Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (NSE: ADANIPORTS) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 03, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Rahul Agarwal — Head Of Investor Relations and ESG
Ashwani Gupta — Whole-Time Director and Chief Executive Officer
D Muthukumaran — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Anshul Agrawal — Analyst
Ketan Jain — Analyst
Priyankar Biswas — Analyst
Parash Jain — Analyst
Sumit Kishore — Analyst
Achal Lohade — Analyst
Vasudha Khurana — Analyst
Kalpit Sabhaya — Analyst
Manish Somaiya — Analyst
Pulkit Patni — Analyst
Ankita Shah — Analyst
Rajarshi Maitra — Analyst
Nidhi Shah — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited’s Q3FY26 conference call hosted by MK Global Financial Services Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anshul Agarwal from MK Global Financial Services Limited. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Anshul Agrawal — Analyst
Thanks Rio. Good evening everyone. I would like to welcome the management and thank them for giving us this opportunity to host the earnings call. Representing the senior management, we have with us today Mr. Ashwini Gupta, whole time Director and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. D. Muthukumaran, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Divish Taneja, CEO Logistics Business and Mr. Rahul Agrawal, Head of Investor Relations and ESG shall now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Over to you gentlemen.
Rahul Agarwal — Head Of Investor Relations and ESG
Thank you Anshul. Hello everyone and a Warm welcome to. APS CG’s third quarter earnings conference call. We will begin with Ashwini’s opening remarks and then open the floor for Q. And A. Ashwini.
Ashwani Gupta — Whole-Time Director and Chief Executive Officer
Good afternoon, good morning, good evening. Depending on the time zone you are in, thank you so much for being on this call and thank you for your continued support and confidence in apscz. As India’s largest and world’s fastest growing integrated utility company apicz has once again demonstrated exceptional performance in regular consistent way. All the four business pillars of the company are delivering strong high double digit growth rates. Much more than the markets, much more than the competition, much more than the trade. And we are setting up the new benchmarks and this quarter we have even surpassed our internal benchmarks.
Whether we talk about financials, we talk about revenue growth, we talk about EBITDA growth, we talk about pac, we talk about market share, we talk about free cash, we talk about if you talk about any indicator you will see a consistent growth delivering a very very sustainable performance. And we have been saying that in every quarter and we are demonstrating it in every quarter. Now I will go little bit more in detail. The domestic ports delivered the highest ever 9 month container share at 40.6 which is our main pillar of growth. Then when we talk about international ports I still remember we always talked about how the international ports will perform.
So and now you can see that in quarter we had a revenue which was 1000 crore. So which means that International business is also becoming between 4,000 to 5,000 crore revenue annual business which is a very very hyper growth trajectory. When we talk about Marine and if you remember that when we did the acquisition of Astro, we very smartly handicrafted this business. And this is the reason that Marine is also pulling our profitable growth. And all these do not come at the cost of profitability. So if you look at Marine and international ports, Ebitda, it is more than double with double digit growth.
And also when you look at logistics which is of course our second pillar, we have delivered the revenue 1121 crore which is 62% higher end year. And this was possible because of our strategy which is based on asset heavy, asset light and asset zero. Then all these financial disciplines, all these operational excellence results in a very strong financial discipline. Which means despite the NQXT acquisition where we are taking 700 million Australian dollars of debt, we are still able to keep our leverage under a check of 1.8x which means moving forward when we are following this higher double digit growth trajectory, our cash flow is so much significant for us which will help us in investing in the capacities on the existing asset which is giving us the organic growth but also to explore the meaningful rate of return in organic growth by merger and acquisitions.
So with the operational excellence and the financial discipline we have revised our guidance by 800 crore. Now all this have been very clearly appreciated and recognized by the external agencies. To start with our balance sheet strength is now validated by Japan Credit Research Agency which rated us a notch above India’s sovereign rating. Now moving forward we continue to invest in the capacities for the organic growth especially in India including liquid including containers. And very recently we announced 16,000 crores within jam phase two expansion. And we are investing in Damra, Anor, Kattupalli, Haldia and so on and so on.
And this growth momentum along with the operational efficiency positions us to be very much, to be very much on the trajectory towards the FY29 which is our end of five year plan where we said we will be doing 65,500 crores of revenue and 36,500 crores of EBITDA. So once again quarter and quarter we are over delivering with respect to internal as well as the external benchmarks which are making us very much confident to reach the five year plan in FY29. Now giving little bit more details that how we are investing in the technology to improve the operational efficiency.
Very recently Vigenjim has achieved the world class GCR which is a gross grain rate at 30 containers, lifts per hour, which is a benchmark just after eight months of operation. And that’s why we keep on continuing to invest in the technologies. Now all this profitable growth comes with sustainability at the center of our strategy. Sustainability is an enabler, not an objective for us. That’s why as a global leader in sustainable transportation, APICZ has become India’s first company in its sector and among a select group of global players to adopt the Task Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosures, setting a new benchmark for nature positive infrastructure development.
We now take the questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press Star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press STAR and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press star and 1. The first question is from Ketan Jain from Avendis Park. Please go ahead.
Ketan Jain
Thank you. Congratulations on a very good set of numbers. Sir, my first question is. I was observing the numbers. Our domestic realization is up 9% year. On year in this quarter. Can you tell us what is the reason driving this?
D Muthukumaran
Hi, this is Muthu Mar. Thank you very much. Spot on. We have increased and we have mentioned in page number 16 we’ll be talking about domestic ports that the higher implied revenue and EBITDA per ton of this quarter is non representative as it also includes some take or pay charges in addition to the routine price increase and mix change. So what we’re trying to say is that actually you know, we have, you know, sort of enjoyed the benefit of price increase, mix increase and you know, benefit of mix change. And there is little bit of benefit from forex and besides all these things there is a little bit of an element on the denominator being suppressed because we are getting take or pay but the volume is not.
So if you’re calculating price per ton, you know, you’ll have to actually, you know, sort of put all these things and of course we don’t give the breakdown of each of these elements but yeah, I mean we have all these things put into the price increase.
Ketan Jain
Understood. So that is why that difference in this. My second question is if it could help us with the cargo breakdown of the international. International cargo in Portwise.
D Muthukumaran
Okay, I’ll flip to the page. Can you go to the next question in the meanwhile?
Ketan Jain
Yeah. My last question is on Munra. What is Your outlook on Munra for the full year? I think we are down around 2% for nine months. What is your outlook on Mundra for the full year?
Ashwani Gupta
Yeah, so you know as you can see Mundra is doing extremely well utilizing each and every capacity which we, which we could. Quarter three if you look at the container, cargo because if you remember I always talk about container, container and container because we know that two of the power plants in Mundra are highly dependent on the imported coal. So we are focusing on that.
You can see that month on month, quarter on quarter, we are increasing the container. In quarter three we did 2.2, roughly 2.2 million. In January we touched 754,000. This is when we have not yet opened up the capacity for the new terminal which will be coming in next year. So I think in January we already did 754,000 which is a real benchmark because our efficiency in Mundra is reaching the best of best in terms of gcr, in terms of rail evacuation and so on. And now after the CT5 comes in, definitely we will have add on capacity.
So to answer to your question, container, liquid terminal fertilizers and all these commodities. Mundra is on the right track when it comes to the coal, especially the thermal coal there. We of course see flat movement. But anyhow that is not going to change the dynamics of our Mundra financials because as Muthu Kumar said just before, those are all take or pay capacities when it comes to. When it comes financial and okay, on the.
D Muthukumaran
Given the volume split the Number is above 8.4. Israel about 2.1 and Tanzania about 3.1 MMT.
Ketan Jain
Sorry sir, I didn’t, I couldn’t hear you.
D Muthukumaran
Columbo 5.4 MMT. HIA 2.1 and Tanzania 3.1, 3.1 MMT. This is all quarterly numbers.
Ketan Jain
Thank you sir, those are my questions.
D Muthukumaran
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Priyankar Biswas from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Priyankar Biswas
First of all my congratulations to you for increasing the guidance and of course for a very strong outlook for the year. My first question is. So when I see the numbers in a bit more detailed. We are seeing that there is a. This others revenue that we are seeing. There is a significant increase in the top line there and almost a doubling of the ebitda. What is driving that? Is it our dredging entity or is it the track maintenance entity? And how should we look at this particular item going forward?
D Muthukumaran
Hi, thanks a lot for the question. You know subsequent to last financial year’s income tax changes. We did a little bit of a restructuring of assets and some bridges which were sitting in Adani Port. The you know top company did go to Shanti Sagar which is the subsidiary company then that gets clubbed under others and then there are also you know sort of others include you know another subsidiary Sarguja where our volumes have ramped up quite significantly in these. In this financial year. So I just wanted to lay these explanations out to you before coming to your I guess the purpose of question quality of analysis or quality of revenue.
You know these are sort of sustainable non recurring sorry recurring not recurring sorry these are sustainable recurring usual routine incomes. So there is no, it’s just a classification. There is nothing in particular, you know sort of for you to focus on this line. And in any case actually as you can see as the last point on a per term basis these contribute, you know EBITDA contributes to rupees so increase so which is not quite significant. So overall I just wanted to reemphasize that these are accounting classifications and nothing to highlight to you on in a sort of quality of income.
Priyankar Biswas
Furthermore in Visingam we just heard the announcement of this 16,000 crores further expansion of capacity. Now on that can you just provide us like what so like let’s say what is the timeline for the capex and following that what sort of volumes? Let’s say you are building in because by the time it comes let’s say on stream we would be very close to our FY28 and 29 targets. So if you can share some color and is there some plans for I think offshore ship to ship bunkering is something of that plans at least for the prestige that I would make out.
D Muthukumaran
The last question. Can you just repeat the last sentence?
Priyankar Biswas
So, so is there some plans for liquids as well? Is vising like ship to ship bunkering or something of that?
Unidentified Speaker
I think Muthu will talk about this 16,000 crore is for the phase two development. This will take the capacity more than 5 million because you know with the technology and with the efficiency we are delivering 20 to 30% more than the nameplate capacity. This 16,000 includes extension of the extension of the breakwater, includes the berth, includes the equipment and it includes all the ecosystem which is needed to. To run the, to run the port. Obviously this includes the potential to develop the. To develop the liquid terminal to start with. To start with we have already signed the MoU with BPCL for LNG bunkering.
This will be a ship to ship bunkering because as you know that today the LNG bunkering is at Jabar Ali and then you know the Colombo is still struggling. And because on this international channel there is not many competitive LNG bunkering facilities. That’s the reason that shipping lines are not bringing their LNG capable vessels on this channel. But with this, with vessel to vessel, ship to ship bunkering facility in Vijingam which is just 10 nautical miles from the international water is boosting the shipping lines and motivating them to bring their vessels which are LNG capable.
And I’m pretty sure this will be very successful. And BPCL will of course bring the LNG from very nearby Kochi plant.
D Muthukumaran
Thank you. Question Priyankar on Capex. The Capex will go on till FY29 and the payments will happen until FY30. I’m actually talking to you trying to pull out the EGM notice in which we have given the year wise anticipated cash flows. And you know, just one second, I’m getting it up for you. And this will increase the capacity from the current 1.6 million TEUs to we. Will expand it by 4.1.
So therefore in total we will go up to 5.7 million TEUs of total capacity. And we have also given the details of exact project specification. You know, how many cranes, what is the breakwater requirement? All of them are in the EGM notice that we have actually circulated. And I’m actually trying to read out to you from there. The CapEx FY26 we have 90 million. FY27 we have 350 million. FY28 we have 700 million and 29, 550 million and FY30, 63 million. This is the, you know, anticipated cash flows on account of this project. I mean it will not be out of place to actually put in, you know, a caveat that these are estimates which is going to go four years out.
So there may be variations but this is our estimate of cash flow.
Priyankar Biswas
Sir, very helpful. What I was trying to actually understand like when you are doing this large expansion of Visingam and you have a plan for 36,000 crores EBITDA in FY29. So is, is this asset contributing handsomely to that from this expansion?
Ashwani Gupta
No, this expansion, you know it will, it will have. We will see the basic port already exists, right? We already have a 800 meter berth. So we will keep on building up. It is not that we will increase the volume in 2028 only. I think we will be doing an incremental ramp up of, of our, of our Volume and this EBITDA which we have declared that we will be doing by FY29 includes all the ports which we have, includes a ramp up and includes the existing business. So it’s not a new decision which we took which is going to impact the ebitda.
It is all included in our business plan.
D Muthukumaran
And just to add to it actually as I mentioned this project will only be completed by FY29 and 36,000 crores you’re talking about is for FY29. So it will be very very small contribution to that estimate. It will, it is being built based on the market’s growth and you know sort of our company’s growth going forward.
Priyankar Biswas
And that’s very clear and just if I can squeeze just last one in since NQXT would be included from the next quarter. So can you give us some idea like how should the balance sheet be essentially looking like when we close the year like FY26 and how should we look at let’s say a little bit ahead.
D Muthukumaran
So I think in the page number I’m trying to remember but basically the total debt, net debt of Australia is about 4,800 crores as of December2025.
Unidentified Speaker
That’s a gross debt. A 4,744 crores is gross debt. 280 crores is the, is the cash.
D Muthukumaran
Yeah, sorry, yeah 4,500 gross.
Priyankar Biswas
Okay. Okay sir, we’ll come back into the queue.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Parash Jain from hsbc. Please go ahead.
Parash Jain
Hi Ashwini and Muthu. I have two questions. First of all if you can talk about your 2030 target of 1 billion ton will it be entirely or largely fulfilled by the ongoing expansion in half a dozen port that you mentioned in your presentation and so on and so forth. That’s question number one. And if not then will the target will be in India or in overseas? The second question is with respect to Vision Drum, do you need like do we have an entire ecosystem in place to handle your target capacity in terms of evacuation in terms of cargo if you can share any color and also the pricing difference between Vizingham and Colombo.
D Muthukumaran
So let me start with the second question first. Balash Viringam Basically you know at this point in time we are positioning it as a transshipment. So you know evacuation into intellect is marginal for now. That said you know there is a road connectivity which is right outside the port which can evacuate for Exim cargo. And you know there is also a plan for us and we are evaluating and implementing a rail connectivity program in that port. So if and when, you know, rail also happens, we will have, you know, added evacuation capacity and road of course can serve to the extent that we need.
So it is not a constraint. As the market develops, we’ll be able to actually handle legs and cargo quite easily. At the moment it is positioned as transhipment cargo. To your question on 1 billion ton, basically we are talking about the split of largely domestic and international. Domestic is international is about 150 million metric tons for which the current ports that we have in the portfolio, you know, sort of has a very clear visibility of how we can get to 150 from these four ports with the current program with nothing, you know, sort of added new.
Now if we do add anything more in the international, it will actually add to the comfort of a billion ton. As far as the balance 850 million ton is concerned, it is all going to come from domestic market. You know, Viningum is the transshipment port. And if you go back to the earlier question, I did mention that, you know, Birmingham is going to have phase two coming in only post FY13 volumes. So therefore, you know, current volumes that we are doing, you know, you have the current indication of where we will do. Now if you remove that, everything else is, you know, sort of coming from the existing ports that we already have.
And you know, we have explained in the last quarter that we see a disproportionate increase in Damra. You know, we, we can see that going up to, you know, 100 million tons in times to come. Other than that, you know, all the ports will actually go up in proportion. Mundra has an ecosystem to grow faster than other people, but that is sort of only at the margin. By and large we don’t anticipate any proportionate contribution coming from ports in a way which is different from what we have today. So the current split is by and large indicative of how we will do all the ports we expect to contribute to growth.
And you will see that we have been investing in all of the ports. You know, expansion capacity is being created in an organic manner. So we expect the proportion to by and large to mean the same.
Parash Jain
Also the reason talk about the pricing of transit when cargo versus Colombo, for instance.
Ashwani Gupta
Sorry, your what? Yeah, yeah, see, you know, pricing is always the consequence of supply and demand. So Colombo is short of capacity and I’m pretty sure that in a coming three to four years, Colombo will be struggling for the capacity. We have the capacity and in addition to the capacity we would be also offering the EXIM very, very, very, very very soon. So vision jump anyhow as an overall port will keep its competitiveness and we will, we will fight with the competition accordingly. So far in last since we started, absolutely. We have no pricing pressure because of that because we are driving the business by the services we give to the shipping lines not only in Beijing imports but everywhere in the world including Colombo.
Parash Jain
Fair enough. That’s very helpful. Thank you and have a good rest of the evening.
Ashwani Gupta
Thank you. Thank you Paras.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Sumit Kishore from Access Capital. Please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore
Hi, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. One question on the container cargo volume growth that you have seen, the logistics business, it’s about 4%. The quarter seemed to be a bit low versus what you were tracking and what Iran Concord has done slightly more than that also as the second biggest player in the space right now, given that DFC is going to come up in March and the Concord has given a fairly strong growth guidance for the next three, four years on their call. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on how you are looking at the next three, four years post EFC.
Ashwani Gupta
Hi, I’ll just respond to that. So you’re right. Q1Q looking at 4%. So that’s roughly 1.64 to 1.70. So initial response to that is that we are going down the integrated path and looking at having a complete port to factory sort of thought process. That’s where you’re seeing a reconfig happening with regards to the DFC which is roughly 15,6 kilometers which ultimately will connect the northern hinterland into let’s say Navajo. We don’t see too much of disruption. We’re looking at our volumes remaining steady. And primarily if I look at it, the rail slabs that you’re looking at between let’s say Mundra and the other ports vary from six to seven rail slabs that will increase.
So apart from let’s say the increase in cargo carrying capacity, the rail slabs will not really benefit that process. So we will see a little more movement no doubt maybe from road into rail, but we don’t see any delta affecting us. In fact we do look at the industry as a whole benefiting from this.
Sumit Kishore
So your response sort of gives me the impression that you are looking at a single digit growth for the next three, four years in the rail container volumes even after dsp. Is that the right impression?
D Muthukumaran
So not really. If I’m looking at Adani Logistics in particular, we are targeting double digit growth as we have Done even in this year. If you look at my year on year numbers, we are in double digit. We are roughly at 11%. So we are looking at double digit to continue.
Sumit Kishore
Or real container volumes.
Ashwani Gupta
That’s right. For the dfc. You know, we appreciate DFC because at the end it is contributing to the overall trade and it is contributing to the traffic. One thing which is very important for all of us to be very clear, what comes to our competitor port is because of their port competitiveness, which is draft, which is evacuation and so on and so on. What comes to Mundra is because of Mundra’s competitiveness of the port. Whether it is a vessel turnaround time, whether it is the efficiency of our ecosystem at Mundra, whether it is the draft and also our relationship with the shipping lines everywhere.
Right. Anything which comes to Mundra can also go to Vijingam for the transshipment. So that is the competitiveness and Mundra as a port. Now we can always say that catchment area for our competitor and us are different. So that will always continue. Now the question is what is the impact of TFC on us is negligible and I would say zero. Why? Because when it comes to the travel time, the travel time on the DFC will improve. But the travel time on connections to the competitor port and to the competitor ICD will remain the same as it is between mundra and other ICDs in the NCR.
So we don’t expect the total end to end time using the DFC to go much less until the bottlenecks and which will take time and efforts both. But more than that, the only competitiveness which may come is from what is the cost per TU after the DFC will be started. Because this is where the shipping lines can say that even if Mundra has got a better draft, even if Mundra has got a better vessel turnaround time, even if Mundra has got a better services which is end to end. But still, you know your competition will have a competitiveness because of DFC and answer is no.
Why? Because there will be additional 300-350 km where Mundra will have the competitiveness which is roughly 5 to 6 railway slabs and which is not few hundred rupees, which is few thousand rupees. So I think our customer shipping line will think twice to use our competition DFC if it is our catchment area, if it is our competitiveness. And that’s where we do believe that DST will increase the efficiency of our competition. But what will not take away the business from us.
Sumit Kishore
Very clear. Also just a brief comment if you can make on the GPWIS volumes which have been flattish this year. Is that mainly because of coal not being too much invoke or what is the reason for GPWIS volume being flattish for nine months?
Unidentified Speaker
So it’s predominantly, if you look at it on the east coast we’ve had an extended monsoon. So I’ve gone from 5.5 to 5.2. So this is primarily the reason.
Sumit Kishore
Extended monsoon. Okay. And flattish for nine months is again linked to which commodity.
Ashwani Gupta
So no change in commodity mix so it will remain flat. I mean, you know we, I mean we were thinking and we wanted to take your feedback also. I mean we started communicating about gpwis when you know the Indian policy was talking about increase in the GPWIs and increase in the participation of private players in GPWIs. And we were very bullish on that. But then all of a sudden there was a pause on the policy. So only thing which we can do Is to run GPWIs in a very efficient way. But the issue comes when we want to run the GPWIS in an efficient way.
But at the end they are connected to the main traffic of the railways. So if GPWIS is not getting the load sometime it comes empty. And that’s where you will see the fluctuation of the utilization of the GWIs. Not because DBWIs does not have the business opportunity. Just because that overall ecosystem of rakes owned by Indian Railways and the rakes owned by us do not get the full optimization because of, because of import export imbalance.
Sumit Kishore
Got it. Just one last question. Your EBITDA for nine months is 16,830 crore. How’s been the conversion to operating cash flow for the 9 month period? And the way you are tracking on operating cash flow which is much, much ahead as compared compared to your EBITDA. So as compared to your CapEx plan for FY26. I mean we’ve been asking it in the past to your cash position and your balance sheet just gets better. So what are your capex plans through 2030 if you can repeat them once again and what do you do with the extra cash generation?
D Muthukumaran
So first question, conversion. Basically you know we have an annual interest net including you know, sort of our netting of income in the region of about 1800 crores and tax, you know, little less but call it similar amount. And we have already given you the guidance for the full year of 22,800 crores as the EBITDA. So you know, if you remove these two or deduct these two, you will get the you know, sort of operating cash flows a little over 18,000 crores. So that is answer to your first question and we are on track, you know, sort of for this conversion to your second question what we are going to do with extra cash.
You have seen that over the last two, three years we have been, you know, sort of doing, you know, sort of buybacks where required. We’ve been actually prepaying some loans. So you know we have said there is a policy we will keep cash you know to a comfortable level of at least 2/4 of capex and you know, anticipated cash outflows. So that’s the minimum that we would like to carry in our balance sheet. And you know, as and when we generate a, you know, excess cash flows we will deal with the way we did in the past.
Sumit Kishore
Which is in the past you would capex three, you know but right now your CAPEX plans are much lower.
D Muthukumaran
So we will actually give you along with the next quarter the you know, sort of capex plan for FY27. It will be you know, sort of discussed in detail like we have done for you know, past years. At the time of Q4 result we will give you and you will see that you know, directionally for all the projects that we have already announced we will have more cash capex than what we have done in the past. So it will all stack up when we give you the breakdown in Q4.
Sumit Kishore
Sure. But just to revisit, to meet your target of 1 billion ton, has the CAPEX plan over a 5 year time frame which was there earlier changed?
D Muthukumaran
No.
Sumit Kishore
Okay, so it’s only going to be timing of the capex rather than. Okay, I think we’ll have, we’ll look forward to the fourth quarter discussion. Thank you.
operator
The next question is from Mr. Archer Lohare from Nuama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Achal Lohade
Good evening sir. Thank you for the opportunity. The first question I have is with respect to container at Mundra. If I see the last three quarters, you know our container volume has been between 2 to 2.2 million Tus. So a if you could rather last four quarters so if you could give us some sense as to what, you know, what is the challenge out here and B the outlook, you know, I know you’ve given the kind of overall number but if you could just talk a little bit on container and coal for Mundra particularly and also at aggregate level.
Thank you so much.
Ashwani Gupta
I mean, sorry, I’m trying to understand your Question. You’re saying that between 2 to 2.2 is less or more or less
Achal Lohade
okay or no actually. Okay, let me rephrase her. If I look at the container volume growth for last 3/4 it’s minus 3 plus 4 and plus 6 at Mundrapur. So if you could, I mean it has been growing in high, high double digit or mid teens in the past. If you could you know give us some sense as to what is creating this hiccup and be the outlook and.Similarly for coal
Ashwani Gupta
I think no there is no hiccup in Mundra. Of course there was a hiccup in quarter one when we had this operation Sindur because of which you know we had the disturbance in the supply chain and that’s where the quarter one was, was 2, 2 million. But then it started picking up from quarter two and quarter three as you can see is 2.2 million and January itself is 7.5. So if I do my math correct we should be more than 2.2. So as I said before Mundra is still having the capacity and we are really caching each and every bit of the capacity.
And very soon our CD5 will be City will be open. So we don’t see any challenge in increase of volume in increase in volume in Mundra. I think on the coal there was a combination of two things. Number one India as a whole saw the sluggish power demand. That was number one. Which means the thermal coal import all India basis was minus 2.7%. And we as the two power plants in Mundra because they are dependent on the imported coal they also got the hit because of that. And that’s where you know we had this issue.
Now moving forward both the, both the plants have been fired and I think both have got the approvals to move forward and they will move forward because that’s where the India power needs are. Having said that once again I repeat that the Mundra growth is not driven by these two power plants or by the thermal coal. Mundra growth is driven by container, container and container. That’s why we decided to invest in container terminals. Mundra growth is also by the liquid. If you would have seen in last two quarters you would have seen the growth in the, in LPG also and the fertilizers, the EGRI and so on and so on.
So overall we really want to drive the growth in Mundra by container.
Achal Lohade
Got it. Secondly, just a clarification. NQXT will be consolidated from 1st of January. Have I understood right or 1st of April 26th.
Ashwani Gupta
1St of January.
Achal Lohade
Understood. And if you could clarify, you know, in terms of the other expenses line item, you know, that seems to have kind of seen a decline on a YY basis. You know. Any particular reason out here if you could call out if I see this is 475 crores.
D Muthukumaran
Yes. No, so there isn’t actually any sort of reason. These are just quarterly and seasonal things and if you see here as a whole, it will actually stack up.
Achal Lohade
Got it. Thank you. I’ll fall back in the queue for more questions. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Vasudha Khurana from Aviva Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Vasudha Khurana
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I would like to ask if what are the kind of borrowing target for FY27 and what kind of avenues would the company be looking at in terms of domestic and external borrowing? If you could share some segregation.
D Muthukumaran
Okay, so in FY27 we have only routine amortizations coming up for repayments which is in the order of three and a half thousand crores. You know, we, we will generate, we will give you the EBITDA guidance for the next year when we discuss next quarter numbers. But directionally you will find that, you know, we are generating sufficient cash flows to meet the mandatory prepayments required as well as the capex plan that we have. This is a little bit of, without numbers, it’s a little bit of a peep into, you know, what you might sort of hear from us in next quarter about the next financial year.
So we don’t need any borrowing. You know, that said, you know, we have been having, you know, sort of virtually all markets open. We’ve been able to borrow in the ECB market. We have been able to borrow in the rupee banking market and the rupee NCD market. So we have, and then we also have short term markets like cp. So we have multiple avenues of, you know, sort of markets open to us. And you know, over the course of last one year, you know, we have been dipping into each of these markets just to actually remain active in these markets.
So we’ve been done, we’ve been doing borrowings in all these markets over the period of last one year. It gives me the confidence to tell you that all these things are open because we have done deals.
Vasudha Khurana
Okay, thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Kalpit Sabhaya from GYR Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Kalpit Sabhaya
Congratulations to the management and for the good quarter. So my question is regarding the upcoming projects like with the recent notification of Galatia bay as India’s 13 major port and the government’s move towards the PCB model with the private anchor, Is the company planning for any interest in the bidding for this project? Sorry. Yeah, sorry I missed your question. So I just got it. Thank know in India we are already running between 27% market share and any new capacity which is built up in India, definitely we will go for it. Even if it is a PPP model or it is a HAM model, whatever model comes in, we will go for it.
Okay, great sir. And if as per the research I had made and the estimated cost of around 44,000 cr at the phase one, how would such a massive grain for investment project will be like sourced through the current leverage ratios and doubling the EBITDA by FY29.
Ashwani Gupta
Hey. Hey. Sorry. Sorry to interject. Your voice is not coming through clearly. It’s a little blurred.
Kalpit Sabhaya
Is it properly now.
Ashwani Gupta
We will try to make it work. Go ahead. Yes, go ahead.
Kalpit Sabhaya
Yes. So the estimated project cost is around 44,000 cr and how much massive greenfield investment impact will will occur on the current leverage ratios and the long term target for doubling EBITDA by FY29 or 30. The current 44,000 means. What?
D Muthukumaran
No, I understood. So basically, you know, we have given the strategy presentation where we have said the total investment program identified as 75,000 crores out of which 50,000 crores is for the ports. And for us to do that kind of investment, we don’t need fresh borrowings. On the contrary, even after this investment in a five year plan, we will be in a net cash generative because our operating cash flows are far more than the currently declared investment program. So on that basis our leverage will go down on a net basis. And of course we are always on the lookout for more growth opportunities.
And that is something that will occur episodically. And whenever we actually get the opportunity, we will invest in organic land.
Kalpit Sabhaya
Okay, got it. That’s it. From my side, all other questions were covered up. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Manish Sumayya from Cantor. Please go ahead.
Manish Somaiya
Thank you so much for taking my questions. Good afternoon. Good evening. Obviously a lot of things went right in the quarter, but maybe at a higher level, if you can just tell us, you know, what could have been better? What are we missing? What are we not seeing in the quarter that could have gone better?
Ashwani Gupta
That’s great. Thank you. I think In Vijingam we reached 30 GCR in the month of December. If we would have reached it in the month of October, we would have done more volumes in Vijingam because we are up, up in Vijingam. So let me say that I think the second point is on the logistics. I think we announced our strategy nine months before and quarter on quarter we are demonstrating significant increase in our logistics. And very recently we have started the optimization of the rail trucking and warehousing. I would say that, you know, the rail volume which we saw, container volume, especially the 4% increase, definitely has many opportunities.
And this is where just before we said that especially in logistics and especially in rail container, we will be doing much better. With respect to the, with respect to the previous quarter, I think rest I would say, you know, coal, thermal, coal import is not in our hands. Whatever is in our hands. I would say that if I prioritize, I think the rail container and I would say that, I mean that it’s something which I would say that we will be doing much better.
Manish Somaiya
And then just looking at international ports and logistics margins, appreciating the fact that those two segments are ramping up, how should we think about margins? Because margins did decline sequentially from second quarter to third quarter, how should we think about the cadency of margins as we look out the next few years? Where do they settle?
D Muthukumaran
So Manish, you’re absolutely right at sort of the headline level, our profitability margins sort of have come down in this quarter. But if I were to set the context correct and analysis correct, we have been laying out a strategy which will go down this path. It is well within the framework of what we have set ourselves to do. And you know, our international margins, bulk of it is coming from Marine. Marine is firing at about 55% of EBITDA margin and it is also giving a return on capital employed of 14% which is far, far above the threshold.
And we’ve been guiding that. As far as the logistics and international ports is concerned, the best metric is to use the return on capital employed because it’s a non homogeneous market. In a heterogeneous market, it’s pointless to compare EBITDA margin. It actually does not tell you the business performance. So therefore we have been providing details on return on capital employed.
Manish Somaiya
Okay. And then just lastly, Ashwini, you know, there’s been fair amount of discussion today on the 29 targets. But maybe if you can just help us understand, you know, what are, what could be the tightest constraints to achieving the fiscal 29 guidance that you have laid out. And I think that would be super helpful. And actually related to that, do you have any plans to potentially revise the fiscal 29 outlook that you have provided.
Ashwani Gupta
I think of course I will answer the question. Number two, I don’t think we are revising the guidance on the five year. Because five year is always a guidance which guides us to execute the business on day to day basis and deliver and communicate the results on quarter. On quarter. So I think this is what is the policy, the philosophy or the procedure we have adopted and we will keep that. Obviously like we have seen in this quarter that we were confident we have the visibility so we revised the guidance. But we will not update the five year just because we are revising the guidance for this quarter.
I think this is how we are managing our business by maximizing the opportunity and minimizing the risk. That’s answer to number two. Answer to number one, Manish. That there is only one thing which can take away from reaching the target. Which is a big turmoil between the countries and which may impact the trade. But otherwise with a small geopolitics here and there, with a small tariff discussions here and there, you would have seen that it does not move the needle on the reverse direction. So I think we are very much on the track and we will be on the track.
And yeah, as I said there is only one thing. It’s a big turmoil between the countries which will impact the global trade. Then only we will be impacted. But a small thing here and there, whether it is Red Sea or it is, it is some haldi or it is something, it does not move the needle because now you know, fortunately our basis base is quite big.
Manish Somaiya
Okay, no, that. That’s super helpful Ashwini. Thank you so much and. And good luck. Muthu.
D Muthukumaran
Thank you.
Ashwani Gupta
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead sir.
Pulkit Patni
Thank you for taking my questions. I have a few of them. The first couple are just bookkeeping.
operator
Pulkit, I’m sorry to interrupt but your voice is not very clear. If you’re on a hands fee request.
Pulkit Patni
Is this better? Is this better? Can you hear me? It’s still not clear.
Unidentified Speaker
I mean we can make do with this full kit but it’s not very clear.
Pulkit Patni
I’m actually sorry. Okay. Yeah. So I’ll just try to be a little loud. My first question is bookkeeping. Is it fair to assume part of the realization improvement that you’ve seen in the quarter is also to do with the repeat appreciation?
D Muthukumaran
The answer is yes, Pulkit, but can you be little far away from your handset or whatever you’re talking from? Because it’s little too jarring. We can’t hear you clearly.
Pulkit Patni
Okay, Is that better Muthu?
D Muthukumaran
Yeah, yeah it’s better. Please go ahead.
Pulkit Patni
Okay. Okay. My second question is in your press release. In the release you’ve spoken of the gross debt which where you mentioned that it excludes certain non core liabilities related to NQX2. Could you just highlight what those are and what would be the total number for those?
D Muthukumaran
So this is also a matter that was approved by shareholders yesterday in the extraordinary general meeting. If you go back pulkit to the deal construct, you know along with our acquisition came certain non port related assets and liabilities. We said that you know, in short order, as much, as soon as possible we will take them out. We guided over a few months time frame but we actually ended up doing within a month. And also you know, as of now it stands approved. So it’s only an accounting entry that we need to pass. So for all practical purpose you can ignore them as we speak today.
But just to give you a sense of amount because you asked for the amount we have indicated the amount to be $2.54 billion as on 31st January 2026. However none of these have any bearing and as of today it stands dissolved and there are no non core assets and liabilities as we speak.
Pulkit Patni
Okay, so everything is dissolved as of now. My next question is on coal volumes. A quarter of our total volumes come from thermal coal. And while there is a lot of uncertainty and we’ve seen the last couple of years coal has had some downward pressure. How is the company looking at sort of diversifying away from this exposure to coal? Like what’s the plan for coal to settle down for us in terms of our total proportion of volumes? Just some sort of forward looking looking guidance there.
D Muthukumaran
If you want I can give.
Ashwani Gupta
I don’t know from where you got this number. Coal has got different coals, right? Coal has got thermal coal, thermal coal has got imported coal and coastal coal. So imported coal is going down but coastal coal is increasing, right? All India level coastal coal is increasing. Then second is the coking coal. Coking coal is used in the steel industries because the steel is having a growth. The coking coal is also having a growth at 10.8% is the growth which is on the coking coal, right? Then coastal coal 1.9% is the coastal coal. So at first to answer to your question, coal is not going down.
Overall coal is going up. Only the thermal coal which is linked to the import is going down. Right? So as far as we are concerned we have a business portfolio which is mix of container, coal, iron ore, liquid and so on. And we manage the mix in the way trade is progressing. So if the imported thermal coal is going down, it’s not going to change the needle as you would have seen. It has not changed the needle in this quarter also.
Pulkit Patni
No, no, absolutely sir, let me rephrase. I didn’t mean it’s going down. I’m looking at slide 41 where it’s going down as a proportion, which is actually a good thing. I just meant to understand where do you think it settles as a proportion of the overall cargo for us? So from 30% in FY24 this nine month it’s at 22%.
Ashwani Gupta
But where did you get this 30% of thermal coal?
Pulkit Patni
No sir, thermal coal as a percentage of overall cargo, it’s on slide number 41 is 22% coming down from 30%. That’s what I meant.
D Muthukumaran
So see you are asking Pulkit, where will it actually settle down if you see that the coal will. I mean if you look at next 5 years trajectory, India is talking about the declared power, thermal power plants increased by 50% in capacity. And that is one data point. The other data point is, you know, we have been investing in container over the past, you know, sort of several quarters. Our growth in containers, you know, sort of is say 20% or if you have to pick one number which is growing the highest amongst the portfolio of products that we have got.
So if you bake in both these two, I would say in the long term if you are starting with 30% as a number for FY24, there is no reason why we will be sort of away from let’s say 20 or coal in five years from now considering that our container is sort of growing the highest and we also have in our business plan sort of oil and gas products coming in in the next five years. So if you put all of them, the weightage of coal will go down and we should be somewhere between 20 to 22%.
Pulkit Patni
Okay, so around the same 20 to 20 percentage. Thank you. This is very useful.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Ankita Shah from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Ankita Shah
Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
D Muthukumaran
Yes. Ankita,
Ankita Shah
hi. Firstly congratulations on a very all round performance. Congratulations to the team. My question is on NQXT. So in EBITDA you’ve mentioned that, you know, one quarter in the guidance, sorry, guidance on EBITDA that one quarter of NQXT inclusion is included in this at 300 crores. This is for the fourth quarter expectations, right, for FY26?
D Muthukumaran
Yes.
Ankita Shah
What would be the similar number on the revenue side?
D Muthukumaran
So it is firing at 65% EBITDA. So 3300 crores is roughly 65%. So it will be about 450 crores, little less.
Ankita Shah
Oh, 65. Going forward. There was expectation that, you know, there will be contract negotiations. So will we see contract negotiations on the higher side from FY27 onwards itself or it will take time to pan out?
D Muthukumaran
No, there isn’t. There isn’t much happening in FY27. There is a little bit of a quantity in FY28 and there are large volume coming up in FY29.
Ankita Shah
Okay, and this could lead to this 65% margin can go up to what levels will it become like similar to what our domestic ports are making margins?
D Muthukumaran
Yeah, yeah, it will be. It will reach to that level. You’re right.
Ankita Shah
That will be like mostly beyond FY28. Correct.
D Muthukumaran
Sorry, I was actually doing the math while talking to you. No, actually we would still be at around similar percentage because both denominator and you know, sort of numerator will both go up as the EBITDA goes up. It is coming from price realization. So absolute EBITDA will go up to the 400 million mark that we have guided.
Ankita Shah
Okay, but you are saying in terms of EBITDA margin, it will remain more. Or less similar only
D Muthukumaran
let me just do the math for you while talking to you. Yeah, I mean it’s not significantly off. It will be, you know, few percentage point up. See, you know, currently we are doing $350 million of revenue and $230 million of EBITDA. And the 230 will go up to 400. So the 350 will correspondingly go up to 520. So it’s 400 upon 520. So it will roughly be similar percentage. 70. I mean that’s the percentage. That’s the max.
Ankita Shah
Got it, Got it. And in our consolidation, will we take the name plate capacity of 50 million tons or contracted capacity of 40? 40 in our calculation over future
D Muthukumaran
capacity. Will be 50 million.
Ankita Shah
So no, the volume numbers that we will be calculating will be using the Name capacity only.50 million from NQXC. Will that be the number that we should work?
D Muthukumaran
No, no. So for volume we will actually go with and we’ll probably put it as a note also whenever this comes up, we will put actually contracted volume or actual, whichever is higher. And the reason for that is Actually contracted volume will give us a definitive revenue at a per turn rate. And if we do more volume than contracted then you know we are going to realize, you know, that much more we will be paid for the extra volume at the similar rate.
Ankita Shah
Got it. Got it. Okay, great. I think yeah, that it from my side and wish you all the best and best wish.
Ashwani Gupta
Thank you.
D Muthukumaran
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Rajeshri Maitra from Incred. Please go ahead.
Rajarshi Maitra
Yeah, hello. Thanks for the opportunity. So my question is on the margin. So if I see slide 22 in your TPT. So if I look at the margins for few ports like Mundra Katupalli. So there seems to have been a year on year margin decline. So is there anything specific that you would like to highlight for these? And also for Gopalpur it’s obviously there has been a sharp decline. So these five ports. Anything specific here that needs to be noted? Thank you.
D Muthukumaran
No, there is nothing specific here. And you know, on an absolute per term basis our EBITDA has been good going up in the large ports, Gopalpur, of course we will implement the turnaround program and as it happens it will catch up. So it is a pertinent EBITDA that you need to track where we are going up.
Rajarshi Maitra
Okay. And Gopalpur specifically, what has been the reason for. I mean so this quarter there has been actually a negative EBITDA and about. Yeah, I mean about close to 70% decline in revenue on a year on year basis. So what is the basis here? Because the volume decline is I think 25. So what explains this kind of a sharp div dip.
D Muthukumaran
So there are certain fixed costs in the ports. You know, all the equipments that we have there are all on higher. So our fixed cost is, you know, sort of is something that we need to work on. So like I said, as we actually work on it, we will actually sort that also out in times to come.
Rajarshi Maitra
Thank you. Thanks a lot.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Nidhi Shah from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Nidhi Shah
Yes, thank you so much for taking my question. So my, my question mainly surrounds that how much of our container volumes depend on exports to the U.S. 380,000. All right. And have we seen any decline in these.
Ashwani Gupta
Just a minute. 380,000 out of 12.5 million which we do.
Nidhi Shah
And have we seen any weakness in these volumes? Specifically?
Ashwani Gupta
No, we can’t measure it because. So, so minor.
Nidhi Shah
All right. My last question is that what do you think would be the impact of volumes at Mundra given that there is copper, coal to PVC and the solar module capacity will also be expanding in that region. So overall, what is the contribution of additional volumes that we can expect from. Group companies
Ashwani Gupta
is difficult to say. But yes, it is contributing is difficult to say how much.
Nidhi Shah
All right, thank you. Those are my questions.
Ashwani Gupta
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you very much. That was the last question in queue. I would now like to hand the conference back to the management team for any closing comments.
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah, hang on a second please.
Ashwani Gupta
So, thank you. Thank you for your. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your support. I also want to take this opportunity to share with you that Mr. Muthu Kumaran will be taking the assignment in the group with effect from 1st of March. So I really want to say thanks to you for your great support to Mr. Muthakuraman. Because of which APS iRIT is at this stage we will be introducing to the succession. This is in line with our succession plan and the career development plan. And we will be introducing Mr. Krishna as the new CFO in the next call.
Thank you. Thank you for your support.
operator
Thank you very much on behalf of MK Global Financial Services limited That concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.