ABB India Limited (500002) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

November 5, 2020

BSE Limited IN Industrials Electrical Equipment earnings 68 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

T. Sridhar

executive
#1

Very warm welcome to you, all. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, for the Q3 2020 Analyst Call for ABB India Limited. So on this call, I'm accompanied by Mr. Sanjeev Sharma, the Country Managing Director for ABB India. And I have all my business representatives from various locations. I have Sanjeev Arora, the Division Manager for Motion; C.P. Vyas for Electrification; Subrata Karmakar for Robotics and Automation; and of course, I have G. Balaji representing the Industrial Automation as well. So -- and I also have Sohini on the call. So first of all, I think I got a quick feedback that the time which was there for you guys to analyze between the time we published and you -- who attended this call was very less. We will definitely take care next time that you -- we have sufficient gap between the 2 events, right? So -- but having said that, we always get that in this era of digital transformation, you would have already AI tools, which could probably give you those analysis right away as soon as we load the results, but I think that's a work which we'll do on both ways, right? So without wasting time, over to you, Sanjeev, for taking us through the results.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#2

Thank you, Sridhar, and good afternoon to everyone. Thanks for joining us in this call. So I also noted the comments just made by Sridhar. So if you have time to analyze it the way you wanted, feel free to put those questions. Otherwise, our officers and our communication team is always, again, open to receive your queries and give you qualified responses as we go forward, right? So I'll give you a bit of an overview about quarter 3. And on the business highlights side, as you know, that in this extraordinary year, health and safety got even higher attention from us for managing the COVID. Anyway, we keep very high focus in this area, but we need to ensure that our employees, our suppliers, our contractors, our customers and all the stakeholders around us, we have new protocols to conduct the business, keep the business continuity while keeping everybody healthy and safe. So that was in full flow. And I think it stabilized quickly so that we could do the business in a good flow across all the businesses, and we could draw the results as you have seen published. So now the priority areas are to focus in the market segments which are tracking well, and we continue to focus on those areas wherein there is a CapEx and OpEx investments. And we continue to support those customers and their ambitions. And the customers who are kind of lagging a bit or their market segments which are lagging a bit, we still support them because we know it's just a matter of time, they will also come around, and they will be participant in the business growth. We continue to keep customer centricity. And I think that's one of the common theme across all our 16 business divisions, wherein we have unique proposition, but the customer centricity is the common proposition we have with respect to how we serve and connect with the customer. And during these times, I think you have to choose what is most important. And we chose cost and cash management as the most important element. And you will see in Sridhar's financial that there are very positive results because of how we kind of -- how we managed the cost and cash elements in our balance sheet and also in our operations and also how we collected the cash, which was out in the market. And it has given us a fairly robust position as we go forward. On the key takeaways, now given that economy and the travel and the movement is open, we do see that the demand recovery is in play. And there are segments which are really doing well, and there are segments which have become quite demanding on -- for our products and services. But at the same time, there are certain traditional segments which are still lagging for their own lack of demand and local -- lack of confidence to invest. But I think this mix is good for us because for our 16 businesses, as I tell you every time, we are exposed to about 19 market segments. So even if a few market segments are down or up, I think we have a good balance and good forward growth in our portfolio. Government investments remains key to fuel the growth, and I think that's something we recognize. And we always look where the government is supporting, which sectors they are supporting better. So we also make sure that our time and focus are spent there. And of course, our growth segments, while conventional sectors continue to face headwinds, but it's just a matter of time. I think we need to support them equally well during this transition period. On the business side, if you see comparing the traction how we are moving from previous quarters to this year quarter, so I think we have a good traction on orders relative to the previous quarter, good traction on revenues, good traction of PBT and PAT. That's very satisfying. But when we compare to the similar quarter last year, I think we still have catch-up to do. I think the market demand, if you had to use a thumb rule, not -- it is not uniform the same way in all the businesses. But typically, if you take it as an average, it's about 85% of what we saw last year. And that is reflected in our numbers as well. And we have adjusted our cost and our expectations and our operations accordingly to cater to this demand in a very efficient way. So I think we are not able to -- we don't have a single case wherein we are not able to serve well, both on product delivery and services. But as the economy is opening up and as the speed is coming to the demand, we see that the robustness is returning to demand in certain segments for us, yes. Okay. And then as we said that, yes, we are deploying new technique, and we continue to make investments because this is a good time. And that's our attitude all along our 70 years of history in the country, that doesn't matter what ups and downs come, we stay continuously, we keep on looking at the journey far ahead, and we keep on investing. We have opened up our own eMart, wherein we will sell online our electrification and motion products, which are fast-moving products. And this is a very good gateway for our customers to reach out to our products very quickly, configure them and order them online. And we hope to have a very good traction in this area. And also, we have doubled the capacity of our robotics capabilities in the country to cater to the requirement. And we already see some early orders from some customers which are rewarding our initiative as well as the capacity building in the country. And of course, some of those projects, we cannot talk about it right now. But in due course of time, you will hear from them because of customer-specific NDAs that we have because they are tactical in nature. And also quite a bit of a shift to the digital and remote technology to serve our customers. It has made it easier for customers to create higher reliability, availability, maintainability and serviceability of their assets. And also, it saves a lot of time in terms of attend to the call, analyze the call and react to the customers. And this, again, is building into the ecosystem. And it is quite a positive, which has come up during this pandemic period because these capabilities have enhanced because customers have started accepting these services from us. Again, if you look into the sectoral focus, definitely, data center, pharma, warehouse logistics is a big segment going for us. And equally strong, we see the demand from food and beverage, renewables, railways and metros and power distribution. We are still waiting for conventional power generation, rubber, plastics, pulp and paper to kind of again show demand. But I think it's just a matter of time that some of them may or may not bounce back, but I think some segments will come back. Then from the government side, self-reliance in manufacturing. We have analyzed which are the business lines which have higher local footprint or local supply chains or localization. And the ones which have a higher import, we are ensuring that we are paying due attention to those areas, and we are localizing at an accelerated pace. So that not only we keep the competitiveness, and also we have a much more expanded and robust supply chain in the country. And again, the consumption story, which will be unleashed by the agri reform. So I think it will again open up a lot of opportunities in midterm for us. I think we are keeping an eye and supporting the players in this particular area. And FMCG companies, we see there's a lot of expansion there. And we have a lot of unconventional orders coming from FMCG companies. They are investing a lot on the automation, robotics and other areas, which were not the case earlier. So automotive may be down, but then we have, for example, for robotics, new areas and new segments which are opening up, which are absorbing the technology quite well. And of course, infrastructure push is going to be helpful as we go forward. So I now hand it over to T.K. Sridhar, our CFO, to take you through the financial highlights.

T. Sridhar

executive
#3

Thank you. Thank you, Sanjeev. I think the performance -- overall performance relatively to the second quarter, I would say, is reasonable, given the challenges were handled -- what we handled in Q2 and Q3 and also from the fact that we have a demand acquisition yet to start in real terms and which will be visible more in the Q4 onwards, while we are dealing with the pent-up demand opportunities, which we had in Q3 results reflected, all right? So from the order side, as you see, we have INR 1,300 crores of orders. And now this is 19 percentage down compared to the previous quarter same time, right? So that when we compare it to the base orders of the last quarters, I think this fairly -- it shows a growth, right? And when it comes to the revenues, I think it's a mix of quite a few revenues, a bit of more systems, businesses coming in and long cycle products, product orders getting executed and less of service this time. And that's the story of service people not being able to visit sites to generate opportunities or attend to customers, right? It still persists on the ground, and it persists not only from our side [indiscernible], but also from the -- more importantly, the customers agreeing to take up the people for the services. So it's more restricted to remote servicing is what is there on ground. So -- and when it comes to profitability, I think we were benefited definitely by the -- a favorable ForEx, which we had in this particular quarter and also by good expense reductions, what we continue to make sure that we are agile in these trying times. And this really helped us to shore up the profitability, what you see over here at this point of time, right? And cash, as Sanjeev was mentioning, so we actually showed again increase of cash position compared to the previous quarter. And also combined, it is more or less in line with the previous year closure, what we had. And are there challenges in the market to collect cash, answer to that is still air. I think the difference which is playing out is the strong customer connect, which all operations and the sales team have. And of course, it also depends -- it also is largely prevalent due to the fact that ABB commands a bit of a more -- I mean, a premium in the market when it comes to payment and taking services. So that's how it is. So coming to the next slide, which is a summary of the P&L account, right? And here, if you look at it, the material cost has definitely increased, and that is more influenced by the mix as what I was mentioning to -- mentioning earlier, which is a 68 percentage and the personnel costs. So whatever actions which we have done in Q2, which is the April to June quarter, still remain. Nothing has been sort of rolled back and still because we are unsure about the situation at this point of time. So this is reflected with that. But when you compare to the quarter end of immediately preceding quarter, and I think that was one-time advantage what we had taken, which is not available every quarter. So that's something which is a reflection. So that if you look at it from a Q3 '19 to Q3 '20, so it's more or less stable. And we have sales in spite of an increase, what has been given on an annual increment basis, right? And other expenses actually, definitely, are lower than the previous quarter. So that's -- and here, I would say it's more of a behavior alignment with the volume changes. That is actually giving us good variation on the profitability. And also, we have a relatively [indiscernible] sort of better ForEx compared to the -- what we had experienced in earlier quarters, right? So this is overall how the profit flow happened within the organization. So I -- with this, I dwell deeper into the division-wise numbers. I think this could be of -- to the interest of you guys. So Electrification, so we have order booking of INR 492 crores, and they have an order backlog of INR 1,300 crores at this point of time. So I think the orders mainly consisted from data centers, metro, food and beverage. And in some of the distribution orders, we have repeat orders from customers. And also the launch of new products like anti-bacterials, which have really paved way for this particular order momentum. Revenue, I think it's an -- it's a strong export performance, which improved the revenues in the quarter, too, and also the -- but whereas the service-related constraints still persist. So PBIT, I think, was a really strong performance at this point of time. I think it's more driven with the capacity uptick and the cost rationalization, which is still continuing, right? And also previous year, we should be mindful that it included solar business, which is not so great in terms of profitability, and also because we also did definitely supporting pricing actions in the market. And favorable ForEx impact also helped them show the profitability. When it comes to Motion, I think it's a very resilient short-cycle business, right? And we see some revival in execution patterns as well. So we had an order book of INR 554 crores in this quarter, and they have a backlog of INR 651 crores (sic) [ INR 1,651 crores ]. And all these backlogs, both in EL as well as MO are clearly attributable backlog. So we have a visibility as for the contracts which run into the future quarters. So here, I think they had traction from transportation, digital and service businesses over here in terms of orders. And this -- and the continuous engagement of the MO teams on the ground really helped them get these base orders on time, and it has been a support for the future revenue as well. The revenues of INR 629 crores, which is there for MO, is basically driven by backlog conversion across all major segments. So that's pretty much clear, right? So we didn't have any bottlenecks in terms of revenue execution, but there are a lot of efforts to make this revenue happen, given the challenges which we have in this pandemic moment. PBIT of INR 69 crores. I think it's in, I would say, compared to the previous year, MO was given -- took an advantage of the situation in terms of enhancing its capacity utilization and also better volume and mix. Going to Industrial Automation. So I think -- let me see if I can change here. Yes, so Industrial Automation, I mean, the orders at INR 274 crores. So as we look at the curves, I think they are still facing a lot of headwinds because their customers are basically from the core sectors, right, where the CapEx decisions are still yet not seeing much of an -- a push. And that keeps them definitely on a tender -- I mean on really a challenging position over there. And hopefully, when the market revives there, and added to that, we also have the turbocharger business, which is a part of Industrial Automation, where the customer is Indian railways. And they are moving away from diesel to electronic -- electrical, electrification. So as we had said in the previous call, so this particular customer move, while it impacts Industrial Automation, it's sort of a boom for the Motion division where they get traction converters, right? So they have a backlog of INR 1,342 crores. And they are definitely experiencing deferment of CapEx decisions, right, and also while they see opportunity in new markets like water, chemicals and small and midsized projects. Revenue, INR 367 crores. It definitely increased compared to the sequential quarters. And metals and cement definitely impacted because they have flatness in the demand. And CapEx and export-related project revenue is also impacted for the same reason. So project -- and our profitability is actually -- has been quite a challenging for Industrial Automation for a few quarters and the next quarters to come because it's dependent on the demand revival. And also it has a uniqueness of running the system businesses. So when the system businesses have a procrastination of closure depending upon the customers, then it really has a challenge even in cost-of-cost positioning locally. So -- and we have a decline in service and export component because Industrial Automation had and have more than 20 percentage of the revenues come from service. So any decline in service impacts quite substantially that way. So -- and added to that, we had an unfavorable ForEx impact also impacting the same. Robotics and Discrete Automation is a nice picture to see. They have sort of from what they were in the last 2 -- call them 2, 3 quarters. They are slowly looking at some offshoots. But definitely, I think it's not the same level as what we would have expected. This is a market that is yet to catch up over here, and they are exposed to the auto Tier 1. That's basically where we find lower orders coming in from. So -- but I think on a futuristic basis, we still expect that the opportunities will emerge from consumer and electronic industries. And when it comes to revenue, they did revenue of INR 45 crores, probably higher than the first quarter as well and based on uptick in the service revenue and projects that we could do it remotely. But as we say, customer sites are still not operational and the restrictions about movement of customers into the -- and outside in the customer places. So you have a challenge as to how we service them and be closer to the customer. But all these digital means is sort of helping out all of the business teams to close this particular gap. So unlike others, I think Robotics leveraged from higher service revenue, which improved the margin. So coming to the last couple of slides, I think the composition of the revenues and the profitability and PBIT more or less remains the same with EL and MO being a major contributor to all the 3 items. I think once Industrial Automation picks up, probably, I think they would also come and recover from the position where they are. On the last -- and this is my last slide, I think if you look at this clearly, we can see that services are definitely down, right? And this is across all the segments as such, right? So with this, I think we can open up the session for question and answers, right? So over to you, Janice.

Operator

operator
#4

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Bhavin Vithlani from SBI Mutual Fund.

Bhavin Vithlani

analyst
#5

Congratulations for good set of numbers. So a couple of questions. One is a lot of the outperformance has come from the margin side, and especially, on the other expenses front. So what part of this, in your view, could be sustainable? And what part could reverse as normalcy comes back?

T. Sridhar

executive
#6

So Bhavin, is this the only question?

Bhavin Vithlani

analyst
#7

No. The second question that I had was, we have been seeing lower margins on the Industrial Automation side. And you did mention about turbochargers. So what part of the decrementals is contributed by the turbochargers? And if we take out the turbochargers, what could be the underlying margins of the other IA business? So these are my 2 questions.

T. Sridhar

executive
#8

Okay. So let me answer the first question. And then I would -- Sanjeev, you want to take the second, right? So second question, Sanjeev will answer. So Bhavin, so when it comes to the other expenses, if you look at it, we are in the range of roughly around about 350 million -- INR 350 crores every quarter on an annualized basis. Today, we are probably running at INR 250 crores to INR 260 crores as what it is, right? And this is within revenue, which is reduced by 15 -- 15 to 16 percentage compared to the same. Doesn't have any growth factor as such, right? So that's being the case, right, so I would assume because there are certain expenses which are directly related to the volumes. And you could look at it compared to the immediately previous quarter. So we were at roughly around about INR 200 crores last quarter. And today, we are talking of INR 260 crores in that way. So I think to me, right, so the expenses, which are discretionary spend, right, will be -- will continue to follow the path of caution. So we will not basically spend anything which is not required. But when it comes to expenses which is relating to business enhancement or operational performance, customer satisfaction, and that will continue, right? To answer to your question, I think the discretionary spend of our total expenses roughly form part of only 20, 22, 25 percentage. And that's the place where we play with, but other expenses are definitely along with the volumes and the negotiations which you get for the volume increase because you are on the supply chain leverage. Over to you.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#9

So on the Industrial Automation side, I think if you really look at Industrial Automation, we have 4 businesses. One is IAPI, which is the industrial automation process industries, which basically exposed to all the large core industries in the cement, steel, pulp and paper, mining, et cetera. So -- and it had a direct correlation to what is happening in those sectors and the amount of spend on the CapEx and OpEx side, those customers are able to do it. And if you see these areas, these are subdued at this point of time. And some of them are showing the green shoots, and they will come back. And accordingly, the order as well as the revenue pickup in these segments will follow that trajectory. If you look into the second business, which is IAEN, it's energy business, basically, these with the oil and gas, chemicals and the power generation side of the business. I think the oil and gas side and the chemical side of the business, we have good successes. But if you look into the power generation segment in the market, especially the brownfield projects which were upgrading themselves, they are kind of depressed, and they are kind of into some kind of limbo at this point of time, if I choose the right word. And that also has a corresponding impact on the IAEN. But as we go forward, the quality of those projects and those customers will become clarified, the ones who are serious players, they will execute their contracts. And accordingly, it will pass-through our books. When it comes to IAMA, which is the measurement and analytics, I think we have a good traction there. I think that business is essentially products. It's not exposed as much to systems business or integrated systems unlike IAPI and IAEN, wherein we package automation solutions and the electricals together and also a lot of site work. Those -- that is a more product-oriented business, and there, the flow and the profitability flow and the revenue flow is quite reasonable at this stage, given how we are in the marketplace today. And when it comes to turbochargers, turbocharger, we are a hub unit for turbocharger here in India. We serve Bangladesh, Sri Lanka as well as India from here. I must say that the Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are doing quite well in terms of turbochargers, given the amount of activity and amount of consumption they have on the diesel-generating side and also on the marine side. In India, there's a reversal taking place in the Indian railways, wherein the Indian railways is moving away from diesel locomotives to electric locomotives. And those -- that has a kind of a reducing cycle for turbocharger business, where the exposure is to the Indian railways because that's a very firm and clear trend. But then whatever other opportunities in the market, turbochargers continue to expose itself. But while we have the reduction of turbocharger on one side, but then at the same time because of the electrification of the railways, we are picking up the business and the volumes on the traction side of the MO business, our Motion business. And that has been quite robust pickup for us. So maybe whatever we may lose as a volume on turbochargers, we have a reasonable and a good pickup on the Motion side on the turbo converters and also on the metro side of the portfolio. Now with respect to the profitability is concerned, it's directly proportional to the revenue pass-through into our books and the traction of revenues. And as we go forward, I think the backlog that we have, we foresee that gets executed, and that will be executed with the good discipline. But also, we would like to review some of the projects like, say, in power generation side, what kind of tracking we have in that area. And we continue to review those projects. And as and when we find some weakness, we will notify to you as well as to the markets. So I think that area is a bit of a tough spot because of heavy industry exposure. And as you know, generally, the heavy industry is not investing in particularly strongly at this particular point of time. But we have a long-term view to these businesses. So we will adjust our cost to the revenue projection that we have for following quarters. And accordingly, we continue to adjust as the demand comes back in these segments.

Operator

operator
#10

The next question is from the line of Renu Baid from IIFL.

Renu Baid

analyst
#11

I have 2 questions. First, if you can help us understand the continued momentum that you've seen on the Motion side. One part of the leg, you did explain in terms of higher growth coming in from the rail electrification portfolio. If you can also elaborate some of the other end growth drivers along with competition from the domestic players in the space? And second would be on the export side. How has that performed in terms of overall revenues for the quarter and YTD? And have we yet started to see some material traction in terms of export opportunities for industrial products? And third, if you can answer any tailwinds that you see coming in from Codian acquisitions for robotic in the F&B, pharma and related segments of the portfolio?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#12

So Sridhar, if you can answer the export part first, then I will invite a comment on Motion from Sanjeev Arora and Subrata for Robotics.

T. Sridhar

executive
#13

So yes. So on the -- when it comes to the exports, Renu, the order inflows have been static, right? So there have been neither no increase nor decrease. That's what we've seen from the order inflows. So we are roughly the same as what we used to be earlier. Roughly, 12 percentage of the total orders are from the export orders, what we have, right? And it's the same last year as well. So I think we expected that exports could be a good contributor to fill the gap, which is there in the domestic market, which is not the case at this given point of time.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#14

All right. So with respect to specifically about Motion, I think very quick comment from my side. I think it's a combination. What we enjoy today in the market is a combination of continuous investments through different cycles in last many years and expanding our portfolio on the very high energy efficiency motors as well as continue to boost our portfolio on the dry side and also continue to kind of localization efforts. And of course, a lot of connect, market connect that our team under the leadership of Sanjeev Arora is leading. So Sanjeev, would you like to give a reflection to Renu what is it causing a better performance on the Motion side?

Sanjeev Arora

executive
#15

Yes. So thanks -- sorry, Sanjeev and others, I got disconnected. So I just joined back the call. So I think, first of all, it is actually our -- of course, giving due credit to our teams. And our customer servicing approach, that has really -- the way we have supported our customers in COVID -- when the COVID was at its most, I would say, fearsome peak. So it's not over, but at the fearsome peak, how we supported during the lockdowns our customer, that has really created a very good, I would say, affection for...

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#16

Sanjeev, if I may interrupt, I think what we had is a drop of call for a few -- 1, 2 minutes, could you restart from where you kind of started speaking?

Sanjeev Arora

executive
#17

Okay. So am I audible?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#18

Yes, you are. Just repeat from -- right from the beginning.

Sanjeev Arora

executive
#19

So thanks. So [Technical Difficulty].

Operator

operator
#20

Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but your audio is breaking up. We are unable to hear you well.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#21

Sanjeev, your audio is breaking now. Okay, so we wait for Sanjeev to fix his audio connection. But in the meantime, we can go to Subrata about Robotics. What was -- what precisely was the question, Renu?

Renu Baid

analyst
#22

Sir, this was regarding the acquisition, which parent has done, Codian acquisition, which brings in the skill set for F&B, pharma and related portfolio.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#23

Sure. So Subrata, why don't you give a very quick overview other than nonautomotive sector, what is happening, and how this acquisition also helps you as you go forward with your portfolio?

Subrata Karmakar

executive
#24

So first of all, thank you. It's a very good question from your side, Renu. Only thing is I say that is a huge change shift in technology is coming into the robotics and flexible automation side. We see that in India also, it's basically a little bit early stage, but a lot of responses are coming from warehouse and technology and -- as well as pharma, electronics industry. Although it's early stage of automation, but we did -- we're getting a huge response from this segment. And at the same time, the acquisition has happened. Now in the robotics which is coming from the very flexible and adding the most portfolio into it. So we are very hopeful about this. I cannot speak at this moment the complete technology acquisition filled. There are a lot of things going on in the back end. Otherwise, however, what I say that what are all happening, which is completely the view, keeping the vision on the electronics, where are these technologies, food, pharma industries. So the shift is completely -- it is getting shifted from the so-called legacy systems of automobile industry towards those new segments. So it's coming up, a very exciting technology shift is coming up in the coming future. We will see even early 2021 a lot of such kind of product and portfolio are adding into our products level.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#25

Thank you, Subrata. So Renu, we do see good traction in this nonautomotive sector. That's why we are acquiring these additional technologies. And of course, when the acquisition is made, it takes some time to create that synergetic effect and inform the front lines what to sell and how to sell. But I think maybe next time when we take a call in January, February period, perhaps we can elaborate it more for you.

T. Sridhar

executive
#26

Sanjeev, are you back?

Sanjeev Arora

executive
#27

Yes. I'm back. I hope I am audible, and it doesn't, again, go back.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#28

Okay. Go ahead, Sanjeev. This time, let's hope it works.

Sanjeev Arora

executive
#29

So when we talk of Motion, actually, so the customer connect of our teams, I give through full credit to our people there, how we supported our customers in the COVID times during the lockdowns when it was at the fearsome peak, I think that has really given a strong bonding with our customers. And then afterwards, how we ramped up our operations, our supply chain, how we converted their urgent and requirements into -- into the revenues and really supporting them to run their day-to-day operations in the industry, I think these sectors have really played a good part. And then by the time this was settling, then there came some momentum in the market also. Some pull was also there in the market, which was a lull period in, say, May -- April, May, but then situation improved month-on-month. So when we talk of the light industry, the pharma, food and beverages, HVAC, so things started moving upwards. Then we have also seen good orders from our traction business. We had good orders from our traction motors, traction converters. So that gave the top line growth, and the baseload orders continued to show a good improvement. Our channel business was -- came -- it was the last in the recovery. But then slowly, when that Tier 3, Tier 2 cities came to a bit of a momentum, our channel business also started improving. So overall, it has been, I would say, a good combination of the markets and the back-end support what we provided to our customers. And on top of it, I would also like to highlight that during this time, really the -- how we have supported on the remote connectivity, so be it remote commissioning, be it remote monitoring offers or be it remote installation. And also to add to that, the factory acceptance test, we were able to do remotely in all our motion products. So with this, the customer is not -- he's not supposed to travel to our factories. But then he gets the similar, I would say, experience, as if he is doing it face-to-face. So these all things have really built up a good base for Q3 as well as future for Motion.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#30

Thank you, Sanjeev.

Sanjeev Arora

executive
#31

I hope I was able to answer, and sorry, and sorry for the audio.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#32

Thank you, Sanjeev. So Renu, that's what. There are many factors that have to come together for a business to perform. And I think all the inherent technologies and the possibilities we had, our teams deployed it. And I think that is a combination of fact that caused it.

Operator

operator
#33

The next question is from the line of [ Sujit Jain ] from ASK investment.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#34

Sanjeev, I have a question on, when our global CEO took charge, he did a con call with the analyst community. And there, he set out a target of 13% to 15% margins for the entire group, which I'm assuming and we are presuming that obviously will be applicable to us as well. When I look at our company and our peers, the typical margins even in the best time hover between 10% to 11% if I look at our long history. And plus, we have an additional handicap where our outgo to the parent in terms of the fixed support royalty and other fees, et cetera, was at around 6% in CY '18 and around 5% in CY '19. So that is higher than the other peers who are listed and are MNCs. So how do you see us reaching that 13% to 15% margin and which has been set by the global CEO. That is question one. And the second question is, again, on the margins in IA segment. You singled out the turbochargers. When is this legacy order/order is going to come to an end because this is the fourth quarter in a row we've had suboptimal margins? And a quick last question is on digitalization. When do you start reporting, giving us some idea as to what percentage of revenue digitalization, IoT is contributing?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#35

Okay. So I'll remember the -- just to repeat so that I keep it in my memory. One is about the global CEO messaging. Second is your question is about the IA. And the third question is regarding the -- what you call the digital part, right?

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#36

Yes.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#37

So on the first part, yes, I think we heard the same message as you have heard from our global CEO. And I think he has been very consistent with his view forward, and he comes with an extremely high credibility of having run companies and have delivered what he has said. So I think that's where it starts. And I think there's a lot of confidence of our Board and our kind of executives into his capacity to kind of drive us in that direction. Now when it comes to translating those results, you may have also heard the way he focuses on his businesses, he focuses on each and individual division at a global level. And at that global level, we have about 18 global divisions. And he has given the empowerment end-to-end to each division to deliver the reserves that he expects from them. And I think that's something which already has been explained and already been kind of factored into each and every division that what delivery they need to do. And then correspondingly, each of those divisions translate their targets into respective geographies globally, what expectation they have from different markets, given different markets give you different price positions and different volume positions. And also expect different CapEx investment and also different return expectations. So that way, you will see that this flow of expectation from the global CEOs to global divisions to our respective local divisions, which also sit part of ABB in India, there will be a 100% alignment. And accordingly, the expectation will be that how much value chain margin that business makes across the globe and which one contributes how much. So accordingly, the distribution gets done logically to divisions at a local level to deliver to. So that's how the process runs. As far as India consolidated numbers are concerned, it will reflect the sum total of 16 business divisions that we run in this country and -- out of 18, because 2 of them are more U.S.-centric. And these 16 divisions have a very well entrenched and good market position. Some of them are fairly mature businesses. Many of them are at a high kind of growth curve, and many of them are having a bit of a declining element because of -- I explained like the turbocharger case with the railway changing the market dynamics. Now within that play, what we do is at India level, we ensure that we read the expectation from the global business lines and divisions. And we set up the local businesses to succeed in that direction and make sure that they are operationally as well as market-wise, they are well connected to deliver those expectations. So to your question of what global CEO said, that's all his target and expectations would be met, okay? That's number one.

T. Sridhar

executive
#38

So the next question was about declining IA margins. So I would like to take that question, right? So as what we have been seeing, I think, and what you would also be experiencing outside as well, the projects which we have, IA is only division which deals with projects in the current profile, right? So all the others are -- and the majority of them are products and small systems what we deliver. So projects -- and typically, we have, as what Sanjeev was mentioning, 2 business units which work only on projects, which is basically the oil and gas, which also has the power generation element of that incorporated. So the customers of this and the projects they have, which we are currently executing, are definitely facing headwinds. There's absolutely no doubt about it, and that is what is reflected in how the performance is and also a declining service volumes also impacting them, leaving their own turbochargers. And when it comes to the process industry, it is direct reflection of how good they are in getting the order small and a good mix of orders. So it's basically a demand versus supply gap, which we have at this point of time. So that's really impacting them. So now coming to the question of how long will this legacy projects continue, right? So [Foreign Language], I would like to answer this in 2 ways. One, when we look at legacy projects, there are 2 methods as to how we do it. One, is simply to ensure to engage with the customer, to open -- to get into a discussion and the strategy of closing it in a more, what we call, seamlessly, right? And that's definitely dependent even on the customer side about his preparedness to close the site and close the project and take over the project rather. So that's basically very much dependent on him as well. So unlike products where you deliver and the risk and liabilities that goes with that, whereas in the projects unless and until you commission and guarantee the performance as what is required to be delivered as a part of system offering, so until the time we have made it to the customer on the site. So now coming to this particular listing. So conventional power sector is where the power generation is where we are facing definitely headwinds. So we, as like previous quarters and previous years in the previous businesses what we dealt with, we follow a very consistent and the conservative policy of looking at costs very closely. And we do that quarter-on-quarter to make sure that we are able to factor it into the results, right? And when you say when you factor into the results, it means it's more because the accounting guidelines may make sure that you adhere to that. And during the execution time, whatever claims and whatever sort of recoveries we make, we will follow later when the project is closed. So it's like an impact which you take first, and then we need to work on it to make it better going forward, right? So the accounting policies follow first. And then you get your sort of contract closure impact later at this point of time. So coming to the long story short, I think as every time every year, we make sure between the years, we are fully taking a position. And now that the market is -- and the mobility is opened up a bit, I think in Q4, we will see more of actions and active discussions with the customer to find out how do we bring it to an early close and whatever be the sort of cost of the particular closure. We look at it from how we can sort of negotiate with the customer. So that's in -- this is a very challenging and tough task. But believe me, the project managers and the teams on the ground are struggling and really working very hard to see the bad side of what we are today seeing. And probably, I think when we give this room to -- for them to close it out to the customer, I think they should emerge as successfully going forward, right? And the next question is about the digital revenues is what you say. But Sanjeev, would you like to take it?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#39

Yes. So on the digital side, just like what I said before, we have 18 business divisions globally. We have common technologies, which are available to them. And now with the CEO vision, each of those divisions have defined their own path for the digital, and mostly, the way technology works in the industrial area, it's an embedded part of our proposition to the customer, and it gets priced alongside our proposition to the customer as we make it attractive for the customer. In the case of Industrial Automation, it is more dominant than prominent. And the global division, our digital officer for the IA is based out of India. In fact, all the work is carried out of India. We have recently released the suite of digital products, which are under promotion and available to the customers to extract more productivity from their existing assets. And also when they do the planning for future assets, they can use it. In my understanding, I have not seen any where, wherein we intend to publish the digital numbers separately. I see them as a CEO of a company as an embedded part of the proposition of ABB portfolio. And that enhancement gives extra productivity for the customer, and it gets priced accordingly part of our offering. Balaji, are you on the call? Have you seen any area wherein we are -- there's a requirement for you in IA to publish this digital number separately?

G Balaji

executive
#40

Yes. Sanjeev, there has been no sort of demand to publish the digital number separately. And as you rightly pointed out, this is embedded into the respective divisions and one of a very strong portfolio for the market offering.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#41

So essentially, if you see -- just to finish off this question, how to see ABB, we are talking about Industry 4.0. We have lived through Industry 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0. Always in each phase of new technology change, new technologies come. And they improve the productivity equation for our customers with our solutions. So Industry 4.0 and digitalization is nothing more than the tool and the method by which you deliver more productive solution to the customers by implementing our technology. So that's how it gets part of the embedded package, and that's how it gets priced. I doubt we are going to start segregating it as such, yes.

Operator

operator
#42

The next question is from the line of Renjith Sivaram from ICICI Securities.

Renjith Sivaram

analyst
#43

Yes. Sir, congrats on good margin performance, given the overall challenging environment. Sir, if you can throw some light, I think in between, there were some discussion whether we need to shift some of our robotic operations from China to India. So is there anything like that planned? And if so, what kind of CapEx we have to incur for such kind of a facility? And what's the kind of market? Will we be able to export some of these robots, which we manufacture in India to the other entities? So if you can throw some light on that asset?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#44

Sure. Yes, go ahead.

Renjith Sivaram

analyst
#45

And one more thing I wanted to understand, there has been some of the dormant competition, if I can take a name like Crompton, which was under severe trouble now. No promoter has come. So are you -- because of that, do you see an impact on your market share because until now, they were not at -- won't be that active in the market. Now they are becoming more active in the market. Is that something that we have to worry about? Or we are in a different pedigree compared to them?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#46

Sure. So on the robotics, I think, as far as we are concerned, we are investing in this area. We have invested in the area. Just 2 months back, we have doubled the capacity of our robotics operations there in India. So in fact, whatever deliveries we do to the customers here in India for robotic solutions, it is done by our team of engineers led by Subrata, and that facility has doubled its capacity. So we already have made the investment, and we are seeing a very good traction and response from a lot of customers to buy those products and services from us. And while we do that expertise to the domestic customer, the same expertise is also exported out to many projects, which are happening across the world. And that is increasing in the robotics space. Your question about China and India is more of a robotic's arm, which is basically a vanilla product, which you bring, and you configure it to the application you want to apply it for. And there are different sizes of the robots. So at this point of time, the robots, the unit comes from overseas. But the actual work, which really creates value for the customer is the application engineering, commissioning and tuning it to the process and also giving them the online services so that you maintain high reliability, availability, maintainability and serviceability. So yes, already, the investments are there. Expansion has been carried out. We continue to do that. And as we go forward, we continue to explain -- expand our footprint globally in terms of selling those application services across to the customers. So that's one part. The second part of the question was...

Renjith Sivaram

analyst
#47

Robotics.

T. Sridhar

executive
#48

China?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#49

No. No. No. China is the second?

Renjith Sivaram

analyst
#50

Any CapEx that we are initializing for this robotic facility?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#51

Yes, we have already done that CapEx, and that facility has -- it's an ultramodern facility, has been created with a very strong customer experience built into that. And if you really see from the eyes of some of the customers who have committed to expand their automation portfolio with us, I think they're really impressed in terms of what we have brought in for them here in the country. So there was another question other than Robotics. There was it, okay.

Renjith Sivaram

analyst
#52

So there was this question regarding one of our competitors.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#53

Okay. Okay. Crompton Greaves. I think Crompton Greaves has been there for a long time. So quite frankly, my attitude and my colleagues' attitude is we expect competitions to be there, but we don't think too much about them. We think only about our customers because we have enough to do to service our customers even more effectively, and that's where most of our energy and program goes. And we have a very direct response whenever we engage with customers more effectively and serve them well. So that kind of shows us more in speed. And Motion division is more exposed to the Crompton Greaves portfolio. And there, you can see already the results are tracking well with or without Crompton Greaves going into trouble if you track them for last 3, 4 years. And if it has gone into a new group, it's an investor who has come in. I think their operational capabilities and portfolios don't change overnight. And also customer perception about them doesn't change overnight. I think they will have something to do on the ground to make themselves attractive in the eyes of the customer. So we wish them well. But I think what we have to do is we have to do what we need to do.

T. Sridhar

executive
#54

I think, Sanjeev well said. I think to add to what Sanjeev was mentioning is that a couple of years before, I think we started to focus on the conventional sectors. And today, I think when we look at the cross-section of the orders, what we have and the customers, what we see, I think we're fairly very well widespread. And that's why you could see, had we just only concentrated only on the conventional sector as what we were in a couple of years before, right, and where -- if the situation could have been quite different than seeing a number like this even in a quarter which is affected because of this pandemic, right? So I think what we want to say is that we keep exploring new customers, new market segments and that we saw the seeds pretty early. So that then going forward, it helps us to build that particular line of business, which will help us out in times of need.

Operator

operator
#55

The next question is from the line of Aditya Mongia from Kotak Securities.

Aditya Mongia

analyst
#56

My question relates to another question asked about the global guidance for margins being 13% to 15% band. The question which I ask for that is of enough importance given the division level to reach margin targets. Does it mean something positive from the perspective of in-sourcing within the ABB family, and thus, exports for ABB India getting a fill-up out of it?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#57

I think that's a very good question. So if I may, prior to taking this role 5 years back, I used to run a global division, right, and that I ran for almost -- for a long period of time. So I can speak from my attitude how I take decision and how global division managers take decisions. Now what happens is just now imagine that you have a CEO who presses you for performance. So you have only 2 ways. One is that you increase the price or you reduce your cost or you increase your volumes, wherein your breakeven points are reached very, very quickly. So India really falls into that sweet spot. And as this thing lays out, I definitely see in certain product lines that process has started. And India operations are being leveraged quite effectively and to connect with the markets, which cannot be or should not be served from Europe and other places. I think that momentum, we have already started seeing. But it is still at the infancy of it, and I believe that story has to play out as we go forward. And given the way if you look into the ABB balance sheet and you look into our assets, we already have enough land. And we can expand the capacity that we have today in terms of production, almost twice as much as we have today, and it's already well mapped in. It is in the hands of our global business division managers. And they -- based on their expansion requirement and also the capacities, they will have to adjust elsewhere. I think India definitely will be not only beneficiary, but one of the beneficiary of that change as we go forward. And accordingly, then the effects and the impacts come into the underlying kind of profitability at the global level as well as at the local operations where it gets processed here.

Aditya Mongia

analyst
#58

Sure, Sanjeev. Another question from my side would be that maybe an independent question on exports as such. We've seen in the past that Electrification has been the major driver of exports. And India received several opportunities and kind of ramped up production of select products in Electrification. As you see through the export story from here on, would you consider that to have more breadth across the Electrification segment including basically robotics?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#59

So in the Electrification, you see the story is made out of our medium voltage switch gear division. So they are the ones who have been -- they are very stable and strong and #1 business domestically. And also that is being leveraged out, outside. So I think that purely globally and locally is. Any business which is stable, profitable,and has a good solid base domestically, that's the one which goes out and starts serving other markets, right? So that's what we have been following. And not only in EL, we have started seeing that traction in Motion in a big way, especially with our motors being supplied across the regions, and the acceptance level is very high. And also for our Industrial Automation, especially process industries, they are the hub here in India for whole Middle East, Africa. And a lot of export projects are also carried out by them in the different markets across. Robotics side, which is a smaller business but fast-growing business, already they are delivering projects in Europe as well as in Americas sitting out of Bangalore. So I would say, yes, different stories at different scales, but that's what the character of each division is, how mature it is, how stable, how profitable it is in the domestic market, and then what is the leverage effects we can bring to the other markets, not only help ABB India but also support the global businesses to be more sustainable and profitable. So that's part of the equation and story. Other than Electrification, we are seeing that is happening in other businesses also, but more at the start-up stage. Motion is more in the mid-stage and the others are at the start-up stage, yes.

Aditya Mongia

analyst
#60

One last question from my side if I may. This one relates to where, let's say, parent is in the Electrification business in terms of the contribution of, let's say, smart building. And where we may want to -- where we are in India and where we have aspired to be. It seems as if the parent has a fairly large proportion coming from such kind of smart buildings, building automations kind of line items, verticals. What is the Indian strategy or the India group strategy to kind of play, let's say, a catch-up over there?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#61

So first of all, I'll bring in C.P. Vyas, who holds the electrification products. So let me say my view on this portfolio is the quality of the product and the acceptance and the demand of this product is extremely high with the customers who know these products quite well. So our focus is to really make sure that our product quality is experienced by the customers, both on the building portfolio as well as smart portfolio. And C.P. Vyas is leading that charge. So I'll let C.P. explain what the Electrification strategy is for the growth as well as profitable growth. C.P., over to you.

C. Vyas

executive
#62

Sanjeev, can you hear me?

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#63

Yes.

C. Vyas

executive
#64

Okay. So nice question, thank you very much for this question. And this is one of our executive pillar that how we can grow profitably in a smart building from electrification's point of view. The last few quarters, we really worked very hard to bring a quality product and solutions, which really lead from the market point of view. So we, in the last 1 year, we're bringing a lot of product and solutions. And we are also working with a lot of architect and the consultants to bring this as one of the strategy. And from my point of view, this is going to be one of the fastest-growing profit-making business for Electrification. We are already in, and we hope that in the future, we will be one of the major players in this particular segment.

Sanjeev Sharma

executive
#65

Thank you. Thank you, C.P. So I think in the interest of time, Janice, I think this is probably the last.

Operator

operator
#66

Yes, sir, that was the last question. Ladies and gentlemen, due to paucity of time, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. T.K. Sridhar for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

T. Sridhar

executive
#67

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Janice. I think first of all, I thank everyone of you taking the time to attend this particular call and the support which you have been giving to all of us to wave through this challenging time at this point of time. I think we should be -- probably when the market picks up, we should also be in the good side of the profitability ratio. That's what everyone is expecting, right? So with this, I think we conclude the Q3 analyst call. So if there's still unanswered questions, please feel free to put down a note to me or Sohini. So we'll be more than happy to guide you through those questions. And I take this opportunity on behalf of ABB management to wish you all a very Happy Diwali, a safe one with you and your family, right, and thank you very much.

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