Jupiter Wagons Limited (JWL) Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Q1 FY27 on its conference call of Jupiter Wagons Limited. As a reminder, all participants 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 a touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prathmesh Kamath from Systematics crew. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for the Q1FI27 earnings call of Jupiter Wagens Limited. On behalf of Systematics, I would like to thank the management for giving us the opportunity to host this call. Today, we have with us Mr. Vivek Lohia, Managing Director, Mr. Vinod Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Puneet Sabu, Vice President. Now, I would like to hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, and then we can open for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, Vidic, sir.

Yeah, thank you very much. So, good afternoon, all ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our performance for the first quarter of FY27. I hope you have had the opportunity to review our results, presentation, and investor communication circulated earlier. FY27 has begun on a strong note for Jupiter wagons, marked by continued business momentum and meaningful progress across our strategic priorities. Our focus on portfolio diversification and investments in technology capacity and manufacturing capabilities is During Q1 FY27, consolidated revenue from operations increased 46% year-on-year to 671 crore, while EBITDA grew 9% to 65 crore. Translating into an EBITDA margin of roughly 10%. Profit after tax stood at 26 crores with pat margin at 4%. As volumes increases and operating leverage improves, we remain confident of delivering stronger profitability in the quarters ahead. We have secured fresh orders worth Rs.264 crores from JSW Rail Logistics and the Central Warehousing Corporation, reflecting continued customer confidence. In addition, we have also secured additional orders worth Rs.211 crore from JSW Port Logistics and Orisa Alloy and Steel Pivot Ltd. The JSW order comprises 7 BOSM rigs covering 329 BOSM wagons, while the Orissa alloy order constitutes 150 wagons under the LS FTO scheme. These orders reinforce the growing opportunity in private wagon ownership and leasing while strengthening our leadership in this segment. A key strategic milestone during the quarter was the strengthening of our rail wheel platform. We completed the acquisition of the remaining 1.94% stake in Jupiter-Katravaigonka rail wheel factory, increasing our ownership to 100% and giving us complete strategic and operational control as we prepare for the next phase of growth. Building on this foundation, we entered into a landmark strategic partnership with Luchini RS of Italy and CIMEST. Under the partnership, Luchini RS and CIMEST, an Italian government financial institute, shall acquire a combined 25% stake in JTRWF with an investment of approximately 290 crores. Beyond the capital infusion, this partnership brings world-class rail wheel technology, engineering expertise, and global market access. Together, we are creating India's first fully integrated private sector rail wheel manufacturing platform, centering domestic manufacturing capabilities while establishing a strong base for exports and enhancing our global competitiveness. Beyond our traditional railway operations, we continue to build Jupiter Electric Mobility as an important future growth platform. During the quarter, we have secured 110 MW of BESS orders for FY27 through strategic MOUs with Chalupia Power and PIC Renew across utility scale and commercial and industrial applications. In parallel, we expanded our clean energy portfolio with modular, containerized best solutions in 10-foot and 20-foot formats, addressing applications including renewable energy integration, diesel generator replacement, and mobile energy storage. Momentum has accelerated further. After the quarter, Jain emerged as the successful bidder for two stand-alone best projects in West Bengal with a combined capacity of 100 and 400 megawatt covering the Jirat and Kharagpur projects. These projects involve approximately 400 crores of best supply and commissioning and will operate under a 15-year bill-owned operate model with West Bengal State Electricity Board. With these wins, Jem Energy's best order book now increased to approximately 500 megawatts, valued at over 500 crores. We are targeting a best order book of approximately 1,000 crores by FY27, reflecting our confidence in the structural opportunity presented by India's rapidly expanding energy storage platforms. We see energy storage as a natural extension of our mobility and engineering capabilities and an important opportunity to participate in India's transition towards a renewable-led power system. Our objective is to build a scalable technology driven best business serving both utility scale and commercial and industrial applications. Another important milestone was achieved by Stone India which received RDSO approval for its freight brake systems during the quarter. Commercial production commenced from July 2026, enabling the company to begin supplying freight brakes to the railway sector. This approval expands our railway safety product portfolio and provides another avenue to participate in the growing demand for indigenous value-added railway components. Our priorities remain clear. We will continue to expand our manufacturing footprint, strengthen backward integration, leverage technology partnerships, enhance our product portfolio, and improve execution capabilities. At the same time, we remain focused on operational efficiency, capital discipline, and improving profitability as we scale. Thank you for your continued trust and support. I now request the moderator to open the floor for questions.

Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Rehan Syed from Trinitra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hello, good afternoon. So, I have some couple of questions. First on your, so we took, just first question is on your order book side. So, we took current order book at around 4.5, 4.53 crore. So, could provide a broad segment by pickup between trades and rivals? We said components are either commercial, vehicle, bodies, and other business along with the expected execution profile for FF27, FF28.

Could you repeat your final question? I could not understand. Yeah, sure, sir.

Sir, my question is around your order book, which is around 445, 100 crores plus. So, could you provide a broad segment-wise breakup between your railway vehicles, wheel-shaped components, commercial vehicle bodies, and other businesses, Along with how, what is the expected execution profile for F527 and F528?

Understood, understood. Thank you. So, our railway wagon order book, which includes both railway as well as private order book, stands at approximately 3000 crores. Other meaningful order books, I will just name the wheels, wheelside business, the order book is about close to 700 odd crores. And the commercial vehicle segment, it's about 500 crores. And as we had mentioned that on the best side now, our order book stands at about 500 odd crores, which includes the last order, which came in the current quarter. From the State Electricity Board. So this is roughly the constitution of order. On the railways, on the wagon side, we expect to execute sizable percentage of the order book in F527 itself because most of our deliveries are for F527. And we will continue to build on further order books there. So if you look at the overall order book, I think about we are most of that order book currently, which we have should be executed in FY27 itself about we are looking at about 60 to 70% of the order book being executed in the current financial plan.

Okay, sir. You have mentioned right now about railway vehicle segment. So, just wanted some clarification. So, your railway vehicle production is around 1141 units in quarter of an F-27 versus if you have seen in last quarter, it's around 1347 units. So, sir, this is my understanding, correct? This was because of the sequential decline primarily due to seasonality or execution scheduling or capacity constraints. And just could you please help me understand what is the expected production run rate for the remaining quarters of 5-27?

So, this was mainly because currently our focus is mainly on a lot of private sector order book execution. And in the first quarter, there was a transition because there are a lot of new wagons which we started producing. So when you are producing a new design of Wagon, there is a prototype of approval and so that has its own time frame attached to it. So that is the reason you see a dip. But going forward, I think in the next three quarters, you will see the executions improving compared to last year.

Okay, sir. One last question from my side, and I'll join back in the queue. So, my last question is around your Odisha Greenfield Railway Facility targeting partial production by the end of F527 and full commissioning by the end of F528. So, what capacity will become operational in each phase, and what would be the expected utilization ramp-up, and what do you expect the product project to achieve a bit of the equipment? And just to add on in this question only, once your Odisha railway facility is fully operational, what proportion of production do you see being absorbed internally versus sold to third-party domestic customers and exports? And also, how does the expected margin profile compare with the existing wheel and axle business?

My God, your question covers everything. It's not one question, it covers... So, Pavel, briefly, I'll not get into details here, but briefly, we have two lines. One is the axle line and one is the wheel line. So in FY27, we expect the axle line to get commissioned. And FY28 is when we have targeted for the wheel line to get commissioned. So once both lines are commissioned, we are looking at the revenue of anything between 2500 to 3000 crores is our revenue target. And definitely, we are targeting a bit of at least 50 odd percent in this business, if not higher. Again, first priority is definitely going to be the captive consumption. And by then, we expect the wagon order books also to become very strong. So, definitely, I think, as we have always retained that about 50% of the capacity would be for our own internal use and the domestic requirements, and 50% of the capacity is earmarked for the export business, and overall capacity is around 100,000 wheelsets, is the rated capacity. of the facility.

Okay, sir. Thank you for your detailed clarification and good luck for your coming quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants in the question queue, please limit yourself to two questions only. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Next question is from the line of Contenia Nimagada from Jefferies. Please, please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Three questions from my end. So the first thing if I were to look at, right, you know, your wagon realization seems to have gone up this quarter. I mean, can you throw a little bit of color? Where would that number be? Directionally because our standalone sales are higher than the wagon sales. Just trying to understand that little break up if you can provide some color on that.

So, as I mentioned to the last caller, that the first quarter was a slight transition period for us because there were a lot of new designs which we had started producing. So, there was a transition period in terms of the prototypes which we had to make. But from second quarter onwards, definitely you will see a spike in the wagon numbers.

Sir, my question is a little different, actually. I was trying to understand if the wagon realizations have gone up materially, because standalone sales growth vis-a-vis the wagon sales growth.

The realization of the wagon realization continues to remain the same. I don't think there is much change. Yes, but what has happened is that the non-railway side of the business has gone up. So that is definitely resulted because the non-railway, the margins are better. So compared to if you look at the same quarter last year, I think it was about average worth 38 lakhs. And right now we are at 41.5 lakhs.

Understood, sir. Sir, my second question is, you know, if I were to look at the EBITDA level, right, it appears that the subsidiaries have reported an EBITDA loss this quarter. Can you help us understand, I mean, what is happening here? Because the standalone EBITDA is higher than Consol EBITDA, therefore, it appears subsidiaries haven't contributed to EBITDA, actually.

So, the mobility, so as we have mentioned that when it comes to Stone India, we have got the approval now from RDSO for the trade break systems. So, I think from third quarter onwards, Stone India will become profitable. So, maybe in the second quarter, you may see slight borderline negative numbers. But from third quarter, Stone India will turn positive because now it's a question of ramping up the production. On the Jupiter Electric Mobility, I think which we have continued to maintain is that from FY28 onwards, the business is going to turn EBITDA positive for us. Because as FI27 is, for us, is building on a core technology and building on order books, you've seen a sizable order books coming in. So from FI27, you will see a big ramp up on the business. I think the only other JV which is the JWL DACO, which again I think by in the coming quarters, we will start executing, we have a very strong order book now from Indian Daleways, we will start executing those order books. So, I think before the end, by the third quarter, all the JVs will start reporting positive EBITDAs as per our estimations. Only the JEM numbers, the EBITDA numbers, positive EBITDA numbers will be in FI28.

Sure, sir. Sir, on the Vset side, right now, post a transaction, if you, I mean, it's a little confusing for me. If you can help us understand, one, what is the total capex now? Out of that, how much is that, you know, that will go out of Jupyter's pocket, and if you can brief those mechanisms, how does it work?

So, the total capex remains, the project capex remains at 2600 crores. Out of that, Jupiter was supposed to, Jupiter was supposed to infuse 900 crores. Now, out of the 900 crores, the new investor brings in approximately 300 odd crores. So, now, Jupiter's infusion now goes down to 600 crores.

Understood, sir. Sir, if I may ask one last question, what is the status of that 1 lakh wheel tender, wagon tender, if there is any update on that?

So, unfortunately, right now, I cannot give you any, see the railway trade demand continues to grow and that continues to remain strong. And there is a very, the railway continues to maintain the target of loading of 3.5 lakh billion tons of loading. So, again, you know, we don't see any challenges on the demand side. We are just waiting for railways to firm up their requirements.

Sure, sir. Got it. Thank you and all the best. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Before we move to the next question, a reminder to the participants to ask a question, you may press star and one. Next question is from the line of C.A. Garvit Goyal from Seneri Alpha. Please go ahead.

Hello, am I audible, sir?

Your voice is a bit low.

Hello, am I audible?

Yes, please go ahead.

Yes, sir. And my question on Stone India side, like we commence our production on trade-break system as on July 2026. So that support our outlook now. What is the percentage after FY27, second half, we can estimate from that.

So, again, from FI 28, 27, again, I cannot, from FI 28 onwards, definitely, the beta will be 15% plus on the build-off.

And FI 28 and onwards, what?

FI 28, I can give you, you know, as I have told you that the volumes are going to build up gradually. So, you know, for this year to give me, give you a color on the numbers would be a little challenging. But we expect that by end of this calendar year, we will reach So, once we reach the capacities which we are targeting and estimating, it should be a steady amount of close to 50%.

Okay, good to hear, sir. And the second question on percentage of our current freight wagon manufacturing requirement is fulfilled by the Stone India brake system versus external vendor, sir.

So, we, again, as I have told you, before end of this calendar year, 100% of our requirements will be met by Stone India.

Okay, okay. Any current percentage?

As we are ramping up, you know, honestly, I don't know half the numbers, but it is not meaningful, Because I am talking about in the next three to six months itself, the ramp-up will happen that 100% of our requirements are fulfilled by the subsidiary.

Okay, okay. Thank you, sir. All the best for this.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Daksh Prashad from Desperado Research. Please go ahead.

I just have one question, sir. Are consolidated revenue and declined sequentially this quarter? Was this primarily due to the seasonality or were there any execution effects?

Compared to last quarter this year or compared to the last quarter?

The last four.

We were, this was a quarter when we shifted to new designs. So, there was a transition which was there, but in the coming quarters, I think that should not be a challenge.

All right. That's okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Bala Subramaniam from Aryan Capital. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the opportunities. Sir, actually, Indian train phase, they reduced in terms of wagon production target. So, what is your thought process on that, and when we can expect a substantial ramp-up in the freight wagon side?

So, Indian Railway has not reduced their wagon targets. Whatever the order books which we have from Indian Railway, there is no reduction in terms of the requirements which they have given up. That continues to remain the same. The only challenge remains is on the new order book from Indian Jailways, which, you know, we see the growth. We don't see any slowdown in the growth momentum and in terms of any kind of target reduction by Indian Jailways, because they continue to maintain their loading projections. So, we expect, you know, new order books to come soon, but if you want us to give us any exact timelines, again, very difficult for us to project any kind of timelines for this.

Okay, sir. So this, in that Odisha plant, I think earlier Kali mentioned about civil construction is at advanced stage and partial production is expected by Q4 or Q1F28. How much total CAPEX incurred so far and what's the upcoming CAPEX especially for this plant?

So, as we have mentioned, you know, the CAPEX is ongoing, so it's very difficult for us to give you precise numbers, but I think by majority of the CAPEX will be done by quarter one of next year. This is when we expect majority of the CAPEX to be done. In terms of equity, from Jupiter's side, whatever equity infusion was needed to be done is already done. Now we have a new partner which has come into the project, Lucchini and the Italian government. We expect their equity infusion to happen very shortly, I think before middle of next month. So, that is the balance equity infusion which is needed for the project.

Okay. Sir, in the passenger system side, the partnership is finalized? What is the status on that?

It is, we are at a very, very advanced stage, and I think before the end of the year, we will be announcing a partnership.

Okay, sir. Now, sir, that Jupiter electric mobility side, I think we have that best business, around 100 megawatt, 400 megawatt hour, this project in West Bengal. It's basically a built-on operate model. So I'm trying to understand how we are funding for this project and what kind of project IRR and ROE we can expect.

So the project IR is quite strong for us. It is a protein percent plus would be our project IR. And one of the key reasons is that we have, if you look at, we have, as a producer, we are very integrated. So, from our own container manufacturing all the way up, we are quite integrated. So, we are producing our own BMS, our own EMS. So, we are not dependent on, you know, outside technology. So, the IR remains to be strong. We have not formed up in terms of whether it will be through internal accruals or we will use debt to finance the project. That is yet to be certain.

And what is the pipeline that best sites are in upcoming orders? Yes.

As we mentioned that, you know, we are just not focusing again on the utility EPC segment. It is a mix of C&I as well as utility. So on the C&I segment itself, you know, we continue to grow very strongly. If you look at month on month, our growth is close to 80 to 100% on the C&I segment itself. So, this year, we expect complete order books to be about 1,000-odd crores, and next three years, we are looking at at least 5,000-odd crores of order books in this business, because again, on the demand side, you know, demand continues to be very, very strong, and it is Both on the CNI as well as on the utility side. We don't see any kind of demand challenges. So, we are right now focusing more on the execution and building our capabilities. I think that is our key focus. Because demand side, I think there is more than enough demand in this sector. Yes, sir.

In Q1, I think we have seen substantial increase in commercial vehicle bodies and axle, but they haven't got declined. So, could you please share in terms of marketing?

As I mentioned that, you know, Q1, there was a transition where I mentioned two, three other callers before. There was a transition where we were, you know, we had moved to new designs on the private side. So that design development takes a little bit time. So that, unfortunately, the entire transition happened in Q1. So Q2 onwards, you will see definitely increase in the numbers.

Okay, got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sandeep Mukherjee from SKB Securities. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question, sir. My only question is, what is the number of pending wagons as of Q1 FY27?

In terms of the value would be?

In terms of volume.

So, the number of wagons outstanding?

Yes, yes, yes.

It is about close to 7,000 odd wagons.

7,000 wagons. Right, sir. Okay.

Thank you.

Participants, to ask a question, you may press star and 1.

Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press star and 1 on your touchtone telephone. Next question is from the line of Naveen Sahadev from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Good afternoon, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. I hope I'm audible.

Yes, I'm in the order.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. As you rightly mentioned, we all are waiting for the railway wagon orders to come from the railways, but it's quite impressive to see the wheelset business order book also at about 700 odd crore. My question was on this particular business because the Orisa facility which we are trying to set up likely or seems to have a capacity of around 1 lakh wheelsets, if I am not wrong. So I just wanted to understand how… Sorry?

Yeah, no, no, please go ahead.

Yeah, so my question was that how are, when do you see, first of all, like, you know, a couple of questions here, when do you see the commercial production for this particular forged wheelset to start? And also, in terms of the opportunity, both in India as well as export, I believe bulk of it initially to begin with, I think 50% export was mentioned. So correct me if I'm wrong, but if you could just explain this segment a little more as to how much, what is the opportunity we can see, what is the commercial production ramp-up, just to understand or get a better perspective on this entire wheelset business. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for the question. Yeah, you are exactly right. That is about 100,000 is the total capacity. And see, the opportunity size is definitely very, very big. Because right now, we have one facility which is there in Aurangabad, but there we are constrained because we don't make our own black forge wheels. We need to import it. So, in terms of a lot of order books also, there is a constraint in terms of supplies. So, but if you look at the entire landscape, one, if you start looking at the landscape for the passenger segment in India, today, all the trains which are made in the country, be it the metro, the Vande Bharat, all the wheel sets which go into them, they are all imported. Today, India does not produce any wheelset. So, that itself is anything between a 10,000 to 20,000 wheelset business annually. And that is one of the reasons also we have gotten Dukini as a partner because they are the biggest supplier globally when it comes to this segment. And this is a highly high margin segment and it requires a lot of home-located technology which is needed. Then if you look at the general IR segment which family constitutes of railway wagons. So, in a year, on an average, about 20-30,000 new wagons are built, which constitutes about 120,000 new wheelsets annually. Plus, Indian Railway has a fleet of roughly about 3-odd lakh wagons, where there is a replacement of wheelsets is about in around 7 years, there is a replacement of wheelset which is there. Which again translates to roughly about 150 to 2 lakh wheelsets every year. So Indian domestic market roughly would be anything between 3 to 4 lakh wheelsets annually. And then definitely beyond that is the export market where we have a committed off-take agreement from Tatra Vagonka, which they buy close to about 20,000 to 30,000 wheels every year. And beyond that, also, Lukini has been given the rights for the entire international marketing. So, we don't see any off-take challenges. I think for us, the key concern is to ramp up production and to see that the facility meets all the technical criterias for us to get home located.

Great. Thank you so much for the elaborate reply. Just one clarification. The wheels that are used by the Indian railways wagons, they are mostly the casted wheels, and these will be forged. So, are we saying that Indian railways will also start using the forged wheels? I believe passenger rail segment uses forged wheels, but Indian wagons use the casted wheels.

In Indian Railways, we are using, currently also we are using both mix of cast as well as forged wheels. So, today even the wheels which we are producing in Aurangabad, which goes into our own wagons, they are all forged wheels. So, it's not something new. Indian Railway will continue to use a mix of both cast as well as forged wheels. On the other hand, as the speeds increase, cast wheels have a limitation that they can only be used up to maximum 100 kilometers per hour. So in future, as designs come and as loading capacities increase, then the transition will be more towards the forged wheels rather than cast wheels.

Understood. And my last question, sir, on this, because there is some other competitor also who is setting up a capacity which is, again, pretty sizable, almost about, I think, 2,28,000 or so. So, in your sense, is it likely to intensify competition in this segment domestically? Exports, of course, we may have an upper hand because of the tie-ups that we have. But domestically, do you see the competition coming up or do you think there is enough and more headroom for everything to get absorbed?

See, there is more than enough. First of all, there is more than enough headroom for, I think, our capacities which are there. Secondly, as I have told you, you know, domestically also we are looking at more on the passenger segment and our own capital requirements. On the passenger side of the business, again, you know, there is a lot of certifications and technology which is involved, which is for any domestic new producer without any kind of international accreditations. To meet those standards is a long journey, and that is one of the primary reasons that we have gotten Lukini as a partner, because not only it helps us accelerate our technical capabilities, but it also provides us all the designs which are currently used for semi-high-speed and high-speed, And through the availability of the design, again, the home location certifications. So, that is how we are looking at the business. And beyond that, you know, I cannot comment on what competition is doing.

Fair point. And great. And really appreciate the fact that while we all wait wagon orders from Indian railways, You are well into the game to really diversify your business very, very ahead of competition. So, great and all the best. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Participants, if you wish to join the question queue, you will press star and 1.

As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments.

Thank you. Thank you for your insightful questions and continued engagement. Looking ahead, we remain confident about the structural opportunities available to Jupiter wagons. India's continued investment in railway infrastructure, freight modernization, private sector ownership of rolling stock, and domestic manufacturing are creating a favorable environment for our co-business. At the same time, our investments in rail wheels, braking system, electric mobility, and energy storage are broadening our addressable market and creating additional avenues for our long-term growth. With a strong execution pipeline and expanding product portfolio and multiple growth platforms, we believe Jupiter Wagons is well-positioned to participate in India's evolving mobility and infrastructure opportunity. Thank you once again for your continued support. We look forward to interacting with you again next time.

Thank you, sir. On behalf of Systematic Institutional Equities, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.