Vikram Solar Limited (VIKRAMSOLR) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome you all to the Q3 and NM F526 earning conference call of Vikram Solar Ltd. Please note that today's conference call has been recorded. The audio and content of this earning call constitute proprietary corporate material of Vikram Solar Ltd may not be reproduced, redistributed or quoted in any public forum or media communication without the company's prior retail approval. Please also note that any comment made during this conference relating to the company's future outlook that may be constituted as forward-looking statement should be reviewed in the context of the risk that the company is subject to. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Gyanesh Chaudhary, Chairman and Managing Director. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Vikram Solar's quarter three and nine month FY26 earnings call. As we begin this call in the new year, I would like to take a moment to extend my warm wishes to all of you and your families. May this new year bring you Stuk, Samridhi and Aarugya, and may it be a year of clarity, balance and progress for all of us. At the outset, I would like to thank you for your continued confidence and support. We remain focused on strengthening our foundation across technology, governance, and execution, while pursuing discipline growth and a clear roadmap towards integration across the solar value chain. I would like to bring in a global perspective here. Globally, the clean energy transition has entered in a more industrial phase, where the delivery capability, manufacturing credibility, and long-term resilience are increasingly shaping outcomes. Against this backdrop, India's energy transition and the role of domestic manufacturing take on a greater strategic importance for all of us. The next phase of this transition is increasingly shaped by convergence of generation, storage, and grid infrastructure, rather than stand-alone assets. India's storage and green hydrogen ambitions will require significant scale-up in integrated renewable and storage capacity over the coming decade. This will shape demand patterns, technology choice, and capital allocation decisions. Now, coming back to Vikram Tolar, Q3 has been an important quarter from an execution standpoint. We successfully commissioned and stabilized our 5 gigawatt advanced module manufacturing facility at Vallam in Tamil Nadu. This takes our total installed module capacity to 9.5 gigawatt. This facility is a key step in enhancing our scale, strengthening quality, and delivering reliability, and improving operating leverage as volumes ramp up. Along scale, our focus has been on strengthening the overall robustness of our manufacturing platform, ensuring consistency, reliability, and long-term value creation for customers across segments. We have continued to upgrade our product platform and have successfully transitioned to a complete portfolio of high-efficiency ENTIGE modules. This supports our focus on bankability performance and long-term customer value across utility, C&I, and distribution segments. Subsequent to our Fab 4 commissioning at Wallam, our execution focus is firmly on Gangai Kondan site, which will house 6 gigawatt of modules and 12 gigawatt of cells. This site is progressing as planned. As the industry transitions through ALMM list 2 for cells and the roadmap, which has been given by the government for list 3 wafers, we believe depth in domestic manufacturing. And supply chain resilience will become increasingly important. In this environment, agility and execution reliability are becoming as critical as cost competitiveness. Our objective remains to build a more integrated platform that can serve both domestic and non-domestic demand segments over time. While quarterly demand trends can vary, The broader environment for solar in India remains structurally very strong. Adoption continues to expand beyond utility-scale projects into CNI and residential segments, and policy support continues to improve visibility for renewable growth over the medium term. Recent assessment by NICE indicates over 3,300 gigawatts of deployable ground-mounted solar potential. Pointing to a long runway for solar deployment and domestic manufacturing across modules, cells, and integrated solutions. Furthermore, solar capacity has expanded more than 40 folds since 2014, positioning India as the world's third largest solar market. Now, looking ahead, industry assessments suggest India to become the strongest, largest solar market globally in 2026, with over 50 gigawatts of new capacity additions, driven by primarily utility-scale projects, supported by continued policy backing for rooftop adoption. On the policy front, recent developments remain supportive. MNRE's move to progressively raise minimum efficiency threshold encourages technology upgradation. In addition, the draft renewable consumption obligation framework improves demand visibility, and threats built under advanced chemistry cell battery storage PLI schemes reinforce the government's push to build domestic capacity across generation, storage, and manufacturing. Recent changes in China's VAT export rebates could meaningfully alter price dynamics in selected markets. We view this as a constructive development that may moderate the extent of state-supported pricing and encourage greater cost discipline across the value chain. With our capacity now at scale and conversion costs improving, we believe our competitiveness across select export markets, which include Europe and MENA. This will strengthen and will enable more meaningful conversations with customers in these regions. We continue to view this opportunity as structural rather than cylindrical, cyclical, even as near-term demand patterns may fluctuate. The long-term runway for clean energy storage and integrated manufacturing remains very much intact. Companies align with integration, technology depth, and long-horizon thinking, which are better positioned to navigate volatility and build enduring value. In summary, our priorities remain clear. Consistent execution, disciplined capital allocation, and building long-term competitiveness through technology and integration. With that, I will now hand over the floor to our CFO, Mr. Ranjan Gindal, for a detailed financial walkthrough and an update on the three's projects. Over to you, Ranjan.

Thank you very much, Mr. Padri. And compliment for the season to all the participants who have joined us today. I am accompanied by Rinal from our IR team and SGA, our IR advisors. We have uploaded our early presentation on the stock exchanges on the company's website. I do hope everybody had an opportunity to go through the sales. We are happy to report a strong and resilient Q3 numbers that have contributed to cementing a formidable 9-monthly Fx26 operation. With 800 MW of sales volume, the YTD, Sales volume of over 2.3 GW surpasses the full-year sales volume of the previous fiscal by 23%. The company reported a healthy 9-monthly EF26 EBITDA of EF2632 course at 20.3% EBITDA margin, recording a 154% jump from the same period last fiscal. Before we delve into the financial and operational updates, let's go over the important sector developments in the past quarter. During the quarter, India added approximately 8.5 GW of solar capacity. On its unity basis, solar installations during the last nine months reached around 30 GW, taking the total installed solar capacity to 136 GW as on 31 December 2025. Out of total 510 GW of India's total installed power generation capacity, renewable sources currently account for 50% underscoring the country's accelerating energy transition. Demand continues to be driven by utility-scale solar projects, awarded through central and state auctions, increasing commercial and industrial adoption to achieve cost savings and decarbonization targets, and rushing growth in rooftop and distributed solar, supported by favorable policy measures like PM Kusum and PM Sujegar, most busily used now. Under PM Kusum, Aging Stogrol's target of approximately 30 GW by mass analytics, Around 10 GW has been installed as on 31 December 2025. Similarly, under the P.N. Suryagar Muk Vihulyojana, a cost-8 GW of proof of solar capacity has been installed in date. We will now discuss a few important ministry notifications. The renewable conservation obligation framework with a unified target of 29.9% in 2024-25 to 43.33% by 2025 introduced via the Energy Conservation Amendment Act 2022 and formalized in date 2025 is a transformative policy shift. RCO provides a centralized, eagerly binding national mandate that will significantly accelerate solar adoption, shifting the focus to the actual consumption of renewable energy by designated consumers. The RCO categorizes distributed renewable energy that ensures investment into distributed solar assets directly boosting the retail and rooftop solar segment. Another important NRL notification regarding increasing the threshold of minimum model efficiency signifies a move to eliminate obsidian technology from the engine grid. The minimum efficiency threshold is increasing from 20% to 21.5% by FI28 for utility-scale projects and the same for rooftop would increase to 21%. It is an intentional move by the Ministry to wheel out unnecessary build-out of less efficiency legacy systems. To put the numbers in more perspective, of the total 145 gigawatt of ALMN compliant module supply, only 78 gigawatt is capable of manufacturing more than 22% efficiency module, which has a minimum 3 gigawatt plant size. The ratio is even more skewed in the ALMN list too, where only 30% of the energy capacity is anti-capable. This implies that there is a significant scope for adding n-type capacities both in module and cell. MNRE in November had issued a letter to the renewable energy lenders to adopt a calibrated lending approach, shifting the focus to upstream manufacturing capacity. However, in early December, the Ministry issued a clarification that there is no ease on solar lending but just a gentle nudge to incentivize vertical integration to ensure long-term energy security. The DGPR on 19 September 2025 recommended to the Ministry of Finance a levy of anti-dumping duty on the cells imported from China in the range of 23% to 30% citing injury to the domestic cell manufacturers, which the Ministry of Finance had to act within 90 days of such recommendation. However, the 90-day period for the Ministry of Finance to pass a notification has lasted on 19 December 2025, and there has not been any development on the matter. With respect to the ongoing investigation for the levy of anti-dumping duty for import of encapsulants from China, South Korea, Highland, and Vietnam, no further findings have been published by the DGTR. From the policy standpoint, the ministry has remained committed towards encouraging establishment of indigenous manufacturing ecosystems. The upcoming enforcement of ALMM List 2 and the proposed ALMM List 3 strengthens the long-term visibility of domestic manufacturers with depth and quality. Last quarter, NNRE issued a draft roadmap to extend the ALNM framework upstream to ingots and papers, with ALNM-3 proposals effective from 1st June 28, subject to a minimum industry capacity threshold of 15 GW capacity by three uncontrolled players. We are currently evaluating the commercial viability and demand outlook for FF28 and beyond, and any capital deployment who are closer than passing will be undertaken in a discipline phase and technology-driven manner. We will share further updates as our internal assessments progress. Looking ahead, the horizon of the solar industry has never been more promising. While we navigate short-term supply chain realignment, the long-term fundamentals remain exceptionally robust. In the short term, we are navigating a tightening input cost environment driven by shifts in the Chinese supply chain, including poly-cellucon production control, compounded by removal of 9% VAR export rebate from natural natural defects, which effectively shall raise the raw material cost. We will use this as a constructive decision for the industry health, as it may reduce pricing distortions and support data cost efficiency. The company has started sourcing cells from Southeast Asian countries. They were reducing China dependence. Furthermore, surging silver prices are facing pressure on the N-type study input cost. However, new processes with new innovations in cell manufacturing like LECO, rarefied usage of silver coated copper space, and other such initiatives are being extort in order to reduce the silver consumption per watt. It is however pertinent to mention that the mobile supply contracts signed by the company are designed to pass through the entire top touch rising input costs to the consumer since we operate in a cost plus business model. Coming to the operating performance, the third quarter is a tip in mixed operating environment. On a year-of-year basis, Q3F26 sales volumes stood at 796 MW compared to 590 MW in Q325, supported by a stronger execution base built over the course of last one year, while revenues from operations increased to 1,106 cores up from 1,026 cores in the same quarter last year. EBITDA for the quarter should have 205 crores, translating into a margin of 18.5% compared to 85 crores and 8% in the corresponding quarter last year. Profit after tax for Q3 FY26 should have Rs.8 crores against 19 crores in Q3 FY25. Looking at the 9-month period, performance remains robust and reflects the strength of execution in the first three quarters of the year. Its volume of 9-month FY26 segregated to 2.3 gigawatts compared to 1.1 gigawatts in 9-month FY25, representing a significant year-on-year increase. Revenue from operations for the 9-month period stood at 3,339 crores, up from 2,230 crores in the same period last year. EBITDA for 9 months after 26 should have Rs.63 2 crores with about 20% margin compared to 268 crores and 12% margin in 9 months after 25, while the profit after tax improved to Rs.63 60 crores from 99 crores last quarter. The effective capacity utilization for Q3 and 9 monthly offer 26 suited 90% and 88% respectively. These numbers emphasize operating average achieved during the year and reinforces the underlying strength of our business model. During the quarter, we received an important milestone, as highlighted by Mr. Chaudhary, for the achievement of commissioning of our 5GW advanced module manufacturing facility at Vallam in Tamil Nadu, taking our total installed module capacity to 9.5GW. This facility has been designed as a highly automated, feature-related plant built on advanced end-tech technology with the flexibility to support next generation upgrades over time. Beyond Capacity Addition, Wallahm many food descendants are able to deliver consistent quality, predictable timeline, and scalable volume to customers across segments. One of the key highlights of this year is the improvement we have seen in cost efficiency as the business has scaled up. This has been given by higher throughput, error automation on the shop floor, and a tighter grip on indirect cost. Additionally, the newer capacity additions feature highly differentiated set of advanced automation systems that address some of the labor-intensive and quality-sensitive operations. From an operational impact standpoint, this framework delivers reduced manual touchpoint and significant reduction in the labor cost. Higher automation also results in stronger manufacturing yields, particularly during ramp-up and high-volume operations. We see this as a structural improvement in the business and an improvement driver of margin resilience as we continue to scale culture. The company has continued to maintain a strong focus on optimizing its finance cost. Consequently, the weighted average finance cost of debt declined to 6.5% during 9 months effort 26 from 7% in H1 effort 26. The production was supported by disciplined cash flow management, improved trade profiles, and vendor confidence, increased utilization of low-cost working capital facilities, and timely refresh of interest rates in a declining rate environment. Turning to our order book, as on 9-month effort 26, it stood at 10.58 GW, compared to 8.2 GW in the same period last year, representing a year-on-year growth of 28%. The order book continues to be well diversified, with IPPs accounting for a significant share of approximately 55%, followed by a steadily increasing contribution from the C&I segment at around 21%. The government and EPC segments together contribute across 11%. In addition, our focus efforts to expand our distribution network to a growing wave of distributors and dealers across the country reflect in our order book, with the distribution segment now contributing above 13%. The Gangai Content Project continues to progress as planned, with all statutory approvals in place and the course-type infrastructure completed, including exosports, construction, power, health offices, and civil work for both the module and health facilities ongoing in full swing. Construction activities at the module plant are on way, with structural work and roofing in progress, and the facility remains on track for commissioning in Q1 FY27. At the cell plant, construction activities including foundation and substructure work are underway with critical long-lead items of utility packages under finalization. We are thus on track for a phased commissioning with the first sell-out in December 2016. Overall execution remains aligned with defined milestones and our focus continues to be on timely delivery and smooth ramp-up of these facilities. In line with our upcoming CapEx expansion, we are actively strengthening our human capital. Our headcount has increased from 1,587 employees in December 24 to 2,413 in December 25, reflecting the addition of skilled professionals across manufacturing, operations, and physical execution to ensure smooth conditioning of our new facilities. During the quarter, we further strengthened our product portfolio with the launch of Hypersol Pro, our latest anti-module, which was unveiled at the Renewable Energy India Expo 2025. With efficiencies of up to 23.7% and power outputs of up to 6-4-3 watt peak, the product is designed to minimize internal energy losses, prevent reverse current, and enhance long-term energy output and modern lives. In addition to our financial and operational performance, we continue to receive strong curve-party validation of our capabilities and market position. I am pleased to share that during the quarter, India Ratings upgraded our long-term bank facilities rating from ING A to ING A+, with a stable outlook, and also upgraded our short-term rating to ING A1 to ING A1+. This upgrade reflects our improved financial profile, disciplined capital management, and a strong balance sheet. We are also pleased to highlight the continued external validation of our operating capabilities. Zikram Solar has been legitimized as a tier 1 solar module manufacturing for the eighth consecutive quarter in the Bloomberg MEF tanker utility rating. To summarize, the results for the quarter reflect disciplined execution across the business, supported by scale, improved cost efficiency, and a continued focus on profitability. While near-term demand conditions remain dynamic, our strong water book, expanding nanofuckling platform, and the supportive industry environment gives us confidence in the sustainability of our performance over the coming quarters. With that, we would be happy to take your question. Thank you for hearing.

Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer question. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

The first question comes from the line of Keith and Jen from Evidius.

Please go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you for your opportunity. First of all, congratulations on the commissioning of the emerging capacity.

So, just a clarification on the point you said that raw materials are a pass-through. So, how is a typical contract with a client designed? Does it mean that all the raw material prices, like the cost of sell prices or cost of aluminum racks, are everything a pass-through?

And also the forex deviation, since the INR has depreciated towards USD.

So, are all of these pass-through? Does the client pay you the difference in the raw material cost at the time of ordering and at the time of delivery?

And how does the payment mechanism work with the client?

So, I'll start with the payment terms. Most of the transactions are with big utilities, and these are all LC-backed transactions. In two instances, there are parts in advance and parts in the form of LCs. On the pass-through concept, the pass-through actually is only for the cell, not the bomb always. And if we have a revisit of the order book as on 3rd of December, about 88% of the order book does have the pass-through benefit for the cell price only. BOM at IMC is required to be absorbed within the overall PL. So, the balance is 12%. So, we are in view of reaching out to these customers to revisit the pricing with the increased numbers. And insights about inventory as on the 31st December takes care of a bit of impact in the pricing. What about the sell pricing? I said, change in law, if that figures in, that makes an impact on the input cost, that is something we can revisit to the customers and seek for a height in the price.

So, it has to be the, only if the customer agrees, or is it done in a contract? Can the customer dispute it?

No, that's what I told. The sell cost and the change in law is part of the contract.

Understood. So, at the time of delivery, they will pay you a revised price based on the revised wrong due cost. Exactly.

Yes.

Also, I wanted to understand one thing.

On the recent removal of export rebates by China, as you said, it makes us competitive in the global market. That I understand.

But how does it impact us and the sector in a domestic perspective?

So, it's one and the same thing, whether the increase in sell price for us for imports from China.

Okay. So, if the change in sell cost is a pass-through, then the developers will be impacted. So, am I right to say that their IRRs for the bullet will get impacted

because of this in the supply chain?

Maybe true, but we did not succeed. For example, in Q1 and Q2, there were stocking in the prices as well. So maybe we'll have to talk to the developers to understand their overall economics. But I think over the budget plate, they avaged out their overall procurement with some quarters being increased cost and some lower than what they anticipated.

Understood. Just a last question, sir. We saw a reduction in margin sequentially. What would be the reason for that? And what would be the current DCR and non-DCR realizations in the country, in India?

So, this rationalization of EBITDA is not different than what we had anticipated in the last quarter. And even on a nine-monthly basis, the company has delivered an EBITDA of 20% plus. And going forward, we expect the non-DCR business to deliver 18-20% on a certain basis.

Understood. And what are the current realizations in DCR and non-DCR markets?

So, with the current increase in cell cost, we expect the non-DCR to deliver a realization of 14-14.5 rupees per wattage. And on VCR front, this change will not impact the VCR module price to go up. They still continue to remain at 26.24.

So that means the developers will be absorbing the increase in raw material price.

Yes.

Interesting. Understood. Thank you, sir. I will get back to the queue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Shivam Patil from PL Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Is it possible for give us a split of the current capacity of 9.5 gigawatt into Topcon and Monopark?

Yeah, thank you Shivam for the question, but I'm glad to inform that the entire 9.5 gigawatt is Topcon, and all our additions going forward, including the 6 gigawatt, would be Topcon.

Okay, sir. Thank you. Yeah, I will get back in.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sahil Seth from Anandrati. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. My first question would be, there has been a severe drop of about 20% year-on-year in terms of realization, and even on quarter-on-quarter basis, there has been a steep drop. What are your comments on that?

So, maybe you're fine, right?

Yeah.

So, Sahil, our numbers are a bit different than what you highlighted. Yes, there was some take-off realization in Q3. If you are talking about non-DCR modules, there was an impact of about 30 to 40 passes. So, that overall has kept Q3 every time it's lower than what Q2 was. But on a nine-monthly basis, it continued to remain at 20 percent.

As I am, if you are preparing year-on-year realizations, in Q3 specifically, we had executed a DCR utility scale contract because of which the realization, the blended realization was higher. That is the main expense. This quarter, it has been 100% non-DCR execution.

Okay, got it. And one more just to clarify, in our previous communications in the last quarter IP, our total model capacity goal was at 17.5 gigawatts, but now it has been updated to 15.5 gigawatts. Has the 2 gigawatts capacity planned to expand the filter capacity have been cancelled?

No, we have not cancelled that. So, we retained data 15.5 for the pending to ensure transfer-percent backward integration with the dual gigawatt capacity flagged. And going forward, since there is the country is moving towards ALMM2, which has been mandatory, we will have to revisit the vision of expansion of the 2 gigawatt, which we have planned in our existing facility in Kalka.

Okay, sir. And in our opening remarks, you mentioned that you have been working to reduce the silver consumption on the sell front. Are there any currently viable technology or a substitute which would help us do that or are those still under R&D?

Absolutely. So, Sahil, from what we hear from our partners who have been suppliers of style for us, we hear that processes like Lego reduces, it has a laser sharp precision because of which your fingers' footprint is so narrow that the overall mechanization comes down. So that is, in the short term, a very viable option. There are, on a longer term basis, electropilating with copper with a nickel barrier also being considered. There is rare side usage of copper paste coated with silver also being considered. And, you know, on a global scale, Jinko and Ico, global peers like that have successfully run commercial tests as well. So, we feel that this is a huge catalyst for the industry to innovate and converge towards using better conducting polymers.

Thank you very much.

Hi, sir. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Sir, firstly, on our outstanding order book, there is a reduction on the QoQ basis from the second quarter to the third quarter. So, was this because of the slowness in the industry or we have removed some projects from our outstanding order book?

I just... The overall, there is, of course, a net addition, but our momentum of execution was higher. It has nothing to do with, you know, momentum in the overall space. We believe that the domestic order book that we carry is enough and adequate to carry us through the next five quarters, next four quarters, where we do not have a cell capacity. Parallel, we have also started interacting with our consumers for DCR inquiries for delivery starting in the calendar year 27. So, we believe it's an adequate order book, and this will continue. I mean, we don't see any dips in the interest or momentum from the customer.

Understood. Secondly, you mentioned about diversifying the sourcing of the cells from China to some of the Southeast Asian countries as well. So, could you highlight what is our current procurement mix in terms of China versus Southeast Asia and how this mix will pan out over the next two to three years? That is my last question.

Currently, it is heavily skewed towards China because they do have a cost advantage. But looking at the critical mass of supply now available in other Saudi station countries, we see a cost parallel being established, especially because the state-supported subsidizing of Chinese components is moving away, Which is why we are acting ahead and have already activated conversations with our partners in the other countries.

Understood.

This is only a runway for us because after that we will have our own cell to back on.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nidisha from ICC Securities. Please go ahead.

Thank you so much for taking my question. So, I saw in the PPT that you mentioned that the new 5 gigawatt line is a leased line. So, I wanted to know what would be our yearly lease payment and what is the total lease on book for this line?

So, today we have taken this for a 400 crore debt financing. It's at 8.5% lease, and it will be a portion over a period of five years, starting from this quarter. And on an annual basis, it will be 108 crore, which takes care of interest from on the liability also. So, from income tax point of view, we get the directions for the entire payments for this rental.

So, what is the rationale behind leaving a line for five years rather than putting up your own line that, you know, could probably last you longer than that?

We could have done that, but at the time when we conceived this project, somewhere in Sir 25, with a target to commissioning of Tudor, project finance would have taken a bit longer time. So this was a quicker deal for us to trigger. That was one. And second, we intended to keep that satellite as well. So with the right of use coming in the books of accounts, we don't directly add Tudor's suggested. And third, with this structure also, there was no compromise or sacrifice on the income tax funds, as I told in the previous statement. So all these factors basically motivated us to go for the lease concept.

All right. My other question would be on the export. So I see that about 20% of our order book is export. Is it fair to assume that all of these would be modules where you are selling them fitted with Indian cells only?

Nizi, 16% of our order book is from exports. Indian cells are unviable to use for exports because of the reciprocal tariff imposed on India as a country, and hence a U.S. LPA compliant and FEOC compliant supply chain from other Southeast Asian countries needs to be worked out and have a pre-approval from the CBT for us to be able to export to the U.S.

All right. So, if you are essentially repackaging Southeast Asian sales, how do you see the outlook for the export order book going forward, given that there are a lot of other countries that are also doing this type of export, where they're purchasing from Southeast Asian countries, where, you know, where tariffs are not as much as India?

We see that universe has become a little smaller. The larger CMVP countries were imposed a similar sort of duty earlier in the calendar year of 25, which is why there is some capacity coming up in North African regions and other Asian countries, which we have been actively working with. And are using them for USLPA-compliant supply. All right.

Lastly, my question is on Topcon. Since our entire line is Topcon, previously in the Indian market, there was no price differential between Monopark and Topcon modules, not to, say, a meaningful extent. Are we seeing the distinction come in because of the difference in efficiencies? Are we seeing that there is a preference for Topcon? Are customers willing to pay more for a Topcon module?

Hi, Didi. The way the market looks at technology, you know, we've seen this over the last two decades evolve significantly. When you have a higher efficient product... Thank you. And according to us, the market has completely pivoted or expected large manufacturers with significant capacity and control over quality and efficiency to deliver top-con only.

So, are we seeing a price differential between Monopurk and Topcon for non-DCR modules?

Non-DCR, as I said, there is hardly any expectation from the market for Monopurk.

All right. Thank you.

Those were my questions.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Akshay from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the question. Ken, really appreciate the industry insights and policy initiative you shared at the start of the call. My question is regarding capacity expansions, particularly for cell manufacturing. So, what's the status for the one capacity which is 90 watt cell plant which is coming from Thailand and the organic expansion of 3 vitals which you are doing?

Thank you. This 12-year-old planned project is being handled collectively, and the sell lines from Thailand will start getting shifted. It's a formal exercise from the start of dismantling up to the deliberate site. We expect the team room to be ready somewhere by September-October, thereby expecting the commissioning and first sell-out by December 26. So, considering that, the shifting exercise should logically start somewhere in the filming, and the team is on track to get that done.

Got it. Thank you. And a follow-up question to this one.

At the start of the call, you said you are moving all the modules to G12R module, all the capacity is now shifting to that. While the Thailand plant, if you understand it right, it's based on M10 technology. So, am I getting confused between two things, or what's the disconnect here?

No, Akshay, both of our upcoming cell plants will be capable of manufacturing both M10R as well as G12R cells. We spoke about the module portfolio being shifting to a more efficient G12R of our existing 9.5 kW of module capacity.

Okay, right.

So, the silent line is already G12R capable. Got it. Got it. Thank you.

You will press star and one on the touch on telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Saran Jolekar from Vimana Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity. So, just wanted your view on the industry, how that we have seen that a lot of capacity, particularly in the module, has already come up. Do you already see any aggressive pricing by your competitors and, you know, this quarter already? There is some decline in your margins. So, do you see further decline in your margins going forward?

Hi, Saran. I wouldn't call a few basis points swinged in the margin as a decline. You have to understand that quarter to quarter, our realizations depend on a particular set of execution that we have committed to. This particular quarter had a significant portion, about 30% of the order executed of government contracts that we had taken about a year back. So, this is in absolutely a normal course of fitness. As to the over capacity or pricing pressure that you mentioned, we do not believe that in the customer circle where top 10 of our customers, about 7 out of 10 are repeat customers and are repeatedly, you know, granting the percentage to a credible name like Wittrum Solar, We do not see that fight. And most of your overcrowding exists in the lesser efficient legacy systems. If you see the PowerPoints in the slide, we mentioned that the top 16 manufacturers control about 100 gigawatt supply, and then there are 95 other manufacturers that control the remaining capacity of 45. That is where the overcrowding exists, and that would be mostly in the policy-driven monopurg supply.

Understood. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Nikhil Abhyankar from UDI Mutual Fund, please go ahead.

Thank you, sir. Just a couple of questions. I want to understand your outlook on the utility-scale DCR demand in FY28, if you can.

Nikhil, so far after the threshold date of 1st September 25, we have seen RFSs of close to 20 gigawatts coming through, of which about one tender has given results, but looking and mapping each and every tender and its bid submission and results timeline, we believe that about 30-35 gigawatts plus kind of a utility scale or DCR demand will come through In fiscal 28, we are expecting a healthy pipeline of more RFS to be announced in the coming quarter that will be adding to the utility scale demand.

And on the new capex of $44 billion, I just want to understand the funding source for this. So, both this unit collectively, which is the 6 Giga Watt module and the dual upsell, the overall funding would be for $6,400, which would require a debt of $3,800. Finance to come in the form of equity, of which part of the fund's about 1,500 has come in from the IPO. Finance will be taken care of 2,000 lakhuls. On the best front, the overall capex is at 4,000 million crore. Based on a debt equity of 6,035, the financial closure for which is underway would fetch 2,000 million crore from the debt part. Balanced 1,300 crores over the next 30 months. As of now, it's planned to be funded from the internal accruals of the company.

Sure, sir. That's all for my side. Thank you. Sure, Nikhil. Thanks. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Bharani from AVDS. Please go ahead.

Yes, good evening. Am I audible? Yes, yes. Yes, this is Bharani from Arlanda. So, I was just wondering, in times of increase in module prices this happened post-COVID also, Developers put their projects on hold or delay their purchase of modules given. Do you feel that this is starting to happen now?

Developers deferring the module optic will trigger the levy of LD if there is any delay in the project, so obviously they will do their maps to determine as to whether they should go the deferment route and absorb the LD, but up to now we have not encountered or seen any developer asking for assistance in the supply, and you could see that even in the last quarters our production with the sales have almost been at the same level. Maintaining the same stock. So, even for the current quarter, customer-wise mapping with regard to the dispatches is all in case, and with payments in case, it is coming online. So, we don't foresee any deferment as such on the module object front.

My second question is on, again, the utility-scale demand. Awarding activity so far has been much lower than what we saw last year. So, how are we confident of the 35 gigawatts of DC demand from utility in 2018?

Currently, for the next two fiscal decades, we already have an addressable market of tender capacity of about 104 gigawatts on the non-DCR side and a little over 15 gigawatts for the DCR side. So, the installation run rate runs no risk of slowdown in the next two fiscal. For the demand beyond fiscal 28, like I said, the TCR RFSs have been issued to the extent of about 20 gigawatts already in the last quarter itself, and we believe a much healthier pipeline will come through in the coming quarters that will take care of the installation. And over and above this, we also have the two rooftop scheme driven installations that is picking up pace, plus the CNI adoption, which is going to be a game changer, along with, you know, combined with storage. So, we do not see any slowdown in momentum of installation for the next 5 to 10 years and that.

Okay, can you break down that 108 gigawatts of tenders? Is it adjusting for the around 40 gigawatts without PPA or...?

So, the 42 gigawatt, there has not been any official communication from the Ministry of their cancellation, so to say, but even if you were to remove them from the overall 120, you're still left with about 70 to 75 gigawatt of them, and then you have the DCR demand to take over.

Got it. So, net of the

42, it is around 70. Yeah. And 70. Yeah. And that is AC, right, you are talking about? That is AC, absolutely. Okay. Final question, how do we manage adverse movement of forex?

So, we do have a board approved well-defined forex policy, and we did a match to see that if you enter into a forward for the whole procurement, the 3070 hedging policy takes care of the overall impact of the forex changes.

And the meaning is we are rich.

Yes. Okay, got it. Thank you.

Thank you. A next question comes from the line of Sajar Parikh from Resonance Asset Managers. Please go in.

Yeah, hi. This is Sagar from NSO Asset Managers. So, my two questions. One on the BFS side, so you said 0.300 crores of K-type cells. So, would you be setting up the cells also, lithium-ion battery cells, or this is more like a battery pack unit that we're looking at?

So we will begin with the battery pack. That is the first plan of setting up 5 gigawatt hours, which will be commissioned in fiscal 27. And finally, we will begin work for a 7.5 gigawatt hours of integrated cell as well as battery pack facility.

So do we have a tie-up in place for the cells, the inventory cells?

Yes, we will be announcing it soon once it reaches a point of an update. So, getting cell supply is not at all a challenge. Technology partnership is also in advanced stages, and we will make an announcement soon.

Basically, just for my understanding, it will be 5 plus 7.5 total at full capacity of quality and improved KPEX.

No, it will be, once the cell capacity comes through, it will be an overall 7.5 GWh of additional. So, in that vicinity, there will be a 2.5 GWh of additional assembly that will be set up.

With that, so that's coming for 40, we are trying to do the math here. Usually all these companies have announced they are doing like 600, 700 pros per gigawatt, right? 4300, so that's coming up to, yeah, similar, 570, 600 pros kind of number per gigawatt APEX.

Yeah.

And secondly, on this, I wanted to understand on the silver part, so how big is the silver cost for us in the overall BOM cost?

For us, there is no direct silver cost because we import the cells as of today, but for a cell, I like it.

But the sell, cost inflation of sell is a pass-through product, right? 88% of our order booth, the cost inflation is pass-through, the sell inflation.

That's correct. Yeah.

Then there is no price impact for us in that 88% of the order booth.

That's correct.

Right. And lastly, we have given like only I think 10,000 plus clues of KPEX for a few years. I believe you can give us what is the KPEX number that we are looking at.

You have to repeat, please. We could not hear you properly. On the KPEX side, so

6,400 clues you said for the cell and the module and 4,300 for the battery, so that comes to about 10,000 clues of KPEX that is.

So, in total, this TAPEX will be spent over the next 24 to 30 months, and the equity requirement for this collectively would be at 2400 to be in session from the internal records which This is the company Salon graduate we had in office. Right. So, how much is the KPEX when we have done 9 KPEX till now? So, up till December we have spent approximately 300 cores.

And Q4 will be approximately?

So, this figure collectively should touch 1,100 something like that.

Oh, so now Q4 will be KPEX steady probably 900 cores of KPEX. Yeah. Okay, that's it for Mike, I think.

Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch room telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Darshal Javiri from Crown Capital. Please go ahead.

Hello, good evening and thank you for taking my question. Hopefully, I'm audible.

Yes, yes, very clear.

Yeah, yeah. Hi, sir. So, sir, a lot of my questions have already been answered. I just wanted to, you know, get a sense of, you know, the order inflow. Like, so, in FY27, like, what order inflow are we seeing? Because, you know, like, I think our capacities will fully utilize, like, our current book will be fully executed in, like, a period of next four quarters. So, what's the target for FY27, sir?

So, the target for us is always on a rolling basis, having 1.2 or 1.3 times my scheduled deliveries for the next four quarters. And hence, in fiscal 27, that would be the target that we'd be working into.

So, I think in FY26, we have around 9.5 gigawatts, so roughly 14 to 15 gigawatts, that would be a rough, right? Like if... I could, that would be, okay, okay, fair, fair enough, and so where do we see these order flows coming majorly from, like government or IPP or, you know, I just wanted to understand about that.

If you see the order book split, it's a good mix that we have. IPC accounts for about 50% of our order book. Government is a very periodic, sporadic percentage. As in when the tenders come, their proportions keep on changing. What is more important is the CNI and distribution now account for a significant portion. So we will be focusing our energies on these segments.

Okay, okay. So, but in FY27, we see more focus from non-government if that would be a fair assumption ma'am.

Yeah, yeah.

And this last question from my end. So, post, like, you know, when our cell manufacturing comes into play, how do we see, you know, the export market? Like, we, you know, I think, assuming that if we have a trade deal in place or something, we divide by 27. So, how do we categorically see, you know, how our export potential?

So, I think India has achieved significant critical mass in terms of manufacturing now, and considering that there is ample access to technology, capital, as well as economies of scale. For manufacturers like us who are running for the, you know, excess of 10, 15 gigawatt of capacity, we would be looking at competing with China at a global scale going forward. We don't see a challenge where trying to bid and win large orders and accessing markets like Europe, MENA, URI's current tariff regime is creating a bit of a challenge. But ultimately, the market is still very strong. Solar deployment is still very, very strong and robust because the overall cost of energy is unmatched to any other form of energy. So there are adequate policy measures taken by several governments in place which support solar deployment in spite of all the narratives. So if India remains competitive, we should have access to all the markets globally.

Okay, fair enough. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Prakhar Parval from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.

Hello. In order. Yes, yes, please go ahead.

When you say you import cells from Southeast Asia to export modules to U.S., So, as per SLC restrictions, does the tiny value addition is limited from cell and input, or does it apply to data policy on-on-cell?

No, it is non-Chinese from the wafer onwards, but more importantly than that, no sourcing of polysilicon also from the Zinniang region. So, USP is now the stricter benchmark to source any sort of standard income.

So, maybe the Southeast patient's cell cell cell would be maybe sourcing it from somewhere else, and then there is

some vector and cell and new importing cells from there.

That's correct. And second thing is, when you say in the opening remarks, when Sir said that you are shifting some of the purchases to Southeast Asia for sales, given, you know, to move away from maybe Chinese purchase, so anyway, since our 88% of order book is a pass to at least in sales, so what is the essence for maybe shifting that even I would assume sales from Southeast Asia would be costly?

So, nothing like that, and the whole purpose of making a shift from China to Southeast Asia is not entirely commercial. It's always good to have diversified sources from the volume point of view also. And let us not forget, Chinese sales do attract value of BCD to the extent of 27.5%, and sales from all these non-Chinese Southeast countries that landed, pricing point of view continues to remain the same almost.

Thank you, sir. Okay, sir. Those are my questions. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time constant, that was the last question for today. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you very much. Thank you all for joining us today. I hope we were able to address all the questions. We remain committed to keeping the investment community informed with regular updates from the developments of the company. For any further queries, if they were left unattended today, please feel free to reach us on SGA, our investment relations advisor. Thank you all of you to remain connected and allowed us to take it through the operations of the company. Thank you very much.