Anant Raj Limited (ANANTRAJ.NS) Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Anant Raj Limited Q2 and H1 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prathamesh Parag from MUFG InTime India Private Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Harshi. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Q2 and H1 FY '26 Earnings Call of Anant Raj Limited. From the management today, we have with us Mr. Amit Sarin, Managing Director; Mr. Pankaj Gupta, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Manoj Goyal, Chief Business Officer; Mr. Ashim Sarin, Whole Time Director and Chief Operating Officer. Before we proceed with this call, I would like to give a small disclaimer that this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements, which are based on beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as of date. A detailed disclaimer has also been given on the company's investor presentation, which has been uploaded on the stock exchanges. I hope you all had a chance to go through the same. Now I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Amit Sarin for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Yes. Thank you very much. Namaskar, everyone, and we would like to welcome everybody, and thank everybody for joining us for this earnings call. We are very happy to inform you that we've been able to deliver yet another very robust quarter. One main highlight, which we are very proud of, fifth quarter in a row, even prior to the QIP, which the company has successfully done, fifth quarter in a row, the net debt of the company has been below 50%. So we almost call ourselves a zero-debt company, and we maintain that for the future also. Now just to give you main highlight -- main highlights of the year which has gone past by and the first quarter -- and the first in the second quarter. Our estimates for the top line for last year were about INR 1,800 crores to INR 1,900 crores and a PAT of INR 370 crores to INR 390 crores. We are very proud to share that we have been able to do INR 2,100 crores of top line and a PAT of INR 425 crores for the year ending 31 March '25. And in this year, the first 2 quarters, the company has already done INR 1,243 crores of revenue and a PAT of INR 264 crores. The main highlight for us today has been that we have been able to deliver the 28 megawatts, which the company was working on in the second quarter on 1st and the 2nd of August this year, the company did showcase of the 28 megawatts, which we delivered, we call it Bharat Built, from Soil to Server, where we showcase to a lot of investors and analysts we invited them for two days to come, and we showcased this. We are thankful to everybody who was able to come in and it was very encouraging for the company. So that is done. Now the company, as we -- as you must be all aware that the company in October last year started with its own cloud called Ashok Cloud, which was named after our Founder Chairman, Shri. Ashok Sarin, and we are a sovereign cloud of the country. And initially, we start with B2B, and that is successfully being launched and is getting very good response in the market. Other than that, prior to doing the Bharat Built, from Soil to Server, the company at that time, the promoters were issued warrants of INR 100 crores, for which the promoters will support to convert by September '26. We actually -- the promoters put in the money in March '25 itself and that cash flow of INR 100 crores already helped the company. And we converted our share warrants at a price of INR 730 done, the money came into the company, and that got used in the data center business, and we successfully built our Soil to Server So data center wise, we are now on track, and we are now fully funded, and we are taking this to the next level, which is 63 megawatts and which will be now operational by December '26. That is vis-a-vis the data center. Real estate wise, we've been done. We are fully on track with the launches which we had planned. For this year, we had launched -- we have planned almost 2.6 million square feet of launches. And we are fully on track with that. And today, we have -- today, the company, we, in fact, we informed the stock exchanges also and most of you would have read it there, 6.075 acres, the company has already received its RERA for the floor, which is going to be launching, which is 5 lakh square feet. For both 5.8 acres, we've got our group housing -- LOI, we've already got, and we've got the advanced set of approvals, which is for 1.1 million square feet. And we have already filed a group housing application of 5.21 acres, which is going to be again 1.1 million square feet, which we are going to be -- which we expect the license to come in Q4. So vis-a-vis this also, the company is fully on track. The company also successfully completed its QIP of INR 1,100 crores, which is done. Other than that, commercial. In commercial, the company has started working on two major projects. The first one is in 63A, which is Ashok Towers. The work has already started. And the second one is our first endeavor in Delhi now since we -- prior to that, we were always focusing in Haryana. So now in Delhi, we have already started with our first which is 7 lakh square feet and the first stage of this development -- this is a combination of commercial, service apartments and hotels, and the first phase will be completed by FY '28. So vis-a-vis the projects, vis-a-vis the data centers, we are fully on track. Funding-wise, the company is now a zero-debt company, a surplus cash company, and we are fully on track. Now I will request the CFO to take you through the results, please. Mr. Pankaj.

Thank you very much, sir. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for your precious time you have spared for us to attend the call. We are delighted to report that our performance this quarter and first half has again demonstrated our commitment for a strong financial growth. Moving to our financial highlights for Q2 FY '26. Revenue from operations stood to INR 630.79 crores, up 23% year-on-year. This includes revenue from data center infrastructure and allied services stood at INR 35.47 crores. EBITDA stood at INR 177.94 crores, up 43.85% year-on-year and EBITDA margin for the quarter improved at 27.76%, up year-on-year from 23.62%. PAT grew by 30.79% year-on-year to INR 138.18 crores and PAT margin for the quarter stood at 21.56%, up year-on-year from 20.17%. Now update for H1 FY '26. Revenue from operations grew by 24.22% year-on-year to INR 1,223.2 crores. This includes revenue from data centers at INR 58.42 crores. EBITDA stood at INR 338.58 crores, which is up 43.17% year-on-year and EBITDA margin stood at 27.23%, up year-on-year from 23.52%. PAT grew by 34.28% year-on-year to INR 264.08 crores, and PAT margin stood at 21.24%, up year-on-year from 19.56%. On the balance sheet side, we have made a significant progress in the strengthening of our financial position. During the quarter, we successfully completed a QIP of INR 1,100 crores. Additionally, the company is now net cash positive. And we have prepaid INR 125 crores of debt. We did data center expansion and added second data center facility at Panchkula with the capacity of 7 megawatts IT load, and Manesar facility enhanced from 6-megawatt IT load to 21-megawatt IT load capacity. Company has commenced a development of additional 35-megawatt capacity of data center. We have commenced the development of data center at Rai, Sonipat also. Initially we are developing 20-megawatt IT loads at this location. The total plant capacity at Rai is 200-megawatt IT load. In real estate, we have planned to launch another growth housing project in this financial year in Q4. Company has received further approval and is currently in advanced stage of launching the luxury high-rise project named Stage 1 in Sector 63A in Gurugram. The Stage 1 will be developed on 5.1 acre of land area, having approx 1.1 million square feet of sellable area. Company has commenced Phase 4 of Anant Raj Estate also in this quarter and having an additional project area of 6.075 acres with the potential development of approx 5 lakh square feet. This will add value to the estate apartment and estate growth. The approval of another group housing projects over 5.21 acres is in progress as per the schedule and is expected to receive permissions by the end of this financial year. Company plans to launch the third luxury group housing residential project in FY '27. Anant Raj Limited stand at an important inflection point. Our legacy real estate business continue to deliver a consistent growth and strengthen our leadership in high demanding market. At the same time, our data center and cloud initiatives are setting up the future-ready platform that position us as a diversified enterprises. The progress we have made this quarter both operationally and financially reflects the disciplined execution, strategic investment and a clear vision of a sustainable growth. With a strong balance sheet, reverse cash flow and healthy pipeline of projects, we are confident in our ability to create our long-term value for all stakeholders. Thank you. Now we are opening the floor for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Mr. Akash Gupta from Nomura.

Congrats on a good set of results. Sir, my first question is with respect to data center targets. So I wanted to understand what is our cloud target for FY '27 and FY '28. And my second question is, how are we looking at the data center revenue scale up in FY '27 and FY '28?

Akash ji, like we just said, this by -- vis-a-vis the data center, by December '26, we are going to be 63 megawatts. So this 28 will go to 63. Now the breakout in this 63 will be that 49 is going to be purely co-location and 6 as of now will be cloud. And 8 we are going to be vacant. And as and when we are able to scale up, we will scale up this 8 and take the cloud to 14. So the breakup with 65 be 49 and 14. But until December, we are committing that -- we are commenting that we are going to have about 6 megawatts up and running.

Okay. And what about FY '28.

FY '28, this will jump to 117. And in this 117, 87 is going to be co-location and 36 is going to be cloud. And out of 36, 14 will be up and running and 16, we are keeping a provision to increase the cloud.

Got it. Got it, sir. And how are we looking at the scale-up in the data center revenues?

Data center revenues are fully on track. As we have now started reporting the numbers, you must have noticed yourself, we are now at INR 58 crores. And we are fully on track vis-a-vis the targets we had set for ourselves for this year and next year. So data center revenue will really start to pitch in. So it is going to be something very similar to what you saw in Anant Raj 4.5 years back when the complete turnover of Anant Raj was 200. And from there, you've seen up to Q2, we've already done 1,200 and something. So we are fully on track with that.

Understood, sir. And sir, my second question is with respect to demand for cloud. I mean we have done -- we are probably doing roughly 2-megawatt of cloud by this year-end. How confident are we that we will be able to utilize this additional 4-megawatt of cloud? Do we have any demand visibility? Or are we like looking at any new contracts with any government or something, if you could give some visibility on that, portability for the segment.

Sir, we have enough demand right now. So there is no problem vis-a-vis the demand. The bottleneck until we had done the QIP was the funds. Fortunately, we have that now. So demand as of now is not a challenge. As you must have noticed in the call when we mentioned, so we are a sovereign cloud of the country. Ashok Cloud is a sovereign cloud and today sovereign cloud has a very niche demand for itself. And this demand is only growing, sir. And with the laws coming in place as we know that data protection act, we are all talking about data protection and other acts -- other laws and all which are going to be coming in and rightly so. All major countries today have their data protection act and all and very soon, India will also have it. So these things will only multiply, sir. So we have enough demand. Demand we do not see as a challenge at all. And today, we have a lot of e-commerce companies and all which are coming to us, which we are already there, sir. We are cost effective also, sir. We are today compared to the market, we are almost at 50% cost and even then our margins are pretty good. So we are on track, sir.

The next question is from the line of Ashwani Sharma from MK Global.

Congratulations for a great set of numbers. Just a bookkeeping question before I jump on other questions. So what was the absolute EBITDA and PAT from data center for Q2 and H1?

So EBITDA is for H1 is 75%, and PAT is 43.23%.

43%. Okay. So this one for H1, right?

Yes.

Okay. Also, if you can help me with the kind of occupancy rate for colo and cloud, both for H1?

So sir, in H1, we have given 8-megawatt of colocation, completely handover. Rest is on handing over process. And in cloud, it is around 70%.

So you said colo is 80% and cloud is 70%. Am I right?

No, sir, Colo is 8 megawatts, which is fully handed over, and cloud is 0.5 megawatt, which is fully handed over. That is the number which we are now -- which include the revenues which we have achieved.

Okay Perfectly fine. Also, sir, lastly, if you can just talk about what is the mix in terms of clients as of now, private and public. So initially, we had three clients, RailTel, TCIL and CEC and you have added one more, which is a private client. Is there any addition to that? Or...

There is a lot of addition in clients, sir, but we are sorry, we cannot disclose the name of the clients as there is a NDA and all which are in place. But the mix, if you see, as of now, vis-a-vis the co-location, we are about 75% government and 25% private. And in cloud, we are 50-50.

Okay, okay. And just one more question. Sir, what is the current capital employed in the data center business as of now?

As of now, in this half at 187, we have added.

INR 187 crores we have added in the -- and that takes to us to how much?

Sorry. It takes it to about INR 700 crores.

The next question is from the line of Mr. Abhishek from Motilal Oswal.

So just one question. We have heard about the taxation benefit on DC business, right? And I just want to understand how is it accretive to colocation as well as cloud business? And any change in CapEx strategy, I mean, pertaining to that?

It's a very welcome step in. It's going to be really encouraging, and it is applicable to both, sir, colocation as well as cloud. So as and when it comes, we are very hopeful that it is going to come because this is an initiative which the government has taken on its own. This is really encouraging for the data center segment in the country. And as it is the segment really has to grow. So this is really encouraging. And to answer your specific question, we have both key aspects, colocation as well as cloud because they are both directly data centers is covered.

Okay. So basically, we are not changing that 75-25 mix of colocation to cloud strategy -- CapEx strategy.

Abhi, as of now, let's grow with this. And tomorrow, once the colocation is already there, and we see enough demand and touchwood, the cash flows from next year will really start improving and contributing. So we can always increase the cloud part. And as it is, there is very good demand, sir. So as of now, we maintain this ratio, sir, but this ratio actually cloud can really -- can also increase -- will increase in fact.

So currently, basically, it is just proposed, not in the cloud?

So proposed is -- that is how it is getting implemented also. If you really see Abhi, 28 -- 4 is going to be cloud, 24 is colocation, then 63, 14 is cloud, balances colocation. So this is how it's going. But once you have the colocation in place, sir, you can always convert your colocation and take it to cloud.

So I'm just talking about the taxation part, which is just proposed not in effect right now.

This is something which the government initiated and that's -- we all read about it. And this was a statement made by the government that they are thinking on these lines. Let's hope and this is not -- if the government is saying it, they will definitely do it so.

The next question is from the line of Mr. Harsh from Emkay Global.

Sir, my question is on the real estate front. So it's encouraging to see that we have moved very ahead in terms of approvals. We have received RERA for the estate flows and group housing, we are in advanced stage. Since all these three will be coming in the same quarter, how do we -- how are we ensuring that there is no cannibalization, or we differentiating with the products? And if you can throw some light on that, please?

We have informed that we'll be doing three projects. One is the independent floor for which we already done the RERA. One group housing for which we have already advanced set of approvals, which we are planning to launch. And the third project for which we'll have received substantial approvals by quarter 4. But we don't have a plan to launch all project to -- for which RERA we have received, we have plan to launch that and then followed by a group housing. So in this financial year, we have a plan to launch only the two projects. One is an independent floor, one is in the group housing. Both has a different segment, different market and different kind of a buyer. So it will not cannibalize each other.

Sure. And the third one will be coming up in the next financial year, around the first half, are we targeting?

Yes, that's right.

Okay. And my next question is on the hospitality asset. So the 7 lakh square feet, this is the Stella Resorts, right?

No. So we have a property called Belmonte. That's in the South Delhi.

Okay. So this is Belmonte. And what's the update on Stellar Resort, sir?

The Stellar Resort as of now is eligible for approval of about 7.5 lakh square feet. As of now, it is up and running. In fact, it's not no longer Stellar, it's a different chain. So that's all right. We are getting, in fact, more rent than what we were getting from the previous person. So right now, the land is fully -- it is freehold land. It is fully owned by the company. And as of now, our focus is on the project and the 63A and the data center. And as and when we want, we are going to take up Stellar. It is eligible for 7.5 million square feet. And it's going to be, again, a mix of commercial, hotel and service apartments. But as of now, the work is going on in the Meli project.

Got it, sir. And in this Belmonte, the completion target is 2028, right?

Yes. The first phase will be done by 2028, sir.

The next question is from the line of Mr. Pratik from DAM Capital.

Sir, the first question is largely on my empanelment of cloud service providers. Are we looking to do that? And if yes, how does it work? How long does it take to get empaneled with...

Mr. Ashim saying, we are actually almost done, almost there, but he'll just clarify, Ashim. So we've already applied for the mighty empanelment, sir. And the last phase of audit has also completed successfully. We expect to get the approval within November, within this month only. So we'll be empaneled as a Miti-approved cloud service provider.

Great. Great. And sir, this 22 megawatts that we have added now, how soon can we start receiving rentals? Now I guess that we have already started getting rentals for 2 megawatts, which you have handed over because now 8 megawatts is totally handed. So for the rest of the capacity, a quarter more...

Some will come in the Q3 and all of it will come in the Q4. It's in the handing over stage.

Okay. So the revenues of all 28 megawatts will come in Q4. Is that what...

Definitely, sir. Yes, sir. The handing over will be completed within Q3, and you will see the full revenue potential coming in realizing in Q4.

Understood. And sir, for your Rai project where you have a significant greenfield opportunity, are we looking at build-to-suit data centers as well? Any talks which we are having on that front or too early for that?

Prateek, initially, we are focusing on the 100 megawatts for which the building is already ready. The centering work has already started. And in the 63, 20 is going to be coming in Rai. So next time when we do a Soil to Server or Bharat Built, we are going to showcase Rai also. And that is going to be 20, sir, to start with. And then that 100 will be built -- is already there, which will get operational. And the balance 100 is going to be build-to-suit. But that we will -- the build-to-suit work, we will start in '28, 2028.

Two more bookkeeping questions, I'll join in the queue.

The next question is from the line of Mr. Vignesh Iyer from Sequent Investments.

Sir, I remember reading the press release where we targeted around INR 1,200 crores of revenue by FY '27 in data center. Is it correct to assume that this is from the mix of 36-megawatt cloud and 81-megawatt colocation, right?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir, definitely. We are on track, sir. We are fully on track.

Right. So I mean it would be 117 megawatts out of which we are expecting to generate a revenue of INR 1,200 crores, right?

No, sir. This will be 63 megawatts. Once we achieve 63 sir, which is by December '26, [Foreign Language] and that is when we'll start achieving this, sir.

Okay. So this is from 63.

This projection is from 63.

Right. Got it. And I wanted to understand, sir, could you give any guidance for FY '26 when it comes to sales and PAT.

The future numbers -- as you know, sir, future numbers, we cannot give like this. But we are fully on track, sir. You can see the past record, sir, whatever the company has discussed has always delivered, sir.

The next question is from the line of Mr. Manan from Wolford PMS.

So my question was that I was looking at your Q2 FY '25 report. And in that, sir, you have written that our full 307 megawatts would come in the next 4, 5 years. So that would be around 2030. But in current...

2032, sir.

Yes. So that's what I'm trying to ask you. So Q2 FY '25 report when I had seen, so that time it was next 5 years. So I'm assuming [Foreign Language] that is 2030. But now we are seeing that in current reports, you are saying that by 2032. So what would be the factor which is delaying it by the next 2 years, taking it to 2032?

It is not actually a delay, sir. It's not actually a delay. We are actually fully on track. It was always -- okay, we said maybe 5 years. It is -- if you really see it is 5 to 6 years, when we say 2032, is financial year '31, '32. So that is when we will be fully operational with 307, sir. So frankly, that is what was from day 1, that is what we had in mind. Maybe we said 5 to 6 years, but that is what we meant, sir. Financial year '31, '32, we will be able to unlock 307.

The next question is from the line of Mr. Gaurav Agarwal from VA Capital.

Sir, I'm very disappointed that you have not kept any con calls in the last 3 to 4 quarters because I was very looking forward to the information in the last couple of quarters, there has been no con call.

Gaurav ji, we can -- we will just -- but we -- you are based out of Mumbai, sir? Sir, two earnings meetings. We did two earning meetings, and we had almost about 90 to 100 people in each meeting. But yes, we guess the con call has a far more reach. So we will definitely do it every two quarters, sir. We've been interacting regularly, sir. If you see, you will be -- you will see the notifications which we had made regarding the earning meetings which we did. So for the past 2 quarters, we've been doing earnings meetings rather than calls. But we will -- every 2 quarters, we will continue to do our meetings, but we will also do a call every 2 quarters, sir.

Okay. And the guidance you've just given for the last quarter from data centers, you have said that the remaining 20 megawatts will also be priced -- will come in the revenue. So that means that you're expecting INR 75 crores of revenue from data centers in the last quarter?

Yes, sir. Maybe -- so we can't give future projections, as you know, but we are fully on track, sir. And this 28 we had showcased to everyone when we do with the Technology Day on the 1st and 2nd of August. And now it is in the handing over stage. It will -- the handing over will be completed by this quarter, sir, and the complete revenue will get captured in Q4.

So the revenue -- the rental income per megawatt from data center is still at INR 90 lakhs.

Is about -- [Foreign Language], it is almost -- if you see it is close to about INR 90 lakhs per month per megawatt for colocation. And it is now -- it will get fully captured in Q4, sir.

Okay. And the margins, I believe in earlier calls, I think someone has said that it is INR 75 lakhs of savings on a INR 90 lakh rental income, approximately 80% EBITDA margin, but now...

It's 75%...

I think 75% to 80% is it.

To be exact, 75% [Foreign Language].

The next question is from the line of Mr. Hardik from HPMG Shares and Securities Limited.

So just two, three questions from my end. First on the real estate side, when we last spoke, we were discussing whether the circle rates will be revised by the Delhi government. So what is an update on that?

Sir, circle rate with Delhi as of now -- Mr. Manoj will answer that.

Can you repeat your question because you are not clear.

Yes. So I was asking regarding the circle rates in Delhi, where we mentioned that the real estate prices might go up because of the revised circle rates in Delhi and the government was planning to implement the new rates, but they were still in the planning stage. So is there any significant update on that?

See, the revision in the circular rate is a routine process by the government. They keep aligning the market value versus the notified rates in case there is a major deviation happening between the real market price and the government notified rate. It does not impact the pricing of the real estate at all. In fact, if there is a balance between the circle rate and the prices of the properties sold, it's always better for the people and for the organized market who do an organized real estate development. So I don't see there is an impact on the pricing because of the change in the circle rate.

Sir, for organized players, there should not be an impact, sir. [Foreign Language] as you know, our focus is Haryana and data center business. So we are good. But actually, organized players never get affected with these things, sir.

Understood. Understood. And sir, then coming on the data center business part of it. Sir, right now, we are nearly debt-free, right? We don't have any significant debt. And we are debt free. And we are seeing such a big traction in our data center business. All the multinational companies are planning to open up data centers. So do you feel it is the right time for us to get aggressive, take some debt on our books, ramp up the -- I know we've already raised some funds in the recent QIP, but to capture the market at the right time as well as get the capacities ready early, wouldn't that be a proactive approach?

Harsh, we are on track, sir. see, there is no limit to how much one can do. But with our plans, we are fully on track, and we are capturing the market in the right way. If you really see, sir, we started with colocation, and we got such fantastic response on colocation, and this is thanks to the products which we delivered, which we showcased also and which is one of the best in the world. So once we did that, then we got a chance to come into the cloud business also, which is not very long ago. We started our Ashok Cloud in October '24, sir. And we got very good response and now we are multiplying that. So we are on track, sir, and we don't see that we need to take debt. And as it is, we feel that our backbone is still real estate, which will always be. And we feel that real estate should be as low on debt as possible, sir. And we are comfortable, sir. We are not missing any opportunity because of that.

Understood, sir. And when are we planning to launch the other products related to cloud? I think so we did it. We spoke about SaaS, PaaS and services related to...

Ashim will answer that. Ashim is here. He will just answer that.

Basically, sir, we started with Infrastructure as a Service for our cloud services. And gradually, we are increasing the number of services. In fact, we've already moved on and started offering a few services which qualify as Platform as a Services also, be it containerized services and all, we've already started offering these to our customers.

So have we factored that in the revenue projections, which we mentioned like in the future numbers or we are not including them at all for now?

So that is not included. So that only increase the revenue.