HBL power — Annual report 2024 summary

HBL organizes engineering talent, To identify technology gaps in India it can fill, To manufacture engineering intensive products, To grow profitably

Business model:

• Enter only Niche markets
• Avoid capital intensive products and B2C businesses.
• Technology should be the basis of sustained competitive advantage
• The goal is to be #1 or #2 in a market of reasonable size; or #3 in a large market.

Way forward:

• Flattish FY 25 due to no kavach tenders till August 2024.
• FY 26 to show 30% growth followed by 20% growth in FY 27 and FY 28

HBL has Four business segments:

1. Industrial Batteries: — 71.5% of total turnover. Lead acid is 43.25% of turnover and Ni-ca 16.9% of total turnover

• Industrial Nickel cadmium Batteries — # 2 globally, 40% exports — Co supplies to customers like SIEMENS RAIL, Alstom, HITACHI, New York City Metro.
• VRLA — #3 in India(after exide, amara) — Stable demand due to 5G roll outs. HBL is gradually converting its 2V-VRLA capacity meant for telecom to 12-VRLA capacity to grow the UPS battery business.
• PLT batteries — Only manufacturer in India — This segment promises good business beyond DG cranking and data centres.Defence trials use case are executed
• Lithium — HBL is implementing a capex plan of about 100 crores in FY 25, to make high energy density cells in house. HBL’s “Industrial” customers for LIB include Vande Bharat trains. Siemens in Germany has chosen HBL as one of two sources to be developed globally, for LIB for Siemens built train and metro cars. Defence customers abroad have purchased HBL LIB for their armoured vehicles. HBL E-trucks will use HBL made batteries, assembled from Chinese cells

2. Defence:

• Supply batteries for aircraft missiles,Torpedoes, submarine and other defence electronics. In all these batteries, MoD has a second supplier; but overall, HBL is recognised as the leading supplier.
• Electronic Fuzes for ammunition — HBL only player with 100% indigenisation

3. Railways:

• Kavach — Development began in 2007, Trials in 2012 and commercial success in 2022. Expected service life of the Kavach system is 15 years. These systems need maintenance; and railways pay for this annually. A contract awared in 2020 was inaugarated in 2023.
• Train management systems — HBL is the only approved and proven Indian company for TMS. The value of business is small; at most H200 crore per year.

4. Electric drive trains:

• HBL’s marketing strategy is to design a new truck built specially for EV and also create the charging infrastructure.
• HBL is designing and building new 35 Ton and 55 Ton trucks, to become a small-scale truck OEM. The development work on this started 6 years ago
• Road tests on old trucks converted to electric drive showed that the HBL electric drive train works reliably and could save money on operating costs for some use cases.
• These sales could begin in H2 of FY 26.
• HBL created a subsidiary, TTL ELECTRIC FUEL PVT LTD, to provide charging infrastructure for EVs.
• EFL currently has 67 locations in 9 cities in India.
• Every day approximately 2000 vehicles are charged

Manufacturing facilities:

Management salary: