Indigrid Infrastructure Trust (540565) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

August 2, 2021

BSE Limited IN Utilities Electric Utilities earnings 64 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the India Grid Trust Q1 FY '22 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Edelweiss Securities Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Swarnim Maheshwari from Edelweiss Securities Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Swarnim Maheshwari

analyst
#2

Thank you, Malika, and good evening to everyone. I welcome you all on behalf of Edelweiss. From the India Grid management, we have with us today Mr. Harsh Shah, CEO; Mr. Jyoti Agarwal, CFO; Miss. Meghana Pandit, Chief Investment Officer; and Mr. Satish Talmale, who is the COO. I will hand over the call to Mr. Harsh for the opening remarks, post which we can open the Q&A session. Over to you, sir. Thank you.

Harsh Shah

executive
#3

Thank you, Swarnim, and welcome, everyone, on the quarter 1 financial year '22 call of India Grid Trust. We will go through and report on the presentation that we have uploaded in the exchanges. Start quickly on Slide #3, this is our vision to become the most admired yield vehicle in Asia, and focused on business new value-accretive growth, predictable distribution and an optimal cap structure. On Slide #5 is just a snapshot of what IndiGrid is today. So IndiGrid today is India's first power transmission yield platform with approximately INR 21,000 crores of assets under management across 18 states and 1 UT in India. We own 40 lines, 11 substations and 2 solar power plants approximately 100 megawatts. In terms of another measure, we are about 11,550 towers and overall metal, if one was to count, it comes to about 4,35,000 metric tons of steel and aluminum. On the right-hand side is the depiction of our portfolio. As you can see, we are part of major represent in Central, Northern and Eastern India. Coming to quarter 1 for performance highlights for us. I think first is to start with financials. We had a robust financial growth with our revenue and EBITDA growing by about 53%, largely on account of acquisitions that we have done during the financial year, or rather during the last 12 months since last year quarter 1. DPU has increased materially between quarter 1 of FY '21 and quarter 1 of FY '22. In 2 steps of increases, one that we did during the mid of the year last year, and one in quarter 4. That has resulted into the first quarter distribution for '22 at INR 3.19 rupees a unit, which is about 6% higher on a year-on-year basis. It puts us about at about INR 12.75 of our annual DPU forecast. We remain well capitalized on our balance sheet. Our net debt to AUM is just about 58% and AAA rating affirmed by 3 important rating agencies in the country. We raised in quarter 1 two important part of our cap structure. One is a rights issue, which we spoke about in the earlier call, which was a successful issue, and I would like to thank all our investors who participate in that. The second one was a public bond that we did, which also resulted into a tremendous success, and that really opened up long-term source of capital for IndiGrid on that side. We acquired our first solar project, called FRV, in the quarter at about INR 6.60 of PV, about 100 megawatts of plant. We continue to focus on asset management to ensure that we are mitigating any risk that are in out of our operations and continue to maintain a reliable portfolio. Our availability was at 99.7% for the quarter 1. And the important point for the quarter is that IndiGrid has now transitioned into in-house project management and asset management, and this is an important point because historically Sterlite Power operated as a project manager for IndiGrid and provided support in terms of operations. However, as we have discussed in several calls over the last 2 years, IndiGrid has built our capabilities enough to continue the project manager or operations and maintenance on its own. And with that in mind, we have transitioned into internalizing these operations. On the policy front, there are many important outcomes that we achieved in quarter 1 of this year. First one being that SEBI has now approved the reduction of trading lot, which integrate trades right now at [ 1701 ] to single unit for all publicly listed InvITs. So we believe once this circular is notified, we will be seeking to exchanges and making our trading lot to ONE. We are confident that this is going to result in substantial amount of liquidity and access both for IndiGrid as well as for investors to convert their unit to InvIT. [indiscernible] during the quarter has enabled insurance company to invest in that security of InvIT, and that's something which we have seen very well in our public NCD issue. PFRDA has done 2 important announcements where they've enabled NPS backed pension funds to invest in net securities of InvIT, just like insurance companies. In addition to that, they also relaxed the sponsor rating requirement, which was there for investment by NPS backed pension funds into InvIT units. And this restriction is only kept for the InvIT itself. So IndiGrid is well within the restrictions as IndiGrid is [ circle A ]. We believe that a lot of NPAs back pension funds would look in to IndiGrid as a favorable investment. Going to the next slide, 7, quickly to capture the impact of COVID. We all saw wave 2 in quarter 1 of this year, just like the wave 1 in quarter 1 of last year. However, I think this quarter was a far better in terms of collection. So this quarter about 69% collection versus 56% that happened in the last round on year-on-year basis. However, this is largely to the fact that quarter 4 FY '22 was 126% collection, and that's something which is -- in fact has rolled over into quarter 1. And on an average basis, we are doing fairly okay with DSO days just at about 60 days. Impact on demand is an important criteria while power transmission tariffs are not linked to demand and only linked to availability. However, we are clearly seeing power demand sharply at the moment. The lockdowns are opened again. And on a quarter 2 itself, we are seeing a substantial growth between 61 -- 16.6% versus last year. And as you would have seen a lot of [ posts ] coming from the government themselves, the India's peak demand has crossed 200 gigawatts in July and consistently making new highs. So we are confident that the power consumption demand, which is the underlying factor in the sector, also remains pretty robust. Going to the next slide on operating performance. As you can see on the left-hand side our assets are performing as they are expected, all of them resulting into maximizing our incentives. And the assets which are not at the maximization of incentives, like NER, which is the asset that we acquired recently, is just going through the teething issue after the acquisition for the first few months. However, all these incentive losses are being indemnified by the sellers and being paid as well. So for commercial and practical purposes, integrated portfolio remains at 99.7%. In terms of some of the parameters, we have reduced number of trips per line, improved on unsafe conditions, improved in solar generation. So all those factors which are important for the portfolio reliability, we are focusing on them to increase reliability and sustainability. On the digital asset management that we have been consistently speaking about, which is our partnership with IBM-Maximo to launch and transform the way asset management operated for transmission sector in the country. We have gone live on 2 of our large assets, we expect about 20% of our portfolio is already live working on digital asset management, and we are hoping that by the year-end, we would be converting the entire portfolio into DigiGrid, which would be one of its kind. On HSE, we have focused on 100% safe man-hours achieved in quarter 1. And in terms of COVID, we continue to be careful in terms of COVID-related behaviors and focusing on health and safety of our key [ state payments ]. I would now invite Jyoti, Chief Financial Officer, to take from Slide 10 in terms of financial results and other details.

Jyoti Agarwal

executive
#4

I'm on Slide 10, where we have put up the financial performance for the quarter. As Harsh has already explained, our revenues in EBITDA grew handsomely at 53%, backed by a couple of -- of acquisitions that we did over this time of the last 12 months. Our NDCF was lower, about INR 50 crores, INR 52 crores to be exact. But this was largely because we did a lower factoring of only about INR 50 crores this particular quarter compared to a factored amount of INR 140 crores in the corresponding quarter of the last year. So against the INR 90 crore lower factoring, the NDCF was lower by only about INR 50 crores. This is largely because we had a better collection this quarter, 69% versus 56% collection in the corresponding quarter of the last year. DPU, as Harsh mentioned, the Board has declared a DPU of INR 3.1875, or INR 3.19, which is in line with the improved guidance of INR 12.75 per year, which is up on last quarter. And this DPU comprises of primarily of interest, almost INR 3.04 out of the INR 3.19 comprise of interest, and about INR 0.15 of the DPU comprises of tax-free dividend, which is largely the dividend that we have got from the [ IPCI ]. Now this DPU of INR 3.19 on an expanded unit base of nearly INR 70 crore units post the rights issue, translates into a gross distribution amount of INR 223 crores this quarter, which combined with the distributions that we have done since listing will add up to nearly INR 2,300 crores of distribution of nearly INR 49 rupees of distribution per unit that we have done since we got listed. The NAV for Q1 FY '22 -- or at the end of Q1 FY '22, I should say, was INR 129 per unit. And this was sequentially lower as we had guided in the Q4 of last year because of 2 primary reasons: One was an expanded capital base. We increased the number of units post rights from INR 58 crores to almost INR 70 crores, and that led to a dilution of the NAV. And also we acquired the balance 26% equity of NER, and we have to pay close to INR 500 crores because of that. and that impacted the NAV for the rest. So we are well on our way to deliver on the increased DPU guidance of INR 12.75 for FY '22. I'll go to the next slide, which essentially provides a bridge from the EBITDA to the distribution amount. We did an EBITDA this particular quarter of a little higher than INR 500 crores. Now nearly 50%, or about INR 240 crores, of this was taken away by finance costs, both at the SPV level as well as at the [ IVT ] level, primarily at the [ IVT ] level, of about INR 214 crores, and about INR 27 crores at the SPV level. There was also a negative working capital movement. This was largely seasonal in nature. As we've seen in first quarter is generally the weakest when it comes to collections against a 126% collection in Q4, this quarter was less than 70%. So that led to a reduction in the working capital related NDCF by almost INR 117 crores. There were some other minor items like CapEx and tax as well as debt repayment. We were also helped in this quarter by a release of about INR 49 crores of DSRA, which is the debt service reserve account, and this is largely on account of some NCDs which got repaid for which we've not added in the DSRA and so that got added to the NDCF. And at the end of Q4, we had a total NDCF reserve of almost INR 170 crores. So we dipped into that reserve to the extent of about INR 55 crores in this quarter to reach to the distribution amount of INR 223 crores. Even after this dipping into the reserve, we still have a balance reserve of INR 115 crores for the future, which is higher than the reserve that was there prior to Q4. I'll go to the next slide, Slide 12, which talks about the debt structure of IndiGrid. We raised a debt -- incremental debt of about INR 5,400 crores in this quarter, largely for refinancing and funding of acquisition. This debt was nearly 10 years in tenure, and came at an average incremental borrowing cost of 7.57%. With an average cost of debt of about INR 7.9 crore, our marginal cost is significantly inside of the average cost, which should help reduce the overall average cost of debt as we go into the remainder of the year. We continue to remain AAA rated. We're carrying a good cash balance comprising of the SRAs, DPU, as well as NDCF reserve. Our net debt to AUM is much inside of the 70% regulatory cap for InvITs. We have a substantial part of our debt which is fixed rate. More than 70% of our debt is fixed rate. We've also been able to diversify our pool of investors. The roughly 50-50 between NCDs and bank loan. A little bit higher on the NCD side. But what is more important is that we've been able to diversify the nature of investors in both the NCD space as well as the bank loan space. We now have both public sector as well as private sector banks as well as some NBFCs who have given us loans. On the NCD side, other than mutual funds and corporates and HNIs, who are already a part of our debt book, this particular quarter, we saw 2 new investor classes getting added up. One was the Retail Investor Day, and post our public issue of NCDs. And second was insurance. We now have almost INR 400 crores of our total debt book held by insurance companies, both life and non-life. We've seen an increasing trend month-on-month of this Investor Day. And now with pension funds also being allowed by PFRDA, we feel that we have enough headroom to be able to further expand our investor base across this new class of investors. If you look at the bottom of the slide, we've also been able to smoothen our repayment profile over the year, something that we had guided to investors over the last few quarters. Other than FY '23, now we have the amount of debt repayable in any year within our comfort zone of less than INR 1,500 crores. And for FY '22 also, we are taking proactive steps to ensure that we get an advance tied up significantly ahead of the repayment time. At the same time, we are also exploring whether there is any merit in prepaying some of the debt which is coming in FY '22, '23 provided the cost benefit trade-off is optimal for us. For the next slide, I would like to invite Meghana to take us through the next slide, please.

Meghana Pandit

executive
#5

Sure. Thanks, Jyoti. I'm on Slide 13, where we are compared ourselves on 1 hand with the pure-play debt product, which is the 10-year GSec bond, and on the other hand, we have also looked at how pure-play equity and certain indices have performed. And in the graph, it's a combination of total return, which is the distribution per unit plus the change in the market price. And as you can see, both on an absolute basis and on an annualized basis, IndiGrid has outperformed not just on the debt side but also on pure-play equity indices like NSE 500, BSE Power, BSE Utilities. More importantly, along with this total return, what is important is, on the volatility side, how has IndiGrid performed, which is reflected by the data. So on Beta also IndiGrid is amongst the lowest, 0.07, and thus we have tracked since the time of listing till end of Q1, that is June 13. So on a risk-adjusted basis, IndiGrid continues to outperform the equity indices as well as on the debt side, combined on the back of the acquisitions that we have done and the sustainable DPU that we have delivered. Moving on, I will request Harsh to give a perspective about FY '22, the outlook that we are looking at.

Harsh Shah

executive
#6

Thanks, Meghana. So starting on the next slide, which talks about the outlook for the '22. So we remain very positive about the power sector in general. There are a lot of new initiatives that are taken by government and regulatory agencies to come up with new technologies, and several storage and several other path-breaking initiatives on the overall grid side. What that eventually will result into, for us, we are expecting a sizable pipeline of interstate projects about INR 50,000-odd crores and INR 45,000 crores in the interstate bids over the next 3 to 4 years, which would result into a healthy acquisition pipeline for IndiGrid debenture. This year itself, we are expecting about INR 15,000-odd crores of bids to come to fruition. In addition to interstate projects, we are also seeing a traction in the renewable energy side, and we would look to target our select set of energy, solar energy assets that we are targeting in the sector, which will be with strong counterparties like GUVNL, [indiscernible], NTPC. On something which is already announced in concrete, the KTL, which is one of the last framework assets with Sterlite Power, we believe that, that is at the last stage of completion, and it is going to be completed in this financial year, and we would look to acquire that in line with [indiscernible]. And based on our current assets itself, we would continue to deliver the INR 12.75 guidance that we forecasted. On the balance sheet side, partly, as Lyoti mentioned, our intention would be to reduce cost of debt, diversify our source of borrowing, and maintaining adequate liquidity to any uncertainties that may come up if COVID continues to remain in the country. On the asset management side, our focus will remain to maintain high availability, focus on self-reliant O&M and many other initiatives like digital asset management, predictive analysis, we will focus on that. We will continue to focus on world-class EHS and ESG practices on our portfolio. On the industry stewardship, I think we will look to implement as soon as we said we notify the reduction of lot size, which we believe results in to increase liquidity in InvITs and IndiGrid as well, and there are some other initiatives that we are recommending the government with respect to tax anomalies or further diversifying lending from FPI sources, et cetera, that you continue to push within the government. But overall, we are extremely happy with the portfolio that we have. We are in the -- I believe we are in the right sector, at the right time with stable assets and a critical mass of assets and our focus will be to continue to perform as we did in the past with respect to our assets, financing and acquisitions. So with that, we believe we'll be able to deliver superior returns with sustainable and increasing DPU for investors in the coming future. And with that, I would conclude management part of the call, and we would like to open up for question and answer.

Operator

operator
#7

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from DAM Capital.

Mohit Kumar

analyst
#8

Congratulations on a good set of numbers. So 2 questions. First one on the business side, on the acquisition side, especially given the fact that we have only KTL left and that most of transmission, new transmission assets are being built either by the large players who may not be willing to part with. So does it mean that going forward, more and more the renewables in focus? Or do you think -- still think that there is the chance that we'll have some invest, some transmission projects coming up for sale? That's the first question.

Harsh Shah

executive
#9

Okay. Thank you, Mohit. I think, right, we see the growth in 3 buckets. First, as you mentioned, on renewable energy side, we do see acquisition pipeline over there. However, as we have said, renewable energy would -- where we remain in the size of 20%, 25% of our portfolio, and we would not cross that. But at this point in time, we are just about a few percentage points out, so about 3% of renewable assets in the portfolio. So there is no sizable pipeline as well as sizable headroom for us to acquire this. Second, with respect to, I would say, predictable acquisitions, which are already built assets, one of them, as we reported, it is KTL. Second, there is already -- there are already other assets available in the market, which are completed and revenue-generating. We would look to acquire it. However, it depends on when particular investors look at monetizing that, which includes Sterlite Power asset as well beyond KTL, which are sizeable assets in itself. But also beyond Sterlite Power as well there are assets which we are looking at within the transmission space. Third is with respect to the new bids, and new bids as we have done in the past is to partner with the developer, like we had partnered with Sterlite Power and provided framework agreements, which gives visibility to exit to investors. We are looking too in several such partnerships, which would result into further pipeline even from the new build assets. So we are pretty confident about that between these 3, we have sizable visibility of growth.

Mohit Kumar

analyst
#10

And are you hoping to acquiring interested transmission assets?

Harsh Shah

executive
#11

Yes, we are open to acquire intrastate transmission assets. We already acquired 1 intrastate assets, which is in Haryana. But however, that is case specific, because intrastate TSAs are different, and we need to dig into which kind of agreements are in place, what kind of counterparties are there. So we are open, but it eventually depends on size of the risk as well as type of the counterpart.

Mohit Kumar

analyst
#12

Okay. Secondly, on the working capital side, there has been a large [ crowd ] in this particular quarter, which we haven't seen in the earlier quarters. I think earlier quarters, more or less it's [ small travel ] or let's say the positive number from working capital. So do you think it's a cause of worry or do you think this will get addressed? And is the July collection far better than June in terms of your bidding?

Harsh Shah

executive
#13

Okay. So one, the way to evaluate the quality of receivables and balance sheet is to look at days receivable outstanding. And today, that number got 60. So on a balance sheet level, since [ DSO ], we are at 60 is outstanding, which is not certainly a cause of one, right? That's the number to evaluate in terms of what is the outstanding. The rest is quarter-on-quarter. Last quarter, as Jyoti mentioned, we did 126% collection, which means that a lot of our, I would say, customers ended up paying in advance because they receive liquidity from somewhere, right? So the movement when you have a quarter like that where you have collected 125%, next quarter where people are going to take a breather. So it is just the quarter-on-quarter adjustment is what we think at the moment that is playing out. In addition to that, we believe that this quarter is also unique from the point of view that this is the first quarter under which CTU is operating independently of Power Grid, because as you would know, about 2 quarters back, CTU separation from Power Grid has taken place, and it's been operationalized in this quarter, which has resulted into operational, I would say, delays in raising invoices and coordinating because it's a completely new setup. And we are seeing the clear change in July, and we have received in July over 90% of collections as the month. So I think it is a temporary phenomena -- or not even a phenomenon, it is a quarter-on-quarter change. Quarter 4 was extremely high collections, which means quarter 1 is slightly lower, but we have seen the receivable trend increasing in quarter 2 already.

Mohit Kumar

analyst
#14

So 1 more question, if I may, squeeze in. On the lot sizes, just on clarification, had the SEBI Board approved the lot sizes reduced for all InvITs? And whilst this [ InvIT ] get published or notification gets published, we can apply for it, right? How much time we expected to this thing to materialize if it is not notified?

Harsh Shah

executive
#15

So I think we should wait for the notification, but what we believe is that once the notification is made public, it is only a matter of us writing to exchanges and some operational changes at the back end that will take place with exchanges. So it's just the exchange approval that would be remaining after that.

Mohit Kumar

analyst
#16

Okay. Understood. So maximum 10, 15 days, Max, right?

Harsh Shah

executive
#17

That's it.

Operator

operator
#18

The next question is from the line of Abhilasha Satale from Dalal & Broacha.

Abhilasha Satale

analyst
#19

Sir, I just had like we have done the -- I mean we have raised equity and debt. So on correct base, how much AUM growth we can see over a period of time, what is the maximum AUM which we can reach on current packages?

Harsh Shah

executive
#20

Meghana, would you like to take that question?

Meghana Pandit

executive
#21

Sorry, Abhilasha, can you please repeat the question? I lost the last 10 seconds, sorry.

Abhilasha Satale

analyst
#22

So we have raised through NCDs and rights issue, the capital base. So I want to know that at current capital rate at current debt level, how much maximum AUM we can reach?

Meghana Pandit

executive
#23

Okay. So see, today, our net debt to AUM, we are close to about 58% of net debt to a year. As you know, our statutory regulatory cap for leverage is up to 70%. So with that cap, our AUM can easily have headroom to grow to the extent of at least INR 5,000 crores, INR 6,000 crores without the requirement of any further round of equity dilution.

Abhilasha Satale

analyst
#24

Yes. And the second question is our interest costs, like whatever the new debt we have raised that being at a lower cost, the cost of debt has gone down to 7.94%, and we have a large repayment next year. So like this year, over the medium term, what kind of interest cost of debt will be the average cost of debt we are seeing?

Meghana Pandit

executive
#25

Sure. On that one, Jyoti, you want to give perspective?

Jyoti Agarwal

executive
#26

Yes. Thanks. So we've already indicated that the marginal cost of debt this particular quarter has been in the range of about 7.5%, 7.6%. And this is, by the way, our 10-year debt that we have raised in this quarter. The average maturity of the debt raised in this quarter is almost 10 years. At the margin, we do believe that the incremental debt cost for us will only get better as more and more investors are allowed to invest in our paper, pension funds being the latest addition. And as the market sort of appreciates our strategy and the outperformance a bit better. So we think we should be on our path to be able to continue to extend the average maturity and reduce the average debt cost by having more and more incremental debt in the 7.5 -- between 7.5% and [ 7.5% ] second quarter. So look, I mean for the rest of the year, whatever refinancing that we will be doing would be in the 7- to 10-year bucket. And I would hazard, notwithstanding any monetary policy surprises, us to be able to do it inside of 7.5%.

Operator

operator
#27

The next question is from the line of [ Prabal Dalmia from Lansing Investments ]. Please go ahead.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#28

Harsh, Meghana, Jyoti, excellent performance once again this quarter. My question, Lyoti, was regarding the factoring, which was that INR 50 crores was very low this quarter compared to the last. So just want to understand what determines the amount of factoring that we do every quarter. And what is the sustainable level of factoring one should expect every quarter?

Jyoti Agarwal

executive
#29

Yes. Good question, [ Praduman ]. So look, I mean, factoring or any sort of short term there can be driven by 2 or 3 factors. One is, of course, we need to be able to sustain the cash outflows for the operations, whether it's O&M cost, debt or whatever. Second is also we are very particular about our DPU guidance to the market. And this particular quarter, the amount of factoring that we did in mind was primarily to ensure that there are no [ guesses ] to the prices on the distribution front, as we realized end April that there is likely to be lesser collection, which is seasonal in nature. At the same time, there were 2 factors that Harsh talked about. One was a CTU migration. The second was this terrible second wave of COVID that hit us around the middle of April and right up to the end of nearly June, right? So based on these 2, we realize that the collections would not be as we had envisaged. We had envisaged around 85%, 90% coming into the year. But we modeled at about 65%, 70% collections. And accordingly, we determine the amount of factoring that we need to do to ensure that we are good in terms of distribution. Eventually, the collections came at 69%, which was very much in the ballpark and the amount of factoring was good enough for us to be able to meet the distribution guidance. As such, we did not have any shortfall of cash to sustain our operations as the reason to do the factoring, but will allow me to meet what we're guiding. As we speak, almost half of the factoring amount has already been prepaid because we saw collections normalizing, as Harsh was mentioning, in the month of July, we had 96% collection efficiency. So we've seen collections normalize very, very quickly, and to avoid unnecessary drag on the interest cost front, we actually prepaid 50% of the factoring amount. We expect to balance -- pay the balance very soon. Based on current outlook of the second quarter as well as for the year, we do not envisage any challenges of cash flow to be able to get into [ factoring ] again. But look, I mean, this is the strength of the model now that we do have various tools in our kit to be able to tide over any short-term imbalances that might be there. So we have factoring. We also have an ability to raise short-term money from the commercial paper market. We are also trying to tie up a sort of a permanent working capital lines with the bank. So hopefully, all of these tools will not be needed that much. But should there be a need, then we can use this to our advantage. Factoring being 1 of them, which we have used successfully twice. Once was in the corresponding quarter of the last year, this COVID first wave, and second much lesser factoring amount in this particular quarter.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#30

Okay. Great. So if I understand correctly, so factoring is going to be used as a tool if and when we see any liquidity crunch or shortfall and the amount of factoring is likely to change every quarter, and there might be quarters where there is no factoring required at all? Is that true?

Jyoti Agarwal

executive
#31

Yes. I think factoring is an exception rather than the norm. I do not envisage factoring for the remaining part of the year, if things pan out the way we are in. So I think this particular quarter, we had to do it for the reasons that we have just outlined. So factoring is not really a normal on a quarter-by-quarter basis, but more as an exception.

Operator

operator
#32

The next question is from the line of Rushabh Sharedalal from Pravin Ratilal Share and Stock Brokers. Please go ahead.

Rushabh Sharedalal

analyst
#33

Just one question on the fact that do we as IndiGrid stand to benefit from the fact that -- now there are power exchanges like India energy exchange in the listed power grids. So do we at IndiGrid stand to benefit in any manner?

Harsh Shah

executive
#34

Yes. Let me take that. So I think, as such, directly, we don't get benefit. In the longer run, we do get benefit, and what do I mean by that is that most of the transmission planning in the country happens on long-term open access agreements. What that means is that most amount of transmission lines are built when they know the buyer, they know the seller, they know the corridor and therefore, then there is additional line. That's been the historical way of planning. So in that regard, it does not contribute directly whether there is an exchange or not. However the rationale behind building a national grid is also to facilitate, I would say, G&A or other open access without long wait years. And therefore, if you want to buy power in Gujarat from Northeast or you buy power powering J&K from Rajasthan, we don't need to wait for 2, 3 years to make a plan in PPA and build a line, and you should have access to be able to buy cheaper power from where you get it. And that -- in that scenario, exchange with key catalysts. So for example, while it is not concluded, but you would have heard about allowing distribution companies to get out of the old PPAs with PSU or thermal and getting to the new PPAs, which could be cheaper for them. In that regard, we would need to be able to buy power from exchanges or by new PPA. So new energy exchanges will play a vital role in that process, which would eventually result into healthy response and healthy sector. So it is a contribution of the energy exchanges into overall healthy sector, which would help transmission line ones like IndiGrid, but no direct benefit for us.

Operator

operator
#35

The next question is from the line of [ Ravi Chandran ], Individual Investor.

Unknown Shareholder

shareholder
#36

Mr. Harsh and team, congratulations again for the excellent performance and continued growth. I have one query to Lyoti in the waterfall Slide #11. So reserve, what you are telling, maybe just on clarifying earlier it was shown in both SPV as well as a tie-in [ IDT ] level. So now we are showing as a combined balance [ 1,150 million ] is salable. Is it right?

Jyoti Agarwal

executive
#37

Yes, sir, you are absolutely right. The INR 170 crore that we had as a reserve was a combined reserve at the SPV as well as at [ IDT ] level. We have dipped about INR 54.8 crores, but we have debt only in the reserve at the SPV level. So overall, the reserve between the SPV and [ IDT ] that we are carrying forward at the end of this quarter is about INR 115 crores.

Unknown Shareholder

shareholder
#38

Okay. Okay. Yes, fine. I'm fine with -- I think only 1 question, things are fine. Looking ahead for one unit, obviously, I think you can attract more retailers like you.

Operator

operator
#39

The next question is from the line of [ Hitesh Niall Kumar ], an Individual Investor.

Unknown Shareholder

shareholder
#40

Yes, good evening to the team of IndiGrid. I just wanted to tell that I joined IndiGrid as a member in the month of August 2020, and I was really impressed by the way things have been presented in the transparent way the data and information is shared. But as an individual investor, I just have one concern that I want to understand what are the counterparty risk to the business? Because when the stock market crashed in the month of March 2020 the prices of this IndiGrid also fell down drastically. If such type of event happens, I just want to understand whether the counterparty risk are there or it is just a euphoria that has happened and that is the best time to accumulate more units from the market?

Harsh Shah

executive
#41

Okay. It's Harsh here. So yes, on these 2 different questions. So the first question was on counterparty risk. And as we have discussed in earlier calls, I would have repeated that, that counterparty risk is an important risk for indiGrid because we are playing in a sector where our eventual customers are not financially healthy, right? So this is an important risk to track. However, our contracts, our [ asset ] security mechanisms are fairly strong. And the -- I would say the last part that just because we are providing a monopolistic service as transmission at a very limited or a minor cost or a fraction cost, our customers who even are in a worse financial situation prefer to pay because it's a kind of a lifeline to evacuate and import power. So that's what has kept the sector or the transmission sector healthy, even though the distribution sector haven't been healthy, right? Now having said so, just to go back to the quarter one of last year and entire financial year last year. This is a test actually. In the last 20 years, at least I can say, 15, 20 years, 2008, we didn't exit. But this is 1 of the worst disasters that one could have expected for both country, financials, everything put together, right? In that as well, our collections did not fall materially, right? So while the quarter 1 collections last year was 50%, that was not because people didn't want to pay. That is because people couldn't go to office [ or couldn't pay bill ], right? So the whole cycle administratively got impacted. But after quarter 1, quarter 2, quarter 3, quarter 4 collections kept on increasing. And as a year whole, we collected a little bit more than 100% for the entire year. So now what does that say is that even in the most stressful scenario, at least in our lifetime that you've seen operationally, financially, the contracts prevailed and the payments kept happening. So we -- I would say that the last year has been a testament of that. So yes, it is an important risk, but it remains, I would say, minimal risk. On the other hand, price is something which so many factors are impacting the price, which is beyond control of the management to guide on, et cetera. But I think, if at all, you look at the fall you need to look at the fall in relative terms to other investment options as well, right? So I think the quarter was an important fall, a large fall that happened everywhere. But it is also linked to some of the global events and domestic events that took place, and therefore, one needs to compare relatively, it impacted us lesser. And then, yes, people who invest over that time, in general, everywhere they are rewarded eventually. But that's not -- that's very difficult for management to guide on that such fall will not happen because that's linked to the liquidity assumptions, euphoria or opposite of euphoria, whichever way, right? So that's a difficult one for us to predict. But on the collection side, I would say we have a strong contracts and minimal risk also.

Unknown Shareholder

shareholder
#42

Whenever something happened, we should be ready with the ammunition.

Operator

operator
#43

The next question is from the line of [ Sunil ], an Individual Investor.

Unknown Shareholder

shareholder
#44

Harsh, congratulations on completing 3 years. And being a long-term investor, I think this is one of my best investments. And my question is regarding your acquisition pipeline and particularly given that PG InvIT doesn't have a ROFO with the Power Grid, do you think it is a way of government saying that private sector can bid for it? Or if it is allowed, are you going to bid for it?

Harsh Shah

executive
#45

Very interesting questions, [ Sunil ]. This question came earlier, and I did not speak about it. So I would certainly clarify our views on that. So PG InvIT coming into the picture, I would say, is a good thing for IndiGrid in general, because more and more people are aware about transmission business and InvIT now with such a large player coming in monetizing and putting it into InvIT. However, our view is that it is not government's role to run monetize assets, right? And whichever way governments choose to monetize such passive assets, their focus should be on maximizing value for those assets and selling them. Second, realizing maximum amount of liquidity that the government can get either via power grid or whichever way. The third is time to market or what is transparent bidding process, right, which can be done. So we believe that as a government, such a large monetization program as InvIT happens, it should not be done on a bilateral basis. IPO is slightly different because [indiscernible] IPO and call for auction. But by virtue of Power Grid owning nearly 15% in the InvIT, it is not a PSU anymore. So any sale that happens from Power Grid or any government body to another government body or to an InvIT, we believe should be done on a transparent basis via a global invitation of tenders instead of any bilateral way. However, we can only express our views, right, that is the transparent way the auction should be run. If government decides to do a transparent auction where we have an ability to bid for these assets, we will certainly bid for that.

Operator

operator
#46

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Rushabh Sharedalal from Pravin Ratilal Share and Stock Brokers.

Rushabh Sharedalal

analyst
#47

Just a question on the operational front. Since IndiGrid is a AAA listed InvIT, and we have a lot of marquee investors now even pension funds are investing. So just wanted to understand that InvIT they are not in the list of approved securities by exchanges. So any -- and RBI. So is IndiGrid taking any steps to ensure that we, as InvITs, are in the approved list of securities?

Harsh Shah

executive
#48

Okay. I'm not very aware of this point. But if you -- is your question towards can you pledge InvIT units as security? Is that the question?

Rushabh Sharedalal

analyst
#49

Yes, yes. Exactly. That's exactly the question.

Harsh Shah

executive
#50

Okay. No. So I don't know, maybe Lyoti, if you have a clue, but we're not aware about this term of approved list. But we are definitely aware that these securities can be pledged and there is a specific policy which SEBI has made for sponsors to pledge these securities. And I can tell, at least in IndiGrid's case, we made [ separate disclosure ] with Sterlite Power, who was the sponsor who started IndiGrid, did pledge their shares or other -- did pledge IndiGrid units to borrow. And so have other sponsors done for respective InvITs of the shareholding. So I'm very sure that legally, it is allowed to pledge, and then we definitely know several cases where NBFCs and banks are lent against it and taken units as security. Exact provision of what prevents an RBI, I'm not very sure. But this can certainly be used as a security for borrowing.

Rushabh Sharedalal

analyst
#51

I just brought up this question because of the fact that we, as retail investors, have been unable to pledge it for some odd reason. So I just wanted to know, is something that can be done on the IndiGrid side, which can help retail investors to pledge the units and [indiscernible]?

Harsh Shah

executive
#52

So we would consult with lawyers and understand if this can be done. This is largely an RBI issue. We'll see what can be done out there. I think we from company, we don't necessarily recommend to pledge for investment, but that's a personal decision. But we would certainly check with lawyers and RBI to see if something can be done on this.

Operator

operator
#53

The next question is from the line of Shobit Gupta from Exide Life Insurance.

Shobit Gupta

analyst
#54

I had a couple of questions. First was this practice of using reserves to maintain the DPUs, so as an investor, how do I look at in terms of -- though it's kind -- it looks to me as a way of smoothing reserve, but from a long-term perspective, equity market sometimes are unfavorable for you to raise. So how should we look at in terms of discipline? Second question was, I think you spoke about the power exchanges. Now if that becomes a reality in a bigger way, does it limit your opportunities for growth in a certain way in future? And one third question, if I can ask is about the lending from borrowing from the [ REIT ] level and lending to SPVs. Now from what I understand there's a lot of arbitrage involved in that. I mean you can borrow at 7.5%, 8% and lend at 14%, 15%. I'm not sure about the numbers. I'd just give an example. How should that also to be looked at from an investor point of view, it is the right way to use that arbitrage to pay distributions or it should be purely from the business perspective?

Harsh Shah

executive
#55

Cool. So we would try to give answers on that front. I think the first one on the sector and the second one that you asked first on the sector. If you see increased power exchanges, increased liquidity in electricity units will require a far more robust grid, which would eventually require far more investment in transmission. So this is rather -- this is going to require much more investment in transmission because you would need to keep certain grid idling because somebody under will want to use that data at the call of a button, right? So instead of focusing on the grid utilization, you would focus on keeping the grid ready so that you can buy the cheapest power from where you want to buy, because the grid cost today is, let's say, about 6% of the total cost of generation, right, in the country or cost of sale. Now even if you double this grid cost, 6% to 12%, if it reduces just by 10% reduction in your tariff, you are still NPV positive. So as a sector as a country, this is going to be rather contributing to more investment in transmission rather than reduce. That's the view that we have. On the reserve, I think -- what we are doing is extremely prudent. Let me give you an example. If we were distributing on an annual basis, right, the requirement of reserve may not have existed. Right? Because on an annual basis, you would receive a particular cash flow FMV. However, we have decided to make a conscious choice and distribute on a quarterly basis, so investors have a better yield, right? Now what that does is that the entire cycle, starting from our revenue, cost, financing and eventually distribution to investors become quarterly, right? Now one can't predict possibly the quarter-on-quarter business operations, liquidity, seasonality, et cetera, tracking, right? And in general, as this happens in all sectors in India, quarter 4 economic activity is highest and quarter 1, therefore, is lowest, right, in a sequential manner. And therefore, we are like any other part of the economy in India, we are, I would say, a [indiscernible], right? Quarter 1 goes low, quarter 2 higher than quarter 1, quarter 3 lower, quarter 4 is the highest, and then the cycle continues. So anybody who chooses to pay quarterly distributions and want to maintain predictability should run with some reserves. So for example, last quarter, we had such a good collection that we accumulated INR 100 crore of reserve. So we can use it next quarter or the subsequent quarter. So this is a quarter-on-quarter adjustment, right, which I think is healthy, prudent and that should be followed if we decide to do quarterly. If you do annual, we don't need to do it. The question on what you should look at for the health of the business, right? Health of the business, you should look at the balance sheet and you should look at our receivables outstanding, that gives you that as a balance sheet, are we collecting our dues beyond this periodic of [ economic low ]. And I think that gives you a picture the impact also where we are operating the transmission line. And within 5 years, our days outstanding is at 50 days only. So that means business health is doing okay. Quarter-on-quarter, 50 become 80, 80 becomes 40, the quarter you are on 40, the next quarter is going to be 80. Because on an average, it will revolve around [ 60 ] days. And there was a third question as well.

Shobit Gupta

analyst
#56

So it was about the loan from InvIT level to SPV.

Harsh Shah

executive
#57

I think the simple concept over there is our -- whatever interest we recover from SPV by charging at higher interest on unsecured loan, we distribute to our investors, right, in form of interest. Investors pay tax on it based on their jurisdiction, right? And therefore, from a government or a tax perspective, nobody is losing. We're charging SPV, you collected that if you paid to investors and investor pay tax. So -- so that way, it is a transparent method, even I would say, Power Grid InvIT is following that, right? Government of India which is doing that.

Shobit Gupta

analyst
#58

So there is not a loophole that is kind of giving us a higher distribution if it goes 1 day, and we don't see that kind of growth coming back. So that's not a risk in [ all states ]?

Harsh Shah

executive
#59

So one is we don't see that kind of a risk. Okay? And the second conceptual clarity is that InvITs, you get PAT plus depreciation, both things to you. Right? Because these are not manufacturing plants that we need to build it in 5 years, right? These are kind of perpetual assets. So we need to provide for depreciation for accounting regulation. But in reality, there is no depreciation of the asset, right? So how do we make the depreciation reached to investors in the bank account. That is why the InvITs are given as a trust structure, right, that you can pass through. Now how do you distribute distribution to -- how do you distribute depreciation to investors? Because that is under a [ company ] that you cannot figure out another way. So this method when you charge 14%, it includes PAT depreciation with other [indiscernible], right? So PAT plus depreciation. And therefore we -- therefore, this eventually method is in favor of investors to suck out all the cash flows that can reach to the investors.

Operator

operator
#60

The next question is from the line of Swarnim Maheshwari from Edelweiss Securities.

Swarnim Maheshwari

analyst
#61

Yes. So Harsh, in one of the replies you focused upon that for the future growth, you will be looking to partner with someone for the day. So are we talking about participating through the equity mode wherein we will be investing, say, 2% or 3% of our AUM for the new bids?

Harsh Shah

executive
#62

Okay. So there are several types of partnerships, Swarnim. There is one partnership where there is a go-for that [ we give right of first offer right of us if you all ] that we get and we don't invest anything in that. The second is type of framework commitments, where we acquired the assets when they are completed and it is binding on both parties. And third is, let's say, taking minority interest via consortium, right? So we explore all of them. But again, depending on the project size, risk, partner, it changes, the options are changing, but we are evaluating all of them. I would not say 2%, 3%, 2%, 3% of overall amount becomes fairly large, right? So we are just looking at what all partnerships can be formed, including minority interest, but that will be a much smaller amount.

Swarnim Maheshwari

analyst
#63

Yes. But I guess the regulations actually allows us to park our money at about, say, 10%, right? Or 10% of the overall and the construction project?

Harsh Shah

executive
#64

Yes. So the regulations and regulations are 10%, which is a very high number.

Swarnim Maheshwari

analyst
#65

Yes, I know the number is about INR 2,000-odd crores. It will be very large. But, are we looking to go through the equity route at this point or not?

Harsh Shah

executive
#66

So we don't have anything concrete signed at this point in time. Otherwise, we would announce it. But we are talking to several players to evaluate what is possible.

Operator

operator
#67

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Swarnim Maheshwari from Edelweiss Securities Limited for closing comments.

Swarnim Maheshwari

analyst
#68

I would like to point you -- I would like to thank executive management for allowing us to host the call. Thanks, Harsh for you detailed insight. Thanks to the IndiGrid team for your valuable [indiscernible] and comments. Thank you so much, Harsh. Any closing comments over here?

Harsh Shah

executive
#69

Thank you, Swarnim, and pretty excited about the journey till now, and we are looking forward to continue to be value accretive acquisition and deliver superior distribution plus growth to our investors.

Operator

operator
#70

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

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