Welcome to the Premier Energies Limited Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. 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. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities Limited. Thank you. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Rutuja. Good evening. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q4 FY 2026 earnings call of Premier Energies. Today we have with us from the management, Mr. Chiranjeev Singh Saluja, Managing Director, Mr. Nand Kishore Khandelwal, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Vinay Rustagi, Chief Business Officer, and Mr. Sudhir Moola, Chief Strategy Officer. We'll begin with the opening remarks from the management, which will be followed by Q&A. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Mohit. Am I audible?
Yes, you are. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our full year FY 2026 earnings call. I am Chiranjeev Singh Saluja, Managing Director of Premier Energies, and I am joined today by my colleagues, Mr. N.K. Khandelwal, Group CFO, Sudhir Reddy, Chief Strategy Officer and Director, and Vinay Rustagi, Chief Business Officer. I'm delighted to share that the company has reported a record set of revenue and profit numbers. Our total revenue has increased by 20.7% year-on-year to INR 8,026 crores. The profitability margins have held steady. Operation EBITDA, operational EBITDA margin is reported at 30.4% and PAT margin at 18.8%. Our PAT has jumped 61.1% year-on-year to INR 1,510 crores.
The most pleasing thing about these numbers is that they have been achieved in a challenging overall environment with increase in several commodity prices and freight prices. Amongst key business updates, we recently completed construction of our 5.6 GW module plant at Seetharampur in Telangana. This is one of the largest and most automated module plants in India and is expected to achieve full ramp-up in the next two months. In the last few months, we launched two new products, Zero Busbar cells and all black modules, responding to an evolving market. These two products, the requirements are showing our strong technical expertise. These innovations are already receiving great market acceptance.
Our manufacturing plants continue to run at near peak capacity utilizations, and our TOPCon cell line, which was commissioned in June 2025, was stabilized in record time and is now running at 90% plus levels. Our proposed acquisition of 51% stake in Transcon is complete. Transcon has reported excellent results with annual revenue and PAT of INR 423 and INR 45 crores respectively. EBITDA and PAT margins have jumped sharply over previous years to 19.1% and 10.6% respectively. The company is now embarking on major growth trajectory, with total capacity set to increase nearly sevenfold to 16.75 GVA by July 2026, with focus on more lucrative HV and EHV segments. As we look forward to the new year, the environment around us is becoming ever more unpredictable.
Our investments in scale, technology, people, and supplier relationships built over a 30-year operating platform are paying off in building a resilient business with profitable growth. The Middle East crisis is turning into a moment for renewables as all stakeholders look to rethink energy mix and reduce consumption of fossil fuels. We believe this is going to provide a major boost to long-term demand for the sector. We're already seeing strong demand traction across all segments. New installations in FY 2026 grew to almost 45 GW in AC terms, a fantastic 87% growth over FY 2025, with estimated total module demand of close to 60 GW. The momentum is expected to carry through into the current year, and I emphasize, notwithstanding concerns around tendering slowdown and transmission delays.
This is reflected in our growth order book, which currently stands at INR 14,010 crores, up 66% year-on-year. We are trying to capitalize on the booming solar opportunity with our expanded module capacity of 11.1 GW and cell capacity going up to 10.6 GW shortly. These capacities make us one of India's largest and most integrated cell and module manufacturer. FY 2027 is a year of large CapEx for us at INR 5,100 crores to be deployed across cells, ingot wafers, batteries and inverters, helping us to transform our business with a diversified portfolio of clean energy equipment. At the same time, a major endeavor of the company is to leverage AI and digital technologies, automate day-to-day tasks, exploit process efficiency, and boost productivity to stay competitive in an evolving marketplace.
With all these initiatives, we hope to maintain our relationship, leadership position as the lowest cost producer of best-in-class products for the foreseeable future. Thank you. We are now open for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question is from the line of Praveen Sahay from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity and many congratulations for a good set of numbers. My first question is related to the module. If you can clarify, like, the total, you know, Q4, the DCR module volume, as a percentage of a total volume has sequentially decreased, doubled.
It will be the same. Yeah.
Because if I look at the DCR site. Let me go another question. [crosstalk]
If I look at the DCR, you know, the website, it's showing that the production of the DCR module for you has been doubled on the sequential basis. As the case for you, like, can you clarify that?
In the last quarterly call also we had said that the DCR website is more a verification portal for traceability and for DCR verification. It is not a portal to, you know, arrive at numbers of sales of module or cells. The number there would not be an accurate number.
You know, just to add to that, Prabhu, you know, we Sorry. You know, our sales mix between selling cells and DCR modules, it changes on a quarter-to-quarter basis. We have an order book comprising both. Hello, can you hear us?
Yes. Yes. Please go ahead.
Our sale order book comprises both cells, DCR modules and non-DCR modules. I don't think you should read too much into the quarterly changes in this mix.
Okay. Second on the cell realization or the external sales revenue. If you can give us some indication that sequentially how it is shaping, because you have a higher order of cell now in the order book. How the realization is shaping up on the sequential basis?
In terms of the cell market, you know, the cell market overall still continues to be favorable. The pricing has been quite stable at between $0.355 to $0.14 odd. We don't see any change in pricing in the current environment.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you, sir. That's it.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Vikram from DB Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Two quick questions. First of all, there is a significant increase in purchase of stock. Could you clarify why is that the case? It's approximately 4 x of last year. Is that helping us with the margins?
Hi. The stock going up is a planned move by us looking at the supply chain situation and also the new 5.6 GW of module line which has got commissioned, which also, you know, requires more stock to be purchased for the module line. It's well in line with our plans. There is no major increase.
Okay. There is also a net debt increase of approximately INR 660 crores. Why is that?
You know, that is inevitable because we are embarking on a large CapEx program. You know, our total CapEx for the cell line of 7 GW alone is about INR 3,000 crore. In addition to that, we have already started work on our ingot wafer project, and separately on other projects, including aluminum line, aluminum frames, battery storage, and of course, transformers as well. I think you will see, as we have previously said, we have about a INR 12,000 crore CapEx plan spread over three years, starting FY 2026. As the CapEx goes up, we're funding it through a mix of internal accruals and debt, and the debt level will inevitably go up as well. We are obviously Sorry, please go on.
Yeah, sorry, just to add there, I know you have clarified this on previous call as well. What is the debt to equity ratio which you're looking at or targeting?
Sorry, please repeat that question.
What is the debt to equity, considering all the expansions which are in place and which we are planning as a company, what is the debt to equity ratio you're looking at in next one or two years?
Through this CapEx cycle, you know, our endeavor is to maintain our A+ rating, and we want to maintain the debt to equity ratio at about 1, and debt to EBITDA ratio at about 1.5 or below.
Last and final thing. We have somehow sustained margin when other peers in the same group are not able to because of copper prices, silver prices increase. It clearly looks like that this time, but the in-stock leads have helped us, right? How are you seeing the margin trajectory in this upcoming quarter? Silver prices and copper prices have started going up and there is all the war escalations and everything which is happening. How do you see this sustaining at this level?
Yeah, I mean, you know, we can't give you any guidance on margins. We don't, as a company, we don't give any futuristic, we don't make any futuristic statements. You know, our current order book is priced at levels which are consistent with what we saw in the last year. Yes, some costs are going up, but at the same time, we are also doing a lot of work behind the scenes to be able to reduce our cost and improve the efficiencies in overall business.
We also need to, you know, understand that the scale of the business has grown by almost 2 x in the last one year, and is going to grow by something like 2 to 3 x over the next year as all the new plants come online and the production kind of picks up. The result of this is we are building significant operating leverage in the business, which is going to give us the advantage of efficiency in reduction of the fixed cost base. The procurement costs should come down as scale goes up. I think the result of all these things is that, yes, some costs are going up, but we believe that we are in a very good shape to be absorb some of these cost increases, and stay profitable.
What happens to the exact margins obviously depends on a number of factors, many of which are outside our control.
Sure. Just to add to what Vinay said, there is a favorable shift in the business. You know, there is more DCR modules coming up as the demand increases. Plus there is a policy shift towards ALMM-III, which is an advantage for leading players with strong balance sheets. As Vinay said, apart from this, our scale, procurement efficiencies, low cost base, we believe it will help us maintain industry-leading margins.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nidhi Shah from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Nidhi, please go ahead with your question. Your line is unmuted.
Hi. Yeah, thank you so much for taking my questions. My first question is on exports. We've seen that exports have sort of, you know, never really been the focus for the company because of domestic demand. Now that the tariffs on plus the anti-dumping duties on India are very high. Are we looking to export to the U.S. at all by procuring our sales from Africa or anything like that?
Nidhi, we are looking at, if you look at our presentation, we feel there's a strong, you know, potential of exports to Europe and U.S. both. We are seeing that the demand in Europe will really pick up after the FTA is in place. Even for the U.S., we are looking at more on cell manufacturing. We had earlier announced our cell manufacturing plant in the U.S. and we are looking at it positively now because things have settled down. We feel that there is still a good opportunity for exports, we will look at the right opportunity to start exports to the U.S.
All right. Since ALMM-II is coming up, you know, applicability in June, when do we expect realistically the demand driven, purely by ALMM-II should actually start picking up through grandfather projects?
You want to take the C&I. Both are different projects. Nidhi, I mean, you know, when it comes to ALMM-II , we need to understand that there are various market segments with different rules applying to them in terms of application of ALMM-II. The private markets, both rooftop and open access projects for C&I customers, ALMM-II becomes applicable from June 1. The demand is expected to come to the market immediately. That, by the way, is a very substantial demand because now the C&I segment is almost equal in size to the utility scale segment. We expect from June 1 onwards, the entire market, entire solar sector, except for utility scale segment, will shift towards ALMM-II or domestic sales.
Then when it comes to the utility scale market, the demand is going to come, I would say, towards the end of FY 2028, and, you know, 2029 onwards. Because, you know, there are all these old projects which have been auctioned before September 25, they have been grandfathered, and they can still use imported cells. If you look at the overall market demand mix, you know, if we look at what we did in the last year out of 45 GW, 30 GW, including rooftop, KUSUM, and C&I, is switching on to the domestic cells right now, and only 15 GW will be remaining for the utility scale market for FY 2028 and beyond. A bulk of the market, they shifts to domestic sales immediately now.
All right. My last question would be on KSolare. The company recently announced that you will not be acquiring KSolare anymore. Could you let us know why that was, firstly? Second, do we have other companies in mind for inorganic growth, or is there something now that we're looking to build this piece on our own?
Yeah. You know, in terms of KSolare, look, this was a non-binding term sheet at that time, and the final documentation still had to be completed. Obviously there's a very comprehensive set of documents for any transaction of this kind. Unfortunately, we could not find an agreement on some of these terms and conditions in the set of documents. I think that is the reason why the transaction could not be completed. In terms of our future plans, we remain totally committed to the inverter business, and indeed are working right now to expedite our plans. We are looking at our strategic options in terms of a JV partner.
We have a proposed JV with Syrma SGS, and you know that JV remains our first preference. We are looking at other strategic options as well, and we will finalize this over the next few months.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Shah from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations on a very good set of numbers, first of all. Firstly, you know, we've been able to maintain our gross margins at a stable level versus most of our peers seeing a very sharp decline, right, I mean, in that sense. Could you just provide some insights on our execution and how are we managing this cost inflation, which is ongoing?
Kunal, I think, one of the, you know, significant thing which you see is the utilizations of our cell lines. We have been able to ramp up and utilize our cell lines at optimum level, and that is one of the key reasons that we've been able to have the right DCR mix. Do you wanna add something, Vinay?
I think, Kunal, you know, this is a question we already tried to answer earlier. Yes, there's been an increase in some of the costs, but as the scale of the business goes up, we are also seeing, you know, significant amount of operating leverage and efficiency coming into the business.
We are actually doing a lot of work to optimize our operations, increase automation, use all the digital technologies, et cetera, to reduce our cost base. I think what you see in terms of the results is basically a mix of some of these costs going up, but us being able to reduce costs on some of the other areas of operations, helping us to maintain our margins.
Understood. Just a follow on this now. Given like the, like the 7 GW line is going to come on stream anytime soon, right, I mean, in the next three, four months. Now, do you see, like, as you ramp up the line, these cost optimization will continue? If you can just quantify that. Second, on the 7 GW line, would there be like a front-ended CapEx wherein you can do further brownfield at a lower cost? What would be the optionality of that CapEx?
Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, definitely. You know, 7 GW is basically double our current capacity, all in a single line, single site. There will definitely be many more efficiencies coming into the business. Just to give you an idea, you know, we currently have four different module plants spread across Fab City. And the new Seetharampur SAB plant that we've just commenced operations in, uses 40% less manpower on a per MW basis. You know, that is the kind of advantage that we're seeing in reducing our cost base. In relation to, you know, a potential for brownfield site, yes. I mean, I think that is definitely a real possibility for us.
We have the land and the additional infrastructure available for doing an almost parallel 7 GW new cell line, with a CapEx cost efficiency of as much as 30%-40%. You know, bearing in mind that our CapEx for the first 7 GW line is already at about 35% lower than the industry benchmark, that gives us a major advantage in terms of cost and in an ability to scale up and build this line in a very quick time, assuming that the demand takes off.
Understood. This is very helpful, sir. Secondly, in terms of the existing order book of 14,000 odd crores, how should we think of the execution timelines of the same, like the conversion to revenue on this? Sir, a follow-up here would be I mean, we know that you don't give a precise guidance, but the FY 2026 order inflows have been extremely strong for the company. Like, are we confident to grow on the order inflows for 2027 as well? Are you seeing that market shaping up in that sense?
Yeah. Kunal, the execution of the order book, most of this will happen in FY 2027. I can't give you an exact number, but it'll be, I would say more than two-thirds. In relation to new order intake for the year, I think like we have said earlier, you know, there is a very strong demand momentum in the sector. In fact, we are going to see a surge in particularly, I would say, DCR order intake, as we go forward because a large part of the market has been sitting on placing new orders in anticipation of hoping for an ALMM-II extension. You know, we believe that the policy is here to stay and there will be no further extension.
As and when, you know, we approach, June 1, and that kind of decision line becomes clear, we will see, I would say a big, rush for orders. I think, you know, FY 2027 should be equally good for the order intake for us and for the industry.
Understood. Thirdly, sir, on the resolution for fundraising resolutions is INR 5,000 crores now. Could you just help with the rationale for the same and how are we contemplating on the potential capital allocation here? Like, what are the areas that, we might be thinking about?
Kunal, this was an enabling resolution. We had taken this approval from our board. There is no plan for any QIB or fundraise immediately. As I told you, we're looking at opportunities in Europe and U.S. As and when we see that there is an opportunity and we need to do a fundraise, we will of course intimate. As of now, there are no plans. It was just an enabling resolution.
Understood. Last one, bookkeeping. There is this sharp increase of inventory, I mean, your working capital getting blocked. Could you help, like, is it because, like, you're building up the stock ahead of the module line coming up? Could you just explain the rationale?
It's for two reasons. One is building up stock ahead of the module line, and also because of the Middle East crisis that we have stocked up. You know, we planned this inventory levels and stocked up raw material.
Understood. This is extremely helpful, sir. All the best for the future, and I'll fall back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naman Jain from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, Naman.
Yes, Naman.
Yeah. My question is primarily on the BESS business since it's the future is solar plus BESS and there have been multiple reports that the government's gonna push for a 50% + localization in BESS going forward, right? Seems like more of an ALMM moment for modules. Since you know, the CapEx intensity is very low, especially for containerized BESS solution where we are not doing cells anymore, why are we not pushing for a, let's say a 12 GWh capacity by March 2027 itself? Because, you know, given the asset terms gonna be very high, you might, you know, be one of the earlier players in the field and make up, you know, most of the profitability in this space in FY 2028.
Yeah. Yeah, sure. Sure. I mean, I think, Naman, you would have noted if you're following the government announcements, and the, and the likelihood of the policy, any localization roadmap is likely to become effective only by around FY 2028 or so. As we speak, you know, there is, you know, the industry is primarily basically relying on imports from China on which there is no constraint right now. The duty level also remains quite low at about 11%. I think, over the next one to two years, we will still see, continue to see, a big portion of the demand being met from imports. That is why we've decided to basically pace our capacity addition program for this business.
Got it. Got it. Secondly, since you know we have been able to create sort of a capability where we can expand cell capacity quickly and as well as at a lower CapEx, how sure are we in achieving the 7 GW capacities? As in, it sort of indicates that you'll be able to do it in the half year, which will probably make you the largest player in cell, right? If we do we see any delays or it's sort of like, we really believe that it's gonna happen? What's your expected timeline for stabilization after that?
Naman, we had even, you know, I've said the same thing in our last earnings call that it's on track. If you look at our presentation, the 7 GW plant, 4.8 June and 2.2 September is on track. It takes four to six months for stabilizing these lines and as we speak, everything is on track. We don't see any significant delays.
Got it. Got it. That's just from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhishek Nigam from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you so much for the opportunity and, you know, congratulations on a very good result despite all the volatility. Just on in the presentation, you know, there is one slide on global opportunity. I was just wondering if you are able to give a little more details in terms of specifically is there something that you're looking for either in module, cell, batteries, any specific geographies that you prefer over others? Any thoughts over there? That's my first question.
Abhishek, on solar cells, we had announced our JV with Heliene. We had put it on a pause. We have reinitiated discussions now.
Sure.
We have also started looking for sites. We are serious on our U.S. solar cell plans. On Europe, we are seeing a great opportunity. The demand is about 80 GW there per annum. There's also a mandate in EU for solar cells, for inverters. We are evaluating all these opportunities. As and when we are close to finalizing, we would update the markets.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough. I understand. Second, on the battery side, you know, everybody's doing CapEx. I see you are doing CapEx and Waaree is doing, there are others who are also sort of in the fray. Markets have expected a localization policy for a while, you know, of late there has not been much from the government or from the ministry. Is there anything you want to, you know, update us on what is happening over there? If you expect a localization policy, could it be, you know, first half this year, second half this year? Anything you have over there?
Yeah. Sure, Abhishek. You know, we feel that the government is completely committed to local manufacturing for batteries. In fact, batteries and all the other clean energy equipment, be it wind turbines, you know, electrolyzers and all the other pieces of equipment over a period of time. With batteries, I think, the government has been slightly conservative given that it is a nascent market, and there is a large need for batteries in the short run. There is more than 50 GW hours of auctions which have been completed, which have been done at very, very competitive prices.
Also, you know, given what the government and the market experience has been for ALMM, for solar, the government is planning to give about a two-year timeline to the industry to prepare itself.
Okay.
We feel the government is very committed to this. They've already held industry consultations. Thought process is very, very consistent with what we have seen in ALMM-II and ALMM-III. We would expect the policy to be announced. I mean, you know, it's very difficult to give exact indicators for government initiatives, but, you know, it could be announced any time over the next three to four months.
Okay. Okay. That's very useful. Thank you so much. I'll come back in the queue.
Thanks, Abhishek.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ketan Jain from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good evening, sir. Congratulations on a very good set of numbers. I just had a follow-up question from a previous participant. I understand we've been able to retain our margins and that's really appreciable. How has the pricing, price cost moved from January till now? The bill of module, bill of materials for modules, how has it moved in terms of spend or what?
You're talking about DCR modules or you're talking about non-DCR modules?
Both, sir. Just the bill of material, how has it increased? How has the cost increased?
Yeah, on non-DCR modules we have seen cell prices rising in China. They have gone up from $0.035 level to almost $0.06, $0.062. It's like almost 80%, 90% increase on cells. Since it's a pass-through to the customers, module prices would go up in line with China prices. If you talk of DCR modules because of scale efficiencies, and you know, the mix which is changing. We have been able to maintain our margins, and we are quite confident that, you know, going forward, long-term margin trends should be stable and likely even better because the mix is changing.
What you need to understand is that, the non-DCR modules are gradually gonna be phasing out and more of made in India DCR mix is gonna be brought in as the IPPs also start buying DCR modules. We are quite confident that with scale and procurement efficiencies, we will be able to maintain healthy margins.
Is there any increase in the bill of material as well, apart from cells, in the costing?
For glass there has been no increase because of the minimum import price. For aluminum we have seen around 11% of the module cost is aluminum. There has been slight increase, but again, with design changes and frame size optimization, we have been able to mitigate those increase of aluminum. It's not been significant.
Understood. As you mentioned, there have been a healthy sales mix. I think around FY 2025 we would have had around 60% of non-DCR and around 40% of DCR. Do we maintain the same for FY 2026? Did we have the same mix?
We never gave the FY 2025 numbers. going forward, I can give you an indication that in every quarter DCR mix is gonna increase.
Increase. Okay. Understood, sir. Thank you and all the best. I'll get back to the queue.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prakhar Porwal from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Just one question, again, a follow-up to the previous participant's question. We talked on DCR, non-DCR modules. On sales, in the last call you mentioned two levels of cost saving. One is silver reduction in your solar cells, and second is hedging that we do for six months. One question is on hedging. What is the policy right now? Given since last six months, silver prices have remained elevated, is the cost increasing on that front? Second, given you filed on the BSE as well about Zero Busbar cells, maybe just some clarity, what could be approximate reduction in silver consumption because of that, because we've not heard of Zero Busbar from anyone.
Any breakthroughs that globally you are seeing in terms of reducing silver, which maybe we can also do in coming quarters.
Yes. Hi, Prakhar. You know, on silver, we have had extensive discussions, in the last call also. You know, we maintain sufficient stock at any given point of time, and obviously also undertake hedging, as we said last time. The other thing what we have started doing now, is that we have started passing the silver cost risk to our customers in all the new orders that we are signing. As a result of, you know, all these initiatives, we are not affected by silver cost increases, going forward, I would say. Second, you know, in terms of, you mentioned about the potential for reduction of silver usage in our production.
The Zero Busbar modules or cells, they use lower silver by as much as about 10% reduction in silver. We believe that, you know. Longer term, we have got lot of other initiatives, again, as we discussed last time also, including a potentially a complete replacement of silver with copper paste or even aluminum paste. That I would say broadly is about 1.5 to two years away. In the meanwhile, we are working on a comprehensive program, including reducing the silver consumption, hedging, and passing the cost to our consumers.
Sure. That is very helpful. Second, question is on the order book. If I look at the order book, mix 60% is cells and 40% modules. A very rough calculation maybe suggests around 4-4.5 GW of module order book. My question is, given we'll have 11 GW order module capacity, largely for the entire year, will that mean a reduction in utilization levels, and how to look at that? That is one. Second is, given it is a very big cell order book, does this mean that we are selling to players who are more dominant in the retail category where we don't have that dominance right now? What are we doing exactly to maybe increase our presence there? Those are the primary questions.
Just to clarify on the cell order book, a substantial portion of the order book also goes into FY 2028, it's not in FY 2027 itself. These are contracts with module manufacturers whom we'll be supplying cells next year also. In terms of module utilization, we are, you know, at almost about 11 GWs. Taking a 75% kind of utilization, that's about 7.5 GW. Module orders, we also lead some, you know, potential possibilities of getting orders in every quarter. These are orders which are in the order book which are long-term orders, whereas every quarter there's the order book which also comes up.
You know, just to add to that, you know, I'll again point to, you know, if you look at the makeup of the market, almost half of the market is basically coming from the rooftop and the C&I segments. The rooftop segment shows up in our order book because those are mainly cash-and-carry orders, and they're booked on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. The C&I market, which is basically about estimated at about 15 GWs, the ALMM List-II is becoming applicable now. With that, I think we are likely to see a surge in order placement by these customers.
In general, we are very, very optimistic that we will see the order pipeline is already very healthy, and we will see a large surge in order booking by customers, which will basically allow us to also fulfill our fill our production capacity.
Understood. Just one clarification for the rooftop segment that you created. That is through the cash-and-carry distributor modeling?
That's right, yes.
Okay. Okay, thank you so much, and all the best for all the coming quarters. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Vikram from DB Securities. Please go ahead.
No, all my questions were answered. Thanks very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Shah from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the follow-up. Sir, on the cell technology now, we've been much ahead of the industry. We were among the first entries, the G12R cells and now Zero Busbar as well. What is the efficiency level in the Zero Busbar? How are, like, how is it getting received by the customers? Like, what feedback are you getting? What will be the timelines for achieving the 25.8% that we had sort of highlighted?
I'll let Sudhir answer this question.
I think on the efficiency front, it is going to be about 0.1% to 0.15% higher efficiency. This is basically due to higher exposure area.
Zero Busbar.
In the Zero Busbar. That said, it has other advantages with respect to more robustness to shading and microcracks. That's the main advantage with respect to Zero Busbar.
The other question was on when will we reach 28.8% efficiency?
We are currently at an average efficiency in the TOPCon line at about 25.5. Now that we are getting it stabilized, these lines with a 90% utilization, we expect to move forward gradually over the next few months, one step at a time. I would say at least it will take us a couple of more quarters to get to that kind of efficiency levels.
Understood. This is helpful. Sir, just to follow up here now, from here on, like, how do you see this efficiency curve panning out? Like, what are the further tech upgradations or improvements that we are working upon, you know, which has already worked in China? If you could just provide some insights over there.
See, I think currently, if you see the efficiency trends in China, they are on a mass production. It's still hovering around 25.6%-25.8%, even for the A-grade ones. What you see these announcements around 26 and all are more for the champion cells and not the mass production cell efficiencies. With the TOPCon technology, you hit a bar somewhere around 26%-26.1%. Beyond that efficiency improvement, just at the TOPCon cell is not possible. It will need more innovations, more into tandem cell technologies, back contact, and all these kind of newer technologies, which will take some more time to mature on a mass production scale.
Understood, sir.
I think at least two to three years at least from seeing mass-produced tandem modules.
Got it. Got it. This is very helpful, sir. Second, in terms of the backward integrations, you've talked about aluminum frames. Are there any other verticals also that you're looking or contemplating upon in terms of insourcing of raw materials or anything of that sort?
See, Kunal, I think, you know, that remains a watching piece for us. You know, we have to wait and see how the government policy evolves. We know that the government is quite keen to start getting all these components also made in India. What is the exact policy and what are the timelines? We will have to kind of wait to see how that shapes up, accordingly we will decide what is best for the business.
Got it. Now lastly on transformers, like it's a bit untouched now with respect to the upcoming, 10 GVA capacity. Could you just give some Like, how do the milestones look like here in terms of, getting the required certification and especially because it's an EHV segment, how are we progressing on the talent acquisition as well, if could you share? Thank you.
Sure. Kunal, in terms of milestones, this plant is due for completion in July this year. And the good thing is that because of the strong management team in place, and the fact that the company already has existing production facilities, they have already started, you know, producing some of the larger transformers and doing type testing and certification work, which can take as long as 6 to 12 months. I think the company is making very steady progress on that. In terms of management team, you know, there is already a strong management team, as we have shown in our previous presentations, which is ex-Toshiba and some of the other majors in the electrical goods industry.
We believe that the company has already secured amongst their first orders. You know, it will take about two years for the company to fully ramp up their operations, but they are well on track to beginning commercial production and achieving certification in this timeline.
Understood. Just a clarification. Who from which client have you got the order from?
Unfortunately, I can't give you the client name, Kunal.
Understood. This is very helpful, sir. Thank you so much.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aritra Banerjee from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for taking my question and, congratulations for a very good set of numbers. I just wanted to ask one bookkeeping question. On slide number 22, the sales that you have mentioned is INR 21,751 million, whereas in the reported financials, the sales number is INR 22,003, the revenue from operations. Just wanted to understand why the difference?
Yeah, sure. What you see on this slide, Aritra, is only the cell and module sales, because this order book is only for cells and modules. In addition to this, we obviously have the projects and the EPC business. The rest of the revenue is coming from that line, which is not showing here.
Okay, sir. Understood. Another question I wanted to ask was, you know, sequentially the share of modules in the revenue has gone up, but still, the overall margins have remained stable. I understand, the DCR share in the module revenue has also gone up. Typically, cells have sharper margin profile than DCR module business as well. Going forward, even going forward, even if the cells share in the revenue comes down, the margin still expected to remain same? In other words, are DCR module business revenue and cell business revenue margins the same? Could you please share some color on that?
Aritra, you know, I think unfortunately we can't predict the future and we can't say how the margins are going to play out in future. You can see what is the current shape of our order book. We have said earlier that the order book pricing is consistent with what we have seen over the last 6-12 months. You know, that gives us a good visibility in terms of the volumes.
Absolutely, yeah.
As well as pricing and margins. Going forward, the mix is only going to become more favorable, wherein the DCR share is going to grow at the cost of the non-DCR market, which is a much lower margin market. Overall, I think the margin outlook for the business is likely to be favorable, going into the future.
Understood, sir. Just one last question regarding the ALMM List-II implementation. Hypothetically speaking, if it doesn't get implemented, let's say in June 2025 or it gets delayed by some months, is there any risk of some of the orders in our current order book getting canceled going forward or is that not a material risk?
No, it's not a material risk, because none of the orders in our order book are, you know, from the C&I segment, which have deliveries in the next two or three months. If you look at what business is gonna come up from first June, it is gonna be the C&I business, which will immediately move into the DCR mix. Most of these C&I developers have finished or have completed their installations with the first June deadline. The orders in our order book from that segment are post October, November. Even if the DCR or the implementation gets delayed by a quarter, it would not affect any of our orders and we don't see any material risk there.
Understood, sir. Thanks for the answers and all the best for the upcoming quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. As there are no further questions from participants, I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you everyone for your time. I appreciate it's a Friday evening. You know, just to conclude the call and how we see the business. See, there is a lot of noise in the market in relation to demand slowdown, strong competition, cost and margin pressures, et cetera. We believe that our performance over the last year has been a very strong validation of the company's overall business strategy, management competence, and execution. In general, we are very, very positive on the growth outlook for the sector, given all the initiatives by the government. We are now in fact beginning to think beyond the current plans and looking to next stage of growth in terms of products, technologies, and geographies. We are grateful for your support and look forward to working with you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.