J. Kumar Infraprojects Limited (JKIL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the J. Kumar Infraprojects Limited Q1 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Marathon Capital Advisory Private Limited. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Before we begin, a brief disclaimer. The presentation which J. Kumar Infraprojects has uploaded on the stock exchange and their website, including the discussions during this call contains or may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning J. Kumar Infraprojects business perspectives and profitability, which are subject to several risks and uncertainties, and the actual results could materially differ from those in such forward-looking statements. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Kamal Gupta, MD of J. Kumar Infraprojects Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good morning, everyone. This is Nalin Gupta, Managing Director of J. Kumar Infraprojects. I warmly welcome you all to our quarter 1 FY '26 earnings conference call. Joining me today are, Mr. Kamal Gupta, Managing Director; Mr. Vasant Savla, CFO; and our Investor Relations partner, Marathon Capital. I trust you have had the chance to review our earnings presentation and press release, both of which are available on the stock exchanges and our corporate website. We are pleased to start FY '26 on a strong note, continuing our trend of consistent performance and operational excellence. The performance once again validates our core strengths, a robust order book, efficient execution and a clear strategic focus on delivering complex infrastructure projects with precision and quality. Our bid pipeline remains healthy. Our execution capabilities sharper than ever, and we are confident that this momentum will not only sustain but will further accelerate improvement in margins, return ratios and capital efficiencies in the years ahead. As one of India's leading infrastructure construction companies, JKL is ideally positioned to benefit from the sustained momentum in the sector. The government's unwavering focus on urban development, metro expansion and transport infrastructure creates a strong multiyear runway for growth. We are fully geared to seize this opportunity with scale, speed and confidence. We are deepening our presence in core verticals like metros, elevated corridors, tunnels and water infrastructure, while also enhancing our execution frameworks to unlock even greater value from ongoing and future projects. In a demanding and highly competitive industry, our continued success is a direct reflection of the resilience, agility and engineering excellence that defines JKL. Where others see complexity, we see opportunity. Technically demanding first of their kind projects are not roadblocks, they are catalysts. The challenges to innovate, adapt and lead. Our proven ability to consistent quality for win and execute landmark projects speaks volumes and strength of our technical teams and our organizational depth. Now coming to the financial performance, consolidated performance highlights for Q1 FY '26. Revenue from operations for Q1 FY '26 grew by 16% to INR 1,484 crores as compared to INR 1,281 crores in Q1 FY '25. EBITDA for Q1 FY '26 has grown by 18% to INR 217 crores as compared to INR 84 crores in Q1 FY '25. EBITDA margin for Q1 FY '26 stood at 14.6% as compared to 14.4% in Q1 FY '25. The PAT for Q1 FY '26 grew by 19% to INR 103 crores as compared to INR 87 crores in Q1 FY '25. The PAT margin for Q1 FY '26 stood at 7% as compared to 6.8% in Q1 FY '25. The total order book as on 30, June 2025 stood at INR 20,946 crores. Net debt as on 30, June '25 stood at negative INR 159 crores, that's cash positive. We can now begin the question and answers. Thank you, everyone.

The first question is from the line of Jainam Jain from ICICI Securities.

Sir, my first question is, has the NHAI is announced a strong road project pipeline of 3.4 GDM, wherein majority consists of BOT and HAM projects. Given the size window, we have most presence in those projects, are we looking to bid for those projects?

Yes. You are asking like NHAI right now is going for more of BOT and HAM, right, Mr. Jain?

Yes.

We are right now focusing on this thing, EPC only and not on BOT projects. Maybe some of the HAM projects we may explore where we see good opportunity and our strength is there, so not for the BOT for sure. I think our requirement, the EPC projects are good enough, what is coming in, Mr. Jain. There should not be any problem in the order flow of EPC as well.

Sir, are we looking at any opportunities outside Maharashtra for metro projects?

Yes, of course, Maharashtra Metro, whatever projects will come, we will bid for that. That is for sure. Right now, the Thane Ring Road is there in place. We'll be bidding for that. Line 11 will be coming of MMRCL. We are already doing the underground metro of Line 3, INR 6,000 crore project. That will be, of course, in our focus. There are many other lines which are coming are like some of the lines they are planning to put on BOT probably. Let us see as when it comes. Again, from Bombay to New Bombay Airport, the metro has to be connected. Even CIDCO, there will be some metro lines in and around the new airport, what is in proposal. Of course, we'll be bidding for all these metros.

Currently, already Thane Metro has floated tenders, which we are in the process of bidding. We have also submitted recently the Pune Metro elevated underground corridor. Mumbai Metro is already coming up with Line 10, Line 11, Line 13, so by MMRDA. Delhi Metro has come up with an underground package, which we are about to bid. There are a lot of EPC opportunities. Again, there is a Lagoon Bridge tender by BMC, which is an elevated corridor, which we are about to bid. There are a lot of EPC opportunities is what we would like to put, which does not make us a compulsion to think about BOT at all at this stage.

Sir, as per our calculations, we had an order inflow of INR 19 billion. Is it just a conversion of existing LOIs or there is some LOI for new projects?

We were order book as of now is INR 21,000 crores.

Yes. Have we received any new project in this quarter? Or it is just a conversion of the existing LOIs that we had during the March month?

In Q1, we haven't received any new orders. Going forward, we will be -- we are expecting some order inflows to happen because there are some -- like we have submitted the Pune Metro and some other projects worth around INR 3,500 crores. We are very hopeful that we will pick up some order from this, close to like INR 2,000 crores in Q2.

Our next question is from the line of Vaibhav Shah from JM Financial.

You said that some BOT projects are coming in the metro side. Is that right?

Yes. There are some projects like, the Line 8, which is connecting International Airport to New Bombay Airport, that is like still under discussion that they may come up on BOT. But it's like very limited lines, like not even like 5% comes on BOT. Usually, it is on -- like Pune Metro came up, PMRDA had come up with an elevated corridor on BOT, which Tata had taken. It's like 5% to 10% lines hardly come on BOT because metros are not profit-making ventures. It becomes obligatory on part of the government to make it a successful project to get it on EPC mode.

Sir, what would be the value of this Line 8, which is expected to come on BOT?

Well, I don't know the exact figure on that because still there are a lot of contemplations happening in terms of how much will be elevated and how much would be underground. There are -- the figure cannot be mentioned at this stage.

If it does come on BOT, will we be bidding for that as we are not open to BOT on highway side, but are we open for metro or only EPC?

We are not open to BOT, either it is metro or elevated corridors. Because we -- as I mentioned, that we already have opportunities going forward for cash contracts. Even if there is a cash contract drying up, if we see, which is not the case at all in the present case, we may explore HAM projects, but not BOT at all. That's our internal policy.

Sir, secondly, what is our freight pipeline across the verticals? Bid pipeline across the verticals. Last time, we had mentioned that it is around INR 25,000-odd crores.

Yes, it is still INR 30,000 crores, Mr. Vaibhav. We are in different verticals of building, elevated corridors, flyover roads, metro and water.

Sir, next is what is the status of GMLR project? Has the TBM arrived already? Or what is the status?

For GMLR, we have already started the work. The first TBM is arrived like around 60% of the TBM has already been received at the job site. The main break bulk consignment should be reaching in first week of August to the job site. We will be going for the fat test of the second TBM in the first week again. Both the machines should be available by one in the month of August and the other in the month of January somewhere.

Sir, what is your CapEx guidance for the entire year for '26 and '27?

For FY '26 Q1, a CapEx of INR 107 crores has been done. In addition to normal maintenance CapEx of INR 100 crores is what we are expecting as well -- this is in addition to the GMLR specific TBM requirement that we'll be having. In the next 2 years, we should say around INR 450 crores to INR 500 crores of CapEx is what we are looking at.

Sir, in terms of guidance, do we maintain our guidance that we mentioned in the last quarter, 15% revenue growth and EBITDA margin of 15%, 16%?

Yes, absolutely. Very comfortably, Mr. Vaibav.

Sir, what is the L1 position right now?

L1 position right now -- sorry, I mean the order book is INR 21,000 crores. L1, like I won't say because we have this INR 4,000 crores of L1 book, but like we have learned that we have not got some official communication from the department, but we are getting it -- getting the project on BOT of this Virar-Alibaug. We are not considering that L1 for the moment.

We are confident of INR 6,000 crores to INR 8,000 crores order inflow guidance despite the cancellation of those Virar orders?

Yes. We are around INR 6,000 crores in this financial year. That's our target, and I think we should be able to achieve that. In the Q2 itself, we are hopeful that we should give -- we should be able to bag orders worth nearly around INR 2,000 crores.

Sir, lastly, on working capital side, we have seen a good amount of reduction in FY '25. Do we expect a further reduction in FY '26 or it should be at similar levels?

We have already given guidance of around 120 days, Mr. Vaibhav. If you see for this Q1, it's 115 days. I think we are well within the limits of that. Going forward also, we'll maintain around 120 to 125 days of working capital.

The next question is from the line of Nishit Jain from S&J Investments.

In last con call, you had mentioned that Virar-Alibaug tender validity bid was increased. Is there any update? Are they going to continue that? Or will it be BOT model?

Yes, Mr. Nishit. That's what I told right now. There were 2 projects costing around INR 4,000 crores where we were L1 of this Virar-Alibaug multimodal corridor. Right now, we have learned that they are getting this project on BOT. It's not sure, so we are not considering that L1 for the moment. We have not got any official communication till now from the department.

The second thing, last year, I think company had invested some INR 100 crores in PSL Vizag. Is there any more such asset buying opportunity this year? Or was that only one-off such incident?

Right now, it doesn't look like any more such project. There also, the work is going well. We have prepaid major amount of this thing, loan what we've taken. It's all on track, sir.

Last thing, in last con call also, you had mentioned regarding the Versova-Dahisar project. Have the operation started for this project?

Versova-Dahisar, we have already got the LOI and the work is -- the preparatory works because there are a lot of permissions that's required on the coastal roads, where Mangroves, CRZ, Pollution Control Board, so there are -- and we are in very advanced stage, and we have practically got the permission to start the works, which are on the road portion. As far as J. Kumar is concerned, we have a substantial length on the road as well. Those GADs have been finally approved. We have started the trenching work and the physical piling work will be started at the job site next week. We have already completed soil investigation, test piles, GAD submission, design has been approved for almost 40 foundations. It's in an advanced stage and physically a substantial work will be started from August month.

Basically, the permission for Mangroves, some High Court and all that is still pending according to you?

That's on track. As I mentioned, around 30% of the stretch is on the Mangroves and the affected areas. 70% is on the road area, where we have an elevated corridor. There, the work permission has been granted to us and where all the preparatory works, including design approval has been done. Physical work will start from this month.

This thing will also have an extension to Virar and Palghar, am I right in future?

Right now, this line has been designed till Bhayandar, till Dahisar-Mira Road. This line has to be taken till Vasai-Virar for which MMRDA and BMC both are -- so most likely, it will be by MMRDA. They are still working out the best techno-commercially viable proposal. I think in a span of 3 to 6 months, that tender should also be there for bidding.

Our next question is from the line of Dhwanil from Savla Family Office.

My question is with regards to Metro Line 4. How much of the order book is still under construction? By when can we see the completion of this? My second question is, I wanted to understand that was there any funding or something procured for -- before we -- our L1 in this Virar-Alibaug project?

No, we had -- we were in the process of tying up with the banks for our bank guarantees and all. There is no funding taken for that project, till now. We had taken the approval for -- as a standby, we do preparatory preparation, which we had taken, but there is no reason of taking a single rupee till we get the LOI. There is 0 anything taken for that project. With regards to Line 4. Line 4, we have a very small area available -- a small portion of INR 500 crores for a project, which is called as, which is from Kasaravadavali to Gaimukh, which is J. Kumar scope. Overall project time line completion is what we are hearing and expecting is around 1.5 years' time from now. Our portion, we have already completed close to around 85% of the project. That is the line they intend to commission on the priority basis. We have handed over a substantial portion of the project to the further contractors of track and OHE works. As expected, they are targeting to open it within a year's time, that 5 to 6 kilometers range.

Our next question is from the line of Aditya Sahu from HDFC Securities.

My all the questions have been answered. Just one data point I wanted to confirm. This is with respect to the peak debt -- gross peak debt guidance that we've given earlier of INR 9 billion for FY '26. Does that continue to be in place? Or are we changing on that? INR 900 crores.

What we were talking about is that total -- there are 2 TBMs required for GMLR, but our requirement is only one. One is bought by NCC. J. Kumar never intended to take INR 900 crores CapEx for this project. Ours was 50%. That we have already mentioned that in the span of 2 years period, we expect to book CapEx close to around INR 500 crores, including the maintenance CapEx.

Understood, sir. The overall debt, what are we expecting for '26 and '27?

We have -- as guided before, so it's around INR 750 crores to INR 800 crores for [’26].

Our next question is from the line of Devang Shah from Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediates Private Limited.

Sir, I wanted to just ask the way we earlier discussed over the next 2, 3 years, the way we have an existing order book, we continue to maintain the same revenue CAGR, somewhere 15%-plus kind of growth and same EBITDA margin. You are just maintaining the same guidance, sir?

If you talk about the growth rate and the EBITDA margin, we are very sure of maintaining growth rate of 15% to 16% in terms of top line and around 14% to 15% --we are trying to take our EBITDA margin to 15% to 16% going forward 6 to 8 quarters that we had mentioned, and we are confident that due to the operational efficiency and leverage that we'll be getting, we should be able to maintain that. We still maintain that, that we should be able to achieve it.

In this particular financial year, you are expecting some kind of INR 6,000 crores kind of order inflow, new order inflow by considering the tender and the way you have been now bidder for many projects. By considering these fact, you feel that your outstanding order book more or less remains somewhere close to INR 21,000 crores? Because you already aspiration to have a some kind of INR 25,000 order book in next 2 years kind of thing. I'm just asking, what would be your outstanding order book possibility at the end of this particular financial year? I'm talking about 31, March 2026. Because this year, you are ending with close to INR 21,000 crores, so just to get that particular idea.

Yes. As you have rightly mentioned that our continuous effort is to ensure that the top line that the company is making, we book that amount of order book on an average and with some add-ons depending upon some good opportunities that we can get at our margins. That's how if you see we have not been very, very aggressive in terms of Q1, where you couldn't see any order book because we are already sitting at a comfortable order book of INR 21,000 crores, which takes care of my 3 to 4 years top line going forward. But still, it will be like, as we have mentioned, in Q2 itself, we should be seeing around contracts worth around INR 2,000 crores that we should be more or less bagging. In the whole year, we will be able to back around INR 5,000 crores to INR 6,000 crores for sure. Maintaining our order book close to like INR 22,000 crores, INR 23,000 crores is minimum is what we are targeting at.

We can assume that in the FY '25, you were having a top line somewhere close to INR 5,700 crores. As you were saying, if you are maintaining a 15% kind of revenue top line CAGR growth in this year, so that much amount of at least order inflow you want to have, so your order book at the end to be maintained. Am I right, sir, what I understood?

You got it right. Perfectly right.

That way you want to grow ahead, that it should be compensated and more or less remain at incrementally or more or less remain at the same level kind of thing at least.

Very right.

Sir, last question. What about the industry outlook? What are you perceiving the way we have a government push and everything. What is you feel the pace as far as concerned? It is going to be more on a second half of the financial year? What are you're perceiving, sir, by considering the tendering and the bidding that has been floated by the government or any private project that you are dealing into. What is the industry you are making sense?

Overall, if you see the government this, I would say, Q1 or Q2 overall, we could not see a huge order book or order inflow or tendering process that was going on because with the new government formation, they are trying to take control over the existing commitments. But with the information that we have, we feel that the H2 should be having some good amount of orders coming in. Overall, the government is very pushy about infrastructure. I think we should be having a healthy order book going forward in this 2 to 3 years' time on a regular basis.

You mean to say, H2 will be a more possibility of a more order inflow. That's what from the government side. From the private side, sir?

In 3 to 6 months' time, which will be floated. That's how I'm very hopeful about H2. Because all the departments are planning to come up with floating of new tenders for metros, elevated corridors, road tunnels. The opportunity looks to be quite strong for -- according to my view.

Sir, you feel whatever the CapEx they have already guided, so they have to make some kind of allocation also quicker basis in H2 as far as tendering is concerned because the way they have guided for the CapEx, they have to -- that much -- at least to be floated on a deliverable basis.

You rightly said it. That's why I said that we are very bullish about the infrastructure segment in this 2 years' time and including H2, there should be good amount of works that we should be expecting.

As far as private side is concerned, sir, private -- this is your government, you have spoken. Any kind of private projects or something?

As of private, if you speak of, you would appreciate that J. Kumar only works into the government sector, and we don't focus on to the private area because we have enough potential and opportunities to grow in the government sector. We have historically been focusing only on the government.

Our next question is from the line of Lokesh Kashikar from SMIFS Institutional Equities.

Congratulations on the good set of numbers. My first question is basically on the metro segment. My analysis basically looks at the percentage of metro rail towards the overall order mix has been considerably declining over the period and has now dropped to around less than 15%. It is more kind of a strategy of the company wherein we are getting more opportunities on the other segment? Or how one should look at? Is there any competition in the metro segment that is basically declining the mix of the segment? Yes, that's my first question.

Yes, Mr. Lokesh. If you see, we basically concentrate more on structure, okay, whether it's metro, whether it's elevated corridors. In recent times, if you see we have added new verticals of road tunnels, water, okay? These are the new segments where we have entered. We are taking more projects on the verticals also. Now coming to whether it's metro, or whether it's elevated or some other verticals, our focus is always on bottom line. We ensure that the company gets the required bottom line, whether it's a metro project or an elevated corridor. In between we like -- initially, we had a major percentage was non-metro. Then when we got some good opportunities of good projects of metro, INR 5,000 crores of line underground Metro 3, the percentage of metro was much higher. Now when we got good opportunity of the GMLR, which is a road tunnel from New Bombay tunnels we took, the elevated corridor in Chennai we took, the Dwarka Expressway, we took. Then the percentages of metro has gone down. Again, going forward also, if we get good opportunities with our margins in metro, we go for metro. If we get it in road tunnel or elevated or water, we'll go for that. It's basically about the right opportunity with our numbers. Basically, to understand metro project is a complex nature of job. When we talk about the elevated corridors, like whether you talk of Bombay Coastal Road, you talk of Chennai elevated corridor, which is India's first of its kind with 20 kilometers with double-decker clover leaps, cable stays. Similarly, with the coastal road at Bombay, Again, there are a lot of cable stays, multiple loops. These type of works are specialized jobs, which is a core competence area. That is the area where we get some extra mileage in terms of profit. That we have been focusing and we will continue to focus there.

Sure, sir. One just a clarification on the margin front. You said 15% to 16% margins we are targeting over the next 6 to 8 quarters. But is it fair to assume that 14.7% to 14.8% for FY '26 and around 15% for FY '27? Is it fair to assume?

Yes. Right now, we are doing around 14% to 15%, and we intend to go 1 notch percentage higher in the coming 8 quarters -- 6 to 8 quarters. Going forward by ‘27, we should see that 15% to 16% margins will be there.

Sir, last one on the Chennai Elevator corridor. Just wanted to what is the progress on it and the outstanding order value of that project?

Yes. We have 4 packages in Chennai. All the 4 packages are going very well. The progress is we have, in fact, established one of the biggest casting yard of India there. The casting of segments has started is the superstructure what we call. The foundations in the river are going in full-fledged. We have completed almost 40% of the piling there. Subsequently, the construction and other works are being progressed.

What would be the outstanding value of the total INR 6,500 crores?

Outstanding order book?

Order value of Chennai elevator of total 4 packages.

We'll get back to you the exact figure in separately. We don't have this handy right now. We'll get back to you.

Our next question is from the line of Diwakar Rana from Prudent Equity.

Sir, out of this INR 21,000 crores order book, do we have any slow-moving legacy order?

No, there is one project of NBCC building project, which is like INR 300 crores. That is like not starting in full-fledged, only the preparative work is there. Apart from that, all the projects are going well.

When do we expect this order to be kind of start?