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Earnings Call: Q2 2022

Dec 13, 2021

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Azure Power's Q2 fiscal 2022 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vikas Bansal, Head, Investor Relations, at Azure Power. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Bansal.

Vikas Bansal
Head of Investor Relations, Azure Power

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On Friday evening, the company issued a press release announcing results for the Q2 of fiscal 2022, ended 13 September 2021. A copy of the press release and the presentation are available on the investors section of Azure Power's website at azurepower.com.

With me today are Ranjit Gupta, CEO, Murali Subramanian, COO, and Pawan Kumar Agrawal, CFO. Ranjit will start the call by going through key highlights and business updates. Murali will then follow up with an update on our projects under construction, operational innovation, and an industry update. Pawan will then provide an update on the quarter, and then we will wrap up the call with Ranjit providing Q3 fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2022 guidance.

After this, we will open up the call for questions. Please note our safe harbor statements are contained within our press release, presentation materials, and available on our website. These statements are important and integral to all our remarks. There are risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We encourage you to review the press release we furnished in our Form 6-K and presentation on our website for a more complete description.

Also contained in our press release, presentation materials, and annual report are certain non-GAAP measures that we reconcile to the most comparable GAAP measures, and these reconciliations are also available on our website in the press release, presentation materials, and annual report. It is now my pleasure to hand it over to Ranjit.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Thank you, Vikas, and a very good morning, everyone. I'm happy to report that we have steadily transitioned from work from home to our office desks this quarter while following COVID-appropriate protocols. Worldwide, we do see disruptions continue due to COVID and its variants, but hope that severity remains contained. On the ESG front, we have taken number of significant steps this quarter towards improving our ESG standards.

We have been focusing on reducing our Scope 1 emissions and have adopted an electric vehicle policy. As part of this policy, any new vehicle that the company purchases going forward for company use will only be electric vehicles. Further, we have adopted a social accountability policy to enshrine socially acceptable and responsible practices in our workplace. Through our social accountability policy, we have committed compliance to SA 8000 standard requirement for ourselves and our vendors.

We have already conducted internal audits to ensure compliance with SA8000 principles, and are planning external audit certification in the month of January 2022. SA8000 certification will reaffirm our commitment to maintain labor and working conditions as per international standards. We continue to strive hard to improve our ESG performance and keep demonstrating our leadership.

Beyond ESG, my most important business update is signing of 600 MW of power purchase agreements from the SECI manufacturing capacity of 4 GW. We further understand that SECI has signed 7,000 MW of PSA, power sale agreements, with the state of Andhra Pradesh, which will translate to another 2,333 MW of PPAs getting signed for Azure very soon. These are heartening and significant developments post elongated period of waits on these projects.

Tariffs of INR 2.54 for the 600 MW PPA and INR 2.42 for PPAs to be signed under Andhra Pradesh PSAs are significantly value accretive. We expect returns comfortably above the upper end of our threshold targets. Given the work we have already done with land acquisition and securing transmission connectivity, we will strive to complete these projects before time. Apart from the SECI manufacturing PPA, we received letters of award for a 120 MW wind project and 150 MW wind-solar hybrid project with SECI subsequent to quarter end.

These are first steps beyond solar for Azure, and we firmly believe that as the industry moves towards providing dispatchable renewable energy to the grid, wind and storage will be two important technology additions in our portfolio. We have already developed significant organizational capabilities for these in-house and are looking forward to implementation on the ground with our teams already working on developing large sites across the country.

Further, we are actively developing our capabilities in new operating areas for renewable energy, be it energy transition for corporates or new technologies like green hydrogen. The government has already announced the National Hydrogen Mission and supports policies related to green hydrogen adoption. I firmly believe that energy storage and green hydrogen are going to change India's energy consumption scenario quite dramatically within this decade.

Azure aims to be at the forefront of these new businesses and has taken concrete steps in this direction. On operational front, while Murali will talk in detail, I'm extremely proud of our procurement and construction teams given the challenges this year from COVID disruptions in the Q1, followed by volatile supplies and module pricing more recently.

We had 31% more Megawatts operating in Q2 this year than we did at the same time last year. There has been a 28% year-on-year increase in EBITDA from our operating assets and a 32% increase in cash flow to equity from operating assets during the quarter. We continue to see steady improvement in these metrics owing to our continuous efforts at project sites.

I also commend the stellar work done by the capital team in raising the lowest cost green bond and refinancing older projects, driving down our cost of debt by almost 200 basis points in these projects. The government continues to support the renewable energy sector in India. India recently announced 150 GW of installed renewable energy capacity in the country, including hydro.

Honorable Prime Minister, in his address during COP26 meeting in Glasgow, provided five resolves that India has undertaken to contribute towards global fight against climate change. These include, number one, increased non-fossil energy capacity target of 500 GW by 2030. Number two, to meet 50% of the country's energy requirements through renewable energy by 2030. Number three, to reduce economy's carbon intensity down to 45% by 2030.

Number four, reduce 1 billion tons of carbon emissions from the total projected emissions by 2030. Number five, achieve net zero emissions by 2070. These announcements, along with India's goal of self-reliance in energy by 2047, i.e., 100th year of Indian independence, clearly demonstrate the vast growth opportunity the sector presents for Azure.

We are looking at our addressable market size of approximately 40 GW per annum going into this decade, considering India's target of 500 GW by 2030. Investment in new renewable energy generating assets will top $250 billion just within this decade. In consonance with this ambitious target, the government has recently taken a series of very significant reform measures to strengthen operating framework and boost investor confidence in the sector.

After the landmark judgment from the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity allowing compensatory tariff for solar power curtailment in the state of Tamil Nadu, Ministry of Power recently brought a notification reinforcing must run status for RE power plants and allowing developers to sell unscheduled power due to curtailment because of technical constraints directly on exchanges.

It also specified rules to simplify the process of recovery of costs incurred by developers due to change in law post project bidding. The rules provide for predefined formula to determine the one-time charges or impact on tariffs due to change in law and lays down fixed time period for approval. These are big developments that are aptly timed and address issues that have been in discussion lately. The government is also actively working on enhancing transmission capacity in the country.

Ministry of Power recently notified rules that paved the way for overhauling of transmission system planning and provide for easier access to transmission networks across the country, termed as General Network Access in the ISTS system. This provides flexibility to the states as well as the generating stations to acquire, hold, and transfer transmission capacity as per their requirement.

In addition, Net Zero and RE100 announcements by corporates is driving a resurgence in interest in energy transition through round-the-clock RE contracts. On our organizational update, as you all know, around the end of this quarter, Mr. Alan Rosling joined our board as the new chairman and replaced Mr. Barney Rush, who served as director on the board for six years, including last two years as chairman. We were privileged to have worked with Barney Rush on the board.

We express our gratitude to Barney for his leadership and guidance in strengthening Azure Power. Mr. Rosling brings an inspiring mix of great leadership and hands-on industry experience himself, and we at Azure management are already deeply working with him in taking our company to greater accomplishments together.

We continue to look for suggestions from our investors and stakeholders on how we can further improve our disclosures and make it easier for you to understand and value our business. With that, I would like to turn it over to Murali.

Murali Subramanian
COO, Azure Power

Thank you, Ranjit. As we last reported, the second wave of COVID impacted construction activities at our sites. Subsequently, however, both COVID and the supply situation improved significantly. Our construction and procurement teams worked very hard to ensure we adhere to committed timelines on our projects.

We commissioned 158 MW AC capacity and 188 MW DC capacity during the quarter. As of today, we have completed and commissioned 500 MW out of 600 MW in our Rajasthan 6 project and balance 100 MW is to be commissioned in this month. We also commissioned 150 MW in our Rajasthan 8 project subsequent to quarter end, and are now in advanced stages to commission the balance capacity in the project in the current quarter.

Even though construction work on the 300 MW Rajasthan 9 was impacted due to supply-related challenges, the team has rallied and we are confident that we will meet the promised timelines. We have provided some highlights of our ESG accomplishments on page six. As Ranjit mentioned earlier, we are extremely proud to adopt our EV policy this quarter, which provides a direction towards reducing our Scope 1 emission.

We have committed to shift to 100% EV by 2030 under this policy. Further, to encourage adoption of electric vehicles at a personal level, we are providing interest cost subsidy to our staff, and I am happy to report that we have already seen two electric vehicles purchased by the company and one electric vehicle purchased by one of our staff members since adoption of this policy.

We are hopeful that this policy will prove to be useful in the expeditious transition to electric vehicles. We also obtained carbon neutrality status through offsetting of carbon emissions in our operations, and together with our path towards electric vehicles, we hope to reduce that requirement in the coming years.

I'm happy to report we have also recently won the Greentech Effective Safety Culture Award for 2021 from the Greentech Foundation. The OHS Award from Grow Care India in these areas, which signifies the efforts we have put in to ensure safety culture, which is now embedded across our project locations and sites. Further, we have also successfully completed the surveillance audits for our ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification, signifying our continuous focus and improvement on our quality and environment management systems.

Our carbon-free generation has avoided about 0.9 million tons of CO2 equivalent this quarter, bringing the total to 11.5 million tons equivalent since inception. We remain net carbon neutral. We are in the process of planting 30,000 trees in the immediate vicinity of our 600 MW Rajasthan 6 project this year. We have also committed to plant 50 trees for every MW we construct.

We also remain actively engaged with the communities where we operate and provide proactive support towards medical and health facilities, especially on the pandemic front. We have also constituted a new sustainability committee of the board to continuously strive to implement and monitor best practices to enhance our sustainability efforts.

On the technology front, Azure continues to be an early adopter. We were among the first companies in India to install a large-scale project based on mono PERC panels, and we are also constructing now a large-scale project using bifacial tracker technology, where we are expecting yields in excess of 30% for our Rajasthan 9 project.

These are industry-leading efforts to ensure our projects are built and operated with the best returns metrics. Further, on the operations side, all our projects are now fully connected with our central monitoring system, which has accessibility through the mobile application as well. We are gradually phasing out laptops at our sites and have provided tablets to our site engineers who are now always connected with the head office staff and monitor at a granular level the performance of each of our plants on a real-time basis.

This also helps us in predictive monitoring of our plants to tackle any challenge in its infancy. Looking at industry and regulatory updates on page eight, India's big announcement at COP26 and the fact that we recently reached 150 GW installed renewable energy capacities continues to ensure a solid environment filled with growth opportunities in India.

As we discussed during our previous call, we have recently developed organizational capabilities to implement our plans in wind and the hybrid space. Our recent wins in this regard, the 120 MW wind project and the 150 MW hybrid project, both with SECI, provides us an opportunity to kick-start this process of diversifying the portfolio and move in line with the industry, which is increasingly looking at dispatch of power as a sustainable way forward in Indian RE.

We want to assure you again that we shall only bid for projects at commercially viable tariffs, one which provides returns above our cost of capital. With that, I will turn it over to Pawan to discuss the quarterly results. Thank you.

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

Thank you, Murali. I'm happy to report that we have exceeded upper end of our revenue guidance for this quarter, with revenues excluding rooftop at $56.9 million against the guidance range of $49 to 51.7 million. We found significant contribution from sale of our carbon credits this quarter amounting to $5.5 million.

However, even after excluding this contribution, the revenue is at the upper end of the guidance range. Significant developments during the quarter and in the period subsequent to the quarter end have assured all of us of the tremendous opportunities in the sector that we at Azure are well-placed to leverage. Ours is a simple business that needs strong and impeccable execution, which we have been focusing on.

Our first PPA execution under the 4-year-old project is one such example, for which we have been working hard with SECI and other stakeholders. With these projects in motion, I believe we have widened the road for our stakeholders on value accretion.

Turning to page 12. As of 30 September 2021, we were operating 2,210 MW on a PPA or AC basis, which is 31% higher than what we were operating a year before. Our portfolio was stable at 6,955 MW at the end of quarter, which further increased to 7,255 MW subsequent to the quarter end with our recent wins. While these portfolio Megawatts numbers exclude rooftop portfolio, which is in the process of getting transferred to Radiance, our financial numbers continue to consolidate rooftop till the transfer process is completed.

On page 13. After adjusting primarily for stock compensation expense, our EBITDA has been $48.7 million or 29% higher against 25% increase in revenues for the same quarter in the previous year. Turning to JDA on page 13. Our JDA increased by 6% in line with our expectation we communicated earlier. All our recent refinancing, both domestic as well as overseas, have resulted in substantial savings in interest costs for us, improving our equity returns.

Over 70% of our total project debt at present, including our outstanding bonds, have fixed interest rates for a period of at least two to three years. As we refinance our project debt on completion of new projects this year, we will endeavor to have almost 100% of project debt to be under fixed rate. Refinancing at lower cost and fixed rate reflects strong credit profile of the group, supported by strong sponsors such as CDPQ and OMERS. Further, we expect that India may not see much impact from global interest rate increase apprehension in a longer term.

As India progresses economically, and with events like India's sovereign debt inclusion in the global bond indices, we expect India to significantly gain from long-term inflows of global capital much larger than previous years, which may be expected to keep the rates in check. Turning to stock compensation expense for Q2 2022. Our share price decreased from $26.92 as on 30 June 2021 to $22 as on 30 September 2021, resulting in reversal of SAR expenses of $3.3 million.

Despite challenges in past few quarters, our DSO has been fairly consistent at around 116 days on an average in the recent quarters. We believe there will be further improvement in our DSO days in future with commissioning of projects with high creditworthy counterparties, and also expected improvement in collections due to favorable awards in Karnataka dispute. We are also hopeful of a favorable judgment soon in Andhra Pradesh.

Moving on to page 15. You can see that EBITDA from operating assets increased about 28% year-on-year, and cash flow to equity from operating assets rose about 32%. Net debt for operating assets was about $1.2 billion, and EBITDA for the last 12 months was about $194 million, resulting in a net debt to EBITDA ratio for operating assets of 6.2x as on 30 September 2021.

Finally, looking at page 16, providing balance sheet information. We had about $128.3 million of cash and cash equivalents, and our net debt stood at approximately $1.41 billion. As a reminder, the hedging assets of $17.2 million included in other assets on our balance sheet should be netted against our total debt as this is directly linked to the foreign exchange hedges we put in place related to our green bonds.

During the current quarter, we have used part of this asset related to our first green bond to reduce the leverage on the green bonds as a kind of refinancing. Now I pass on to Ranjit to provide some commentary on the guidance.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Thanks, Pawan. We have achieved significant results this quarter despite all the challenges we have been through in this year in terms of physical disruptions. We are happy to report that we have been able to achieve higher revenue compared to our guidance for this quarter. We reiterate here our numbers for the current fiscal and will keep the market posted in our coming updates. For Q3 financial year 2022, we expect the revenue to be between INR 4,100 million and INR 4,300 million, and the PLF to be between 19.5% to 20.5%. With this, we will be happy to take questions.

Operator

Thank you very much. We'll 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 handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The first question is from the line of Justin Clare from Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Justin Clare
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking our question. First off here, with the progress that's being made with Andhra Pradesh on signing PSAs for 2.3 GW, I believe you have about 1 GW remaining on the entire 4 GW manufacturing-linked tender, in which you would want to sign PPAs if you consider both Andhra Pradesh and the 600 MW you've already signed PPAs for. Just what visibility do you have into the PSAs for that 1 GW that's remaining? And when could PPAs potentially be signed?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Thank you, Justin, for this question. We have some visibility on 400 MW of the first tranche. There are two or three states with which currently SECI is in conversation with. We expect that the first tranche completion of the remaining 400 MW will happen hopefully in the next quarter.

As far as the remaining about 600 odd MW of the fourth tranche is concerned, at the moment, SECI has, I don't think, started offering that capacity because that capacity is to be commissioned four to five years hence. That will probably take a little bit more time. The first target would be to close the 400 MW, and then post that, SECI will try to close the remaining 767 MW.

Justin Clare
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Okay. Got it. That's helpful. Just considering the progress that you've made or that has been made in terms of signing the PSAs and the visibility into PPAs here, can you just talk through you know, the timeline here in which these projects are expected to be commissioned? You know, I think that 600 MW, the commissioning date was fiscal Q3 of 2024. Just wondering, you know, is that your plan to commission that project basically right on schedule there? Is there potential to commission it a little bit earlier than that timeframe? Just maybe some details on the timeline here.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Justin, you're absolutely right. Though the requirement as per the contract is to commission this, the 600 MW in Q3 FY 2024, which means in November 2023, our endeavor would be to try and complete it, the 600 MW, before then, because of the fact that, you know, we already have made significant progress in the land and connectivity. We will be able to give better visibility on the actual commissioning date, in perhaps the next update.

At the moment, because the PPAs have been signed recently, we are trying to figure out all the ordering and all the land and the connectivity stuff. Hopefully we will have some guidance around when we expect to commission soon enough. The remaining 2,300 MW will be commissioned at 1,000 MW assuming that the PPAs get signed this month. They will be then required to commission one year hence, one year hence, and one year hence.

Justin Clare
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Okay. Got it. Since the timeline here is becoming a little bit more clear in terms of the visibility you have on these projects, you know, how are you thinking about the capital needs for your project pipeline, the sources of capital that you're considering here? You know, what could be the timing of when you may need to raise additional capital?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

We are in discussion, Justin, with our shareholders t he PPAs have just recently been signed. Therefore we do have some time on our hands. We will obviously want to do it earlier than later so that, you know, everyone is comfortable that we have the money available with us. We are working on that, though we do have plenty of time on our hands at the moment.

Justin Clare
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Okay. Great. Thanks for the questions. I will pass it on.

Operator

Thank you very much. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Mr. Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Yeah. Thank you so much. On this 600 MW PPA, when are you likely to place orders for the modules? What is the pricing that you're expecting?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

We, like I was responding to Justin Clare, that we do need to commission these projects by November 2023. Which means that if we aim to commission the projects, then we do need to order the modules six to seven months ahead of that.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Right.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Sometime around March of 2023 is when we need to order these modules h owever, we are working on a schedule wherein we can try and commission these projects earlier.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Right.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Obviously you know currently the pricing of modules is high so we will have to balance the ordering of modules and commissioning of these projects one with the readiness. Our readiness is in good shape I would think. Second is on the cost of modules. That is where we are t hat's why you know we do need a few months for you know for making the decision as to when we will commission these projects b ecause it will depend on the trajectory of module pricing as much as it will do on our readiness.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Sir, can I presume you'd need to do a financial closure before the ordering as well?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Well, as far as the financial closure is concerned, we do have time for financial closure. These processes of financial closure and ordering are certainly sort of in parallel.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Yeah.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

We cannot open LCs without financial closure, obviously. The discussions with module suppliers will happen as we go out and get our financial closure done.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Understood. My next question is on the Punjab issue which has arisen so a re they paying? at all as of now, or have they stopped paying?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

No, Punjab is paying absolutely on time. In fact, I think there was, if you recall, there were some pending payments from Punjab for a dispute that they had created at the onset of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020. The award was in our favor. Punjab has, from what I understand, paid part of that money also. They are paying us on schedule.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Okay.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

There is no delay from Punjab on the DSO side.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Despite that posturing, at least they're paying, unlike Andhra Pradesh. Is that the right understanding?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

That's right a bsolutely, that is the right understanding. They are paying. It is a bill at the moment i t is not law at the moment.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Right.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

You know, once it becomes law, if it becomes law, then there will be a process of determination of tariff and this and that and the other. That is, you know, something that the industry will obviously strongly oppose. I believe that there is still some way to go in this.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Understood. Lastly, on the progress on the timeline for sale of rooftop business, when are you likely to receive cash from that?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Pawan, you will have to take that.

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

Sure, Ranjit. Hi, Puneet. The rooftop sales progress is progressing fairly satisfactory. There have been tons of approvals required from various off-takers. We have received significant majority of those approvals.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Okay.

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

Only a few are pending. Hopefully next couple of months, we should have all approvals, everything in place. We should be able to conclude transaction definitely during this fiscal year.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Okay. Can you expect to receive the funds also during the fiscal year?

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

Yeah, yeah. We expect to receive the funds also during the fiscal year. We're also looking at kind of trying to see if we can transfer into two phases, Puneet b ecause as I said, large part of the approvals have received. There is a possibility that we can for one part for which everything is in place.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Okay.

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

We possibly can try and release those assets pretty soon. Then for remaining, it might take a couple of months d efinitely we expect to receive a large portion within this fiscal year.

Puneet Gulati
Financial Analyst, HSBC

Excellent t hat's good to hear t hank you so much, and all the best.

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

Thanks, Puneet.

Operator

Thank you. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Maheep Mandloi from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

Hey. Good evening to everyone here in India, and thanks for taking the questions here. Wondering if we can just talk about more on carbon credits, and we saw a strong beat in the quarter because of that. Could you just elaborate on that? How much of carbon credit revenues do you expect going forward? Or is there like a way to understand these revenues in the near future? Just have a separate question on the guidance after that, but yeah.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Thanks for the question, Maheep. You know, it is a difficult thing to predict what is the revenue that one will gain from carbon credits a s we know, the market has been fairly depressed over the last several years. Though at Azure we have been registering our, you know, projects under the various mechanisms, one has never been sure as to what would be the revenue that one could get from generating those certificates.

Also, because of Article 6 signed, I think Article 6, there has been some change in the status of India. Right. You know, the pundits are still figuring out how exactly will that impact t hough the initial understanding is that this will not have any impact on carbon pricing as far as Indian projects are concerned, but the devil lies in the detail, as usual. Given that the world is moving towards extracting a larger carbon price from industry and from other participants, one would expect that carbon pricing will stay firm, but it is difficult to predict what exactly that pricing will be.

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

Got it. Then just in terms of guidance here, so the revenue guidance was flattish. Should we see some upside just given you have these $5.5 million in Q2 and then $6.3 million in Q3? Should we see some upside to the revenue guidance based on that?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

In the Q3 ?

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

For the full year. Yeah, for the full year.

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

For the-

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

Because, I think you disclosed $6.3 million of cash received in Q3 as well, right?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Right. Yes, sorry. Go ahead, please.

Pawan Agrawal
CFO, Azure Power

No, no. Just for clarification, Maheep. The revenue that we booked in last quarter? but that was received in this quarter. I just want to clarify, Maheep, that it is the same revenue we booked in last quarter. We sold in the last quarter, and we realized in the subsequent to that. Is that clear, Maheep?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Yeah.

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

Yeah. Got it. Yeah. That's understandable. Still I think it's still, like, roughly $6 million of higher revenues, right? Just wanted to understand if we could see any upside to the revenue guidance here.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

It will depend on, you know. Yeah. It'll be difficult to predict at the moment.

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

Got it. No worries. Just on the Punjab matter here. Just trying to understand, like, the total exposure for you guys. I think, like, it seems it's just the Punjab one and two projects, right, which are exposed to that, the potential change in law in the state, right? That's in my calculation is roughly around $6 million of EBITDA impact. Is that a fair statement? Like, just trying to understand how to think about the sensitivity here.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Maheep, we are very, very strongly of the opinion that there will be no impact of the move that Punjab state is making. There is absolutely no question that what they are trying is against the contract act, against the act, against the, you know, the Indian constitution. Therefore, in this attempt of Punjab, we feel is driven by local issues. You know, there are elections coming up in Punjab in the next two or three months. That is perhaps something because of this unfortunate bill has been passed in the state. We have taken legal opinion. We have spoken to the central ministry, and everyone is super supportive.

There is no doubt in our mind that even if by any chance, first of all, we believe that this will not become an act. The legal advice we have is that even if there is any chance of this bill becoming an act, it will not stand scrutiny in court. We are very optimistic that this is a temporary phenomenon and nothing will really happen and nothing really come out of this.

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

All right. That's helpful as well. Then apart from that, I think like, in the past we've talked about potential discussions at the Supreme Court level on some of the other state discussions. Any expectations on, like, the timeline or, like, when we could finally hear on all these state challenges to renegotiating contracts?

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Apart from Andhra Pradesh, which is in the final leg, so to say, by end of December, we are hopeful the next round of hearing and which is expected to be the final round of hearing is on 29th and 30th of December on the Andhra Pradesh matter.

At the moment, there is no other, and this Andhra Pradesh matter unfortunately has been going on for the last couple of years. There is no other state that has tried to renege on contracts apart from this recent half-hearted attempt by Punjab. I'm not aware of any other outstanding cases where the government has any of the state governments has gone against profit-share agreements.

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

Got it. All right. just the last one from me here, and then follow up later on. It's just around the project construction over here, like schedule. We have what you call the roughly 3 GW which you have outlined will be completed in the next few quarters here.

Beyond that, is the end of 2023 the first next transactions projects expected from the first Gigawatts tranche? Or do you expect any of these hybrid projects or wind projects to start construction before that as well? Just trying to understand the timelines and how to think about the potential financing requirements or equipment procurements for the other projects.

Murali Subramanian
COO, Azure Power

Let me take that. Yeah, as this you know, this question was alluded to even before, we are going to see if we can start constructing and commission some capacity before the scheduled commissioning of November, December 2023. We'll see how much capacity we can bring up ahead. Exact details will be known in the coming days w e also have some more capacity coming up on the SECI projects that were mentioned.

Part of that also might come up early, earlier. This is work in progress, so we don't want to speak specifically about dates, but there is a reasonable possibility that we will bring some capacity before the scheduled commission.

Maheep Mandloi
Director in Equity Research, Credit Suisse

Got it. All right. No, this is really helpful and, thanks for taking questions.

Operator

Thank you. As there are no further questions, on behalf of Azure Power, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Ranjit Gupta
CEO, Azure Power

Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone.

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