'Dilip Panjwani Discusses Implications of Module price Correction for Waaree'
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Today we're speaking with the management to understand what the outlook, the business
00:03 outlook is for the company. Dilip Panjwani is joining us, he's CFO at Wari. Dilip,
00:09 very good morning to you. Thank you for speaking with us here at NDTV Profit. Let's begin by
00:16 talking about what is optimum on top of mind for investors. 16th March is your record day
00:22 for a 1 is to 5 stock split. Can you explain the rationale behind this?
00:28 Very good morning. We have explained our rationale in our statement that our stock
00:33 has been a four digit stock and we want retail investors participation going up.
00:38 We have seen a significant participation and we have received requests from a lot of stakeholders
00:43 to stock split this stock. And that's the reason to make it affordable for retail investors who
00:48 wants to buy in smaller pieces, we have done the stock split. Let's talk a bit about the business
00:55 and the stock split news is seeing a bit of pressure on the stock at least today, but
00:58 let's look forward and talk about the business. Your last quarter was a fantastic one in terms of
01:04 profits, orders, significant jump up. It's been a good quarter. Now, post that there has been an
01:12 announcement on this solar scheme, the solar rooftop scheme, and then a positive sentiment
01:18 towards at least the stock price. I want to understand from you, Mr. Panjwani, how exactly
01:22 is Wari Technologies going to benefit from this government push for solar rooftops and 1 crore
01:30 homes? Well, that's more of a retail, but I would like to take the journey in a different manner.
01:36 Ever since we announced our results, we have seen only good news coming up in renewable space,
01:42 starting from Prime Minister's push towards his retail households and MNRE pushing for more
01:48 business contracts towards renewable space. And there we have announced three large contracts
01:54 in a short span of time of just 30 days post our results. So these three orders itself take us back
02:02 to again, kind of a 3x growth for us. Biggest among them, of course, we have announced is the
02:08 turnkey project from NIPCO, which is government's commitments to push renewable energy. It's a
02:13 450 megawatt DC project for us and it's a pleathering cap and it's a prime moment for us.
02:18 So that's going business is pretty going strong as of now in renewable space.
02:22 No, no. So that, of course, and we'll come to your order book and, you know, what is the kind
02:28 of execution of your order book right now, Mr. Panjwani, but just to understand. So when the
02:34 government talks about adding solar rooftop, you know, to our solar energy to 1 crore rooftops,
02:42 directly Vari doesn't benefit in any clear way because your retail exposure is minimal, if at all.
02:47 Yeah, you know, for Vari Renewable right now, retail exposure is minimal, but it offers an
02:52 opportunity as it deepens the renewable space. And, you know, then every participant just adds
02:57 to the momentum. But as such, you know, Vari Renewable is very less in its Vari Energy,
03:02 you know, which are parent company, which is more in that retail space, you know,
03:05 offering modules, you know. Now, talk to me about PV module prices, which have cooled off.
03:13 How does this impact you? It impacts towards decision making, you know, the decision becomes
03:20 much more faster and easier for participants. As you know, the project cost, you know, there's
03:24 ones who are sitting on fence, they easily go and decide that they want to lock in the
03:29 prices at this moment. So it's good from our perspective that it adds to the momentum much more.
03:35 And, you know, if I talk about your EBITDA margin guidance, in Q3, you saw EBITDA margins,
03:42 you know, even though your profits were up, your EBITDA margins came off a bit. What is the kind of,
03:49 you know, revival of EBITDA margins that you're seeing going forward? And what would be
03:53 that on the back of, Mr. Panjwani? So, you know, when we undertake contracts,
03:58 we are always guided by that we want to deliver between 15 to 20% EBITDA margins.
04:03 And we have consistently done that. And, you know, we always say that, you know,
04:07 you have to look contract in whole perspective rather than, you know, any quarter wise.
04:11 So there could be outliers from any side, but 15 to 20% is what Warre Renewable always,
04:17 you know, targets to achieve the EBITDA margins. Okay, so 15 to 20% EBITDA margin is what you see
04:25 going on track, you know, as we go into the next few quarters. Is that correct?
04:31 Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Let me talk about your order completion.
04:36 You want to complete about 900 to 950 megawatts this year. That front loads quite a bit in quarter
04:43 four itself. That means, you know, you are going to have quite a hectic quarter,
04:49 about maybe 470 megawatts will have to be completed to meet that target. A, is that doable? B,
04:56 what does this mean for how you will finish off the year in terms of revenues?
05:00 Well, you know, it's certainly doable if the question is in binary, but you know,
05:04 in projects, there could always be, you know, sometimes unforeseeables, but we are on track
05:09 with what we have been committed, you know, with this kind of growth rates that is coming
05:13 and the kind of order book that we have stood. You know, as we speak on executed order book,
05:18 we actually are at now staring at two and a half gigawatt of order book.
05:21 Okay. And what is your current unexecuted order book?
05:29 Two and a half gigawatts.
05:30 Okay. Two and a half gigawatts. What is your order pipeline looking like, Mr. Panchwani?
05:35 Can you give me, you know, some sort of color on that?
05:37 So as we speak right now, we are looking at 10 gigawatt of
05:41 order book pipeline that we are chasing with our customers.
05:43 All right. You know, just as we wrap this conversation, a word from you on India's
05:51 solar energy push and what has held it back so far. What is the kind of, you know,
05:57 opportunities you see there as we want to, of course, fit our targets or hit our targets on
06:03 renewable energy, on clean energy? What are the opportunities you see for WARI?
06:07 You know, opportunities definitely are immense, but, you know, going back to your question,
06:12 you know, as to what held back, you know, it's actually alignment of policies, government
06:17 commitment, the clean energy commitment globally that's happening, you know, alignment of all this
06:22 at one go. And, you know, MNRE also has been pushing that they want to achieve the 2030
06:28 guidance on 280 gigawatt of solar and 220 gigawatt of wind, you know, which is on the
06:33 renewable side of 500 gigawatt. That push is now seen actually in terms of investments.
06:38 So that's aligning it at one go right now. Absolutely. All right. Thank you so much,
06:46 Mr. Panjwani, for speaking with us, the CFO at WARI Renewables, talking about the outlook for the
06:53 company.