NCC Targets 10% Revenue Growth, Orders Worth Rs 22,000–25,000 Crore In FY26

NCC Ltd. expects order inflows of Rs 22,000–25,000 crore in FY26, according to Neerad Sharma, head of strategy at the company.

"This should be bagged in three, four important business divisions that we have, namely, buildings, transportation, electrical T&D (transmission and distribution) and water," he told NDTV Profit in a conversation on Thursday.

The company is targeting a revenue growth of 10% in FY26. While it looks like a conservative target compared to its recent growth rate, it is the result of a higher base and gestation barriers.

Firstly, the base itself is a little bit on the higher side. The second thing is a gestation barrier, which is when the projects are awarded, these projects have to cross some very important milestones, Sharma said.

"Then we start the execution. So that is the reason the guidance that we have shared with you appears to be a little muted," the top executive highlighted.

In FY25, the company had originally guided for a revenue growth of 15%. It was revised down to 5% and the company outperformed with a 6.5% growth. Its compound annual growth rate for revenue is 26% for the past three years.

NCC has planned capital expenditure of Rs 700 crore to Rs 750 crore in FY26. It includes the purchase of a tunnel boring machine for the Goregaon Mulund Link Road tunnelling project. Sharma clarified that the TBM-related expenditure would be fully expensed during the project’s execution, mitigating concerns about long-term debt.

The company’s order book currently stands at upwards of Rs 71,000 crore. A significant chunk, about Rs 20,000 crore, of these orders came in March 2025.

"By and large, we should be able to execute a substantial chunk of this order book in the next three years. It is very difficult, really, to talk about the revenue and the profitability for the next three years. The way we work in our industry, in our company, generally we talk about one year," he said.

Overall debt is expected to increase by Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore annually. NCC's debt-to-equity ratio stood at 0.2 in FY25. Sharma explained the debt increase as necessary "to fuel this kind of growth" and to manage working capital for projects where client payments are delayed.

Sharma noted that in FY25, working capital constraints continued to pose challenges, largely due to sector-wide issues. "FY25 has seen central government elections," he said, adding that the impact lasted longer than the initially anticipated three months, extending to "less than two quarters". 

He also outlined the assembly election in Maharashtra as a contributing factor to working capital blockages.

Despite these headwinds, Sharma noted that payments had begun to flow in April and expressed cautious optimism for improvement in FY26. However, he did not provide a definitive timeline for the resolution of these capital blockages, emphasising the reliance on payment release patterns from government agencies.