Techno Electric & Engineering Company is making a significant strategic pivot by earmarking approximately ₹1,000 crore for data centre expansion in FY27. According to reports from The Financial Express, the company is leveraging its four decades of power-engineering expertise to enter the digital infrastructure market, positioning itself as a potential beneficiary of India's growing data centre demand. The company argues that its fundamental knowledge of electricity gives it an advantage in building digital infrastructure, as data centres are fundamentally power assets requiring reliable electricity supply.
The company's Q1 FY27 financial performance demonstrated robust growth momentum. As reported by The Financial Express, standalone revenue rose 25% year-on-year to ₹641 crore, while EBITDA increased 13% to ₹89 crore, though the EBITDA margin slipped to 13.8% from 15.4% in the previous year. The order book stood at ₹9,596 crore as of June 30, remaining nearly flat from ₹9,566 crore at the end of March, but orders won after the quarter pushed the backlog to around ₹11,000 crore, with another ₹2,100 crore of bids at L1 status.
The company's Chennai data centre campus is emerging as a significant opportunity, with customer demand exceeding expectations and prompting capacity expansion. According to The Financial Express, Techno Electric is now discussing around 150 megawatts of aggregate information-technology load with hyperscalers, AI infrastructure companies and enterprise customers, including six opportunities above 3 megawatts and more than 30 in the wider funnel. The company signed 10 new customer logos in Q1 across colocation, cloud and interconnection services, including two leading telecom carriers subscribing to about 130 kilowatts.
Despite strong order book performance, the company faces margin pressures from elevated costs. As reported by The Financial Express, transformer, CRGO steel and other long-lead equipment costs remain elevated as manufacturers' order books have expanded sharply since FY22. For FY27, the company remains comfortable with revenue of ₹4,000 crore or more and EBITDA margin of around 13% to 14%. The data centre revenue guidance of ₹40 crore represents only about 1% of total FY27 revenue guidance, indicating the business is still in early stages of development.
The company's smart metering business accounts for ₹1,491 crore or 15.54% of the total order book, with installation completion at 77% by June 2026 and full completion targeted by end of FY27. According to The Financial Express, once meters are installed, the company receives 93 months of contracted operations and maintenance revenue, transforming the capital-intensive installation business into recurring cash flows. The company maintains a net cash position with reserves of ₹4,134 crore and borrowings of ₹72 crore, providing financial flexibility for its expansion strategy.
