 2025, we succeeded in securing cracking furnaces and incinerators. In Q2 2025, we achieved a key milestone by securing our first order for a pyroheater for U.S., thereby establishing a foothold in the U.S. market. This is the first order for JNK India and as well JNK Korea for the U.S. market.
Additionally, we won our first order for an HPCL ED-AD process plant unit from HPCL for their Mumbai refinery. This is also our first order for a process plant for us. We also received a flare package for Adani Mundra Petrochem Limited green PVC project in Mundra, Gujarat. This underscores our ongoing commitment to providing sustainable solutions. To sustain this momentum, we continue to diversify and innovate. Our expanded portfolio, including renewable energy solutions like solar, EPC and hydrogen production infrastructure, aligns with the growing emphasis on sustainability and clean energy. With our world-class manufacturing facility in Mundra, Gujarat, our strategic collaborations with JNK Global, we are well prepared to capitalize on emerging opportunities and navigate the complexities of this evolving marketing market landscape. Looking ahead, we are focused on delivering sustainable growth by executing our strong order book, enhancing operational efficiencies, and strengthening our market presence.
I am confident that with continued support of our stakeholders, we will build on this momentum and achieve new milestones. In conclusion, H1 2025 has been a period of growth, diversification, and strategic progress for JNK India. We look forward to continuing this trajectory and delivering consistent value to our stakeholders. Thank you for your time. I will now hand it over to our CFO, Mr. Pravin Sathe, for our financial overview. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Kamath. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Pravin Sathe, CFO of JNK India Limited. I am pleased to present the financial performance of JNK India for the Q2 and H1 2025. In Q2 FY 2025, the company achieved a revenue of INR 1,074 million, marking an 11% increase year-on-year. Our operating profit for the quarter amounted to INR 337 million, reflecting a margin of 31.4%. Profit after tax for Q2 FY 2025 increased by 21.5% quarter-on-quarter to INR 77 million with EPS at INR 1.42. Our order book, a key indicator of our future revenue potential, is valued at INR 13,116 million as of September 30th, 2024, with INR 1,694 million in new orders secured during the second quarter. For H1 2025, the performance is equally commendable. The total revenue increased by 47% year-on-year, reaching to INR 1,981 million.
Operating profit for the first half was INR 690 million, with a strong margin of 34.8%.
The profit after tax for H1 2025 was INR 141 million, with a margin of 7.1%. Our revenue mix continues to be dominated by the heating equipment, which contributed 83% of our order book. Geographically, 91% of our orders were domestic, while 9% came from the international markets. End-user industries such as petrochemicals and refining remain our key contributors, accounting for 63% and 28% of the order book respectively. While our growth trajectory has been strong, our EBITDA margin for H1 2025 decreased to 13.9%, mainly due to the increased operational costs as we scale up. These are investments which are essential to support our growth. Looking ahead, our diversified portfolio and strategic emphasis on the sustainable energy solutions, we are well-positioned to leverage emerging opportunities and deliver consistent value to our stakeholders. In closing, I would like to thank you all for your time and attention today.
We appreciate your continued support and interest in JNK India. We now welcome any questions as you may have and look forward to engaging with you further on our performance and strategy. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone 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 line of Sagar Gandhi from Invesco Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sir, my question pertains to the CFO, which is on this first half. We've seen deterioration from approximately INR 10 crores in March 2024 to INR 63 crores, INR -63 crores during H1 of FY 2025. Can you throw some light? From what I understand is, it is predominantly due to increasing receivables and increasing payables. If you can explain this.
Sagar, can you repeat later part of your question? I didn't get your voice.
Okay. My question is, sir, net cash from operating activities in H1 FY 2025, as per the press release, is at INR 63 crores, INR -63 crores versus INR -10 crores in March of 2024. What I can understand is there has been some deterioration in working capital. Trade payables have gone up and trade receivables have gone up. If you can please highlight why this deterioration in working capital cycle has happened.
Yes. Typically for this H1, if you see, the major receivables are of the PSUs, and therefore, the receivable period has slightly gone up. So far as the payables are concerned, they are in proportion to the increasing scale of operations. Since the operations have gone up, the purchase, if you see, there is increasing direct cost of purchases because has gone up from the last H1 if you compare. Therefore, the payables have also gone up in that proportion.
Because we are expecting superlative top-line growth for subsequent years. Do you think this is the new working capital cycle?
No, this will not be the working capital cycle going forward. See, typically, in our case, what happens is in the initial stages of the projects, the working capital cycle is a bit on the lower side, and in the middle stages it typically increases. Towards the end also, when the service portion or the installation and commissioning happens, the payables portion reduce and the The receivable portion increases. When there are new projects coming in this H1, when they will start generating the revenue, this working capital cycle will again come to the normal cycle that we have been projecting. This revenue consists of mainly those projects which are at the back end, and therefore you are witnessing such a working capital cycle in this H1.
Sure. Thank you for the clarification. My next question is, sir, does Q2 also contain one-time ESOP cost like it was in Q1? Q1, you reported INR 5.5 crore of ESOP cost. Does Q2 also have that, and what is that number?
There was INR 5.5 crore ESOP cost in Q1. Now since the share prices, the closing share prices were lower as compared to the Q1 closing prices, the ESOP reserve has come down to INR 4.45 crore.
Okay. Sir, as you highlighted last time, FY 2025 will see this ESOP cost, but from 2026 onwards, there'll be no provision in this regard. Is that understanding correct or wrong?
Yeah. Based on the current ESOP that have been given, the last option would be exercised on March 2025. There will not be any ESOPs under the current scheme for the financial year 2025, 2026.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir. That was it from my side.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Abhinav from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is, Saudi Arabia's petrochemical capacity is expected to double in the next five years from approximately 75 million tons.
Sorry to disturb you, but can you be a little louder, please?
Sir, now is it better?
Yeah.
My first question was that Saudi Arabia's petrochemical capacity is expected to double in the next five years from approximately 75 million tons to more than 140 million tons per year. How do you think about the market and our capability to cater this market?
Yeah. Thank you. Basically, it's a very relevant question because we have a very credible offering as cracking furnace for petrochemical and also fired heater and the flares. As I told in the opening remarks, basically JNK India received the first cracking furnace order for the Reliance Petrochemical expansion for their Dahej and naphtha cracking plant. This helps us in terms of getting directly acceptable and also having reference for the cracking furnace in JNK India as well. JNK Global as such has supplied many cracking furnaces in Korea and other parts of the world. All these petrochemical complexes, we see a huge opportunity in the next five years.
For example, the petrochemical projects which are already kind of going ahead are at BPCL, Bina and IOCL, Paradip which have already started licensing and working on, and we are already in touch with them, to ensure that we also are in the bidding stage for these projects.
Understood. My next question is regarding CPCL's Nagapattinam plant. When can we expect this tender to come out?
This project, as you may be aware, was under hold for last 1.5 years. We had also bid some significant fire heater opportunities for this project. Now there is some traction and I think as IOCL board is likely to give a clearance, we hope and expect that this should also get a clearance in next couple of months.
Okay.
They might have to re-float all the tenders because the tenders had been quite old since earlier.
Understood. My last question is, can you give a guidance for the margins for full fiscal year, considering that the EBITDA margins on a quarterly basis have been volatile to some extent. For the full fiscal, what can we expect in terms of the margins?
See, so far as the guidance for the margin is concerned, we have been striving hard to keep it as near as 18%, but the cost of operation due to the increase in scale and due to the ESOP reserve also, the margin has got affected in last two quarters. Now the revenue from the new work orders that we have received in Q1 and Q2 will start coming in from Q3 and Q4. We anticipate it to get better as we go on in Q3 and Q4.
Understood. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participant who wish to ask a question, may press star and one at this time. Our next question is from the line of Gaurav Uttrani from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on the order which you mentioned in the initial remarks for the first order which JNK India and JNK Korea has received from U.S. Could you just highlight what is the opportunity which we are seeing in the U.S. market, and what is this order about? Similarly for that, in terms of how we are seeing the margins of these orders and execution timelines for the same.
Yeah. This was for basically a small refinery expansion called KBR expansion. The order is through the KBR. KBR is the largest licensor, one of the globally renowned and largest licensor in the U.S. The significance is that though this is a small order for us, as I mentioned, this is the first order from JNK, not only from India, from JNK Korea as well for the U.S. market. Basically getting accepted in U.S. itself is a very significant milestone for us because generally, U.S. market has been taking these critical equipment either from U.S. or from Europe mainly till date. I would say this is one of the first opportunity wherein a Korean or an Indian company has got to supply this pyroheater to them. That's the significance of that.
This delivery period for this order is about 15 months, because this is a comparatively small pyroheater. It's only a supply part of the job. This margin is as a normal export order margin for this job as well. We have again received one more inquiry from KBR now for a U.S. market. One more opportunity has come up. That's the significant advantage. Once we get approved and we supply, the other opportunities also open up.
Okay. Sir, we expect similar sort of orders in the coming orders because see the change in government, they'll be promoting more production and manufacturing in the U.S. country itself rather than procuring from countries like India. We expect similar sort of trajectory to continue post that as well, is what you're trying to say?
I mean, yeah. Basically, see what happens, even in U.S., there are many projects which are coming up. Could be like sustainable aviation fuel opportunities or allied petrochemical opportunities which are coming up, which would require a lot of even including the green ammonia or ammonia synthesis loop, which we are also in talking actively with KBR. These opportunities will give us a new opening opportunity for the U.S. market as well.
Okay, sir. Sir, secondly, on the inflows in last quarter also, you mentioned about one of the big order which you are expecting from the Asian markets. It's for the fertilizer industry. That sum was really big. Are we still earning that? When can we expect that order to materialize? Will it be in FY 2025 or will it shift to, say, for FY 2026 for it?
Yeah, we did mention that the possibility of Russia is still alive for the fertilizer. Even in the last quarter, we mentioned that the finalization is expected in the third quarter or fourth quarter of FY 2025. It's in that schedule only even now.
Okay. Sir, what would be the quantum of the same, if you can just repeat that?
I mean, in Russia, the total possibilities what we have is about something like almost INR 2,000 crores is a big pipeline what we have.
Okay. Is it going to come in a one go or it will be broken up in parts?
There are about three, four possibilities. One is a large opportunity; the other one is comparatively smaller opportunity.
Okay. Okay, sir. Sir, lastly, on the margins, which you mentioned that here sort of cost of operation has increased for us, and we are seeing a greater decline in margin. When we calculate our margin, what you have mentioned in that presentation, it also includes the other income. If we have to remove that margin rate would be less in the range of 10%-11%, is what we have gained or say, crossed in H1 for them. Average ask rate for the second half would be somewhere in the range of 18%-19% for both the quarters for we are seeing. 17%-18% of margin is still doable for the second half, or we can expect a decline of, say, for 200 basis points from what we have guided every year.
As I said before, when the projects are at the closing stages, the margin profile is bit on the higher sight. Lot of projects in the current order book are towards the closing stages. That is why it is reflecting on the margin like this. In Q3 and Q4, as I said earlier, the revenue from new projects will also start kicking in. The margin profile would get better. Even after you remove the other income, it would get better.
Sir, when you guide for the margins, you exclude that other income, right? 18% when you say for that, or you include that other income as a part of margins?
Yeah, that's right. The thing is, the guidance of 18% and the history of 18% of turnover for the last three to four years, there was no stock reserve to the extent that is there now. We have to consider, factor out that stock reserve also. If you add back that, then the margin still works out to be somewhere near what we have been anticipating.
Okay. Sir, last question on the revenue front. Generally, you mentioned we execute one-third of our orders in the first half and remaining in the second half. Earlier what we are expecting that the revenue of say for INR 620 crore-INR 700 crore. I think that can be achievable in the second half, as we have done only 28% in first half for that revenue for Q1.
See, last year, FY 2024, we did about INR 133 crore in H1, and still we managed to do INR 480 crore at the end of the financial year. Going by the history, we are hopeful to complete the opening order book in this current financial year, which was around INR 621 crore. That opening order book, that is what we are aiming at. Definitely some part of the newer projects will also culminate into the revenue. We are still hopeful of achieving the targets.
Okay. Okay, sir, that's all from my side. Thank you for that.
Thank you. Our next question is from line of Hardik Doshi from White Whale Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Again, just continuing on the margin volatility, just wanted to kind of get some perspective. Are the margin profiles different for different end markets? Like example, I think steel was a larger part of our revenues in this quarter. Is generally the project in steel lower than that of refining of petrochemicals?
Typically, it depends on what kind of project that is, because if we are entering into a new market or new segment, then the pricing will be bit aggressive and the margin will be little on the lower side. If we are well-established in that market, for example, in the heating equipment for the oil and gas, we are quite established. Steel, this has been our first project in the steel sector.
Definitely, we can't have very higher margins when we enter a particular new sector.
Got it. Okay.
Also on what stage of the project the execution period is. There the margin profile could vary. At the beginning of the project, slightly comparatively better, but in the mid cycle, later phase of the project, it gets a bit tapered down when the actual expenses arise and all the complete supplies takes place. At the end, it could get slightly better again.
In the end, it will get slightly better again?
Yeah, because there will be the revenues in terms of the commissioning against the commissioning or against the final installation and things like that.
Got it. Okay. Just a clarification here. You mentioned last quarter the ESOP expenses were INR 5 crore, and now that has fallen to INR 4 crore this quarter. Is that correct?
Yes, because there has been a fall in the share price of shares.
Yeah. Okay. No, it's fine. Overall, even if I look at first half, right? I understand the ESOP cost, and I take those also out. The margin was still substantially lower. You mentioned that there was expenses because of scaling up. Usually, when top line is strong, you get economies of scale. Can you explain what are these expenses as you scale up?
Yeah, I explained in my earlier one of the answers that major revenue has come in this half year from the projects that are towards the end. They are in the stage of, say, 70% or 75% completion. As Mr. Kamath just said, when they are in the middle stages, when you cross the first half of the project, the margin profile is little bit on the lower side. Lot of projects that are contributing to the revenue are at the similar stage. This is affecting the margin profile in this first half. In the second half, when the new projects will start kicking in, the revenue, there the margin profile will be bit on the higher side. That will compensate this.
Got it. This is nothing to do with corporate expenses and like the general OpEx overhead, right?
There is no much increase in the other operational expenses apart from the employee benefit expenses as compared to the H1 in the last year because the number of employees has grown in this year.
Got it. Okay. Thanks so much.
Thank you. Before we take our next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Our next question is from line of Mahesh Bendre from LIC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. My questions have been answered. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question is from line of Mohit Jain from Kriis PMS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, I'm agreed.
Mr. Mohit?
Hello, can you hear me?
Your voice is not audible, sir. If you can switch to a handset.
Yeah. My first question would be, have you started this Dahej plant order that we received from Reliance regarding gas crackers?
Have we started? Can you please come again, please?
Is it better now?
Yeah.
Yeah. My first question would be, have you started Dahej plant order that we received from Reliance regarding gas crackers?
We have started the work, but we have not billed any revenue till date. We only received the advance payment, and first revenue could be billed somewhat in quarter three, little bit, and comparatively, but I would say more significant revenue will be billed in quarter four to start with in this year. Actually, the majority of revenue will be billed in the next financial year.
Okay, sir. Thank you. My next question is, have you started any revenue from CBG segment, compressed biogas, this quarter?
Yeah. Regarding compressed biogas, we have not started any revenue till date. However, we are in the advanced stage of discussion with a couple of customers regarding the finalization of the order.
Okay. Well, thank you for taking my question.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from line of Nidhi Shah from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you so much for taking my question. The first question is on the Barauni refinery. You mentioned last quarter that they are in the process of opening for orders. When can we expect these orders to close for Barauni refinery?
Yeah. The Barauni refinery, the inquiries have been just started getting issued. Like first compressor orders inquiry has been issued in the last quarter. The Panipa t, the inquiries are expected in this quarter. Generally, these are long lead items, so the order closing would generally take about six months after the issue of the inquiry.
All right. My second question would be on the margins. As we can see this quarter, the gross margin have declined a bit from last quarter, but at the same time, our employee expenses have fallen, giving us a better EBITDA margin. I just want to understand, is there a strategic shift in the way we are managing our operating costs, or is it just something that has happened this quarter?
It's mainly happened in this quarter because of the execution of the projects which are at the various stages. Basically, maybe as you know, we didn't get significant orders in the last year. Most of the orders which are getting executed in this quarter were at a stage of, say, 60%-75%, and that kind of a project phase. That's the reason the operating costs have been comparatively higher.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question is from line of Raj Vyas from TM Investment Technologies. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I just wanted to know the order wins which you have mentioned. One is the JNK Global order win, which is first, and the HPCL order win that you have won. What is the timeline for the completion of the order and the revenue potential for the company?
Timelines. HPCL timeline is about 18 months-22 months. That's the period in which we are supposed to complete the HPCL project.
For this JNK Global from the USA alkylation generation project?
The USA project, as I mentioned earlier, it's about 15 months. It's only a supply part. There is no direction or installation from our side.
Okay. You talked about this EBITDA margins of 18%, which is like you have said it earlier as well, but the costs are increasing. What are the key things that you will take a note of to reduce the cost expenses for the company?
The costs are not increasing as such. If you see where the project expenses increase typically as compared to the initial stage of the project, the middle stage is always such that the costs are on the higher side and the margin is on the lower side. These are the projects. Major contributors to the revenue are all those projects which are in these stages. Typically, all the projects are at the similar stages. That is why it is seen that operational costs have gone up. As Mr. Kamath said, in the last financial year, we did not get as much orders as we received in this financial year. When there are lot of order inflows coming in, what happens is there is a typical mix of existing orders as well as the new orders in the revenue composition.
Some projects which are at the middle stages, they give a lesser margin. Those projects which are at the initial stages, they give a higher margin. The margins get compensated and you see a better picture.
Okay. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from line of Aashna Manaktala from HDFC AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, sir. I understand there have been certain questions regarding the margin, but as you mentioned that we are close to completion of majority of our projects. Shouldn't for the coming quarter or so, the margin should be on the other spectrum, if our gross margins are still at the same level as our historical margins. Would you stand by our 18% margin guidance for FY 2025?
As I said earlier, that 18% guidance was based on the historical figures for last three to four years, and at that time, the ESOP reserve did not play any significant role. That also has an impact. At the same time, we informed you that we have received new orders which will start generating revenue in Q3, and the significant revenue will come in in Q4. Definitely this will help us in improving the margin profile. What current EBITDA of 14% is there, so we anticipate it to be on the higher side when we reach Q4.
Understood, sir. By 2026, we should expect that once the ESOP cost should go away and our normalization should come in terms of execution of the order as well. What's your view on the margins for FY 2026 then?
Yeah, correct. That's right. In FY 2026, we should go to the normal margins. Yeah. Considering the order book and the current ESOP cost would go away next year.
Okay, sir. Sir, one more question in terms of raw materials, what proportion of our raw material would be complete commodity, maybe steel, if you could give some view on that?
The raw materials would not be much in terms of what we procure directly. What we procure directly, the raw materials would be just about 8%-10% of the total procurement cost.
Okay. What is that of the total procurement? You mean that the raw materials that you have booked for, let's say, first half of that 8%-10% is for commodity? What you're trying to say?
No, no. Suppose in a project of say, $100, total procurement cost is suppose about $60, then the raw material procurement would be about $ 6 for us. Direct raw material procurement.
Okay. That would largely, should I understand correctly, be steel?
That could be steel. It could be steel or higher grade of steel, depending on the type of the equipment involved. It could be stainless steel or the alloy steel or the higher grade of steel, depending on the chemicals, what we are handling.
Understood, sir. Sir, in terms of execution for 2026, like for 2025, you are stating that we should be closing our executing the opening order book. For 2026, if also you could give some guidance in terms of the execution.
Our order book as on Q2 is INR 1,311 million.
Yeah. INR 13,116. Basically, a complete order book, we will have to close it in this year and next year.
Okay. We're not seeing any spill-over from 2025 to 2026 as of now. We are confident.
No, at least from the going by, whatever the contractual delivery dates are there, we endeavor to close all these orders by the next financial year. There could be some spill-over if there's some delay from the customer's end or something like that. As of now, we not really anticipate any delays.
Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Our next question is on line of Anukul from InvIT. Please go ahead.
Sir, yeah, I was looking on the PAT margins, what PAT margins can we expect for FY 2025 and FY 2026? If you can give some guidance of that.
Did you say PAT?
Yeah, PAT. Profit After Tax. PAT margins that we can expect.
Currently the PAT margins are around 7%. At the end of the financial year somewhere, it should go up to 10% or so.
Okay. Roughly for FY 2026, shall we be expecting the same?
That depends on how much revenue the new projects would contribute in Q3 and Q4. If the component is on the higher side, definitely the PAT margins would be better.
Okay. We are expecting roughly INR 670 crores-INR 700 crores of top line for FY 2025. Am I right on that?
What we are expecting is the opening order book of INR 621 crores should get executed in entirety by the end of March 2025, and some portion of the new orders should also get booked as revenue. If you take these two factors into account, the revenue would be somewhere between INR 600 and INR 700.
Perfect. Yeah. That's it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. For participant who wish to ask a question, may press star and one at this time. There are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
We just thank you everyone for joining our Q2 and H1 2025 earnings call. Once again, we appreciate your time in joining this call and learning more about our company, JNK India. We look forward to your support and look forward to continuing our journey with your support. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us and we'll be more than happy to address your question. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.