ABB India Limited — Q3 FY24
ABB India reported a solid Q3CY24 with order inflows up 11% YoY, driven by strong base orders and a pickup in large contracts from data centers, rail, and export segments.
bullish
high
✓ Verified against BSE filing
Claim Ledger
Did management answer the analysts?
Every material analyst question, graded on whether management actually answered it — with the verbatim exchange and quantitative claims checked against filed numbers.
45%Questions answered3Evaded / deflected11Questions auditedContradictedNumbers vs filing
Partial answer
High priority
LT motor pricing, demand, and channel restocking post-elections.
Asked by Ankur, HDFC Life
Management gave qualitative color but no specific data on pricing changes or channel restocking.
no specific numbers on pricing or restockingqualitative outlook only
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Question
If you could just talk about, and especially on the LT motor side, if you could talk about how is pricing, even demand, how's that looking up? Has pricing stabilized? Have we seen any price hikes recently? And also on the channel, if there's been any restocking happening post now that elections are over...
Sanjeev Arora, Business Manager for Motion Business
LT motors has been facing some headwinds when it comes to the pricing piece... I'm pretty confident that now the things look like that the erosion has stopped... the investments from the government will also start...
Partial answer
High priority
Reason for decline in process automation revenue.
Asked by Ankur, HDFC Life
Explained order timing but did not quantify the revenue impact or give specific segment numbers.
no specific revenue breakdownblamed timing of orders
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Question
If you could just help us, was this on a specific order, or is it just the way that the deliveries are scheduled? Also, high base of last year also kind of not helping us. So, just some more color there, how you see execution on the process automation side.
T.K. Sridhar, CFO
Process automation, if you look at it in last year, two quarters, we had Q3 and Q4, good uptake of orders from the metals and mining segment. And this year, we had oil and gas coming up in the first two quarters. And this particular quarter, where we expected some orders from oil and gas as well as metals to come in, will come in in the next quarters to come.
Evasive
High priority
Pricing power, capacity expansion, demand moderation, and raw material pass-through.
Asked by Umesh Raut, Nomura India
Avoided specifics on demand trends and customer requests for price reductions.
no direct answer on demand moderationno comment on raw material pass-through
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Question
If you could throw some light regarding three aspects on pricing power. So first, basically, capacity expansion... second, basically, any demand moderation... third, basically, any request from the customer to kind of pass on any raw material correction benefit...
T.K. Sridhar, CFO
We don't see any capacity constraints at this point of time... The pricing is a dynamic stuff. It depends on how the demand and the supply situation behaves...
Answered
Medium priority
Why core industries like metals, mining, cement remain low-growth segments.
Asked by Umesh Raut, Nomura India
Provided clear explanation of growth segmentation and why core sectors remain important despite lower growth rates.
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Question
If I look at certain core industries like metal, mining, cement, oil and gas, or even food and beverages, those are consistently into the low-growth segments. So any assessment here, what are you observing on private sector effects recovery and especially demand from that particular segment to your products?
T.K. Sridhar, CFO
The low-growth segment has basically, what we call, less than 10%. So now when it comes to the segmentation of it, we still are making 45%-50% of the business comes from the core sectors... a 10% growth on a large installed base is itself a large opportunity...
Partial answer
High priority
Large deal pipeline composition and conversion delays.
Asked by Nitin Arora, Axis Mutual Fund
Described types of large deals but did not quantify the pipeline or conversion rates.
no specific percentage breakdownqualitative description only
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Question
If you can throw some light how the large order book or larger orders in the order book has a percentage or some direction if you can give. And second, in terms of the large deal pipeline, which according to you is pretty strong, can you highlight in which areas are these?
T.K. Sridhar, CFO
There are two types of large deals. One large deal is wherein, say, you have a data center which is being set up... The other type of large deals are which are integration jobs... the large deals that we are seeing right now in the market are of a fused nature.
Partial answer
High priority
Direction of revenue growth and execution pace.
Asked by Nitin Arora, Axis Mutual Fund
Gave qualitative assurance but no directional guidance on revenue growth.
no specific revenue growth outlookdeferred to backlog execution
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Question
How directionally you are looking at your revenue growth? Will that again claw back to again going towards double digit? I know you don't give any guidance, but generally, direction side is just a temporary issue, or you think things are taking more time in terms of going into actual execution?
T.K. Sridhar, CFO
We are not seeing any stagnation of any projects in our backlog... we see this backlog executing with a good flow going forward, yeah, unless some customer-related topic that comes in, which creates some kind of a delay in this 25% that we have highlighted, which is sitting in the large contracts.
Evasive
High priority
Possibility of order inflow stepping up to INR 4,000 crore per quarter.
Asked by Jonas Bhutta, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
Avoided giving any visibility on order inflow step-up, citing unpredictability.
no commitment on step-updeferred to uncertainty
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Question
Do you believe that the pipeline in front of you and the growth opportunities present ahead of you sort of give you at least visibility that there is a possibility of another step jump in the quarterly run rate of order intake from the current band that we have been for the last six quarters? Can we inch up closer to the INR 4,000 crore per quarter?
T.K. Sridhar, CFO
We do believe that we reached a good run rate of INR 2,500-3,000 crores... it's very difficult to predict whether, when, and where it will hit INR 4,000 crores... I would not be surprised that after you have a good gain over a period of time for the volumes, that you plateau for maybe a couple of quarters before again the jump comes back in.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Deconstructing motion business margins and SCADA/renewable energy exposure.
Asked by Jonas Bhutta, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
Explained margin drivers qualitatively but did not provide segment-level margin breakdown or SCADA details.
no margin decomposition by sub-segmentno answer on SCADA indigenization
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Question
I wanted to sort of try and better deconstruct the margin profile that we've been reporting for the motion business... is that a fair conclusion? And B, in the press release, you spoke about SCADA systems that are going into renewable energy... Is this a space that you're incrementally more bullish on? And what is the indigenization levels in that product line?
T.K. Sridhar, CFO
The margins actually because Motors definitely forms a major portion of motion segment... but also, we have other fast-growing businesses like drives and traction converters and services within that, which also are going faster and they have more value-added solutions...
Evasive
High priority
Whether ABB is witnessing any demand slowdown in the economy.
Asked by Mahesh Bendre, LIC Mutual Fund
Did not directly confirm or deny demand slowdown; instead spoke about reassessing opportunities.
no direct yes/no on slowdowndeflected to reassessment
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Question
In our own assessment, have we witnessed any kind of slackness in the demand? Just a few minutes back, you mentioned that every industry requires LT Motors. So in that sense, have we seen any slowdown in inquiries or uptake or execution as a whole in the near term?
Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director
I absolutely see, even if there's a bit of a small change in the marketplace, I see that as a deal. But that also gives us the time to reassess our opportunities...
Answered
High priority
Outlook for process automation segment and export role.
Asked by Bhavin Vithlani, SBI Mutual Fund
Provided clear outlook on oil & gas pipeline and explained export role without evasion.
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Question
Could you talk about the outlook on this segment on a one- to three-year basis? While you did mention about muted outlook in cement and steel, but specifically the pipeline that you are seeing in the oil and gas petrochemical space, that's one. The second is, what role can ABB India incrementally play on the exports or the global side, especially in the power process automation segment?
Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director
As far as process automation is concerned, we have three divisions there... oil and gas segment is a significant contributor... we continue to have good intake of orders... As far as exports are concerned, we do have some export allocations... but primarily, we are focused to serve the Indian and South Asian market.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Capacity buildup in electrification division amid competition.
Asked by Amit Mahawar, UBS
Described approach but did not quantify capacity buildup or address competition directly.
no specific capacity expansion numbersno competitive response details
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Question
I just want to understand on the medium voltage and low voltage, how are we scheduling the capacity buildup? And given the competition has been very aggressively expanding, if you look at the global and local competition. So just some color on the electrification piece.
Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director
We always make sure that we continue to expand based on our business case... We focus more on the productivity side in our existing plant so that we produce more out of same resources and same spaces... we already have a 10-year visibility in terms of how we will invest in which areas.
Quantitative claims vs filed numbers
| Claim | Management said | Filing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21% CAGR growth in last three years | 21% | 5% | Overstated vs filing |
Filed figures sourced from Screener.in. Claims within a small tolerance of the filing are marked “matches filing”.