Indus Towers Limited (INDUSTOWER) Q2 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Michelle, the moderator for this conference. Welcome to Indus Towers Ltd. Second quarter ended September 30, 2026 earnings call. For the duration of the presentation, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. After the presentation, the question and answer session will be conducted for all participants on this call. In case of a natural disaster, the conference call will be terminated post an announcement. Present with us on the call today is the Senior Leadership Team of Endless Hours. Before I hand over the call, I must remind you that the overview and discussions today may include certain forward-looking statements that must be viewed in conjunction with the risks that we face. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prachur Sahar. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Michelle, and a very warm welcome to everyone joining us today. I have Abhishek Maheshwari, our Chief Financial Officer, and Dheeraj Agarwal, our Head of Investor Relations, on the call. Today, I will take you through our operational and financial performance for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. We are happy to share that we recorded a strong growth in co-location additions in Q2. This has translated into an improvement in a tenancy ratio from 1.62 to 1.63. Following a period of stability, growth during the quarter was driven by continued network expansion from our customers, alongside a pickup in rollouts by a major customer. With healthy order book visibility and accelerating rollout activity, we expect the growth momentum to continue. Importantly, we continue to be the preferred infrastructure partner for our key customers, capturing a substantial share of their incremental rollouts. Our extensive footprint, superior network management capabilities, stringent SLA commitments, and collaborative approach continue to reinforce customer trust and position us well to capture the next phase of industry growth. Our consistent performance and strong customer trust are underpinned by deep sense of ownership of our frontline teams. During the quarter, our teams across Northeast, Bayaran Jarkand, and UP East once again demonstrated exceptional resilience in the face of severe floods that disrupted network operations, restricted site access, and caused prolonged power outages. Despite these challenges, our teams responded with agility, proactive planning, and close local coordination to accelerate restoration efforts and ensure service continuity across most of the affected networks. Their dedication in such challenging circumstances reflects the strength of our execution culture and our commitment to delivering reliable services to customers. The favorable regulatory environment has been supporting the seamless deployment of telecom infrastructure. Government support for smart meter deployment on telecom towers has further reinforced telecom infrastructure as a priority consumer category. Over the last three years, we have deployed smart meters on approximately 140,000 sites. This development provides improved visibility of consumption patterns and creates opportunities for energy optimization, operational efficiency, and data-driven decision-making. Coming to the 5G networks, according to the recent TRI data, India's 5G subscriber base grew by 36 million in the first quarter, exceeding 463 million subscribers. This secular demand curve is driving sustained operator investment in coverage and capacity, with the industry adding approximately 30,000 5G BTSs during the second quarter, taking the total installed base to around 593,000. As these networks mature, deployment focus is shifting towards network densification to support higher traffic loads and emerging digital use cases. Given our comprehensive portfolio and strength of customer relationships, we are structurally well positioned to support this steady infrastructure expansion. Infrastructure expansion and sustained 5G adoption trends are validated by robust consumption trends. In Q1, total data volume increased by 30% year-on-year, supported by an 18% rise in average monthly usage per subscriber. Notably, 5G networks are accelerating this trend, with 5G usage alone growing 79% year-on-year, representing 44% of total data consumption, up from 32% in the prior year. This ongoing shift highlights the necessity for sustained investments in network capacity, which supports long-term utilization rates and tenancy growth on our passive shared infrastructure. Our operational performance witnessed strong order bookings led by sustained customer rollouts and increased network expansion by a major customer. We added approximately 2,900 macro towers and robust co-locations of 7,900, marking year-on-year growth of 5.6% in towers and 5.9% in co-locations. Our total macro tower and co-location base reached approximately 270,500 and 440,200, respectively. Our industry-leading tenancy ratio has also improved from 1.62 to 1.63, driven by substantial rollout through sharing of our existing towers. Including leaner sites, we concluded the quarter with approximately 454,200 co-locations. Reinforcing our market-leading operational scale. We remain committed to supporting our customers' network expansion through our shared portfolio. We are actively collaborating with one of our major customers to facilitate its planned network rollouts, which is reflected in our consistent performance. Given our study to deploy asset base, optimized geographical footprints, and competitive value proposition, We remain confident in our ability to serve as a key long-term infrastructure partner for their network deployment plans. Our strategy of operating a low-cost shared infrastructure model provides the best solution to customers and Indus by the way of improving asset productivity. With a large portfolio of towers designed to support multiple tenants, Indus remains the preferred partner for operators seeking rapid network expansion at an efficient cost. The company is equally well positioned to support existing customers in strategically important locations where finding alternative infrastructure options may be difficult or less economical, particularly for a second and a third tenant. As a result, we remain confident to expand and retain co-locations agendas from all the major customers. We remain committed to serving our customers with best-in-class service delivery and uptime, lower operating costs through tenancy profile, and lower unit energy costs compared to other providers, which is critical for our customers' operations. Indus continues to create bespoke solutions that provide customers with options to offer connectivity in public infrastructures such as airports, metros, tunnels, etc. During the quarter, Indus provided solutions for India Mobile Congress and enabled connectivity at Weizag Airport, and it is actively participating in similar projects. Supported by a specialized team focused on design and execution, the company has led incremental market share gains in new IBS deployments for two consecutive years and remains focused on expanding its presence in this segment while enhancing the end-user connectivity experience. I would like to highlight that domination to deliver superior service delivery resulted in a sequential network improvement in a network uptime from 99.955 to 99.97%, despite challenging seasonal weather. Continuous technology deployments have enhanced a real-time network visibility, driving superior diagnostic and preventive capabilities that keep our customers seamlessly connected. Let me now provide an update on our energy management measures and the progress we have made. Our energy margin performance was driven by an 11% year-on-year reduction in diesel consumption. Our efforts for enabling digital energy management our site through remote connectivity, system-driven diesel planning, installation of fuel sensors, and smart meters have started yielding positive results, while we believe there is still a long way to go. We optimize energy costs by deploying solar solutions across approximately 3,000 sites during Q2, increasing the solar site portfolio to 49,000 sites. Our planned transition from diesel to lithium-ion battery storage is progressing well, and we are on track to meaningfully reduce dependence on diesel. Our ongoing digital transformation remains a key enabler for network reliability and operating efficiency. Deployment of AI-native digital solutions is enhancing field productivity and analytics. Implementation of AI-led image analytics is strengthening governance, vendor accountability, and maintenance quality. Furthermore, office digitalization through a combination of automated energy billing, digital twin capabilities, and real-time dashboards is streamlining diffusion-making and reducing manual effort. These strategic initiatives are successfully transitioning industry towards a predictive data-driven operating model, continuously improving organizational efficiency and customer experience. Our commitment to sustainable growth to drive meaningful ESG and value chain outcomes. In environmental stewardship, we accelerated our decarbonization journey, expanding our renewable energy footprint to an installed solar capacity of 297 MW in Q2 from 259 MW in Q1. It remains the core priority. During the quarter, we launched the Safety Shield Awards to recognize exemplary safety performance across our teams and partners, further strengthening our culture of safety and accountability. Through our flagship CSR initiative, Saksham and Pragati, we positively impacted over 11 million lives this quarter, while actively supporting communities affected by national disasters and humanitarian challenges in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and UP. Our ESG assessments and capability-building initiatives continue to strengthen a more resilient value chain. During the quarter, ESG maturity assessments across 70 partners resulted in an 8% improvement in average ESG maturity scores. We are pleased to report that our CRYSL ESG rating improved from 57 to 63, complemented by recognition at Mahatma Awards and Business World Sustainable World Awards. Together, these milestones underscore our focus on creating long-term value through responsible and resilient operations. Coming to Africa, our Africa foray is gaining strong traction, proving the competitiveness and the cost leadership of Windows operating model. By achieving considerable CapEx savings per tower compared to competitors, we are delivering lower-cost solutions for our anchor customer. Rollouts have successfully commenced with initial tower deployments as planned are scheduled to ramp up in H2. We have also initiated engagements beyond our anchor customer to leverage our tenancy-led business model. Africa expansion is a long-term strategy, and we strongly believe we have a right to win. I would now request Abhishek to take you through our financial performance, and I look forward to your questions. Thank you, and over to you, Abhishek.

Thank you, Brazgur. Good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to present our financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. We witnessed a strong addition of co-location during the quarter on the back of continued network expansion by our customers. The operation momentum has supported steady revenue growth and robust gas generation, reinforcing the strength of our infrastructure sharing model. Talking about financial performance for quarter two, revenue for the company grew at 1% quarter-on-quarter, and the revenue absolute value stands at 85.2 billion INR. Core revenue for the rental is up by 1.3% quarter-on-quarter, stands at 54.5 billion INR, driven by steady co-location addition and asset loading. This was further supported by accelerating of network rollout by major customers during the quarter. On year-on-year performance, our reported revenue and core revenue grew by 4% and 3.9% respectively. Moving on profitability, reported EBITDA increased by 2.5% quarter and stands at $46.3 billion for the quarter. Our EBITDA margin also improved by 80 basis points, quarter and quarter and stands at 54.4% for the quarter. Please note that quarter 2 of last fiscal year included writebacks of approximately 2 billion INR relating to collection of overdue receivables from a major customer. Adjusting this to one-off, our EBITDA grew at 5.2% YOY. Our energy margin was negative 3.6% in quarter 2, compared to negative of 4.6% in quarter 1 and 4.8% in the corresponding quarter of last year, reflecting a significant improvement during the reported quarter. Our structured energy efficiency measures are yielding positive results, and diesel consumption is further reduced by 11% year on year. Our continued focus on technology-led energy management, including diesel optimization, enhanced visibility into electricity consumption, and adoption of advanced battery solutions is lowering energy cost while strengthening our competitive position and energy performance. After tax was up by 2.7% quarter-on-quarter and stands at $17.9 billion, driven by significant growth in EBITDA, adjusting to the earlier mentioned write-back, paid for the company grew at 6.4% YOY. Our capital productivity remains very efficient. From the trailing 12 months, we delivered a pre-tax return on capital employed of 25.3% and post-tax return on equity of 19.2%. The capital efficiency is reflected in our cash generation with the free cash flow remaining robust at $14 billion for the quarter. The liquidity profile provides us with financial flexibility to support sustainable value-accurative capital expenditure. Turning on Africa, we have successfully deployed tower in Jambia and Uganda in quarter 2 and also started generating revenue. In line with our phase rollout plan, we are set to begin deployment in Nigeria during the current quarter and within the plan, validating our cost model during the initial phases. As the portfolio reaches to a more representative scale, we intend to share more detail on operational and financial metrics in subsequent quarters. By leveraging our discipline and cost-efficient shared infrastructure model and robust network management, we are confident in our ability to become a credible player and actively support Africa's long-term digital infrastructure demand. To conclude, our quarter two performance underscores the resilience of our business model underpinned by healthy order book and sustained customer rollout. Looking ahead, our focus on operating efficiency, structure, energy cost optimization, and technology integration will continue to support profitably. Further, our expansion into Africa progresses on schedule, representing a mixed extension of our core competencies. We remain committed to executing profitable growth opportunity and driving sustainable long-term value for shareholders. With that, now I hand it back to Michelle to open the floor for questions.

Thank you very much, sir.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. I have a first question. Question number one, wanted to understand the mix of a tenancy growth. Now, Prachur, in your opening remarks, you did mention that there is a good amount of 5G tenancy which is coming, and there's also a mention about one customer who has incrementally started to roll out. So, we're trying to understand the mix going ahead. You know, how should we think about 5G growth versus growth coming from this customer, which may not necessarily be all 5G tenancies.

So, Sajin, I'll just clarify. So, maybe 5G was a reference on the 5G network for India. So, whenever we talk about towers and tenancies, I'm not referring to 5G or 4G. It is actually a tower and tenancy for us. It may be a 4G or 5G. So, 5G is actually eventually loading on the same tower. So, I think the question that you're trying to ask is the mix of tower and tenancies. So, actually, this quarter we added 2,900 towers and 1,700 tenancies, which is basically a second tenant on an existing site when we talk about a tenancy. So, I think the mix will depend on the order book, as we said. And as I said, the major customer, the second customer on our site is rolling out, is doing its network expansion. So, I believe the ratio of tenancy would continue to be considerably meaningful. And what will be the ratio between towers and tenancies that is to be seen on a quarter-to-quarter basis. But I believe that ratio will remain quite healthy, given the nature of expansion, given the fact that we have a large 1T tower base that is available for a second tenant to come.

Second question, just wanted to understand one of your towers, you know, agreement has expired. Did we hear back in terms of any incremental update? And one of your other customers, you know, Business Public Info, is looking to raise some money, particularly debt from banks. Looks like we don't have, you know, any incremental update on that. So I'm trying to understand the kind of the business what you will get. So irrespective of whether this entity raises debt or not, how should one think about the incremental business coming to you guys?

So, Sachin, I think I would not speculate on behalf of the customer. But what I can tell you, as I mentioned in my commentary as well, I think we do have a visibility of a strong order book. And I think we will keep executing basically that order book. So you will continue to see our delivery in the line with what the orders we have. I think that's where I would say our visibility is. So I think Q3 and for the coming quarters, we do see that we have a strong order book from the major customers that we have. As far as the tenancy renewal is concerned, I think it's, and we have discussed this earlier as well, I think as of now, we continue to operate the tenancy portfolio with all our customers, and our objective remains to provide them the leading services so that there is no, and we continue to provide them as a third tenant as well. So I think from a cost efficiency and service delivery point of view, we remain very competitive and compared to much lower operating costs than a single tenant would be. However, that is something that is in discussion, and I don't have any incremental updates to share on that aspect.

Got it. And last question, wanted to have an update on Africa. Any numbers you could share in terms of number of towers deployed, what is the target, and what kind of capex should we expect, let's say, by the end of this fiscal year?

So, Sachin, Africa, as Abhishek mentioned in his commentary, I think late part of Q2 is when we have started seeing the towers being rolled out and come in service. So, in the subsequent quarters, you will see us putting out the meaningful metrics out there for you to see. But as of now, it is not at scale. So, we will just wait for the subsequent quarters to start giving you more flavor on the exact numbers that have been rolled out.

Got it. And is it fair to say that, you know, Airtel is currently the only anchor customer? Anderson, you are in touch with some of the other customers. But have you signed any agreements with any of the other telcos in that market?

No, I think it will remain a primary anchor customer in Africa now.

Got it. That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Dr. Vora. So the first one is the rental revenue growth has been around 4-5% in recent quarters, and that's despite BIL traditions, loading, rental escalation, etc. Do you see this accelerating, and what will drive this? This is for India only, not Africa.

I think the revenue growth is always driven by our tower and tenancy growth. And, of course, we have certain aspects of loading and the other escalations which are muted by the renewal impact. So I think the growth will remain, as I mentioned earlier to Sachin as well, there is a strong order book. So I think as we keep deploying towers and tenancies, according to the order book, the growth will be commensurate to that. I mean, unless you want to add something else, Vishen.

Yeah, I think, Kunal, I think only incremental point to add, which is worth noting that last year, quarter two, in the same fiscal year, we had reported one-off benefit of around 0.8% on the overall revenue. That is also impacting the YUI performance for this quarter.

With strong at Dixie's strong colo additions, this is the revenue growth which we are looking at. Are you seeing an acceleration in the coming quarters? Any triggers for that or this is where it will remain?

Kudan, I think, see, sometimes, I mean, I will not draw exact correlation, but what I can tell you, sometimes the co-location additions for a quarter don't see the full quarter of revenue. So, I think the full quarter revenue comes in the subsequent quarter. So, I think there is always a timing mismatch, and if there is a one-off impact in the previous quarter, it also has an impact. So, I don't think it's fair to comment that whether it's going to be at the same rate or higher rate. I think it depends on a couple of factors. And as you see the full quarter impact of the revenue, I think we will see the real meaningful impact. So, there is always an overflow of the revenue for which the tenancies were deployed in this quarter.

Understood. Good. Second one, your power and fuel expenses have increased by only 3% year on year, which is lower versus tower growth of 6%, implying that energy cost per tower is down at a time when there is high energy inflation. I heard that diesel consumption has reduced by 11%. Can you help us understand the energy usage mix? So what is driving this deflation and if this is structural due to renewable energy investment? Also, if there is any change in thought process regarding energy margins?

Yeah. So I think, Kunal, the 11% diesel reduction and the cost reduction, I think it is primarily driven by the operational initiatives that we have taken. I think there has been a substantial work on the solar. As you saw in my side, we have already deployed by end of September close to 49,000 solar sites. Secondly, there's a lot of work that is currently ongoing in terms of how we manage our operations through inclusion of digital and AI in our planning of fuel operations. Thirdly, I think over the last few years, as we have started to transition from traditional lead-acid batteries to lithium-ion batteries, it is also starting to contribute because now it has reached a scale where it can start making a meaningful impact on the cost reduction. So I would say these are structural cost initiatives that have been taken that are making an impact. Of course, at the scale, I think I will focus more on the cost initiatives and less discussion about the margin because there are certain other factors that impact the margin. But from a cost perspective, we remain very confident that these initiatives that we are taking, they are long-term and sustainable to make a meaningful impact on a cost per unit that we take for energy from our customers. Yes.

But the cost does not have any implications on margins, does it?

I think there is. Of course, there is. I think revenue and cost both have an impact on the margin, but it also depends on seasonality. It depends on what kind of efficiency we are operating at. What I'm saying is the initiative that we are trying to take is to make sure that the cost and the efficiency improves, and that will eventually show up in the margin. We saw some impact on the margin already this quarter. You know, there is a meaningful impact about close to 1% compared to last year's quarter two, Because that is the right comparison to make. But as I said, there is still more to be done. And there are certain other elements that can further make the margin better or worse.

Understood. Just one last question. Can you talk about how inflation and currency depreciation are impacting your OPEX and KPEX? And is there a way you can pass on the additional burden to the customer with the high inflation versus the... Also, I wanted to understand that in the past, you have not really seen the 2.5% annual rental escalation coming through. So how inflation and currency depreciation will impact?

See, I think there are two parts to that question. I think first is the escalation that we have that takes care of the inflation impact when it comes to OPEX. As far as CAPEX is concerned, based on our MSA, whichever rates are to be revised on CAPEX, Wherever we have that flexibility, that is accordingly adjusted for the customers. But by the way, the escalation is also on the standard rate of the cover. So the escalation does cover majority of the inflation that is coming through.

My point was that right now we are seeing very high inflation, but escalation still remains where it is. I mean, you don't have any additional pass-on, additional burden.

I think we have to look at a little bit longer term. I think no customer will just give you the inflation at the time of increase and not at the time of, so I think we have to look at a little bit of a longer horizon and how that escalation waiver helps us managing the inflation over a longer period.

Understood. That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may please press star and want to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Peneet Pankha from Nomura. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a question on the KPEX.

So, if you look at growth KPEX, it increases on a Q&A basis, whereas your new tower additions declines.

And if I just divide the growth KPEX by the number of towers added in this quarter, The number comes from 67 lakhs, and the guidance for new tower KPIs is around 20-25 lakhs. So, what is causing this sharp difference?

Yeah, let me take this question. Vinit, thank you for the question. I think if you, the answer lies in the CWIP. If you follow our balance sheet, there is an increase of around 250-odd crore on the CWIP value, quarter-on-quarter, which is a reflection of what Pachur was eluding on the very healthy order book what we have. We continue to roll out tower in the subsequent quarter. Further to this, I think if you look at the profile of growth and operational capex, it's not very different in quarter two versus what we had in quarter one. It's broadly in the same ratio.

Whenever we, in addition, whenever we do the additional tenancies as well, they also come with, whenever we do a tenancy or an upgrade of a 5G or install solar, so all these are Also, the components of capex that impact growth, but it is not reflected by the growth from the tower count per se. So, I think the division of the overall growth capex just divided by a tower count may not be the way to look at the cost per tower situation.

Sir, this same number is going up every quarter. So, I'm just trying to understand if the gross addition of tower was much higher than the net addition that we see in the recorded numbers. Sure.

Maybe. Again, I think it's not just, as I said, it is not just a function of tower. It is always a function of what kind of towers as well are being put, right? You know, whether if it's a rural tower, urban tower, how many 5G upgrades have been done, how many loading have been done, how many sharing sites. When we add a tenancy as well, it comes at an upgrade cost. It's not a zero capex solution. So, I think the growth capex is not just one component, right? There are multiple components that make up the growth capex.

So, any number you can share of upgrading the same tower? So, maybe adding more BTA from the same tower, what is the incremental fit for tower? Any number you can share?

It depends on that. It's a site-specific discussion because some sites will require a larger amount of upgrade in terms of whether you install more mounts or batteries or whatever be the case. It depends on each site. So, we have a bespoke solution. Whenever a request comes, we go site by site, and it can range anywhere. I mean, I don't even want to give a range because it can be with minimal capex or it can be a significant amount of capex. So it depends on what that site is currently at and what kind of site it is currently being looked at. So it's a site by site decision.

Okay. And on the new tower addition, I think this quarter around 2,900, last quarter was around 3,000. So, is this the Runde that we are working at for the future, or you can see some upside from there?

I think, as I said, I mean, I don't want to give a forward-looking numbers, but I said we have a strong, healthy order book for both towers and tenancies. So, I think the growth will remain robust, but it's something that you have seen for the last couple of quarters. I think that inference we'll have to draw, but I think the order book remains very strong, both on tower and tenancies.

Okay. So, lastly, one more question on Africa. So, can you give any number on KPIs per tower for Africa?

I think, as I said, Kunal, we've just started to deploy the towers. I think the later part of Q2 is when we saw the first deployments coming through. So, as Abhishek mentioned, probably in the subsequent quarters, you will start getting some meaningful direction on the KPIs and the count. So, I'll just hang on for a quarter or so when we can start showing some numbers around.

Sure. Thank you, sir. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hrithrik Agrawal from 3P Investment Managers. Please go ahead.

Hi. Sorry, my question has got answered. I'm sorry, sir.

I'm sorry to interrupt you. Your audio is low, sir. Can you please increase the volume a little bit?

Yeah. Hi. My question got answered in the last question. So, I'll go back in the queue. Thank you.

Thank you so much, sir. A reminder to all the participants, that you may please press star and want to ask questions at this time. The next question is from the line of Satindra Singh Bedi from EON InfoTech Limited. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. First and foremost, congratulations on a very healthy co-location count. I think that's excellent news. Related to that, you said that, okay, you see good visibility in terms of co-locations, which is very understandable. In terms of towers, so while we've done good in terms of co-locations and there's no discomfort on that side, Okay. Towers, we've done about 2,800. This is the lowest in the last four years for the 2Q quarter. Okay. So, do we consider this a healthy count in terms of towers? Okay. Going forward. Okay. So, is that our definition of healthy? Should we model that kind of count in our models?

So, I would not comment on the model that you want to build in. I think the whole point is, I think FY24 was the peak of the rollout when you would see a much larger number. But as a country, if you are deploying these many towers, I think it's a robust count. I think when I say healthy order book, healthy order book is what happened this quarter and what happened in subsequent quarters. So I would not comment whether the next quarter will be higher or lower than this, but I think the numbers are driven by what the customers are doing for the network expansion. I think so 3,000 towers, whether it's high or low, I'm not going to comment on that one, but it's still higher than the rate that a lot of deployments are happening. So I think that's where the comment remains.

And some flavor on the leaner towers. So what we've seen is that March 25, we added about 2,400 towers, leaner, and thereafter, the counts dropped to double-digit counts. So we've added 13. So just wanted to understand what is the challenge around leaner towers. Is it that there are smaller, less organized players who are able to probably offer a more cost-efficient solution? I just wanted to understand why is the count dropped to almost negligible?

I think the deployment of linear towers is less dependent on whether we are deploying it or not. It's dependent on how the customer is planning their networks, right? It is, I think, in general, what we have seen a few years ago, there was a large network expansion plan which was based on the linear towers. However, it is more and more moving towards the macro or bigger towers. So, I don't think it's a function of what we are able to deploy. It's more a function of how the customers are planning their network.

Okay. Third, finally, just a suggestion, okay, for your consideration. So, the suggestion is, I think, finally, the primary goal of seed management is to maximize shareholder wealth, which in our case translates into optimization of the stock price, okay, which has not been moving. Even though you have a good franchise, you're executing well. And a possible reason for that could be that we need to have probably a more optimal capital structure. We are an annuity kind of business. Typically, we should fall into a structure on leverage. So we are sitting on a net cash position, okay? We don't have much of visibility. So, in terms of, are there large CapEx plans which are holding us back from optimizing the capital structure as also the corporate structure? So, some visibility on that would help. So, a clear roadmap. Okay. So, what is our stretch target for, let's say, every 29 or 30 in terms of where we want to get? I think that will add to a lot of clarity for investors and will help, okay, build greater confidence because currently we are kind of living quarter by quarter in terms of what has happened historically, but there's no view as to where we are getting in terms of what are the goals. Okay, so that's a question. In terms of corporate structure, do we look at moving into an inventory, okay, over a period of time? In terms of capital structure, should we not be taking optimal gearing, okay, rather than being in a net cash position? Can't we use this excess cash that we are sitting on to do a buyback and hence maximize shareholder wealth? So these are some questions I believe for the management, okay, kind of for your consideration.

Sure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can you please press star and want to ask questions? We'll kick the next question from the line of Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. A couple of follow-ups. So, in Africa, how is your Capex per tower lower versus the other tower companies in Africa? What are you doing differently as you are still at an early stage and you will have a scale difference?

No, I think Capex per tower, to be honest, in our industry, it doesn't depend on scale. It depends on what kind of engineering setup you have, what kind of experience you have, what kind of vendor ecosystem you have. So I think based on our footprint in India, we have learned over the last few years how to look at every single line item in the BOQ and see how we can optimize the cost and the leadership of our team in terms of understanding how to look at every cost. So, I think that's where the – and the engineering capabilities. So, I think that is the leverage that we are using because if you look at the industry in general, across the world, Indus is one of the companies that has been rolling up to the maximum over the last few years. So, keeping that expertise in mind and engineering skill set that we have and the vendor ecosystem that we have, we are trying to look at how we can optimize the cost. So, that is our differentiator that we want to create, differentiation we want to create when we are deploying towers in Africa. Yeah.

And what's the level of difference right now? Any sense which you can flow in?

As I said, I think, you know, let us build some materiality in the deployment, and then we'll start giving you some flavor around that.

Understood. Last question now. Average residual service contract period and minimally rental refuables is down quarter-on-quarter despite a fairly strong colo additions. Is the duration of the new contract which you signed similar about 10 years, or these are lower-duration contracts?

No, I don't think there is any contract that we are signing which is just against the standard term of the contract. I think the annuity remains 10 years or higher. It's not lower than that. Maybe you can...

Yeah, the all-new onboarding of a customer or the renewal is minimum for the 10 years, and we continue to onboard new customers at a minimum 10 years of 10 years. Good answer.

We'll take the next question from the line of Vineet Banga from Nomura. Please go ahead.

I have one more question I had. Any number you can share on the revenue from IBS? Maybe as a percentage of total revenue will work.

Vineet, we generally don't share revenue for IBS separately. The count and the tenancy are broadly in line with what we have for the overall portfolio. We have not declared the IBS revenue, but it's a very small part of the overall rental revenue we have in the business. Sure. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference back to Mr. Prashu Sahaf for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Michelle. The plan to expansion by major customers represents structured growth opportunities for industry. We remain fully engaged with the customers to support their role of plants. Our focus on turning industry into a technology-enabled enterprise is progressing well, and it will enhance its competitive position, customer delivery, and capital efficiency. We are seeing positive results in Africa through a cost-discipline approach and are well-placed to build a strong geographical presence for long-term growth. Thank you again all for joining this call, and have a good day.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Indus Towers, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.