Skipper Ltd (India) (NSE: SKIPPER) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated Apr. 30, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Shiv Shankar Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Mohit — Analyst
Darshil Pandya — Analyst
Manish Ostwal — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Vignesh Iyer — Analyst
Dhiral Shah — Analyst
Gunjan Kabra — Analyst
Darsh Solanki — Analyst
Dinesh Kulkarni — Analyst
Pranjal Mukhija — Analyst
Mahesh — Analyst
Mehul Mehta — Analyst
Moksh Ranka — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Hello and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Skipper Limited Q4 FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone.Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr Mohit from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Mohit — Analyst
Thank you. Yeah. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we welcome you all to the earnings call of Skiper India, Skiper Limited. Today, we have with us the management represented by Mr Sharan, Director; Mr Shishan Kal Gupta, CFO; and Mr Adity, Chief, Finance and Investor Relations. We will start with brief opening remarks followed by Q&A. Over to you, sir.
Shiv Shankar Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you,, Mohit. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Skipper Limited’s Q4 FY ’25 earnings conference call. I’d like to extend my gratitude to all our investors, analysts and stakeholders for your continued interest and support. Before we proceed, I’d like to remind you that certain statements made during this call may be forward-looking in nature and should be reviewed in conjunction with the risks and uncertainties associated with our industry and business.
Let me begin by saying that FY ’25 has been a transformational year for Skiper, marked by multiple record-breaking milestones, a strong financial and operational performance and significant strategic advancements across all major business segments. We delivered our highest-ever revenue and profitability, driven by strong growth in both domestic and export markets, superior project execution capability and a disciplined focus on cost and capital efficiency.
These achievements reflect the strength of our diversified business model. The resilience of our teams and our commitment to driving sustainable long-term value for all stakeholders. Quarterly performance quarter-four FY ’25. We closed the final quarter of the year-on a high note, delivering our best-ever quarterly revenue of INR1,288 crores, reflecting 11.6% sequential growth over previous year corresponding quarter.
The engineering business registered an all-time high quarterly revenue of INR937 crores with 34% growth year-on-year, driven by healthy execution across domestic and export orders. The Polymer business delivered its highest-ever quarterly revenue at INR138 crores, up 34% year-on-year, indicating a rebound in volumes and sales by improved distribution. EBITDA for Q4 stood at INR123 crores, up 14% year-on-year, while EBITDA margins expanded to 9.6% versus 9.4% in-quarter four FY ’24.
Accompanied by robust growth in bottom-line, consolidated PAT increased to INR47.9 crores, the highest for any quarter, registering 90% growth over INR25.2 crores reported in corresponding quarter of previous year, while PAT margins improved to 3.7% of sales against 2.2% in previous year quarter. Annual performance FY ’25. Moving on to the full-year performance,
I am pleased to share that Skiper has delivered its highest-ever annual revenue of INR4,624 crores, a robust growth of 41% year-on-year over FY ’24. The Engineering segment contributed INR3,518 crores, up 58% year-on-year, backed by strong order execution. Export revenue grew by 21% to INR770 crores from INR635 crores last year.
Export share in overall engineering segment business stood at 22%. The Infrastructure segment clocked revenue of INR674 crores, growing 13% year-on-year. Consolidated EBITDA for FY ’25 stood at INR451 crores with margins sustained at 9.8% while annual consolidated PAT surged 83% year-on-year to an all-time high of INR149 crores compared to INR81.7 crores in previous year period. The PAT margin to sales improved to 3.2% against 2.5% in corresponding period, showcasing an improvement of 70 basis-points. Order book and inflows. Moving to our order book And business outlook, we continue to build strong visibility for future revenue growth. FY ’25 was also a landmark year for our order inflow and backlog. We reported the highest-ever annual order inflow of INR5,335 crores with INR1,592 crores booked in-quarter four alone. Our closing order book stood at INR7,458 crores as of, 31 March 2025, up 20% year-on-year. This order book is the highest in our company history, providing robust revenue visibility over the next 18 to 24 months. Notably, our export order inflow was INR7 with strong traction for the USA, Latin-America, Middle-East and South Asia. Domestic order wins included prestigious mandates from power grid including their 800 KV HVDC and several other high voltage projects of 765 KV at 400 KV. We also made meaningful progress on several strategic fronts. Few of the updates are as below. Achieving a landmark breakthrough in USA market by securing a multi-million dollar coal supply order from one of the largest EPC players in the region, laying the foundation for sustained growth and market expansion in North-America. We successfully secured our first substation EPC contract, Marking a strategic expansion of our EPC portfolio and capabilities. Our 75,000 capacity expansion is on-track and expected to be fully operational from May ’25, supporting future growth in engineering volumes. The company is in advanced process of implementing S4 Rice, an advanced ERP solution within next quarter. This implementation will empower the business to streamline operations, enhance efficiency and gain real-time insight for informed decision-making, marking a significant milestone in our broader digital transformation journey. In the polymer business, we’ve increased focus on plumbing segment to improve profitability and enhancing our retail distribution network and gaining momentum with product diversification. Also, we secured necessary approvals to foray into the gas pipeline segment with MDP Pipe, leveraging our existing HDP infrastructure. Capital and debt management. Further, I’m pleased to share that we made meaningful progress in improving our balance sheet. Net-debt, including interest-bearing acceptances reduced by INR11 crores year-on-year to INR1,016 crores despite a 41% increase in revenue. Cash-flow and working capital are expected to improve considerably going-forward, considering the quality of order intake this year. Working capital days also improved with inventory and debtor days sharply reducing. Return on capital employed improved to 21.7% versus 19.1% last year, showcasing better returns on capital outlook, we believe Kipper is at an infection point with a multi-year growth runway ahead, Driven by a strong pipeline of domestic and international T&D opportunities, strategic expansion into new growth areas, a clear strategy to grow exports under the China Plus 1 narrative, focus on operational efficiencies. Thank you for your continued trust and support as we lead the way in advancing power infrastructure and meeting global energy demands. I am happy to take questions now. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session.
Operator
Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star N1 on their touchstone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star N2. All participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles the first question is from the line of Darshal Pandya from FinTrust Capital. Please go-ahead.
Questions and Answers:
Darshil Pandya
Hello. Can you hear me?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yeah, I can hear you.
Darshil Pandya
Yes, sir. Hi, good evening and congratulations on this great set of numbers. Sir, my first question would be on the capacity addition that we were — we are having of 75,000 tonnes. If I’m not wrong, this was supposed to be added in Q4 of last year. Yes, that’s correct. So part of the capacity is already online and full capacity of 75,000 will be available to us within quarter one.
Okay. So if I’m to understand for six months, I guess we will be able to see the revenues that from the new capacity that is going to be likely.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yeah, we should be able to see from quarter two or all of this.
Darshil Pandya
Got it. Got it. And sir, if you can just throw some more light on the new USA orders and the other major update of the presentation, page number eight. If you can just highlight some more points on that, what kind of how this growth will be materialized in terms of numbers, that would be really nice. So the US right now, of course, as I said earlier that our present USA I think last year, we did not have any significant business,
But the order that we have recently secured, this is, you can say our first breakthrough order where now we see that Indian players will definitely have a lot of opportunity as because the USA is having trade problems with other areas like Mexico and China. So definitely, we expect to benefit from the overall new trade situation.
And so we secured a first major order for coal supplies into USA and we expect more-and-more orders to come in the future from that geography. Okay. But how will this materialize in terms of numbers that was the primary understanding.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Okay. It is difficult to put specific numbers to any particular geography. However, we maintain that we are looking at a lot of growth from the various export markets. This year also, we have grown — our export execution has grown by about 22% compared to last year. Last year, our export revenue was INR635 crores. This year, our export revenue has grown to INR770 crores.
So I’d say that the exports are growing consistently in various geographies and the export to North-America will also be part of our overall export growth.
Darshil Pandya
Got one question before I also come back again is to understand, do we have any revenues coming from government in our PVC business?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
We used to have, say, like in FY ’24, we had significant amount of revenue coming from the sale of HBP pipes in the project. However, in the year that just concluded, we saw a major dip in revenue coming from the project business. So we expect that, okay, now with the — in the recent budget, Jeeban projects have again being given some allocation.
So hopefully, we should see again that revenue being revived in the new financial year. There is some — what the news says is around 46% of the mission is somewhere they have slashed the project size. Is this correct or have you got any update on this. It’s just a minute. So basically what we are doing is basically we are reducing our dependency on the project right now and we are focusing more on the plumbing and retail side of the business that’s the strategy right now. Y
Darshil Pandya
Yeah. Got it. Okay. I’ll fall-back in the queue, sir. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Manish Ostwal from Nirmal Bank. You may go-ahead.
Manish Ostwal
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have first question on the order inflow side. So this — we will be starting F ’26 with approximately INR7,500 crores of order book. And if I look at your last year’s opening order book and the order inflow, we approximately executed 40% of that in terms of revenue for the current year. So now looking at the domestic market as well as the export market, you talked about the opportunity rises from the trade work with US trade work with Mexico and China. So Both the context domestic as well as the overseas market condition, how do you see the order inflow panning out for us in F ’26 from the opening book of INR7,500 crores, approximately. But you are asking that how do we see further order intake situation? What is the question exactly? Yeah, that is the question.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yeah. So order bidding pipeline is very, very, very strong and both on the domestic side as well as export side. So I believe that, you know the bidding pipeline is extremely strong and it will continue to remain strong for several years because Indian — in the Indian market, you know, Government of India CEA has projected an investment of INR9 lakh transmission segment up to 2032.
So we are seeing the — we are continuously going to see projects coming up in the Indian market. And because of our push into exports and because of our various — our presence in various countries around the world, we are seeing more-and-more business coming our way in exports as well. So overall, we believe that we will continue on our growth path and the order book, we should be able to grow further in FY ’26 as well.
Manish Ostwal
Can you quantify the big pipeline for us, what is the total bidding pipeline we have and what is the percentage success rate in F ’25 against our bidding pipeline?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Our bidding pipeline is now INR20,000 crores plus. And in the past, we have seen a minimum 25% success rate. However, you know, of course, we expect to grow the bidding pipeline also with our capacity coming online, we will be starting to bidding more projects as well.
So the second question on the leverage side, so I was looking our debt management slide and where we mentioned that the interest-bearing acceptances is declined and overall the — but if I look at our interest cost against our revenue growth, which is 41%, our interest expense increased by 38.2%. So effectively, despite our decline in the overall the debt thing, but it is not reflecting in our P&L in the form of interest expense as a percentage of revenue, which you talked about in earlier quarters also.
So first-in F ’26, ’27, where do you see this — and if I look at our operating cash-flow also before the working capital investment, your operating cash-flow is showing a growth of 42%, but there is a lot of consumption of capital happening in the working capital. That’s why our operating cash-flow has declined on a full-year basis 33%.
Manish Ostwal
So can you explain why the benefit of interest — the debt reduction not reflected in interest cost and secondly, where do you see the trajectory of that line-item in coming years?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Okay. So very relevant question. Firstly, on regards to the finance cost, if you notice our finance cost for the full-year last year for FY ’24, we were at about 4.69% to sales, the finance cost for the full-year. If you see the quarter three and quarter-four, the last two quarters for us, the finance cost has been on a reducing trend with 4.38% in-quarter three and 4.37% in-quarter four.
So we believe that now for the full-year, we should — for the full-year FY ’26, we should be coming closer, this declining trend should continue and we should be coming closer to a 4% kind of a finance cost or based on revenue. So that is where our effort will be to bring down our finance cost close to 4% for the full-year.
And with regards to cash-flow, of course, we have done significant amount of capex also and we are — despite that, we are maintaining healthy cash flows. A certain amount of customer advances were due to come in-quarter four, which we are now expecting to come in-quarter one.
So I believe that overall for the year, cash flows will continue to be healthy, but I’ll be able to give further flavor to that separately. But can you quantify the amount of the slip over the customer advances which we expect in the coming quarter? We about — about INR200 crores of advances which we were expecting to come in March, they have filled over to April.
Manish Ostwal
Okay, sir. Thank you very much for answering my question. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the from the line of Mook Sharanka from Aurum Capital. Go-ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Hello. In the past, we had in the past, we had plans of demerging our polymer business. And subsequently, I don’t — while didn’t say of that. So why was the plan dropped or what actually happened? Do you please?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yeah, as of now, there is no further decision on that front. We are — our polymer business continues to grow well and we are looking at good growth in this business in the coming years as well. As and when, of course, a decision will be taken we will subsequently inform you, but as of now there is no-decision regarding demerger. In the past it was announced right and w what was the reason for scrapping that demerger plan.
We had not announced the demerger. We’ve taken a approval NCL basis. We have taken NCIT approval, but we hadn’t may announced the demerger.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And could you please explain a little more about the polymer business like regarding the industry, the whole industry is suffering for like I think many quarters now and everybody is operating at very low margins. And I don’t see much differentiation in this category and everybody is doing capex.
So what is the thought process like behind this because the whole industry is an industry-wide problem. So could you please explain me more regarding this?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
So I’d say that the industry is facing some headwinds like you rightly mentioned. However, if you notice that despite the industry headwinds and the sharp reduction in projects, we have maintained our revenue in this business more or less to previous year’s levels. This is — so the loss of business in the government project has been made-up by the growth in retail sales.
So our retail business is growing well. We are looking at positive growth in the coming year as well as because the previous year, the industry suffers due to very volatile commodity prices. But I’d say that those challenges are now behind us. In terms of differentiation, Kipper is the strongest — one of the strongest brands in Eastern and Northeastern India,
Where, let’s say, maybe the national players have a limited presence. So we definitely see that in this market itself, there is a lot of opportunity for us to grow while we are a challenger brand in some of the other markets. So I think our brand acceptance is growing and I think that this year and the next year, we will see better times in the industry okay.
Unidentified Participant
And is there any update on the press — we plan a preferential allotment for the capex we were going to do or maybe an upcoming capex. So is there any update on that it was not a preferential it was a QIP or something.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yeah, you asking about the QIP, yes. So I think, look, looking at-the-market conditions in the last four months, we have put that decision on-hold and we will maybe evaluate that as the company’s cash-flow continues to be healthy. As such, we are able to meet all our capex requirements through a mix of debt and internal accruals. So we look at a more favorable market situation to maybe consider going back to the market.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. I’ll get back-in the queue. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vignesh from Sequent Investments. Please go-ahead.
Vignesh Iyer
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity. So basically my first question is on the revenue capacity that is expected to come in the month of May. Two points regarding First, how would the velocity of execution improve here on the order book that we have in-hand? And secondly, I wanted to understand if there were certain capabilities already-existing with us where we could have executed a higher-value execution, but we didn’t go for bidding due to capacity. Is it a possibility that the — that we go for a bigger order size bidding from here on.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, certainly, as our Our capacity gets fully commissioned, we will be targeting a bigger bid pipeline. And at the same time, the effort will be to target higher-margin orders as well. So I think certainly both of those are on the — on the target. Also, sir, about the velocity of execution going-forward. So the execution, I think remains strong against we have delivered a 40% plus revenue growth this year. So even on this elevated base, I’d say that there is a sufficient opportunity for us to increase our revenue execution and revenue further.
Vignesh Iyer
Right. So could you let us know this orders we have got, what is the size of the order? Sorry once again, could you repeat our question? I secured the first order on the substation EPC. I wanted to understand in terms of value, what is the order size the contract it’s about INR45 crores. Yeah. Thank you. That’s all from my side and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. A follow-up question from Pandya from Fintes Capital. Please go-ahead.
Darshil Pandya
Hi, can you hear me?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes.
Darshil Pandya
Yes, sir. So just one question that is left from my side is about the guidance part, what we are targeting for next two to three years. We — I will continue to target about 20% to 25% growth even on this elevated base. Okay. But sir, technically, if I see your presentation last three years, we have somewhere grown at 40% plus.
And given what kind of updates we have with respect to the orders and the new capacity that is coming in, can we even know outperform that just in case to understand well,
Shiv Shankar Gupta
I think, look, we believe that, 20% 25% is a healthy growth number, looking at better execution from our capacity as because we are near about 80%, 85% capacity utilization now. So looking at some more opportunity in the existing capacity as well as the new capacity that will be coming online from quarter one, I’d say, 20% 25% overall revenue growth is a good guidance to take.
Vignesh Iyer
Got it, got it. All right, sir. All the best. And thank you for the opportunity again.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Dhiral from PhillipCapital. Please go-ahead.
Dhiral Shah
Yeah, good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations for the great set of numbers. I have three, four questions, sir. Sir, first of all, on the US order, when you said that we have — we have won almost multi-million orders, so wanted to know the size of the you know order that we have won from the US market. It’s about 15 million, 1, 50 million. Okay. And sir, what would be our maybe big pipeline, particularly on the US side now? Now then we have got these opportunity with this new order, the bid pipeline in the US market is close to about $150 million.
Okay. Okay. And sir, of the overall total order book that we have, which is almost $7,400 around crores. If you can you give the breakup between how much is the engineering side of an order and how much is the infrastructure led?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
You’re asking about the closing order book.
Dhiral Shah
Yeah, breakup of the outstanding order book
Shiv Shankar Gupta
5,800 crores pertains to EPC 800 crore is export and the balance is domestic supply.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. So when you say, sir, INR5,800 crore EPC, is it linked to the only infrastructure order?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
No, no, that in any EPC order, about 70% to 80% volume is comes from engineering supplies and that is 20% to 30% comes from Infra. Okay. So, this year, sir, when we have, you know, delivered 12% to 13% kind of a revenue growth on the infrastructure side. So what would be the guidance for FY ’26 and ’27?
You’re asking specifically about the infra segment?
Dhiral Shah
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
So you — the overall — the overall GOA guidance of 20% 25% will be maintained here as well in the infra.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. That’s great, sir. And sir, we have seen our margins on the infrastructure side on an annual basis also has declined slightly despite of the ramp-up in the revenue. Also on the engineering side, there has been a 40% decline in the engineering EBITDA margin. So when we are running at full capacity, operating leverage also may kick-in and this will — this would have improved our margins, right, but that is not the case.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
This year, we’ve had a mix of both TND and non-T&D revenue on the engineering product side. So I’d say that, look, we’ve always maintained our guidance of between 11% and 12% for the engineering margins. And now that can vary depending on. So it is range-bound, I would say that the margin on the engineering product. And even in infra, the dip is almost flat because it was 6.1% previous year and 5.9% this year.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. So this would remain in the same range, around 6%, right?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, correct.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. And sir, now coming to the polymer part, so now when we have entered into this gas pipeline space, so does it improve our overall utilization of the pipe segment in the coming year, particularly for FY ’26, ’27?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, it will certainly improve. All of this is adding to our product portfolio in the polymer segment. But of course, our prime focus will remain on the plumbing side. But whether it is the MDP for the gas pipeline or HDP for water project, all of those will help in our overall capacity utilization.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. So this year was largely been flat, you know, because of the macro-environment. So what will be the guidance for FY ’23-’27 on the polymer side?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
I think on the polymer side, we can expect a little higher-growth between 25% to 30%.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. Okay. And sir, lastly on the debt part. So any bet with — since we have reduced our interest-bearing debt this year also by almost INR100 or around more than INR100 crores. So what would be the debt guidance for FY ’26?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Don’t have a debt guidance for you right now. So as I mentioned, we will be expect — we will be seeing more revenue coming from T&D business in the new financial year as because non-TND now is a very small percentage of our order book. So we expect improvement both in the margins as well as the working capital side.
So just as we have been able to achieve some reduction on the working capital this year, we should be able to achieve further improvement in the working capital and our — as from management side, our focus will be to bring down the finance cost as a percentage of sales closer to 4% versus 4.4% right now.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. And sir, just last one question on the utilization part, since we will be commencing our 75,000 metric ton capacity maybe in month of May and you said that will be the quarter where it will start ramping-up. So maybe for the FY ’26, what could be the utilization for the 75,000?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
We — as because we have a sufficient order book. So we expect that right from within one or two-quarter itself, we will be able to achieve. So maybe by quarter 10 we will be able to achieve 80%, 85% capacity utilization, which will be capacity utilization for any capacity. So are we then looking for another fresh capex maybe for FY ’27 growth?
Yes, certainly. We will be doing a fresh capex this year also.
Dhiral Shah
So this would be of how much amount, sir and what will be the capacity addition?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
We will be adding a further amount of 75,000 tons this year also.
Dhiral Shah
So this will be again a brownfield kind of an expansion, sir, with maybe INR200 crore kind of a?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, but it will be a big brownfield and greenfield.
Dhiral Shah
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much, sir. That’s it from my side.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Sure.
Operator
Thank, thank you. Next question is from the line of Gunjan Kabra from Niveshai Investments. Please go-ahead.
Gunjan Kabra
Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand the US market a bit that firstly, from where does US import towers as of now, major requirement because considering it’s a labor-intensive industry, so how much is domestically sold and how much will be imported from other countries?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
The US has some domestic production as well and also they are importing towers from Mexico, Brazil and Turkey and China. So these were the major destinations internationally where major towers and towers are being supplied into the US.
Gunjan Kabra
Okay. So here’s like what’s the approval cycle that if one wants to supply to the US market, so like in Transformers, there is a big approval cycle of so many years of supplying to the US market. So in, how is it? And plus if Turkey is also a major supplier for seeing the current scenario, don’t you think that they will have a major advantage than India or we can gain market-share there because of the tariff in the current scenario right now?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
No, I would say that the — firstly, regarding the approval cycle, see, there is no one central utility in the North American market. There are several, you know almost maybe 100, 100 plus various utilities, which are actively involved in transmission line development. So the approvals is a process which Skipper has been undertaking last seven to eight years.
We have the cotton ourselves approved and our product certified with a number of such utilities already and that number is constantly growing. So I’d say that this is a long gestation business and just like Transformers, this will definitely require a long-time for any new player who is starting out today to build-up momentum the transfer has started seeing some significant orders in that — in that geography.
And with regarding tariffs, see, it’s difficult to comment today because the situation regarding tariffs is evolving and changing quite rapidly on a weekly basis. We’ll have to wait for the matter to settle down and the final tariff to be really clear. However, I can tell you that looking at overall cost advantages that we particularly have with our integrated operations and our labor-intensive operations.
This will definitely — we will be competitive in the North American market regardless of whatever tariff are imposed on Indian products. Got it. And one more thing is, how is the transmission activity shaping up in the export market, like for example, in the US or Europe or countries because like India last year and the coming years, we are seeing accelerated activities on the transmission side.
Gunjan Kabra
So similarly, is it on the same trend or how are we seeing in those export market as well? If you can share any insights on-ground in price if you have?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yeah, I would say that right now we are seeing very, very strong activities in the Middle-East market. And there almost all Middle-East as well as North Africa countries. So the entire MENA region, we are seeing tremendous amount of demand and new projects are being awarded. In terms of North-America, there is a big pipeline of projects, but in general,
Based on our experience, the projects award is a slow-moving activity and they take time to key awards. Markets like certain pockets of Africa, particularly East-Africa are quite actively investing. However, we are seeing not so much action happening on maybe West Africa and the European market, there we are probably seeing not that greater demand. So I would say that overall exports definitely is seeing a strong bidding action from North-America, from Middle-East and East-Africa
Gunjan Kabra
Okay. And what’s the time tenure of execution of the substation EPC of the INR45 crores order that we have received this quarter? It’s about 18 months. 18 months. So is it like 18 months for our substation orders or generally also the order execution cycle right now is of 18 months?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
I’d say that depending on the voltage level, 18 to 24 months is the economics and this will be for what KV right now, right? I mean on the distribution side we have got or on the higher voltage side? This is a 66 KV project.
Gunjan Kabra
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much and good luck. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Darshan Solanki from Axis Securities. Please go-ahead.
Darsh Solanki
Yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Sir, my question is mostly focusing on the domestic outlook. So we all know that domestic outlook remains strong at 9.15 trillion capex. But if you see for FY ’25, the transmission lines and the substations that are added for the year are on — basically not according to the targets that were there. So there is an underachievement.
So just wanted to know your view on the on-ground challenges, like are there any on-ground challenges in regard to the execution, which may impact the order pipeline of ours? Thank you.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
So I would say that the ordering — the tendering activity majorly started in FY ’24 and FY ’24 and major part of FY ’24, ’25 is when we saw the major awards taking place. So probably, yes, considering our 18 to 24 months build cycle, we should see definitely major lines and substations getting added starting from FY ’26 and really picking-up pace in FY ’27 onwards.
But on execution remains strong. I think that is very well reflected in our top-line growth number also. Understood. So basically, we do not see foresee any challenges when it comes to order inflows? Not at all.
Darsh Solanki
Understood. Sir, I just wanted to check what is our current market-share in the high-voltage segment?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
It’s approximately 15% in the high voltage transmission line segment.
Darsh Solanki
Understood. Understood. And I think my last question would be, so our capex guidance was around INR800 crore for the next four years, INR200 crores per annum. So that is the same or is there any update there?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, it largely remains the same.
Darsh Solanki
Understood. That’s it from my side. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Dinesh Kulkarni from RDST. Please go-ahead.
Dinesh Kulkarni
Hello, sir. Can you hear me? Yeah, we can. Thanks for giving me the opportunity, sir, and really great set of numbers. Sir, my question is in terms of margins. If we see the margins have been predominantly around 10% for the last few years. Are you expecting any improvement in the margins going-forward, especially on the capacity addition?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, absolutely as because you know so-far the major revenue has been a mix of both P&D and non-PND. And now going-forward, we expect major amount of execution to come from T&D itself. So we certainly can expect a better improved margin. And also with the growth of exports,
We are — we do feel that margins have a good headroom to grow a lot. So certainly, we can expect improvement on margins in the coming years.
Dinesh Kulkarni
That’s great, sir. Just on something more on this. Have you seen any incremental change in the kind of orders which you are getting now in the past, say, like six months and how do they — how would you compare that with the previous orders, like is there an incremental change in margins? Are you witnessing that?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes. I think the orders secured in the year that just finished FY ’25 have definitely come with better margins than previous years.
Dinesh Kulkarni
And we expect that to continue going-forward, right?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Absolutely.
Dinesh Kulkarni
Okay, sir. I think that’s pretty much for my answer. Thank you very much and all the best.
Darshil Pandya
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Pranjal from Growth Pier Ventures. Please go-ahead.
Pranjal Mukhija
Hi, am I audible?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, you are.
Pranjal Mukhija
Hi, sir. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I just have one question. So how — where are we positioned to cater to the HPDC demand both in India and rest of The world? So what is the outlook for this segment and the margins in this segment better?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, definitely. So Skipper is fully qualified to add the HVDs for all HVDC projects. And currently in our order book also, we have secured 800 KV HVDC projects from power grid. Globally, now even in like markets like North-America, we are seeing that they are moving to further higher voltage. You see the highest voltage that was deployed, there was 500 KV.
But now for the first time, we are seeing that they will also be going for 75 KV high voltage projects. So I think with our expertise in — we have been doing 75 and 800 KV projects in India for the last 15 years. So I think we have built-up a lot of expertise and lot of technical capability in these category of projects and we will be able to take — leverage that capability for supplies in a lot of markets,including North-America.
Pranjal Mukhija
So how big was this project like the 800 project that you’re mentioning? It’s close to about INR500 crores, okay, and margins there are better or like similar to the current business or in the engineering company?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yes, slightly better.
Operator
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mahesh Atal from Atal Investment Advisors. Please go-ahead.
Mahesh
Sir, what would be your margins from this US business that you have achieved that would be somewhere around INR1,300 crores, I guess. What could be your margins there in US? No, we don’t — sorry, sir, INR1,300 crores, where did you get that number from? $15 million, right? I mean, sorry, $15 million, it is right that you have a peak.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Yeah. So beyond that what would be your margins? In general it’s difficult to pinpoint margins on particular orders, but I can tell you that normally exports do come with better margin than because this is exposed to develop country like North-America, there the opportunity for margins are even higher. However, it is our entry phase right now into those markets.
So even then, even despite the entry price, we can expect that these orders come at about at least 2% better margin than domestic products.
Mahesh
Okay, so 200 bps on your existing margin profile, right? And there is 10 times more opportunity available there. So how would you know we build-up over FY ’26 and ’27? Can you please share some light on that? I mean, what could be the opportunity for us out of that 150 million?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
No, no 150 million is only our current bidding pipeline, but in terms of overall opportunity for bidding, our expectation is that there will be at least INR10 billion worth of projects you know, coming up over the next two, three years for bidding in North-America. So we obviously look to increase our approval process, our registration, certification process and we continue to increase our bidding pipeline in that market.
Whether how much will be successful or not because as because we have a limited presence there right now.
So obviously, our — we’ll have to see how many — how many chances we’ll have of being successful in that market, please. So what would be your dividend outflow this year? Dividend outflow would be 10%.
Mahesh
So in terms actual I mean in terms of actual numbers in you asking absolute number? Yeah, absolute numbers
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Okay, we can check and come back to you offline about this,
Mahesh
But yeah, but my question was more on that key. Won’t it be prudent to will be it will be
Shiv Shankar Gupta
About INR1.5 crores this year. 1
Mahesh
.5 crores. Are you sure
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Approximately yes.
Mahesh
It’s INR1.5 crores.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Okay. Correct.
Mahesh
Okay. Fine. So what’s the — I mean, the policy on this dividend are you going to actually because you’re having only INR200 crores capex lined-up for the next year?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
That’s because the company is growing or we have capex requirements and also our working capital requirements are there. So I think we will be conservative in dividend payout for the next two, three years up until we are doing capex.
Mahesh
All right. So maximum of the cash would be towards repaying off the debt, right?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Repaying of debt, a new capex, yes.
Mahesh
Great. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mehul Mehta from Choice Institutional Equities. Please go-ahead.
Mehul Mehta
Good evening, team. Congrats on great set of numbers, especially in the light of for a substantial reduction in working capital cycle. My question is in relation to inventory cycle as compared to peers for us is still much higher. So is there like can we expect further reduction kind of?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Sir, you see the inventory cycle from previous year 135 days we have brought it down to 95 days. There is further opportunity to bring this down further. However, when you compare us two peers to keep in mind that we are the only ones having backward integrated operations.
So our inventory is also — it also is burdened with that with that fact that we have — we have to maintain extra inventory because we are backward integrated. But despite that, we certainly feel that there is opportunity to bring this down further from 95 days.
Mehul Mehta
Why I’m comparing it because like as compared to, I mean if I look at range, like it is in the line of 25 to 35 days for peers. So maybe backward integration, but still substantial difference. So like can we like in a further — I mean like shrink it significantly or like I think you’re looking at like anywhere like because of backward integration on this level,
Like maybe sir
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Also you would also have to see, sir that, okay, if a company has a very large business of EPC there and ours is still predominantly manufacturing-led operations. So you will have to see manufacturing as a percentage of the sales to really see inventory because your EPC business, you will likely not have much inventory.
Mehul Mehta
Got it. Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ranka from Aurum Capital. Please go-ahead.
Moksh Ranka
My question was on the long-term regarding like our products, products have a very long replacement cycle. And if you look like after some years, there could be a scenario where we don’t get lot many orders because the replacement cycle by the used to be 50 then.
Then what would be our plan then because we are doing lots of capex for this year and for the next few years and understanding that and that’s because the grid needs to be replaced, but at one point that will be done. So after that what will be our plan?
Shiv Shankar Gupta
So I can tell you that based on our estimation, the transmission capex will continue at least for the next two decades while the world moves towards net zero and renewable becomes more-and-more of a preferred source for power generation. So the transmission requirements will only continue to grow and we see demand outlook very strong right for the next two decades, not just for the next four, five years.
Moksh Ranka
Okay, that’s it from me. Thank you.
Operator
As there are no further questions, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Shiv Shankar Gupta
Thank you once again to all the investors for your continued interest with. We remain strongly optimistic about the growth prospects of in FY ’26 as well and we look-forward to interacting with all of you for the quarter one con-call three months from now. Thank you.
Operator
On behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.