Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Limited Q2 FY 2026 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 of the 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I hand the conference over to Mr. Sandeep Thomas Mathew, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah. Good morning and very welcome to our Q3 FY 2026 earnings call. We have with us today Mr. CK Thakur, our Global CEO, Mr. Ajit Pratap Singh, our CFO, and SGA, who are our IR partners. We will start today's call with the key operational highlights for the quarter and industry outlook by Mr. Thakur, followed by the financial highlights by Ajit, post which we will open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, CK Thakur, sir.
Thanks, Sandeep, and a very good morning to all of you. This investor's earnings call marks my first anniversary over as a Global CEO of Sterling and Wilson. I would like to thank all stakeholders for their continued support in this exciting journey. I'll begin today's call with a quick update on business operations and outlook. The third quarter has been an eventful and exciting time for our business, with the company achieving some important milestones, which is expected to have a long-term positive impact on the company's future and operations. We have been able to deliver on the key order inflows guidance, which is a critical lead indicator of the company's business health. While we had conservatively projected 15% growth in order inflows at the start of this fiscal year, we have already achieved INR 6,929 crores of new orders this fiscal till date.
Of this, INR 3,086 crores of new orders was backed in the third quarter through four new project wins. We are happy to announce that, with the orders already achieved and a few more orders in the advanced stage of closure, we are increasing our order inflow guidance to more than INR 11,000 crores in this fiscal, which is more than 60% year-on-year growth in order inflows, and we'll mark this fiscal as one of the most successful ever in the terms of order bookings for the company. We backed four new orders this quarter, totaling INR 3,036 crores. The first was a gigawatt-scale order from Adani Green for a balance of system package for three solar power projects at one of the world's largest RE projects at Khavda Renewable E nergy Park, Gujarat. This order is valued at approximately INR 1,381 crores.
We also took a meaningful step towards deepening our engagements by entering into a multi-year strategic partnership framework agreement with Adani Green Energy Limited. This framework is intended to support future utility-scale renewables deployments through a structured and enduring engagements model and reflects a growing industry preference for experienced EPC partners that can deliver large, repeatable project scopes with speed, consistency, and rigorous risk management. We view this partnership as a strong endorsement of our execution capabilities and operating disciplines, as well as our recognition of our increasing relevance in India's next phase of large-format renewable energy development, where scale, reliability, and repeatability will be our critical differentiators.
We are confident of delivering the projects within stipulated timelines, which are also, we hope, will start to showcase our ability to deliver domestic gigawatt-scale projects in a soft 12-month timeframe or lesser, which we expect will increasingly become the norm for the project in coastal regions where a huge 100+ GW scale PV project pipeline is building up. On the domestic side, there have been two more key project wins in the third quarter, including a 210 MW project from a private IPP and a large 790 MWh battery energy storage project from Serentica. After the JSW BESS order award last year, the Serentica project win establishes our BESS credentials strongly in the market. In the international market, we continue to make strong inroads in South Africa, where we have backed our second order win this fiscal with a 24 MW project with nearly $147 million.
This will be the fourth project we will be executing in South Africa, and we have made strong progress with the first two projects in South Africa as well. At this point, it may be worth reiterating that all our post-COVID international projects have been moving along expected lines and profitability, indicating that our strategy to only work as per our terms and risk appetite in the international market is bearing fruit. On the execution side, we are continuing to scale up and deliver as per expectation. This is evident from our top line, which is up nearly 48% year-on-year and also well ahead of the revenue guidance at the start of the year. Moving to our unexecuted order value, it currently stands at INR 10,413 crores compared to INR 9,096 crores as of March 26, sorry, March 25, and approximately INR 9,287 crores as of last quarter.
About 75% of our current order book comprises domestic Indian projects, while the international order book comprises primarily two projects in Europe, which are in advanced stages of completion, and four projects in South Africa. A large proportion of new wins is coming from clients with strong balance sheets, projects with clearer land and business visibility. Our operations and maintenance business continues to be a steady and growing energy stream and has now touched the 10 GW portfolio mark. The O&M portfolio has crossed critical scale, supported both by third-party contracts and the steady commissioning of our own EPC projects. As more large projects move from construction to operation, we expect this segment to contribute meaningfully to revenue stability and margin resilience over time. Now, coming to the industry outlook and how things are shaping up for us in quarter four and beyond.
We have nearly 67 GW of orders that are likely to be bid out this quarter in India alone, and we are fairly confident of making further headway in some of these bids. We also have some interesting projects lining up in the international side, whereas, as I mentioned earlier, we are beginning to find work along with terms that we prefer and find equitable. I would like to reiterate that we continue to remain patient and carefully evaluate projects in India and overseas. We stay focused in targeting profitable orders. We did some aggressive biddings in the last two quarters on the PSU side, especially from smaller new EPC entrants. Last but not least, our new order inflow guidance does not capture any potential order inflow from Reliance, where we continue to remain in active dialogue on their large multi-year, multi-gigawatt RE rollout.
Those will be over and above our current guidance for this fiscal. For financial year 2027, we are already beginning to see a strong third-party EPC pipeline continue to build, and expect the market's bids can surpass over 30 GW. What gives us greater confidence is the character of our order pipeline. We are increasingly engaging in projects that are part of multi-year capacity rollouts. These programs will typically involve repeatable scopes, standardized engineering, and tight integration with transmission and storage infrastructures. An environment where scale, experience, and process maturity become decisive advantages. Over the past quarters, we have seen a visible shift in how large developers engage with EPC partners, moving away from purely transactional contracts towards longer-horizon engagements framework and deeper operational coordination. This evolution aligns well with our strategic intent to grow through repeatable executions rather than episodic wins.
These developments are structurally significant for EPC players like us. The broader outlook for India's renewable synergy sectors remains fundamentally constructive. Installed capacity continues to rise, costs are trending lower, and the ecosystem is deepening across manufacturing, energy storage, and emerging green sectors such as hydrogen and ammonia. As India accelerates its transitions towards renewables, the availability of reliable large-scale battery storage systems is becoming essential for round-the-clock power. Despite its strategic importance, India's installed BESS capacity is at a very nascent stage. As of June 2025, cumulative operational capacity is due at roughly 0.5 GWh. CA estimates India will need 34.7 GW and above of BESS capacities by the end of financial year 2027. This widening gap between current capacity and future requirements is now driving a significant reallocation of capital across the power value chain, where we hope to play an active role in the coming years.
With this, I'll ask Ajit to take you through the consolidated financial highlights. Thank you very much.
Thank you, CK , and good morning, everyone. Our quarterly performance has continued to pick up pace. We achieved our highest-ever third-quarter top-line performance since listing, with revenue touching INR 2,092 crores. For the nine-month period, our revenue has grown 48% year-on-year to INR 5,602 crores. The strong top-line performance is largely attributable to improved execution pace witnessed in our domestic EPC business, aided by improved availability of non-fund-based limits in recent quarters, among other factors. Our unexecuted order book of INR 10,413 remains healthy and diversified, providing revenue visibility for the future periods. Importantly, the nature of the order book continues to improve, with commercial structures that minimize commodity price exposure, accelerate cash flows, and are less demanding on our balance sheet.
This reflects our conscious decision to prioritize quality of earnings over aggressive bidding, a principle that remains central to our operating philosophy, as we prefer to chase margin rather than chasing only the top-line growth. On the gross margin front, our nine-month FY 2026 gross margin was 10% compared to FY 2025 gross margin of 10.1%. Third-quarter gross margin of 9.5% has shown improvement both sequentially, where it was 8.9% in the previous quarter, and was the same period last year, where it was about 9.4% in quarter three FY 2025. Our operational EBITDA, which is operating revenues less recurring overheads, amounted to INR 105 crores this quarter compared to approx INR 90 crores seen in quarter two FY 2025 last year and INR 62 crores seen in prior quarter.
On a nine-month basis, operational EBITDA is up 115% to INR 289 crores from INR 134 crores in the same period last year. The operational EBITDA is a key indicator of how operational leverage can favorably add bottom line at execution scale pickup. Our recurring overheads have remained flat in this quarter at around INR 93 crores and at levels similar to seen in last quarter. Our non-recurring overheads for this quarter were impacted by an additional charge on the Conti matter towards legal expenses of Conti as a result of the final order which we received in quarter three. That resulted in us having to provide for some additional costs, thereby impacting our reported PBT and PAT.
Now, coming to the balance sheet numbers, our debt levels have remained stable during the quarter, with net debt decreasing by approximately INR 4 crores compared to last quarter and stands at INR 738 crores. Our net working capital has shown improvement at INR -407 crores compared to INR -279 crores in the previous quarter, and we continue to operate in a negative working capital cycle. We have been able to retain our credit rating during the quarter and continue to make progress on fresh limits on non-fund as well as fund-based requirement. We have cumulatively been able to raise fresh funds to the tune of around INR 2,500 crores since the start of this fiscal. That includes both fund-based as well as non-fund-based limits.
With respect to indemnity proceeds, we have received the full amount from Mr. Khurshed Daruvala, while we are expecting Shapoorji Group payment by January 31. With this, we can now open the floor to questions and answers.
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 touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. We will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Sameer Dalal from Natverlal & Sons Stockbr okers. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. So, two questions. The first is, you know, we've scaled up our operations very well, which is congratulations on that. You've got INR 2,000 crore revenue. But obviously, the gross margins have not come in very good for the simple reason that if you look at your overall costs have not gone up, but your operating margins overall have not gone up. In fact, they have gone down quarter -on- quarter. So, what was the reason for that lower gross margins? And how do we see gross margins moving going forward, given that we are working on this kind of open costing model, especially the one we've tied up with Adani? To INR 30 crore, again, we took an additional loss. I'm guessing now this is completely over.
But going forward, do we—I mean, are there any other known or unknown risks that lie in the balance sheet like the one we had? And if you can just elaborate a little bit on that.
Sure, sure. Thank you so, in terms of gross margin, as we have indicated earlier also, we expect a gross margin in the range of 8%-10%. And the gross margin keeps changing based on the orders we execute, whether it is a turnkey order or it's only BOS, because in general, in percentage terms, margins are better if the order is only BOS. If it is coupled with the module supply, in terms of margin percentage, the margins come down a little bit. But on overall basis and absolute number terms, our margins improve so, we'll continue to maintain the guidance of around 8%-10% overall margin, and I think we are in the same range. Coming to the second question on Conti matter, last time when we have given our investor presentation, that time we have received the interim order under Conti matter.
That interim order has a variable element, which was legal fees of the Conti lawyers, which was to be reimbursed on an actual basis. This INR 30 crore is towards that legal fees of Conti lawyers. We now received the final order. With that, we believe the Conti matter is over in terms of the impact in our financials. Going forward, most of the legal cases are covered under indemnity. This was the largest case, Conti case, which was not covered indemnity. We don't foresee any large impact in the future like Conti in our financials.
I understand that. My question is, are there any small—you said this is the largest one. Are there any smaller ones that we need to look out for which could have smaller impacts, no doubt? Are there any—if you can just tell us if there is any possibility of anything coming up surprising, because that is what has hurt the stock. At the end of the day, people don't like these sudden losses, exceptional losses coming up. So, can you just tell us what exactly is there in the—even if it's small, INR 10 crores, INR 5 crores, whatever, what is the possibility of any loss arising which is not matched up by the first 12 promoters?
At this point in time, there is no crystallized foreseeable loss which is not covered right now.
My question is not the crystallized. I'm saying what is there in the books? Is there any contingent liability that we need to worry about? And what is that about?
No, so Sameer, so basically, you see there are two things. One is that some kinds of the non-recurring things coming out of the court cases. And the other part is that if you can foresee some of the losses through operations, right? So, if you see the operational losses, I don't see any such eventualities coming in, right? So, as of now, we don't have any claim from the client. There is no operational deficiencies, absolutely not, right? So, I don't foresee any such things to happen again. On the court-side cases, right? So, we are pretty confident that whatever court cases are pending for the U.S. matters, once it is, I mean, we are pretty confident about winning those cases. But the court case is a court case, you know that, right?
Overall, experts' opinions, legal experts' opinions. I mean, stay confident about winning these cases.
Right. What is the value for that, for those court cases? That's the question.
No, so I mean, court cases are basically, all of you are aware that this is all basically the, I mean, the encashment of the bank guarantee, right? So, those against that, that's the encashment of the bank guarantee we have moved to the court. That's it. Otherwise, there is nothing that the client has basically. I know in the process, this goes. I mean, the client has some claims, we have some claims. But it's all about basically against the bank guarantee encashment that we have moved to the court.
So, our cash outgo at this point in time is around INR 750 crore towards legal cases, which is covered under indemnity.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. I'll come back and queue . Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Puneet from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much. Can you also talk in detail about what is the framework agreement that you have with Adani? Does it lock in your margins and any volumes?
Yeah, so yes. So, this is five years or more framework arrangements, and the scope is defined. Contractual terms and conditions have been agreed between both the parties. And if you can successfully complete this project which is in hand, a basis that since they have a lot of ambitious plans in Khavda region to go on, we are expecting that at the similar rate or even more than that, we could be getting EPC orders year-on-year basis. Margins, typically, if you see, it is aligned with the—I mean, the numbers that Ajit has just spoken, it is around, let's say, INR 10 lakhs per megawatt, kind of things, right? So, which comes to be around 10%, something like this. So, it's all aligned at the market.
But what is important is that it is all in the same regions without any risk of the modules' price going up and down or transmission lines or the land issues. So, we have a shared business, right? So, with this kind of business propositions, we feel that our stability towards the margins and all would continue.
Is there a quantum of how many gigawatts you will execute over the period or each year?
Yeah, so this year, the first order that we are executing is over 1 GW for the value of INR 1,381 crore. And they have the huge capacity to add it there. Initially, they were doing their internal EPC. Now, they have moved to the third-party EPC. So, there are four or five parties. We and L&T are the major players there. So, depending on our performance, which we are, I mean, pretty sure about delivering good, we should be expecting, if not more, at least the same gigawatt level kind of the operations every year from them.
1 GW each year is probably.
Minimum. That's what I say. Minimum. Gigawatt and more, right? Yeah.
Okay. And any further clarity from when Reliance will start for you?
Also, I mean, things are seen to be on the ground now. So, the infrastructure development activities are going on. And we are expecting that some more traction will take in this quarter, end of this quarter.
Okay. And will you have bandwidth to do both Adani and Reliance at the same time, or would you have to rely on any external help here?
So, I think it's a very interesting question. Today, we are doing almost 10 GW in the country, right, and overseas. So, and every single segment is defined in a manner that that particular, I mean, operational region is sufficient to deliver that kind of the goods. So, while we're talking about Reliance, obviously, we have to build up our capacity. That's how the organization expands. So, Reliance, Adani is a separate system that has already been defined. When you are moving to Reliance, then Reliance setup will be different. Everything would be different. So, as far as capacity is concerned, no organizations can from the day one say that we are there to handle everything. But gradually, you have to improve, and you have to keep on building up. So, that exercise we'll continue doing, but we are confident of delivering best. Yeah.
Understood and just lastly, if you can elaborate why Conti was not covered in the indemnity?
Yeah. Most of the cases with customers, those were covered under indemnity when Reliance came as a new strategic investor in the company. Conti being a case with subcontractor that was not considered during due diligence and negotiation with Reliance when they joined as investor.
Okay.
And the case also started after Reliance came. So, it was not before that. Yeah, yeah.
Okay, okay, okay. Understood. That's helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bajrang Bafna from Sunidhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. I need to understand your gross margins during the quarter was above 9%. But despite that, our EBITDA margins on a consolidated basis is around 3% or maybe slightly better than 3%. So, can you say, is there any one-off in the operational numbers on consolidated basis also?
I think as we alluded during our discussion, when the Conti matter came, that we have shown around INR 30 crore is the cost for that. And yeah, so that has impacted our EBITDA margin from our gross margin.
But you have shown that as an exceptional item. So, I'm not talking about that. That has been mentioned in the consolidated numbers. But even after excluding that, your EBITDA is somewhere around INR 65 or INR 67 odd crores on a consolidated basis. So, normally, you indicated that our cost of revenue is around INR 93 crore. So, the numbers are not matching up because still the EBITDA looks a little lower on percentage terms and also on absolute terms. So, any other one-off in the numbers apart from this INR 30 crore?
No, normal business. In one of the cases in Australia, we have incurred certain expenses on defect liability period during O&M. So, those costs have been accounted for, but those are normal business expenses, basically. Although one-off, but normal business expense in terms of our O&M costs.
O&M margin, that's why it came down a little bit during the quarter, and that has impacted our EBITDA.
Okay. Got it. Sir, next year, excluding, let's say, Reliance is something that also we expect maybe sometime in the near future, that is also something which is expected. But barring Reliance, in FY 2027, considering our order book is above INR 10,000 crore with Adani is also into 4 GW, can we expect INR 9,000 crore sort of top line in FY 2027 with at least 9%-9.5% sort of GP margin and close to 5% EBITDA margin? Is that a right assumption?
Yeah. So, in terms of revenue growth, we have guided for the current year around 15%-20% growth over last year. We are on the same guidance. And for the next year also, we can consider similar kind of growth, 15%-20% in the revenue with the gross margin what I indicated during our discussion. So.
Got it. Sir, just on the interest cost part, during the quarter also on the consolidated, which is interest costs have shot up to almost INR 45 crore or INR 47 crore. So, any broader reasons for that shoot up and how do we see interest costs panning out into FY 2027? Because our debt is more or less stable, and we are almost a negative working capital company. So, just some highlights on that will be really helpful.
So, if you remember, during last discussion, we have disclosed that we have obtained a loan from IREDA. That was disbursed in September 2025. That was for INR 500 crore. So, interest expense of that loan came during this quarter for full quarter, and that has increased overall interest expense. Plus, during the current quarter, we have also taken another loan from NBFC for INR 100 crore. So, we've put together basically INR 600 crore addition in our gross debt that has increased the interest expenses. With the repayment of these loans, majorly in the next year, FY 2027, we expect the interest cost to come down sequentially.
Okay. So, can we expect the run rate to be around INR 30-odd crore per quarter basis on FY 2027?
So, it will change. First quarter will be high, and then gradually it will come down until fourth quarter. My Q4 interest cost would be the highest because we'll have INR 500 crore impact of IREDA loan plus INR 100 crore what we've taken recently. Q4 interest would be the highest one, and then gradually it will come down. We can expect around INR 35-40 crore per quarter on an average basis.
Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay, sir. And all the very best, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Anuj Jain from Globe Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. Congratulations on the good set of numbers. My question, I'll say a simple question. I mean, in terms of revenue visibility, we are doing a lot many things, and it is shown in the numbers. But again, the same is not reflecting in the bottom line. That is the main concern over the last, I would say, seven, eight quarters that we have a very lumpy kind of bottom line due to some event or the other. So, when we can see stabilized number going, I mean, by which quarter or which year, we would be able to see the stabilized number that, yeah, these are our gross margins, and we have so much lumpiness in the EBITDA margins. So, any stability in kind of numbers as an investor because it's pretty difficult. In every quarter, we don't see any improvement on the bottom line side.
So, just want to understand what is the way forward?
One of the unforeseen issues was this Conti legal case, which we were hopeful to win, but ultimately we lost, and that has resulted in an exceptional loss during the last quarter as well as this quarter for around INR 30 crore this quarter. We have got the impact. With this, looks like most of these exceptional and unforced things are resolved. Now, in terms of cost, also, we are in the process of rationalizing the cost and overhead. We expect in future the EBITDA margins to be in the range of 5%+ and gross margin as I indicated, 8%-10%. That's what we can get at this point in time.
By when we can see that stability? I mean, from the Q4, from the next financial year?
That's right. Yeah.
From Q4, you're saying?
Q4 onwards. Yeah.
Okay. And one more thing. Any color on this Nigeria project? I mean, do we have any discussion going on or still now it is not there or?
What is it?
Nigeria.
Yeah. So, Nigeria, it is still on. I'll not say, I mean, now what has happened is that basically the Ministry of Finance has taken over the SPV operations, right? So, they say that now this project is to be redone under SPV. So, the project is still on, but their internal discussions, it has moved from NSDP to Ministry of Finance. So, at this stage, I can only say that there are still things that are going on.
Okay. And in your order win, you have one order win for the battery energy BESS thing. So, can you quantify that thing? I mean, how big that order is and what kind of things are lined up in the battery energy storage system vertical?
Yeah. So, this order is for about 790 MWh. Although the battery supply is as a free-issue item from the client, but the rest of the integration is with us. So, on the risk part, if you say in a way, this is better, right? Value is less, but then at least the battery risk is not there. Recently, you must have seen the battery prices are again going up and all. So, after the JSW orders last year, so this is the first large size BESS orders that we have got.
What kind of margins are we expecting in this BESS project?
Margin, yeah. So, margin would be in the same range for all the EPC works, I'd say, whether it is the BOS project or BOS with modules except for the BOS with the modules, the margin slightly goes down. But for all such BESS projects and all, the margin remains the same, 8%-10%. So, here also, it is more than 10% only.
Actually, value-wise, what did you say? I mean, in terms of value-wise, BESS project, I missed it.
So, this value is around INR 170 crores. INR 170 crores. Sorry. Yeah.
Got it, sir. That's it from my side, and wish you all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Danesh Mistry from Investor First Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. First of all, congratulations on a good set of numbers and revenue going pretty well. I had two questions. One, actually, you had alluded to a previous caller earlier where you spoke about the O&M margin. But if you could give us a sense on when do you think these would kind of come back to where they were? So, if I were to see in December 2024, your margins were close to 25%, and today you're at approximately 3%. I understand there are one-offs that are there. But do you, at any point of time, see these margins coming back, or will they be lower? That's question number one. Question number two, sir, you also spoke about the Adani orders at roughly 1 GW a year. What would that translate in value terms?
And any indication or color on what would be the order booking next year, sir? That's it from my end. Thank you.
Okay. So, I'll take second question first, right? So, on the Adani order side, the value of the orders for one gigawatt, over one gigawatt is around INR 1,381 crores, right? So, INR 1,381 crores.
Got it.
This is pretty aligned with the normal market orders that we get from the various clients, some of the PSU and then the IPP. So, that is a better impact, we'll say. And as I have told, I mean, just now, that this is a long-term framework agreement. So, based on our performance in this project, we'll keep on getting this kind of the megawatt level orders or even more. With this, I think you see how the India is progressing. So, this last year has been around 62 GW of the tendering. I mean, part of them, the contract signing still has to happen between the implementing agencies and the developers. But with this, I mean, this pace has to continue. But then the other energy transition element, the hydrogen and the BESS and the other things coming up.
So, the requirement of solar for sure is going up only. So, what was the scene this year? Let's say around 40+ GW we will be achieving. I'm expecting the similar, I mean, traction will happen in a few years to come again, right? So, whatever order guidance that we have given now, right? So, I mean, around this level, orders for sure will be coming. That's what I believe, right?
Yeah. In terms of O&M margin, you are right. We have consistently given 20%-25% O&M margin, and that's what we delivered also in the past. During this quarter, our O&M margin was around 18%. There is a little bit dip in terms of O&M margin because of one-off expense we have incurred in a defect liability in one of the international locations. That has reduced our O&M margin for the quarter a little bit. Otherwise, we continue to maintain the guidance of 20%-24%, 25% in the times to come.
Got it, sir. Got it, sir. Because if you proceed, even last quarter, September quarter, I'm just seeing your consolidated numbers, the segment. Your O&M top line was about INR 63 crores, and your O&M EBIT was about INR 9.5 crores. So, that's about 15%. So, I'm just trying to understand, sir, if O&M, okay, if it remains at about INR 60 odd crores as a top line, will your margin come back to the INR 10-INR 12 crore number, or is the new normal about INR 8-INR 9 crores?
No, so basically, see, I mean, our business model remains the same. With some kind of risk that we are taking for O&M project, which is operational risk, that means we have to maintain the performance ratio, we have to maintain the availability, right? That comes in our scope. We maintain sufficient inventory of these spares, and the plant operation and maintenance practices are strictly followed with our SOPs and all. In this particular quarter, one of the Australian projects, basically, so the panel, which normally doesn't fail, right? Normally, such equipment is never supposed to fail. We have, I mean, rarely will fail. But somehow these panels, I mean, I don't know because of what reasons, but then it's still under these due diligence, but then these panels failed.
Although we took a lot of actions to air freight the panels to ensure that the downtime becomes less and all, but despite all the actions, there was unavailability for a few days, right? For a few days. So, the generation loss during that day because of unavailability of one of the panels has really caused the, I mean, penalty to be incurred. And that's the reason that this quarter has gone down. Otherwise, if you see over the several quarters or, I mean, historically, our margin and O&M remain the same. So, this one kind of event does not mean that it is cyclical, and then again in the next quarter, we are going to get a hit also. No. So, the margin will continue in the range that we have been getting from the O&M business.
Got it, sir. Got it, sir. Okay, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Pawan Parakh from Renaissance Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning, sir, and thank you for taking my question, so first question is this recent export rebate which was taken off by China on the module prices, so do you see that impacting any of our projects, especially on the turnkey where the module we have to supply, so I'm assuming the prices of modules will go up because of this.
It's a very good question. So, fortunately, see, it has happened in the past also several times that because of the cell price, the modules prices have fluctuated one or two times, and industry has suffered because of this. Unfortunately for us, the orders that we have with modules, all the orders have been tied up. And one project where we are relevant, we can discuss, I mean, so the order is yet to come. And this will give us some time, some time for us to take a decision. And by that time, I'm expecting that the market would be again stabilized. So, of course, yeah. So, the apprehension is right.
I mean, maybe there will be some slowdown onto the development parts, but I think again it will recoup and it will happen because market force is such a big force that, I mean, nobody can afford to basically slow down to the extent that, I mean, we are expecting. So, and then particularly for Indian market on the BOS components. So, even if the buffers for some more time will be coming from China, but then domestic market is gearing up. So, in the next few months of time, I'm expecting that all the domestic market, Indian market will be immune from that kind of fluctuations, in my opinion, right? So, but then, yeah, yeah. So, this is the dynamics, but we have to keep watching. But then we are not affected. We are not affected for any of our orders.
No, right. So, India anyways, we are doing BOS largely, except I think one of the BCR. But so, there anyways, there is less in kind of impact. But in all these South African orders and all, in the past also, we had tied up all these modules, and then the module prices went up and they backtracked on their contract. So, that is the apprehension that I'm coming at.
No. So, basically, you are right. So, earlier, you used to take the module risk from the date of, I mean, submission of the bids and all. Now, the caution that you have taken is that the module price is to the customer's account till the date the NTP is given to us, right? And once the NTP is given, that means since there's been any fluctuations in the module price, it is to the client's scopes. So, after that, there is hardly any risk. So, once the NTP is given and that price is taken care of, that means we are onto the current market level. And I mean, it does never happen that every single day the module price is going up. So, we have three, four months' time of window. And during this time, then we ensure that the module supplies are happening.
So, whatever we have suffered in the past from the, I mean, from our experience, if you see for international projects, they are all basically primarily the price were agreed some years before, and then during the course of execution, the prices have gone up, and then we have no contractual protection. But now, every single contract that we are signing, the contract has protection that the client has to take responsibility till NTP date. And post-NTP, we generally tie up with the supplier without further delays.
Okay. And in the.
Sorry to interrupt, Pawan. Please rejoin the queue for more questions.
Okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kartik Sharma from Anand Rathi Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. This is Swetha here. Sir, taking forward the industry question only, number one is where are we in terms of, let's say, future order inflows, not next two years, three years, but if the Synergy order, the 43 GW PPA signings which has been delayed, what kind of impact can it have on us and EPC players in general?
No, so see, our business model now is basically getting from three, four verticals, so one is the international orders that we are talking about. In domestic markets, we are now in a framework with Adani, which can give you better stability in terms of order inflow. Then we are expecting Reliance to start with that will give us the better stability. In terms of overall India level, if you can say, then you are right, so out of the 60 GW that was, I mean, tendered out, around 40 GW kind of the contract yet to be signed, so that means the PPA adoption issues and some other issues, the land acquisitions or maybe there are so many policy-related issues, so but I'm sure that all those orders with a delay, but then soon these are all going to be sorted out.
It won't be pending for long, I mean. Otherwise, the Government of India programs for achievement of the 500 GW would be in trouble. So, industry is watching. Historically, if you see, this is for the first time that such a large gigawatt level of PPA signing is pending, and there has been hue and cry, and the people are pushing, trying to solve it as early as possible.
So, taking that module pricing question forward, I really did not clearly understand how does that module price changes in the module prices affect the international orders? Because even if we are transferring the module, even if we are making on a BOS basis, the cell prices, the rebate has been canceled on cells and modules too, correct?
Yes. No, so if you see in the value chain, the BOS price is basically smaller than the cell price, correct? And now the large manufacturers in India, after 1st September 2025, when the DCR components, any bids which are going to out from after 1st September 2025, I mean, necessarily you have to follow the LLMC, which is the domestic models. Now, under this scheme, so today we are at cell manufacturing capacity around 125 GW, right? It is expected that the, I mean, sorry, the module manufacturing and the cell would be around 60 GW, something like this, right? And in the value chain, the BOS sales are also coming up. So, I'm expecting that even at least for the large players like Adani, Reliance, Waaree, Vikram, with all those, the domestic capacity would be sufficient to cater to the requirement of Indian market.
Indian market is around 40 GW a year. And that means capacity is already demonstrated. Now, since it's going out and all those kind of things, but once the ALMM condition is imposed, the domestic requirement is to be fulfilled first. So, I don't foresee any reasons that with all those things coming up and the new, I mean, the pricing mechanism would be evolved when everything would be on the DCR. So, then it is part of the contract. Then maybe the tariff will also go high and up kind of things. Until this year, we are in.
Do we expect LTUs to remain sharp in that case?
Sorry to interrupt, Swetha. Please rejoin the queue for more questions. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavik Shah from Invexa. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Yeah, hi. The question is, when I look at the presentation, the pattern of revenue between quarters against the previous pattern of order book, if you want to know the order flow.
Your voice is not clear. If you can repeat the question, please.
I think we are sorry we could not hear you properly.
It's just cracking. I mean, whatever.
Slightly better. You can just, yeah.
Yeah. So my question is the bid pipeline stands at around 8.5 GW versus the last quarter bid pipeline of 25.4 GW. And we have received around orders of around INR 3,000 crores in this quarter. So what gives us this confidence like 4.4 GW will be able to win another INR 4,000 crore of the orders? And how much are in this inflow? We have accounted for Adani also.
Okay, sir. Yeah, no, so I think it's a good question. So basically, we are already a loan from one of the very important PSU for the large size project, right? And then we are at the advanced stage of closing few orders with the private IPPs, also international. So with all those things, we are pretty confident that we will be crossing or we will be achieving this INR 4,000 crore mark.
Okay. And can you just elaborate on the South Africa project? How are the margins there? Because we are again moving towards that international order book and shifting from the domestic focus which we had in the recent couple of years.
No. So we are not shifting our focus from domestic to international. As you have told that in the investors' speech also, so we are very carefully evaluating the project outside the domestic market. And those projects which are at better margin and the terms and conditions are conducive to our requirement, those projects only we are taking, right? So we are not just for the sake of increasing our share by making some margin again. No, so no. So this is all the contract is in dollar, no? So there is no forex risk. So payment would be done in dollar.
What happens for the next year?
Well, I think with this rate only we'll keep on increasing. So see, now two, I mean, three to four projects we are getting every year. So at least we can say this year we have two, another year also we'll target two, three. So we'll go conservatively. We'll not go for, I mean, any number of projects that we want to pick up. We'll go for the projects only those that are good for us.
So, all the ongoing projects internationally, we are just towards completion in only. So, those four projects, two in South Africa, one in Spain, and one in Chile, these are likely to be completed in the next three, four months. So, these two new orders will give us some momentum to continue business internationally. And in terms of guidance, we can say around 15%-20% of our overall revenue or order book would be international. Otherwise, our focus primarily would be domestic market.
Sorry to interrupt, Bhavik. Please rejoin the queue for follow-up questions.
Sure.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Agicha from H.G. Hawa & Company. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm audible?
Your voice is also cracking, not very clear, but yeah, you can speak, let's say.
Am I clear for now?
It's better now.
Yeah. So the recurring overheads are like approximately INR 93 crore in the industry. What is the steady-state quarterly overhead run rate as the business scales? And what is the operating leverage roadmap?
So we are in the process of rationalizing our cost, though. But on a conservative basis, we can consider the similar kind of run rate to go ahead.
Approximately INR 100 crore every quarter?
Yeah, around INR 90.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rabindra Nath Nayak from Sunidhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I have a couple of questions. Regarding the consolidated segment performance, you can see that the operational O&M margin has come down substantially in this quarter. Does it have something to do with the gross margin? Because the gross margin has not improved substantially, but the EPC margin has improved. Does it have something to do with the gross margin? That is my question, first question. And regarding the interest cost and also the overhead cost, interest cost, you mentioned that the interest cost has gone up due to the additional loans you have taken this quarter. And also, probably this quarter will remain elevated, this cost. And also the legal expenses, you are saying that a lot of cases have been resolved. So do you see that the legal expenses will go down?
And also we see the other expenses, which is around INR 66 crore in this quarter, consolidated level, will go down in the coming quarters? That is my second question. And the last question about this, the tax account is very low this quarter. Probably the reason could be the you can highlight what are the reasons for this. And the guidance of the extraordinary expenses in the P&L, and what are the projects which are running the reserved places which have come after the Reliance taken the stake in the company?
Thank you. Yeah, sure. We'll try to answer as many as possible. In terms of O&M expenses or margin, as Mr. CK Thakur had also spoken, in one of the cases in Australia, we had to incur certain expenses because that project was under defect liability period. That has resulted in additional costs being booked under O&M, and that reduced our margin. Our gross margin in O&M for the quarter was around 18%, as against our normal margin, which remains in the range of 20%-24%. That has ultimately resulted in our reduction in O&M margin. That's one. In terms of interest cost, as I mentioned, we have taken INR 500 crore loan in last quarter, September, and this current quarter, we have taken around INR 100 crore. Interest costs will remain elevated during this quarter as well, Q4.
Then it will start coming down from Q1 of FY 2027 onwards. In terms of tax, tax expenses are low because we have booked exceptional expense during the last quarter as we lost a case in court. That has resulted in our PAT being negative on consolidated basis as well as on standalone basis. We got that benefit so that our standalone tax profit has come down. Basically, it is negative. There won't be any tax obligation on our standalone balance sheet going forward in this current quarter also and in some of the future quarters as well. Till that time, we set off the entire losses. That has resulted in our tax expenses getting reduced in the quarter.
Okay, so can you please give the guidance on this particular gross?
Please rejoin the queue .
This is related to this, related to that. So what is the guidance on this development of sales and gross margin for this year?
For the current year, we have given a guidance of 15%-20% growth over last year, and we continue to maintain the same. In terms of gross margin for the full year, it would be in the range of 8%-10%. And going forward also, we continue to maintain the same guidance.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aniket Madhwani from Steptrade Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yeah, Aniket, you are.
Yeah. First of all, congratulations on the good set of numbers, and I just want the clarification. You have mentioned 15%-20% growth over the FY 2025 or the quarter-on-quarter?
Yeah, FY 2025. For the full year, 15%-20% growth, yeah.
Okay. And what is the current order book in hand? Outstanding order book?
At this point in time, 31st December was INR 10,000 crore plus order book. Plus another INR 4,000 crore orders are in the final stage of negotiations, which we can expect during Q4.
All right, and you are expecting the same?
Sorry to interrupt, Aniket. Please rejoin the queue for more questions.
Yeah, sure, sure.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sarang Joglekar from Vimana Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you, sir. So my question was more on the input. So do you see any decline in the non-DCR module prices?
Decline in the non-DCR module prices. So yes, we are expecting to see around six months before DCR module prices were quoted at around INR 18 per watt peak, INR 18-INR 19, but then it came to INR 17. Suddenly, this wafer prices, I mean, cell prices have gone up slightly. So therefore, some wafer also will go up. So for one to two months, I can see some turbulence. I'm not sure that how much it will impact, right? But then some turbulence would be there for the next couple of months. But going forward, then if the Indian capacities, all the developers are reaching to that level of the capacity building up that they have promised, I'm not sure. I'm sure that, I mean, this will not impact the market at large then, right?
Understood. So non-DCR, this is what you're talking about, right?
No, DCR I told about. I told for DCR. You are asking for DCR only, right?
Non-DCR I'm talking about.
Oh, no, no. Non-DCR, I mean, yes. For non-DCR, sure, I mean, the market is under fluctuations for a couple of months, and everybody is watching. Let's see, because of the subsidy that the Chinese government were giving to their manufacturers that have been withdrawn. So with all those kinds of things, suddenly the market has gone up. So one half or INR 0.02, I mean. So this has to be stabilized. We have to keep watching.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saurabh Srivastava from Arista Consulting. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hello.
Yes, hi. Yeah, you are.
Congratulations on the good numbers. Hope the bottom line will follow soon. My first question is that you just mentioned that tax offsetting clause, something like that. You have really not to pay that tax going forward for some quarters. Can you please explain it?
Sure, sir. Our standalone profit, because of the Conti case which we lost and we took a hit, in terms of tax profit, we are tax negative. Basically, we have accumulated tax losses, which can be set up over some future periods of profit. So that's why on our standalone financials, now we are not getting any tax impact.
Okay, so can I presume that these losses which we have incurred will be taken care of in the form of taxes going forward?
Yeah, yeah. So we got the tax benefit because of the loss, you can say that.
Yeah. And second thing is what sort of margin can we expect from this Reliance new energy project, gross margin and net margin?
Oh, I think this is still too premature, basically, to talk about this. Yeah, but it will come up. Once, I think, I mean, soon this traction has to happen. So then we'll give you the guidance on this.
Can we see something by quarter one in this regard?
Yeah, for sure. So we are expecting that the things will start now, this quarter end or maybe quarter first quarter. So the momentum has already gained. So once it is concluded, then we'll come back to you.
Thank you, sir. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take this as the last question for today. With that, we conclude today's conference call. On behalf of Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for the support.