Tata Motors (NSE:TMCV) Q1 2027 Earnings Call

0:05 Good morning. Welcome to Tata Motors Q1 FY twenty twenty seven Results Call. My name is Meha Gavankar. I head Investor Relations and Communications. Joining me are Mr. Girishwag, Managing Director and CEO on the Investor Relations team. Before we begin, I would like to inform you that our CFO, Mr. Jeev Ramanan, is unable to join today's call, Personal exigency in the family sends his regrets for being unable to attend. In his absence, I will be taking you through the financial highlights section of the presentation, following which Mr. Vag will give the business and strategic overview. We will then move to Q and A. As a reminder, all participants will be in listen only mode and we'll be taking your questions via the Teams platform.

0:51 It is already open to you for submitting questions. Please mention your name and the name of your organization while submitting your questions. With that, let me begin with the financial highlights for the quarter. Before we go into the numbers, a quick word on safe harbor. Consistent with our last quarter presentation, our primary numbers represent the stand alone financials, includes joint operations with Tata Cummins. Consolidated results follow later in the deck. One change to note this quarter, Freight Tiger is now included as a subsidiary following the increase in our stake in May 2026. With that, let me take you through the highlights for the quarter. One was a quarter of execution on the commitments we made at the start of the year.

1:41 Few highlights that deserve a mention. On electric vehicles, we strengthened our electric CV leadership with over 3,400 electric vehicle orders across segments, building on the momentum we saw in the second half of last year. On the SCV pickup front, we launched the ACE Gold Plus XL, Tra V40 and Intra EV, broadening the SCVPU portfolio across ICE, CNG and electric. For the Indonesia order of 70,000 units of Yodhai and Ultra T7, we initiated deliveries during the quarter. We also crossed a major milestone with our Lucknow plant crossing 10 lakh commercial vehicles in cumulative production. We also partnered with HPCL on a scalable circular economy model for used automotive lubricants, and the Tata Motors Foundation's integrated village development program has now reached close to 200 villages nationwide.

2:41 Next slide, please. There were two significant corporate actions in the quarter. On the Iveco transaction, regulatory approvals are now in the final stage with only one approval pending. All information requests have been addressed, and we expect a final clearance by the end of August twenty six. On that basis, the tender offer is expected to be launched in early September twenty six with closure expected by early November twenty six. On Freight Tiger, we acquired an additional 18.1% equity stake in May 26 for around 96 crores, taking our total holding to approximately 63.6%. Flavetiger is now a subsidiary. And the intent here is straightforward.

3:27 We are bringing Fleet Edge and Flavetiger together so that it gives us an end to end digital ecosystem across the logistics value chain covering both the trucks ecosystem and the trip ecosystem. The next few slides cover the stand alone business, which includes deal with Tata Commons. Let me start with the volumes. Q one wholesales were approximately one lakh 8,700 units, up 26% year on year, a robust quarter and '1 delivered through a period of heightened geopolitical tensions. It's important to note that this growth was broad based across every product line and each in double digits. HCV at 26.4 k units, up 22%.

4:14 ILMCV at 17.1 k units, up 16%. HCV pickup at 38.3 k units, up 35%. PV passenger at 18.7 k units, up 23%, and exports at 8.1 k units, up 35%. This slide summarizes the stand alone financials. The volume momentum we saw in the last page translated into a 23% revenue growth for the quarter. It stood at 19,300 crore. EBITDA was rupees 2,300 crore at a margin of 11.7%, down 60 basis points Y o Y. This moderation is mainly commodity led, and I will take you through the walk on the next slide.

5:00 EBIT margin was 9.4%, down only 20 basis points, And PBT before exceptional items was rupees 2,100 crore, up 26% Y o Y. So despite the margin moderation, absolute profit growth has kept pace with revenue. Free cash flow was rupees 1,100 crore against a negative 1,800 crore in q one last year. That's a swing of almost 2,900 crores. I will also cover the drivers for that shortly. Net cash stood at 7,100 crore as of June 30 against rupees 7,500 crore at March end, and this is after the rupees 1,473 crore dividend payout during the quarter.

5:47 Auto ROCE continued to be strong at 68% on a trailing twelve month basis against 72% for f y twenty six. Investment spending, rupees 500 crore for the quarter was in line with plan. So this is the walk from PBT before exceptional items of rupees $16.35 crore in q one of f y twenty six to rupees 2,057 crore in q one of f y twenty seven. And what you see below that is the EBIT margin bridge. Volume and mix contributed to rupee $6.86 crore, and realization was a further 402 crore. The price increases that we took during the quarter have largely been passed through, and together, these added one forty basis points to EBIT margin.

6:35 Variable costs were the principal headwind at $6.49 crore or three forty basis points. This is primarily commodity inflation, steel, aluminum, and copper, all flowing through into material cost, consistent with the headwinds that we flagged when we closed f y twenty six. Other fixed cost contributed positively at one eighty basis points. This is operating leverage on a larger revenue base. FX and other items were neutral to margin. Net of all this, EBIT margin moved from 9.6% to 9.4%. And in summary, operating leverage and improved realization have absorbed almost all of the significant commodity headwind. Coming to free cash flow for the quarter, FCF was rupees 1,114 crore against a negative of rupees $1,007.96 crore in q one of f y twenty six, a swing of about 2,900 crore rupees.

7:39 Going through the walk, PBT before exceptional items of rupees 2,057 crore, noncash items were $2.47 crore. On tax, the rupees 500 crore outflow compares with just rupees 20 crore in q one of last year. As flagged during the full year results, cash tax is now a recurring item for us. With that, we arrive at a cashback of around rupees 1,800 crore. CapEx, roughly about $5.54 crore, lower than the $6.39 crore in q one of last year, but in line with our investment plan. But the decisive difference year on year is efficient working capital. This quarter consumed only rupees $2.32 crore as against 3,474 crore in q one of f y twenty six.

8:28 Next slide. Total investment spending in q one was 515 crore. At approximately 2.7% of revenue, this sits comfortably within our guided range of two to 4%. This completes the stand alone numbers. Now let me turn to the consolidated results. Consolidated revenue for q one was rupees 20,700 crores, up 19% Y o Y. EBITDA was rupees 2,300 crore at 10.9%, down 90 basis points, and EBIT was 8.5%, down 80 basis points. This was due to the same commodity dynamic that we discussed at the stand alone level.

9:14 EBT before exceptional items was rupees 3,000 crore, up 81%. This includes a mark to market adjustment on our investments in Tata Capital. Consolidated free cash flow was rupees 400 crore against a negative of 2,000 crore in q one of FY twenty six. And net cash stood at 13,500 crore as on June 30 as against 13,700 crore at March end, maintaining a strong liquidity position through the quarter. With that, let me hand over to Vinesh to take you through the business updates. Over to you. Thank you, Sneha. So let me begin with the share, the registration share. So we saw a 100 bps improvement in the Vahan share on a sequential basis.

10:06 And as compared to FY '26, there was a growth of 170 bps. We further strengthened the position in heavy commercial vehicles to 56.3. ILMCV saw a slight drop essentially due to the supply chain challenges that we have seen, especially in the Western Zone. And we also had a 110 bps growth in Mahan share in small commercial vehicle and around 490 bps growth in CV passenger, which is buses and vans. So this is on the back of the tenders that we had won. Moving on, as far as fleet utilization is concerned, this is our data from the fleet age that we have deployed now almost on 1,200,000 vehicles.

10:58 So the fleet utilization improved month over month in q one. So it improved from April to May, May to June, But the q one fleet utilization removed, remained slightly below that of q one of last year. But this is also on the back of, a very high volume, which was sold in h two of last year. So it is just slightly below that of q one of last year and not, about... Not a concern at this juncture. But what remains healthy is the significant growth in EV bills as well as diesel consumption, which shows the continuous growth in utilization of the vehicles and the freight which is available for transportations.

11:45 Moving on. So the industry saw healthy momentum with the wholesale volume growing almost 18% on a y o y basis, and our volumes grew by around 26% in the same period. As I spoke on the earlier slide, eBay bill generation shows a very good growth of 12.4%, which does indicate healthy freight available for transportation. Meet utilizations improved month over month, although q one f y twenty seven is slightly below that of q one f y twenty six. And diesel consumption also grew. Overall, positive positive markers for the industry.

12:36 Our businesses, starting with trucks, we have a y y market share gain due to volume growth, especially in heavy commercial vehicles on the back of the new product launches that we spoke earlier. In buses and vans, healthy market share growth driven by not just higher retails in all segments, but also delivery on the government tenders that we had won in the previous quarters. During the quarter gone by, we also won orders for 562 units across multiple segments. In small commercial vehicle, we did land... Launch new products which were spoken in the first few slides.

13:24 And in addition to that, the ramp up in our Ace Diesel LNT and Ace Pro EV are supporting the volume growth. Intra brand continues to do well, and Intra EV has also been launched and has started doing well. Of course, currently, we do have some supply chain challenges, especially on Intra EV. The parts and services business continued to grow in double digits, strong growth trajectory. And I think we were able to maintain uninterrupted diesel exhaust fluid supplies despite the crisis that we had in terms of availability of technical grade urea due to the Middle East crisis.

14:13 And this also led to, therefore, increase in the volume and revenue from the dev supplies in q one. Lutage now installed base grew to more than a million vehicles, and the subscription renewal performance has improved dramatically on a y o y basis. In the international business, we initiated deliveries against the Indonesia order, and we had around 2,000 vehicles being shipped in q one. And post that, we have been ramping it up consistently. And we've been able to demonstrate a 35% y o y growth despite very few numbers being shipped to Middle East.

15:02 On sustainability and the EV business, the launch of intra EV and also the 55 ton EV tractor and the increase in diesel prices which happened in middle of the last quarter, we have seen the TCO parity of EV with respect to diesel and the gas vehicles is being reached earlier and therefore they are becoming more attractive. And as a result, the EV volumes grew almost three times on the y y basis. And in fact, in SUV pickup, the EV penetration reached double digit in the months of both May and June, and that continues to improve further as we get into q two.

15:55 Therefore, had more than 3,200 retails on a CV EVs in q one, which alone is almost four times growth on a y o y basis. On EV trucks, both... I mean, the heavy commercial vehicle tractors and chippers, there is a very strong interest on the customer, robust engagement, and the customers are looking forward for these kind of decarbonizing solutions. We also now have around more than 850 electric buses orders. This is a combination of orders from private customers as well as a few tenders that we won, tenders from Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and the state of Odisha.

16:48 Our smart city business, which operates electric buses, has now covered more than 59 crore kilometers and maintains the spotless performance in terms of uptime and safety. Moving on. As we look ahead for q two, for the overall business, I think two things we have to manage actively. First is the commodity inflation, which continues to be there, which will be managed through... Of course, first line of attack is cost management, but we've also taken the price increase on July 1.

17:35 And in addition to that, we've also seen some supply chain challenges, especially due to increase in demand in almost all the auto segments, be it two wheeler, three wheeler, four wheeler, commercial vehicles, tractors. I think we have seen healthy growth all across. As a result of which, some of the part categories like sheet metal, casting, forgings have become a constraint. To address this, a lot of debottlenecking actions have been taken place, few more in the pipeline, but this has already enabled us to improve the throughput towards the end of q one and, of course, in q two. On the demand generation side, trucks, we will continue to accelerate the growth to the new m y 26 portfolio, the higher payload trucks, and, of course, with heightened interest in the battery electric vehicles.

18:39 EV passenger, we still have around four and a half thousand government orders on hand, which we will continue to deliver during this quarter. And as I spoke, there are 850 e buses orders also on hand. In small commercial vehicle, we will build on the demand which is being seen for both the Ace and Intra brand families and also build on the shift which is happening towards EVs and build on the market share gain. In parts and services, we continue to bring in innovative offerings, especially on services, which leads to improved demand not only for the products, but also for the parts.

19:31 We are also taking quite a few actions on supply chain, some debottlenecking, and also the fulfillment chain, which will improve our delivery of parts to the customers. On international business, we will continue to leverage increased demand from Non Middle East markets, especially in SARC, Sub Saharan Africa, and also increase the throughput towards Indonesia. So that's the plan for, the quarter ahead or the quarter that we are already into. Now over to you for the questions. Thank you. We have a few questions which have come in already in the queue. The first one is from Raghu.

20:19 Congratulations, Raghu, from November. For full year, do you expect double digit growth in domestic CVs? And second question on exports, how do you see the full year outlook? For Indonesia order, how do you see dispatches in FY '27 and '28? So thank you, Rahul. I think, very early to talk about h two. It appears that q two will also see a healthy double digit Y o Y growth. I think it will be very interesting to see how the market pans out from September onwards, especially when we do a Y o Y comparison. Because last year, as we recollect, most of the GST rate correction, the market really picked up from the month of September.

21:09 But I think the kind of growth that we have seen in July, it will probably be safe to say that q two will end up with a double digit growth. Now coming to Indonesia, I think we are ramping up the supplies, quite significantly. And, yes, I can only say that the 70,000 orders will certainly be supplied over a period of two years, f y twenty seven and f y twenty eight. Bill? Yeah. The next question from Kapil. So Kapil is also asking about demand outlook, which I think you just addressed.

21:55 On EVs, what is the EV demand outlook? How is the response been to intra EV, and what is our capacity? Costs, is there more cost pressure ahead? And, will the price hike in q two cover it? Yeah. I can see. And, again, Indonesia order is something which we've already answered. So maybe you can take these two. So I think on EV, as I said, Kapil, first of all, thank you. On EV, yes, the demand outlook is quite positive. I already gave you the number of orders that we have for the electric buses.

22:42 In addition to that, I think as a part of PME Busseva, there are a few more newer tenders which are also on the way. So we are quite positive on that. SUV pickup, which is completely in the retail market, is in fact doing very well. And as I said, the TCO parity of Intra, ISPRO has become very attractive with respect to... Or in comparison to their ICE brothers. And therefore, from that perspective, I think the demand will remain strong and will continue to grow. In terms of capacity of intra EV, actually, our in house capacity is not a challenge at all. What has happened is not only our electric vehicle demand has gone up, which is leading to a, therefore, cascading increase in demand of cells from China.

23:39 But even within China, share of electric vehicles has further gone up, which has led to increased demand on the cells. And this is something which is, currently a bottleneck. And the lead time for the demand or lead time for getting the cells in India and converting into batteries is currently pretty high. But I think we have placed higher set of our orders already around two months back. But towards the end of this quarter, I think we should have the supplies completely debottlenecked from the perspective of the demand as we see. Now coming to costs, is there more cost pressure ahead? Yes. There is further cost pressure ahead of us, in terms of commodities, few of the commodities, steel, rubber, etcetera.

24:33 And it is our endeavor, of course, to ensure that the price hike and our own internal cost management actions enable us to tide over this tough commodity challenge. The net price hike in July... So, Kapil, I mean, we have taken two and a half percent increase and, very confident that it should pass through as we progress during the quarter. On Indonesia order, I think we have already answered, in detail. So we can move to the next question. The next one again from Raghu. On e truck sales, how is profitability different from the ICE trucks, and how much is the EV revenue and PLI for the quarter?

25:27 So there is another question in terms of higher payload trucks. Okay. So there is... Okay. Rahul, there is one question from you in terms of higher payload trucks. So, yes, I think the acceptance in the market is very good, and, this is therefore leading to, market share gain gradually. Now let me say, because you have asked a question whether it is giving a double whammy of market share gain and contribution margin improvement, I think in commercial vehicles, the customers do, take time to build a trust in a vehicle, although they have a trust in the brand. And for any new vehicle, I think they kind of watch as to what is happening.

26:15 But at this juncture, I must say that, yes, it does make a positive business case for them, these new pro high payload trucks. The next question you have asked is utilization for HCV tipper is relatively lower than HCV cargo. Is there any worries? No. So, Rahul, this is quite characteristic. From the beginning of rainy season, the tipper, utilization does go down. And, towards middle of September, it starts picking up again. In many cases, it also starts picking up from August 15, so it depends on the rainfall activity. So this is not something to be concerned about. You asked about the growth in other expenses.

27:03 It is much lower than the revenue growth. So that is the operating leverage, Raghu, and we will make all the efforts to get this leverage as we go ahead. There was one more question you said, what, from him? Oh, yeah. On e truck sales, how is profitability different from ICE trucks? Yeah. So, see, this is something that I also addressed during our investor day that first is, you know, our endeavor is to sell all the vehicles with PLI benefits. Although I must add that, off late, the regulators are taking pretty long time in giving the certificates. And therefore, in specific cases to meet customer commitments, I think we have started delivering the vehicles in certain cases. But otherwise, our endeavor is to deliver with full PLI.

27:54 The profitability will be different from, ICE trucks because the scale is pretty low. But I think as the scale improves and we have higher localization, and I think from... In some quarters from now, we should see even cell localization happening gradually. With that, I think we should get back into a good position, Prabhu. We have a few questions on email. So this one is from from UBS. It says congratulations team on the strong volume and profit performance. Question is, on the pricing environment, are we reaching the limit for price hikes given the sharp surge in steep... Steel and rubber? And how's the discounting been across segments?

28:39 So I think this is a very delicate balance that we have to achieve, and this is something that I said in q one also that our first line of attack is to see how much cost we can contain, how much cost we can negate. But beyond that, I think we have no option but to increase the prices. I think what has helped us, I must say, is model year '26 that we launched across the portfolio with improved efficiencies and, therefore, improved TCO. So it helped us, to a good extent in terms of stabilizing the new prices. Whether it has reached the limit, it's very difficult to answer in a binary manner.

29:27 But I can certainly say that the price increase... Cumulative price increase during this year has been quite significant. Yes. Another question from Tramut Kumar. Can you comment on the current demand environment? July has been very robust despite monsoon. What is driving this demand surge and whether it will be sustainable? So as I mentioned earlier, Pramod, I think the underlying demand fundamentals are pretty strong. Right? We saw eBay bills, diesel consumption, fast track collection. I think all the indicators indicate a very high moment of goods, which means I think the underlying freight available is pretty robust.

30:17 And we've also discussed that I think this remains directly correlated with the GDP growth. So once the GDP growth is quite robust, what it is today, it also leads to equivalent amount of freight growth, and that then leads to higher demand. So I think at this juncture, yes, I think despite the inflation which is happening in the products as well as the fuel prices, you've seen, the demand remaining quite robust. That's it. Yeah. I... Let me just check. I don't see any other... Okay. Did it. Another question from Kapil. How is the EV financing scenario, and have, historical resale value concerns been addressed?

31:06 Well, the EV finance... Retail financing has been improving month over month. And I must say, more and more financials are having confidence in the technology, in the product. And in most cases, we are also offering warranties, a battery warranty especially, which is higher than the tenor of the loan, which is giving a very high comfort to the financials. And more and more financials I meet, I see a lot of comfort amongst them in funding, EVs because their book quality is quite robust, quite okay as far as EVs is... We are concerned. Yeah. This is from Jay Kalle, Ilara. On the demand side, is it replacement demand that is driving the growth? And can you also share some flavor on large fleet operators versus the small operator?

32:03 First time buyers. So, Jay, I actually mentioned this last time also. It is, very difficult to differentiate between replacement demand and, new vehicle purchase, so to say. But, I mean, generally, happens is large fleet owners are the first ones to replace their existing trucks in four to six years, and they go for newer trucks because they see a clear TCO benefit with the newer trucks. But at the same time, their existing trucks don't move out of the system, but they are sold to maybe smaller customers, individual vehicle owners, and they then put those vehicles to use on shorter distances.

32:55 So I think, overall, the demand is going up, which means there is an increase in the freight which is available, and the capacity utilization of the fleet also remains strong. So as I said, very difficult to give the separation between replacement demand, new vehicle demand. Actually, it is a combination of both. Next question is from Amin Piranhi, JPMorgan. One q working capital and FCF has been surprisingly strong considering normal seasonality. Are there any one offs or any structural changes have happened? So, I mean, I think, we did have some carryover benefit to some extent from q four. But, otherwise, I think the working capital discipline that we have been driving combined with good operating profit has actually helped us to deliver a good FCF in q one. You're right.

33:55 I think, traditionally, in q one and q two, we burn working capital. But with the discipline as well as the operating profit, it has led to a good improvement. I must also add that the Indonesia order and the advance that we received from Indonesia has been the one off, if I may say so, which has helped us on the cash flow in q one. Nobody is asking here today. What is the reason? I think they're probably struggling, some of them too. There are some more coming on meta. There are any other questions on those also? You want to wait for a few minutes? I can check if there are any other questions. Let me check on email as well.

34:49 Yeah. Is there a question? There is a question from... Yeah. Shreedhar. But I think you've largely answered it. Okay. What is the mix of fleet operators? And this has been answered. There's a question from, Kapil. Again? Uh-huh. Yeah. Can you talk about the export outlook for MHCV and LCV? Probably, it's maybe two or three years. A couple of two to three years is pretty long, horizon, but I think we are certainly doing a lot of work in some of the markets that I spoke about, whether it is Africa.

35:40 And also with the entry that we have in Indonesia with this order, we're doing some work in other segments also. I mean, this order in Indonesia also has been in light commercial vehicle and pickup. I think we are using this opportunity to do some work and seal our products in other segments also, But very early to give any kind of outlook, but, yes, we are doing a lot of work on the demand generation front as well as launch of new products in some of these international market. The question, mix software that we understood... Answered. No further questions.

36:35 Any... Okay. There's another one on email from Pramod Kumar, UBS. Any comments on operator profitability given that... Given rising prices of trucks? And also, has Tamil Nadu reverted to a normal demand post election led slowdown? So the second one is easier. I think, yes, Tamil Nadu has been improving in demand month over month. And especially last month was pretty good, very close to the normal situation, as far as Tamil Nadu demand is concerned. And what are the first question? Was, on the rising operator profitability. Yeah.

37:21 Yeah. So I think I don't have any index on this, but I can tell you anecdotally from the discussions that we've had with the customers. I think depending upon the route shippers and the commodities being transported, the diesel price increase is being passed through. And therefore, actually, the profitability will come back to the earlier level. Now take the case of we as shippers. I mean, we ship our vehicles on tractor trailers or trucks. I think we... For example, the auto industry has been... Has passed through the diesel price increases pretty soon.

38:08 And there are quite a few other segments also where this has happened, which is then helping the fleet owners to get the profitability back on track. One question from Himanshu Singh. Should we continue to see market share gains going ahead? That will always remain our endeavor. Give us a minute, please. Hey, Chrome. I see you here.

38:59 Any... Just seeing if the questions are queuing up. Please give us a minute. I think with that, we've mostly answered all the questions, and, we can close the call with that. Any other questions that remain unanswered, we'll be happy to take them offline. Thank you so much for your time.