Adani Enterprises Limited (ADANIENT.NS) Q2 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Adani Enterprises Limited Q2 and H1 FY '26 Conference Call hosted by Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sabri Hazarika from Emkay Global. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you. On behalf of Emkay Global, I welcome you all to the Q2 and H1 FY '26 Post Earnings Conference Call of Adani Enterprises Limited. We have with us the senior management of Adani Enterprises, led by Mr. Vinay Prakash, Director, Adani Enterprises and CEO, Natural Resources; Mr. Ravi Singh, CFO, Adani Enterprises Limited; Mr. Arun Bansal, CEO, Adani Airport Holdings Limited; Mr. Rajesh Poddar, CFO, Adani Airport Holdings Limited; Mr. Manan Vakharia, Head of Finance, Adani Enterprises Limited; and Mr. Jitendra Khyalia, Investor Relations, Adani Enterprises Limited. So today's session would be a brief on the results by the management, followed by the question-and-answer round. So without any further delay, now I request management for their opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining. I'm Robbie here, CFO of Adani Enterprises. Thank you for joining the earnings call for quarter and half-year ended 30th September 2025. As you all know, AEL's portfolio is categorized into incubating and established businesses spanning energy and utilities, transport and logistics, consumer services and primary industries. The key incubating businesses include Adani New Industry Ecosystem, airports, roads and data center. And the established segment consists of primary industry verticals, which include mining, services, metals and materials and commercial. Over the next 5 years, Adani Enterprises is in deep investment phase. The first set of assets of this phase have now been completed. Those assets are Navi Mumbai Airport. Wind turbine capacity has increased from 2.25 gigawatt and includes now the 3 and 3.3 megawatt models. Kutch copper, 0.5 million tonnes per annum plant is fully commissioned and is ramping up. Seven of our road projects are now complete, the seventh one completed last quarter. MDO service contract for Parsa block with a peak capacity of 5 million tonnes is now operational. There are significant asset pool, which is still work in progress. In the road business, Ganga Expressway, which is now almost 90% complete. There's a new terminal at Guwahati Airport, which is nearing completion. There's additional 6 gigawatts of module and cell line, which is on fast track. PVC project of 1 million tonne per annum is progressing as per schedule and further 10 MDO contracts are under development. Additionally, there are a new set of locked-in investment plans. We have received LOA for 5 new projects in road and water vertical with a cumulative order book of INR 20,000 crores. These have a concession period ranging from 15 to 29 years. AdaniConneX has partnered with Google to develop India's largest AI data center campus in Andhra which will be undertaken as a part of our data center vertical housed in AdaniConneX under AEL. Now moving to the financial performance of this half year. The financial results reflect the stabilization phase of incubating businesses, and we will see significant EBITDA unlock from the assets that have been completed and assets that are near completion. The completed asset that will start adding to the EBITDA are the Navi Mumbai Airport, the Kutch Copper plant and Ganga Expressway moving forward. AEL has a major business in relation to trading of commodities. This business is cyclical in nature, and some of the financial results of this half year were impacted on account of the trade and price volatility in this vertical due to the certain geopolitical issues. The consolidated results for the half year are with a total income of INR 44,281 crores, EBITDA of INR 7,688 crores, profit before tax of INR 5,864 crores. On a continuing basis, profit before tax of INR 2,281 crores, INR 3,583 crores is one-off exceptional item. The pleasing part in this result is that the EBITDA from incubating business now contributes over 70% as against 60% in the comparative half last year. In line with our capital management plan and annual equity program, AEL Board has approved a total today, a partly paid rights issue of equity shares for an amount of INR 25,000 crores. This issue will strengthen AEL balance sheet for the next phase of incubation while allowing existing shareholders to participate in growth story of our core incubating infrastructure and energy transition assets. We expect the next period of 10 years to be the most exciting with the current start-up phase assets like Adani GCC, key metals and materials reaching initial investment phase. AEL is well placed as an organization, balance sheet and technical capability to deliver on the promise. A few of our segments. In the Mining Services portfolio, Adani Enterprises Limited is a pioneer of mine developer and operator concept in India with an integrated business model that spans across developing mines as well as the entire upstream and downstream activities. We have a portfolio of 16 MDO service agreements with a total peak capacity of 140 million tonnes per annum. We currently operate at a run rate of around 50 million tonnes from 6 contracts, which is approximately 36% of the contracted potential of this business. Thus, a long runway is available for growth in this part of our business. During the half year, MDO business achieved a dispatch volume of 22.6 million metric tons, which is up 29%, a revenue of INR 2,247 crores, with an increase of 35% and EBITDA of INR 1,019 crores with an increase of 37%. And all these numbers are with the MDO business operating at roughly around 32%, 36%. In our trading business with Integrated Resource Management, the volume stood at 24.1 million metric tons with revenue at roughly INR 14,900 crores and EBITDA at INR 1,331 crores. Under commercial mining during this half year, Carmichael mine shipped a volume of 6.2 million tonnes, in line with its capacity. As we informed in the last quarter, we are introducing for the first time, our airport vertical as a stand-alone vertical. We have our airport management team also present with us today. They will take you through the results of our airport business. And it's my great pleasure to hand over to Mr. Arun Bansal, CEO of Adani Airports. Over to you, Arun.

Thank you, Robbie. Thank you for the introduction. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining. As my colleague, Robbie talked about, Adani Airports is India's largest private platform in airport business with a portfolio of 8 airports, including recently inaugurated Greenfield Navi Mumbai Airport. Adani Airports contribute roughly 23% of the India's passenger traffic and almost 29% of the air cargo volume. The first half '26 results of airport business reflect consistent and strong momentum in both aeronautical and non-aeronautical business, backed by both tariff revisions of 4 airports and also continued growth in non-aero income driven by digital initiatives. So coming to our half yearly performance. Adani Airport serviced 46 million passengers with a growth of 2%. Total revenue clocked at INR 5,882 crores with an increase of 32% and EBITDA of INR 2,157 crores with an increase of 51%. Adani Airport is now running at a run rate EBITDA of plus INR 1,000 crores per quarter. Then dwelling into Aero yield per passenger, that stands at INR 485, which is up 20% non-aero income per passenger stands at INR 614, which is up 34% on a year-over-year basis. We also started operating 7 new routes during Q2, 8 new flights and onboarded 1 new airline. The greenfield Navi Mumbai Airport is expected to commence its operation in the current quarter in quarter 3 and of course, will boost further financial performance of Adani Airports. We are also in process of commissioning new terminal in Guwahati during this fiscal, which will further add to consumer experience and passenger services using Guwahati Airport. Last week, we also closed a strategic deal with AIONOS for agentic AI solution, which shall not only provide consistent engagement experience across all airports, but also connect with passengers to offer personalized multilingual support. With that, I open the call for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Manish Somaiya from Cantor.

A couple of questions for the team. First, on the Google announcement, can you help us understand when that comes online, how should we think about revenues and profitability as we sort of build out our models?

Manish, thank you. The Google contract is part of -- as I mentioned in my opening comment, is part of a comprehensive AI data campus in Andhra. It's one of the campus participants. We will -- currently, due to various confidential, both public companies, as you know, we are constrained as to how we are going to outlay the development plan of that specific contract. But we hope to be able to discuss that in more detail with the investors post our -- or around our annual presentations, where by which time both parties would have agreed to the rollout plans for the specific project that Google and AdaniConneX have executed. At this stage, we will not able to build that out. That's why in our opening comment, we just simply mentioned that we have executed that, and we will be outlining that over the next 6 months as we clarify the development plans.

Okay. Wonderful. I appreciate that clarification. My second question is on the solar modules sales. If I look at the second quarter, those were down -- I'm just -- sorry, I'm just looking at the numbers. They were up year-over-year, but down sequentially by about 20%. And I was hoping you could provide some context as to what's happening in the marketplace.

See, the sales EBITDA total income is in -- from Q2 '25 and Q2 '26 is broadly the same if you do the similar quarter-to-quarter comparison. But if you do half yearly to half yearly comparison, you see a small change in the revenue line of roughly around about 5%. And you have a correspondingly because of the operating nature of this business, you have a slightly higher impact on the EBITDA, which is the minus negative -- negative 5% revenue converts to minus 14% in the EBITDA line. That's largely explained -- fully explained by the uncertainty around the tariff announcements from the U.S. And consequently, the pricing rationalization that we had to implement to deal with the tariff structures. And this changeover will wash over the next 18 months or so, and then you will see the numbers normalize. We don't -- even if the tariffs were not to change.

I see. Okay. So we should have an 18-month perspective on that particular business.

On that. Because if you see the underlying sales are not changing. It is purely a tariff-linked impact on the conversion of the sales to revenue. And that we will adjust to the new reality, but it will not be an issue over the medium term at all. We will adjust even if the tariffs were not to change.

Okay. The other question I had pertains to cash flow from operations. I see it was down fairly significantly vis-a-vis last year first half. So maybe if you can just help us understand how we should think about cash flow from operations, free cash flow leverage by the end of fiscal '26. And then more importantly, how should we think about the rights issue in terms of timing, in terms of stages of issuance? Will it all be in one big scoop? Or will it be over a multiyear period? And then if you can help us understand the use of proceeds.

Yes. As you know, Manish, that what has happened is that during this quarter, the copper plant went from work in progress to operations. Now as it went into operations, the entirety of the change is explained by the way you would record inventories and the way you would record now in an operational setting, the working capital. So adjusted for those 2 changes, the -- just for those 2 items, there is not much change in the operating cash flow at all. And you can see this from the point of view of the fact that if you look at the operating cash prior to working capital movements, it is -- it was INR 7,661 crores in the same period last year, and it is INR 7,250 crores this year. So once -- this is this one-off adjustment that has occurred due to the coming online of an asset that requires you to make these changes, and then it will normalize back to the normal situation once the operations stabilize. So for this quarter, it will be -- for this half year, it will be better to look at operating profit before working capital changes. That gives you a more accurate picture of the underlying.

Okay. That's helpful. And then how should we think about leverage and rights issue, timing, use of proceeds? If you could just help us understand that, please?

Yes. So basically, fundamentally speaking, the -- if you see in our results summary of the -- in our results, first, if you -- if I would take you to -- on the presentation, which is there where we go through the total liabilities of the group outstanding, I'll just give you the page number. Page #32 of the presentation. You will see that there's an item there, which is called -- we say gross debt and below that shareholder loan, and you will see the number there at roughly around INR 20-odd-thousand crores, for which some are just inter entity. But our main objective is that as a major shareholder, those loans have been provided by the families holding and families company to Adani Enterprises for growth. We don't seek to have that -- as we've always indicated over the last 5 years or so, we don't seek to recover that. We are comfortable to participate in the rights issue and the effective nature of that would be that the loan that the shareholders have provided will become equity. And consequently, the excess rights exercised by nonpromoter shareholders, that will be the growth capital that will be used for -- primarily for the airports business and some of it for the roads and Adani New Industries business. So the use of proceeds will be that you will see a very significant change in the gross debt number post this, giving us significantly higher capacity to grow and grow faster. It funds the airports requirements over the next 12 months and also certain other smaller requirements in roads and et cetera, in line with our capital management plan.

Our next question comes from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities.

My first question is on the capital expenditure. What was the capital expenditure for H1? And what is the target for FY '26? And is it possible to give a broad breakup of the CapEx target for FY '26 across various businesses?

Yes. So Mohit, the H1 CapEx was roughly around INR 16.5 -- INR 16,300 crores. And for the full year, we expect it to be around about INR 36,000 crores.

Sir, any breakup, sir, possible?

Yes. So broadly in line. Of this number, about INR 10,500 crores is in airports, about INR 6,000 crores in roads, about INR 9,000 crores in materials, which is petrochemical. So those are the 3 big ones. And then metals and mining, about INR 3,500 crores and Adani New Industries about INR 5,500 crores. So that's a big headline number.

Understood. Understood. My second question is on the airport business. Of course, we are nearing the first phase of CapEx in Navi Mumbai. Do you expect to start the second phase of CapEx in -- especially in Navi Mumbai over the next couple of years? And what could be the quantum?

Arun, would you like to take that?

Yes. I can take it, Robbie, thanks. Thanks, Mohit. So as Robbie said, that I mean, we will do the commercial operation of Phase 1 already this quarter now. And actually, Phase 2, we are already starting, and we will accelerate the CapEx already from next financial year, considering the pent-up demand is much higher than 20 million, the capacity we are building. So it will not wait for 2 years. We will restart and it will be in the tune of INR [ 3,000 crore ].

Understood. And sir, do you see -- what could be the time line for getting the final tariff order for Navi Mumbai Airport in your opinion?

So Navi Mumbai interim tariff order has already been given by AERA. The final tariff order, normally, they take 3 to 6 months, so it should come any time. But interim tariff is there, which allows us to start charging the airlines.

Understood, sir. Understood. Understood. And my last question is on the solar manufacturing business. Sir, what is the order book at the end of H1? And what is the progress of 6 gigawatt [ solar module ] capacity? Are we on target to commission this capacity by June '26?

We are pretty confident of finishing around that time, so June '26. And the order book is pretty much full on the quarterly capacities that we have. So the run rate would be 1.2 gigawatts per quarter.

And is it fair to expect the mix of domestic export will be same what you reported in this quarter? Or do you think export will pick up?

It is likely to remain the same because of the fundamental nature of the way the sort of the trade discussions, et cetera, geopolitics is going on, we just have to have a much more comprehensive and deeper planning in terms of markets. So you can expect that the mix is likely -- revised mix is likely to remain. It might episodically change based on market conditions and all, but it will now remain the same because that gives us a much more defensive capability against something like this in the future.

And one more question on the wind side, sir. Are we participating in the third-party order? And have you received any third-party order during the quarter? And what is the volume you think which you can execute in FY '26?

It's -- currently, it's a limited third-party order, roughly around 300 megawatts, so about 100 sets.

And are you participating in the PSU tenders [indiscernible]?

No, no, no. We are full up on capacity for ourselves [indiscernible] whatever limit...

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Deval Shah from RBSA Investment Managers.

I have 2 sort of questions. First is to Robbie. I just want a little bit more insight on our defense and aero business. I think just a broad overview where we are and where we want to be after 5 years. Just a broad brush on that side of the business. And my second question is to Mr. Arun. Regarding that -- I understand that, sir, we had some bottleneck with respect to availability of labor in developing our CSD. Is that being resolved or we are still in the process, and we are on time line in developing our CSD plans for Navi Mumbai?

Arun, you can go first, please.

Yes. Thanks, Robbie. So thanks, Deval. It was not related to the labor per se. There were some issues, as you might know very well in Mumbai, there was restrictions because of the EC clearance and [ pending ] Supreme Court case. That got cleared now, and we are in full speed. Bearing that, the work what we could start, we have already started. So Mumbai and Navi Mumbai excavation work has already started, and now we are on track to bring all the CSD properties live in 2029, 2030 time frame.

Okay.

In relation to your first question on the technology and defense business, it's currently still sort of like close to the INR 500 crore EBITDA from the total. So we are not yet reporting it as a significant independent segment. We are just reporting it in Others. And from a CapEx also because it is currently even less than 3% to 4% of our CapEx, it's not ramping up. But as soon as that business ramps up sufficiently, we will -- we've a very simple mechanism by which it will come into our segmental reporting. So it's still some time away for it to mature because the best way to imagine this -- to give you an idea, best way to imagine this is that it's a technology business, which provides services and it has -- the product side is less important than the services contracts. So those things take long time to develop and long time to get into the services side of the businesses. So as the level of service contracts and the technology platforms ramp up for the defense purpose, we will -- like we did with airports this time, once the business reaches a certain level, we will bring that into the segmental reporting. But currently, it is not in the segmental reporting. So if I -- we disclose anything more than this, then we will actually have to change everything that we disclose beyond the numbers that we outlined.

Okay. Understood. Yes, I was looking at more on the qualitative remarks only. I was not looking for any specific numbers.

Qualitative wise, Deval, the business is going well. The services contracts are going well. The technology platforms are maturing and our -- and increasingly, we have been recognized as a reliable technology partner for defense purposes. So that -- fundamentally, it is in very good shape. So it's just that at the moment, it's not of sufficient size for us to put that into segmental reporting.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Nirav Shah from Geecee Holdings.

So first question is on our ANIL business. So for the second consecutive quarter, sir, we have operated at above 100% utilization. I mean, in the first quarter, we did around 135% utilization and the current quarter -- sir, am I audible?

Yes, you're audible.

Yes, sir, you are audible.

Sure, sir. So my question is on the modules business. I mean, sir, for last 2 quarters, we have operated at above 100% capacity. Any particular reason or the rated capacity is slightly -- or the producible capacity is slightly more than what the rated capacity is?

No, it's -- part of that is also the -- it's more reported as module sales and module exports. So what happens is that over the year, we are operating close to about 1093, so 1.093 gigawatts, so roughly around 100% of the capacity. So -- but in a quarter, what can happen is the sales might be reported particularly in a given quarter. So it might be that, like, for example, the quarter before, the sales were 990 and then it got reported -- the higher number got reported the following quarter and before that was 893. And so -- yes, so it's -- and sometimes the sales might be reported in a quarter, but we are operating close to about 100% capacity, which is basically 1.09...

Got it. Got it, sir. Sir, second question is on our airports. I mean, we mentioned the CapEx in the current year is approximately INR 10,500 crores. So I just want to break up that, I mean, between airports and city side. Is city side also part of this INR 10,500 crores CapEx or we'll do it separately? And if separately, what is the likely spend for the next 2, 3 years that we are budgeting?

Thanks, Nirav...

[indiscernible] yes, it is a reported aggregate number. But Arun, go ahead in detail, please.

No, no. Thanks, Robbie. So Nirav, in this year, this INR 10,500 crores you talked about, very minimal part of CSD. As I said, the CSD initially is now all the approvals are in place, excavation has started. The real CapEx for CSD will start from next financial year.

And any number you would like to put for 2 years because -- or when will the first revenue generation stream will we -- we will be seeing that...

So revenue generation for city side will start '29, financial year '29,'30.

And any outgo number that we would like to share or...

So the total CapEx outlay for city side we have is around INR 20,000 crores.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Sabri Hazarika from Emkay Global.

So my question pertains to ANIL and the green hydrogen part. So of course, we don't have much of an update from large players. But if we look into the SECI ammonia tender in particular, I think it has been like quite healthy given the participation and the rate which has been like achieve, I think, INR 50 per kg of green ammonia. So that number also seems quite competitive. So any color on that? What are your thoughts on that? And what about your own plans with respect to green hydrogen?

See, for us, we will complete -- first we want to do is complete our testing of the electrolyzers because our scale is quite large. So till we complete that, we are not specifically commenting on anything. Once we have that, we will take a formal investment decision, planning, et cetera, as to how we execute. We have all the basic ingredients lined up, which is resource capacity, the completion of our cell module line and wind turbine facilities in ANIL, all the ancillary industry setup in Mundra, which is EVA, back sheet, glass, et cetera, the land, the corridor for pipelines and transmission. So all of that is set. Mundra is already [ their port ], so we don't need anything for evacuation. So consequently, we are prepared, but we -- as we highlighted in the press, we are just -- we are -- currently, our electrolyzers are under pilot stage. We should have the pilot results -- start getting pilot results towards the middle of next year -- calendar year or the second quarter. And based on that, we would expect that we will then be able to give a much clearer investment horizon.

Right. And anything you would want to share on the efficiencies or the metrics with respect to the electrolyzers as in like kg per kilowatt hour or anything of that sort? Or is it too premature?

No, we -- that -- we will have the results and the curves by middle of next year. So that would be the best time to share.

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

So I just would firstly, thank you so much to Emkay for organizing the call and for participants for the Q&A. And if there are any further questions anybody has, please reach out to our team, and they will respond back in writing.

On behalf of Emkay Global, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.