Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd (NSE: GPPL) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Aug. 13, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Manish Agnihotri — Company Secretary and Compliance Officer
Girish Aggarwal — Managing Director
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Deepak Maurya — Analyst
Neelotpal Sahu — Analyst
Ketan Jain — Analyst
Achal Lohade — Analyst
Nidhi Shah — Analyst
Parimal Mithani — Analyst
Vipulkumar Shah — Analyst
Aditya Mongia — Analyst
Presentation:
Manish Agnihotri — Company Secretary and Compliance Officer
It. SAM. Good afternoon and welcome to. The Q1FY26 earnings call of Gujarat Port Ltd. My name is Manish Agniyotri and I’m the Company Secretary. I have along with me Nilish Agarwal, Managing Director and Santosh, cfo. Before we start the call, I would request everyone to keep themselves on mute and only when you are called out to speak you should unmute yourself. We will start with the opening remarks from Girish and then we’ll be opening the floor for Q and A.
Girish Aggarwal — Managing Director
Thank you. Good evening everyone. Our overall revenue this quarter increased by 2% year on year largely because of robust growth of about 21% in the liquid business and 11% in the rural business. Our container business broadly was flat or a 0.6 percentage lower. Overall EBIT declined by 3% year on year with EBITDA margins at about 59%. This was largely due to one off expenses of INR 25 million in higher repairs and maintenance costs. Excluding the one off expenses, EBIT would have been lower by 1%. In terms of outlook, we believe liquid volumes will continue to grow at a healthy pace of about 20% this financial year and Reboro by about 25% in this financial year.
Because of various geopolitical challenges, we will maintain our container volumes to be flattish this financial year. As we progress in the year, I’ll give you more commentary on it as more clarity emerges on tariffs, etc. In terms of overall EBIT for this financial year, we expect a 5 to 7% overall growth on the EBIT year on year. I will pause here and take your questions.
Questions and Answers:
Manish Agnihotri
Deepak, please go ahead with your question.
Deepak Maurya
Yeah, hi, good evening. Thank you very much for the opening remarks. Just had a question on the container outlook. If I recall last quarter we were speaking in terms of 3 to 5% growth, but this quarter it seems like a downgrade in the guidance to flattish for the year. So maybe if you could help us understand what is driving this flattish growth outlook despite a very low base which we had last year.
Girish Aggarwal
Deepak, Fair question. Essentially it’s on the basis of the geopolitics that we are seeing as well as the 50% tariffs announced. We believe retail segment segment at least at this point in time will be negatively impacted and hence we are kind of giving a muted guidance on the container volume. Let’s see how this develops and then maybe as we move forward in the year we’ll get more clarity. But at least what we are seeing based on the 50% tariffs by the US government we believe it will have a negative impact on our retail government growth export.
Deepak Maurya
On the same point, if you could clarify, what is the kind of exposure which you have to the US bound trade or imports from the US for that matter? Basically the India US Trade. What is your exposure to that trade lane for us to help us understand why this, how this plays out? Actually.
Girish Aggarwal
Yeah. So overall I, I would say roughly 13 odd percent is, is something that is at an exposure based on the service. I mean there’s no commodity split that I can give you. I, I don’t know exact commodity split, but if I look at the service split that we handle, I would argue about 13% of our volume is US bound. But it’s not all retail. It is a mix of multiple commodities. I would argue, at least at this point in time is the exposure. Let’s see what really transpires. Also, we must understand that this is more the retail season.
This is when the contracting happens. This is where everything happens out of India. So the timing is also not very great.
Deepak Maurya
And, and if I’ve heard it correct, it is 1, 3%. Right?
Girish Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Deepak Maurya
Great. And, and for the financial EBIT guidance which you mentioned, could you please repeat the numbers? The line was very distorted.
Girish Aggarwal
5 to 7%.
Deepak Maurya
5 to 7. Okay. Okay. And, and the typical realizations which you guide or which you have realized during the quarter, if you could help us with those figures.
Girish Aggarwal
So the realizations has. I’ll stay more on the same. For container it is in the range of 9,000 to 9,500 per tu. For bulk it is 550 to 650 per metric ton. And with 600 to 650 per metric.
Deepak Maurya
Ton to 650 per metric ton. Okay. And in terms of the RORO volumes, right. I believe these are all export bound. And are these also impacted by the tank tariffs in any way or are these for different markets altogether different markets not impacted. Okay. And I mean with respect to given that the container volumes are slowing down. Right. You’re looking at flattish volumes there and liquid volumes are growing very fast. So does that mean that the margin outlook will also be under pressure or is it that the weakness in container is offset by a very high margin liquid business?
Girish Aggarwal
Yeah, it’s offset by both high margin business of liquids and I’ll maintain a 60% to 61%. I mean let’s say 60, 61% overall annual EBITDA margins.
Deepak Maurya
Okay. Okay. And any color on the bulk volumes. How is that shaping up or how you expect it to shape up?
Girish Aggarwal
So Bulk. We are keeping a flattish summary. Essentially this, this quarter was a little low. Simply I mean but this Q2 will be good. This is the fertilizer season. We’re seeing a robust fertilizer import. Overall we’re still maintaining a 2.25 to 2.5 million metric tons of tribal.
Deepak Maurya
Okay. Of tribal. Okay. And one last question before I fall in the queue. Sorry. The, the vessel positioning or the services calls at gppv. Right. Last year we had this big impact of Red Sea capacity being pulled away from non east from pulled away into the east west routes. Right. Particularly the US and the Europe routes. And that led to some of the vessels calling less at your boats. How is I still call scheduling shaping up.
Girish Aggarwal
So far everything looks okay. But again with the tariffs. I mean a lot will depend on how these tariffs play out. Deepak, China is still, I mean it’s just got another 90 day pause. So we see a lot of inventory buildup in the US whether the US will continue to buy out of China. Excuse me Peter. Sorry, you are I think on camera. So we’ll have to do a little bit of a wait and watch here. As of now, I think broadly similar. We haven’t seen any further impact of, of moving out of vessels.
Deepak Maurya
Okay. So that has stabilized at least for now.
Girish Aggarwal
Yeah, for now. Right. But let’s see now is the 50% of India and they pause on China. Let’s see what happens.
Deepak Maurya
Yeah, Cheers. I appreciate the color you’ve provided. Thank you very much. I’ll fall back in the queue.
Manish Agnihotri
Mr. Ketan Jain, please go ahead with your question.
Ketan Jain
Thank you sir. Thank you sir. Am I audible?
Manish Agnihotri
Yes.
Ketan Jain
So my first I wanted to understand what, what would be the revenue share as per our current concession which we pay to the maritime board currently.
Girish Aggarwal
So again we don’t pay a revenue share to the maritime board. It is based on the volume handle and the rate and commodity. Commodity and it’s a published number and then there’s a concessional loyalty to us.
Ketan Jain
Yeah, so so can you just give a percentage like out of the 9,000 realization for container, what would be the percentage? Just around.
Girish Aggarwal
I’m not able to give you percentage by business stream and it will not make sense also because empties is different, latent is different, 20 bit is different, body bit is different. So I mean probably these are published numbers on the web I think by gmb. Any which way you can can figure that.
Ketan Jain
Understood. Okay. So I, I, I, I’ll just tell. You why I was asking this. So I just wanted to Understand in the case of the concession extension, what is a more likely road builder maritime board extend with a higher royalty or put the asset for rebidding. And if it comes for any will, how long do you think will it likely be extended for 20 years or 30 years? Just, just some thoughts on these.
Girish Aggarwal
I don’t know, I. I cannot give you any commentary on that. That will be left to the government of Gujarat. So we’ll see as it comes up.
Ketan Jain
So no. Estimate sins or anything.
Girish Aggarwal
I mean there are always initial talks but there’s no point in talking about estimates and discussions that are happening. That’s. Those are all speculative in nature. At least at this point in time. Time.
Ketan Jain
Okay, thank you.
Girish Aggarwal
Thank you.
Manish Agnihotri
Please go ahead.
Neelotpal Sahu
Hello. Hi sir. Am I audible?
Manish Agnihotri
Yes,
Neelotpal Sahu
thank you. So my first question is with respect to liquids or the new jetty that or that is being constructed, what is the timeline you see when it it can be commissioned?
Girish Aggarwal
November December 2026.
Neelotpal Sahu
Understood? Understood. Also AVTL has expanded the LPG handling capacity at your ports and additionally they have also announced an ammonia plant and are also building a railway gantry for liquids. So considering all of these, what is your outlook on liquid volumes for a slightly longer term, say 27, 28.
Girish Aggarwal
Okay, so this year we will give you guidance for this year at least at this point in time, which we said is roughly 20%. But as we move forward, I mean again the capacity expansion for us and full BLGC handling capability will come to us by November December 2026. So I think you could expect, and this is a 3.2 million tonnes expansion. So you could expect at least 1/3 of it to be operational, 1/3 to be in year one and then expand gradually over a period of time. You didn’t also mention the Gorakhpur Kandal pipeline.
Kandala, Gorakhpur, that also come online within this year. So the. So, so I think overall, I think liquid will continue to see very robust growth.
Neelotpal Sahu
Sure. Thank you sir. And one last question from my end, sir. Can you give the CAPEX guidance for this year and potentially for the next year?
Girish Aggarwal
CAPEX guidance for this year. In general, overall a large portion of expense of the liquid jetty which we announced $90 million will be expensed out this year. Oh, and that’s, that’s, that’s the maximum max or major CAPEX this year.
Neelotpal Sahu
Okay, so the major part of that. Will happen this year only
Girish Aggarwal
in terms of CapEx. Yes. And then some part will, will be next year.
Neelotpal Sahu
Understood? Understood. Thank you sir. Those are my questions.
Manish Agnihotri
Thank you. Achel. Please go ahead.
Achal Lohade
Yeah, good afternoon sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So first question if you could help us understand. Sorry I missed the initial couple of minutes. If you could talk about, you know, how the EXIM cargo growth has been for the west coast and you know have we seen a market share loss for the first quarter? Sir.
Girish Aggarwal
I think it’s been a. I mean the growth is largely in Maharashtra for quarter one where JNPT has grown volumes by I think 6 or 7%. Yeah. Gujarat overall volumes are sort of flattish. Overall our share is similar in nature.
Achal Lohade
That you’re saying from a YY perspective or QOQ perspective, sir. Okay, understood. So you know, given the number what you mentioned in terms of our 13% of I presume container volumes you said from you know are exposed to usa is this little higher than the peers according to you or this is very much similar for the other ports on the west coast.
Girish Aggarwal
It will be much lower. We are more import heavy volume. We will be much lower.
Achal Lohade
Okay, got it. The other question I had, if I. If I see from a container utilization perspective, you know, how do you see that going forward? I know you, you don’t want to give a guidance broadly speaking till the time you don’t have a visibility on concession, does it mean that there won’t be any further capacity addition likely on the container front? Is that a right understanding?
Girish Aggarwal
See currently I mean we are not waiting for the concession to be extended. From an investment perspective, you already know that we are investing in a liquid jetty without any clarity on concession. So priority one is to complete GP6 as we call it which is November, December, next year, after which next year as we get on with our analysis and assessment we will try and understand how do we expand. But there will be expansion on the container side. That’s without a doubt. Whether it will happen before 28 or after 28 is yet to be decided.
Our first focus is to do liquid jet expansion and again if it is needed we will expand. We will not hold back capex as we have shown in on the liquid side.
Achal Lohade
Fair point. This last question if I miss her in terms of the, you know, given the DFC connection is expected finally at JNPT by December or June 26th. How does it affect you? You know what percentage of our services are are also calling jnpt. If you could help us with that number. Sir.
Girish Aggarwal
I don’t have that number handy but I can tell you the only services call both Navasheva and and us. Some one of the vessels calls us in in Namasheva. So some of them call but another person page. I don’t have it.
Achal Lohade
No, I’m just curious because once that is there, would discharging at or picking up at JNPT be a more lucrative or cost efficient option given, you know, if these are destined for north.
Girish Aggarwal
Yeah, but that. No, according to me, no, simply because the railway tariffs would be higher for Navashiva because the distances are higher than. So if any exporter wants to discharge or I mean do imports export out of Navashare and not us or Mundra for. For that matter it’ll be more expensive for them.
Achal Lohade
Oh, I thought because of the double stacking it will become bit more cheaper than the. I mean more optimal double stacking. In gen treaty
Girish Aggarwal
we are also double stacked. So there, that’s no, there’s no difference on that double stacking. All railways slabs are basis kilometers. So the kilometers increase, the slabs will increase and one has to pay more.
Achal Lohade
Right, Sorry I’m harping on this if I may sir. You know I, I presume we are like, you know, Mundra and people are unable to do the, the double stacking in the sense, you know, TU on a tu. Right now it is feu on a TU as a double stack. Is that understanding? Right.
Girish Aggarwal
And how does that matter
Achal Lohade
then? In that case the, the. The flexibility will be much higher to double stack all the TUs on TUs from JNPT.
Girish Aggarwal
I don’t think so. I, I think you may want to check this understanding.
Achal Lohade
Sure. Yeah. That’s why I wanted to clarify. No problem. So thank you so much.
Manish Agnihotri
Please go ahead.
Nidhi Shah
Yes, thank you so much for taking my question. So my first question would be on the, on the LPG expansion. So when do we expect this, this LPG expansion by AVTL to, to complete and then the real gantry to come in? I, what I sort of wanted to understand is by when did you know LPG volumes picking up at our port and if you could also help me with the LPG volumes for this quarter.
Girish Aggarwal
So, so in terms of the Gantry etc AVTL will be best place to kind of answer that question in terms of their cryogenic capacity. That is already gone live and commercial and those facilities are being used currently. So they went live I think July. Yeah. And what’s the other question? LPG volumes. Right. So yeah, so we don’t, we don’t. Really split between LPGs. So the overall volumes are 417,000 metric ton for the quarter.
Nidhi Shah
All right. And just, just you know, you mentioned that, you know, it’d be best to ask avtl, but I just wanted to gain sort of some understanding from you. The once the expansion is happening, how much time it takes for a real gantry operational and then the pipeline connectivity to come in.
Girish Aggarwal
You, you, you broke up? I, I couldn’t.
Manish Agnihotri
Hello, can you please repeat your question?
Nidhi Shah
Yeah, so my, my question was basically that, that you mentioned that it would be best to, you know, confer with ABTL on when the capacities are coming online. But I just wanted to sort of understand from a TIPA perspective once expansions do come online, how much time will it take for you know, a real gantry to be, be fully functional in terms of the, the construction portion and being able to get it up and running? What is the timeline that we can expect for this to follow?
Girish Aggarwal
The entry will be built by avtl so they are the best persons to answer that question. We only have to provide space. Right. So please ask AVTL this. I will not be able to answer question on behalf of.
Nidhi Shah
All right, and just lastly on, on the pipeline, where do you think the pipeline should come online? The Karla Gurupur one to come online be up and running from people.
Girish Aggarwal
Our current understanding is Q3.
Nidhi Shah
All right, yes, thank you so much.
Girish Aggarwal
Thank you.
Manish Agnihotri
Mr. Parimal Mehtani, please go ahead with your question.
Parimal Mithani
Hello? Hello, can you hear me?
Manish Agnihotri
Yes.
Parimal Mithani
Yeah, so thanks for the opportunity. So regarding your guidance, is it safe to assume that you’ll be in a flat year but there’ll be improvement in margins? Is it safe to assume that way?
Girish Aggarwal
So the guidance, at least where we are sitting today, I, I, I can surely state that we are EBIT will expand by 5 to 7%. So there should be growth on the bottom line. That’s, that’s what guidances at this point in time.
Parimal Mithani
And yes, sorry to repeat the same question we’ve been asked a couple of times in previous call regarding your agreement with Gujarat Valentine board. So it’s, I think it’s more than now, almost six, seven years. Can you, if you can throw what’s the state status of this agreement? Because I think we’re given a firm commitment in paper and all that. So what is the real issue? If you can just highlight, I know it’s a, the ballpark. What do you think? And you think we get the permissions on time. So because you’re doing a capex, you’re doing investment.
Girish Aggarwal
You talking about concession extension?
Parimal Mithani
Yeah, yeah, concession extension.
Girish Aggarwal
So, so again I mean I, I, I can only say everything is going in the right direction and there are no red Flags. Right. But I can only give a firm answer as and when I receive a firm answer from gmb. It is not in our. I mean it’s. It’s not in our DNA to kind of go ahead and say something until I hear it from. From gmb. Right. But I can only assure you to say that all our discussions that are happening with GMB and other stakeholders are all going in the right direction. That’s all that I can say at this point in time.
Parimal Mithani
Okay sir, thanks. I joined the queue.
Girish Aggarwal
Thank you.
Manish Agnihotri
Okay. Anybody else has any questions? Mr. Vipul Kumar Shah, please go ahead.
Vipulkumar Shah
Am I audible sir?
Manish Agnihotri
Yes. Yes.
Vipulkumar Shah
Yeah. So I have joined the call late. So what is the progress on expansion of our liquid jetty and field date? How much capex we have done on that J2 and the schedule of scheduled timeline for completion.
Girish Aggarwal
So we will complete Our Liquid Jetty November December 2026. In terms of capex, most of the capex will be expensed between now and end of this year. Some part or majority will be expensed this year. We expect to close the complete the dredging by January and then some part of the capex will happen next year.
Vipulkumar Shah
So all of it will be financed through internal accruals only, right?
Girish Aggarwal
Yes. Okay.
Vipulkumar Shah
Thank you sir.
Manish Agnihotri
Thank you.
Neelotpal Sahu
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity again. Just wanted to check with you on the railway coefficient. We have seen it declining on a near onion basis despite dfc. Can you help us understand the reasons for the same?
Girish Aggarwal
There’s a minor decline. It also reflects a little bit more increase in road traffic which is. Which is Gujarat market. So there’s a little bit of extension there but there’s nothing much to read into it at least at this point in time.
Neelotpal Sahu
Okay, thank you Foreign.
Manish Agnihotri
Please go ahead.
Aditya Mongia
Thanks Manish and team for the opportunity. See I just wanted to get a slight bit better understanding of the liquid business. So the assumption should be that you would be adding about 3 odd million tons of capacity which will be 1/3 utilized in year one and year one could be full year, could be FY28. Am I right in assuming what I’m assuming?
Aditya Mongia
Yes. I mean and what Conservative. So let me just put it. This is a little bit conservative estimates. Okay.
Girish Aggarwal
Okay. Could you also give us a better sense of what are the. So let’s say with the pipeline coming in with the customer being there, how strong is our mode to kind of keep on doing capexes beyond this one liquid?
Girish Aggarwal
Sorry, I didn’t understand how. I didn’t understand the question really given.
Aditya Mongia
That the pipeline is Coming in the customer is a growth customer over here. How do you see through CAPEX is happening on the liquid side beyond this. This, this level of capex
Girish Aggarwal
Liquid Specific to liquid. Your question Very specific to liquid.
Aditya Mongia
It is specific to liquid. Yeah.
Girish Aggarwal
No. So I think our capacity will be about 5.2 which I think in the near term or medium term is good enough. We may have to. I mean one JT will be fully VLGC compliant. The new one, the other one is partial VLGC compliant. What we may have to do is that ensure that we have two jetties which are both fully VLGC compliant. So that’s what we will need to do. So my expectation is at least in the medium term we will have two jetties of liquid of about 6.0.4 million metric tons capacity both fully VLGC compliant.
That’s how I see it.
Aditya Mongia
Understood.
Girish Aggarwal
Sorry that.
Aditya Mongia
That answers. Thanks. Just a clarification on the new CapEx and on the new capacity. Would the realizations or your value addition be any different or should one just extrapolate the 600 to 650 rupees realization incrementally?
Girish Aggarwal
I think the realization is. Is. Is also bases are mix. I would argue that as we move forward our LPG will grow vis a vis as a percentage visa with the others. So the expectation is that our realization will also grow beyond 600 to 650.
Aditya Mongia
Those were my questions. Thank you for your answers.
Manish Agnihotri
Thank you Aditya. Mr. Vipul Kumar Shah, you have some question. Mr. Pariman Mitani, please go ahead.
Parimal Mithani
Yeah. Hello. Yeah, can you hear me?
Manish Agnihotri
Yes.
Parimal Mithani
I just want to understand the Kanda pipelines at what stages currently and when do you see the exact benefits according to us as well as the dmcc the dedicated flight corridor. How do you see that helping out going forward?
Girish Aggarwal
So your first question is about kgb right?
Parimal Mithani
Yeah, so yeah
Girish Aggarwal
so yeah I expect you know at least what we we hear from NHB is around Q3 of this, this, this financial year. It in terms of impact. I mean it. It helps in evacuation right. And opens up also some other markets especially central India. So. So. So we do expect growth of the LPG volume and that’s one of the big basis why we are coming up with this new liquid JTI.
Parimal Mithani
And so with the dedicated trade contour are we. Is it going to benefit us in terms of margin wise since it’s coming near completion?
Girish Aggarwal
No, no. For us DFC has been completed a long time back. We’ve been on df. You were the first one on DFC so There’s no, no additional DFC coming. That’s the DFC that we are. We are on.
Parimal Mithani
Okay. And so you’ll maintain the dividend guidelines, right? Which is given payout.
Girish Aggarwal
Yeah, we maintain. We’ve already last in the last call, told you about the board recommendation. We have our AGM on the 4th of September and that’s when, you know, we hopefully is if approved by the AGM and will be announced.
Parimal Mithani
Okay, thank you. Thank you. And all the best. Thank you.
Manish Agnihotri
Thank you. Achill, please go ahead with your question.
Achal Lohade
Yeah, thank you once again, sir, for the follow up. Sir, just wanted to check, you know, in terms of our port area, how much is already utilized by us as well as the lease, what you have given.
Girish Aggarwal
It’s a good question. I don’t have it handy.
Achal Lohade
No problem, sir. The second I have, you know, in terms of our total revenue, how much will be dollar denominated or dollar linked? Would that be 60, 65%?
Girish Aggarwal
That’s right. You’re absolutely right. Because the container business is dollar link and you know, marine services. So 60, 65.
Achal Lohade
Understood. Understood. And there is no further price hike or tariff hike we have taken since January. Right. I mean January was the last one, if I remember right.
Girish Aggarwal
Your eyes.
Achal Lohade
Got it. So whatever realization increase, what we are seeing is largely stable actually on a quarter or quarter. Quarter Q basis. Understood. All right. So that. Those were my two questions. Thank you so much, sir.
Manish Agnihotri
Thank you, Rachel. Anybody has any other questions? Doesn’t seem to be the case. So thank you very much and have a good day.
Girish Aggarwal
Thank you everyone.
Manish Agnihotri
Thank you.