Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the quarter four FY 2026 and full year FY 2026 conference call of Vertis Infrastructure Trust. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call.
The statements are not guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Today, from the management side, we have with us Joint CEO, Mr. Gaurav Chandna, and CFO, Mr. Abhishek Chhajer. I would now like to hand the call over to CFO, Mr. Abhishek Chhajer, for his opening remarks and business updates. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. FY 2026 has been an important year for Vertis Infrastructure Trust, one where we delivered simultaneously on scale, performance, financial discipline, and governance. We entered the year with 17 operational assets and we exit with 28 assets, comprising 12 toll and balance annuity and HAM assets across nine states, covering over 8,400 lane kilometers. Our AUM grew by 43% to INR 272 billion or INR 27,000 crores following the acquisition of 12 PNC assets, 11 HAM and one toll.
Our portfolio mix now stands at 70/30, toll to annuity, providing a well-balanced combination of upside participation and cash flow certainty. I am also pleased to share that we continued our track record of operational and financial outperformance during the year, with 4.3% beat on toll revenue, 1.3% on operating cost, and 91 basis points reduction in our cost of debt.
These outcomes reflect not only disciplined acquisition and underwriting, but also our ability to improve assets post-acquisition through operational focus, technology intervention, and strong corporate finance capabilities. Moving to the traffic, our portfolio delivered 9.9% growth for full year against a projection of 5.5%. Further, seven-year CAGR basis portfolio had strong traffic growth of 7.2%. This performance is supported by a portfolio which is well-diversified across logistics corridor, cargo types, as well as trip lengths. Total revenue grew 13.1% for full year FY 2026. Total operating revenue for FY 2026 came in at INR 40 billion or INR 4,004 crores, with a healthy EBITDA margin of 88%. Coming to annuities. All Q4 annuities were received on and before due date, a track record that directly supports NDCF predictability and distribution reliability.
Our cost of debt reduced by 91 basis points, as I mentioned earlier, from 8.23% to 7.32% at the year-end, making us one of the lowest cost of borrowers amongst scaled InvITs. Our outstanding debt stands at INR 115 billion, with residual maturity of 11.6 years, with a staggered payment schedule profile running over through 2042, significantly limiting refinancing risks. With well lending partners across banks, Development Finance Institutions, DFIs, multilaterals, capital markets, our liability framework is diversified, rate cycle agnostic, and built for long term. With net debt to AUM at 41.3%, we have significant headroom for the growth. Our unitholders received distribution of INR 18,120 million in FY 2026, translating to DPU of INR 12 per unit. For Q4, we delivered distribution of INR 3.63 per unit.
It is important to note that for Q1, distribution was lower, primarily on account of acquisition of 12 PNC assets, which completed in late May 2025, where annuity realized prior to acquisition were used for repaying the debt in line with requirement of SEBI NDCF guidelines. Since formation of Vertis InvIT in August 2022, cumulative distribution stands at INR 57.09 per unit or INR 49,171 million in aggregate. During FY 2026, multiple projects of Vertis received recognitions.
To name a few, International Safety Awards from British Safety Council, National Feather Award from Safety Excellence and Carbon Reduction, ASSOCHAM Achiever's Award for Sustainable Practices, and Ateli Narnaul also received five-star rating from NHAI Authority for highest maintenance standard. In addition, we received Platinum Award from LACP, League of American Communications Professionals, for our annual report. This is an improvement from previous year where we received Gold Award. Few other updates for this quarter.
During the previous quarter of Q4 FY 2026, we signed supplementary agreement fixing the GRICL concession period to March 2038. Also, we concluded the transition of SEPL, Shillong Expressway Private Limited, whose concession expired in February 2026. On public listing, we have formally commenced the public listing process. We will further update as things progresses. On regulatory side, we will update on three updates. First on WPI linking factor circular. NHAI proposed revision from 1.641 to 1.561 has been challenged by industry, and the Delhi High Court has kept in abeyance, directing authority to consider industry representation. Industry has already made the representation, now the matter is pending with authority. There is no further update post last earning call on this matter.
Second, SEBI amendment effective April 2026 are broadly positive, permitting SPV contribution post concession expiry, SPV continuation post concession expiry, expanding surplus fund investment universe, allowing greenfield exposure up to 10% for private InvITs, and extending end use of leverage beyond 49% for major maintenance and refinancing. Collectively, these amendments reflect maturing regulatory framework. On MLFF, the barrier-less tolling pilot launched at Choryasi Plaza in May 2026 is an important structural development. Vertis has already implemented single lane free flow, SLFF, at one of the GEPL, DBCPL, with 100% increase in throughput, demonstrating our commitment to operational groundwork that MLFF adoption will require. As we enter FY 2026, we remain conscious of evolving macroeconomic environment and potential headwinds arising from Middle East war. For the highway sector, both for traffic growth and input cost inflation. Gas-based industries such as ceramics, tiles, fertilizer has been impacted.
Bitumen price has increased to INR 80,000 per ton versus average of INR 48,000 in Q4. Given that major maintenance across most of project is performance linked, we are rephasing MM cycle by few months until prices normalize. We will continue to closely monitor the situation. In summary, FY 2026 was a year Vertis demonstrated that scale, performance and financial discipline can be delivered simultaneously. We doubled our portfolio, outperformed on traffic, revenue, cost, reduced our cost of debt to 7.3%, and returned INR 1,812 million or INR 1,800 crore to our investors. This track record reflects not merely portfolio construction, but broadly philosophy of resilience, stability and long-term cash flow quality. We remain grateful for trust placed in us and committed to compounding infrastructure capital responsibly over the long term. We are now happy to take questions. Thank you.
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 their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use answers while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. A reminder to all the participants, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your touchtone telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your touchtone telephone. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you everyone for joining us today. In case you have any questions which you want to discuss separately, please feel free to reach us. Thank you very much again.
Thank you. On behalf of Vertis Infrastructure Trust, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining with us, and you may now disconnect your lines.