Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Techno Electric & Engineering Company Limited Q4 and FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by Asian Market 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 call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference call is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vidit Trivedi from Asian Market Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Hi. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Asian Market Securities, we welcome you to the 4Q FY 2026 earnings conference call of Techno Electric & Engineering Company Limited. We have with us today Shri P.P. Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director; Mr. Ankit Saraiya, Director and CEO representing the company; Shivani Chandok, V.P., Strategic Initiative and Investor Relations; and Mr. Amit Aggarwal, President, Data Center. I request Shri P.P. Gupta to take us through an overview of the quarterly and yearly results, and then we'll begin the Q&A session. Over to you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Vidit. Very good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us to discuss Techno Electric & Engineering Company Limited's financial results for the Q4 and the full year ended March 31st, 2026. Before I begin, a quick note on forward-looking statements. Anything we say today about the future should be read along with the usual risks and uncertainties that affect our industry, sector, and, in turn, our company. Let me begin with the key highlights in financial year 2026. We continued our trajectory of delivering all-time high revenues for the company. We executed with discipline across all our business segments, delivered resilient operational and financial performance, and are entering the new fiscal year from a position of strength. Two structural trends gives us strong confidence as we look at.
First, the Union Budget continued support through tax incentive for cloud and digital infrastructure is a significant positive for data centers business. Second, India's transmission sector continues to present a strong multiyear growth opportunity, and we believe we are well-positioned to participate in this expansion as a key entity in this segment. Importantly, we are at a critical inflection point where reliable power infrastructure is becoming crucial and central to the data center ecosystem. This convergence is creating new opportunities across both our transmission and data center businesses and strengthening the strategic alignment between the two segments. However, currently, the operating environment driven by global wars and supply chain disruption have added some cost pressure in the near term, and we expect this may continue to impact the next few quarters as well unless resolved as promised in near future. The company is geared up for the same.
We are actively managing costs, optimizing our procurement, and staying disciplined in execution. We are confident that as these external factors normalize, our margins will steadily move back to their structural levels or better. Our priorities still have not changed. Disciplined execution, efficient use of capital, and long-term value for the shareholders. Our Transmission and Distribution, we first take up businesses segment-wise. First is the T&D business. Our Transmission and Distribution business continues to demonstrate very strong momentum. India's energy demand is rising rapidly, driven by industrial expansion, the growing scale of our data centers, and the accelerating transition towards renewable energy. As power demand increases, the need for robust transmission infrastructure becomes inevitable, and this is precisely where we are strategically positioned. We are witnessing a steady pipeline of opportunities across extra high voltage transmission corridors as the country continues to strengthen and expand its energy backbone.
Our unexecuted order book as on March 31st, 2026 stands at almost INR 9,600 crore. We have secured fresh orders after March 26, for about INR 386 crore, a very interesting order will be detailed later. L1, we have placed L1 in another bidding worth about INR 810 crore, which adds to our execution pipelines and gives us revenue visibility going forward. As India advances towards a more digital and intelligent grid, digital substation represents the next frontier of power infrastructure modernization.
Our early investments and positioning in this space provide us with a meaningful competitive advantage as the country accelerates its grid transformation agenda. We are among the leaders in this domain, and our recent order for 132 kV digital substation at four locations in DVC grid command area is one of the most advanced of its own kind in India. This marks a significant milestone in our smart grid journey.
It reinforces our capability to deliver generation-next infrastructure aligned with the evolving needs of the power sector. This reflects not only the strength of identifying market opportunities but also our disciplined approach to growth, remaining selective in bidding, maintaining strong execution practices, standards, and staying focused on prudent risk management. Market outlook. India's power story is unfolding faster than anyone projected. Over the last four to five years, India's power sector has undergone a significant transformation characterized by rapid capacity expansion, accelerated renewable energy deployment, grid modernization, and major policy reforms. The sector has moved steadily towards cleaner energy while simultaneously ensuring reliability and energy security to meet the rising electricity demand driven by economic growth, urbanization, and digitization.
Apart from electrification, as per the CEA's Long-Term National Resource Adequacy Plan of March 2026, the peak demand in financial year 2025 stood at 250 GW up from 190 GW in the financial year 2021. By January 2026, before summer even began, we already had touched 245 GW. The summer broke every record. India met an all-time peak of 271 GW on May 21, 2026, and the CEA projects demand reaching 289 GW by financial year 2027 and 459 GW by financial year 2035, nearly doubling within a decade. To meet this, India must build an 1,120 GW generation portfolio by financial year 2035-2036 from about 520 GW today, and largely through renewable sources. By financial year 2036, 70% of India's installed capacity will be non-fossil, up from 52% today. As you are aware, none of the generation reaches consumers without transmission.
As electricity demand continues to grow at an estimated 6.4% CAGR through 2030, pressure on India's transmission network is expected to intensify significantly. The challenge ahead is no longer linked to adding generation capacity. It is about building a transmission infrastructure capable of evacuating and delivering renewable energy efficiently across the country. This becomes particularly important as renewable energy capacity continues to expand in resource-rich states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, while demand centers remain geographically dispersed in this context. HVDC transmission is emerging as a critical technology for long-distance renewable power evacuation, with lower transmission losses and higher grid efficiency. According to Kotak Neo, India's HVDC market is projected to grow from $15 billion in 2025 to $30 billion by 2035.
As per CEA's transmission plan between financial year 2027 and financial year 2036, 137,530 km of new lines and 827,600 MVA of transformation capacity through new stations will happen, which will entail investment of almost INR 8 lakh crore approximately or $95 billion. Techno Electric & Engineering Company remains deeply aligned with the infrastructure needs of the energy transition. Our expertise in 765 kV AIS and GIS execution, the highest voltage class in India. India's grid is precisely what this transition requires. Every solar park evacuated, every wind corridor energized, every pump storage project integrated, all run through high voltage substations. Just to remind, in last three decades, this country has, say, around 500 stations of 400 kV and above. Out of that, no less than 350 are built by Techno Electric itself.
Even presently also, we are delivering no less than six to seven stations out of 10 new stations in construction in the country. We have capability, we have a track record, and we have a decade of policy backed investment certainty behind us. I hand over to Mr. Ankit Saraiya for data center business update.
Thank you. Let me now take you through our data center industry outlook as well as business vertical, which is a transformative chapter for Techno Electric. India's data center industry has clearly moved from potential to execution at scale. As per MeitY, the total data center capacity in the country has increased from about 375 MW in 2020 to around 1,500 MW by 2025. While by conservative estimates, the industry is expected to grow to 4.5 GW by 2030. As per many sectoral reports, the capacity may as well jump to 8 GW, driven by the surge in data consumption, rapid cloud adoption, regulatory data localization rules, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence. The expansion will require an investment of more than INR 30 billion, driven by massive investment in digital infrastructure and GPUs. The union policy is also providing strong structural support to the industry.
The Union Budget 2026/2027 introduced a tax holiday until 2047 for eligible foreign cloud service providers operating through India-based data center infrastructure. A move experts estimate could unlock almost about $100 billion in investments, significantly strengthening India's position as a global cloud and AI infrastructure hub. In this environment, our differentiation is clearly power-led. As AI workloads and high-density computing push up power requirement, the industry's biggest constraint is increasingly reliable power infrastructure and ability to execute it. Given our track record and heritage in transmission and mission-critical electrical systems, we believe we are well positioned to capture the next phase of growth in India's data center industry. Some key operational highlights around the data center business, starting with our data center at Chennai. It became operational around September 2025.
Just to give a basic idea about Chennai itself, the Chennai micro market has historically trailed Bombay, reflecting the limited presence of hyperscalers and BFSI customers. The two segments that drive the bulk of data center absorption, especially today in India and Bombay. That said, Chennai has consistently seen steady demand from its large industrial base and IT/ITeS sector, and it remains strategically important destination as it's the only other city besides Bombay connected to multiple submarine landing stations. The Chennai market currently has six to seven operators, including Singapore Telecom, Nxtra, AdaniConneX, Sify, Equinix, NTT, and Digital Connexion, which is a JV between Digital Realty, Reliance, and Brookfield. Amongst all these players, Techno Digital, we are the newest entrant and just been in operations for last six months. With no prior presence in this segment, we have already tied up half a megawatt of capacity.
We have active pipeline discussions for over 2 MW of capacity with enterprise customers and cloud operators. We must recognize that establishing ourselves in this kind of competitive landscape with such large organizations will take time, but we remain confident that we'll be able to lease out the entire commission capacity within this financial year. Looking ahead, we are seeing and market is seeing growing interest from global players. Chennai's proximity to Singapore, access to multiple subsea cable landing stations, and competitive power cost, along with availability of renewable energy positions it as a critical gateway for international connectivity. Evolving geopolitical dynamics in the Gulf are also reinforcing the case for network diversification and alternate routing beyond the Arabian Sea corridor. The demand arising out of these global factors tend to be available in near term, but large in size, requiring immediate capacity.
Therefore, we may as well plan for a phase II expansion, ensuring that we have large capacity available for such requirements, which can be met on immediate basis. The time becomes essence in delivering these capacities, especially of demands coming out of such evolving structures. The first edge data center that came online was Gurgaon, under partnership with RailTel, which commenced operation in August 2025. We are fully subscribed in Gurgaon today. Customer billing started in September 2025, contributes today almost little above INR 2 crore of annual revenue. The facility in Gurgaon provides co-location and cloud services to marquee clients across government and public sector utilities. It is currently delivering on positive operating margin. Our second edge data center went live in May 2026. We today have active funnel of prospective customers across government and private enterprises, especially BFSI segment.
We are close to filling out the entire capacity. Customer onboarding will commence soon as our network services become operational within Bombay edge data center. In addition, we plan to expand our edge data center footprint in Indore, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Vizag, Prayagraj, with construction commencing at least two to three of these locations within this year. The rollout under the RailTel contract for edge data centers has been slower than anticipated, owing to land acquisition challenges at RailTel's end. Once the land is handed over to us, we will deliver these edge data centers within a year at each of these locations. This is a 25-year-long contract, and within that period, we are confident of delivering multiple edge data centers across the country. Our Noida data center is on track, which is also being constructed in partnership with RailTel.
Our first phase, or you can say phase zero actually, of half a megawatt will be commissioned by June 2026. We are already seeing strong demand, particularly from the government, and we expect that this half megawatt will be fully occupied by December 2026. The construction of first phase, which is 5 MW , is also on track and will be completed by May 2027. The Kolkata data center is under construction and is progressing as planned and remains on schedule for commissioning by end of calendar year 2028. As our data center assets steadily move towards operations, we expect them to start contributing to our overall financials. Based on what we see today and the customer discussions we're having, we target around INR 40 crore -INR 50 crore of revenue from data center business in financial year 2027.
The pace of ramp-up will depend on lease enclosures, customer onboarding timelines, and market conditions, but the demand environment and the positioning of our assets give us real confidence. We have also received a license from DoT to provide network services. We expect to gradually ramp up this business through financial year 2027. While on the business front, we have been moving increasingly towards digitization, including distribution through smart metering projects, smart grid, and digital infrastructure. We are also undergoing a digital transformation within the organization, and it has become a core strategic priority for Techno Electric. This is well beyond simply digitizing records. Our digital agenda is anchored around two clear objectives. First, achieving full organizational visibility to support both internal and external audit requirements. Second, to build a robust framework to identify and mitigate operational risks proactively.
A central enabler of this has been our EBS Connect platform, which we have rolled out across the organization to embed data accuracy into the way we work. It captures and reports data in real time across all project sites and functions, significantly improving the quality, consistency, and reliability of our financial and operational reporting. We have also meaningfully strengthened our underlying digital infrastructure during the year. The cumulative impact of these initiatives is tangible. We are seeing significant annual cost avoidance, a more predictable order book to cash conversion cycle, and measurable improvements in our operating cash flow outcomes that reflect the real business value of our digital investments.
Ask Shivani Chandok.
Thank you, sir. Now let me take you through the financial performance for Q4 and full year ended March 31, 2026. I am pleased to share that Techno Electric has closed FY 2026 on a strong note, demonstrating both resilience and sustained growth across our standalone and consolidated operations. Our results reflect the predictable nature of our business and the mature seasonality of execution. Historically, our performance has followed a 40/60 split between the first and second half of the year. In the closing quarter, has again contributed strongly to our full year numbers. On a standalone basis for the year, our revenue stands at INR 3,252 crores, demonstrating a growth of 35.42% over FY 2025. For the full year, our EBITDA reached INR 448 crores, giving us growth of 36.44% over FY 2025.
Our profit after tax for FY 2026 stands at INR 507 crore, a robust growth of 34.8% over FY 2025, reflecting strong operational leverage and capital efficiency underpinned by our debt-free philosophy. Our standalone EPS for FY 2025/2026 stands at 46.6, compared to 37.65 in FY 2024/2025, a growth of approximately 24% year-on-year. For the quarter, our revenue for Q4 is at INR 1,043 crore, with a growth of 28.5% over Q4 FY 2025, and EBITDA reached INR 132 crore, a growth of 28.6% over FY 2025.
On a consolidated basis, our full year results are as under. The consolidated revenue for FY 2026 is at INR 3,250 crore, a growth of approximately 43.3% over FY 2025. EBITDA grew to INR 462 crore, with a growth of 36.13%. EBITDA margins remained healthy at 14.2%, although there was a slight decline as compared to the previous year. Our consolidated profit after tax reached INR 449 crore, a growth of approximately 18.7% over FY 2025.
Our consolidated EPS for FY 2025/2026 stands at INR 40.74 as compared to INR 31.19 in FY 2024, a growth of approximately 10% year-on-year. On a quarterly basis, our revenue for Q4 is at INR 1,010 crore with a growth of 23.8%, and EBITDA at INR 132 crore, a growth of 4.26%. The quarter was impacted by certain macroeconomic challenges, including supply chain disruptions due to the conflict in GCC region, which also led to high energy cost. As a result, our expected top line for the quarter was impacted, and procurement costs also increased a bit in Q4. We believe that these are temporary and short-term challenges.
While the company has continued to invest in digital transformation and capacity building, which is built in our OpEx cost, we believe that these are important foundations for long-term value creation for our stakeholders. With this, I now hand over to Mr. P.P.G.
to cover our smart metering, other businesses, and closing remarks.
Thank you, ma'am. In smart metering as of March 26, we have already executed approximately 70% of our smart metering order book of about 2.24 million m, up significantly from 50% at the end of quarter three. Our current priority is clear: complete all ongoing projects on time and with full efficiency. Given the margin pressures we are observing in recent tenders, we are consciously adopting a selective and disciplined bidding approach. We are focused on protecting execution quality within our existing portfolio rather than aggressively pursuing incremental volumes at the cost of returns. Progress remains healthy across all project sites. Our digital execution tools enable real-time monitoring, early identification of bottlenecks, and swift corrective action, ensuring we stay on track across geographies. On the implementation front, we are on track to implement 100% of the smart projects in current financial year. We have four ongoing concessions.
While Indore and Ranchi will be completed within H1, Kashmir and Tripura project will be completed in H2 of the current year. The FGD over the last few months, policy uncertainty and delays in regulatory clarity have slowed down new FGD tenders. We are watching developments closely and remain well-positioned to participate when tendering picks up. The Kota and Jhalawar project execution is on track, and we expect it to complete Kota project by March 2027 and Jhalawar by June 2027. With this, we now put the house to question and answers.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants, you are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. We will take the first question from the line of CA Garvit Goyal from Serene Alpha . Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yes, you're audible.
Good evening, sir. My first question is on the data center side. Management has built impressive brand visibility for Techno Digital on the platforms like LinkedIn, where we are showcasing the capabilities that appear superior to the industry peer side. There seems to be a disconnect, as this has not yet translated into the tangible top-line growth or the improved consolidated EPS. In fact, if we look at the numbers, the gap between the standalone EPS and the consolidated EPS is getting widened than expected initially. Although in the opening remarks you highlighted the reasons for it, but what are the specific go-to-market hurdles which are causing these slower than expected utilization and ramp-up in the data center business? As far as I remember, in our earlier calls, we were targeting INR 100 crore of revenues for FY 2027 from data center. Now you mentioned only INR 40 crore.
What are the challenges are we facing here, sir? When can we expect a meaningful contribution to the bottom line? That's my first question.
Let me take that question. Firstly, we've been in operations with data center only for last six months. Our commissioning of Chennai data center, in all honesty, happened in September, with first client moving in from October 2025 onwards. Within six months, we have seen a consumption of about half a megawatt of capacity within Chennai. As I mentioned in the opening remark as well, that we need to appreciate the fact that we are new to the industry, and we do not come with a background of even an IT/ITeS sector, far being data center. With the competition landscape that we are dealing with most players well established over the last couple of decades, and with large organizations such as Adani, Reliance, Sify, NTT, STT, which are multinationals, we are still trying to find a foothold for our own selves.
An industry like data center, which is largely mission-critical in nature, where it takes a lot of time to develop confidence with customers and industry at large, it is going to be a slow but a rewarding journey, but a long journey, as I have mentioned earlier. With RailTel as a partner, it has helped us in achieving some footing much before than any other new entrant would have taken. Therefore, we've seen absorption of capacity in Gurgaon and Bombay faster than other locations. Chennai being our first data center being operated 100% of our own, one can expect that we will take some time in this competitive landscape. Secondly, I had also mentioned that Chennai micro market is quite different than micro markets we hear most about, which is Bombay. With Chennai having limited presence of hyperscalers and BFSI segment.
The absorption largely comes out of the industrial base within that city and out of the IT/ITeS sector within that city. The good part about Chennai is, though, that there's always a trickling demand in the industry. It may not be large, but there's always a constant demand, which is available for us to fulfill, but it takes time to fill up capacities of this size. Because you're catering to more enterprise and retail customers in a city like Chennai, these margins are superior than bulk customers which come out of hyperscale or BFSI segment. In all honesty, I would say we are still gaining ground in the industry. We are competing with large organizations who've been established for decades in it. The journey is solid.
It will be rewarding, but it will take some time, and therefore, what we are seeing today will start improving from FY 2027 and onwards.
Let me add more to it. You see, from given background of Techno Electric, we are probably the first to be in this space, number one. Secondly, I will say no industry, no expansion of high tech deployment like this becomes profitable in the very first year. At least it takes two years to gain ground and be profitable and rewarding. I can assure you by 2030, our takeaway is that the data center or digitization will become the face of this company, and transmission will be the second side of the coin, which is presently the face of the situation. Coming to the targets, I will say this INR 100 crore or more we have never said, number one. Yes, investors may have been anticipating, not the capacity of 5 MW can deliver that kind of rewards.
Nevertheless, we are conscious of investor expectation in this segment, and I can assure you we are patient. We'll outperform the industry in light transmission.
Understood, sir. Secondly, on our standalone business, we had targeted the EPS of 50, but we ended at 46.5, which is due to a combination of commodity price headwinds that we mentioned and lower-than-anticipated execution as well. Apart from that, there is a significant spike in the trade receivables balances, which is really weighing on our operating cash flow. Given this environment of persistent commodity inflation and current working capital challenges, how confident is the management in scaling up the revenue target of INR 4,400 crore for FY 2027 with EPS of INR 75?
Nobody anticipated Gulf War so soon. In December, it was nowhere visible. War has definitely shaven off INR 200 crore top line and as well as gas non-availability have increased costs of certain vital equipment in our sector, namely insulators, aluminum, metals, commodity prices all-time high. Macros, nobody has a control on, as we said in the beginning. You have to perform within the macros at micro opportunities as it happens. I will say that a loss of only INR 3 EPS is no great, which will definitely be made up going forward. Definitely we stay committed. A EPS of INR 75 by 2028, as we have always been maintaining. Current year will be at around INR 60.
It will be better than this year, much better than this year, because we will definitely be changing our product mix in station work, which is focused more on GIS component than on AIS. Let’s hope the war gets soon over and the impact only lasts for a few months and not beyond. That’s what we can wish you. Otherwise, India is very vulnerable, as you all know, to the fuel costs, impact of fuel costs, and the impact on interest rates emerging out of [series] and already rupee under pressure. That will also add to the cost of the equipments having certain import elements in it. These challenges are on table of the sector, which will also be impacting us a bit. I can assure you among all the entities in this segment, we will be the least impacted.
Just a clarification, sir. I think earlier 75 was the target for FY 2027, isn’t it?
No. You see, we were expecting, even today you may achieve more than 60 also, we are factoring this war, number one. Secondly, certain bottom lines were to happen out of the in which exits of our smart meter projects happening, which if leads or in which are with foreign funds flowing out of the country may impact that. We want to be conservative in conveying it. If that happens, that will definitely add another INR 10 to the bottom line if we are able to take a hit out of our investments in AMI. There are hidden profits in that, in exits. Profit margins are yet to be part of our operations. It’s how it evolves going forward.
What is the top line targets for FY 2027?
Sorry to interrupt in between.
Yeah.
We request you to please rejoin the queue again for more questions. Thank you very much. Before we take the next question, ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions from the participants in the question queue, we request you to kindly limit your questions to one per participant. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue again. We will take the next question from the line of [Garvit] Goel from Envis Analytics Advisory LLP. Please go ahead.
Hello? Hello?
Yeah.
Am I audible?
Yeah, you are audible.
Sir, for FY 2027, what is the top line target?
4,000± crore .
4,000± crores . What is our EBITDA margin change, sir?
EBITDA margin , you take around 13%, believing war impact lasts no more than H1. Certain cost impact will continue to be there. The oil prices are not going to roll back so easily despite war being not there. Some cost impact will continue in H2 also. Still we should be able to have 13%.
Sir, from INR 3,200 crore-
[crosstalk] Please join the queue again for the follow-up question. Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Ravi Naredi from Naredi Investment. Please go ahead. Mr. Ravi, please proceed with the question.
Okay.
Due to no response, we will take the next participant. We have the next question from the line of Vaibhav Shah from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Sir, your non-current investments have jumped from INR 648 crore to INR 1,316 crore in FY 2026. What will be the breakup among smart meter and data centers? What do we plan to invest in FY 2027 and 2028 in both the businesses?
In data center, we intend to invest INR 1,000 crore during the current year and INR 650 crore in smart meters. The CapEx outgo will be INR 250 and INR 400 will be self-funded. That will be the generation as internal accruals from that business segment. What you see basically as a CWIP, the major difference has happened because we are executing two EPC contracts rather as a joint development along with IndiGrid at Dhule and at Ishanagar. Ishanagar project will be completed by June end, Q1, and Dhule may go up to December because of the delay in the acquisition of the right of way by the SPV. Those deployment of funds have created contract assets which will no longer be visible in the current year closing. That is the only impact.
Out of this, you can take for these two projects alone, the contract work in progress is almost about INR 600 crore of these two projects. If you minus that, you will find that it is at par with last year.
In the INR 300 crore number, the INR 600 crores.
Pardon?
In the INR 300 crore number non-current investment, what is data center and smart meters?
In smart meter, our investment today is about INR 500 crore already done and INR 250 crore this year, INR 750 crore total. Rest is out of the internal approval. In data center, we have invested about INR 600 crore by now, and further INR 1,000 crore during the current year.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Pankaj from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Good afternoon. I think a good set of results, sir, when we see the P&L. I have some questions on the balance sheet side. Question number one, which is one of the emphasis on the matter which has been highlighted by auditors also, this is regarding the receivables from three large partners, the old outstanding amounting to some INR 88 crore. I think management is of the opinion that no impairment is required for that. Request you to put a color on that, because considering the last pack we did in FY 2026, the amount is fairly meaningful. That is one. Second, I think again, on the receivables side, the receivables actually have increased a lot. Is there some reason, is there some rationalization we are actually looking forward to in terms of collection of money from these trade receivables?
Last question on the working capital side is on the other current assets. There is a meaningful increase again from INR 80.7 odd crores to INR 160 + odd crores in FY 2026 from last year, and I'm talking about the consolidated numbers. What is the breakup of this meaningful increase, sir?
Simple issues. Firstly, coming to the book debts. This is the first year when book debts have been considered along with the retention money receivables. Earlier, we were giving this in two parts, receivables and retention money. If you look separately, the receivable is INR 950 crore. Another INR 240 crore-INR 250 crore is our retention money, which is unbilled. You can take it. Definitely in Q4, you see our turnover is almost one-third of the top line. Excuse the book debt rise of March closing, which comes down. Till today, we have almost collected INR 400 crore out of this INR 950 also. If you look on our type of firms, we are lowest in book debts by September end and highest by March end, number one.
It is generally not more than two to 2.5 month cycle, which generally anybody takes to process, including transit time of material reaching sites, documenting approvals and payments. Coming to your INR 88 crore issue, let me say this is a contract we had in Afghanistan, which due to political reasons, was suspended four years back. Now, UNOPS have taken responsibility. ADB, the lender, has taken responsibility to pay out the work executed till August 15th 2021, the day of close out of the previous government. At that time, I can only say with satisfaction that all our bills have been approved. Now they are about INR 8+ million . They have been sent to the ADB for payment, we are very hopeful to get it by Q1 and/or maybe Q2 at best, at maximum.
In our books, this outstanding is no more than, I will again say, INR 50 crore-INR 55 crore only. Not but INR 8 million we are to receive today. That rupee depreciation has definitely made it rewarding, number one. Number two, simultaneously, we do hold retention money payable to our suppliers also against the very outstanding we have. That also is about another INR 20 crore with us. That impact is now great in the books of the company.
Will you be able to adjust this, the retention which you have kind of hold for the creditors against the receivables you have on this account?
Absolutely. That is back to back. That is always back to back.
Okay. My one question which is still pending is on account of.
Sorry to interrupt.
I'll join the queue.
Of course. Yeah. Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Aniket Madhwani from Steptrade Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello, am I audible?
Yeah. You are welcome, sir.
Yeah. I just wanted to understand the impact of the war. As you mentioned, that it impacted around INR 200 crore of top line and the margins in this quarter. Could you just touch upon the exact reason? Were you not able to execute those INR 200 crores worth of orders? How does it really impacted your top line and the margin? Secondly, if this situation carries forward, if it goes on, where do you look at in the terms of top line and the bottom line for FY 2027?
You see, coming to the INR 200 crore erosion first, the supply chain, which is basically dependent on gas. The gas got most affected after this Middle East war. The industries could not supply the materials or could not produce the materials. Their capacity utilization has come down to less than 50%. That's what I will say. The materials could not be made ready by our reputed suppliers like ABB or like GE. They could not get the insulators for their switch gears, particularly the ISV category, like 765 maybe. Those affected us, and it continues to affect even now, number one. Number two, in the current year, we have already said our top line is about INR 4,000 crore and EPS of INR 60.
Okay. You mentioned-
Next year, again, I will say 2028, we will be definitely giving you an EPS of INR 75.
EPS of INR 85?
INR 75.
INR 75.
In 2028 March.
For the FY 2027, it will be around INR 75 EPS, right?
No, current year it is INR 60 we have, again, not to be wrongly quoted. Next year it is INR 70.
Okay, got it.
Sorry for the crossover between Aniket. I would request you to please return to queue again, as there are participants waiting for their turn.
Sure.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Aniket, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question would be around, I want to ask a year-wise roadmap for the data center business over FY 2027, FY 2028, FY 2029. How much capacity is expected to go live each year across Chennai, Noida, Kolkata and other edge data centers.
Yeah. Ankit, will you address this?
Yeah. We are already, as I mentioned, we are live in Chennai with 5.6 MW. Hopefully by end of calendar year 2027, we should have another phase of Chennai commissioned. If we are able to onboard customers for the initial capacity of 5.6 MW, which is already commissioned. Maybe by December 2027, we'll have another 5 MW commissioned. Meanwhile, by May 2027, we'll have the first 5 MW in Noida commissioned. By then we should have at least couple of more edge data centers of at least 0.5 MW each commissioned apart from the one which we have in Gurgaon and Bombay. This will bring our total commissioned capacity.
By December 2027, we should have a commissioned capacity of about 15 MW-20 MW, this 20 MW odd capacity will be expandable to another 35 MW-40 MW on immediate basis because the common infrastructure would have been developed for all these data centers. 20 MW is actual live capacity, expandable to 40 MW and that should be the target for December 2027.
Thanks. That was fairly detailed and I just want to have a follow-up question upon the same. How should we think about the utilization ramp up post the commissioning?
Come again, I couldn't hear you.
My question is a follow-up question on the same. How should we think about the utilization ramp up post commissioning of these data centers?
Please consider that after commissioning of a capacity, it can take about 12 months to reach occupancy levels of close to around 75% - 80%, which is quite ideal to begin CapEx for the next phase of the same project.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Rishabh Tareva, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Rishabh, please proceed with the question. Getting no response, we'll take the next participant. We have the next question from the line of Uttkkarsh Chanana from SMC Private Wealth. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, please.
All my questions have been answered. Thank you so much.
Right.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Laxmikant, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Sir, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, is there any possible collaboration with the MNCs in chip data centers? Do you see this by the government any transmission happen?
Ankit, I couldn't hear you clearly. Your voice was breaking in the middle.
Sorry, sir. Let me come again. Sir, is there any possible collaboration with the MNCs for data centers in chip segment or constructing a data center or sharing? My next question is regarding the austerity measure the government is announcing. Is there any reduction of capital outlays by government in transmission sector are you seeing in the future?
If I hear your question rightly, you're asking whether there is a potential collaboration with the multinational in data centers?
Yes, sir. Correct. Exactly. By when we can expect it, sir?
We have potential discussions going on with multiple organizations who are strategic in nature to the data center industry and to our company.
Okay.
We are constantly exploring partnership with them to expand our footprint, expand our products and services, as well as to onboard large customers. That may trigger at any point of time. Difficult to put a timeline to it, but that may trigger at any point of time when both the parties see potential opportunity to do something more than what we are already doing. That's always on the cards.
Do you see any reduction in transmission business?
No. We see it growing only multiply going forwards with so much of capacity as I highlighted to be added. I will also include answer to your question in my closing remark.
Okay, sir. Sir, can I ask one more?
Sorry to interrupt in between, Laxmikant. Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Ninad Sarpotdar from InCred Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I just wanted to know out of INR 9,500 crore, how much is the T&D order book? What I see your execution has ramped up massively and going forward with smart meter completion, we'll see a sharp fall in the order book. Your book-to-bill ratio will correct significantly. In terms of visibility and who are our clients for the pipeline order book that we have? That's my first question.
See, I think these details are already available on our website also. As you see our transmission order book is about INR 7,000 crore, another INR 1,000 crore is in our, you can take FGD and another INR 1,500 you can take in AMI or distribution business I would say by and large. With the INR 4,000 crore execution and with the order already in hand, it is almost about 2.5x of the current year turnover projected. Which is quite healthy in the given environment. We hope to add another business of no less than INR 4,000 crore in the coming year as we execute. This ratio will be maintained of 2.5 or maybe 2.4-2.5 to the top line going forward.
Okay.
Major customers are well known who are the asset holder in our country. They are namely Power Grid, Sterlite, Adani, IndiGrid. Similarly, they are the major ones, but others are also now coming in the field. Any concessionaire is our customer. Like we are working with a [PRO] called CLP, earlier China Light & Power. They are also our customers who are deploying their assets.
Okay.
There is no dearth of customers opportunity in this segment.
Got it. Sir, my second question on the same business. What is your working capital cycle or requirement for the core T&D business? Is it currently being positively impacted because of the data center build-out?
Data center has nothing to do with working capital. Please don't mix the two. Transmission working capital is met by its own operational generation of cash and operational obligations to meet at project sites and suppliers. It is self-funded by and large, I will say. As far as data center is concerned, it's a CapEx for us. Data center subsidiaries, they have their own OpEx operations in their own companies. At the moment, they are yet to become cash positive or cash accretive. AMI business has become already cash accretive now. This year, we expect a cash generation from AMI business of about INR 400 crore - INR 450 crore, whereas the additional CapEx will be no more than INR 650 crore. That's why I said our additional capital deployment will be limited to INR 250 crore, as INR 400 crore will be met out of the internal generations.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Parth Thakkar from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm sorry if this question has already been answered, sir, what would be our standalone guidance, revenue, margins and order inflow?
I've already narrated here, INR 4,000 crore as a revenue, 13% EBITDA or more, depending on how soon we complete the [watch], which is not in the control of even Government of India. EPS of INR 60 we'll be targeting.
This is on standalone level.
standalone basis. Absolutely.
The order inflow, how many order inflow?
Order intake will be INR 4,000 crore.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Piyush Goyal from Batlivala & Karani Capital Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. I just have a very small question on the depreciation part. If you see on the December quarter, the depreciation touched almost INR 9 crore, and again, in this quarter it has moved back to INR 3 crore. I was figuring out what has happened.
I cannot answer this question of head as I'm not sure if we are doing numbers on us. You kindly write us an email, we'll reply you.
Sure, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Pankaj from Avendus Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. This is regarding data center. What is our steady state expectation of EBITDA margins on data center? Say, if we take a financial year FY 2030, what percent of business we expect from data center side as a percentage to our overall revenue, sir?
Look, let me answer this question as against Ankit. By 2030, our target will definitely be to have a top line of almost INR 400 crore out of this business, if not INR 500 crore. EBITDA will be around 50% in this segment, which is generally prevailing or maybe more, depending on how India plays out in data center or cloud services, or the AI more largely. All these factors will influence this segment. We should be holding a capacity at that time, to my mind, no less than 250 MW by then, operationally. We need one eureka as a breakthrough. Maybe AI based, some capacity of 100 MW or so with some hyperscalers in some part of India, and that will create magical transformation. With the power procurement and power delivery ability with Techno, I'm very sure it will happen sooner than market may expect.
We'll give you a surprise.
That's good to hear, sir. Your conviction on 50% EBITDA margin is strong, sir?
That is the industry market. I have told you, because these are lease rentals largely, and the only cost you carry with you is debt and finance and overhead, which is not very great. You see, now it depends on mix of these services, which I have not included. That will be upside. Like our IP services, which we have acquired the license additionally, or power supply business, which may further give us a delta. All those are not added yet. I'm only talking of pure leasing of data center space.
Got it, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today, and with that concludes the question-and-answer session. I now hand the conference back to Mr. P. P. Gupta for the closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, ma'am. I will again repeat what I have said today. With a strong financial foundation, execution, track record, and a growing order pipeline, we are very well-positioned for India's next phase of growth in energy transition, energy consumption growth. As I've already said, we'll be targeting a top line of INR 4,000 crore in the current years with an EPS of INR 60. For next year, a top line of INR 5,000 crore and with an EPS of INR 75. To support this growth, we have outlined a CapEx of INR 150 crore this year, which includes INR 1,000 in our data center business and INR 250 for smart metering. The investment will be INR 650 crore in smart metering and that of internal accruals of INR 400 crore. The additional CapEx from the parent will be INR 250 crore.
Importantly, nearly 60% of smart metering CapEx will be funded through internal accruals from the business itself, reflecting the improving financial strength and self-sustaining of this segment now. Our EPC business remains fully self-sustaining, generating its own working capital requirements while continuing to maintain a debt-free cash surplus balance sheet. This provides us with the flexibility to pursue growth opportunities while preserving financial discipline and balance sheet strength. While near-term geopolitical tensions, particularly in the GCC region, may continue to impact supply chains, these developments are also accelerating investments in renewable energy and grid infrastructure to support this energy transition and creating long-term business opportunities for companies like ours. Any energy crisis in Gulf will create alternate forms of energy in rest of the globe.
We remain committed to delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders through disciplined execution, prudential capital allocation, and highest standards of transparency and integrity while continuing to maintain our debt-free cash surplus situation. Thanking you all for joining, and if anybody remains unattended, is welcome to write an email to us. If you happen to be in this side of Kolkata, you are welcome to drop in our office and see how we personally, physically work. Thank you very much.
Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Asian Market Securities, we conclude this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.