KSB hosted an Investor meet on 28th February, 2025 and in the meet the company was represented by Rajeev Jain, Managing Director; Mahesh Bhave, Chief Financial Officer and Shraddha Kavathekar, Company Secretary.

Key takeaways of the meet

Products of the company finds application in the fields of energy, building services, general industry, petrochemical and chemicals, mining, and water.

In CY24 the share of standard business increased to 51% (up from 44% in CY23) and that of Engineered stood at 16% (down from 23% in CY23), SupremeServ (this includes the Spare Part business and service) was 14% (down from 15% in CY23) and Valves at 19% (up from 18% in CY23).

Order intake (with nuclear) in CY24 is Rs 2703.5 crore (a CAGR of 19% over 2020) up from Rs 2446.4 crore in CY23. 

Order on hand (domestic +exports) as end of Dec 2024 stood at Rs 2250.3 crore of which nuclear orders is Rs 1282.8 crore and other orders (OOH excluding nuclear) was Rs 967.5 crore.  In Dec 2023 end OOH (total) was Rs 2144.2 crore [nuclear OOH was Rs 968.7 crore; others Rs 1175.5 crore].

The order on hand for the non-nuclear has come down primarily due to a bit of slowdown last year and good sales last year.

Solar Business - Sales and order intake of solar business is very steadily growing with the company putting up a dedicated solar organization and installation teams. As an integrator it supplies complete pump and the accessories including the PV panels.  It has installed 5000 plus systems so far. Pump sets only make 15% to 20% of the whole value of a solar order. The company got MNRE approvals for our solar products and it has successfully qualified for MNRE tender under PM-Kusum scheme. Already received 7,000 plus system order from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, and Rajasthan, and recently qualified in three states that are Meghalaya, Tripura, and Madhya Pradesh.  Order intake of solar business in CY24 was Rs 198.9 crore up (from Rs 89.3 crore in CY23) and the sales went up to Rs 183.1 crore (up from Rs 63.5 crore in CY23).  

Valves Business: Valve market in the country is bigger than pump market and has lot of players. The share of the company is not big enough. CAGR of 22 % Order In -take and 21% on Sales over the last 5 years starting CY2020.  And with the products it have developed along with the capacity, internally efficiency and success with the OEMs & dealers, it have been able to grow this business continuously. Reached No.1 Position in GGC Domestic Valves in 2022. In valves it has introduced/launched compact ball valve for MEA market. It also added  new Ecoline Steam Traps for steam systems, low emission valves for low temperature applications and 2 inch full bore forged.   The company with its product range with maintaining of its good sales/dealer  network is confident of sustaining strong growth in valves business. 

Mechanical Seal Business Update – Order intake in value in CY24 was Rs 22.3 crore (up from Rs 16.7 crore in CY23). About 92% of Component seals are localized  leading to 90% reduction in imports.

The project business of the company is more focused on energy site and refinery and petrochemical. Not much present in the Water segment including irrigation in the project site. 

Wastewater is one of target growth market, where the company is adding products along with increasing the localization. It has come out with the vertical turbine pumps in this market. The company is targeting revenue of Rs 100 crore this year in waste water especially the submersible sewage pumps. So step-by-step, the company is entering into the project business of water, but only with the products.

Nuclear OB execution: For this year the company has planned Rs 100 crore with supply of two pump sets. The casing was supplied some couple of months ago and the test bed,   where it has to be tested is progressing and expected to be completed by end of March 2025 crore. Once the test bed is ready, the hydro test will happen and then the pumps will be tested.  The motors are being dispatched in this month. So the company is confident of supply two pump sets (pump with motor) in this year as planned , and that''s what it have planned. Next year it should supply a minimum of four pumps sets.  

Capacity utilization at all location is quite healthy between 85%, 90%. For future growth, it is investing in its plants at Shirwal and Sinnar.   Sinnar, the company should complete the shed in this year and as far as Shirwal it has taken land and building the shed for capacity expansion.

Residential/Domestic Pumps: The company though leader in industrial pumps is not a leader in the domestic pump market and this segment offers a good scope for improving the business for the company. As this segment require different kind of approach with more branding and reaching the households, the company has started advertising and expects revenue of about Rs 250-300 crore in short term even though the potential is huge to double it or triple it also.

Pumps for petrochemicals/refinery are of 2 kinds API and non API with the former is project driven.  CapEx   announcement and the movement of   projects in this sector will be much better in this year.

U.S. is having a big boom in the energy segment demand, where the company is bidding for a lot of boiler feed pumps through its USA subsidiary company. 

See a better outlook this year compared to the previous year in case of normal general industry other than petrochemicals/refinery such as distillery, paper, steel sugar.  For a brief period, the distillery demand had slowed down, but that it is picking up again. Increasing its range in paper and steel industry.

Growth driver for the company down 2-3 years would be standard business (done through dealers), SupremeServ (aftermarkets), valves and BP&CL. These are the businesses the company is investing and banking on to drive growth going forward apart from nuclear and solar.

The standard business, where the company is keep on adding products and going to newer markets, whether it is food and beverage, whether it is non-metallic, whether it is green hydrogen, whether it is railways. Currently firefighting the share of the company is very low currently giving room for growth. 

SupremeServ (the aftermarket business) compared to past now the company have the mechanical seal business as an add on.  So it is expecting a good exponential growth in SupremeServ.

BP&CL business, which it has acquired did a turnover of Rs 16 crore in CY2024 at a very healthy margin and this year it is expected to double it. 

New Bharat nuclear reactors, which are in planning stage the company will be having 100% market share.

EBITDA margin will be in the range of 13-15% and will not go beyond that. But expect the revenue growth to be maintained same way in coming fiscal as well driven by both domestic and exports.