KEI Industries hosted a conference call on May 3, 2024. In the conference call the company was represented by Anil Gupta, CMD and Rajeev Gupta, ED Finance & CFO.

Key takeaways of the call

Of the Q4FY24 overall sales the contribution of B2C Sales (sales through Dealer/ Distribution)   was approx. 45.53% (46.52% in Q4FY23) and that of institutional Cables sales was 44.62% (46.85% in Q4FY23). 

Domestic Institutional Wire and cable sale in Q4FY24 is Rs 676 crore (as against Rs 692 crore in PY). Domestic Institutional EHV cable sale in Q4FY24 stood at Rs 220 crore (against Rs 99 crore in Q4FY23). 

Pending order book as end of Mar 31, 2024 was approx. Rs 3531 Crore [EPC orders Rs 771 crore, EHV Cables Rs 374 crore; Cables domestic Rs 1865 crore; Exports Rs 521 crore].

Expect a revenue growth of 17% for FY25.  EBITDA margin for current fiscal will be maintained at about 11% and NP Margin is about 7.28%.  

Capex incurred in FY24 was about Rs 397 crore [including Rs 84 crore in Chinchpada in Silvasa, Rs 51 crore in Pathredi in Rajasthan and Rs 197 crore in Greenfield plant at Sanad, Rs 9 crore towards land in Khera Gujarat and Rs 56 crore on other existing plants].

The company will continue to incur capex on brownfield capacity expansion in FY25. The company will be spending a capex of about Rs 65 crore in next 1-2 months in Chinchpada for brownfield expansion of wires & cables.  Similarly LT/HW capacity at Pathredi will be enhanced at an outlay of Rs 125 crore and the company expect to incur balance Rs 74 crore of capex in next 3-4 months. The Pathredi brownfield expanded capacity will be commissioned by end of Jun 2024.  

Gujarat Greenfield manufacturing plant for LT, HT and EHV cables - The construction is already started and the commercial production will commence by Q1FY25-26.  Of the total capex outlay of about Rs 900-1000 crore for Greenfield plant over next 3-4 years, about Rs 500-600 crore will be during the next fiscal.     Capacity utilization for Cables was 92%; House Wire 71% and Industry Wires 90%. 

Completion of ongoing brownfield capacity expansion will facilitate 17% growth for FY25 and FY26.  With completion of current round of capex and commissioning of new capacities, the company expects to add another 100-150 basis points addition in EBITDA margin and that will happen in FY-28. 

Company specific approval was obtained are in the process of obtained for several countries.  Selling only cables in USA and not wires.

Added EV charging cables to the product portfolio during FY24 and the commercial production has already started.

Will be maintaining EPC orders (other than supply of cables to EPC projects) to 5-6% of total sales and that will be maintained going forward as well. But the company will be capitalizing on power sector EPC boom with supply of cables rather taking up direct EPC orders.

Volume growth in FY24 stood at about 24%. 

Total borrowings as end of March 31, 2024 was Rs 134 crore including Channel finance of Rs 97 crore