Renew Energy Global PLC (RNW) 2027 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Renew Power Renews 1Q FY27 earnings report.

(Operator Instructions)

I would now like to hand the conference over to Anunay Shahi. Thank you, and over to you.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We have put out a press release announcing our results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. A copy of the press release and the earnings presentation are available in the IR section of Renew's website at www.renew.com.

With me today are Sumant Sinha, our Founder, Chairman and CEO; Kailash Vaswani, our CFO; and Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Co-Founder and Chairperson, Sustainability.

After the prepared remarks, which we expect will take 20 to 25 minutes, we will open the call for questions. Please note that our safe harbor statements are contained within our press release, presentation materials and materials available on our website. These statements are important and integral to all our remarks. There are risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Therefore, we encourage you to review the press release and the presentation on our website for a more complete description. Also contained in our press release, presentation materials and annual report are certain non-IFRS measures that we reconcile to the most comparable IFRS measures and these reconciliations are also available on our website in the press release, presentation materials and our annual report.

With that, it is now my pleasure to hand it over to our Founder, Chairman and CEO, Sumanth. Over to you, Sumanth.

Yes, thank you, Anunay. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everybody. And I'm glad to have you all on our earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal year ended March 2027. After the terrific fiscal 2026, where we reported our highest ever EBITDA and PAT, we continue to deliver on our promise of profitable growth in spite of the uncertain global macroeconomic situation and good-related challenges in India. We also continue to be disciplined in our approach towards judicious use of capital and allocating capital only towards the highest return opportunities.

Turning to highlights for this quarter, our focus towards executing at scale continues as we delivered a 26% growth in our operating portfolio year over year. We have commissioned over 1 gigawatt to date in the current fiscal, which includes over 600 megawatts in Q1 itself.

Our overall committed portfolio now stands at 20.5 gigawatts and includes 1.7 gigawatts of BES and our total pipeline is at approximately 27 gigawatts. We also continue to execute our capital recycling plans. In June 2026, we closed the sale of a 100 megawatt Tamil Nadu solar asset and received the proceeds.

In August 2026, we also signed definitive documents for the sale of about 1 gigawatt of assets, which is expected to generate $190 million of cash flow to equity on closing. These transactions underline the quality of our asset base and our ability to continuously find buyers and attractive valuations.

Additionally, we have 6.5 gigawatts of module and 2.5 gigawatt of cell capacity that is currently operational and a 4 gigawatt cell facility of TOPCON that is expected to be fully operational by the end of the current fiscal year.

We have also filed our Form 20-F for FY26 and published our third integrated report with the team Beyond Boundaries, Decarbonizing Value Chains to Deliver Climate Value at Scale in line with international reporting standards.

Coming to our financial performance in this quarter, we have delivered adjusted EBITDA growth of around 12% with INR30.4 billion adjusted EBITDA, including INR5.7 billion contribution from our manufacturing business.

Our profit after tax increased by 16% year over year with INR6 billion for Q1 of fiscal 2027, along with INR12.8 billion in CFE. Our DSO continues to reduce as we expand our portfolio and legacy issues continue to get resolved. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, we received INR57 billion from the Andhra Pradesh Discom taking our DSOs as of July end to 54 days, 17 days lower than the Q1 FY27 DSO number of 71 days.

Let me now hand over to Kailash to take us to the next seven pages.

Thank you, Sumant. Before turning to our operating performance, I would like to briefly address the Take Private transaction announced on August 7, 2026. Renew entered into a binding transaction agreement with the consortium comprising of CPPIB and Sumanth Sinha for the proposed Take Private of Renew.

The proposed acquisition is expected to be effected through a UK scheme of arrangement and will be voted on by the non-consortium shareholders. Non-consortium shareholders may either receive cash of $7.02 per share by transferring their shares to CPPIB Investments or of designated affiliates or, subject to certain conditions, elect to rollover and remain shareholders.

The Special Committee, comprising of independent directors having received Rothschild and Co's opinion that the cash offer is fair from a financial point of view to the non-consortium shareholders considers the cash offer and transaction agreement fair and reasonable and intends to unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the scheme. Further details on the scheme's timing will follow in due course.

Turning back to the presentation on slide 13 on the industry backdrop. The electricity demand in Greece continues to support renewable energy growth. Renewables contributed 86% of overall power capacity addition in Q1 FY27 with 14 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity added. This included 12 gigawatt of solar and 1 gigawatt of wind and hydro each.

Coming to the demand side, peak demand has already touched around 271 gigawatt in FY '27. Overall electricity demand in July 2026 was up 11% year-on-year and was up 9% year-on-year for April to June period. Demand is also increasing more in non-solar hours, which supports higher battery installations.

Installed renewable energy capacity including large hydro stood at 289 gigawatt as of June 30, 2026. This includes 162 gigawatt of solar and 57 gigawatt of wind. We believe this reinforces the continued structural growth of renewable energy in India. Additionally, Q1 also saw strong industrial production growth numbers, fueled by higher demand in all sectors of the industry. In fact, the overall index of industrial production grew by about 7.3% in June.

The rupee appreciated slightly versus the US dollar as the government's foreign currency non-resident scheme, which is the FCNR scheme, produced over $52 billion of fresh inflows. Having said all of the above, grid buildout continues to be a drag on the entire industry, with certain projects, including ours, particularly in the state of Rajasthan, having temporary connectivity facing curtailment challenges. We are hopeful that coupled with build-out of certain lines in Rajasthan, some central government support, these issues will get resolved over the next few months.

Turning to business updates on slide 14. On project execution and our delivery remains stierest and on track. We have already delivered over 1 gigawatt of commissioned megawatts during the year and are on track to deliver the projects that are due to be commissioned during the year.

For solar, in addition to the megawatt commission so far, more than 250 megawatt has been erected and is in final stages of commissioning. More than 50% of the modules required for the balance execution in rest of FY27 are already at site, with the balance secured to in-house production. Silver pricing exposure is also hedged for fiscal '27 for best.

100% of pricing is locked in at attractive rates, and about 25% has already reached project sites. Or wind, 100% of wind turbines required for the year are locked in within budgeted levels. Land is also largely tied up or acquired for the execution requirements of the next 12 months.

Turning to updates from our C&I business on slide 15, we are very excited by and continue to expand our C&I footprint across India. Our C&I portfolio currently stands at 2.9 gigawatt, including 2.6 gigawatt of commission capacity over five states. And we commissioned 330 megawatt year-to-date in the C&I segment.

We are also well placed to participate in new business opportunities such as supply to data centers. Our business is concentrated on larger projects, and we have excellent relationship with technology companies and hyperscalers. For example, Amazon, Microsoft and Google collectively account for around half of the contracted offtake in our C&I business. As you may also recall, a Leapfrog Red consortium has invested $95 million of equity in our C&I business for 11.3% stake.

Turning to our manufacturing business on slide 16. In manufacturing, we have one of the highest integrated capacities in India. Our manufacturing business has continued its profitable journey in the current fiscal year as well, with an external order book standing at approximately 1.1 gigawatt. Do note that we sell around 40% to 60% to our IPP business at announcement pricing, which doesn't get reflected in our overall financials because we consolidate them.

In Q1 FY27, revenue from external sales of modules and sales was INR16.4 billion and the adjusted EBITDA from external sales was INR5.7 billion, with the adjusted EBITDA margin standing at almost 34%. We expect that there may be some normalization in the latter half of the year as additional sale capacity comes online.

On the 4-gigawatt top-pound cell plant, civil and PSV works are in final stages, ATP and cleanroom work are progressing well, printing lines are installed, and the first cell is expected to be produced by the end of the current calendar year. We are also progressing well on the England wafer plant in the state of Andhra Pradesh that's expected to be commissioned in early calendar '28.

Turning to page 18. Our Q1 results reflect strong operating execution, continued growth in earnings and disciplined capital allocation. As of June 30, '26, our total portfolio was approximately 20.5 gigawatt, including 1.7 gigawatt of BES. Operating capacity stood at 13.5 gigawatt, which is up 26% year-on-year adjusted for asset sales and 22% on a net basis.

This comprises 5.6 gigawatt of wind, 7.8 gigawatt of solar, 99 megawatt of hydro and 100 megawatt or 250 megawatt hour of BES. We also had 6.9 gigawatt of committed capacity, including 1.1 gigawatt of wind, 4.2 gigawatt of solar and 1.6 gigawatt of BES.

During the trading 12 months, we have commissioned approximately 2.8 gigawatts comprising more than 2 gigawatt of solar, 6 gigawatt of wind and 25 megawatt of BES. In FY27 year-to-date, we have commissioned 1 gigawatt of capacity between wind and solar.

On consolidated operating performance, revenue was up 14% year-on-year, adjusted EBITDA was up 12% year-on-year, and profit after tax was up 16% year-on-year. For Q1 FY27, total income was INR47.9 billion, revenue was INR44.6 billion, and EBITDA was INR30.4 billion, and profit before tax was almost around INR8.3 billion. Total adjusted income was INR46 billion, comprising of INR29 billion from IPP business and INR16.6 billion from external manufacturing sales.

Adjusted EBITDA was INR30 billion, including INR24.7 billion from the IPP business and INR5.7 billion from external manufacturing sales. Adjusted EBITDA margins for the IPP business were 86%, for manufacturing was 34%, and the margin was 66.1% on a consolidated basis.

Turning to page 19, we remain disciplined in capital allocation with net debt trading 12 months adjusted EBITDA for operational projects at 5.7 times. The leverage levels for projects operational for more than a year, that's with full year EBITDA contribution is further lower. We continue to be committed to reducing our overall leverage and to this end, we have been executing consistently on capital recycling with a portion of such proceeds expected to reduce our overall leverage.

For example, we recently signed definitive agreements to sell more than a gigawatt of capacity, and this is expected to result in $190 million of cash inflows on closing, including some contingent amounts related to change in law proceeds.

On working capital, IPP, the basis outstanding were at 71 days as of June 30, ['26], which was a three-year improvement year-on-year and a 12-year improvement over two years. Further, subsequent to the end of the quarter, as Sumant mentioned earlier, we received INR5.7 billion from Andhra Pradesh in July 2026. As a result of this, the end of July, the DSO improved to around 54 days. Manufacturing DSO stands at around five days. Balance sheet remains robust and well supported.

Cash and cash equivalents, including bank balances and investments and short-term investments, stood at INR89 billion as of 30 June 2026. Gross debt was INR786 billion and net debt was around INR671 billion as of the same date.

I will now hand over the call to Vishwali for ESG and sustainability updates.

Thanks, Kailash. Now turning to slide 21. As Renew continues to achieve new milestones in growth and impact, we take immense pride in the fact that sustainability remains at the core of our business and value creation model. With this, I am pleased to present to you our third annual integrated report for fiscal year 2025, '26 called Beyond Boundaries Decarbonization Value Chains to Deliver Climate Value at Scale.

Reflecting the evolution of our sustainability journey and leadership in the energy transition space, this report expands our focus beyond our operations to the broader value chain. It demonstrates how Renew is scaling climate value through transparency, accountability, and collective action.

Let me begin with some key highlights from our environmental performance. We reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by 25.6% from our baseline, achieved an 84% renewable electricity mix, and maintained carbon neutrality for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions for the sixth consecutive year. We continue to create meaningful value for communities, employees, and our partners.

Our socioeconomic programs have positively impacted more than 1.95% million lives so far. Women now represent 18% of our workforce and 15% of STEM roles. We completed ESG risk assessments from 400% of our critical suppliers for the third consecutive year and expanded the scope to include Tier 2 suppliers as well. Further strengthening our sustainable supply chain, we achieved 100% local sourcing of steel for wind tower plates.

Turning to governance, our board maintained 55% independent representation. We further strengthened our enterprise risk management framework through an independent assessment and continued embedding accountability by establishing 27 organization-wide and 8 manufacturing-specific ESG targets.

Now moving to slide 22, our third integrated report reflects another year of steady progress with several enhancements that strengthen transparency and align more closely with global standards. We transitioned to a hybrid reporting structure, combining pillars and capitals to deliver a more integrated sustainability narrative aligned with leading global standards.

We completed a refresh of our double materiality assessment, reprioritizing material. Topics to reflect evolving stakeholder and business priorities. We published our inaugural ESG data book, creating a consolidated and more transparent view of ESG performance across business units. We expanded our emissions accountability by including downstream Scope 3 emissions, reflecting the growth of our solar module and cell manufacturing operations. Together, these enhancements reflect a commitment to continuous improvement, transparency, and reporting excellence.

Now moving to slide 23, our ESG targets continue to translate ambition into measurable outcomes, keeping us firmly on track towards our 2030 and.

Let me start with an environment that our focus on climate action continues to deliver tangible results. We achieved a 25.6 reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions versus fiscal year '22 baseline, exceeding our target and advancing our SPTI-aligned net-zero pathways. We delivered over 617,000 cubic meters of water savings in fiscal year 2,526 with over 5,000 cubic meters of water saved through robotic cleaning.

Our commitment to people and communities remains unwavering as you continue to invest in talent, inclusion, and sustainable community development through Project Surya, which we talked about earlier, we continue to build green skills with 166 women trained as technicians in quarter one alone and additional cohorts progressing through advanced training programs.

Our commitment to excellence continues to be reflected in strong external recognition and performance. We closed the year with industry-leading scores across major ESG ratings and indices, including an S&P Global CSA score of 84, a CDP A-list status for climate change and supply engagement, a AAA for MSCI, and a Sustainalytics low risk score, which is a favorable score of 11.6.

While we remain proud of these achievements, we continue to recognize that the journey is important. As we look ahead, we remain focused on building on this momentum, advancing our key commitments, and continuing to embed sustainability as the core of our business.

I will now turn it back to Kailash to take us through the guidance.

Thank you, Vaishali. Turning on turning to guidance on page 24, we reiterate FY27 consolidated adjusted EBITDA guidance of INR103 billion to INR109 billion. This includes, INR10 billion to INR12 billion for manufacturing and INR1 billion to INR2 billion from asset sales. We continue to expect to construct between 1.6 to 2.4 gigawatt during FY27 and generate cash flow to equity of INR18 billion to 22 billion.

For our total committed RE portfolio, which has marginally increased in the current quarter, we expect run rate adjusted EBITDA of INR134 billion to INR140 billion and run rate cash flow to equity of INR30 billion to INR36 billion, assuming normal weather patterns and excluding contribution from our manufacturing business for a fully constructed RE portfolio of around 20.5 gigawatt, which includes 1.7 gigawatt of BES.

Please note that this includes the 1 gigawatt of assets sold, which we have signed definitive agreement for, but closing has not yet happened. So once the closing happens, then we will adjust these numbers for that.

With that, we will be happy to take any questions.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

Justin Clare, Roth Capital Partners.

Hi, thanks for the time. I wanted to start out just on the take private transaction. Wondering if you could give us a sense for the expected timeline from here to completion of the take private. And then just what do you see as the key remaining milestones and if you could share which approvals or conditions might present the most meaningful uncertainty in terms of the timing?

Thanks, Justin, for your question. Yeah. Thanks, Justin, for your question. As per the transaction agreement, we would anticipate the scheme becoming effective in Q1 2027. The scheme document will be published as soon as reasonably practicable after we've completed the SEC review process and within 10 business days following the date on which the court grants the order for convening of the court meeting.

Scheme documents are typically published four weeks ahead of the court meeting date. And then there are some regulatory approvals which will be sought in parallel with the actions above, and that would also take around three to four months to obtain. So the long stop date, the transaction is, the completion, which is 95 days of the publication of the scheme circular or 31st March 2027.

We must stress that this is not a guidance. As soon we are not able to give the exact timelines for the regulatory, but this is probably the indicative of the end of, what the process from here is unlikely to be.

Got it, okay, that's helpful. And then maybe just shifting over to the performance in the quarter, the solar PLF in your fiscal Q1 declined, I think it was 220 basis points year over year. Just wondering how much of that decline may have been attributable to just the solar resource during the quarter versus any grid curtailment? And then if curtailment was a factor, is it an issue that might persist into Q2 or any additional quarters here?

So we have just been facing curtailment on the solar side. So that has definitely contributed, reasonable amount of, to the, decline in the PLF. And this is again something that, the impact that we are seeing, but we are also trying to see, if to advocacy we can get compensated for the, non-availability of transmission network. So that is something that we will pursue.

And then obviously then weather related, there's been some additional impact also that we saw given that there were more cloudy days compared to last year and that also contributed. I would say the split between the two would be maybe half and half between containment and weather patterns.

Got it. Okay. And then just one more on the guidance here. So manufacturing contribution was pretty strong in Q1 here, so INR5.65 billion compared to the guidance for the full year for manufacturing of INR10 billion to INR12 billion. So it implies a meaningful step down in the contribution and the balance of the year on a quarterly basis. Wondering if that's just conservative or are you anticipating a meaningful step down in the profitability there?

I mean, we're not expecting a meaningful step down, but margins have been coming down a little bit and there were extensions also which were granted as far as implementing ALM-1 sales was concerned, which happened after the completion of quarter one. So there is a little bit of uncertainty in the market at this point in time with respect to margins and given that there is a different production capacity also, which is coming online, so as a combination of these factors, I mean, we just tend to on the side of caution and not really change the guidance numbers, and obviously, as we see a stronger performance continuing into next quarter, then we could look to.

Take a relook at the numbers again when we announce Q2 results. As far as margins are concerned, so last year Q1 was at 40%, this year at 34%. So there has been some contraction which you have seen already in the margins playing out. And then as more supply comes in, that is likely to continue a little bit also. So we will have to see how the trends play out in the backdrop of this ALMM for sales extension till 30th to 31st December.

Got it. Okay. Thank you very much.

[Puneet Pilati, HSBC].

Yeah, thank you so much and congrats on performance. My first question is on, your comment on compensation with respect to curtailment. Is there a score for confusion whether you should get compensated or not after it was straightforward draft down versus CGNA? If you can clarify it again.

Yeah, I'm happy to... Sorry, you want to do that? No, I was only saying that for track down curtailment we get compensated as you know. For any other PG&A curtailment, there is no specific mechanism to get compensated. Having said that, we are having discussions with MOP right now about whether something can be made to work.

Those discussions are ongoing, so they haven't come to any form of conclusion right now. So one can't say what form, if any, those that compensation will take. We're certainly trying because the agreement is happening to no fault of ours, and that's the point that we made and acknowledged, and it's acknowledged by the government as well.

But we'll have to wait and see where those discussions end up at. I don't think we can get. No, there's no confusion. Yeah, but there's also a much smaller number. It's a much smaller number compared to the that is happening.

Secondly, what are your thoughts on the bed side? How much is installed capacity today? And is there a plan to build something on the merchant side?

We have maybe a couple of 100 megawatt hours right now that I commissioned. Building long-term merchant best is a little bit difficult because you don't know how things are going to evolve in the market over a five to seven-year time period, which is the minimum required to figure out what the return should be.

But what we are going to be doing is that in some of the projects that we are doing to the extent that we require, those projects are getting commissioned, let's say two years or three years from now, some of those best projects will commission earlier. Run them as merchant plans for a shorter period of time because we know that in the near term, perhaps in the next one to two years, there is likely to be a reasonable arbitrage between daytime and using prices. And so we hope to create that value over a one-to-year period and then look to drop those best projects into existing PTAs that we have. As those get commissioned, then we move these best projects into those.

Is there a target for this commissioning for fiscal '27 or '28?

We haven't specified a target. This year, it's looking unlikely because obviously this year, we haven't, we are not at a point where we'll be able to commission anything for this year. But certainly for by next year, we are hoping the commission term out. But, once those plans get finalized, we'll let you guys know.

That's very helpful. And lastly, if I may, on your recent sale of [$1,000], can you talk about what sort of EBITDA multiple you managed to get from that?

So, Puneet, on that, we are, once the closing happens, we will agree with, the buyer vault disclosure we would like to jointly make. And then speak about it. I know we're under NDA.

Understood. And just one more, there was also a chatter about you trying to sell hydro plant. Is that something one should think about as a potential saleable asset as well?

So, again, as part of our assets, if I can, we do evaluate sales of various assets. So, it could be part of, such discussions that you may have heard about it.

Okay. That's optimized. Thank you so much and all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

There are no further questions at this time. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Thank you.