Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call, hosted by Ambit Capital Private Limited. 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 touch-tone 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 of the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sameer Thakur. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Good afternoon. On behalf of Ambit Capital, I thank the management of Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited for the opportunity to host your Q1 FY 2026 earnings call. We have the following members of management with us today: Mr. Shobhit Uppal, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Vikas Ahluwalia, Director, and Mr. Satbeer Singh, Chief Financial Officer. I will now hand over the call to the management, Mr. Shobhit Uppal, Deputy Managing Director, who will walk us through the quarter. Thank you all, and over to you, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everybody. Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited has announced its financial results for Q1 FY 2026. During Q1 FY 2026, the company has achieved a turnover of INR 1,004.88 crore and a PAT of INR 51.11 crore in comparison to a turnover of INR 919.35 crore and a PAT of INR 30.60 crore during the corresponding quarter, Q1 FY 2025. The company has registered a growth of 9.3% in turnover and 67.03% in PAT during Q1 FY 2026 in comparison to Q1 FY 2025. EPS of the company for Q1 FY 2026 is INR 7.63 as compared to EPS of INR 4.57 in Q1 of FY 2025. During Q1 FY 2026, the company's EBITDA margin is 8.59% as compared to 6.58% in Q1 of FY 2025, and a PAT margin of 5.01% as compared to a PAT margin of 3.29% in Q1 of FY 2025. The net order book of the company as of 30th June 2025 is INR 16,582.09 crore to be executed over the next two to 2.5 years. Total order inflow during FY 2026 till date is INR 3,889.06 crore. At present, we are L1, L2 projects amounting to INR 1,796.00 crore. Thank you so much. We are ready to take questions now. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to 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'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mohit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is, sir, can you please help us with the progress on the CST and India Jewellery Park project? And any color on the contribution in the top- line in this fiscal and next fiscal, in your opinion? Your voice is not very clear. Your first project you asked was CST. Let me, maybe I'll speak. My question was on the CST and India Jewellery Park, the two largest projects which are there in our order book. My question is, how has been the progress on those two projects? And how do you see their contribution in this fiscal and next fiscal, in your opinion? Vikas? You want to take that? Hi. Vikas here. So the CST project, the progress is better now compared to the last two quarters. Better in the sense we have a lot of clearances now with respect to design and other complex projects. And the railway station itself is a very complex environment, CST especially. So there are a lot of clearances that are now coming in. And we have already done about 400, 350-something work. Total work done at site is about 17%-20%, which has been built. There is a lot of unbuilt work which is happening. It is not yet built. So this year, we are expecting it to do better. I mean, we are now moving towards getting the project in sync to achieve a good run rate of about INR 60 crore-INR 70 crore per month. It will still take some time. Understood. Because I can again repeat that it is a complex environment. And the India Jewellery Park, any progress? Jewellery Park, so now the project, the client has received the environmental clearance finally in paper. So there are certain compliances that they have to do, which they would do or they are doing now. In another two months' time, I think we should be breaking ground. We are waiting also now. The rains in Mumbai are insane. So it takes some time to settle down. But in two months' time, we should be breaking ground. Understood. My second question is on the Dahlias project, which you've undertaken for DLF. When do you expect the work to commence? And is it fair to expect that this will be a INR 500 crore project, INR 500 crore kind of revenue from FY 2027 onwards? I guess you're referring to the Dahlias project. Dahlias, Dahlias. Yeah. DLF, The Dahlias project. Yes. That's roughly about INR 2,000 crore. It's to be completed in about 40 months. So yes, about INR 500 crore revenue. But that depends on there are eight towers. The total built-up area is 7.3 million sq ft. They are doing the D-wall. The client is doing the D-wall as well as the excavation. So we are expecting that we will break ground from our side in September. That is when they start handing over. So yeah, that's where we are at as far as that project is concerned. Understood, sir. That's very helpful. Thank you, sir. All the best. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vaibhav Shah from JM Financial. Please go ahead. Sir, we have seen some softness in terms of margins in the first quarter. We are targeting a double-digit margin for the entire year. So when do you expect a better margin in 2Q, or the improvement will happen in the second half? Where is the softness, Vaibhav? If you see, as per my opening remarks, quarter on quarter, there is an increase. There is an increase of close to 42.7% as far as EBITDA is concerned and net profit by 67% when we compare quarter to quarter. This is very funny. When the preceding quarter to preceding quarter, we show an increase, then you compare with a corresponding quarter. When corresponding quarter, we show an increase, then you compare with a preceding quarter. But having said that, that was said on a lighter way. But I think we are going ahead on projected lines. I had told you that this year, in the last conference call, we had said that this year, there will be double-digit margins. And we are well on our way to that. Right? Q1 traditionally is a very slow quarter for all construction companies. And if you were to compare our results. Now most of the companies, almost all of our peers have declared their results. Our performance is much better than all of them. You may have done a comparison. And most of our slow-moving orders are out other than CSMT, which Vikas explained. Also, now we are taking off on that project too. So we are projecting a double-digit EBITDA margin as far as this whole financial year is concerned, FY 2026 is concerned. Sir, the guidance on revenue for 2026? Same. 15%-20% growth. Okay. Okay. So secondly, on the project-specific side, so we had mentioned last time that from CSMT project, we are targeting revenue of INR 400 crore-INR 500 crore, and from India Jewellery Park, around INR 150 crore for 2026. So we stick to those guidance? Yes. As far as CSMT is concerned, as Vikas just mentioned, we should be doing 400+ in this financial year from that project. As far as India Jewellery Park is concerned, we are still not very clear. It all depends on the notice to proceed, which we are awaiting from the client. They are working on some clearances. But we deliberately, that's why I kept the contribution from that project to the top- line low. And since we've got other projects, I don't think that's going to even if that project is slow to take off from the starting block, I think we have more than enough in our kitty, which will help us achieve the 15%-20% top- line growth. Sure. Sir, once the India Jewellery Park project starts and what would be your annual run rate once the execution picks up? It should be around INR 400 crore-INR 500 crore per year? We would not like to comment on that at this point in time. It's a large project, as all of you know. It's a INR 2,000+ crore project. And the timeline is about four years. So yes, it should be about INR 400 crore-INR 500 crore. But it would not be prudent for us to commit to that as of now until the project really takes off. Okay. Okay. And sir, lastly, on the Chhapra project, we are adding to order book of INR 160-odd crore because I'm changing scope. So has the work begun over there? Yeah. Yeah. It's continuing. As I mentioned in my last call, due to fund issues from the government, the project had slowed down. But those funds are coming now. And they've actually increased the scope of work. And we will complete that work in this financial year. Okay. And sir, lastly, on the Bihar Animal University project, we are seeing some softness in terms of execution in first quarter. So do we expect to complete the project this year, or it should spill over to next year? In the last month of July, we've actually done a billing of INR 50+ crore. So that project is racing along. So that should complete in this year? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, sir. Those were my questions. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parvez Qazi from Nuvama Group. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. So a couple of questions on the L1 side. I mean, these projects are the same where let's say we were L1 at the time of the previous call, one from MIDC, and I think one was from University in Bhubaneswar? Yes. Yes. So by when do we expect some progress here? Hopefully, in this quarter, both the projects should come through. Sure. And our order intake has been very strong in the first five months. So year as a whole, do you think we should be more or less same as what we did last year? Yeah. I had projected about the same figure, around INR 8,000 crore in the last call. We should be achieving that. Sure. And with regards to the Dahlias project, I mean, we understand the overall project size is quite large. So is there a scope that in future we might get some more work here in terms of maybe in a new phase, etc.? We are now DLF's premier contractor. We are doing projects worth nearly INR 5,500 crore with them totally. Gross value, I'm talking about. And the first one of these projects, which we started about a year and a half ago, The Arbour, which will be substantially complete in the first three, maybe for February, March of FY 2026. Oh, sorry, the calendar year 2026. So we hope to strengthen our relationship with them further by picking up more projects with them. Lastly, a question for Satbeer Singh. Sir, what was the CapEx which we did in Q1? And also, what is the overall borrowings and the cash together? Thank you. Just we are expecting the CapEx this year is INR 500 crore? First quarter. How much? First quarter, it's INR 82 crore. Okay. And what is the borrowings and the cash together? Borrowing is hardly INR 2 crore. Cash, including all the liquid investments, etc.? This is in nine- year, INR 20 crore. Wow. Sure. Thanks, and all the best for future. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Khetan from Laburnum Capital. Please go ahead. Mr. Amit, your line has been unmuted. Please go ahead with your question. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So my question was, when we do marquee projects like the Dahlias or CST, do these come at margins which are similar to company-level margins, or do we have to end up bidding a little more aggressively here to secure these projects? So on the private sector side, and this I've repeatedly mentioned in all my interactions, on the private sector side, the margins are higher because the competition or competitive intensity is lesser. On the government sector side, the intensity is more. So CSMT, the margins are lower, though it's a large project, prestigious project. On the private sector side, Dahlias is equally prestigious, but margins will be higher. Understood. Understood. And secondly, you mentioned that we've got exposure of INR 5,500 crore in terms of order book with DLF. How do you think about single client exposure risk in the private sector? Where is the limit where you're more comfortable taking it to? This is about this level, INR 5,500 crore-INR 6,000 crore. And that too with a client like DLF because DLF is the premier developer in the country. There is DLF, and then there are others. And even in the past, we've worked with them. And we feel they are the most organized and cash-rich of all developers. So we aim to maintain a similar level of our exposure to them going forward. Less than 20%. Got it. Got it. And lastly, this quarter, for some unseasonal rains because of which execution was slow at some of our peers, would that be the case with us? And how much would be roughly the impact of that? You're talking about Q2, is it? Q1. Look, Q1, we feel that we've factored in all these issues when we had made our projections. And I think Q1, we've done fairly all right. In fact, we've done better than what we had expected. What I had mentioned in our last call was that Q1 and Q2, which traditionally H1 is always lower than H2. H2, we do this industry performs much better because the labor shortage season is over. The monsoon is behind us. So we are on track to get that 15%-20% growth in our top- line. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lakshmin arayanan from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. We just want to understand that we read a lot of slowness in demand for residential projects offtake, especially in NCR and especially on the high-end. Right? Now, I just want to understand how are we de-risking ourselves if there is some kind of an issue in the residential because our mix is now tilting more towards residential. And I just want to understand what is the de-risking thought you have or whether my commentary seems to be right or wrong. Look, while there is talk of slowdown, but we have not seen this on the ground as far as our interaction with our clients, primarily the developers for whom we are doing residential projects is concerned. Right? Having said that, we are at about 40% of our total order book, which is residential at the moment. We have slowed down in our intake of projects in this sector. As far as slowdown is concerned, we are actually, there are a lot of clients existing or otherwise who are after us to take up their jobs, and we are virtually refusing a job a week. So if projects are being launched, slowdown, maybe there is a slowdown in the pricing in the sense that pricing is not nosedive or come down. It's plateaued off. But there doesn't seem to be any slowdown on the projects being executed on the ground. That's one. Just to clarify again, we at the moment are not looking to add to the residential portfolio. We are now looking at commercial, retail, institutional, which has always been our forte, and also looking at bidding for marquee large government jobs. Got it. Got it. And if I look at your order book, right, I mean, what is the mix of item rate and how much is EPC? And particularly in CSMT, what is the mix we have? Item rate, 55%. So what's happened is that due to our focus now, or we've refocused on the private sector for the last 1.5 years, which is primarily item r ate. Today, now 55% of our order book is item r ate. Right? And 45% is EPC. Got it. So if I look at last year, whatever you concluded, what is your revenue, which was a mix of item rate and EPC? Yes, it was. So you're asking me the percentage? Yeah. Last year, see, the reason is that I believe that the item rate gives you higher margins. And if so, whether is that mix changing with respect to the last year's full revenues? Oh, it is. It's flipped. If you see now the exposure of our private sector versus public sector. 37% public? Yeah. So if you do a comparison with last year, it's flipped both in terms of item rate versus EPC and public sector versus private sector. Today, nearly 63% of our order book comes from the private sector. And this has been a conscious effort. If you've attended some of our previous investor calls, which I think you have, we've had some interaction with you. And we've been maintaining this. This is a conscious direction that we took about two years ago to start moving from public sector to private sector because we foresaw that there would be increased competition in the public sector. And so now, today, 63% of our order book comes from the private sector. And as I said, 55% is item rate. Typically, between the item rate and the EPC, right, if you take 100 as an index of EPC, how much is usually the item rate from a margin point of view? As compared to EPC? Is that what you're asking? Yeah. I mean, with respect to if item rate is 100%, 100 as a margin, how much would EPC be? What is the? So you're saying how much would EPC be lower by? Yeah. Lower by. That's right. I think it would not be, again, prudent for me to put a general number that way. I'll give you an example. On the private sector side, we are doing two EPC contracts for a healthcare company. Right? Where our margins are at par with item rate margins on some of our private sector clients. So it is only on government contracts that EPC margins are lower. That also because there is intense competition. Government now, the qualification criteria, in their wisdom, various government departments have diluted the qualification criteria. So what happens is, say, for an INR 500 crore contract on the private sector side, the client would be hard-pressed to find three large bidders, qualified bidders to bid, good bidders to bid. Whereas on a similar-sized contract on the public sector side, there'd be 15 bidders. Got it. Okay. Thank you. I'll come back and queue. Thank you. Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Abhinav from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Mr. Abhinav, your line has been unmuted. Please go ahead with the question. As there is no response from the current participant, moving to the next. The next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. A couple of things to clarify. Before that, just a request, sir. Every time for this phone call, I have to ask for the dial-in pass link. So I don't want to waste the time in that. It actually saves the time of all the investors. So it's better if we can upload the same on the BSE exchanges with a dial-in link; that would be better. Now, moving to the question. So in terms of the EBITDA margin front, do we expect from Q2 itself can we start seeing a 10% EBITDA margin? Or maybe a third and fourth quarter can see 11%+; then that's why we are confident to have a 10% at a blended level for full year? Yes. Third and fourth quarter, as I said earlier, would be the ones where we'd really be taking off. Q2 would be similar to Q1 because the rains have been unusually heavy this time, especially in NCR. So that has impacted our performance, especially in the month of July and August. Got it. And second, then, is it still a fair that we will still, even for next year also, we can be expecting the double- digit, or it can be a 11% kind of a margin EBITDA level is possible in FY 2027? Shravan, you ask me that question every time we talk. So we feel confident we'll be able to do double-digit margins. Got it. And sir, currently, the bid pipeline is how much and how much value of orders we have bid where bid is yet to open? As I told you, on the government sector side, there is our focus is diluted. So there are really no from the top of my head, I don't think there are any unopened bids on the government sector side. On the private sector side, there is negotiation happening on contracts to the tune of about INR 1,000 crore, and the bid pipeline is to the tune of about INR 5,000 crore. Got it. And second, sir, couple of balancing data points: inventory, trade receivable, trade payable, mobilization advance, retention, and unbilled revenue. Yes. Just retention is INR 397 crore, and debtors is INR 623 crore. Mobilization, INR 675 crore. Trade payables, INR 821 crore. And inventory, INR 380 crore. Unbilled revenue, INR 557 crore. Okay. And in mobilization, how much is the interest bearing, sir? This is 35%. Okay. And for full year, how much CapEx we are looking at? And is there a similar run rate will be there for next year also, or will it be lower? So this year, the CapEx is going to be higher. It's going to be about INR 500 crore. Next year, it will be lower. Will it be around closer to 200, or? Yes. It will be about 200 next year. Okay, so in terms of depreciation, can we start seeing the uptake in the depreciation from third and fourth quarter itself for this extra 500? Yes. Yes. Because this quarter, we have expected around INR 52 crore, but rest quarters, we are expecting rest of the amount. So definitely, depreciation will go above from the just level from third quarter and fourth quarter. Okay. And sir, this CSMT, though we are saying that INR 400-odd+ crore revenue, we'll be doing this. So next year also, similar INR 400 crore-INR 500 crore, or is there a possibility that we can do even INR 650+ crore kind of a revenue? It will increase next year, Shravan, because work done, and next year, the higher value items will kick in. So the billing will increase. Okay. Got it. So, sir, is there a possibility that for next year also, we will be on a top-line front at a blended level, similar 15% kind of a growth is possible? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, it's possible. Okay. Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you. It's about INR 18,000 crore, and this is to be executed over the next 2.5 years, and the order pipeline is good. Yeah. There will be a 15%-20% growth next year also. Got it. Thank you, sir. All the best. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Salil Desai from Marcellus Investment Managers. Please go ahead. Thank you. So, first of all, clarification in the presentation, you have uploaded the unexecuted order book says it's on 31st March 2025. So should we read this as 30th June, or is the number different? That is correct. That number is a problem. So there's one table, right, that gives the unexecuted level for annually. So what number you need to be reading, actually, can I have? So if you go on page on the presentation slide number three, right, you will have the unexecuted order book as INR 15,582 crore. And then when you go into the where we put the segmental-wise as well as segment for the type, the client profiling-wise, state-wise, so everywhere, this number of 16,582 will appear. This is till June. Oh my God. Yeah. Those are all till June. What you are referring to, actually, is slide number 13, right? Slide 13. There has been an order inflow of INR 2,089 crore. So you can add that to the figure of 16,582. You will get the unexecuted order value till end of July. So the one you are referring on, the slide 13, I think that's what you're referring to, whether it's March 2025. Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Salil, may we request you use a headset to ask a question? I am using the headset. You're not audible. Okay. Is this better? Hello. Hello. Hello. Mr. Salil, may we? Hello. So we cannot hear you well. How about now? Yeah. Please go ahead. Referring to the number on slide three, you're saying that is not the number to look at. I should add the INR 2,089 crore to this number to get the. As of the present day that we are talking about. So as of the present day. That is as of 30th of June 2025 because this is a quarter presentation for that quarter. I get it. Because if I try to do some math, what the backlog was at the end of March and the order inflows, what you have got for this quarter and then the revenues, then the number comes to a slightly higher number. So I was just figuring out or trying to figure out if there is an order cancellation or something that's been done. Absolutely. So what you need to do is then you have to what you are doing, you're seeing the slide number 13, right, where unexecuted order book of 157,751, right? So let me just clarify. There has been no order cancellation. And our order book till date stands at 18,671 crore. Okay. Did you get that? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Lakshmin arayanan from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead. Thanks again. One question. We got this Birla Trimaya in Bangalore, which is a INR 325 crore project or something, right? Are we developing for all the towers, or how is it? And secondly, how does it work? Because let's say there are multiple Birla projects that are going on across the country. Are we in a better position to actually bid for those things? Just want to understand your point of view there. Yeah. We have, in the past, bid for their projects in different parts of the country. We are doing phase one and phase two here on this particular project, which is Trimaya. At the moment, as I mentioned in response to one of the earlier questions which were asked, is that we have taken a step back from residential construction. So that's why we have not; we have sort of refused a job in Gurugram with Birla. So going forward, once this project reaches a substantial completion stage or an advanced stage, then we'll look at other projects with them. Got it. Got it. Sir, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parvez Qazi from Nuvama Group. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking my follow-up question. So just wanted to get your views on the competitive intensity. I mean, you're saying that maybe we are refocusing towards the retail, institutional, commercial side. So how is the competitive intensity there? And also the difference between public and private sector projects in terms of competition? Thank you. So Parvez, as I said earlier, public sector continues to be extremely competitive. And our bidding on jobs in the public sector has reduced substantially. Having said that, we are still looking to bid at large marquee projects where we feel the competitive intensity would not be as high. As far as the private sector is concerned, there are only a handful of players who large private developers are calling to bid, be it for their residential projects, or their commercial projects, or their hotel projects, hospitality projects. So that is where our focus continues to be there. Sure. Thanks and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions, may press star and one at this time. To ask a question, please press star and one now. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you so much, everybody, and Ambit Capital for joining in and look forward to seeing you three months down the line. Thank you so much. Thank you. On behalf of Ahluwalia Contracts, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.