Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Tejas Networks Limited Q1 FY26 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero, on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mohit Mishra from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to y ou, sir.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining on Tejas Networks Limited Q1 FY26 results conference call. We have the management of Tejas Networks on this call, represented by Mr. Arnob Roy, Executive Director and COO, Mr. Sumit Dhingra, CFO, Dr. Kumar N. Sivarajan, CTO, and Mr. Sanjay Malik, Chief Strategy and Business Officer. I would like to invite Mr. Arnob Roy to initiate with opening remarks, post which we will have a Q&A session. Over to you, sir.
Yeah, thank you. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Tejas earnings call for Q1. So first of all, just a quick update on our financials for Q1. We had a net revenue of 202 crores, which was lower than our Q4 revenues of 1,900 crores. We had a loss of 194 crores, which was higher than our losses in Q4 of FY25. And the order book at the end of Q1 was 1,241 crores, which is higher than our closing order book in Q4 of FY25. We also expect, and we have been intimated, for winning an order of 1,500 crores for the deployment of the BSNL expansion sites of 18,000-plus sites of BSNL's 4G network. And we expect to be in receipt of the order shortly. The revenue mix for Q1 was India.
81% of the revenue came from India and 19% from international, and the mix of our order book, closing order book, was 92% India and 8% international, still dominated a lot by our India business, so one of the key reasons for the shortfall of revenue in Q1 was the delayed receipt of PO and shipment of 18,000 sites of BSNL 4G network, which we were expecting to do in Q1, but has got delayed a bit. For a few other customers, we also had delays in shipment, getting shipment clearances, and also arrival of inventory, and in this quarter, our revenue was led by key shipments to several India private and international customers. Some of the key highlights for the quarter was that BSNL's 4G expansion project has got started, and they have TCS, our system integration partner, has received the APO for additional 18,000-plus sites.
They have intimated to us that the expected value for PO for supply of RAN equipment will be in the range of INR 1,500 crores. We also received an initial order for a private 5G deployment under BSNL's Captive Non-Public Network initiative. And so while this is a small order, this is an important first order for us for this particular application of building private 5G networks. We also signed a strategic partnership with Rakuten Symphony for developing integrated 5G Open RAN solutions and also take our combined solutions globally. We also entered into a partnership with Intel for integrating our SL3000 direct-to-mobile chipset in their laptops, and also partnerships with mobile manufacturers such as Lava and HMD to launch D2M-enabled mobile phones using the SL3000 chipsets.
We also started several POCs and engagements with multiple domestic and international operators for 4G and 5G radios, both in India as well as internationally. For our wireless business, we received our first order for BharatNet phase III with an SI partner for the supply of IP routers. And we are in engagement with other partners as well for other circles. We supplied our GPON equipment for BharatNet last-mile connectivity project in Gujarat. We received several run rate orders for our optical or DWDM equipment from a few tier-one Indian telcos for their 4G, 5G backhaul capacity augmentation. We won several tenders in the critical infrastructure sector also, and for supply of wireline equipment to railway, oil, gas, and defense, mainly for our optical products.
From our existing customers, international customers in Africa and Europe, we won several network expansion business for both our DWDM as well as our GPON equipment. We also launched our 1.2 terabit per wavelength DWDM solution earlier this year during Bharat Telecom event, and it was launched by the Honorable Union Minister of Communications. A few other updates for the quarter: Parag Naik, our Executive Vice President. He was conferred the prestigious Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Telecom Excellence Award by the Ministry of Communications. We were recognized as the Supply Chain Leader of the Year for Technology and Electronics at the SCM Middle East Conclave and Awards in Dubai. And we received PLI incentives of 122 crores for Q3 of FY25. I'll now hand it over to our CFO, Sumit, for giving details on our financials.
Thanks, Arnob. Good evening, everyone. The quarter ended June 30, 2025. The revenue for Tejas Networks was 202 crores, compared to the previous quarter revenue of 1,907 crores. Revenue is lower, mainly due to delay in purchase orders, delay in certain inventory arrival, and shipment clearances for a few customers. I think, as Arnob briefly mentioned in his statement, our profitability for the quarter at EBITDA level was negative 232 crores. This is mainly driven by lower revenue, against which we have significant fixed costs. Even though there was an improvement in material margin during the quarter, and also lower variable costs during the quarter helped partly offset the impact. At PBT level, our profitability stood at negative 297 crores, and the main difference is essentially finance cost of about 75 crores, and PAT for the quarter was negative 194 crores.
On the balance sheet side, inventory for the end of quarter was 2,537 crores, slightly higher than the inventory for the previous quarter. The increase is mainly to cater to some of the purchase orders that are expected to get executed. And as we've been talking about in the earlier quarters, we've taken some advanced inventory action for certain select components. Our trade receivables stood at 4,453 crores. We had collections of 650 crores during the quarter. The trade receivables are on the higher side, but at the same time, against these, we have advances of about 1,460 crores that are correspondingly also sitting in the other liabilities. So on a net basis, the trade receivable numbers are lower to that extent. Our cash position at the end of the quarter one was 545 crores, and borrowings stood at 3,990 crores.
The increase in borrowings is mainly on account of working capital purposes, as well as for certain CapEx-related investments that we have been doing over the quarters. With this, I'll hand it over to Arnob to make the presentation.
Thanks, Sumit. So in summary, as far as our business outlook is concerned, driven by the continuing growth in data consumption, we see continued investments in fixed and mobile networking technologies worldwide, which is driving our business, the growth of our business. The key applications are the data center connectivity, led by many of the new AI data centers which are getting established, the continued digitalization of cities and economies, modernization of utility networks, the huge investments that are continuing to happen for broadband connectivity, and the expansion of 4G and 5G networks globally. These contribute to our continued business drivers. In line with those applications, we continue to invest in developing our portfolio. In the FY25 and in Q1 of FY26, we have expanded our portfolio significantly and increased our addressable market.
We continue to evolve our 5G solution and develop multiple 4G, 5G radios over multiple bands. We enhanced our portfolio with advanced 5G massive MIMO radios, both our in-house ones and with the partnership with NEC. We acquired a field-proven 4G, 5G core with the licensing agreement with NEC, expanded our IP/MPLS router family to cover multiple access aggregation networks, including BharatNet. We enhanced our optical portfolio with state-of-the-art transmission technology of 800 gigabits and 1.2 terabits per channel DWDM systems, and expanded our enhanced FTTX portfolio with 10G PON products. So our addressable market segments for our products are projected to grow globally. And our domestic opportunities include large projects in both private and government sectors where the investment in networks continues in response to the huge demand in bandwidth.
We have signed up several new customers and new application wins in both private and government sectors which are set to expand in the current year. Our partnerships with NEC and Rakuten are expected to give us access to global customers and expand our joint go-to-market opportunities in the international markets. And our continued investment in expanding our global sales footprint and strategic initial wins will give us a strong momentum for increasing our international business. In summary, we are bullish about our growth drivers, and we continue to invest in R&D and sales investments and go-to-market as we look forward to growth in our business in the coming years. So with that, we will open the floor to questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star, then one, on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star, then two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Again, to register for a question, please press star, then one. Our first question comes from the line of Vimal Jamnadas Gohil from Alchemy Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. I hope I'm audible. I apologize for the background noise and everything's changed.
Yes, Vimal, you're audible.
Incrementally, the 22 crores is very good. What has contributed to that? If you can help me with the understanding, what projects have contributed to that? Thank you.
We couldn't hear you properly. Was it the which projects for the INR 202 crore revenue, or was it something else?
Yes.(audio distortion)
I'm really sorry to interrupt. Vimal, sir, your line is breaking in between.
Vimal? ( audio distortion)
So still your line is breaking.
Should we move on and let him join again?
Sure, definitely. Vimal, sir, request you to rejoin the question queue.
Sure.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pranav Kshatriya from Emkay. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a few questions. Firstly, can you give some breakdown on the India revenue? How much is that India private and how much is the government revenue?
Okay. From this quarter, we've kind of not started giving that breakup because what we realized was that those numbers were not very. I didn't have the clarity because a lot of the India revenue that we claimed as India private, based on the end customer, the direct customer was a private entity. But based on the end customer being government, sometimes there are government as the end customer and a private end customer as well. So that number was not very clear. That's why we kind of left it as India and international.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough.
In general, as far as the past criteria is concerned, the way we used to report, the Indian government revenues were around 16% of the total, and the rest of it was Indian private.
Okay. Thank you. Second question is that we've seen quarter-on-quarter decline in employee cost. I mean, how should we look at the employee cost going ahead, and is it because of larger, I mean, capitalization of some of the expenses?
I think there's a decrease in employee cost in this quarter, mainly on account of certain provision reversals that happened on account of certain exits from the company. And also, there were certain other variable pay provisions which got reversed. In general, our employee cost is in line with our investments that we've been talking about, particularly on the R&D and international sales side, and expected to continue to increase going forward.
Okay. One more question is you talked about 4G and 5G proof of concept being employed with various international as well as domestic private customers. So my question is that how long should we see this culminating into the revenue? Because if I look at you have in the previous call very categorically clarified that FY24 should be seen as a base and not FY25. So from that point of view, how important is scaling up a 4G, 5G proof of concept for revenue? And will that revenue come in this year, or it's more likely to come in next year if at all this rectifies?
So as I mentioned, we are engaged with several POCs and other engagements with customers, both in India and internationally almost. And especially our partnership with NEC and Rakuten was for addressing a lot more of the international customers in conjunction with them. And we hope to see some of the new business closures in 4G and 5G this year, right? We are in fairly deep discussions with multiple operators globally.
Okay. And my last question is that you used to provide the number of patents which are issued to Tejas Networks. Is that number updated? I mean, updated number is available, or how should we see this trending?
Wait a minute. Yeah. The total patents that we have today are 548.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. That's it from my side. I'll come back in the queue for more questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ritesh from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions on accounts. What does this pertain to, accounts for expected credit loss of INR 18 crores? Is this on BSNL or any other project?
It is across our customer base. Basically, every quarter, we do expected credit loss provisioning based on our metrics and as per accounting standards. And this is a combination of movement in the credit loss through the quarter. So it is not necessarily linked to any one particular customer. If you see our historical data, I think every quarter we report this number, capturing the movement in the credit loss through the quarter.
And this INR 4,500 crore receivables, this would be more on a BSNL. And what is the typical payment cycle on this?
A large part of it is on account of BSNL 4G project. There are other receivables as well, and the payment cycle or collection cycle on this is linked to certain milestones which are related to project delivery and project execution and installation, commissioning, and thereafter certain other steps leading up to the closure or completion of the network rollout, so more than the timelines is linked to completion of those milestones.
Got it. So by September balance sheet, the majority of these receivables will be collected, or it's a long duration?
We expect a reasonable reduction in these receivables over the next couple of quarters through the year.
Also, on the operational side, now this 4G, 1 lakh sites is done. How is the review of the performance of this 10,000 sites? And is there any fine-tuning needed, or this project is as per the expected parameters?
This is Kumar. Yeah. So the radios over 90,000 sites are deployed and functioning, and the performance of the network is satisfactory. There's always some optimization needed in all mobile networks for improving coverage and reducing call drops and things of that nature. That continues, but the product performance is quite satisfactory.
Okay. That's great to know. Also, if you can comment on this initial order of the BSNL CNPN and captive non-public network initiative. So what kind of order size one can look at once these initial orders are happening?
As I said, this is our first deployment, first win and deployment of this private 5G network. It is a small order for one of the utility companies. As we complete our deployment and all over here, this could be a good reference for us for many other applications like this in India as well as globally.
Can we say that what you were doing for the government as a government business now can happen totally on captive power, captive network over next, say, three, five years?
I didn't understand the connection with the government. It is our same standard products which have a different application for the private 5G networks, and it's not connected within a government network. What do you want to add?
Yeah. So the CNPN is just the term for what is normally called private 5G networks. So this is a network within an industrial complex or a mine or campus which uses the spectrum of an operator because India hasn't auctioned spectrum specifically for private 5G. But then the network is built and operated by the private entity. So this is what is normally called private 5G, and we're just making beginning in that business.
Sure. That makes sense on my side. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pratap Maliwal from Mount Intra Finance. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, y es, you are.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. My line got cut in between, so I apologize if these are repeat questions. But just a couple of questions here on the BSNL expansion order, 1,526 crores that you pointed out. So do we expect to receive it and then execute it within this financial year?
Yes. That's what the expectation is.
Okay. And just to follow up here, so there was a news article where there was a statement by the Minister of State for Communications who said that after successfully installing 100,000 towers on 4G, we'll approach the cabinet to approve another 100,000 towers. Probably a little premature to ask it, but then is there any detail or any color you can give me on this?
No. We've also read about the article. We've heard about it. And as of now, we have not received any information of the process of how that will go through. But we do expect to participate in that if that comes and compete favorably in this opportunity.
Sure. And regarding the BharatNet orders, did you call out the order size that we are running here in BharatNet?
What was the question? BharatNet? What was that?
The order size that we are competing for here.
Okay. Okay. No, no. We don't disclose the order values per customer or per order. We don't do that.
Okay. Sure. Thanks for taking my call.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants. If you wish to register for a question, you may press star, then one. Our next question comes from the line of Vikas Bhed, an investor. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. I wanted an understanding of what is our total order book right now and if you can give the breakup between BSNL and others because largely they're doing the work for BSNL. So the current order book as it stands and what is the expected in the current financial year? What kind of order book are we expected to add in terms of our visualization of the work that may come to a status?
Yeah. So the current order book is 1,241 crores, as we mentioned. And this does not include anything from BSNL. It is mainly our wireline business and some wireless opportunities, but this does not include any orders from BSNL. And as I said, we are expecting the add-on business of 18,000 plus sites. And that is a separate order. The value is going to be roughly 1,500 crores for us. But that's not what is mentioned in the order book of 1,241 crores.
Okay, and this is expected to come in the next couple of quarters, the BSNL orders?
Yeah. It's supposed to come and get executed in this financial year.
Okay, and are we also expecting such similar or larger orders from entities other than BSNL?
As I said, we are engaged with several operators in India as well as globally for our 4G, 5G products. So in terms of size, I mean, what we saw last year of 100,000 sites a single order, I don't think we'll have something of that size. But they're looking at multiple opportunities and multiple operators with smaller size networks kind of.
Okay. So, thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Khush Gosrani from InCred Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. If you could just highlight more on the recent Rakuten, the partnership that we have done and what kind of products we could cross-sell and what kind of just if you could give more flavor on it, that would be helpful.
Yeah. So Rakuten is a well-known provider of one component of the OpenRAN solution, what is called the CU/DU. So we are working with them to offer a joint solution with Rakuten CU/DU and Tejas radio units to customers worldwide. So that's the nature of the collaboration.
Sure. And so how Rakuten equipment have been used? So majorly, what my understanding was in Japan. But outside Japan, how has been their performance?
I believe they are used in Japan and Europe and other places around the world. I'm not aware of all the countries. They are used for that setup.
Sure. Got it. And in terms of our balance sheet, the inventory, would we need to invest more if, of course, the 1,500 crores for the 18,000 sites POs come, would we require more debt to increase our inventory, to procure the inventory, or the debt level should remain around 4,000 crores?
I think we've made significant procurement for that order, but we may need to still do some incremental orders, particularly where the lead times are not as high. Regarding your question on whether this would increase the debt or would it come down, I think it's a function of when the orders materialize vis-à-vis some of the other working capital movements. So difficult to comment on the debt levels from that perspective.
Sure. And last question would be, what is your CapEx plans for this year if you could highlight on that?
I think we continue to invest both on the R&D side and also to some extent on developing our supply chain for the increased product portfolio or expanded product portfolio as we go along. In addition to that, as we announced a couple of quarters back, we had technological collaboration with NEC. So some of these aspects are essentially what are going to drive our investments and CapEx over the next few quarters. Beyond that, I think it'll be difficult to give a number around that.
Okay. But it should remain similar to last year's level of INR 650 crores or?
I think progressively it may increase a little bit. And in addition to that, there would be an impact of NEC-related investments that we've talked about. So all that would cumulatively impact the CapEx for the year.
Sure. Got it. Got it. Thank you so much. I'll get back to you.
Thank you. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Ritesh from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. The question is on BharatNet. Several people have announced the huge order wave, but we haven't got many orders, or is the PO getting delayed on that? Your comments on?
No. As I mentioned, we've also started receiving orders for the BharatNet project for our routers. I think the people who have announced the large orders are the system integrators who have won the tenders in different circles, and their order consists of not only the equipment, but also fiber and deployment and services and building NOCs and all those kind of things, right, so the SIs who have directly participated in the tender, they have made those announcements for the projects, but as an OEM, we are going to be suppliers to those SIs, and we are working with them for signing up agreements for the supply of our routers, and we got our initial orders, which I talked about.
Okay. That's all my side. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants. If you wish to register for a question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone now. Participants, you may press star, then one to ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Khush Gosrani from InCred Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Just on the receivables side, you mentioned it would be on milestone basis that you will receive on the previous BSNL order. But these milestones should get completed in next one year, or it will take more time to reach these milestones? How should we think about it?
The last part of it should get collected during this financial year. There'll be a small portion which could go beyond that as per the milestones, but significantly large part should get done this year.
Sure. Okay. Got it. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Karan Raja from 54 Ventures. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everybody, and thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Thank you, Karan.
Sir, to previous participants, we spoke about the two circles where we have been considered and have been awarded the PO for the BharatNet deployment. Would you be able to share the number or perhaps a range for the circles where we may not be considered?
No. I think there is nothing like that. I think there are multiple SIs who have won the different circles. And most of them have bid our equipment as one of the OEMs for their outer supplies. And as of now, we are in discussions with many of them, which is, in some cases, going through testing, going through certification, all those kind of things. And we are in discussion with many of them for supplying our routers for their circles. So that's where things are. So it will not be possible to say where we are going to finally be deployed and not deployed kind of a thing, so.
No, that's fair. Thank you for that clarification. Another question, and perhaps this was discussed in the past. In our previous calls, there has always been an option or a prospect for Kavach deployment. Can you please speak about that? Is that an opportunity we are still considering or not?
No, I think Railways also is going to go for this captive network. And they are considering the various technology options as of now. So we are definitely engaged with that. And yes, the tender has got delayed a little bit, but once it is released, we would be one of the strong contenders for it.
All right, so a couple more questions. One, considering the recent geopolitical actions, my assumption is that telecom equipment now becomes critical, and especially indigenous telecom equipment becomes critical as part of national security. Have we received any interest from the Ministry of Defence or any other undertakings for any form of project?
We are engaged with the defense sector for their upcoming opportunities. As you know, in the past, we have supplied to defense networks in multiple projects and in different kind of applications. We remain engaged right now. I mean, as of now, there is no major specific project to really talk about, but there are several discussions ongoing for multiple applications.
Fantastic. Thank you so much for your questions, and have a lovely evening everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ritesh from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
The question is on NEC collaboration. So the entire investment will happen in this year itself, or will it be over FY 26 and 27?
The last part of it will happen this year. I think maybe a small portion would trickle down to the next year as well.
Okay. When do we see the revenue flowing out of this investment?
Yeah. As I said, we are engaged with multiple customers, including the existing customers of NEC, and we hope to see some wins and project closures in this financial year.
Great. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Arnob Roy for closing comments.
Thank you. So I would like to close by saying that the global business opportunity, our business driver still looks quite strong based on the demand for data and bandwidth growth. So we remain bullish about our future, and we continue to invest in R&D for developing, expanding, and evolving our products, and as well as invest in partnerships and other sales growth globally in line with the opportunities that we see. And over a period of time, we do see significant growth in our business as we continue to execute on our business plans. So thank you, and thanks to everyone for taking the time and attending the conference. And with that, I'd like to close the call. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Tejas Networks Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.