Q3 2025 ReNew Energy Global PLC Earnings Call
Kailash Vaishali Kailash Vaswani Kailash Vaswani Sumant Sinha Sumant Sinha Kailash Vaswani Sumant Sinha
Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Renew 3Q 2025 Earnings Report.
All participants are in listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Anirne Shahi. Please go ahead.
Anirne Shahi: Thank you. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us.
Anirne Shahi: We put out a press release announcing our results for Fiscal 2025, 3rd Quarter, ended December 31, 2025, last night.
Anirne Shahi: and a copy of the press release and the earnings presentation is available on the investor relations section on Renews website at www.renews.com.
Speaker Change: With me today are Sumant Sinha, our Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kailash Vaswani, our CFO, and Vaishali Neeram Sinha, Co-Founder and Co-Person, Sustainability.
Speaker Change: After the prepared remarks, which we expect will take about half an hour, we will open the call for questions. Please note, our safe harbor statements are contained within our press release, presentation materials and materials available on our website.
Speaker Change: These statements are important and integral to all our remarks. There are risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ particularly from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Speaker Change: So, we encourage you to review the press release we furnished in our Form 6K and the presentation on our website for a more complete description.
Speaker Change: also contained in our press release presentation materials and the annual report are certain non-IFRS measures
Speaker Change: that we reconciled to the most comparable IFRS measures and these reconciliations are also available on our website in the press release, presentation materials and our annual report.
Sumant: It is now my pleasure to hand it over to Sumant.
Sumant: Yeah, thank you Anand. Good morning everybody and or good evening or good afternoon. Glad to have you all on our earnings call for the third quarter of fiscal 2025.
Sumant: Before we get into our business and the updates for the quarter and the nine months, let me give a short overview of the macro environment related to our industry in the past three months.
Sumant: In India, the GDP growth rate, which had declined to 5.4% in Q2 fiscal 2025,
Sumant: is expected to again pick up from Q3. Inflation is also benign with RBI cutting rates by 25 basis points earlier this month after a fairly long period of time.
with further cuts, rate cuts being anticipated during the year.
Sumant: We anticipate that Indian domestic banks should pass on these benefits to borrowers like us, thereby reducing borrowing costs for infrastructure companies and making projects more attractive.
Sumant: Power demand has also increased from December 2024 and the recent union budget also had a strong focus on boosting consumption, which is encouraging.
Sumant: The renewable energy environment looks promising with more than 50 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity already auctioned during the year.
Sumant: Therefore, while the U.S. equity markets for renewable energy companies remain challenging, the underlying fundamentals governing renewable energy in India continue to remain quite robust.
Let me now turn to updates about Renew.
Sumant: Renew has now entered the 15th year of its operations, and we proudly celebrated our anniversary recently.
Sumant: From our modest beginnings in 2011, we have expanded our footprint to almost 11 gigawatts of commissioned capacity.
Sumant: I extend my heartfelt appreciation to all of our shareholders, our employees, customers, lenders, advisors, whose unwavering support has been instrumental in our journey since day one.
Sumant: Now let me turn to highlights from our business on page 6.
of the presentation.
Sumant: Over the years, we have maintained our leadership in project execution and commissioning greenfield projects.
Sumant: I am pleased to report that we have achieved one of the highest year-to-date megawatt commissionings with approximately 1.3 gigawatts and an additional 150 megawatt hours of batteries commissioned so far this fiscal year and a total of 2.6 gigawatts delivered since December 2023.
Sumant: Our total committed portfolio now stands at 17.4 gigawatts, representing an impressive 27% growth year-on-year, and an additional 1.1 gigawatts since the last earnings call.
Sumant: We have secured 3.9 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity and 600 megawatt hours of best through auctions so far this fiscal year.
Sumant: bringing our total pipeline to approximately 24 gigawatts plus 2 gigawatt hours of batteries.
representing one of the largest renewable energy portfolios in India.
Sumant: A notable trend this year has been the strategic shift towards more complex projects, with the majority of our auction wins this fiscal originating from such projects.
Sumant: While we are not aggressively seeking additional capacity in the near term, we continue to adopt a disciplined approach, targeting auctions that offer attractive return profiles.
Sumant: With the decline in battery prices, the market has seen increasing number of battery plus solar solutions auctions.
Sumant: We are excited to announce that we won our first solar plus battery energy storage system tender this year.
Sumant: We remain confident in meeting our targeted megawatt installations by the end of the year. This includes about 600 megawatts which is subject to timely regulatory approvals and build out of transmission infrastructure.
Sumant: Our manufacturing facility continues to expand towards its full potential and is now producing about 10 megawatts per day.
of Modules.
Sumant: Additionally, we have been able to secure an aggregate order book of about 2 gigawatts till date, doubling it in a quarter.
Sumant: These modules and cells are expected to be delivered over the course of the next fiscal.
Sumant: Our manufacturing facilities have produced by this time, in aggregate, about 3.6 gigawatts of modules and about 300 megawatts of cells.
Till then, bye. Thank you.
Sumant: Let me now hand it to Kailash for finance and other highlights.
Thank you.
Kailash: Thanks Sumant. Turning to page 7, we are committed to bringing in efficiency in our operation and reducing costs while we continue to deliver profitable growth. This quarter we saw finite basis points improvement in margins primarily driven by a cost
Optimization Initiatives and lower provisioning than the previous comparable quarter.
Kailash: Our DSOs saw a 22-day reduction from Q2 of this year, solidifying our balance sheet and improving our cash flows.
Kailash: Wind PLFs trended lower this year compared to last year, due to which we have reduced the FY25 EBITDA guidance range to Rs. 74-78 billion.
Kailash: and the cash flow to equity guidance to 11 to 13 billion rupees.
Kailash: When providing guidance for the current fiscal year, we assume weather similar to FY24. While actually, we have experienced lower wind PLFs almost every quarter, and both quarters are also below the same quarter in the prior year so far.
Speaker Change: Lastly, Renew shareholders have received a non-binding offer by a consortium comprising of CPP Investments, Mavdar, Adia and Sumant Sinha.
Speaker Change: The special committee comprising of independent directors and advised by Rothschild and Linklater have been in discussion with the consortium regarding the offer.
Speaker Change: While we understand that our stakeholders are eager to know what's going on, however, you'll appreciate that currently we cannot comment on the timing or status of the process and we will report to the market as soon as there is a development at our end.
Speaker Change: We will not be able to comment further on the offer at this stage.
Let me turn it back to Sumant.
Yes, thanks Kailash. Turning to page 9.
Sumant: I am happy to report that we have been able to increase our operating megawatts by about 26% year-on-year and our total operating portfolio now stands at 10.8 gigawatts.
Sumant: During the last 12 months, we have been able to commission over 2.6 gigawatts and have commissioned about 1.3 gigawatts so far in this fiscal year.
Sumant: In addition, our total contracted portfolio has also grown by about 27% to 17.4 gigawatts.
Sumant: During the year, we signed PPS for approximately 3.8 gigawatts of RE capacity and our committed capacity is now 17.4 gigawatts along with 800 megawatt hours of BESS.
Sumant: While the auction market provides ample opportunity to grow, we continue to be disciplined in our approach to bidding.
Sumant: We are selective and conservative in our bidding and so far this year have managed to secure 3.9 gigawatts of RE in the current fiscal year along with another 600 megawatt hours of base.
Sumant: We do see that batteries will play a significant role in providing grid balancing in the future and provide flexibility to grow with more certainty on returns.
Sumant: We have won our first Solar Plus Best bid in the current fiscal and will continue to focus on these bids as well.
Sumant: Our Capital Recycling Program also continues as earlier, as we signed an agreement to sell a 300 MW Seki solar asset, with the transaction expected to close by March 2025, with valuations in line with our past capital recycling transactions.
Sumant: Turning to page 10, execution remains our core strength and time and again we have demonstrated our ability to build large scale projects efficiently and within budgeted costs.
Sumant: On the solar construction front, we have already commissioned 1120 megawatts this year, with an additional 175 megawatts in the final stages of regulatory approvals.
Sumant: Moreover, 400 MW of solar projects are fully erected and will move towards COD approvals.
Sumant: The Peak Power Project has also been commissioned under the PPA and we have also commissioned almost 800 MW of our RTC project.
Sumant: In the wind segment, we have commissioned 140 megawatts year-to-date with another 500 megawatts of turbines already installed and ready for grid connection.
Sumant: While most of the work has been completed at our end, last-mile connectivity and administrative hassles could have a minor impact on the commissioning timelines.
Sumant: Our manufacturing business is turning out to be a significant competitive advantage for us.
Sumant: On one hand, we get access to uninterrupted supply of high-efficiency modules. On the other hand, external sales enable in generating cash for the company and help de-risk the business.
Sumant: The business generated an EBITDA of approximately INR 560 million in Q3 of fiscal 2025.
Sumant: Our manufacturing facilities have produced an aggregate of 3.6 GW of modules to date and is approaching an average daily production rate of nearly 10 MW every day.
Sumant: As we ramp up production, our sales team has played a crucial role in securing contracts for surplus capacity.
Sumant: To date, we have secured an external order book of 2 gigawatts, which includes 1.1 gigawatts of cells plus modules, a volume we aim to deliver over the next fiscal year.
Sumant: Lastly, our cell facility started commercial production in the current year, in the current quarter and has already doubled, has already produced over 300 megawatts of cells.
Sumant: We have achieved an industry-leading efficiency of 23.2% for ourselves, underlining our commitment to quality and high standards.
Kailash: I will now hand it back to Kailash to go through the finance section.
and Kailash Vaswani.
Kailash Vaswani: Thanks Sumant. Turning to page 12, our operational portfolio has seen a 26% year-over-year increase in megawatts, underscoring the strength of our EPC execution capabilities.
Kailash Vaswani: Our cost optimization efforts are showing results and EBITDA margins have expanded significantly from 75% to 80% in the current quarter and improved by 240 basis points for the 9-month period ended December.
Kailash Vaswani: Adjusted EBITDA rose by 11% year-on-year, primarily impacted by weaker-than-expected wind performance. We also continue to see improvement in DSOs. Our DSOs now stand at 72 days, our lowest ever, and a 22-day reduction over the previous quarter.
Kailash Vaswani: If we look at the year-on-year EBITDA walk, while newly commissioned projects contributed an additional Rs 2.8 billion in revenue, but lower-than-expected bill resource led to a revenue reduction relative to guidance of Rs 1.6 billion for the quarter.
Kailash Vaswani: Furthermore, asset sales during the period resulted in a comparative revenue reduction of approximately INR 900 million rupees.
Kailash Vaswani: partially offsetted by the rupees 1.1 billion savings in the quarter that we achieved through our cost optimization initiatives.
Kailash Vaswani: such as internalization of O&M that was earlier outsourced to wing OEMs, LGNA reduction and a reduction in discretionary spend along with a lower one-off impact.
Kailash Vaswani: Let me now turn to page 13. All of India has been impacted by poorer wind resource in fiscal 2025.
Kailash Vaswani: compared to last year, details of which are there on page 23.
Kailash Vaswani: While we based our initial guidance on weather being similar to FY24, however wind PLFs have been below FY24 levels and solar PLFs have also been slightly lower.
Kailash Vaswani: In Q3 FY25, Portfolio Level, WinPLF, stood at 13.5%, a decline from 17% over the previous year.
Kailash Vaswani: During the first nine-month period, absolute wind BLFs are fallen by almost 240 basis points.
Kailash Vaswani: Although wind performance has been lower than anticipated, our cost optimization initiatives have helped mitigate part of the impact due to savings of Rs. 2 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.
Kailash Vaswani: Turning to page 14, in spite of the lower than expected EBITDA performances, we continue to be committed towards being disciplined in our leverage.
Kailash Vaswani: Our operating project leverage ratio continues to be below 6x using trailing 12-month EBITDA rather than the run rate figures, which under normal weather conditions should improve slightly.
Kailash Vaswani: Let me now hand it over to Vaishali for comments on ESG.
Vaishali: Thank you Kailash. Turning to page 16 and reviewing advancements in Venue's ESG initiatives and targets now.
2024 has been a stark reminder of our climate reality.
Vaishali: With global temperatures surpassing the 1.5 degree centigrade threshold, the importance of sustainability has never been more evident.
Vaishali: At Renew, we remain unwavering in our commitment to this cause.
Vaishali: Over the last quarter, we have made significant strides in the following areas.
Vaishali: ESG Ratings. Renewed performance in the highly regarded S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment has been a major highlight for us in this quarter.
Vaishali: We became the highest rated pure play renewable energy company in India by achieving our highest ever score of 73 out of 100.
Vaishali: Additionally, we made history as the first company from India's electric utility sector to be included in the prestigious S&P Global CSA yearbook.
Green certifications.
Vaishali: Renews Jaipur manufacturing plant achieved the highly acclaimed LEED Gold certification, further reinforcing our commitment to a green and sustainable set of operations.
Vaishali: Leadership Awards. In the past quarter, Renew has received nationwide recognition from leading publications and organizations.
Vaishali: We were named Company of the Year by First View for our business excellence, innovation and renewable energy leadership.
Vaishali: Our solar, wind and hybrid plants secured the CII Performance Excellence Awards, while Financial Express honoured us as the winners in the Clean Energy Champion category at the Green Sarthi Awards.
Vaishali: Now turning to slide 17 to review the progress made across our ESG targets.
Renew remains committed to achieving its SPTI-validated Net Zero target.
The development of our decarbonization roadmap for manufacturing is underway.
Vaishali: and we are advancing efforts to reduce COPE 3 emissions through the ongoing assessment of a sustainable supply chain which includes detailed supplier ESG assessments, target setting and advanced monitoring.
Vaishali: Social responsibility is integral to our business, driving community stewardship, volunteerism, and equitable development.
Vaishali: This commitment propels us towards our goal of impacting 2.5 million lives by 2030, with our programs already reaching over 1.4 million lives impacted. In Quarter 3, we made considerable progress in this regard.
Vaishali: We distributed 163,000 blankets to those who needed them the most.
Vaishali: Solar electrification of 46 schools is underway and 55 digital labs have been established across the country.
Vaishali: As part of our SORPAN work program, we are upskilling women and a total of 595 women have been trained to date, with 150 completing their training in Quarry 3.
Vaishali: As part of our company wide sustainability targets, we remain on track to achieve both our short and long term rating goals.
Vaishali: These ratings underscore the impact of our first integrated report and we look forward to building on this momentum and reporting our progress with the release of our second integrated report in 2025.
I will now ask Kailash to cover guidance.
Kailash Vaswani: Thank you, Vaishali. Coming to our guidance, we are reaffirming our megawatt guidance for the year, which includes 600 megawatts, the commissioning of which is dependent on timely regulatory approval and timely build-out of the transmission infrastructure. While we have a good handle on execution, we are impacted by weather and its seasonality.
Kailash Vaswani: We are lowering the range of our four year 2025 expectation on adjusted yield build-up and cash flow to equity guidance.
Kailash Vaswani: On the other hand, we are happy to update the runway guidance for our targeted portfolio of 17.4 GW, which is up 1.1 GW since the last quarter. With that, we will be happy to take any questions.
Speaker Change: Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.
Kailash Vaswani: If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2.
Speaker Change: If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Justin Flair with Brock Capital Partners.
All right, thanks for taking our questions here
Justin Flair: So, first off, I wanted to start based on the wind PLF, you know, Q3, the PLF was lower than it has been historically here. I was wondering, is this just the result of lower wind speeds in India broadly? Was there any other issue or any factors in terms of the performance of your specific projects?
Speaker Change: how you see when PLS trend into Q4 and whether or not we're seeing a return to historical averages.
and many more. Thank you. Thank you.
Sumant Sinha
Yeah, hi Justin
Look, the PLF reduction was entirely on account of wind.
Wind speeds in Q3 were
Speaker Change: significantly lower and so you should assume that the entire Delta and PLF as an account of wind speed differentials from the long-term averages.
Speaker Change: That is really what caused the decline in revenue along with that so far wind speeds are in in Q4. It's all that's been early to comment on it Are getting closer back to normal, so I would say they're not entirely back to normal, but they are certainly not as you know quite as bad as they were in Q3
So, that's where we are right now.
Speaker Change: Got it, okay. And then I wanted to see, you mentioned that rates could be lower than India here. I was wondering where you think...
Speaker Change: rates could settle for your project finance, what do you think the outlook is there? And then how much of your debt do you think could benefit from lower rates here in the near term? And if you could potentially quantify what that potential impact might be, that could be helpful.
Thanks, guys.
Speaker Change: So, Justin, as far as the rate reduction is concerned, so, you know, we're yet to see the transmission of that from the lenders into their lending rates. But, you know, whether we have rates which are linked to short-term benchmarks like three-month treasury bills, there, you know, we have started seeing the benefit of that because the short-term rates
Speaker Change: have started reducing. But that would be a small component of our portfolio. I think the overall, the variable rate part of the portfolio, you will see some reduction happen, which is around 30-35% of our portfolio.
Speaker Change: We got that benefit earlier, before the rate cut also happened.
and Kailash, the long-term outlook.
Speaker Change: So long term outlook, again with inflation coming, being tamed in and government's focus being on, you know, encouraging more growth.
Speaker Change: also encouraging more consumption. I think there would be continued reduction in waste, which is likely to happen. Only caveat there is obviously the currency.
where, you know, to some extent, you know, given that
Speaker Change: and the rupee had depreciated quite sharply against the dollar. That could be one thing which should be playing on the government's mind in terms of how much to reduce and how fast to reduce. Because, you know, obviously then that will result in a flight of capital.
and Kailash Vaswani.
Speaker Change: Got it, okay. And then just one more, curious on the battery plus solar solutions here, I was wondering if you'd talk about the anticipated product returns and how those compare to
Speaker Change: playing vanilla solar projects or more complicated, you know, round-the-clock projects. How attracted do you see the returns there?
Speaker Change: I think a lot depends on the assumptions that you make on the pricing of batteries, obviously, when you make the bid. Now, prices of batteries have continued to go down quite substantially, as we all know. And so, therefore, wherever we have batteries and whatever batteries we have in our portfolio,
Speaker Change: are looking attractive because the assumptions that we made on pricing were relatively conservative.
Speaker Change: and because of the reduction in pricing, we are sort of looking at, I think, attractive returns on those.
Speaker Change: I would say that Plain Manila Solar probably, in a way, gives us the lower returns of the three. And then you have Solar plus Storage and then you have the FDRE base.
Speaker Change: which are probably the highest return. The delta between them is probably, in terms of IRR, is maybe 2-3% or thereabouts.
and Kailash Vaswani.
Thank you. Thank you.
Got it, that makes sense. Okay, thank you.
Your next question comes from Mahit Manroi with Mizuho.
Hey, uh...
Speaker Change: Good morning from over here and thanks for the questions. First, just on the solar manufacturing,
Speaker Change: You guys have, I think on the last call, you said you're at 10 megawatt per week run rate. Could you just remind us what the run rate is on the cell and module for you guys and how to think about the...
Speaker Change: The backlog, how much of that should be, do you expect revenue recognition on a quarterly basis going forward here? Thanks.
Kailash Vaswani: Yeah, so look, I think I'll talk about the production and I'll ask Kailash to answer on the revenue part. On the production part, we are sort of between 10 and 11 megawatts right now per day of modules.
That's the rate that we are producing at right now.
Kailash Vaswani: So, if you want to annualize that, you know, assume 350 workdays.
then you get a sense of where the...
Kailash Vaswani: the Megawatts is from an overall standpoint. The eventual goal is to get that to
Kailash Vaswani: over 12-13 megawatts a day, so we are sort of moving in that direction quite well given that some part of our module capacity was commissioned fairly recently.
Kailash Vaswani: On the cell side, we are producing between 3.5 to 4 megawatts every day right now. And that is something that, again, is getting close to what the expected production rate was or needs to be on a steady state basis.
Kailash Vaswani: And the more important thing almost there is that the efficiency levels on cells is actually among the highest in the country right now. So our team has been able to really stabilize the plant at a fairly high operating efficiency level. So that's positive.
Kailash Vaswani: On the revenue side, Kailash, would you like to take that?
within the groups on consolidation it gets knocked off.
Speaker Change: So for third party is what we have reported our numbers.
for the first time this time.
So for the, you know, first...
Speaker Change: 9 month period, which was largely, most of the phase happened in the quarter
We had 3.4 billion of revenues.
Speaker Change: and around 600 million rupees of EBITDA for the current period. And going forward, obviously, as and when third-party sales happen, then similar amounts would then be reported for the third-party portion only.
and many more. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker Change: We see a lot of Chinese companies or maybe US companies also claiming ownership of Topcon patents and bunch of lawsuits and not in India but other regions, but is that a concern for you? Are you seeing any of those poured over to the Indian markets?
I think, yeah, Kailash.
Kailash Vaswani: Yeah, I was just saying that, see we in any case not, mostly it's companies who were exporting into the US, that's where most of these actions were taken given that we did not have any exposure to the US.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: or if they are in line or better than what we saw in the past sales you had. Yeah Mahit, so it is commented obviously in the presentation that someone gave, but basically it is in line with our past recycling initiatives.
Speaker Change: Gotcha. Sorry I missed that. But no, appreciate the comment. Thanks.
Thank you.
Your next question is from Nicole Nagania with Bernstein.
Nicole Nagania: Thank you for taking my question. My first question is on the border, the renewable space, while the government is pushing on their plans, we are hearing some headwinds, you know, land availability for wind, transmission access, which seems to be alluded to in the presentation as well, and even TPA signing.
Speaker Change: So if you could share some color on these aspects, is Renew facing similar challenges or how does the company see it on these aspects?
and Kailash Vaswani.
Kailash Vaswani: Yeah, hi. So, you know, I think that the allusion that we made to transmission issues really is a very sort of small issue, which is that
Kailash Vaswani: There's a bay that we're connecting to in one of our projects, that bay is getting ready a month later than it was supposed to.
Kailash Vaswani: and because of the March 31st deadline for commissioning therefore it sort of you know puts a little bit of a question mark on or a big witty on whether that is going to then get done before March 31st or not whereas we're going to be fully ready from our side.
Kailash Vaswani: But, you know, whether it happens on March 31st or if not, then it will happen 10 days later. So, that is not, you know, such a big issue from an overall revenue.
generation standpoint and so on.
Kailash Vaswani: and the bigger issues that you are addressing or you are raising.
all around land and general connectivity, availability, and PPE assigning.
So let me try to address those quickly.
Kailash Vaswani: So, as far as we are concerned on transmission, we have got all the connectivity for all of the 24 odd gigawatts of pipeline that we have got fully in hand.
So, we don't have any issues around connectivity right now.
Kailash Vaswani: And in fact, we have surplus connectivity, I think, as you had yourself written in a report some time ago. We have surplus connectivity, and therefore, any new bids that happen, we'll actually be in a really good position to use some of that land-based connectivity that we have to win those auctions.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
and Kailash Vaswani.
Kailash Vaswani: We are also able, based on the connectivity's commissioning dates, we are also able to, in some ways,
Kailash Vaswani: Sumant Sinha, Kailash Vaswani, Sumant Sinha, Kailash Vaswani, Sumant Sinha, Kailash Vaswani,
but by and large
The delays are not more than that.
Kailash Vaswani: And therefore, if you plan your execution out reasonably well in terms of which projects go into which substations and so on, by and large, those get delivered. As I said, there could be a few months here and there, but the delays are not more than that.
Kailash Vaswani: So, I would say that connectivity is becoming a problem for those companies that have not proactively blocked the connectivity earlier, which fortunately is something that we had done. So, therefore, connectivity per se is something that is fine as far as we are concerned.
As far as land is concerned, land is...
Kailash Vaswani: A problem in wind. It has always been a problem in wind projects.
Kailash Vaswani: And that is why, if you see, a lot of our increase in our commissioning is happening out of solar, not so much out of wind.
Kailash Vaswani: We don't expect that wind is something that is going to exceed maybe 5 gigawatts a year in the country over the next, you know, few years, maybe the next 2-3 years, we'll probably end up just doing about that much capacity in wind, as an industry I'm saying.
Kailash Vaswani: and our share within that will be, you know, whatever it will be based on our own commissioning plans.
Kailash Vaswani: So, land is definitely a problem and particularly in the last 6 to 9 months.
Kailash Vaswani: where a lot of projects were being done in Maharashtra. There were specific issues...
Kailash Vaswani: on account of certain Minister of Defence issues because of the elections that were coming up and then local law and order problems that I'm sure you've read about in the press and frankly that has also impacted us.
Kailash Vaswani: in terms of our commissioning timelines. Otherwise, we hopefully would have got some of the wind projects commissioned by this time.
Kailash Vaswani: So, that always is something that we have to bake in to our plans that wind projects do take longer to get commissioned than solar projects very often.
And then as far as PPAs are concerned
Kailash Vaswani: On the PPA signing, I would say that this year there has been reasonably decent progress on PPA signings given the large backlog or the large amount of bids that have happened in the last two years.
Kailash Vaswani: The fact that out of the maybe 120-130 gigawatts of bids that have happened in this current financial year and the previous one, there are only maybe 30-35 gigawatts.
Kailash Vaswani: of unsigned PPAs, but the balance of it is all got signed.
So, I would say that...
Kailash Vaswani: There is a lot of headroom that is built up now.
in terms of signed PPAs.
Kailash Vaswani: If you were to look at that as another indicator of what capacity additions may happen in the near term. So my sense is that the balance PPS will also get signed.
Kailash Vaswani: And I think at this point, the government is considering slowing down the pace of bids potentially to allow the old bids to get signed. And that is perfectly fine because the pace of bidding has been extremely rapid.
Kailash Vaswani: So I think it will give all of us a little bit of breathing room to just reassess where we are and look at our execution pipelines and so on. So I think that would be a healthy thing in my opinion. So my sense is all the PPAs eventually will get signed, or at least the most amount of them will get signed.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: of the Business Manufacturing Plant. But when we see some peers, we understand you have captive views, but when we see some peers, they talk about sale prices, domestic sale prices being around $0.14, $0.15 for what they get for selling domestic sales.
Speaker Change: We were expecting sort of a higher impact of that. So do you see in the coming quarters it could be a sizable number that the manufacturing business could throw up for profitability?
Speaker Change: You know, for sure, I think sale prices in the market right now are fairly attractive.
Speaker Change: and we are not selling any cells to ourselves. We are selling modules to ourselves right now and we are selling cells into the market outside, into the external market, simply because most of our projects don't require domestic cells at this point. So all of our cells will be going into the external market and so to that extent we will actually gain from the pricing that is in the market right now and that will of course start getting reflected in our P&L as we go forward.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: We are selling at a lower price than where the market is at, just by the way. So that is not the case. So you should assume that wherever the market is, you know, we are also sort of at the same point.
and Kailash Vaswani. Thank you.
Speaker Change: and one last question I have is the dollar has moved much faster than many of us anticipated so just on the hedging front I wanted to understand both on the debt and the capex front so debt, is it all hedged by swaps or is it auctioned as well?
Speaker Change: and on the Capex front also whatever exposure we have, we have on the currency side.
Speaker Change: Yeah Nikhil, so basically for hedging, you know, we use a couple of different instruments.
Speaker Change: Most of our borrowings are from foreign commercial banks or DFIs that are fully hedged using swaps.
Speaker Change: Some of our bonds also, you know, recently when we had the opportunity of seeing lower hedging costs and the rupee was also fairly stable for the longest period of time below 83, you know, we had, you know, moved most of that into full swaps, full currency swaps.
Speaker Change: We have two bonds, one of them has a call spread, where there is full coverage up to a certain point and beyond that there is exposure, which is, I think, if I remember correctly, that limit is like 90 or 92 in that range.
Speaker Change: beyond which we have some exposure and then there's one bond in which we are exposed till the 90 or 92 point beyond which we have exposure.
Speaker Change: So, it's like a diversified hedging policy that we follow and we know what our maximum exposure could be and it's again in line with our stated hedging policy which is approved by the Board and Audit Committee.
Thank you.
Thank you. Those are my questions. Thanks for asking.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker Change: My first question is, you know, there has been a spoil sports for quite a while now. Are you now baking that also in your, you know, 17.4 gigawatt Ryden 16x?
So, basically the...
Speaker Change: Expectation is that that's obviously a long-term guidance so we don't make long-term changes into that.
Speaker Change: It is largely what we've tried to do is that, you know, assume the long-term forecast, which have been corrected, based on the experience of the last few years, but not reflected of every year-on-year performance, for example.
Speaker Change: and that way we have tried to estimate the long-term guidance. Our expectation continues to remain that wind does move in cycles, and this has been an extended cycle which hopefully will reverse and we should see the dividends of that also.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Unsigned LOS beyond 12 months can be allowed to lapse. Can you comment on what is your view on that?
Speaker Change: So, you know, I think, Puneet, there are lots of conversations obviously that are happening in the government. There is also another school of thought that says that cancelling any PPAs will lead to a lot of reputational damage for the government.
Speaker Change: then the question also becomes what happens to the connectivity associated with those pairs.
Sumant Sinha: Kailash Vaswani, Sumant Sinha, Kailash Vaswani, Sumant Sinha, Kailash Vaswani, Sumant Sinha,
Speaker Change: And so, any future bids that happen, which will have to account for domestic sales, will be more expensive.
Speaker Change: and therefore, the chances are that DISCOMS will realize that those earlier builds are actually more attractive.
Speaker Change: and we'll look to potentially sign those rather than have those getting cancelled.
Speaker Change: And currently if you can also comment on the process of buyback, I know you won't comment much but what is the next stages should we see on the buyback side?
Thank you.
Speaker Change: So, Puneet, it's not exactly a buyback, it's an offer by a group of shareholders to buy out the investors, the public investors, with the intention of taking the company private.
Speaker Change: So, again, you know, as we said in our earlier remarks that, you know, we have got this offer which is being evaluated by the Special Committee, advised by Rosharan Linklater and once, you know, there is a new movement, then we will be announcing it.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Okay, so will the independent board get involved here, or is there some...
Speaker Change: Yes, so the special committee is a special committee form which comprises of only independent directors.
Okay.
Speaker Change: And lastly, if you can talk a bit about capacity addition plans for FY26 and specifically for projects which you can commission before June of 2025.
Before June of 2025, in terms of
So, I think I will ask you a question.
Yes, so there is a 600 megawatt slug.
Speaker Change: which is what, you know, if it spills over then it would be commissioned within April of F5-26, which is April 25 and apart from that, obviously, you know, we have, we will be giving out our long-term guidance you know, in our June results. I mean our March results will come out by early June.
Speaker Change: It's difficult to give an estimate right away at this stage, so would advise waiting for the FY26 guidance which Kailash said will come out along with our March results.
and Kailash Vaswani.
Thank you so much and all the best.
and Sumant Sinha. Thank you.
and David, you want to go ahead?
One moment. I'll announce the next questioner. One moment.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: The next question will come from Annika Mittal of SBI Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
and many more. Thank you. Thank you.
Annika Mittal: Thank you. I have a couple of questions on India. So why all India's PLS levels have come down? The drop in our average PFS has been pretty stark. I'm just trying to understand, is it a region or is it a phenomenon that you see in particular regions of India?
Speaker Change: I couldn't catch that question at all. I don't know whether you guys did, but if you can repeat it, that would be great.
Speaker Change: Am I audible? You are going in and out a little bit.
Speaker Change: Okay, just give me a minute. So the question was, was, was again...
and Kailash Vaswani. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Aniket, for someone's benefit, I think I broadly got the question, correct me if I'm wrong. It's like, you know, our PLF decline has been higher compared to some of the other peers. Is it a function of the region where we are present, where we have seen a bigger decline?
Speaker Change: Yes, that's the question. And again, just to understand, will these PLFs now be closer to P90 limits?
Speaker Change: Fairly one sort of periods of time at that time, and that's why they're usually the reversal of when that takes place from the southwest have not eased that.
Speaker Change: Took a lot longer to happen than expected than it normally does December was closer to average still not forget average in January has been kind of similar to December and February of course is happening right now so hard to comment.
Speaker Change: You only have to take I would say is that.
Speaker Change: At least in at least in North India. This has been a very warm winter and we need temperature differentials between land and sea to increase for the northwest the northwest brings to floor and that is something that we have not seen as much this winter.
Speaker Change: And so that I think also has caused this lack of wind.
Speaker Change: This this this period of time.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: And then the other question.
Speaker Change: Casual pants clean <unk> clear.
Speaker Change: Pleasingly, becoming more FTE audience a bit heavy.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Speaker Change: Talked about the fact that.
Speaker Change: The capacity that you're trying to accomplish.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: <unk> been looking at.
Speaker Change: Looking at battery storage.
Speaker Change: Could you just give us some thoughts in terms of.
Speaker Change: How do we know.
Speaker Change: The capacity additions will be incremental.
Speaker Change: Perfect.
Speaker Change: Patients are you thinking about.
Speaker Change: Thanks, a lot.
Speaker Change: So what exactly is the Chilean BRD.
Speaker Change: <unk> eliminate because of people.
Speaker Change: Having to relocate that window.
Speaker Change: They will be Fabian.
Speaker Change: Yes. So you know the configuration is a function of the bid requirement.
Speaker Change: As well as sometimes you have the ability of a certain base also buying a certain amount on the market.
Speaker Change: And.
Speaker Change: Also a function of obviously the pricing of Vale.
Speaker Change: <unk> solar and storage so all of those things impacted configuration now at the time that we bid and solve these bids the pricing.
Speaker Change: Was that a certain level.
Speaker Change: And we came up with a certain configuration based on that the pricing as well as of course, all the other parameters that I was talking about earlier, which are the requirements and specifications.
Speaker Change: Now as time has elapsed sorted the lab seed some of those are relative pricing levels change and as I said for example, first of all solar prices have come down quite dramatically over the last couple of years. So any bids that happened two years ago for example vote now.
Speaker Change: Different configuration, because advisor solar has come down.
The same thing with batteries battery costs have also come down quite dramatically in the last year or so and so therefore.
Speaker Change: What we have required more wind earlier potentially can do will actually get more optimize all lead to higher returns now with a higher degree of solar and storage and a lower amount of wins. So this is a dynamic situation in every bid and obviously at the time that we signed the Ppas when behalf too.
Speaker Change: Fix the final configuration and so at that time, we rework the models.
Speaker Change: And the basis that you come up with what is the best model one of the best configuration at that given point in time based on all the costing and so on so that and that changes as I said, so because the cost of solar and storage have been coming down. Therefore, we are moving more towards solar and storage and these have daddy bids and less.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Okay understood.
Speaker Change: Yeah. The question was on the.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Mark.
Speaker Change: Declining win win and that's been the internalization that you've been doing.
Speaker Change: So if you could provide some color on how much of the O&M is now being done internally, what the scope of that going forward and have them look at the kind of O&M expense bullshit.
Speaker Change: So yes.
Speaker Change: Yes, so you'll get Carryon Nicholas Please go ahead.
Speaker Change: Yeah, no so again.
Speaker Change: To answer the question basically for solar we do all the O&M in house for Wayne.
Speaker Change: When we had like legacy assets you had legacy.
Speaker Change: Long term O&M contracts with the Oems now and many of those cases, they always sticky one drag so it was quite difficult.
Speaker Change: Again out of those available you know what we were not able to get out what we tried to deliberately reduce the pricing, meaning we should in the pricing.
Speaker Change: And accordingly, we got some timings and wherever we could.
Speaker Change: Are you in Npls ore and where there was no such long term arrangement in place in those cases, we have started doing the O&M in house for these projects.
Speaker Change: Exact numbers, we can circle back, but likely that what we are seeing now this year and what we have seen that the benefits largely accruing on account of both the reduction in the O&M cost that we had and because we had breached certain O&M equalization reserves in the box just to you know the difference between.
Speaker Change: Fiona on the payroll and opinion, because we had a reduction in the O&M cost. We believe we do write back some of those results because those are no longer needed and hence there was that benefit that we saw in the current nine month period.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: My last question.
Speaker Change: In terms of external module sales.
Speaker Change: This quarter whats the quantity.
Speaker Change: Although volume.
Speaker Change: [laughter].
Speaker Change: Sorry, what was the question maybe I can do it.
Speaker Change: Go ahead. Some other question you went through the quarter.
Speaker Change: Video external module shipments in the third quarter. Okay go ahead.
Speaker Change: So let me kick it was.
Speaker Change: Little North of 200 megawatts.
Speaker Change: It takes time to maybe book tour.
Speaker Change: Sure.
Okay.
Speaker Change: Another question on that thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you there are no further questions at this time.
Speaker Change: That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating you may now disconnect.
Speaker Change: [music].
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Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: <unk>.
Speaker Change: [music].
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Speaker Change: [music].
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: Yeah.