Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited Q4 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. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sudeep Bora from Ambit Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Ambit Capital, I thank the management of Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited for the opportunity to host their Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call. To discuss the results, I'm pleased to welcome Mr. Shobhit Uppal, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Vikas Ahluwalia, Director, and Mr. Satbeer Singh, Chief Financial Officer. I invite the management to take us through the key highlights of the quarter, post which we'll open up for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining in on this investor call. Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited has announced its financial results for Q4 FY 2026. During Q4 FY 2026, the company has achieved a turnover of INR 1,322.30 crores and a PAT of INR 80.14 crores, in comparison to a turnover of INR 1,215.84 crores and a PAT of INR 83.16 crores during Q4 FY 2025. The company has registered a growth of 8.76% in turnover and a degrowth of 3.63% in PAT during Q4 FY 2026 in comparison to Q4 FY 2025. EPS of the company for Q4 FY 2026 is INR 11.96 as compared to EPS of INR 12.41 in Q4 FY 2025. During Q4 FY 2026, the company's EBITDA margin is 9.35% as compared to 10.17% in Q4 FY 2025, and PAT margin is 5.95% as compared to PAT margin of 6.74% in Q4 FY 2025. During FY 2026, the company has achieved a turnover of INR 4,565.20 crore and a PAT of INR 264.32 crore in comparison to a turnover of INR 4,098.62 crore and a PAT of INR 201.51 crore during FY 2025. During FY 2026, the company has registered a growth of 11.38% in its turnover and 31.17% in PAT in comparison to FY 2025. During FY 2026, EPS of the company is INR 39.46 as compared to an EPS of 30.08 in FY 2025. During FY 2026, the company's EBITDA margin is 9.52% as compared to 8.34%, and a PAT margin of 5.70% as compared to 4.85% in FY 2025. Net worth of the company has crossed INR 2,000 crore as on March 31, 2026. The net order book of the company as on March 31, 2026, is INR 21,096.31 crore to be executed over the next 24 to 30 months. Total order inflow during FY 2026 was INR 10,257.39 crore. At present, we are L1 in two projects amounting to INR 1,620.95 crores. Thank you. We are ready to take questions. 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 touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Shravan Shah with Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you, sir. Couple of things, sir. Now we are L1 in two projects. If you can specify would be great. Sir, now how we can look at the full year in terms of the order inflow, given that we are already at INR +21,000 crore and INR +1,600, kind of what, INR 22,700 odd crores. Now, will the execution will ramp up significantly in FY 2027, 2028? What kind of a number one can look at in 2027 and 2028? Shravan, yes, the order execution will ramp up now. We have stocked up as far as our order book is concerned. We are giving a guidance of 15%-20% in this year. As far as the order inflow is concerned, target is about INR 8,000 crores. Including this L1? Yes. Okay. Sir, for this even 15%-20% also seems to be lower. Rather, it should be at least 20% kind of a number. FY 2028, can we see a much higher in terms of the execution? Sorry, come again. I've given you guidance of FY 2027, right? You're saying that further on you're asking me about FY 2028, is it? Yeah. Even FY 2027, this 15%-20%, or rather it should be a minimum 20%, that's what I was looking at. FY 2028, how You can see that for the last two or three years, the guidance I have been giving is 10%-15%. Our order book, because we are well stocked up. Secondly, in the states where we are working, a stable government has come. According to that, I have increased our guidance by nearly 5 percentage points. Secondly, there are still quite a few headwinds, primarily due to war. That is a big uncertainty. That's why at this time, I don't think it would be prudent for us to give more guidance than this. Okay. 2028 may be similar kind of. Then the margins, sir, we were looking at 10% at least, but actually it was 9.5% for full year FY 2026. Given obviously the commodity run up because of the war, how we look at the margin in 1H also. The margin profile, as I said in my last call, I had given a double-digit indication, and we are nearly there. We are at 9.5%, and this is in spite of numerous headwinds that we faced in the last quarter. Elections, which were in early April. March was a write-off on account of the fact that due to SIR and elections in Bengal and Assam, a lot of labor left the other parts of the country where our projects are, especially NCR, where nearly 40%-50% of our projects are. They left from there. Secondly, war began in end February. March was also impacted by that. Because there were elections in Bengal and Assam. In Assam, there was a major slowdown in execution because the state started facing cash crunch. In spite of these headwinds, we have managed to increase this thing by 9.5%, which is more or less in line with the guidance that I had given last time. We will be into double-digit margins in this year. Okay. Lastly, sir, a couple of balance sheet data points. Mobilization advance, retention money, and unbilled revenue. Yes, Satbeer is going to answer this. Yeah. Mobilization advance is INR 802 crores. The retention is including non-current INR 450 crores, and unbilled revenue is INR 638 crores. Sir, just two, three projects, particularly the CSMT registration. Correct me if I'm wrong, so third quarter order book, and now it seems that INR 470 odd crore execution has been done. Is there any adjustment in that? Because since the execution is much better, and if it is, how one can look at the FY 2027, FY 2028, similarly, the India Jewellery Park one and the recent one, the Central Vista, INR 2,600 crore project? Like you said, CSMT, the execution there, if you look from last year to this year, it has ramped up quite a lot. The designs are now approved, and the project has picked up speed. We will see an increase in the revenue from this project. As far as Central Vista is concerned, this is a design-build project. The project was awarded to us in January, on 14th January. Our design is getting frozen. We have begun execution on the ground. One of the two buildings, Nirman Bhavan, has been fully demolished, and we've started execution, excavation, and concrete. This year, we'll see substantial revenue being accrued from this project also. IJPM, at the moment, the designing is happening. There, the work on the ground will begin in the last month of this quarter. Okay. Thank you and all the best, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lakshminarayanan K.G. with Tunga Investments. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. Hope I'm audible. Yeah, you are. Thank you. I have a question. Hi. In recent quarters or maybe in recent years, we have seen a noticeable step-up in our CapEx intensity. However, this increased investment hasn't yet translated into a corresponding expansion in EBITDA in a significant manner, which would exert downward pressure on our structural ROE. If you can help me understand if this lower asset turnover is the new normal of the business, because we have been exceptional in terms of return ratios and lower depreciation with disciplined CapEx. The higher CapEx is not commensurately increasing the margins. Also, depreciation is increasing, as you can see. Is it a new normal for the business that what we used to enjoy maybe a decade back or maybe three, four years back also? It's distant in terms of return ratios because the CapEx is increasing, and at least the way in which I see it in the last one year, it is not increasing the margins in general. Just want to understand structurally, is the company going through a different shift? Are the industries going through a shift where CapEx is needed to stay in the same place and not excel in the operating margins? It's a very interesting question, Mr. Lakshminarayanan. Yes, the last point that you made. Both the industry as well as our company is at an inflection point. What we see now, if you've tracked our company also, since we are only in Buildings & Factories, the size of the individual order has gone up considerably, and the timelines are getting squeezed. What that means is that at the scale at which we are operating, the buildings are becoming more complex. To handle such buildings, CapEx will go up because we require mechanization. That is further exacerbated, or the need for machinery or mechanization is further enhanced because of shortage in labor. What we've been seeing over the last two, three years, that there are various factors which now virtually round the year lead to a shortage of labor. Earlier on, it used to be for a couple of months, maybe around the festive season towards the end of the year. Now virtually, through the year, every month or so, the labor supply is disrupted. Hence, the top management of the company decided a couple of years ago that we would invest in mechanization. While this is the new norm, the full effects as far as our company is concerned, since we have been at this inflection point and we've been preparing for it, as we've said in our past couple of investor calls, the impact towards the positive side will be seen in the coming couple of years, and our margins will go up. You will see that. They've already gone up in the last year, you will see them further going up in this year and the following year. Yeah. More so, the higher CapEx also is on account of the fact that not only we are well-stocked or we won over the last two years, if memory serves me right, we've taken an order in for about INR 18,000 crore. We are well stocked up, and we are well geared to execute this in the next three to three and a half years. One. Secondly, because of our presence in areas like, say, Bihar, Bengal, Assam, NCR, of course, being our backyard now, all these areas have very stable governments, and the governments are the same in these states and in the center. The cash strife or the payments issues that we had faced earlier in these states, we feel they are a thing of the past. Going forward, that's why we are giving you an increased guidance on the margins as well as top line. Got it. The depreciation would continue to meaningfully increase, or what would be the increase in depreciation or the CapEx with respect to the revenue growth? We have an exceptionally strong order book. I just want to understand how do we map it in terms of whether the CapEx would grow higher than the revenue growth and therefore higher depreciation. Is that how to think about in the next three or five years? As I said, the CapEx in this year, FY 2027, will be on the similar lines. In fact, a couple of quarters ago, I had given a guidance of CapEx about INR 500 crores. As we moved along, we've seen, we factored in some headwinds, and we factored in how by increasing the efficiency of our machinery, we've been able to reduce the CapEx in this year to about INR 174 crores. I think, moving forward, around INR 300 crores would be the CapEx in FY 2027 also. Depreciation would increase, but on similar lines. Got it. This is helpful. Just one question. If you look at this, inflation has actually increased across the board, driven by fuel prices. Since our projects are L1 and you'll have limited room, if I think, how do you ensure that the margins are protected? This is something which you have to keep in mind that it's difficult to negotiate for the price increases as you execute the projects. The answer to this is twofold. One, almost all of our contracts now have a built-in escalation clause. To cite an example, this INR 3,000 crore contract of Central Vista, there is an escalation clause, 10CC, which is based on wholesale price index. Where labor is also covered and the material increase is also covered. Having said that, what we've seen in the short-term, in the last one and a half, two months, the WPI has not moved as much, or if the movement is not commensurate with the actual increase in prices, especially the metal prices. We have, not only us, but the other construction companies have also represented to the government directly and through industry bodies, that they should take a look at this. The ministry is taking an actual look at how, when they principally have agreed to compensate a price increase to the contractors, how they can be more fair. What I can say at this stage is they are also biding their time. They're seeing how long the impact of this war is going to last. If it is a prolonged impact, I think wherever there is a gap between the WPI uptick and the actual inflation, that they will find a way to compensate us. As regards the private clients, like say DLF or other large builders or developers like Brigade or Maya and so on, and Signature Global, all heavy material like cement, steel, raw material, the basic price of procurement is a passthrough. The inflation is a passthrough. We are adequately covered. Having said that, if the war prolongs for a longer period- Hello? Somebody's on mute. Yeah, I'm listening. Yeah, I think somebody was on mute. I think I answered your question. Yeah. Thank you. Third question is that, if you look at the last two years, there have been two challenges. One is the pollution control thing that actually happened in the NCR for two consecutive years, and also the labor availability was also a challenge. Now that we are scaling up and I think our order book is much better than, it's almost doubled in the last two years. What are the steps you're taking to mitigate or to nullify these two big risks which we are actually facing? NGT continues to be a risk, but what has happened is that the entire ecosystem is coming together to sort of see how we can mitigate the inefficiency which is there during this period of two to three months. One of the things that the developers have started doing or clients have started doing is that they pay for labor which is idle whenever the work is stopped, so that the labor does not run away and we sort of lose time. If the labor leaves the site, then once the ban is lifted, we take time for the labor to be brought back. In effect, if the project stays closed for a month, it takes another month for the labor to come back. To ensure that it doesn't leave the site and the impact only is of the days that the project is shut down, the developers or the clients have started compensating the labor through us, or directly or through us. Secondly, projects such as Central Vista, which is now a large part of our order book in NCR, is not impacted by NGT. We foresee a substantial contribution to our top-line growth from that project even during the months. Hello? Yeah. Hello. Yeah. That is that. Thirdly, as I said, the government is also, again, the industry bodies, the various clients, contractors, they are talking to the government. Pollution mitigation measures have been taken on site. Like again, at the Central Vista project, we've got mist sprayers all over the site, along the boundary, along the fencing, on the building, so on and so forth. All these efforts, I think will lead to a reduced impact, and hence the number of days of shutdown, I think should be lesser this year. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. Our next question is from the line of Keshav Garg from Countercyclical PMS. Please go ahead. If we see our order book has doubled over the past two years, but our revenues have grown at less than 9% CAGR over the past two years. What I'm trying to understand that what has changed in the current year that we will do approximately double the revenue growth that we have been doing in the past two years, because orders were anyway not our issue. Yeah. As I said, most of our slow-moving projects, like say, somebody asked a question about CSMT. CSMT, which was till recently one of our largest order wins, that for the first year and a half was a slow-moving project on account of the designs getting changed and approvals getting delayed. That has picked up speed. Secondly, projects in states such as Assam or Bengal and Bihar, which were slow-moving because of political upheavals. All these states have a stable government. These projects are again, I think, will move much faster. Thirdly, with a lot of our orders, such as large orders such as the two airports that we are doing, again, design is a thing of the past now. We are looking to complete the Varanasi Airport actually ahead of schedule because there are elections next year there. Darbhanga also will be closed out in this year. Kota, which is a new order win for us, their designing is happening, and two months down the line we'll be breaking ground. As I said earlier, Central Vista, which is our largest order win till date, there we've already broken ground, and the timelines of that project due to the nature of that project are. It's a fast-moving project where we'll be logging a turnover of close to INR 100 crores-INR 150 crores a month. All this will contribute to the growth projections that I have given at the beginning of my call. Now, sir, if I remember correctly, few years back, you had said that to the question that why our margins had come down from low double digits to low teens to basically single-digit margins. You had said that once the private sector order book becomes the lion's share of the business, so margins will again go up. Now that has happened. Now, I think over 60% of the order book is of private clients. Now at the time of bidding, you must be keeping some margin in mind before bidding. On this order book, when we execute it, will we be able to reach that kind of margin? Look, as I said during my last call also, that the margin will go up, and we will be near about double-digit, or we will hit a double-digit this thing. We are nearly there. In the last one year also, as our private sector, this thing has gone up, exposure, we have increased from 8.3% to 9.5%, as far as EBITDA is concerned. As I'm saying, going forward, this will further increase. We'll be well into the double-digits now. I'd also said last time, the glory days of 13%-14%, or the teens, so to say. There are too many factors which are beyond our control. I don't think in the short term we will be getting there. Okay, sir. Now that 12%-13% margins are no longer, basically, what has changed fundamentally in the industry that the margins have come down? One would have expected the operating leverage to kick in. When we were doing 1/3, 1/4 the current revenue base, that time we were doing 12%-13% EBITDA, and now with triple the revenue we are doing 9.5%-10%. If you were to see, this is an industry-wide phenomenon. Even if all of you would have done a peer comparison, we have done it. Not only now, last few quarters we're doing. We're consistently in the higher bracket of the kind of results or margins that we are declaring. Right. This is an industry-wide phenomenon. Part of the reason is that while the industry is growing, the CapEx is growing, the skill levels are actually deteriorating. Labor shortage is increasing. That's why I mentioned that this industry is at an inflection point. While we are aspiring or aspirational to make buildings at par with those being made or having been made earlier in the developed part of the globe. The skill levels don't exist. I think be it the government or the developers or the contractors, they are realizing this now. Hence, more and more mechanization is happening. It'll take time. Even with mechanization, we need trained crane operators, trained excavator operators, pump operators, so on and so forth. There is a skill shortage across the board. This cannot be upgraded at the press of a button. This takes time. Understood The margins have come down across the board. Understood, sir. Now, sir, what is the net cash that we have? Hello? Yes, please. Net cash he's asking. Net cash. Net cash is Hold for a moment. This is cash and banks balances is INR 817 crore. Understood, sir. Sir, now in way back, like in 2008, 18 years back, our stock price was INR 350, and now it is INR 760. Basically, the wealth has grown by 4%, 4.5% CAGR, which is less than the rate of inflation. There have been no significant dividends also. Sir, now that we are in a very comfortable net cash position, sir, don't you think we should do a big share buyback so that the number of shares can reduce and whatever future growth gets divided on a smaller equity base and the government has reduced taxes on the share buyback also. Ultimately, we are debt-free, why just subsidize banks by giving them low-cost deposits? Look, our industry has always been at the forefront of cycles. The cycles, at times it's difficult to predict. Three months ago, we were thinking that we were riding a wave, and all of a sudden the war hit and the future is now quite uncertain. During such time, it's always better to have a war chest with you. Which, this is what our past experience has taught us. During the last downturn, when a lot of our peers fell by the wayside, we could survive the downturn, and we could continue to grow. At the moment, a share buyback is not in the offing. That's not even crossed our mind. Sir, now my last question is, sir, that are we thinking of putting up a precast facility, especially in the NCR region where we have a good business, for the same reason of labor substitution and so on? We are internally debating on how to use technologies which are being used in more developed nations. Precast, pre-engineered building, precast buildings, these are things. Also, how to do pre-engineered services as far as MEP is concerned. All this is being looked at, researched. For this to succeed, you need greater standardization. We are in active talks with a lot of our large clients, where we are sort of convincing all constituents of the ecosystem to look at standardization so that more and more things can be done offsite and brought to site in knock-down condition. This is not something which is a short-term solution. As I said earlier, upskilling would also form a key part of all this. Going forward over the next two to three years, yes, some of these will be brought to use in a lot of our projects, but it's not something which will be seen in the next year and a half. Understood, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Amit Khetan with Laburnum Capital. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Hi. Just wanted to understand on your guidance of 15%-20% growth and double-digit margins. To what extent are the current macro headwinds sort of factored in your guidance? What are the potential factors which could sort of lead to under-delivery, either on execution or on margins? At a micro level, I think we've factored in quite a few, like political instability, as I said, in states. That is something now seems to be a thing of the past. The only thing which can derail this is if the impact of the war. If this war is prolonged and India's fiscal performance or financial performance or India's gap, it widens the trade gap, right? That is something which is beyond our control. That will impact the rupee dollar, this thing also. Otherwise, I don't really see any other reason which can stop us from meeting the guidance that I have given. Fair enough. Just wanted to understand, can you just explain a bit on in terms of how the impact of the war impacts our business either directly or indirectly? When the war began, the first impact, which was the immediate impact, was the LPG prices or the lack of availability of LPG cylinders, which directly impacted the labor. The labor ran away to their native places because they use LPG to cook their food. That was an immediate impact. Labor is a key resource today. In fact, as I mentioned in an answer to the earlier question, that today we are facing a huge crunch as far as skilled labor is concerned. That was a direct impact. Going forward, the price of fuel. This also now has an indirect and direct impact towards inflation. Supply chain is badly disrupted. A lot of materials, or at least the components, say, to give you an example, electrical panels. Switchgear is not available. The delivery of, say, a panel from the time that the order was placed, if it used to be two months, now it is not less than four months. There are delays everywhere on this account. That has an impact on our overheads, on our IDCs. Understood. That's helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Parvez Kazi with Nuv ama Group. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Hi, Parvez. Yeah, hi. Couple of questions. First, you said we are looking at adding about 8,000 crore of orders in FY 2027. In terms of your target, would these be more towards private sector or government sector? Also in terms of segment, will we continue to kind of stay away from the private residential orders and focus more on commercial institution orders? Just wanted to get some color on it. The first question, answer to that is it would be in line with our broader vision, overall vision of having an equitable split as far as our client list is concerned. It'll be half and half, tentatively. As regards residential orders, in NCR, residential is not a focus for us. In the southern part of the country or the western part of the country, we are not averse to picking up residential orders with clients who are stable. Which was the last question that you asked? Sorry. Have I answered your questions, Parvez? You answered my question. The second question is, and I'm sorry if you have given this data earlier, what is the quantum of fixed price orders in our order book currently? Just 11%. Sure. Lastly, in view of the significant amount of volatility, both external as well as even the domestic operating conditions, and which you talked about labor shortages and NGT ban and so on and so forth, how is the competitive intensity in this segment now? Has it increased? Do you think some people have gone away from the segment witnessing the huge challenges which are there? Just wanted your thoughts on that. While last quarter when we spoke, or when I sort of took the last call, the competitive intensity was high. Over the past couple of months, there is a bit of a status quo. Everybody or each constituent of the ecosystem is trying to evaluate where we are headed. The private developers have also slowed down the launches or fresh launches, and government sector also. As I said, there was a state of elections in various states. The machinery, as such, over the past couple of months was slow, was moving very slowly. It would not be prudent for me to sort of predict or project where the competitive intensity is headed. I think over the next couple of months, people will bide their time. Got it, sir. Thanks and all the best. Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vaibhav Shah with JM Financial. Please go ahead. Yeah. Sir, just to harp on margins. You mentioned that you are expecting a double-digit margin for sure in FY 2027. Given the headwinds in terms of the rising raw material cost and the labor availability is a big challenge, what gives the confidence of that 10+ margins? Is it the mix of the order book right now? It's the mix of the order book, both in terms of private and public sector. It's also how the order book is spread geographically. Thirdly, also because 89% of our order book, the escalation clauses are inbuilt. Yeah, these are the things. Central. Most of our large orders, be it the Central Vista project, be it the DLF project, the escalation clauses or the majority of the volatile materials are covered. Okay. If I look at the top three projects, so what kind of execution are we targeting in FY 2027 from CSMT Gems Jewellery and the Central Vista project? CSMT would be around INR 600 crores. The Central Vista would be about INR 1,000 crores. The third one, which one did you mention? Dahlias? IJPM. Gems Jewellery, IJPM. IJPM. IJPM, as I said, the designing, it would not be prudent for me to comment on that. We've kept our targets modest as about INR 100 crores. Dahlias. Did you ask about Dahlias? No. Yeah, Dahlias, what are we targeting? Dahlias. Yeah. Dahlias would be to the tune of about INR 400 crores. Sir, if I look at the IJPM guidance, earlier you were targeting a much higher revenue from the project. Any particular issue with it or are you seeing a delayed start in execution given the designing is going on? Yeah, as I said, we will start towards the end of this quarter, but there are certain changes in designs which are happening there. That's why we've kept our target modest or conservative in terms of our projection for the top line from this project. Okay. Sir, secondly, in terms of depreciation, it was around INR 2,900 crores in Q4. Do you see this trend rate going forward? Yes. That it will be on similar line in proportionate to that. Already that is INR 66-INR 97 this year, depreciation, and according to INR 250-INR 300, we are planning for the CapEx in the next year, and depreciation would be according to that proportionately. Okay. Lastly, on the working capital side, we have seen some increase this year, especially in the second half. I was looking at the other current assets. It has jumped up significantly from INR 1,100 to almost INR 1,700 crores. Sir, that current asset is including unbilled revenue and retention money. Definitely this unbilled revenue has been increased to INR 688 crore. Same. Same as last quarter, 104, 105. Yeah. Hold on for a moment. This is in the last quarter, this is 103 days, and now it's 104 days. Last year you were talking about this was around. I calculate working capital extra cash. Yes. It has increased, yes. Definitely, but this is in line with our system. Yeah. Do we see some reduction in 2027 or it should be at current levels? I think that is standard. This is under code- It should be at similar levels going forward. Yes. Okay. Sir, lastly, in terms of since largest part of the elections at the state level have been done during this year, have been completed. Labor, you see it should be better compared to what it was last year? Look, last three months have been particularly bad for labor. I think going forward things will improve. Labor shortage is here to stay. As I mentioned earlier, there is a deficit of skills also, the labor is only coming from a handful of states, three or four states only. Construction pipeline is increasing exponentially. This is a problem that we will have to continue to grapple with. We are looking at more mechanization, we are looking at upskilling, and we're looking at standardization helping more mechanization. All the constituents of the ecosystem are coming together to see how we can combat this. Over the next three to four years, this is a problem that will be there. It's here to stay. Are there any payment challenges in particular states? At the moment, no. There were challenges in Assam over the last four to five months. The state machinery was preparing for elections. As we've seen, generally three to four months before the elections happen or are slated to happen, everything slows down. We've seen an uptick post the elections there also, as far as release of our funds is concerned. Okay. Thank you, sir. Those are my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mahesh Patil with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir. Sir, my first question is on the uncertainties that you highlighted on account of war. Is it also impacting our pipeline? Are the new projects, new bids being delayed? Pipeline is impacted, but we are not that affected because we are well stocked up. We have a healthy order book. Going forward, we are sort of biding our time. We are waiting and watching, and we are only going forward, picking up contracts with either our existing clients or well-established clients with deep pockets. We are not that affected. Yes, the pipeline overall, as I said in answer to an earlier question, everybody is sort of waiting and watching and trying to see [Non-English content] as far as the war is concerned. Okay, sir. Sir, we have, I think, reported this time our order inflow and order book excluding GST value, right? Yes. We have also given the past year numbers. Can we get the order inflow for this quarter if you want to compare it with last quarter or last three quarters? This quarter, we have not received any kind of orders during current year. You are talking about? Q4. I'm talking about Q4. That comparison we have to see. We'll get back to you. You are asking for the order inflow in Q4. Is that what you're saying? Quarter four comparison to quarter five, 2025. Yes, sir. Correct. Our order inflow is just for Q4, FY 2026, INR 4,304. Regarding FY 2025, quarter four, we will get back to you. Okay, sir. Thank you. Maybe you can reach out directly to our CFO, Mr. Satbeer Singh. He'll provide you that information. Sure, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Salil Desai with Marcellus Investment Managers. Please go ahead. Thank you. Sir, just to clarify, you said the Q4 order inflow was INR 403 crores. INR 4,304 crores. INR 4,300 crores. Okay. All right. Got it. Thank you. Sir, second one, my question was on execution in the residential real estate segment. I think you also mentioned that new launches have been slow. Looking at the execution in a couple of projects like Signature Global and Whiteland, we haven't seen too much progress the last three, four quarters. Is there some broader issue here? These are project specific slowdown in execution? No. Both these projects, the work on the ground has picked up in real earnest. Whiteland, due to frequent codal changes, as some of you would know, first there was a revised disaster NDMA code, which was later discarded. The government ordered to go back to the original code. A lot of developers went into redesign to optimize costs. That is behind us. In Whiteland, we have begun work on the foundations. Concrete casting has started. Signature Global, also work has started on all the towers. I think we are doing eight towers there, a total of 5 million sq ft of built-up area, and work has picked up there. Broadly, you're not kind of seeing the sector as a whole at some sort of a risk of slowing execution. No, as I said, the sector, definitely the prices at which these developers were selling, they plateaued off. The war, as I said, has impacted each and every constituent of this ecosystem. It's not only contractors, but also developers who are biding their time, and they're waiting and watching to see what happens going forward. Everybody is looking to conserve costs, and the sentiment is also muted. That kind of effect is there. Specifically talking about the projects that we are doing, you mentioned two, Signature Global as well as Whiteland. We see no reason to believe that the client is looking to slow down the projects that we are executing. Understood, sir. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Keshav Garg with Countercyclical PMS. Please go ahead. Sir, do we enjoy any advantage in terms of the procurement side over the competition? Keshav, what kind of advantage? Sir, costing. Since we have a large size versus most others, do we have better credit terms versus our suppliers, versus the competitors with our suppliers and vendors? We would like to think so. To answer your question more directly, yes, I think we feel we are handling the supply chain issues to the best of our ability. As I mentioned earlier, if we are looking to cut down the timelines on, say, a project like, say, the Varanasi airport, where our stipulated date of completion is June 27, but we are looking to complete it before the elections are announced, that is by January 27. In such challenging times, if we are aspiring to do that, I'm sure we would be handling the supply chain constraints in a fairly decent manner. Given the challenging times, I think we're doing an okay job. Sir, amongst all the competitors, who would you consider your top competitors? Some two or three names. L&T, as I said, L&T, B&F is a competitor. Nagarjuna is a competitor. Shapoorji is a competitor. Kalpataru is a competitor. Tata Projects. Tata Projects is also now. They've gotten back into buildings, it seems. These are four or five people who bid alongside us on a lot of projects. Sir, now since most of these players have a very good overflowing order books, sir, do you expect the bidding intensity to cool down? At least for us, now that we have a very comfortable order book, going forward, whatever bids we will put, will we be selective in those that only the high-margin orders we would bid for, or what's the outlook on the bidding intensity? I said that, Keshav, earlier also, that we are very choosy. We are also biding our time, we're not only doing our due diligence, but yes, we are looking to increase our margin profile going forward. Sir, lastly, if let's say a customer is delaying project on his side by not releasing the funds after every milestone is completed by us, sir, what is our strategy? Do we stop the project, or do we put our own capital and complete the project and wait for the client to release funds in future? How exactly do we go about it? While there are some standard guidelines, there are SOPs within the company on how we have to operate. This starts from the time that we choose on which project to bid. We check the customer profile. We do our due diligence. Certain set of factors are there, which lead our people to decide on the go, no-go. Once we bid for a job, once we are successful, then our endeavor is that we try because the costs are, our IDCs are pretty high. Our endeavor is to work at a steady pace as per a targeted schedule. We are in constant dialogue with the client when there is a slowdown or is an expected slowdown. If we feel that there is increased turmoil as far as the financial position of a client is concerned, then at times we slow down also. Sir, what is the maximum hit that we have taken in the past on any single project due to the customer either going bankrupt or getting into financial difficulties or due to any other reason? Keshav, that's a very general question. You would need to reach out to our CFO with a slightly more focused query. If I was to say, the details on our write-offs are there for the past two, three years on a few of our clients who have gone under. The likes of JLJP, or the likes of Assotech, or the likes of HDIL. If you've been a part of our con calls or investor calls over the last three, four years, if you followed this industry closely, you would have the data. We can provide that data to you. All that I can say is that, the way we do our due diligence, I think we've survived the slowdown much better than a lot of our peers. Whenever we have seen in the past that a client is facing increased turmoil, we've sort of engaged in a barter. We've taken real estate inventory off them, so that our risks are mitigated. Understood, sir. Thank Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Shubham Harne with Purnartha Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. I just wondered on gross margin during the quarter was relatively low. How much this is due to inflationary pressure? Again, number of factors to the gross margin being low. We built up because of the enhanced order book. We built up our costs, primarily on account of increased staff, as well as the salary enhancements, the increments. There was a slowdown. As I said, the war started in February, and then elections were also there in April. The impact started in February for that also. Then January this year, or the last quarter, Q4 January, was also impacted on account of NGT. Our top line would have been much higher if these impacts would not have been there. Our IDC led to a decreased margin. Then, yes, inflation also played a part, but not so much. As I said, a lot of it is covered by the escalation clauses in most of our contracts. Okay. What is the time lag for recovering that higher inflationary cost, which you built in the escalation clause? Generally, it lags by a quarter. There are two kinds of clauses which are there. On the government sector side, it's the WPI, which once the index is published, quarter to quarter, the billing which is there, the enhancement is worked out. On the private sector side, it is the volatile materials like cement, steel, grit, sand. It is more or less immediately, month on month. Okay. Got it. As earlier con calls, you mentioned that we take the employee cost increase in the month of January or Q4. Does it take this year too? Yes, we did actually. Okay, got it. Last one is that CSMT total order value has been decreased. What's the reason for that? That actually, GST has been factored in that. That's because of earlier methods where total amount was INR 2,450, but excluding GST, it's INR 2,076. All the figures that we've given with these results are without GST. Got it. Thank you, sir, and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Madhur Rathi with Counter Cyclical Investments. Please go ahead. Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I just wanted to understand what kind of IRR or payback do we expect with these mechanization projects? On one side, you mentioned that meaningful benefits to our margins will be three to four years down the line. Whatever CapEx that we have done in the past two, three years, and the INR 300 crore that will be going this year, how should we look at it from a payback or an IRR perspective? Look, the IRR should go up. It'll be very difficult to give you an absolute number on the IRR, but the enhancement should be between 7%-10%, because our hiring costs will go down. Payback will be about four to five years compared to. Generally, the life of an equipment is taken to be about four years, and so the payback would be in about four to five years. Pardon me, Madhur Rathi. You can say, sir, in shuttering, we are taking that life cycle is around four to five years. For the other assets, we are taking cycle around seven to eight years also, depending upon the life of the assets. Got it. automatic comeback. Got it. Sir, when we say IRR enhancement, is it that also for our current projects, if we get a 20% IRR, whatever mechanization project that we are doing, that should increase by additional incremental delta of 7%-10%? How should I look at it? I'm not very clear on the enhancement part of IRR. I don't understand your question. What I'm saying is that the increase, the CapEx that I'm doing, the rate of return on account of that CapEx will go up by about 7%-10%. Savings. In form of savings. We work on the EBITDA and other kind of factor. You can speak about the EBITDA also, please. No, it is how much EBITDA margin the corresponding EBITDA margin improvement can you expect over a three-year period. No. Not at all. Got it. Not at all. Frankly speaking, I'm a little confused about this question. I don't know if you could articulate it in a slightly better form, maybe I'll be able to shed more light on it. Yes. Sir, we have done close to, I think, in the past three, four years, we've done more than INR 500 crore CapEx, and we'll be doing additional INR 300 crore this year. There has been no meaningful improvement in our EBITDA margin or employee expenses. Overall, whatever investment, how should these flow to our revenue and actually, how should these flow to our margins? I'm trying to understand that. I did mention earlier, that the industry is at an inflection point due to a huge shortage of labor, due to the complexity of the building getting increased exponentially. The industry as such is going towards more and more mechanization. 10 years ago, you would only see a handful of crane, or not every project had a crane. Now every project has four or five cranes. If you see the Aerocity, the project that we are doing, we have 15 tower cranes there. The Downtown project that we're doing for DLF, we have seven cranes there. What I'm trying to say, it's the nature of the building. If every building in NCR or in Gurugram is 40, 50, 60 stories. Earlier on, the building used to be four stories, six stories, eight stories, 10 stories. They could be done without tower cranes. Not only tower cranes, you have passenger hoists. You have state-of-the-art passenger hoists, which take up not only building material, but also people. Each passenger hoist costs about INR 50 lakhs, INR 60 lakhs, INR 70 lakhs, depending on whether it's twin cage or single cage. It's very difficult to say if you're putting a tower crane or mechanizing and putting passenger hoists, that there will be a corresponding increase or projected increase in EBITDA by 1 percentage point or 0.5 percentage point. All the industry is changing very rapidly. We are forced to change on account of labor shortage. The true benefit of these things will take time to accrue. Maybe four or five years, the industry will mature up. There'll be greater standardization. We would use more industrialized techniques. We would do more work off-site and get things in a knocked-down condition to site, use machinery to erect it, like we do in a Lego tech. I don't think there is any metric which we can use, a yardstick which we can use to say, "Okay, we've invested INR 20 crores in tower cranes and batching plants and concrete pumps, and this will straightaway improve our EBITDA by 1 percentage point. Got it. Sir, to sum it up, from what I understood was, because of the CapEx intensity for these projects increasing over a medium term, there should be industry consolidation and some amount of margin improvement from that. Is that a fair understanding? Over the long term. Yes. Any step that we take, say, tomorrow, for instance, everybody is talking about AI. If I start using AI to start analyzing my output, be it of machinery or labor, I can't say I'm doing it and the impact will be visible in my EBITDA immediately. All these steps that I'm taking, be it for mechanization, be it for digital transformation or any other company which takes these steps, they are with the long-term goal of increasing efficiency, right? Got it, sir. That's perfect. Sir, just a final suggestion as a shareholder, sir. Please consider a share buyback. Thank you so much and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lakshminarayanan K.G. with Tunga Investments. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. You see, we are in a very good advantageous position in terms of our order book. We're almost 2X from where we actually started. The visibility has actually meaningfully increased. How this is changing our bidding filters? Specifically, are we actively walking away from lower margin contracts? What specific margin threshold you are actually applying when you actually walk into a new order? How are you sensitizing your entire sales machinery, which has actually done fantastically last two years? How are you asking them to kind of pick and choose and not just push for bidding or even bringing the proposals to the management? How are you using this advantageous position to your advantage that incrementally the ratios and the margins only would get better? That's a very good question. A set of questions, Mr. Lakshminarayanan. As I mentioned earlier, we have a series of metrics. Which are regional tendering departments and tendering department of central head office. There's a common set of metrics which potential clients, when they call us to bid, we put them through those metrics. A decision to go or no go first is taken by regional heads. A recommendation is given by them, they're passed on to the top management, namely Mr. Vikas Ahluwalia or myself, we decide whether to go ahead or not. As far as margins are concerned, we are actually, A, walking away from a lot of projects, even with existing clients, where we've told clients that we don't want to overexpose ourselves if we feel that they are impacted or potentially going to be impacted by the slowdown. As far as the margins are concerned, we've actively, as I answered earlier, when we are bidding, most of the items are standard. When we are bidding now, we have increased our costing profile, be it for labor or be it on account of staffing or our other IDC costs. We are factoring in the enhanced costs that we are facing on a day-to-day basis, and also our profit margins by a couple of percentage points, if not more, depending on the project profile and the competition intensity that we foresee. Got it. A couple of years back, you are smaller than what in terms of complexity as well as revenues and order book. Now, in the last two years, the complexity has increased with multiple type of projects, large project, you admitted that the projects are even more complex. The way in which you are providing guidance also has to take into account all these complexities. For the last two years, there are a lot of things which are outside your control, which actually resulted in the deviation between the guidance you gave and the actual numbers it's reported. Of course, they are all external to you. In this context, how are you tempering the expectations and how are you improving your guidance sharpness so that there is less amount of perceived dissonance between what you say and what you deliver, and therefore how the market and investors should react? A good question, I'd like to sort of start by giving my own opinion on what you said. By and large, we've always been very conservative in our guidance, we've more or less been able to achieve what we've guided in spite of headwinds. Secondly, you already must have done a peer comparison. Be it our results of the last financial year or even before that, we've constantly outperformed a lot of our peers. Having said that, to answer your question in a more direct manner, as far as a lot of factors other than the impact of war, while some impact is already factored in the guidance that I've given, most of the other factors that have impacted our performance or the headwinds that we faced in the last couple of years, they seem to have been covered. A lot of headwinds were created by elections now and different governments being there in the states that we are working in and the one at the center. That seems to have been taken care of now. Secondly, our order profile or order mixture is more equitable now. Thirdly, we have a lot of fast-moving projects in our order book now, Central Vista being one. Fourthly, our slow-moving projects are either over or they've started moving, CSMT being a case in point. All this has led to the guidance that we have given during the course of this call. Yeah. I'm just wondering whether providing guidance itself is a good thing because of the sheer complexity and lot of things have moved away from your controls. Given that, should we even rethink that giving guidance itself is fine? Excellent observation. I wish more of your brethren thought like you. I've always sort of struggled to people put words in our mouths and say, "Why are you being conservative?" I think the nature of our industry is such that we are always at the forefront of a cycle. As I mentioned earlier, three months ago, we were extremely gung ho. If we could have gone back in time and this call was held three months ago, without batting an eyelid, I would have given a 20% growth guidance. All of a sudden, the scenario has changed. What people don't factor in, our buildings or even B&F has become very complex. A lot of our projects are EPC projects. Supply chain is badly disrupted. It's not only about getting concrete or cement or steel. It's about panels. It's about other MEP products, chillers-Transformers, so on and so forth. A lot of components of these finished goods coming from overseas. Yes, you're very right that we are more prone to disruptions or headwinds now. Got it. Thanks for detailed explanation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Sir, these two L1 projects, if you can specify which are these two projects and when the LOI is likely. [Non-English content]. It will not be possible for me to comment on when they'd be likely to be awarded. Is there also a possibility that it can be re-bidded or canceled? That possibility is always there because it totally depends on the market conditions being what they are, escalation being what it is. Though there are escalation clauses inbuilt, but once they reach an award stage, if they reach an award stage, we would also like to have a say on whether we would accept these orders or not, depending on how escalation is worked out. Yeah, that possibility is there from both sides. Okay. Broadly right now, in terms of the bid pipeline would be for us INR 7,000 crore or 8,000 crore or even much higher? No, it's about INR 8,000 crore. Sorry, INR 8,000 crore, you say? Yes. Okay. I was trying to understand why so much questions on the margin. Just to give you one more perspective that because ultimately all the investors, whatever their expectation, they want to build in whatever the numbers, the volatility or the sensitivity is decently high for us in terms of the margin. Let's say the 1% margin, if it is higher or lower, 12%-18% kind of a variation is there at the PAT level, and that's why there are more questions. Everybody is trying to understand whether this 10% EBITDA margin that we are looking at, whether it can go to 11%, 10.5%, or on the lower side, can it be a 9%? That's the main thing. In that sense, everybody is trying to understand. Whatever you have explained, given that we are much better comfortable in terms of order book, the couple of projects are now fast-moving. Let's say even for FY 2028 also, we would definitely would be doing 15%-20% kind of a revenue growth. In that sense, the possibility of 50 basis points kind of improvement would be higher versus going lower. That's the way one can look at? I think you articulated it very well. I don't want to say 18% or 15% or 14% for any other company, but I know about my company. I can tell you that all the risks or headwinds we have faced in the last two years, if we keep war aside, that is not in anyone's control. A lot of those headwinds seem to be a thing of the past. I'm quite confident that we will achieve our projections, and that stems from the fact that our order book is strong, our clients' profiles are good, and a lot of these orders are fast-moving orders. Secondly, wherever we are geographically present, there is stability of the government or governments. Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you, and all the best. Thanks, Shravan. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ankit Jambusaria, who is an investor. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Good evening. Thanks for this opportunity. I want to ask a couple of questions. The first question is that there have been news in regarding to the poor monsoon this year. Will that impact our business in any way? I don't think so. Unless and until Look, the reports are there will be a poor monsoon, and it may lead to an impact on the economy per se. By the time that it trickles down to the projects that we have in hand, and I don't think there'll be much of an impact. Okay, great. Sir, second question is regarding Central Vista project. Is there anything in terms of, you have already discussed that I think the first level of execution has started. I mean, the scale would be much higher, but is that comparatively a smoother project from an execution standpoint, looking at once we are sort of started the work on it, because we have projected a higher number for the entire year, and it has that NGT clearance also? Do you see any unexpected sort of variables coming into this project execution like we had of the past projects, but they were of a different nature, and this is of a different nature? No. I think this project, as you yourself said, that, A, it is not impacted by NGT. B, Central Vista, all projects, the government is extremely aggressive on the timelines because they need these buildings. This particular building that we are doing, or two buildings that we are doing, this will house the Ministry of Finance, as well as the Ministry of Defence. The government wants these buildings as of yesterday. Money obviously is not a problem for the Central Vista project. I don't see any challenges other than the fact that, yes, these are extremely complex buildings, but the advantage that we have is that end to end, it's an EPC contract, and a lot of activities or most of the items that go into executing this are going to be done by us in-house, other than highly specialized items. We have a greater control on the output on a month-to-month basis. Right. Thanks. Sir, last one question I have. In the last con call, when we were discussing about residential projects, you discussed about CapEx, which we are doing especially for purpose of the long and the tall buildings. Now, you just mentioned that outside NCR, we're still open to have the residential buildings, and in the context of the margin and the other discussions which we had in the call till now. I just wanted to check if we have those CapEx or those machineries with us and with the capabilities which we already have. Does that give us the advantage in terms of the competitive advantage, either at the margin level or at the clients preferring us, while they want to execute these tall residential premium buildings? It definitely does, because as it is the entry threshold or barrier, the bar has been raised as far as building construction goes. The very fact that it requires heavy mechanization for which CapEx is required, you require a stronger balance sheet. One. Secondly, the pedigree in terms of the past, meeting the criteria for qualification is also high. Not everybody has the criteria or everybody meets the criteria. So yes, that definitely gives us an advantage. Sure. The private sector, there are only four or five companies. The private sector, large developers, they have their own criteria. government has a set of defined criteria. In the private sector, it's more to do with the personal whims and fancies. I won't say whims and fancies, but it's the choice of the developer or the top management, and they purely go by the delivery of the potential bidders. Successful delivery, let me put it that way. Yeah. Sure. Thank you. Those were my questions. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vaibhav Shah with JM Financial. Please go ahead. Sir, a couple of data points. You mentioned that Mobilization advance was around INR 802 crores. What will be the interest-bearing portion of that? That's at 37%. You see this number remaining constant or it can increase further in next couple of years? I think so that in government projects, that is the interest bearing and more or less, because 38% is a government order book, that a similar line Mobilization advance is also there. We think that will be same. It will not go up, sir. It will stay at the same level. Okay. Sir, lastly, what will be the margin money as of March 26th? Just margin money you are talking about? Yes. This would be around Hold on. It's around INR 200 crore. Okay. Thank you, sir. Those were my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ankit Jambusaria, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Thanks for the opportunity again. I just wanted to ask one question in the relation to India Jewellery Park. Sir, what I've realized over the last one year with various observations, this project had been going in terms of the timelines due to various reasons. I just wanted to know, is it related to a design of the project, or is it related to the decision-making part of the client? Because there were India-U.S. trade deal challenges where gems and Jewellery is one of definitely a sector which got impacted. In last con call also, we discussed that maybe by April we'll start with the execution. What I have understood or what I've heard in the call, correct me if I'm wrong, is that we'll be able to do that. We'll be able to start this by this quarter, last month of the quarter. Do you see any other uncertainties at the client's side, or is it more related to just a matter of time in execution of this project? This is Vikas here. The project has been delayed for some administrative reasons. Actually, there was a bit of a change in the FAR and all that for the agency, which now has been built in properly. The excavation work has started at site. We have already applied for all the licenses and all. We are expecting to start work full swing after the Mumbai monsoons. After the Mumbai monsoons. Okay. We are gearing up now. We are still awaiting a formal go-ahead from the client though. Verbally, the client has said that things are in placement. They have their own process because it's a quasi-government agency under the Ministry of Commerce. Whatever permissions they are awaiting because the land is allotted by the government of Maharashtra. Some administrative alignment is happening, which is going to happen. Sure. Thank you. Just one point, we have guided for 15%-20% revenue growth this year. Last year after our quarter two where we had definitely a much stronger view, and then maybe because of NGT and then other disruptions which we have faced in last three months. This 15%-20% is what we are seeing for the coming year. As a quarter-on-quarter also, do we see this level of growth over last year, or we see the H2 will be much higher in FY 2027, looking at the disruptions which we had in H2 in FY 2026? Do we see this more uniformly across quarters barring a little here and there margins in terms of. No, you're right. H2 is always substantially higher than H1. More so in the case of H1, as it is Q1 is always slow-moving, but this time it will be exceptionally slow-moving because due to a confluence of various factors. A, I talked about elections, labor went away. Then there was the festival of Eid. Nearly 70% of our skilled workforce is Muslim, especially carpenters and bar benders. They went away, and once they went away for elections, they didn't come back. For a prolonged period, they were at home. Q1 is also impacted, but starting Q2, the numbers will ramp up significantly, and H2 will be significantly higher than H1. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thanks. Thank you. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir. Thank you everybody for joining in, and look forward to seeing you on the next investor call. Thank you once again.