HBL Power: Signs of change

HBL AGM 2024 snippets.

Few points from Hbl AGM

• Change of name because it embodies future expansion like EV trucks;

Management has given guidance of 30% in FY 26 growth over FY 25 numbers but if forced to reveal, they will surpass this guidance.

• No plan to do anything with Tonbo investment. It should list in early 2027. Hopefully will reap benefits then;

• In terms of capacities, while Hbl can scale whenever it wants, currently it can do 2000 km/year of TCAS on tracks and 3000 loco/year. TCAS is a huge opportunity;

• Hbl is the only company which has completely indigenous TCAS system;

• Lot of scope of batteries (other than lead). Eg., Siemens wants Hbl to manufacture Lithium batteries for them. Traction in defence batteries remains strong.

• Kavack 4.0 and 3.2 are not inter operable…Railways have to think about that; I got a sense that the recently tested Kavach 4.0 in presence of railway minister was HBL product.

• Demand is huge but execution is slow because of lack of trained officers;

• TMS will grow slowly;

• Mgmt is nurturing high hopes on EV truck with in-house Electric Drive Train. Confident of sharing a prototype in January 2025 and production form Oct-Nov 2025;

• Co has no plans to become big mass producer of trucks but a niche player producing…say 1000 trucks a year at a price of Rs 1 cr/truck (may not be immediately but eventually) with good margins. Thus WC will not be an issue;

• Retrofitting old trucks with its E Drive train is not feasible cause trucks are old and run down;

• Regarding defence products, co wants to focus on exports and not so much on indian defence. There is huge demand for fuses in variety of products.

Managment has committed to think about increasing dividend payout ratio in view of expected higher profits over the years.