Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited (NSE:SCHNEIDER)
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Apr 24, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
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Q1 22/23

Aug 3, 2022

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 FY 2023 Earnings Conference Call of Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited, hosted by Elara Securities Private Limited. 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 ten zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Harshit Kapadia
VP, Elara Securities Private Limited

Thank you, Margaret. Good evening to everyone. On behalf of Elara Securities, we welcome you all for the Q1 FY2023 conference call of Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited. I take this opportunity to welcome the management of Schneider Electric Infrastructure, represented by Mr. Sanjay Sudhakaran, Managing Director, Mr. Mayank Holani, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Vineet Jain, Head Investor Relations. We will begin the call with a brief overview by the management, followed by a Q&A session. I'll now hand over the call to Mr. Sudhakaran for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Managing Director for Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited, and I'd like to welcome.

Operator

Sorry to interrupt you, sir. We lost the audio for a few seconds from your side. May I request you to please repeat yourself from the beginning? Thank you.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

This is Sanjay Sudhakaran. I'm the Managing Director of Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited. I welcome all of you. A very good afternoon to all of you, and I welcome all of you to this earnings call, please. Without much ado, I will go straight to the presentation. If we go to the slide number three, which is page number three, we will briefly talk about the economic outlook of the country. As you can see that the GDP forecast for the country has been slightly brought down from the earlier bullish outlook that we had. This is primarily due to there are concerns regarding the global situation. Inflation in certain countries are very high. There is fear of an economic recession, the Fed cutting, increasing the rates, et cetera, and also a feeling of reduced consumption in the rural economy in India.

However, I would say that the demand pattern continues to look strong in terms of our segments, which we will talk a little bit later. We assume that these concerns around the global situation, et cetera, would fairly leave India untouched, at least for a few quarters from till now. That's what our expectation is. It's a very dynamic situation out there in the globe, and it is very hard to predict the situation as we go forward. We treat these parameters, et cetera, with a certain amount of caution and we plan our investments and our way forward accordingly. Going on to the next slide. A little bit overview on the key segments that we operate in.

The power and grid sector continues to show strong promise despite the challenges here, the privatization, which is not going as fast as the government assumed it to be. There is a significant amount of money being pumped in for digitization and modernization of the network. We continue to piggyback on this particular activity. There is also a major thrust towards renewables. There is a firm commitment by the Government of India to change the energy mix of the country by 2030 and by 2070. I think there will be continued investments in solar, and we are also planning our product introductions, et cetera, in line with this trend that we see. Of course, there is a great push for Make in India.

We have a factory, and we have the technology available to localize products and keep adapting products as we go forward. On the mining minerals and metals, I think it has been a strong two years, but we see some consolidation signs happening in the market as far as cement is concerned and all over. You would have also heard about some large-scale exits. There will be some conservatism as far as CapEx is concerned in this segment going forward, and perhaps we would need to brace for that as well. There is a huge push for sustainability solutions in this particular segment, especially given the nature of the business that it is in. There are sustainability projects which are being launched by these corporations, and we will definitely benefit from this trend.

On the mobility side, which is primarily transportation, automobiles, EV charging, EV equipment, et cetera, I think there are very positive signs, infrastructure build-up across the country, both in terms of road, metros, EV charging facilities, et cetera, and we are well poised to be a very strong player in this segment as well. The data center segments continues to be strong. We see more and more players coming in to India, and there is a huge build-up of data centers happening in India. These are also sort of electro-intensive, and we see that these macro trends will benefit the country as we go forward, and the company as well. Going on to the next page, which is page number five.

I think the entire story around Schneider and its push towards sustainability is to make sure that more and more products that we have are digitized, connected, connectable, sensorized, et cetera, to make sure that we leverage big data across these products and be able to optimize solutions for the customers. Move from more of a reactive maintenance to more of predictive maintenance, and use apps and analytics to be able to succeed in this particular segment. We have a basket of softwares which are primarily Schneider softwares, which we can leverage to be able to be part of this journey. We are preparing our equipment also to be in line with this journey. Going on to some of the wins that we have.

On the digital wins, we see that there is a very good project which we are doing for a large cement company on the waste heat recovery. As I told you, there are sustainability trends in cement industry which cannot be ignored. And there will be CapEx flowing into this particular segment to make sure that the segment is more sustainable as we go forward. We have a good play with our equipments as well as digitization offers to be able to succeed in this particular area. Going on to slide number seven, here is another repeat order from a defense facility for one of the submarines, which was equipped by Schneider panels. There is a large pull-through. This is the second order of a large magnitude which has come to us in the previous quarter, and we continue our story on services here positively.

Going on to slide eight, some of the emerging segments that we spoke about, wins in the EV charging segment. It's still nascent to begin with, but it's a strategic area, and we are focusing here to make sure that we enable our entire suite of products, connected products, as well as the various softwares and microgrids to be able to succeed in this particular segment. We have prepared ourselves with a small team which is working on the conceptualization and the follow-through for this particular segment. With this, I hand over to Mayank Holani, who is the CFO of the company, to give you a little bit on the financial update. Over to you.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Thanks, Sanjay. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Our orders intake for the quarter stood at INR 3,680 million for the quarter, which is up by about 27.5% over last year's same quarter. This growth is mainly driven by cloud and service providers and mining, mineral and metal segments. As a result of this good order growth, it has helped us in improving the backlog by about 8% versus the March 2022 quarter. In last three months we have built up additional backlog of about 8%. Our sales for the quarter grew about 28.9% at INR 3,715 million, which in terms of segments, it was a mixed bag, some positive, some negative. It has been a good quarter.

We remain cautious in terms of order booking, with respect to the terms and conditions, payment, timelines and all, to ensure that our margins and cash is secured and we don't risk on that. Further on, you know, we'll move on to the next slide to give you an overview on P&L. Slide number 11, please. Okay. Sales, as we discussed, with additional sales and with the improvement in mix, we have been able to improve our gross margins by about 2.2% versus previous year, same quarter. Our net profit for the quarter stands at INR 138 million, before exceptional item, INR 138 million, versus a loss of INR 161 million in previous year. That's a delta of about 9.3 points.

Exceptional item, which you see here, is a kind of the loan, B lender loan adjustment in the fair value adjustment. It's based on the extension of loan which we have done, which was the already existing loan. That's a notional gain recorded in accounting. The net profit after tax is about INR 264 million versus INR 161 million loss in previous year. This quarter was also impacted by raw material inflation. While we continue to pass on, you know, the impact to the customers as and where possible. Partial impact is going to customers, partial is impacting the P&L. I can say we have been managing it pretty well in the circumstances which are there, considering the price hike, raw material shortages and, you know, the hedging, et cetera.

With this, I will close here and leave the floor open for Q&A. Thank you.

Operator

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 touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use hands free while asking a question. Anyone who would like to ask a question, please press star and one at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Anyone who would like to ask a question, you may press star and one at this time.

The first question is from the line of Aditya, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 11

Yeah, hi, good afternoon. I'm Aditya. My question here is, what is the current backlog at Q1 2022?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Our backlog as of end of June 2022 is INR 10,079 million, or about INR 1,008 crore, versus INR 9,332 million at the end of March 2022.

Speaker 11

Backlog has increased?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes. About 8% increase versus March.

Speaker 11

How are you placed, in terms of supply chain now?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See, supply chain situation remains challenging, so electronics are still not normalized. Then due to the Ukraine conflict, there have been challenges on couple of other commodities also, like some specialized steel and all. It's no, we can't say that it's normal.

Speaker 11

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question from the line of Anurag Patil from Roha Asset Managers. Please go ahead.

Anurag Patil
Equity Research Analyst, Roha Asset Managers

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, if you can briefly touch upon all the four segment, how do you see the order inflow spanning out in the next, couple of quarters? That would be helpful.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

You mean the mix, right?

Anurag Patil
Equity Research Analyst, Roha Asset Managers

No, no, sir. How is the situation? I mean order inflow, whether you're expecting stronger inflow in any of these segment. Particularly in the mining and metals, are you expecting any slowdown due to metal price correction, et cetera? That would be.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Sanjay, you want to address this?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah. We did touch upon this topic briefly. It is not because of the softening of pricing that we see that. See, India has requirement for infrastructure. Basically, the strong drivers for growth is infrastructure demand, right? But we see that there has been good amount of CapEx formation in, and investments into the cement sector in the past, few quarters. We might see a little bit of slowdown if the infrastructure growth does not keep pace. That's the kind of outlook that we have. It's too early to say for sure.

Anurag Patil
Equity Research Analyst, Roha Asset Managers

Particularly, sir, on the metal side, are you expecting any delays or postponement of CapEx? Because some of the large cap goods companies are kind of witnessing such kind of delays.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See, if you see metals, there has not been a lot of fresh investments into metals in the past few quarters, if you really see. We don't see a material change.

Anurag Patil
Equity Research Analyst, Roha Asset Managers

Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Welcome.

Anurag Patil
Equity Research Analyst, Roha Asset Managers

Sir, next question is on the gross margin side. Do you think these kind of gross margins are sustainable going forward? Any color on how the raw material prices are panning out for us? Are you witnessing any correction in this?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See, this is even obviously this margin which you see current quarter is a bit higher than the average for, you know, last couple of years also probably because of the mix, right? This is obviously a little bit higher margin than the mix. Yes, in this already there is an impact of raw material inflation factored. If that normalizes, then we should see a better margin. Our continuous focus is on improving the mix. Margin improvement comes from the one is the pricing, but it's always a competitive market. We continue to focus also on improving the mix, so which helps the P&L.

Anurag Patil
Equity Research Analyst, Roha Asset Managers

Okay, sir. Thank you very much. I'll come back in the queue.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Anyone who would like to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Viraj Mithani from Jupiter Financial. Please go ahead.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Yeah, good evening and congratulations on outstanding numbers. What is our order book size and break up, segment-wise?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Order book size at the end of June, as I mentioned earlier, is about INR 1,008 crore.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Okay. Can you give the breakup of the segment?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Breakup of this segment is about six systems, 64%.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Okay.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Transaction 22, services 14.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Thank you. Okay, next question is, we talked about in the presentation, defense and other thing. What kind of play we do have in defense? Like, can you give more color on that? Like the submarines, which you mentioned.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

If you would say, it is because of the installed base in the submarines that we are getting the pull-through revenue. The concept that we are trying to tell you is that we are focusing not just on the CapEx businesses, we are focusing on the life cycle revenue that a CapEx can generate over, say, 15, 20 years of time. One of the levers is spare parts, the other lever is software and analytics, and the attachment that it brings to your services revenue, and through analytics, the pull-through parts that you can generate.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

It'll be broadly a service-based revenue, right? It's fair to assume that.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes. Broadly service-based revenue. You're correct.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Okay. This is on the submarines supplied by France or something like that, or?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

In submarine defense.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

This was a submarine that was supplied outside the country, fitted outside the country. However, since it's in India and the responsibility for the services is with us, we are continuing our relationship with the customer.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

What would be the order size, like if you give me some color, you know what I mean? What is the scope of this business though?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Actually, without customer permission, we are not allowed to divulge financial details into public domain. That is the reason why we are not giving you the number, but it is pretty substantial.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

All right. Sir, we thought, in your presentation, you talked about software. Are you referring to EcoStruxure by any chance in the software?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes. EcoStruxure. EcoStruxure, as you know, has different domains. Okay? EcoStruxure is not just one product. EcoStruxure is the generic brand name, but EcoStruxure has different products for power and grid, different products for transportation. Some of the elements could be common, some of the elements could be different. There are a number of suites within the EcoStruxure.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Sir, how will this revenue plan out in terms of services or how? Like, I understand we take from the parent and we pay something to parent, right? For the software services, right?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah. We buy the product. It's a license basically, right? It's a license that you buy from the parent. Okay?

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Okay.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

You sell it to your customers. Okay? There are two kinds of softwares that are available. One that are hosted on the cloud and one that is hosted on the edge. What I mean by edge is on-prem, on the premises of customer, which the customer uses without any help from our side. There, the pull-through revenue happens in terms of the upgrades that you are able to bring to the table. For example, if you have new enabled features, et cetera, you can sell an upgrade to the customer, so that is the services revenue that comes about. There are certain softwares which are on the cloud, which provide analytics.

Here is an opportunity for us to partner along with the customer and be part of his journey, to be able to provide him insights on what he needs to do better on the maintenance side, what is going to fail tomorrow that he should replace today to prevent a downtime. These are value-added services that you can sell.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Is it a transaction-based revenue or it is a fixed price contract with that customer?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

No, no. It's neither transaction nor fixed price. There is a portion which will be fixed price, which is your consultancy services.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Right.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

There is a portion which comes, which is on demand on what you will replace or what you will assist him with, which is based on offer to offer.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

The revenue which comes in, you share with the parent, right? Both of us share the revenue. That is true, right? Is it the right way to think about it, right?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

The services revenue and the analytics revenue, et cetera, are most of it in the country itself. It's all within the country, within the business.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Okay.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

It's only the cost of the license that you need to pay them at the, you know, when you are procuring the product.

Operator

Thank you. I would request Mr. Mithani to rejoin the queue for follow-up questions. The next question is from the line of Kaustav Bubna from BMSPL Capital. Please go ahead.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Yeah. Hi. Can you hear me?

Operator

Yes, we can hear you.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Great. On page five of your presentation, it's data.

Operator

Before we proceed, I'm so sorry, sir, to interrupt you. Can you please come on the handset mode? I can't hear on speaker.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Oh, okay. Okay.

Operator

It's not very clear.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Okay. Yeah. Now can you hear me?

Operator

Please come on the handset mode and come closer.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Yeah. You can hear me now, right?

Operator

Yes. Now it is clear. Please go ahead.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Perfect. Yeah. Hi. Basically, on page five of your presentation, you list out four segments, right? Power and grid, mining, mobility, data centers. Out of this INR 370-odd crores of quarterly revenue that you've done, is there any way you could break up the split, the revenue split for these four segments? Also, where do you see these segments in terms of growth in the next three to five years? Which segment do you see growing faster than the other? Could you give some sort of color over there, please?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

We do not provide guidance by segment, and a breakup to that detail. I could give you a certain, you know, color on the overall market dynamics.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Okay. That'll be good.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Okay. If you see data centers, they would have a CAGR which is in excess of around 12%-13%, even at a very pessimistic level of estimates. Okay? A segment like power and grid would have something like a 6%-7% CAGR because of its, the base revenues itself being so high. Whereas something like transportation would be somewhere around 8%-9%, and cement and steel, et cetera, are in spurts. It's very cyclical. Over a, let's say, three-year timeframe, it could be around 7%-8%, 7%.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Okay. What I'm basically trying to understand is how much of your total revenues is the cement and steel portion, you know, because that's the cyclical part. Is it fair to assume it's less than 25%-30%?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

It's less than that because if you really see the largest driver for this business has always been the power and grid segment. I would say that the dependence on cement and steel would not be in excess of 15%-20%.

Kaustav Bubna
Director and Portfolio Manager, BMSPL Capital

Okay. Great. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question at this time. The next question is from the line of Aditya Deorah from Divisha Investments. Please go ahead. Aditya Deorah, your line is still unmuted. Request you to please.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Yeah. Am I audible?

Operator

Yes, you are.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Yes. Good afternoon, sir. Sir, over last eight quarters, our performance has more or less turned around. Sir, can we attribute a part of the performance to the acquisition of the L&T Electrical & Automation business as a group? Are we seeing any synergies from that end?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

So the, uh.

Operator

Mayank, sir. Yes, go ahead.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

The L&T business acquisition has taken place in other entity, right? Not in this entity.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Directly, there is no relation. That business is anyway largely in other product lines, right? They are not present in the product which we are dealing in this entity. Obviously some synergies do come in as you know get a bigger size as well, too. It can't be said that, okay, it's due to the Schneider acquisition by the group.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Sir, what will you attribute the reason for the turnaround? For the last seven, eight years you were not performing very well, but something has changed over the last eight, 10 quarters inside the company.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See, I mean, the actions were continuing and it has been a slow and steady progress. If you see the last. In between, also, I think I would say a year was wasted due to the COVID also, right? The COVID wave came in, then obviously we saw a drop in revenue. If in the financial year 2019-20. Our focus has always been on, you know, improving the terms and conditions, picking up the right orders and securing cash. A big problem has been in this business earlier, if you have been tracking the sales or the bad debts, right? The collections which we were losing and had to provide for in the P&L.

We have been working on the operational efficiencies as well, rightsizing the organization and restructuring wherever, you know, required as per the market conditions.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Mm-hmm.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

That has started showing results. Then the volume obviously plays a role. What we need to also keep in mind that in last one and a half years, it has been quite turbulent in terms of raw material inflation and all. This performance is really the kind of, I would say, well in a sense that managing the inflation and then delivering a profitable result is a big part because your contracts are on fixed price, right? They are not. Vast majority, large majority is on fixed price. That way it has been good. Had it been a normal year, it would have been even better.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Sir, in answering to a query of one of the previous participants, you were mentioning that we should not see just how much revenue are we or how much profit margin are we making from one particular project. We should see life cycle revenue. Sir, incrementally, year on year, do we see the services and the spare part improving in our revenue as a percentage of part of our revenue?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

If you have been tracking services share in our mix has been improving over the last many years, right? Not just in two years. Slowly and gradually, services share has been improving. Obviously it's not a drastic change that suddenly it will become, say, from 10%-15% or 15%-20%, because this industry is like that where people don't take you know too much of service contracts unlike some other industries.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Mm-hmm.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Gradually the service share has been improving, year after year.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

The services revenue is at a higher margin, right, as compared to the initial products that we provide?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Absolutely, yes. Services obviously comes at a higher margin.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Sir, coming to your presentation, on page eight you have mentioned about, emerging segments are wins, some EV charging infrastructure, work or something that we might have done. Sir, can you just elaborate what we have done or, what we plan to do in this particular segment?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

What's going to happen is that, we are going to move away from a centralized generation and distribution of energy to more of a distributed generation and a prosumer effect, where a consumer of electricity will also be a producer of electricity.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Mm-hmm.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

You could see many charging stations, et cetera, where you would have a mix of power usage, which is a mix of what you take from the grid, which is your conventional energy, and some of its own solar generation as well. Then you would have the EV charging associated with this. All this presents a very solid opportunity for electrification, A. B, digitization, because of the fact that when you're using mixed sources of energy, you will not be able to manage the grid very efficiently without software.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Mm-hmm.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

C, because of the sheer scale at which EV will grow in the country, this will require a very large amount of focus.

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

In terms of infrastructure development. All these presents a very good opportunity for electrification and digitization, which is our core focus areas.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Sir, have we got any order win in this particular segment as of now?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Right now, I would not like to talk about the wins. It's a little bit premature, so we will share more details with you as we go forward.

Aditya Deorah
Investment Manager, Divisha Investments

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for answering.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Jain from Galaxy International. Please go ahead.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

Good morning. I just wanted to actually check the orders that we have of around INR 1,000-odd crores. What is the timeframe in which it is to be executed?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See, typically, depending on the, you know, for different products, the timeframe ranges between three months to 10 months, eight to 10 months. Typically the prototype and some one-off contracts may have even a longer period.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

Right. For simplicity's sake, can we take, let's say around six to seven months on an average, some projects higher, some projects lower?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

All right. Okay. Second thing is that, once we take an order, and especially in the longer-dated orders, so is there a clause for raw material escalation or is it like kind of fixed?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See, sir, we obviously, you know, want to have a price variation clause in each and every contract, and we push for that. Sorry. It depends on the, you know, customer conditions and how the competition is also going. Largely contracts are fixed price.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

Largely contracts are fixed price. Okay. If the raw material prices fall then if that gives us a benefit we can retain that and vice versa. If they rise then whatever hit we have to take on the EBITDA margin we take that right? More or less.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah, it will be a kind of, you know, mix because what happens is you are doing hedging, so if prices fall, you get a loss from the hedging. Then also, you don't see an immediate result, right? Because if I am ordering today, I am getting material after two months, three months, and it's a mixed bag, right? Still some commodities are going up, some are coming down. Yeah, largely on a long run, you know, it will get, it should not be too negative.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

Okay. The next question I just wanted to ask was that we were referring in the opening remarks that there are some new products that we are kind of introducing. Is it like possible to give some color on what are the kind of products and which area segments we are doing that?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Bit on the solar piece, where we would be introducing certain products to be more able to cater to that segment and the growth in that particular segment. We also see a very strong growth on the Ring Main Units, et cetera, given the infrastructure growth in the country. We'll be introducing some products around those areas as well. We'll be happy to share with you the progress as we go forward.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

Sure. Okay. One final question, that I actually wanted to get, not a guidance, but basically some kind of a qualitative view from yourself on, let's say, what's the kind of, let's say revenue growth, let's say we look forward to, let's say, over a period of, let's say two to three years, right? So are we saying it is possible or it may be possible to grow by 10%-12%? Or we will aspire, not possible actually, aspire to grow by this much, aspire to grow by that much. Also on the EBITDA margin. So what would be the kind of EBITDA margin that you actually aspire to get to? Because it has been very variable, right? From 0% to, let's say, 7% in some quarters to 12%-13% also.

I just am trying to understand what may be kind of, let's say, modeling perspective, what can be the reasonable EBITDA margin which management would actually be looking to get to?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See, we generally don't provide any guidance in terms of, you know, future revenue or margin. Just would like to give one comment because the quarter we are comparing last year Q1 was an exceptional one, you know, impacted by the COVID second wave. Right? That has also impacted the quarter. As far as guidance is concerned, we don't provide any guidance for future.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

Right. I understand that. I appreciate. The only point that I was looking for is let's say in this business that we are doing actually, right? What's the kind of, some kind of aspirational margins that we have, right, which we are looking for, whether 10% is good enough for us, we are targeting 15, or we will look at eight is good enough for us. Something like that is what I'm just trying to get a hang on. Like no guidance per se, not on a quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year basis. At least the direction in which.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Won't comment on that. I would only say that, okay, you know, we will obviously not be looking at a margin from quarterly perspective or, you know, because, quarter on quarter sometimes this is a project business, so the numbers may fluctuate, right? The volumes may fluctuate and that directly affects margin.

Nikhil Jain
Founder, Galaxy International

Okay, fair enough. Thank you. I'll join back with you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question at this time. The next question is from the line of Manish Goyal, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 12

Yes, thank you so much. Would like to just get more perspective on the

On the revenue mix change, what we have mentioned, which has led to improvement in gross margins and EBITDA margin. Also what we see is that other expenses have actually declined YOY despite strong top-line growth. Just one, if you can probably give more perspective as to how sustainable it is, and maybe if you can share the revenue share, revenue breakup on systems, equipments and transaction products, that will be helpful.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah. Manish, the revenue break-up for the quarter, if you see this quarter has been systems 69%, transactions 21% and services 10%. While if you look at last year's same quarter, it was 75% for systems, 17% for transactions and 8% for services. So, about, you know, 4% increase in transactions and 2% in services. That is the mix change which I was mentioning. Also there was, within equipment also there was one product line. There was a generational change, some declining product which was giving a lower margin. That also helped improving the margin in that sense.

Now, on the second part of your question, if you see that expenses, it's mainly the savings coming from savings for the old debt recovery, which has reduced the expenses. Old debt recovery and the Forex gain. These are two items which has reduced, otherwise the expenses which are directly linked to volume, be it freight or, you know, travel. Last year there was not much travel in this quarter because of COVID. Travel has gone up, freight has gone up, trademark fees linked to volume that has gone up. The rent, as there was some savings, obviously it's a part of the continuous focus on cost savings. The old debt collection and Forex are the major items which have negated all the impact of increasing cost. Overall you see the lower other expenses.

Speaker 12

Would it be possible to quantify how much recovery and Forex gain we had in the quarter?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

If you add these two items together, it's about INR 75 million.

Speaker 12

Okay. Mayank, I just want to get a better perspective on this INR 1,000 crore order book what we have. Is it possible that the kind of gross margins what we have seen based on the current order book, we are more or less likely to remain near these levels?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

You see our order booking margin as such has not changed drastically, so on either side. It's in the continue to be in the similar range.

Speaker 12

No, where I'm coming from is that what improvement we have seen, due to better revenue mix and, as mentioned in a presentation on improvement in productivity.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah.

Speaker 12

Like, do we see this trend continuing going forward?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

No, see, I think this mix changes, I mean, too wide. That exactly while we continue to focus on improving the mix, and you have seen a gradual improvement in services mix and transaction, but exactly this kind of mix may not continue. The rate can keep fluctuating quarter and quarter.

Speaker 12

Okay. Broadly, directionally, we see that our margins should be on an improvement trajectory.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah. I think last year anyway was an exceptional year in terms of raw material inflation also, right? Because margin is also a derivative, which is something not completely in your hand when you have fixed price contracts, right? If that should improve, give us benefit on margin.

Speaker 12

Can you give me the intergroup revenue number for the quarter and also for the last full year?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

IG revenue

Speaker 12

IG.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Just a second. IG revenue.

Speaker 12

Is 22%.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Is about 22%.

Speaker 12

For the quarter?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah, for the quarter.

Speaker 12

What would be the order inflow number for IG?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

The order is order number?

Speaker 12

Order inflow number. Is it that the revenue number is similar to the order inflow in the IG category?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Order absolute number, if I tell you is for the quarter, it's about INR 78 million. INR 78 crores for the quarter.

Speaker 12

Do you have number for last full year, FY 2022, what was the IG revenue?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Last full year. Just give me a second.

Speaker 12

Last full year order intake number or the IG?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

I'm looking for revenue number.

Speaker 12

It's 59 IG number is 23% roughly.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

It was 23%, Manish.

Speaker 12

Okay. Thanks. Thank you so much for all the answers.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Thank you. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Suraj Nanda from ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Yeah. Hi, sir. I just wanted to understand, like what in the mix, how much is projects and how much is products?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Sorry, can you repeat your question?

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Yeah. In the mix, how much is projects, how much of the revenue is coming from projects and how much is the products?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

I think I mentioned earlier, on sales our transactions is 21%, service is 10%, projects is 11%, equipment 36%, and IG 22%.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Okay.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Which together we call a system, 69%.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Okay. Projects is only 11% is what you're saying?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Okay. Sir, on the borrowing side, we see that the you know the debt levels is pretty high, and a major part of it is through you know loan from the sister entity, I think Schneider Electric IT Infra.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

How are you planning to, you know, reduce the debt and as a result, you know, the interest component in the.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

See that the debt, if you see from last year, I mean, in last financial year from March 2021 to March 2022 also, if you had seen in the annual report and the financials, debt has improved, right, with the improved collections. The way is to improve the operational performance and to get profits and cash in hand. That way only we can reduce the debt. I mean, at this stage, we don't have any other plan to reduce the debt.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Has the payment scenario for you improved in terms of, you know, days?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes, it has improved in terms of days, definitely, because that's what reflects in our cash flow also. If you had seen the last quarter call or last financial results for the full year, our cash flow from operations was about INR 120 crores versus, I think 6-7 crores in the previous year. There has been a significant improvement in the collections and the cash realization last financial year, and the same trend continues in this quarter as well.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Okay. Are there any, you know, CapEx plans for, you know, indigenization or anything, or the entire cash flow generation will be used for, you know, maintenance CapEx and paying back of debt?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

No, at this stage, nothing specific or major CapEx finalized or in plan.

Suraj Nanda
Fund Manager, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Okay. Thank you, sir. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Viraj Mithani from Jupiter Financial. Please go ahead.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity again, sir. My question is, have you stabilized in terms of raw material prices by now? Like, what's your sense on the market? Are we seeing some stability coming there?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

The raw material prices continue to fluctuate. I mean, it's difficult to say or, you know, forecast anything. Even if we look at last quarter, some commodities prices declined while others were going up. For example, copper prices they have declined in last some time, but CRGO steel has been going up or, you know, the transformer oil has increased a lot. It's not one way for all the commodities.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

The next question, what is our capacity right now? What capacity are we working at right now only, right?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

For transformer?

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Generally, yeah. Capacity realization would be what? Like a transformer, other things.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Plant capacity?

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Capacity utilization of the plant.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah, yeah.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

So.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah. That has been, I can say, in the last quarter, it has been about, I think, 85%.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Okay. My last question is we price our products into euros, right? To the dollar. Are we benefiting by the euro becoming weaker to the dollar?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

No, we don't. Our products are mostly sold in India, so those orders are all in INR.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

No, no, imports which are there.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yeah. Okay. Imports, obviously, yeah, imports are in euro or USD, depending on the country. What was your question on that?

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

I mean, do we benefit from the Euro weakening? That's what my question is, so.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes. See, that's what I was answering, I think Manish's question. You must have seen, we have a Forex gain in the last quarter. That depending on, you know, the fluctuation, some quarters you will see a gain, some quarters we have loss. While we hedge also the Forex some to some extent, but it's something, you know, not always in your control.

Viraj Mithani
Owner, Jupiter Financial

Thank you. Okay, sir. Thank you and all the best.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Anyone who would like to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities. Please go ahead.

Harshit Kapadia
VP, Elara Securities Private Limited

Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Just wanted to check with you on the semiconductor shortage. Has the issue been getting lower now or you still face the issue on semiconductor shortages? Secondly, any color you can give on the recent announcement of the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme. Do you think that scheme is going to benefit, you know, Schneider Electric at large, and you will see power grid growth, which you mentioned 6%-7%, can move to double-digit?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Take the latter half of the question. The first part Mayank can take. The latter half of the question is more towards power and grid. You appreciate that the power and grid segment is quite a large segment in India, and 6%-7% growth, especially driven by modernization of the segment, presents a very good, you know, growth opportunity. We will definitely benefit from the scheme that you are talking about, which is more around digitization and cutting losses in the segment.

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Sorry, I mean, the line was not clear. What was your first part? It was around, I think, semiconductors, right?

Harshit Kapadia
VP, Elara Securities Private Limited

Yeah. Do you still face the semiconductor shortage issues?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

Yes. It continues. The supply is limited and not exactly as per the demand.

Harshit Kapadia
VP, Elara Securities Private Limited

Would you anticipate any impact on revenue in the coming quarters? Right now you have sufficient inventory at your backlog, so there should not be much impact?

Mayank Holani
CFO, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

No. See, the impact is there and I mean, if we get semiconductor electronics completely as per our demand, definitely revenues can be better. But the impact is there.

Harshit Kapadia
VP, Elara Securities Private Limited

Okay. Fair enough. All the best. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Kapadia for closing comments. Mr. Kapadia.

Harshit Kapadia
VP, Elara Securities Private Limited

Sorry, yeah.

Operator

You may go ahead.

Harshit Kapadia
VP, Elara Securities Private Limited

Sorry. We would like to thank the management of Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited for giving us an opportunity to host this call. We also thank all investors and analysts for joining for this call. Any closing remarks, Sanjay, sir, you would want to give the investors?

Sanjay Sudhakaran
Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited

I'd like to thank all of you for your continued support and for joining this call and listening to us. Have a good day, please. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of Elara Securities Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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