Ladies and gentlemen, good day. Welcome to the Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Limited Q1 FY 2024 earnings conference call. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sandeep Thomas Mathew, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you.
Yes, thank you, and a very good afternoon to all of you. I welcome you all to our Q1 FY 2024 earnings call. Along with me, I have Mr. Amit Jain, our Global CEO, and SGA, our investor relations advisor. Our CFO, Mr. Bahadur Dastoor, is on medical leave and therefore unable to attend the call today. He will be back from the next earnings call. We will start the call with an update on the operational highlights for the quarter and the solar industry outlook by Mr. Amit. Thank you, and over to you, Amit.
Hi, thanks, Sandeep, and a warm welcome to all the participants on this call. I would like to give a quick update on our business operation and outlook on the solar industry. To begin with, the company announced new orders totaling INR 466 crores in Q1 FY 2024, aided by continuing ordering momentum seen in India. We obtained two orders from existing customers, Serentica and Amplus, this quarter. The Serentica order is a 319 MW DC project located in Bikaner, Rajasthan, and Amplus is a 72.5 MW DC project located in Jhansi, UP.
Our unexecuted order book as on 30th June 2023, stands at INR 4,902 crores, with nearly 90% of the order book compromised, comprising domestic EPC projects, which are executable over the next 12 to 18 months. With the inclusion of Nigeria MoU that was announced in September 2022, our order pipeline is anticipated to enhance significantly. We are working with various stakeholders to finalize the D&EPC agreement for the project by Q2 FY 2024. Our order pipeline continues to remain very strong at approximately 22 GW, of which India accounts for 58.4% and Australia, 14.8%. Our business development teams are working very hard and remain focused to deliver the strong growth trajectory we are targeting in this year.
Our strategic focus is to secure an impressive order booking of 3 GW-5 GW from the highly promising Indian market. In the international market, while we have been adopting a more cautious approach with new orders, we are beginning to make headway with our clients as well. As stated in our earlier calls, we reiterate that lumpiness in order flow is to be expected with EPC company like ours. The timeline for achieving project closure could vary, depending on a host of factors, including finalization of contractual terms, financial closure, etc. In terms of execution, our core operations have begun to show a turnaround, as we have hoped and indicated in the last quarter's call. We have begun to trend back to normalized margins in our EPC segment and hope to maintain a similar trend for the rest of the year.
We should also begin to see a meaningful pickup in revenue when our NTPC project begins to go full stream, which we anticipate from Q3 FY 2024. We have also been rationalizing overheads to the extent necessary. The result of these efforts are more likely to be visible from the second half of this fiscal year. Moving to industry outlook, we have seen an unprecedented decline in prices of silicon, wafer cells, and modules in last six months, with the module price now falling to nearly $0.18 per watt peak and is around the historic lows we have seen during the pandemic times. The recent downward trajectory marks a departure from the prolonged upward trend witnessed post the pandemic.
With the significant supply pressure due to emergence of new production capacities in China, industry analysts continue to anticipate module prices to remain depressed for some time. The time remains right for more projects to come on stream, aided by lower LCOE. In its most recent solar market forecast, BloombergNEF project annual global installation to touch an estimated 344 GW, and is already up from 316 GW projected in January 2023. Given the significant role that renewable energy plays in India's energy transition, an immensely attractive opportunity arises within the solar operation and maintenance industry. The India solar footprint has experienced significant growth, expanding from a mere 3.7 GW in 2015 to an impressive 60 GW+ in FY 2023.
Solar operation and maintenance sector has emerged as a distinct and highly profitable market, boasting its own unique landscape and dynamics. With the steady rise of operational solar plants, the recent ring of own contracts is becoming a burgeoning prospect for providers such as ourselves. We are consistently expanding our O&M portfolio, placing an enhanced emphasis on third-party O&M within global markets, utilizing both organic and inorganic strategies. With this, I will ask Sandeep to take you through the consolidated financial highlights. Thank you.
Thank you, Amit. Moving to the highlights. Revenue for this quarter was INR 515 crores. Revenue has improved substantially on a sequential basis, aided by higher contribution from the domestic EPC segment. The company has also reported consolidated gross margin of 11.3% this quarter. This is after nine quarters of losses, and this has been primarily aided by the higher contribution from the domestic EPC segment. Our unexecuted order book, which largely comprises domestic projects currently, is likely to help sustain these gross margins going forward. Our domestic EPC margins, as you may have seen, has improved to 13% and is higher than average in this quarter compared to our FY 2023 margin, which was around 9.7%.
International EPC margins have also moved to the green. In this quarter, they were aided by reversal of certain costs and excess provisions that we had earlier made in two projects. It's also worth noting that we have achieved standalone operational EBITDA breakeven in the first quarter. In O&M business, which constitute about 9.2% of our revenue, the margin trajectory has begun to significantly improve. It still also remains impacted by a few projects where cost is currently being incurred, but no revenues have been recognized. Moving to the balance sheet, as of June 30th, our net debt stands at approximately INR 2,100 crores, and cash and cash equivalents was about INR 63 crores. We had a positive core working capital of about INR 140 crores.
However, we should note that net working capital would be at a negative INR 402 crores, this were the indemnity receivables to be excluded. We are targeting to significantly reduce our debt by Q4 FY 2024, and this will be achieved through a combination of receivables recovery, indemnity improves, and the negative working capital cycle that we see in our new projects. In terms of outlook for the rest of the year, we hope to achieve commissioning and handover of our legacy international projects without any further delays and costs. We are optimizing our overhead costs, which should get reflected in the coming quarters, as Amit earlier alluded to. We also aim to maintain gross margins of about 10%-11%, which should be supported by the almost 94% of our current OOV comprising India orders.
With this, now we can open the floor to question and answer.
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 the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question is from the line of Mr. Puneet from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much, and congratulations for, you know, coming back on the recovery part. My first question is with respect to the, you know, new projects which you have taken. Do these projects have fixed price contract, or is there a pass-through of module cost there?
I think can you repeat the question, which project you mentioned? We missed that part.
The new project, for example, Serentica, Amplus, that you talked about, and in general, not specifically about these particular projects only, are the new projects which you have taken, do they have a pass-through clause, or are they fixed price contracts with respect to the module prices?
Puneet, to give you a background, that India is a purely BOS market and module supply in all the orders which we have backed, rather NTPC, Serentica or Amplus.
Right.
The module supply is not in our cost. There is no risk on part of modules in our scope, and it is being supplied by the client. All other materials which we are supplying, they are fixed price contracts, and we have placed orders on back-to-back basis to all our vendors. Practically, with respect to all scope of supplying on all the projects which are under execution, we have no exposure or no risk on account of any materials at all.
Understood. Would you think that the margins which you've done this year are likely to sustain?
Definitely, rather, margins are likely to sustain or improve with the overhead rationalization, and with the future, the further quarters, Q3 and Q4, we'll see a significant rise in revenue, so we expect margins to improve.
What are the other payment terms broadly for these orders in terms of advances, et cetera?
All the orders we remain like, as we have, like, explained in various calls earlier also, that all the payment terms are adjusted in such a manner that we remain cash positive throughout the project execution period.
Okay. Understood. That's very helpful. Lastly, any progress on the Reliance project that you're getting in terms of execution?
Reliance, discussions are progressing, as you must have read, there is target to install more than 100 GW by 2030. With that run rate, I think the rollout should start beginning, if we take the average rate also, it will be in the range of, anywhere +10 GW per year. I will not be able to give you any finite or, like, any definite timeline to you. The rollout, we expect the rollout to be announced soon.
Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Bajrang Bafna from Sunidhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, congratulations, Amit Jain, for, you know, coming in black, especially on the EPC side, and I hope that this trend continues. My first question pertains to, you know, if we see the 22 GW where, you know, the big pipeline for you, what sort of, you know, success rate that we can perhaps, you know, build in for our understanding is going forward? That will be my first question. Second, on the fixed cost side, you know, we were close to, let's say, INR 400 crore kind of heavy run rate. With the initiatives that we are taking, where we want to see it, you know, maybe in FY 2024 perspective. That will be really helpful if you could clarify on that.
First of all, thanks to you. With respect to the expected hit rate, out of the our current pipeline, almost 60% we are expecting it from domestic market, the pipeline which is there, and we have hit rate of 18%-20% in domestic market, the segment we are addressing, and the cumulative hit rate has been around 14%-15% historically. With the improvement in the domestic market hit rate and the major portion of the orders coming from domestic market, we expect this hit rate to improve. This year we are expecting 4 GW -5 GW from domestic market, and rest of the orders will be from the market, strategic international markets like Australia, Middle East, and Africa.
We expect that will be remain upward of 15%, which has been traditional, we have been, but this will be improved by significant contribution from domestic markets.
Got it. INR 4,000 crore-INR 5,000 crore kind of order we can expect from domestic market?
That's what the target is, that we are expecting INR 4,000 crore-INR 5,000 crore orders, order book from the domestic market.
Similar from the international market, except Nigeria.
Yeah, the order is, we had given a guidance of earlier, like, will be close to $1 billion. Both domestic and international put together, excluding Nigeria. We are striving to achieve the guidance which we had given in the last quarter.
Okay. Sir, if you could just guide us, the Nigerian progress little more, because we were anticipating it to be somewhere in the beginning of the quarter. Now it is getting little postponed. Any precise reason for that? Because government is already there.
On the government, yeah. There is no, because in earlier call also, we have guided that it will be either Q1 or Q2. We are expecting, because it's a very large order, and it can take little bit of few weeks or a month or so delay. We are expecting to get it concluded within this quarter toward the later end. Right now, based on our feedback and discussions and interaction we gather, is we're likely to conclude it in by the end of this quarter.
Okay. Sir, just one clarification on this Nigerian order. Earlier, it was $1.5 billion, you know, project. Now, since you already alluded that the, you know, the module prices have come down significantly, and there is a currency devaluation that has happened in Nigeria. What will be, you know, all these, you know, things, whether this is going to impact on the value or on our earlier envisaged margins of this 10%, 12%? Any impact of that on our, you know, these changes?
No, no. No, sir, it's because this project is being funded by EXIM Bank of USA, and all the major component of the project are being imported from U.S. The module prices have come down in China, but with respect to the modules to be supplied for Nigeria, they will not be sourced from China. Either they will be sourced from most probably from U.S. only, and in USA market, the module prices more or less remains at the level at which we had considered in our bid. Bid value will not come down. It will stay at the values or the guidance which we have given to the market. It stays there, and there will be no impact on our margins, as that this is a negotiated bid.
All the subcontractor prices after negotiation and the whatever the levels they were existing have been considered, and the margins will remain firm at the levels which they were considered.
Okay. Got it, got it. Sir, if we see the, you know, the run rate, can we expect, you know, still to achieve INR 6,000 crore-INR 7,000 crore kind of revenue in FY 2024? The first quarter is little bit slow, is it still doable, considering we have a large bid pipeline?
No, we are striving for a much higher, like, we're striving for this number, but as you know, that we have unexecuted order book of almost INR 5,000 crore, INR 4,900 crore right now, and we will have book and bill also will be added to this number. We expect the revenue booking to significantly increase in Q3 and Q4, and we are striving for definitely for a much higher number.
Got it. Got it. Got it, sir. Thank you very much, and all the very best, sir.
No, thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Faisal Zubair Hawa, from H. G. Hawa & Company. Please go ahead.
In the international strategy, again, the competition will rise due to the low module prices, even the module makers itself will be, you know, very much attracted to doing the EPC themselves, as is the China model. How will you really fight that? Because this will really increase in the competitive intensity.
Actually, Mr. Hawa, I could not hear you clearly. Your voice is breaking and very low. Could you repeat again?
Yeah, the module prices have now come down, you know, this will result in a lot of competitive intensity in bidding for EPC contracts. How will we now, you know, really be placed in the international market? What could really happen is that we bid at this time and within a very competitive scenario and probably, you know, get caught again in large time horizon contracts.
Actually, I would say that the correction in the module prices will improve the EPC margins in the international markets. Earlier, first of all, it will help us on two counts. The contract closure would be much faster, and more and more decisions will be taken due to the low module prices. Second part is that the EPCs were under a lot of pressure because of the higher module prices. Of particular committed tariffs, we were under. All the developers were pushing EPCs for much lower and competitive numbers. Now, EPC margins will improve, and international bids are generally with module pass-through.
That's what we have indicated, that we will be either negotiating with the customer to pass through cost, whatever risk comes, we'll be able to claim through customers, or we'll be going with much higher bonds with our module suppliers, so that we are fully protected with respect to module price risk, either by the pass-through the customer or higher amount of bonds from the suppliers.
There are two further areas of concern. One is that, you know, the promoters are constantly selling shares on the, on the market. We, you know, we are really worried that, you know, this could be, you know, two promoters who are, who have just come into a marriage to, you know, where there was no actual synergy. You know, there could be less skin in the game for the present promoters now. That's one concern. The second concern is there is an interview in the press, you know, saying that you would like to even raise more funds through equity. Where, where do we stand on both?
I would like to say there is a complete synergy between both the promoters, and both are providing strategic direction to the company, we don't see any concern on that count. Mr. Khurshed Daruvala is leading the company, and he's completely guiding us as far as the complete board, constituting of the earlier promoters and new promoters, is giving the direction to the company. I don't see any concern there. SP has raised a huge amount of capital recently, and whatever sale might have happened due to some temporary to address some urgent requirements. I don't see that happening, and more comments on this can come from promoters.
Also, just with respect to the equity raise, yeah, I think we are looking at all options, keeping all options open at this point of time. You know, that would be the context with respect to, I guess, that media article that you are referring to. Yes, we are keeping all options open, but that does not, you know, imply that there is anything impending at this moment, at least.
Thirdly, sir, what is our bank guarantee limit presently? Are we applying for more bank guarantee limits, and how will we really get them with, you know, negative networks?
Bank guarantee limits, sufficient bank guarantee limits are available with us. Bank guarantee has never been a concern with us, to address whatever amount of bids or orders we are expecting. Historically, and even today, we don't feel any concern about that. The standalone net worth is positive, that in Indian market, to pick orders of any magnitude is not an issue for us. Even in international markets, we are tying up with partners wherever the projects are too big, otherwise, clients are comfortable to deal with us on standalone basis as such. We are strategizing and are able to manage with the negative net worth on the consolidated for international projects.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Gaurav Shah, from Harshad Gandhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, on note number 7A, in your notes to accounts, with respect to the legal case pertaining to the wholly owned subsidiary claim of some INR 793 crore. Sir, is this covered under the indemnity claim agreement with the old promoters? First question is that. Second, question is mostly on the less, sort of like the lessons we learned from our legacy orders. Don't you think we require some sort of improvement in the way we draft our legal agreement, just to control the risk we face as a company from, like, customers' counterclaims and all that? Just wanted to have your views on this.
I think the point number one, Sandeep will address later. On point number two, that's the contracts were drafted properly all the time, even in the past and now, due diligence is always taken care of. Certain circumstances, which took us by surprise, either the pandemic or the complete break-off supply chain in international markets, they were not addressed enough. Since we have learned from those two events, now we are extremely cautious, revising our risk matrix, and all those elements are properly getting addressed in the contracts we are signing. We have taken sufficient care, and the contracts which we are signing gives us a very good level of protection in terms of various events.
Okay. On the first question, Sandeep?
Could you just repeat that? Sorry.
This particular claim of INR 793 crore, the case. Is this part of the indemnity agreement we have with our old promoters?
It's 73.9.
It's a case pertaining to our wholly-owned subsidiary, where there is, like, we have incurred some cost, overrun cost of INR 464 crore. There is a counter claim from the customer, like, for INR 157 crore.
Yeah, we'll get back to you, on this. Just give us some time.
Okay. Okay, cool. That's it from my side. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Abhineet Anand from MK. Please go ahead.
Yeah, just trying to understand this indemnity in close. What's the timeline this year, how much we are going to get, let's say, 1H, 2H of this year, and what will be left for next year, if you can highlight?
Yeah. See, the, how the indemnity works is that all the crystallized claim till September of that particular year is paid back by the promoters to the company. This year, we expect it's in the range of approximately upward of INR 250 crores, which will get crystallized and made, will be paid by the promoters according to indemnity agreement.
This basically will be paid in H2 of this year, right?
Pardon?
This INR 250 crore that you talked about, this will get in second half of this year.
That's correct. Second half of this year.
Again, second half of next year, the rest we will get. Is it like that?
Whatever amount gets crystallized, that will be paid accordingly in terms of the indemnity agreement.
Abhineet, the indemnity amounts get crystallized on September 30th of every year. You know, this amount that we have, that will be crystallized this time around, will be essentially built on September 30th, and then promoters have, you know, I think, a month or so to make the payment. It'll definitely happen in Q3 or earlier than that.
By which financial year this gets zero?
We would expect it to, you know, get fully crystallized in maybe, in another, hopefully by 2024 or 2025. Yeah, another year or so. Most of it will get crystallized. Bulk of the amount will get crystallized by September 2024.
Okay. Second is, let's assume, this is a hypothetical stuff, Reliance wants to do some 100 GW by 2030. Now, even though let's assume that they do a 10 GW every year, first, point 1 is that, do we have execution capabilities for doing a 5 GW- 6 GW beyond the India opportunity that is there? Obviously, Reliance will diversify this by giving it to three, four players, right? Does that mean that if Reliance's market is 10 GW as in, you know, tender, for us, it implies around 3 GW- 4 GW . Is this understanding right? Or, if you can, you know, throw some light on that.
See, Reliance, that you are right. Once the Reliance rollout happens, it will be a massive rollout, and we are fully geared to handle the rollout when it is planned. Our ramp-up plans are already in place. The execution strategy for that kind of rollout is already in place. Whatever volume comes to us, we are fully geared up to handle, and ramp-up can be done quickly. The ramp-up plans are already in place, which we had already started earlier. That's not an issue with us. Now, what is the finally strategy adopted by Reliance, I will not be able to comment on that, but we are very hopeful that we'll be the strategic portion for the either complete or the major portion of the rollout.
Okay. On this Nigeria contract, I just wanted some more details. In terms of let's assume, Q2, we get this contract, let us assume for the simplicity, it's a $1.5 billion. I mean, in terms of revenue, if you can just split that into the next three years, four years, and now what percentage comes in 2025? A very broad number so that, you know, we probably helps us in that sense.
I, we will sign, the project in September. The financial closure with the Exim Bank will take some time. Either there will be very minimal portion of revenue this year, if it happens, but the bulk of the revenue will be booked in FY 2025 and FY 2026.
That's a two-year project only, you are saying?
Yeah. Majority of the booking will take in FY 2025 and FY 2026.
Okay. In terms of risk to the module, there also, whether it will be a fixed price or module, how it will happen, sir?
No, see, the provision are sufficiently built in to take care of if there are any price variation happens. That has been addressed in the contract, and we are sufficiently covered for the module price variations there.
Okay, it's a long duration period, I was just hoping that everything... All pass-throughs will be there, especially from the module side, right?
Pardon again?
I'm saying you know, high price of module will be a pass-through.
Yeah.
In that contract?
Absolutely. We will, we are completely protected on that front.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Those were the questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Rabindra Nath Nayak from Sunidhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity here. Congratulations for a positive gross margin in the quarter. Whether we have started the NTPC, execution of the NTPC order, or part of the NTPC order in this quarter, or it is expected to, you know, start within the coming quarters?
No, NTPC, we have got two orders for NTPC. First order, the work has already started. We are fully mobilized on ground, all the orders has been placed. Work is going on on the site for the first part. The second part also, the engineering has started, we are starting the process of order placement and site mobilization for NTPC 2 project as well.
Okay, okay. That means.
Major revenue will start coming in the first monsoon, Q3 and Q4. Major revenue will be booked in the last two quarters for both NTPC projects.
Okay, okay. Sir, we come to understand that in India, as compared to the past, the solar EPC contractors are now insulated from majority project risk. How far is it true, in your view, so far as the Indian market is concerned?
Could you repeat your question again, please?
Okay. So far as the majority project risk for the EPC contractor, for the solar project, they are up to some extent insulated on the major project risk. We have to just come to understand this. Is it true? You can give some views on this.
There are two parts to it, because the most of the in India, is a BOS market, and the modules are supplied by the developers. We are completely insulated from the module price risk. We do not undertake the land aggregation risk on any project in India. With respect to these are the two major risks in India, which we are completely insulated from. Rest, we have very strong execution capabilities in India, and we have a extremely good vendor relationship. That keeps us insulated from most of the project risks in India, and we have so far have been very successful in delivery projects, delivering projects in India.
Okay. Do you see the competitive space for the Indian utility solar market is, you know, a lot of players are going to enter in this market, going ahead, or it is not that case you are looking at?
Again, like, I have to request you to repeat again.
The, actually, if the India market is becoming favorable, because in the EPC contractor, a lot of EPC contractor will enter into the market, particularly in utility solar. Whether do you see this, you know, things emerging, or it is not likely?
They may, lot of people looking at the lucrative market may try to enter, but we have been, for last one decade, the leading solar player in India, and we have consistently maintained our market share. With our reputation, most of the new and established companies like to work with Sterling Wilson. I expect the market to grow. It is the growing market. We expect our market share to rather go up considerably than we have in the past.
You have stated that 60% of the business will come from India, right?
Yeah, more than 50%. This year, the 60% of the pipeline is from India, and right now, the current executive, unexecuted order book, more than 90% is coming.
Okay. Sir, about the indemnity process, you mentioned the INR 250 crore we are expecting this year. As per your estimate, because all the indemnity is related to the past projects, if we have, we might have considered that all the past projects where we have done work, then what is the expected indemnity proceed now we are working in? So far, it is in a consolidated basis, we're likely to get by FY 2025 or FY 2026.
I think I will request Sandeep to answer that question.
Hello? Yeah.
Yeah. Indemnity inflows, as Amit had earlier argued it to this September, by this September, what is crystallized as of now is roughly about INR 270 odd crores, right? There is obviously another quarter to go. Whatever that final amount is, that will be paid to the promoters as of this September. There are multiple, you know, events happening in the background as well. There are some arbitration cases, et cetera, going on, where we hope that there'll be some favorable judgments, et cetera, coming in very soon. That amount could go up as well in this particular September itself, for example.
However, you know, because there are, you know, multiple cases, et cetera, that are going on, the timing of these will only be decided once we have a final decision as such. You know, and you should be very clear that this amounts will come from either the client or the promoters. It's not just the promoters that are liable. If we are able to recover it from the clients, then we will, you know, do it at the earliest from them. These settlement agreements are going on. There are negotiations happening. A large amount of the amounts are liquidated damages related, et cetera.
Once the projects are completed and handed over, which we expect will happen very soon, you know, especially in the international markets, then we will be able to sit across the table, get those agreements in place, and get those monies back.
No, that I understand, sir. which I want to know that this is an ongoing process, it will continue. The thing is that, you know, where we are favorably get the order, get the money, so what is the amount as of now we have, you know, calculated that this should be the with a favorable judgment or a favorable understanding from the company, this is the amount we will get. It is subject to change when the time passes with the arbitration. What is that amount you are working on? Can you please give us just a highlight on this?
Are you referring to the total amount that is?
Yes, yes. Yes, yes.
The total amount.
Where we are favorably placed. Where we are favorably placed, what is the total amount we should expect?
It is about INR 1,100 crore, yeah. The total amount that is in question, yeah.
Okay. Sir, in reference to note number 6, there is a, it is your understanding, right, that the stated amount cannot be recovered from the promoter unless the Supreme Court approves the case?
Sorry, which was this particular thing that you are referring to?
It is note number 6.
Till the time that it is crystallized, and the dispute is completely settled at whatever level it is. If the dispute or like the, with the client, once the matter is finally settled and accepted by the company. It is the company which comes into play, where whether we have accepted the decision or where we want to escalate, the dispute or the matter which has not been settled, and an appropriate quorum, whenever it is decided, the amount gets crystallized.
Okay. No, this amount is in. NCLT has gone against us. We have gone to the Supreme Court for this. It's for note number 6. You might be referring to note number 7A . I'm not referring to number 7A . You've answered that. Note number 6, there is a understanding that the recovered amount. The NCLT disputes the case against us. Whether we will not get recovery from this amount, or it is still, we can go ahead with the recovery, the amount?
So we will be.
Yeah. Yes, Sandeep, please confirm.
Yeah. These amounts, there is no question of them not coming to the company, right? It is just a matter of when the case gets finally settled. We are trying to expedite and get these amounts at the earliest. This particular case that we filed in the Supreme Court is just to essentially expedite the whole process of recoveries.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you, and all the best for the future, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Iqbal Khan from Nuvama. Please go ahead. Mr. Iqbal Khan, your line has been unmuted. You can go ahead with your question.
Yeah, hi. Sorry, I was on mute. Audible?
Yes, sir, please go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah, hi. sir, firstly, congratulations on the good set of results. I mean, all the questions you have almost answered. one question I had is on the Indian project. you mentioned that, you know, you are targeting around 4 GW-5 GW. any work in progress that is happening in this 4 GW-5 GW project that you're looking upon, can you just, you know, throw some light or picture on this? similarly, for the international projects, you know, are you currently actively bidding somewhere or any thought process on those lines?
Yeah. As we briefed, we are targeting 4 GW-5 GW in this market, and out of 23 GW, almost 60% of the project pipeline is from India, which is 13 GW -14 GW. We are actively working on bids. Like for the Q2 itself, we are, like, working for more than 4 GW of bids. More and more projects are getting announced, and we expect public sector entities this year to announce more than 13 GW of bids, which we likely to see this quarter onwards. Market is robust, and we are working on all the fronts, and we see the sufficient market, the project pipeline is there, which will help us in achieving our targets.
If I may just, you know, slip in one more question. The indemnity you mentioned around to upwards of INR 250 crores will get crystallized. Will this entirely be booked to the promoters, or it will be a mix of promoters and the customers?
INR 250 crores, which has been crystallized, will be paid by promoters.
All right.
Iqbal, the amount that has crystallized as of June is about INR 270 crores, which is essentially the amounts that are, you know, likely to be paid by the promoters. There will be, as I said, other cases that are going on, and, you know, we are in fact expecting some favorable outcomes, you know, as early as, let's say, even this month. If those do materialize as expected, though, that amount can go up as well. And, you know, as they crystallize, we can recover it either from the customer or from the promoter. INR 270 is the number as of June. I'll just put that and, you know, out, yeah.
All right. All right. Thank you, Sandeep. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Subrata Sarkar from Mount Intra Finance. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello, sir. Most of the question I will answer. Just one query on the Nigerian side. There, after there is a change in government, whether there is some, like, will that have some impact, or will there be some, again, reevaluation or some state, which may now, come into play because of the change in the government?
No, actually, in Nigeria, the same party, which was earlier in power, has been re-elected, and the policies and the trust is going to be the same. The current government is also very bullish on renewable projects, and they have introduced some more favorable amendments for the implementation of the renewable projects. New government is also equally bullish on new energy projects, and we don't see any problem with respect to the projects, with respect to the new government. It's not a change in the government because same party with the same policies continues in power.
Yes, sir, there is a change in the presidency, correct, sir?
Change in the president is there, but the policies remains the same, and it is receiving the same amount of traction, and U.S. government is also strongly backing the project. We don't see any problem at all there.
Okay, sir. Okay.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vignesh Iyer from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Two questions from my side, sir. Just that first is, this NTPC order book, what is the timeline of executing the same, once the work starts? Also the same, once we wrap up our Nigerian project, I mean, and add it to our order book, what would be the timeline of executing the Nigerian project as well? Second question is, I wanted to understand, would Nigerian project have gross margins in range of 11%-12%?
Could you repeat the last part of the question?
Yeah. The Nigerian project, I just wanted to understand, since international projects we have a lower gross margin, I wanted to understand, would Nigeria have the same level of gross margins, or would it be, like, higher, like around 12%?
To start with NTPC orders, as I explained in my earlier replies, that NTPC 1 project execution has already started, site has been fully mobilized, and we have placed majority of the orders. The bulk of the revenue from NTPC 1 and NTPC 2 projects will come in Q3 and Q4 of this year. The project execution have timeline of almost 18 months, and we expect to complete by second half of next year. All the NTPC projects would be completed. Coming to Nigeria, the majority of the revenue for Nigeria projects will be booked in FY 2025 and FY 2026. Nigeria project is a negotiated project, and we expect margin in Nigeria project to be in line with our domestic projects. We expect better margin than other international projects in Nigeria project.
what is the timeline of execution for Nigerian project?
Nigeria project, we expect to sign in by end of Q2, and then there is a period of financial closure. We expect the major execution will happen in FY 2025 and FY 2026, and bulk of revenue will also be booked in FY 2025 and FY 2026.
Okay, sir. Thank you. All, that's all from my side. All the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vikram from Niveshaay Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, sir, thank you for the opportunity. My question was, the current EPC order book of INR 4,900 crore we have, so what is order book in megawatt terms? Also I wanted to know, like, what kind of EBITDA per megawatt we are targeting in our domestic business?
As we have said that EBITDA, we are targeting in the range of 10%-11% in domestic market, and the order book in terms of gigawatt is upward of 4 GW as of now.
Approx?
Approx 4 GW .
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Bajrang Bapana from Samruddhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the follow-up opportunity. Sir, the question pertains to, you know, we are a formidable player in the solar side. We also talked about, you know, in your some media interactions about wind BOS and as well as battery storage and management services. If you could just, you know, guide us that when we are targeting, how, you know, these opportunities can crystallize for us, and by when, you know, we expect some traction there. I know that those are the futuristic opportunities for us, but any progress that we have made so far in that direction will be really helpful for us to understand, and whether any, you know, capital or the CapEx requirements will be there, you know, to come up in those areas?
So if you could guide on that, it'll be really helpful. Second is that, we are talking about 4 GW -5 GW kind of opportunity in India. You know, suppose, we are talking about 13 GW, 14 GW would be the award this year, going by the government targets, they are talking about very tall numbers, you know, going into next couple of years. What kind of, you know, capacity we can cater to? Suppose tomorrow, if we are given an opportunity to go for 20 GW in a year, are we prepared for that, you know, including Reliance or something like that? What is the capacity constraint that is there in this business, just to understand from a scalability perspective? Thank you, sir.
Okay. What was first part of your question? Like, I think question become too many. Can you repeat the first part of your question?
Sir, two angle to first part. The wind BOS opportunity.
Yeah, yeah.
And.
Yeah, let me start with the new areas. As far as battery energy storage systems is there, we have already executed small projects in international markets for battery energy storage systems. In various international markets, huge standalone projects and projects coupled with solar facilities have started coming up. We are already working on multiple bids in Australia with respect to battery energy storage system projects. One of the projects we are very close or in the final stages of negotiation with the client. Within this financial year, you can see closing one of the big projects in international market with respect to battery energy storage systems. As far as the BOS for wind is concerned, multiple hybrid projects are getting announced in India. We are working with our customers.
Any opportunity whether is on the wind project associated with hybrid projects, we'll pitch for that, and that's the plan. We hope that within this fiscal year, we may land up that opportunity in India with respect to wind BOS. We are pure-play EPC, and there will not be any significant CapEx requirement, for entering into, going to both the businesses. We'll be sourcing the batteries or like, BOS is there. The wind turbine manufacturer or the client will undertake all those responsibility. We'll remain restricted to pure-play EPC segment. Only with respect to adding more manpower or enhancing our engineering teams, we don't see much bigger CapEx on those two counts.
As far as the capacity addition, we are seeking to address the enhancement or explosion of new bids in Indian market. We are keeping constant eye with what the market rollout is. We are expecting this year it will be 14 GW-15 GW, from which we'll be able to back 4 GW-5 GW. We have sufficient capacity at this point of time to address that kind of rollout. As and when we see that market is expanding, so we are fully geared up to enhance or ramp up our execution and engineering teams. Most of the execution on the ground is carried out by subcontractors, so we have a huge subcontractor base, which can also be very quickly ramped up to address the rollout on ground.
We have mapped the complete manufacturing, or our, vendor for supply of those products. We are very confident that with even with the much more capacity addition happening in Indian market, we are fully geared up to address the market.
Got it. Got it. Thank you, sir, for beautiful explanation. Thank you very much, and all the very best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is on the line of [Dwai] from Niveshaay. Please go ahead.
Congratulations for great gross margin, sir. My only question is that, are we looking for any collaboration when we go for the wind BOP, or, and are we prepared for the subcontractors agreements already?
Yeah, as I was saying, we will address at this point of time, the wind BOS opportunity coupled with hybrid projects. We have in-house like engineering capability, and we understand how the contracts work with respect to BOS associated with the wind, and we are prepared for that.
Okay. Thank you. All the best for the future, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. That was the last question of our question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Jain for closing comments.
I would like to thank everybody for joining the call. I hope we have been able to address all your queries. For any further information, kindly get in touch with Mr. Sandeep Thomas Mathew or SGA, our investor relations advisors. Thank you once again, and have a great day. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.