Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Techno Electric & Engineering Company Limited Q3 FY25 earnings conference call hosted by Asian Markets Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal the operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Suraj Sonulkar from Asian Markets Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thanks, Dory. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Asian Markets Securities, we welcome you all to the Q3 FY25 earnings conference call of Techno Electric & Engineering Company Limited. We have with us today Mr. P.P. Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, and Mr. Ankit Saraiya, Director representing the company. I request Gupta to take us through the overview of the company quarterly result, and then we shall begin with the Q&A session. Over to you, Gupta.
Thank you, dear. Very good afternoon to all of you, and I welcome everyone to discuss Techno Electric financial results for this quarter, Q3, and nine months ended 31st December 2024. Anything said on this call and which reflects our outlook for the future, or that could be construed as a forward-looking statement, must be reviewed in conjunction with the risks that the industry and company faces. Let me highlight our performance. As you all know, the company has an SPV to set up a 40-MW grid-load data center at Chennai. The asset is nearing completion, staged for the phase I, but still not revenue-accretive, but value-accretive. It is consolidated. The consolidated results will knock off the financials of the SPV of data center. Let me now take up the Q3 results for financial year 2025.
The total revenue for this year for EPC business is INR 676 crore, up by 85% year-on-year. The EBITDA for the company stands at INR 99.22 crore, up by 120% year-on-year. EBITDA margin for the company is at 14.68%. Other income for Q3 is at INR 43.86 crore, compared to around INR 42 crore last year. The profit before tax for this quarter is at INR 138 crore, up by 71% year-on-year. The PAT is at INR 105 crore, up by 35%, and the EPS for this quarter is at Rs. 9. Looking on the nine-month results, the revenue is at INR 1,590 crores, nearly INR 600 crore by 33%, up by 33% year-on-year. The EBITDA stands at INR 225 crore, up by 34% year-on-year. The EBITDA margin is at 14.17%, compared to 13.4% last year. The other income is at INR 105 crore. The profit before tax is at INR 318 crore, up by 27%.
The profit before tax is at INR 250 CR, up by 24%, and EPS is at about 22, compared to 19 last year. The current investment value, that is cash or cash equivalent, is around INR INR 2,500 CR, or Rs. 220 per share. The momentum for order intake and bidding has continued very strongly, and for the sector as well as for techno also, we have a robust order book of around INR 9,700 crore as of December 2024. We have received orders worth INR 1,100 CR in this quarter, which takes the tally of this year to around INR 750 CR. We are further advanced in around INR 1,600 crore of business, which is expected to materialize within this quarter. These are largely power substations or power grids at Karur, Bidar, Chitradur ga, Madhugiri, or with the private sector players like Adani or Sterlite.
We have various bids in pipeline and are confident to get additional orders for around another INR 2,000 CR in this year, which will take the total order book of the company booked during this year to around INR 3,500 crore. We should be closing the year with an order book backlog of unexecuted orders of almost about 10,000 CR+ , first time in the history of the company. This simply reflects post-order execution for the current year. With growth on year-on-year basis, we'll have enough orders in hand to keep the growth momentum going. The company during the year has successfully raised a QIP of INR 1,250 crore during the current financial year, so we have many new reputed investors on board with us now.
On the outlook, I will say the growth momentum we had in financial year 2024, as I shared with you, in 2022-23, we were on an average doing INR 75 crore per month, which improved to INR 125 crore in the financial year 2024, and this year, we are targeting INR 200 crore per year from INR 125 crore last year, and for this financial year, we should be expecting a top line of around INR 2,400 crore, and generally, the Q4 is about 30% of the top line, and this will tally with the already achieved revenue of Q3. Next year, we will be targeting this to further move up to INR 300 crore per month for financial year 2026. We expect larger business in transmission and data centers.
As you all know, looking back, with almost negligible energy growth over the last eight years, as late as 2023, in the last two years, we are seeing a high energy demand, and the growth is almost happening close to double digit. The present peak load demand in the grid is moving around 240 GW, which is expected to be 400 GW by 2030, thereby employing a per capita consumption to grow from 1,250 units to 1,750 units by 2030. To meet this demand, the power plant capacity is planned to be enhanced both in the conventional power by 80 GW and as well as by renewable energy or energy transformation to achieve a target of 500 GW by 2030, and this also has been reaffirmed by PM on yesterday in the India Energy Week.
This all implies that transmission in renewable power, I would like to share with you, is 4X over 1X in the conventional power, so all this means the sector is now full of, is now transforming by deploying all the transmission capacity as required for renewable power, and is now transforming by deploying high-end solutions, namely 765 kV AIS, GIS transmission solutions, STATCOM solutions, VSC HVDC solutions, best BESS facilities to make the renewable power eligible to be base load power, and where your company has a larger presence than any other entity in this marketplace, particularly in building these stations.
Your company is presently focused in the following areas: the transmission solutions, largely in 765 kV or 400 kV AIS, GIS, the smart metering, the FGD, which we call AQI solutions, the digitization or modernization of the power distribution networks of the DISCOMs, and also hyperscale of the edge data centers. From the current mix of 43% of total installed capacity, the renewable energy is expected to be around 64% by 2030, and the growth of deployment is also around 16% CAGR, compared to 4% in fossil fuels. In the budget of the current year, the significant increased allocation is there for the renewable power sector, which is almost 40% higher than the last year and is presently at around INR 25,000 crore.
The CEA report on transmission for integrating 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 in the grid identifies various transmission links, which aggregates around 50,000 circuit km of lines and another INR 4.5 lakh MVA transformer capacity. Following the addition to this ISTS, the interregional capacity will stand improved to around 168 GW by 2032. The national electricity plan in transmission alone presents an investment opportunity of around INR 10 lakh crore required over the next 7-8 years. In addition, I would say in the budget you have seen, the government has started concurrently focusing on building intra-state transmission system also, for which they have allocated an additional 0.5% of GSDP, gross state domestic product, to all the states put together, and this would bring the estimated opportunity to another INR 1.5 lakh crore.
States have given a timeline of March 25 to submit their proposals for scrutiny by the Ministry of MNRE as well as MoP. Apart from this, we are now seeing also opportunities for STATCOMs, which we did earlier in partnership with overseas companies. The power grid has amended the qualification, and we stand qualified of our own merit now to support power grid on this critical mission. The data centers will also going to be creating a lot of additional demand for power. As earlier mentioned, just the government has also allocated 80 GW of hydro and thermal capacity to augment the generation segment. Also, the balance of plant and switchyard facilities deployment and grid integration will be an opportunity. NTPC and DVC both have come out with tenders for grid integration and deployment of switchyards at four locations.
On the distribution side, the RDSS will see a lot of activity happening going forward. The smart metering is in execution at full scale to contain the distribution losses of the DISCOMs are already visible. We are also focusing on strengthening power distribution networks to make them smarter, intelligent by their modernization as well as digitization. So the RDSS also has allocation of funds for city modernization, which will also have opportunity within this segment. Around 22.24 crore meters are in various stages of award or deployment. Out of this, to my knowledge, about 130 million meters have been ordered out, and only about 20 million stand installed till date. The Finance Minister in our budget of the current year also said the government will be incentivizing electricity distribution and augmentation of infrastructure transmission capacity with efforts to improve their financial health and capacity of power firms.
I believe this will open new opportunities for the investors. The budget document also revealed that reform-based distribution schemes, which also have an allocation of around INR 16,000 crore, and is strictly aimed at inviting private investment in this segment. I trust your company is firmly placed and is competent to be part of this program. Basically, all this implies that the government is looking at providing financial reforms, which are reform-based with an objective of ensuring 24/7 quality and sustainable power supply for all and a financially viable power sector. The government further provides this route to DISCOMs in case they adopt reform packages, transfer of ownership of distribution companies, adoption of various franchise models at distribution level, including multiple supply franchises.
Apart from these, we are definite that we will be requiring energy storage solutions like battery, gas, or public storage of no less than 20% of this capacity, and this will also have to be additionally supported by many kinds of capacity-compatible power management solutions in the grid, and we see significant activities where Techno is fully qualified and technically competent to be part of. In FGD segment, we see a slow movement where government has finally extended the implementation period for three years, and this is encouraging states to now order out the packages which were expensed over the last year, more than a year, and we see that five to 10 GW per year should be ordered out by the State Electricity Board and a bit from the private sector also in this space. Our order on FGD is progressing very normally in Rajasthan.
On the transmission segment, the TBCB bidding is happening for almost 50 GW, 50-100 GW now, and a lot of bidding is in progress. At the moment, we are finding that every month four to five concessions are being awarded to some player or the other in this space, and the last one to enter is Reliance, Reliance of Mukesh Ambani's company also in this space. So that's very exciting to know that one more resourceful company is part of this segment, and they find this space exciting and rewarding. Total bids open for transmission is around INR 40,000 crore, out of which Techno is expected to book orders for about INR 2,500 crore per year over the next two to four years.
We currently have orders worth about more than INR 6,000 crore for transmission in this space without our own orders in TBCB, and we are advancing another around INR 1,600 crore worth of orders in this segment. As you know, we are also successfully executing two concessions with a revenue stream of INR 2,800 crore over the concession period. Similarly, we have also one concession of deploying 2.5 million smart meters. In the metering segment, we expect to get orders worth about a million meters every year, and we have already got orders worth about 2.5 million with an investment target of INR 2,500 crore in this space. Out of this, we have already deployed about 500,000 by now.
Data centers, we believe that digitization and services on cloud, public on cloud, private is the most prominent reason that has led to the growth of the data centers and demand for data centers, apart from other reasons such as 5G transmission and many more ISPs or IoTs in this space. The Indian data center market size is estimated to be about 2 GW by 2025 and about more than 7 GW by 2030. There is a substantial growth that is being planned in this space, which may accumulate at a CAGR rate of no less than 20%, and in monetary terms, this may mean almost $2 billion investment per year and growing to $5 billion by 2030.
The growth drivers in this space are public cloud adoption, local data localization, policy incentives, digital transformation, technological developments to roll out 5G and AI, and we are increasing adoption of AI and 5G and virtual reality will revolutionize this space. IoT, big data, and cloud computing will be the next stage. Coming to our own Techno data centers, I will say that we are in a very advanced stage now of ready for operations of first phase of the 24 MW IT load hyperscale data center at Techno, and this is now nearly coming to a completion with a total capital involvement of about INR 450 crore.
There is some delay in this project due to regulatory and permissions to be achieved from the local authorities, but I would say it's a state-of-the-art, first time carried out by Techno, and also it is one of the best in this space in the country and will be ready for service by March 26, and we expect it to be leased out into one of the next years. We have Ankit, would you like to come in now? Yes, sure. So just to give a brief on where we stand with our data center in Chennai, as mentioned, we are very close to achieving ready for service. We should be able to achieve RFS for this project by March 25 with the first phase of 5.6 MW up and ready for servicing the customers.
We are hopeful to achieve the leasing of this capacity within the first three to six months of commissioning. Having said that, for multiple reasons, this project for sure has got delayed, but for reasons which are not directly attributable to us, but largely due to the regulatory and permissions that are required to get the project up and running. Plus, there have been supply chain disruptions due to certain crises that unfolded in the Red Sea and as well as due to shortage of semiconductors, but ultimately we've pushed through and now see a possible ready for service by March 25, which is somewhere during the next month. Having said that, now that we are in the final stages of rolling out the project, our interaction with potential customers has deepened and has increased.
We are in deep discussions with certain global major cloud players, and we have received very favorable responses from them. Domestically, we have reached out to customers in BFSI segment, some content delivery network operators, some domestic cloud players, some public sector enterprises, and we have received very, very encouraging response from each and every one of them. Particularly, we can mention about a significant interest by a public sector bank and a multinational private sector bank, and we are undergoing formal evaluation process by both of them, which should be completed in the coming quarter. Plus, we believe AI has really pushed the industry to greater heights and to larger opportunities.
We see a very big surge in demand for data centers, especially for AI purposes, and our facility in Chennai is very much AI ready, possibly one of the only data centers which are truly AI ready because of the designed rack density and the cooling technology that we have used. Given this background, we have received significant interest from companies that are in the field of artificial intelligence, and one of them is a unicorn which is actively discussing with us for an initial 2 MW-3 MW lease to begin with, which can potentially lead to a consumption of the entire data center. Apart from this, I'm sure everyone must be aware in some shape and size about the IndiaAI Mission, which was kickstarted recently, and certain players are awaiting impanelment.
We are in discussion with multiple such players to offer our data center for their infrastructure requirements, and given that this data center is truly AI ready, we always find ourselves as one of the most preferred partners. Apart from that, we have started building a very deep and strong network of distributors and channel partners through which we are reaching out to medium and small enterprises across the country for their data center requirements, and we have received positive and significant interest from all sorts of enterprises through our partners, and we are closely working with them to engage with these companies in their digital transformation journey. Apart from that, as we had mentioned, we are to execute edge data centers in 102 cities in partnership with the RailTel Corporation, and that we are very close to commissioning our first edge data center in Gurgaon.
It should happen over the next 7 to 10 days. We can possibly say that 50% of that capacity is very close to getting leased, or one can presume that it is almost leased. For the remaining 50% capacity, we are in active discussion with enterprises and public sector, and within a month of commissioning this project, we are hopeful of leasing out the 100% capacity in Gurgaon. This is a small edge data center of 200 kW. The next location that we plan to commission is in Mumbai. This project will start construction by first week of April, and we should see commissioning in the month of August 2025. Mumbai is obviously the most preferred market for data centers, and we are at the heart of Mumbai in South Mumbai itself at Mahalakshmi.
Couldn't have expected a better location for data centers, and we are in close discussion with one of the large conglomerates in India to lease out 100% capacity in Mumbai to them from the date of commissioning itself. Apart from this, we are in discussion with global hyperscalers for contracting at least four to five data centers in tier two and tier three cities. As the next step, apart from Gurgaon and Mumbai, we are looking to start developing data centers in the city of Gandhinagar, in Bhopal, in Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, and Hyderabad, and these constructions will begin sometime during the year of 2025 itself.
Apart from this, this is a little beyond the contract with RailTel that we are planning to commission a very small edge data center in Calcutta because of a significant interest by a global CDN player, and we are in this will enable us for the first time to not only provide co-location services but to also enter bare metal services, as that is the requirement of the customer, and we look forward to engaging with that customer soon contractually and getting this data center up and running within the next four to five months. As far as our data center in Calcutta is concerned, we have started the pre-construction activities. The design and engineering consultant is onboarded. The project management consultant is onboarded.
The local consultants for building plan approvals, for fire approvals, and other approvals as required have been onboarded, and we have even started very basic construction of compound wall at this location, and we are hopeful of commissioning the project in Calcutta by mid to end of 2027. Apart from this, excitingly, we are now getting up to start our services and Infrastructure as a Service space. We are launching services on the Infrastructure as a Service space by providing private cloud services. We are in discussion with a couple of customers for their private cloud requirement and are very close to closing these contracts and provide cloud services as a private cloud model during the second or the third quarter of financial year 2026. As of now, I can say that we have an active funnel of upwards of 10 MW with some key cloud opportunities.
On the organizational side, we have recently onboarded Mr. Amit Agarwal as president of data centers. He was earlier the chief business officer for the joint venture of Iron Mountain and WebWerks, and we are building a significantly sizable sales and marketing setup to reach the market 100% by ourselves, and for enabling that setup, we have recently launched our office in Mumbai at Lower Parel. That's on the data center side, and we'd be happy to take questions during Q&A. Thank you. As you are all aware, during the last five years, the company has successfully created and monetized the assets in renewable power generation and transmission.
We were the first BOOT IPP in renewable power or triple P model in transmission, and all those assets have monetized, enabling us to have cash, which is along with QIP cash now at INR 2,500 CR, to be deployed in the next phase of growth of the company. And as I mentioned, the company is almost now four-fold in the last three years from INR 75 CR per month to INR 300 CR by March 2026. That is the target with INR 200 CR per month during the current year. And we reaffirm that our EPS for this year will be no less than INR 35 Rs as committed, and for next year or current year, what I want to say, 25, 26, it will be almost 50+ . So with this, I invite the questions, and we'll be happy to detail further.
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 withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have the first question from the line of Resham Jain from DSP Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. So my question is to get on data centers. If you can just given that there are multiple things which are happening in Chennai, new plant or new setup coming in Kolkata, and then multiple edge data centers. In the next five years, what kind of revenue EBITDA and capital employed will go into data centers?
If you can just broadly directionally tell us, how are you thinking about the same?
Resham, I will say that you are asking a young person a very mature question, number one. And two, you can on an average take in next if everything goes as projected, data center will become the face of the company. That's how we are projecting going forward. And if not in five years, at least by 2030, we should have a capacity of no less than 250 MW, and at least these locations, no less than 100 countrywide, including edge data centers. And we are definitely will be looking for a revenue of no less than, I will say, almost about INR 250 million, INR 250 million per year, if not more, out of this capacity. With this, Ankit, you would like to add more?
Yeah, sure. Yeah.
So I think the way things are going today, it's very difficult to point out because the industry is very, very dynamic. Resham, if you see what happened over the last 15 days in the industry from U.S. $500 billion for AI infrastructure and then the announcement of largest data centers in Jamnagar and then going to what we all heard about from China, which is DeepSeek, that is how dynamic and disruptive this industry is. And ultimately, the infrastructure when we talk about for any such application, it is data centers only. In such a disruptive industry, it gets very, very difficult for us to become very predictable in nature on seeing what we can feel in what it would be in the next four to five years.
But in the most conservative sense, as P.P. Gupta put it up, that we should see at least 200 MW-250 MW come in by Techno Electric and at least $250 million of revenue flowing in from data center and its allied services. But let me say that the way this industry is unfolding, it's highly. It has immense opportunity, and one has to keep unlocking them and growing with them. And ultimately, it may end up sounding and shaping very different than what we all envisage today.
Understood. Very clear. And sir, my second question is on the transmission business. Last year, there were certain supply chain kind of challenges whereby getting material itself was not easy. Are you seeing some of those challenges receding, and how is the execution looking like from your side?
Those challenges will remain and will continue in number one.
Probably techno is the oldest player in this segment, and our relationships with all these suppliers is of a partnership. We are also consuming no less than 10% of the supply chain in this segment today in the market, and this is likely to be 15% by next year. We are hopeful to, despite all these challenges, we'll be able to get priority from our partners. Supply chain will remain a concern for the overall market, but not challenging, I would say. Largely the land parcels, where we got delayed in the first half of the year, while the land parcels are becoming difficult for the concessionaires to arrange and hand over to us for the deployment of the facility. That is one delay in the first two quarters.
Now, all those are available, except one or two still to be given by corporate and a private player. But now we mostly have that land, have those land parcels, and hence you see the growth in the output also.
Okay, sir. Thank you. All the best, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saurabh Shah from AUM. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Can you hear me?
Yeah. Yeah. Welcome.
Hi. So I wanted to check with you these orders that we have for the edge kind of data centers and the other government contracts. In terms of margins, how do you expect them to pan out given the nature of your contracts and the environment that you see for procurement, etc.? It could be a longer dated execution time.
Edge data centers are concessions to us for 20 years, extendable by five years more.
So these are revenue-sharing agreements with the RailTel, and the margins will be all guided by the tariffs or leasing rentals on which we can deploy these facilities and for what application they can deploy. So as Ankit has already mentioned to you, these are a bit growing up, disruptive but rewarding situations. So the margins are difficult to say in a concession because they will be all measured as an IRR on the investment in this case, at which we hope it will be not less than 20%. Ankit, would you like to add?
Yeah. Because these are BOT contracts, sort of a BOT contract over a period of 20-25 years, one has to look at it more from the perspective of cash flow and IRR. And we are hopeful of achieving high teens or early 20s in IRR for these projects.
So there is no real upfronting of any margin as an EPC that we can really compare it to a transmission EPC that we do additionally. Right. Well, you've followed the company for many years, and in the past, we have been very careful about ensuring that we take high margin projects. So this seems to be slightly more open-ended than the question of pricing and all that, and to some extent doesn't stay in our hands. So I just wanted to check how you guys were looking at that decision. Oh, this will be. I can assure you it is more rewarding than our EPCs. That's what I'll say.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Mitra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.
Sir, first of all, on the data center business, what is the kind of capital that we have employed already? And going forward, what is the capital allocation plan for the Chennai data center?
We have deployed INR 450 CR by now. That is for phase I and maybe another balancing requirement of INR 25 CR ± more in closing out. And the next phase we will take up only after this phase is fully deployed. So you can say that we will be spending another about INR 500 CR-INR 600 CR over the next two years. Say by March 2026, Chennai data center will see another INR 600 CR. But that will start only second half of the next year.
Right. Sir, and the revenue accretion from this capital that we've employed already of INR 450 crore, so that revenue accretion we're expecting from maybe H2 FY26 or FY27.
Is that the correct understanding?
No. It starts from 2025- 2026. Q2, you can say it will be start flowing.
Right. And sir, on the non-hyperscale data centers, like the edge data centers like Gurgaon, Mumbai, and the RailTel ones, so what is the kind of capital allocation plan there? Is there a plan in terms of capital allocation, or it is like as and when we see a good opportunity in the edge data centers, we'll go for it?
No. So let me yeah. Please. So let me clarify this for you regarding Chennai first and then coming to the edge data centers. As mentioned, Chennai data centers should start seeing revenues start flowing from second quarter of financial year 2026.
Going forward, one can expect INR 200 crore-INR 250 crore of CapEx behind Chennai data center annually for expansion of the phases until we have commissioned the entire 24MW . Having said that, you'll see revenues start flowing from second quarter of financial year 2026. In regards to edge data centers, obviously, it depends on how things shape up in the industry, but we target to at least put in as contract requires, we have to set up 20 locations every year. But on all practical basis, we assume we will be starting anywhere between 8-12 locations every year, and that is due to the contract that we have with RailTel. But the locations that we choose will dictate the CapEx involved because each location may not be of the same size data center. Each location may be different.
For instance, Gurgaon was a smaller one with 200 kW, while Mumbai is a larger one which is going up to about a little more than half a megawatt. Similarly, the ones which we are discussing in Gandhinagar and Indore may go up to anywhere between a megawatt on an average. Similarly, Bhopal may be around a megawatt again. So each location is differently sized. Not all locations are the same. And depending on the number of locations we pick up in a year, the CapEx would be dictated accordingly. But in all possibilities, we will see at least INR 150-odd crores to INR 200 crores of CapEx annually once the RailTel project comes in smooth operating procedure.
But I may like to add, as you rightly said, there will be opportunity-based and the priority will be decided based on the opportunity.
CapEx will be, as Ankit has said, around INR 200 CR ± per year depending on capacity mix at each pocket.
Right, sir. So essentially, around eight to 10 to 12 locations in terms of the edge data center per year, and each one would be about 500 kW to 1 MW on average.
Yeah. Absolutely right. To start with. But they will keep building up as that location gets warmed up over the years. They will grow up further into the capacity.
Right. Right.
And secondly, on the T&D EPC business, I did not catch the order inflow number. If you could repeat for Q3 and the nine-month FY25? Yeah. This year, as I said, the total order intake will be about INR 3,500 CR. We have already booked orders worth about INR 750 CR by now or INR 1,800 CR. And this quarter, it is around INR 1,100 CR.
And we are also L1 in another INR 1,600 CR, which will be converted into orders. And concessions won by the developers already. So it's a near formality of their acquiring SPV, land parcel, and then releasing out the orders by corporate. Lately, they are believing unless they have a land parcel, they will like to delay issuing LOI. But they are committed to issue so. So it will be about INR 3,500 crore this year. And we should close the year with the order backlog of INR 10,000 CR +.
Right.
So this INR INR 3,500 CR is essentially entirely clean EPC?
Yeah. Absolutely. EPC. Okay.
And what about the non-T&D part of it, like the power gen or the smart metering business?
No. Then we are executing FGD order, as you know. Unexecuted part is still about INR 1,250 CR. That will take another two years to complete.
Then also, we have a distribution side business on the digitizing or modernizing the distribution network, about INR 300 crore we are doing for DVC. And we expect more business in this space. Similarly, we are deploying smart meters. That is another business of INR 2,500 crore additionally. We have our own TBCB projects with a CapEx of about around INR 700 crore ±.
Right, sir. So thank you so much for answering. That is all from my end. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the queue, we request you to please restrict yourselves to two questions per participant. You may rejoin the queue for follow-up questions. We have the next question from the line of CA Garvit Goyal from Nvest Analytics. Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible? Yes, you're audible, sir. You may proceed.
Good evening, sir. Congrats for a decent set of numbers. My question is on the data center only. Like you mentioned, from Q2 FY26, Chennai data center will start contributing to the revenue. So I just want to know what is the anticipated contribution that will be there in FY26 from that data center to our top line?
Honestly, we have not considered it. If something happens, it will be upside. You can take it. But on an average, we do expect that we should at least target to have about INR 100 CR with a ranging from anywhere INR 50 CR-INR 100 CR minimum for the year.
Understood, sir, and secondly, on the guidance part, this year we have a guidance of INR 250 CR on consolidated basis. So are we sure to achieve that guidance?
We have to do around INR 800 CR in Q4.
So are we confident enough to do that number, sir? And secondly, for next year, I think earlier you have guided for an EPS of 50. And this time in opening remarks, if I have heard right, you mentioned 45. So what is the reason for this decline?
No, I have not mentioned 45. Firstly, I have mentioned this year we should be doing an average of INR 200 CR. And generally, Q4 is about 30% of the top line. So definitely, it will be INR 750 CR-INR 800 CR somewhere as a Q4. And 35 will be the EPS. And Q 2025, 2026, I said our top line will be about INR 300 crore per month. So you can expect a top line of about INR 3,500, INR 3,600 crore and an EPS of INR 50 rupees. That's what I reaffirmed.
Got it. Got it. I think I have heard it wrong.
But I think these are standalone numbers. What about the consolidated top line, sir? Sir, in consolidation, there is not very large difference because they are only meant for our own concessions. They are only accounting requirement, per se. So it is not going to be very different, I would say, at least for next year. And what is the margin guidance, sir?
It will be same about EBITDA of 30%-40%. You can take 40% ± .
Got it, sir. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Murtuza from Avendus Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. My question has already been answered. Thank you.
Thank you. We will move to the next question, which will be from the line of [Ashish Soni] from Family Office. Please go ahead.
Sir, regarding data center services which you want to offer, I think you said about a lot of gamut of services. So any particular services because you gave a whole so what's our view in terms of leasing out what sort of services? Because I was not clear on that.
Ankit, you would like to answer?
Yeah. So in data centers, always the most basic service that hello?
Ankit, are you there? Ankit, sir, are we audible to you? It seems he's dropped out. Can you repeat your question, sir? Data center, I think Ankit mentioned about gamut of services. So because he mentioned a lot of customer discussions, so what is our take? Which services do you want to prioritize and any particular reason behind it? So I just want to understand because I heard co-location. I heard infrastructure as service.
So I just want to understand that in better shape.
Am I audible now?
You dropped in our Delhi office. Ankit, are you back?
Yeah. Am I audible?
Yeah. We are audible.
Yeah. So as I was mentioning, apart from co-location services, the basic service that we plan to provide, we are also now looking to expand our services into bare-metal services, infrastructure as a service. Infrastructure as a service can include cloud services. Sorry? Why cloud services? Your line is not clear, sir. Hello?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead. Is it clear now? Sir, you can go ahead, sir.
Yeah. So as I was mentioning, infrastructure as a service, we include bare-metal services. We include cloud services, private cloud services, white glove services, among others. So let me be more specific. So for Chennai, which of the services do you want to sell?
And maybe for next round for Kolkata, which of the services do you want to sell? Because interest-wise, I heard a lot of interest from a lot of customers. So what's our take on that? So when we talk about any data center, we will build our portfolio of services around them. So for all the data centers that we come up with, whether it is Chennai, whether it is Kolkata, or whether it is the edge data centers, we will be having the operational bandwidth to provide all these services from all of these data centers.
So that is okay. What I'm trying to understand, when we want to lease it out to our customers, so what's our preference in terms of what we want to sell? Because now, what I heard is there are a lot of customers already in pipeline.
So how are you picking, choosing these services and customers?
So we would like to address all sorts of customers. We are not limiting ourselves to any particular type of customer or a customer which prefers a particular type of service. So for instance, in Chennai today, we are in discussion for co-location service. We are also in discussion for bare metal services. Similarly, in Kolkata, we are in discussion for bare metal service to a content delivery network, while we are in discussion with a couple of customers for private cloud services out of a data center in Gurgaon and Mumbai. So they are different depending on the customer and the requirements.
Is there a strategy to get a reference for each of these services with a good customer, or is it a profitability criteria? I'm trying to understand that strategy from the management.
So profitability is not that we are compromising when we are providing any of these services. All of them are equally or more profitable than each other. There is no preference of the management when it comes to choosing which service we rather choose over the other.
Okay. Okay. Thanks. I'll do that.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Singh from Nvest Analytics. Please go ahead. Rohit Singh, your line has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question.
Yes. My question has already been answered.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Somil Shah from Paras Investments. Please go ahead.
So my question is related to the data center business only. Recently, we have heard that DeepSeek's entry into this industry will have an adverse impact on the data center companies.
So I just wanted your views on the same. Are we seeing any negative impact on our business?
Ankit, actually, look at DeepSeek and its development. I would say it's actually a very, very positive development instead of negative. I do understand where the negativity stems from, but one needs to appreciate that in a very disruptive kind of a technology, which has recently gotten innovated. Such kind of disruptions are a way of life, and we'll see more of it coming in the news from time to time. And these disruptions are actually very, very good for any industry because the more affordable and accessible a technology becomes, the cake size increases, the market size increases, and therefore the demand always remains at peak. So there is never that any disruption causes lack of demand.
So if tomorrow infrastructure requirement reduces and prices for the end consumer improves, we'll see more market participation, and therefore automatically the cake size of the industry will increase. That is what happened in the telecom sector when Jio entered. It never while they were able to run at a bare minimum infrastructure and reduce the cost of telecom services to the end customer, but the entire market size went possibly four times.
Basically, I mean, we are seeing a positive impact rather than a negative impact.
No. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
And so my final question, sir, we have been guiding INR 50 EPS for FY26 and INR 75 EPS for FY27. And in one of the calls, even we mentioned that we are expecting INR 25 - INR 30 EPS only on the data center business by FY27, FY28.
So this would be over and above our guidance of INR 75 Rs for FY27?
No, no, no. Data center will become part of this INR 75 going forward.
Okay. Okay. Okay. That's it from my side. Thank you and all the best.
Value equity will be different. On the EPS, yes, but not Equity Value will remain in the subsidiary separately. Sorry, I didn't understand. Yeah. One is a revenue part, and one is a Equity Value test. Because businesses are valued differently, whether it is transmission or AI or data centers. What I'm saying is the E quity Value part of it is not part of EPS. EPS is purely revenue-based. So basically, you mean to say due to data center business, we can get more valuation. That's what you meant to say? No, no, no. I'm not saying that.
Whatever revenue we generate our EBITDA we generate will be very different from the transmission business. That is why 50 becomes 75. That's what I'm trying to say as a narrative. Okay. Okay. So the increasing business would be from the data center side. Right. Right. In 27. Understood. Understood. As an EPS, please, top line may not grow proportionately.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of [Sam Sangwan] from [Finvestors.com]. Please go ahead.
Sir, congratulations for quoting a good set of numbers. Actually, my question is answered. My question was regarding data center effect of DeepSeek, like AI advancements in data center business. But I think already you have covered already.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lakshay Agarwal from Growth Sphere Ventures LLP. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thanks for taking my question.
My question is directed to Ankit, sir. I just wanted to understand that we have two data centers which we are working on, the Chennai data center and the Kolkata data center. And both previously, which we were planning to just do the EPC part, but now we are focusing on co-location. I just wanted to understand that on a per megawatt basis, how much is the rental which we are looking at, either on a monthly basis or on an annual basis, and how much margins we perceive from that?
Yeah. You can presume a rental of about if you are looking at a pure co-location service without any infrastructure as a service, then in that case, we can expect a revenue of about INR 10 CR-INR 12 CR per MW annually of the commissioned capacity.
Okay.
In terms of the margin profile for the same, how much would it take to operate it?
EBITDA margins of about 80%.
Okay. Secondly, as you mentioned that we are also working on infrastructure as a service, so how much is the additional cost which is required for a per megawatt basis to get these servers set up and everything? Then additionally, how much is the rental which we can expect for the same?
Generally, infrastructure as a service can be set up in two models, which can be largely CapEx-based or OpEx-based. We would possibly adopt a more OpEx model for infrastructure as a service rather than CapEx.
Okay. Can you be a bit more elaborate on the OpEx part? When we say that OpEx, so will we be leasing?
Will we be taking the servers on rent itself, or how are we planning to do?
\ Yes. You can possibly take the hardware and the technology which is built on the hardware for these kinds of services on more of a lease model or more like a subscription model from technology service providers, and then provide it at a higher margin to the end customer.
Okay. Understood. And in terms of our edge data centers, so is it just a build-operate-transfer model, or we will also be managing it for RailTel?
No, so it's a build-operate-transfer model where we transfer the asset back to RailTel after 25 years.
For the first 25 years, we have to operate and maintain these assets as well as bring customers for these assets, provide them with O&M services or any other service that we want to, and then the revenue gets shared with RailTel.
Oh, this is called DBFOT model. Develop, finance, own, operate, and transfer post-concession period.
Okay. Understood. And sir, would it be possible if we could visit the Chennai data center?
Yeah, absolutely. Most welcome. And we would love for you to even visit one of our edge data centers in Gurgaon, which is now almost commissioned.
Okay. Sure. I'll reach out for the same. Thank you so much. All the best.
Please drop in our Gurgaon office, and you will have more insight into the business.
Okay. Sure. That will be very helpful. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Chinmay Kabra from Emkay Global Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. So just in continuity of the previous participant's question, just wanted to understand the rentals that we are projecting from the IaaS services that we will be offering. And just wanted to really understand by when are we maybe planning to bring up the IaaS service on a full-fledged basis.
Ankit, I'm not clear on the question. What services?
So the costing aspect, you mentioned that there are two models, CapEx and OpEx. Wanted to understand the rentals that we are projecting from the IaaS services that we will be offering. So these services will be difficult to really count in the numbers because the opportunity is few for such. And in percentage terms to revenue contribution, they're being offering. Sir, I'm sorry, I'm not audible.
Yeah.
Your line is breaking up in between, sir. Am I audible? Am I better? This is much better, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So saying that any kind of value-added services or services out of infrastructure as a service, it's very difficult to today estimate a revenue out of it or a margin out of it because these opportunities are today limited with us. And they will take time to build. And at least for the initial few year or two, they will be contributing a few percentage only to the co-location services.
Understood. And for the IaaS services that we are planning to, again, provide, since we will be sourcing the hardware and the tech, do we have any plan in terms of will we be sourcing it from outside India or from India itself?
So, see, most of these today, most of the technology is available in India. And there are global players as well as some domestic players which are providing these platforms. So depending on the end customer requirement, we may source from either of them because some customers have a preference for domestic players given neighboring country regulations and rules. And some customers have a preference of global players given the majority of the technology. So it would really depend from as per customer preference.
Okay. Understood. Just wanted to take one last question if it's fine. Sure. So just wanted to understand in terms of the smart metering business, what is the number of smart meters that we have, I mean, which have been given operation go live status, and how, I mean, is the receipt of money for setting up the smart meters, I mean, moving smoothly?
Yeah.
It is going very smoothly. We have already achieved a set of about one and a half lakh meters in the state of MP at Indore, for about 1.75 lakh meters, another about 2.75 lakh meters in Srinagar and Jammu and Kashmir. And they are doing very well. There is no challenge. Ministry of Power conducts review meetings every week with all these state DISCOMs. And they are very serious to make sure no wrong efforts in smart meter deployment and payments.
Understood, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as our last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing remarks. Over to you, sir. Yeah. Thank you very much. I will say to all of you for joining the conference call.
In case you still have any query related to our performance, please drop a mail to us. If you happen to be in the side of the city, you are most welcome to visit us. Our data center and smart meter business happens from Gurgaon office, which is on MG Road. You are welcome to visit whenever you are on that side of the town. I thank you once again for each one of you for joining the call.
Thank you. On behalf of Asian Markets Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now.