Analysts/Institutional Investor Meet/Con. Call Updates

“Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited 1QFY27 Earnings Conference Call” August 17, 2026 MANAGEMENT: MR. SHOBHIT UPPAL – DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR – AHLUWALIA CONTRACTS (INDIA) LIMITED MR. VIKAS AHLUWALIA – DIRECTOR – AHLUWALIA CONTRACTS (INDIA) LIMITED MR. SATBEER SINGH – CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER – AHLUWALIA CONTRACTS (INDIA) LIMITED MODERATOR: MR. SUDEEP BORA – AMBIT CAPITAL Page 1 of 19 Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited August 17, 2026 Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited 1QFY27 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Ambit Capital Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sudeep Bora. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Sudeep Bora: Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Ambit Capital, I thank the management of Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited for the opportunity to host the 1QFY27 earnings conference call. To discuss the results, I'm pleased to welcome Mr. Shobhit Uppal, Deputy Managing Director; Mr. Vikas Ahluwalia, Director; and Mr. Satbeer Singh, Chief Financial Officer. Now I invite the management to take us through the key highlights of the quarter, post which we'll open up for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Shobhit Uppal: Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited has announced its financial results for 1QFY27. During 1QFY27, the company achieved a turnover of INR1,125.81 crores and a PAT of INR11.42 crores in comparison to a turnover of INR1,004.88 crores and a PAT of INR51.11 crores during 1QFY26. The company has registered a growth of 12.03% in turnover and degrowth of 77.65% in PAT during 1QFY27 in comparison to 1QFY26. EPS of the company for 1QFY27 is INR1.70 compared to EPS of INR7.63 in 1QFY26. During 1QFY27, the company's EBITDA margin is 4.29% as compared to 8.59% in 1QFY26, and PAT margin is 1% as compared to a PAT margin of 5.01% in 1QFY26. The primary reasons for the dip in EBITDA margin are as under. We have -- there has been a finalisation of the bill of the AIIMS Jammu project, which has resulted in a reduction of bill value by INR29 crores. This is a cause of dispute, and now that the bill has been finalised, the dispute will be raised through an arbitration process. The adverse impact on this account is 2.6% on our EBITDA. Then there has been an adverse impact due to the West Bengal and Assam SIR drives and elections. This has led to a reduction of turnover in the projects that are being executed in these states, and it has impacted in higher IDC costs, thereby impacting our EBITDA margins. Then during this quarter, labor rates have increased significantly in NCR, which contributes nearly 50% to our total portfolio. The minimum wage increase has been to the tune of about 35% to 40%, spanning over unskilled and skilled categories. This has led to an increase -- a substantial increase in our wage costs. Then there has been an increase in our staff costs, where we have significantly increased our employee base as we have strengthened the organization, mobilized staff resources for our enlarged project portfolio. The net order book of the company as on 30th June is INR20,663.52 crores to be executed over the next 3, 3.5 years. Total order inflow during FY27 till 30/06/2026 as well as up to date is INR512.81 crores. We are ready to receive questions. Page 2 of 19 Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited August 17, 2026 Moderator: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Shravan Shah: To further understand this EBITDA margin because this is 4.3% is kind of one of the historic lowest margin. I understand you've tried to explain but further want to understand in detail. So first, you are saying this INR29 crores for AIIMS Jammu that the bill which was under dispute now finalized. So this INR29 crores we have booked in raw material cost and which has led to a kind of a 2.6% impact. Shobhit Uppal: You can say that. This is under dispute now after finalization of the bill. As you know, the project was completed last year and final billing and its checking was under process. Now during this quarter, 1Q, it has been frozen, and we have now this bill value -- final bill value has come down by INR29 crores. So you're right, the costs have been there, but the bill value has come down, the receivables have come down. Shravan Shah: Yes. But the other part, what you highlighted in terms of West Bengal, Assam and the labour cost increase. So, in the last call, when we did, that must have been known to you at that time, or even post the last con call. This was the thing, and that's why there is a significant impact on the margin. Shobhit Uppal: Yes. The labour -- the increase in labour-- was not known at the last call, and it is a hefty increase. While there is a labour escalation clause in a few of our contracts, quite a few contracts don't have this clause. For a lot of our large orders with some large developers, the labour escalation is not there. Following this increase, we have reached out to these clients and submitted claims, if you will, requesting a revision to our item rates to compensate for the large increase in labour costs. And the most significant increase has been in NCR, especially Haryana and UP, where 50% in NCR -- 50% of our order book is in NCR. That is why it has hit us in this quarter. Shravan Shah: Yes. Got it. So now given these things we know, so in Q2, do we see how much the clients have agreed to kind of compensate or still it will take time? So how one can look at our net-net in Q2, will the -- similar margin? Or can we -- because we were looking at double digit. So when can we start seeing a double digit from Q3 itself? So for full year, how one can look at the margins? Shobhit Uppal: So look, there are several external factors. One being this radical increase in pricing by the government of Haryana and the government of UP, so there is -- it is not possible for us to put a date as to when we will be compensated, whether it will be in Q2. But we expect that over the next two quarters, some of this compensation will start flowing in. Having answered the first part of your question, the second part, Q3, again, we are hearing rumors about NGT, the impact on account of NGT, government of Delhi and Haryana looking to take stringent measures, while nothing is still out is there in black and white, but we can't quantify the impact on our EBITDA of the NGT -- potential NGT impact. So I cannot tell you whether we will be hitting the double digit in Q3. Q3 is likely to be impacted by NGT. How much, we cannot sort of give you an indication today. Page 3 of 19 Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited August 17, 2026 Shravan Shah: So at current juncture, what do you think that the -- what kind of a margin we can look at, let's say, from -- for the full year or maybe Q3 or when can we start seeing a double digit from Q1 FY28 or still it will be difficult to maybe... Shobhit Uppal: Year has been -- this year, there have been a few black swan events. One, of course, has been the war. Second, of course, has been this labor pricing has impacted us in a major way because a couple of our projects, there are -- the labor factors as it is are higher because some materials are being supplied by the client or clients, so it would be fair to say that this financial year, we are ruling out having a double-digit EBITDA margin. Shravan Shah: But at what max number one can look at, let's say, if I have to look at it the other way, how max -- because as you highlighted Q3 also... Shobhit Uppal: Look, Q2 is [Showing first 8,000 characters — download PDF for full document]