RITES Limited (NSE:RITES) Q3 FY23 Earnings Concall dated Feb. 10, 2023.
Corporate Participants:
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
B.P. Nayak — Director Finance
Analysts:
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Vishal Periwal — IDBI Capital — Analyst
Ankur Sanwal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
Mudit Kabra — Elara Securities — Analyst
Uttam Kumar Srimal — Axis Securities Limited — Analyst
Parimal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Prashant Gopal — Spark Asia Impact Managers — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the RITES Limited Q3 FY 2023 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Elara Securities Private Limited. [Operator Instructions]
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities Private Limited. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Thank you, Seema. Good morning, everyone. On behalf of Elara Securities, we welcome you all for the Q3 FY 2023 and Nine Months FY 2023conference call of RITES Limited. I take this opportunity to the management of REITs Limited represented by Shri Rahul Mithal, Chairman and Managing Director; Shri B.P. Nayak, Director Finance; Shri A.K. Singh, Director Projects, and Shri Joshit Sikidar Company Secretary. We will begin the call with a brief overview by the management, followed by a Q&A session.
Now handover the call to Rahul sir for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Good morning, everybody. Before I start, let me start with the Safe Harbor statement. The presentation, which we uploaded on our website yesterday and discussions during the call today may have some forward-looking statements. These statements are considering the environment we see as of today and obviously, carry a risk in terms of uncertainty, because of which the actual results could be different, and we do not undertake to update those statements periodically. Let me give you a brief overview as my opening remarks on the performance of Q3. We must say that, we at RITES are — have delivered what we promised in spite of the challenges of order book and a contribution by the export segment, which, as I have been mentioning in my past interactions, that all our efforts are on to get fresh orders.
But in spite of that, the USP of the company came forth again that all the other three streams of revenue, the consultancy segment year-on-year, there was a growth of 16%. Turnkey segment of revenue more than doubled 115% increase, the leasing increased by 10% and because of selectively targeting the key orders and key projects, you could see a core EBITDA margin increase from 23% to 26% and a PAT margin increased from 18% to 21%. So the core strength of consultancy as well as the USP of being able to balance in a quarter-to-quarter and balance between my various streams of revenue, to give my shareholders and my stakeholders a best, we continued on that trend.
With those opening remarks, I leave the floor open.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. We take our first question from the line of Yash Gupta from [Indecipherable]. Please go ahead sir.
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Yes, good morning everyone. So sir, the first question is on the order book. How the order book is looking currently? In this quarter, we have increased our order book by almost INR500 crores, but that comes from the — clearly from the Turnkey project. So, Turnkey project of the order book keeps on increasing. I think in the last two years, we have increased from 37% to 47%. So, how the future of like next one year looks like? And would you like to comment any development on the export order size that we were talking about since last two quarters that there is some export order that we will able to achieve?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. Morning Yash. So, the key point is that, yes, the order book has grown substantially, a good healthy 10% growth from 30th September to 31st December. As it stands now, it’s INR5,500 crores, INR2,600 crores in Turnkey and INR2,500 crores in consultancy. We are very clear that we are primarily a consultancy company and the — while the orders of consultancy, each order maybe of a smaller value as compared to a Turnkey order, but in terms of numbers and total cumulative value this quarter itself, we got a total of 65 orders, out of which about 60-plus orders are consultancy orders.
And all those 65 have added up to INR1,200 crores. So, going forward also, the breakup of the order book, yes, would be a larger percentage would be in Turnkey because Turnkey projects take about three to four years to get executed. So, they have to have a larger percentage of the order book. But in terms of revenue mix, what we have been saying that consultancy would always be aimed to be 50% plus, that would continue and that we are close to that trend. As of now, we are at about 46%, 47%. The only skew is because the export contribution has been down in this quarter in the revenue segment, revenue contribution.
That is why you see a larger contribution by the Turnkey segment. But moving forward, as these — it evens out, the consultancy would still remain at 50% plus. Specifically about export orders, yes, we have now across prospective clients, whether on a bidding stage or in terms of negotiation stage and finalizing the orders, yes, we have been trying for last two, three quarters, and we are now at quite an advanced stage across a number of prospective clients, and we are pushing very hard to be able to convert it into a finite order.
The trend has started. We have already opened our score, whereas maybe a small order of only two locomotives of about INR10 crores recently got an order for Bangladesh export, but yes, it encourages us that after a high test of about two and a half, three years, the trend has started and I’m sure in the coming months, you should be able to see finite orders also.
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Okay. Thank you sir. Second question is on the number of employees — slide number nine.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
I think you can come back in the queue, Yash.
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Okay.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Vishal Periwal, IDBI Capital. Please go ahead, sir.
Vishal Periwal — IDBI Capital — Analyst
Yes. Thanks a lot for the opportunity sir. Sir, one question was on like there was media report some time back, which highlighted like railway has received multiple bids or quality assurance work and the bids were at a little lower rate than what — I mean, RITES was charging. So any qualitative aspect or qualitative comments that you can provide? And because despite that, the bids are coming at a lower rates, we could see like margins have improved for us in this quarter. So we’re just trying to correlate this to come to some sort of conclusion.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, you’re right that a few months back, one or two months back, the parliament order has been placed for four agencies, the RITES is one of them at — for doing the QA work. And as this kicks in, as this new regime and the new rates kick in in the coming months, yes, it is going to be — you see an impact in the margins on the QA segment of revenue. However, having said that, RITES because it’s been in the QA business for more than 40-plus years, it has got a lot of non-Indian railway clients also as part of their QA client team.
So our effort is that the coming months to minimize the impact of the IR business on QA by making goods from other non-IR clients. So while there — yes, you’re correct. In the coming months, you will temporarily see an impact on the margins in the QA stream of revenue. But I’m sure in the coming quarters, we are — I thought it’ll bring it back to the original levels.
Vishal Periwal — IDBI Capital — Analyst
Okay. So just continuing on this front. So as of now, can you say that whatever income that we have got, there is no impact of this particular regime change?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
So it’s a — see, this is a transition phase. The order has just been placed. And as these fresh inspection calls come against the new order, that you see, inspection calls are done when the product gets ready. So even although the inspection agencies has been fixed, by the time the execution starts and the revenue starts coming in, it would see a gap of maybe two, three months. So this is the revenue which you see now in Q3 and maybe part of Q4. These are all orders.
Vishal Periwal — IDBI Capital — Analyst
Okay. Sure. Thanks for the clarification. I’ll come back in the queue for more questions. Thanks, so much.
Operator
Thank you. We’ll take the next question from the line of Ankur Sanwal, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead, sir.
Ankur Sanwal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Good morning, sir. I would like to know more about REMCL and future potential of REMCL?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, good morning. REMCL has been doing tremendously a good uptick in its performance. And this has primarily been because of the increased electrification in Indian Railways and the substantial growth in traffic. As you know, REMCL is a nodal agency for procurement of traction power for Indian Railways. So in fact, if you see, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, also a year-on-year basis also, the revenue has grown up by 27%. The act has grown up by 37%, and it’s a high-margin subsidiary, which gives a margin of 50% plus. So the trend of nine months also, if you see vis-a-vis the nine months of last year, we are well on a growth path, it’s about 20% growth.
Moving forward, I see this trend to continue, as I said, because of the increased electrification as well as the increased traffic. Further, REMCL has also been mandated as the nodal entity for the net zero mission of Indian Railways, a lot of initiatives are being taken under that and I’m sure in the coming quarters that will also further contribute to the growth and the revenue of REMCL.
Ankur Sanwal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll take the next question from the line of Mr. Viraj [Phonetic] from Jupiter Financial. Please go ahead, sir.
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
Good morning, sir.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Good morning.
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
My question is this budget does increase allocation by almost INR lakh crore. So, how would we the RITES benefited and in what areas it would be if you can just give some color on that?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, good morning, we are very excited by this high capex budget an all time high of INR10 lakh crores and why we say that is because, RITES is a consultancy company across all segments of infra So, I have nine different verticals doing consultancy across all possible sectors. So, you see there is a roadway highway allocation of INR2.7 lakh crore, railways INR2.4 lakh crore, which itself total combined to INR5 lakh plus. Urban infra, which is whether it has smart cities, urban development, metros, they are INR1.1 lakh crore, which again is a major area where we do lot of work in city planning.
In city mobility plans, metros, and then Swachh Bharat, there’s INR12,000 crores, Jal Shakti 20,000 crores, all these areas, we are pitching in fact right sustainability, which the vertical we started few months back, few quarters back that is targeting lot of work in the sustainability areas, whether it is solid waste management or clean air program pollution. So not only can the old conventional infrastructure sectors, but even the new age areas, we are very well equipped. And we’re going to leverage this high budget grant to our advantage in a big way.
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
So continuing on that I mean, can we have what INR20 crore INR25 crore going forward and maintain…
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
I would not like to speculate, but what I have been specifying, and that’s our company vision and strategy is to target a healthy growth in the profits and the core EBITDA, maintaining hygiene. So everything else stems from that. So if you — you should see our trend, whether it is nine months to nine months, or sequentially, our two key commitments of trying to have a healthy growth in our core EBITDA, as well as maintaining the margin and giving a substantial dividend and benefit to our shareholders. That is the strategy going forward. And that will continue.
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you, sir. We’ll take the next question from the line of Yash Gupta from Insight Advisors [Phonetic]. Please go ahead, sir
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Yes, so on slide number 19 total number of employees in the regular employee count has come down in last one year, by almost 10%, as well as in the last quarter also it is come down. So it’s the visibility of the execution is a little bit less or we expected like single-digit, maybe growth index, like one or two quarters down the line?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
You see our employees — we have three broad categories of employees. One is our regular employees, which is about 1,800 out of — about 2,600. And balance about 800, 900 are equal based on contracts for specific projects, besides few numbers are experts and advisors. So these contracts and project-based employees, these tweak for better effectiveness based on the profitability of a particular order.
So normally, we have in every project a mix of the regular employees and the contractual employees. And the aim was to effectively utilize a mix and you see that is why there’s an year-on-year 6% employee cost reduction — reduction in the employee costs, which is helped me maintain my margin. So it’s not about numbers per se of the employees about effectively utilizing them to service all my orders. And that would be a continuous exercise.
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Okay, thank you, sir
Operator
Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Ankur Sanwal. Please go ahead, sir
Ankur Sanwal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Sir, can you please elaborate about Israel joint venture?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
So, Ankur, we have been shortlisted at a consortium and we have been — we will be submitting a bid — that’s at this stage, that’s the only factual information and if there’s anything mature over that we’ll inform the exchanges.
Ankur Sanwal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We’ll take the next question from the line of Mr. Viraj [Phonetic] from Jupiter Financial. Please go ahead, sir.
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
Sir, my question is on your existing consultancy business when I look at your presentation, that has been performing the best, so, is it that the — portion of the vacancy would go up we might have increasing the volume of the consultancy business going forward?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
As I — we are very clear as our company, as our vision and our strategy that consultancy would always contribute a minimum of 50% plus in the total pie and yes, growth would be always there, but the pie would grow and the share of each revenue stream would grow. But as a as a broad breakup, consultancy would — we are and will remain primarily a consultancy company, we are not primarily a construction company. And the aim would be to keep on leveraging our strength in consultancy across infrastructure sectors and grow on at least a minimum of 50% contribution from the consultancy stream of revenue.
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
Continuing that, sir, any color on green consultancy business, which you mentioned in the last call.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, as I mentioned, our right sustainability has bid for a number of opportunities across state, including the Ministry also. And we have bid for them. We have recently, about a month and a half back we had an MOU with IIT Kanpur, their sustainability department, where IIT Kanpur is now a technology partner for all sustainability initiatives, whether it is clean air program, solid waste management, Net Zero. They are technology partners for initiatives across the country. And I foresee that — this maturing into orders and revenue in the coming quarters.
Viraj Mithani — Jupiter Financial — Analyst
Can you give us some color in terms of numbers in these areas.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
You can come back in the queue after some time.
Operator
Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] We’ll take the next question from the line of Mr. Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities. Please go ahead, sir.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. I just wanted to check on this — QA part. Sir, what portion of your current revenue is from non-railway? And could you also give us a number for of QA in this quarter. That would be helpful?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. So, QA, traditionally we have about 2/3, 1/3, broadly as the non railway is about one-third of the total contribution. This quarter, the QA revenue was INR72 crores, which has been a good contribution, this includes both IR and non IR. And I’m sure that this trend, while as I mentioned some time back that there will be a setback for few quarters as we try and come back to more non-IR clients as we come back and take more non-IR clients. Yeah. And sorry the figure for QA revenue this quarter is INR99 crores not INR72 crores.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Okay, sir. And just continuing with that part, how do you plan to add the non-railway portion and which are the sectors that you’re eyeing for, you can share some insight that will be helpful?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
In fact, what is the interesting and the good achievement of ours is that we recently got certified as ISA. Now ISA certification, we are the — not only the only PSU, but the only second company in the country to get ISA certification. Now the minute we get this ISA certification, we immediately opens up a lot of avenues, whether it is inspection in the metro sector, it opens up areas in a number of other prospective clients. We recently have had an MOU with the Ministry of Defense for their areas of certain sectors of there where we can do the Q&A. So the prospects and we are pushing very hard for prospective clients in the non-IR sector to bring back in the shortest possible time in few quarters, the impact due to the — or the IR portion of business opening up to four players. Hello?
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Yeah, sir. Yeah, sir. Thanks for the explanation, sir.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yeah. Can you hear me? I think we lost you.
Operator
Harshit, sir, are you there?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
I think you can take the question. Take the next question.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question from the line of Yash Gupta from Insight Advisors. Please go ahead, sir.
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Sir, on that quality assurance on the defense sector, that MOU, can you elaborate more on that, the quantum of it? And in what part of it we are working?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
So you see, it is MoU, as I said, which we will have one by one. I would not like to go into details of these products or the areas. The broad point which I was trying to make was that we are tapping a number of prospective clients to increase our non-railway contribution of QA business. And you would see the figures coming out. As I said, right now, it’s roughly about 2/3 IR and 1/3 non-IR. And the effort would be in every quarter to increase the ratio of the non-IR contribution, whether it is all prospective as I mentioned one or two of them.
Yash Gupta — Insight Advisors — Analyst
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Mr. Mudit Kabra from Elara Securities. Please go ahead sir.
Mudit Kabra — Elara Securities — Analyst
Hello. Thanks for taking my question sir. Congratulations on good set of numbers. Recently, we had this news of Amrit station redevelopment program of [Indecipherable] stations which has an outlook of INR45,000 crores. Should we know the scope of work RITES could have or could achieve in this program? Thank you.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. In fact, you see that is the advantage of our various teams of business Mudit. And since we do both portion of our revenue as Turnkey EPC and portion as consultancy, we can tap this opportunity in a big way. So, in terms of the Turnkey contribution, we are already doing three major stations. We are doing Varanasi, we are doing Ayodhya, we are doing — recently, we got the Kollam station order. And in terms of parallelly, we have now started targeting the PMC also for the consultancy — project management consultancy for the station development work.
So recently, we got an order for Somnath station, for — in fact, it was competitive bidding mode, which was a PMC for the Somnath station development. So, that the — again, the strength of ours that based on one particular sector itself, and as you correctly said, it is a very high priority sector with a lot of high budget grant allocation in that, we are targeting both EPC mode also in certain stations and PMC mode also in certain station.
Mudit Kabra — Elara Securities — Analyst
Okay. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Uttam Kumar Srimal from Axis Securities Limited. Please go ahead sir.
Uttam Kumar Srimal — Axis Securities Limited — Analyst
Yes sir, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, how about capex as you have incurred in the first nine months and in the third quarter?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
You see capex, the total nine months, we have reached a figure of INR106 crores, which is in line with our broad projections of about INR125-odd crores. We are primarily a low capex company. Our trend of capex has always been in the range of INR100 crores, INR125 crores, max about INR140-odd crores. And I think this trend would continue in the coming quarters.
Uttam Kumar Srimal — Axis Securities Limited — Analyst
Okay. Thank you sir and all the best.
Operator
Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Parimal [Indecipherable] an Individual Investor. Please go ahead sir.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, go ahead, good morning.
Parimal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Good morning sir. Can you hear me?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, go ahead. Morning. I can hear you.
Parimal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Sir, I just wanted to know, can you elevate on the non-IR part of the business because since the last few calls, you’ve been particularly focusing on the non-IR side of the business and how do you see it going forward? It would be better your sort of idea for–?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. In fact, we — as I mentioned, we have nine different verticals. And for example, these are highway, buildings, metros, city planning, airports, ports and rail infra is one of them and ports, waterways, et cetera. So rail infra — besides rail infra, as you see, we are touching nearly every sector of infra. So, even as you see the trend of recent orders which we have got in Q3 itself, that will give you a flavor of why I say that we have a varied presence. We got 65 orders totaling to about INR1,200 crores.
Now, just to give you a few examples of orders, which will show you the wide spread. We got a building order from IIT Delhi, we got a metro depot order from in Bangalore, we got tunnel order in Abu Road, Taranga Hill; we got leasing order from NTPC, we got the PMC for railway sidings across three, four major players, we’ve got an order for bridges on the Farakka Bridge, we got an order from Paradip Port, and we’ve got recently about 10 orders in the last one month in highways across northeast.
So you see, I just mentioned a few, now across sectors you see we are getting orders, so that’s what gives us the strength and that’s the core strength of our company that we can tap all possible sectors and recently as I said, we started right sustainability few quarters back. So moving forward I’m sure we want to get orders in the sustainability sector also.
Parimal — Individual Investor — Analyst
And, sir, the revenue from margin too close, sir?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
The revenue is spread across all these sectors. These are all consultancy, primarily consultancy order and they are good margin orders.
Parimal — Individual Investor — Analyst
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities. Please go ahead, sir.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Thanks. I just wanted to check sir there has been a change in windows bidding procedures for the turnkey construction, but the first half we’re talking very low amount of inputs coming in? We had seen some in turnkey construction How has been the competitive intensity in these turnkey construction projects because now…?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
So, you see one major change that happened in the turnkey segments few months back, early part of last year was that IR went from the Cost Plus model to EPC models and the subsequent tender, which have come out in the last eight, nine, months are in the EPC mode. So we have been now bidding in them in the EPC mode and we’ve getting orders in the EPC mode. So, that — which was there in the non-IR sector is now in IR sector also where the tenders are in EPC mode.
What we have also done is that we have with very intensive monitoring of our turnkey projects, were always these are low margin sector segment of revenue. Normally, it used to be in the range of about maximum 2% to 3%. If you see, the margins have been — we’ve been able to touch about 4.5% margins in the turnkey segment. So that’s a constant effort by effective monitoring faster execution.
And as I mentioned some time that effective utilization of the resources deployed there, whether it is the man or material, we want to pull as much possible to bring up the turnkey segment margins, also to appreciable level. So Q3 margins in turnkey segment of revenue are as good as about 5%. If you compare year-on-year, Q3 last year was literally about 0%. If you compare nine months to nine months, the last year it was 1.3%. And we are 4.2% now in the turnkey segment.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
How is the competitive intensity now with private players also bidding at the same forum as you are? And secondly is this 5% now more sustainable number? Or it can again revert back to three?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
So competition is tough. Yes, now it’s an open field in all our segments of revenue. And that is a challenge and that is what we have taken it head on, but all my four streams of revenue in the last quarters have been opened up to all competitive bidding. And we are very, very well equate compared to a number of sister competitors and sister companies where we have been bidding competitively getting orders, as you see the trend of orders. And in terms of maintaining these turnkey margins in the range of 4%, 5%, it’s a tough exercise, as you would appreciate. Normally it’s very difficult to bring up turnkey margins above 2%, 3%, but our efforts would be on to keep it as high as possible.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Fair enough, sir. Wishing you all the best for this.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll take the next follow-up question from the line of Uttam Kumar Srimal from Axis Securities Limited. Please go ahead.
Uttam Kumar Srimal — Axis Securities Limited — Analyst
Sir, can you give me a figure for cash and cash equivalent at the nine months?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. Our cash as of now, I have my Director of Finance, Mr. Naik, we have about INR800 crores. He’ll give you more details.
B.P. Nayak — Director Finance
Yes. again, we have around INR742 crores, which is the right pond. Besides on behalf of the clients, we are holding around INR2,500 crores, which actually belongs to the client, which are the advances received for the project. Any questions?
Uttam Kumar Srimal — Axis Securities Limited — Analyst
Okay. Okay, sir. That’s all from my side. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll take the next question from the line of Vishal Periwal from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead, sir.
Vishal Periwal — IDBI Capital — Analyst
Yes. Sir, thanks for the opportunity again. Sir, on our revenue guidance, I think last two quarters in terms of revenue, we are seeing probably muted numbers. So what the full year basis earlier we were targeting a double-digit kind of revenue growth. So how exactly are we seeing things now?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Vishal, let me again reiterate. We have been targeting a healthy growth in the PAT and the core EBITDA. We have never said that we are targeting a double-digit growth in the revenue. We are very, very clear that our taking of orders and our revenue will all stem from our core strategy and vision of having a healthy growth in the profits, the healthy growth in the EBITDA and maintaining a margin — a steady core EBITDA margin inspite of the changed ecosystem of competition in all our four segments of revenue.
And if you see why I’m saying this, that we are on the right track, promise as we deliver, I mean and we deliver what we promise is that in nine-month figures, if you see, we have seen a 9% growth in the pack. We have seen a 7% growth in the core EBITDA. Our core EBITDA margins are in about 28%. Our PAT margins are 21%. So we are on track. Our total PAT is about INR432 crores in nine months as against INR539 crores in last FY complete. So we are definitely on track as per our promises that we will continue to give a growth — steady growth in the profit and the core EBITDA, while maintaining our margins.
Vishal Periwal — IDBI Capital — Analyst
Sure, sir. And just to continue with this. Maybe for EBITDA and PAT, can you seem like maybe like single-digit maybe high double-digit? Or maybe like what project you will guide for yourself or maybe for the market to look at?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
You see, as I said, to speculate a number is not be fair, but continuously whether you see sequentially, whether use nine months, there has been a growth in the EBITDA and the profit. And we will continue to do that. Even if you see sequentially, the core EBITDA grew by 8%. So that’s, what I say a minimum we are aiming for that kind of range. Yes, obviously, the aim would be to maximize it as much to reach double-digit, cross double-digit, but the aim and the continuous effort is to try and see a healthy growth in the core EBITDA.
Vishal Periwal — IDBI Capital — Analyst
Sure sir. Thanks for the detailed explanation. And I’ll come back in the queue. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Mr. Harshit [Phonetic] from Elara Securities. Please go ahead, sir.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Thank you once again for the opportunity. Sir could you throw some light on prospects from RMCL as the Nodal Agency for net-zero emission policy, like apart from electrification, what other kinds of projects can we great into?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, RMCL has now been mandated for last couple of the year, year and a half for the net-zero emission and lot of various initiatives, various tenders and RFPs, RFQs have been floated for development in this area in the RTC mode, in the developer mode. And then, moving forward, whether it is solar energy, wind energy and a combination of these, these will fructify, I’m sure in the coming months and RMCL as the Nodal Agency as the consultant for that, initiative will definitely gain.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
So sir can I have one more question?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. Go ahead. Yeah.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Yeah. Thank you, sir. So, now the exports are soften but could we have some inquiry pipeline, like across geographies, like are we having any inquiries?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, as I mentioned, we are bid also. We are bidding also and we are tapping the non-bidding LOC kind of opportunities also across countries in Southeast Asia and Africa. And the start has been made. We got an order, as I said a small order for two locomotives. But we are tying up with a number of prospective clients. And I’m sure, yes, if you see export order by nature, by the time it take all these countries have to arrange funding, whether under the line-of-credit mode or by the internal resources, whether they are Southeast Asian countries, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or African countries, the cape gauge countries.
So they are also all recovering from the economic setback of COVID. And in most of the negotiations are at stage were the final stages of trying to get funding or bidding and things like that. So I’m sure in the coming months, we should be able to definitely convert it into a finite order.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Understood. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Prashant Gopal from Spark Asia Impact Managers. Please go ahead sir.
Prashant Gopal — Spark Asia Impact Managers — Analyst
Good morning sir.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Good morning.
Prashant Gopal — Spark Asia Impact Managers — Analyst
Can you give some color on exhibition timelines or margins under Turnkey Segment for IR and non-IR projects?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, morning Prashant. You see turnkey projects per se, our experience shows that it takes anything from both three to four years and that’s the reason why even if we limit our — we have been aiming and that’s that will be our constant endeavor to continue to have about roughly in the range of about not more than on a steady basis 25% contribution of revenue from the turnkey segment, it may vary from quarter-to-quarter, some ups and downs or a steady basis on an average basis. But because these take about three to four years, they require a larger order book. And that’s why if you see the order book, the portion of the content of the order book on turnkey will always be more vis-a-vis consultancy.
As far as margins are concerned, turnkey contracts by nature have low margins, I mentioned few — sometime a few months back that they are normally in the range of 2% to 3% we have — the lot of effort of effective execution, timely execution, we have pulled up the margins in nine months to nine months, we have gone up from about 1.3% in last nine months to about 4.2% and that will be our endeavor to pull up these margins as much as possible, so that our overall margins which are our company vision is to have safe good margin, the impact of the turnkey segment is also satisfactory.
Prashant Gopal — Spark Asia Impact Managers — Analyst
Got it. Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities. Please go ahead, sir.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Yes, hi, thanks for the opportunity again. So, just wanted to check you on the consultancy side, if you can share any large projects, which we are eyeing or we have the bidded because Indian Railways coming out with a very large size of project which hasn’t announced in the last many multiple years. So, any pipeline or any color on any project where we are there would be really helpful.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. So, you see in terms of the trust from our company, seeing the allocations in these budget also, you see rail infra is an important — is one of the highest ever allocations INR2.4 lakh crore and the trust on rail connectivity, whether it is coal fields or ports or power plants, we have got a good number of orders in Q3 itself. And we are pitching both in the competitive as well as the nomination basis in IR rail connectivity both at IR and non-IR clients. Many of these clients are non-IR client. They could be Coal India in the subsidiaries, it could be NTPC, it could be Ports. So, we are — and there are some private clients also. So we are pitching cement plants, et cetera.
So rail connectivity is an area where we are going to pitch very aggressively. Highway, you see it’s again a very high allocation of INR2.7 lakh crores. Again, recently, as I mentioned, we got about 10 orders itself in a span of few days, if you have hardly less than a month in the Northeast totaling to about INR23 crores. So highway is again an area where you’re going to pitch very aggressively again, both on bidding mode as independent engineers for various. We are doing a lot of work in, across highways across states, whether it is UP, whether we are doing a lot of work in Kerala, across states.
I mean in Karnataka, as I said, Northeast, across states we have got a number of highway orders. Similarly in the metro sector, you see the metro sector is growing so, so rapidly across cities whether it is Tier two, Tier one, Tier three cities. We have been pitching for a number of bids in metros. And I’m sure metro is another area, city planning. We recently got the logistic plan. We’ve got it for Ayodhya. We’ve got the Pilgrim Management Plan order from Ayodhya. We’ve got a number of city plans. We’ve got — most recently, we got the mobility plan for Calcutta.
And then moving forward, we are airports, again, airport, the aviation growth such a large allocation in airports, we are doing a lot of work in airports also. So across sectors, we are bidding for these areas as well as pitching to get them on a nomination basis also.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Anything on DFC, or any high speed train project where things are moving and getting some words there?
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
DFC, we are already a partner. We are a permanent consultant partner for DFC and for high speed rail we keep doing a lot of surveys and consultancy work. We have been doing it. We keep doing it as the requirement comes up, whether it is for FLS, EPR any particular bridge or any particular tunnel, any particular design. So, we are the — whether it is some communication, some signaling work for high-speed. So, you see we have got strengths in each of these areas and whether it is the existing upcoming DFCs or future DFCs whether it is the high-speed railways or even now, most many semi-high-speed corridors are being identified. We have already been associated for making some FLSAs and DFRs and DPRs for that.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Fair enough, Sir. Thank you, Sir.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator instructions] As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities Private Limited for closing comments.
Harshit Kapadia — Elara Securities Private Limited — Analyst
Thank you, Seema. We would like to thank Shri. Rahul Mithal, Chairman and Managing Director; B.P. Nayak, Director Finance; Mr. A.K. Singh and Joshit Sikidar, Company Secretary for giving us an opportunity to host this call. We would like to all thank investors and analysts for joining for this call. Any closing remarks Rahulsir.
Rahul Mithal — Chairman and Managing Director
I just want to reiterate that our company is — as I said we deliver what we promise and we at RITES, each of our employee, 2,600-plus employees, are very excited by this amazing push in capex for infra and moving forward this as our core strengths — this is our core strength. We are a consultancy company, this is our core strength. And we will leverage this to our advantage to tap all possible structures — sectors of infra. We are commitment to our shareholders. This third interim dividend of INR6 a share, taking it to a total of already INR14.5 for the cumulative of three interim dividends for this FY vis-a-vis a total of INR17 a share for the last FY, we are on track to do our best for our shareholders also. Thank you.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]