Schneider Electric Infra Q1FY27: standalone PAT falls 70% YoY on raw material cost surge

Schneider Electric Infrastructure's standalone PAT fell 69.8% YoY to ₹12.44 Cr (from ₹41.24 Cr in Q1 FY26) even as revenue from operations grew 4.8% YoY to ₹651.4 Cr — a clean YoY comparison since neither period carries exceptional items. Sequentially, revenue rose 10.5% QoQ but PAT fell 43.4% QoQ from ₹21.97 Cr, though that base was inflated by a ₹10.41 Cr one-off gratuity-provision reversal booked in Q4 FY26 (note 4) that doesn't recur here. EPS came in at ₹0.52 versus ₹1.72 a year ago and ₹0.92 last quarter. The squeeze is concentrated in raw materials: cost of materials consumed rose 28.5% YoY to ₹457.3 Cr, taking it to 70.2% of revenue versus 57.2% a year ago — a roughly 13-point jump that alone explains most of the margin compression. Gross margin came in near 35.4%, below the ₹625-650 Cr revenue / 37-38% gross-margin range flagged in our pre-result preview. Finance costs added further pressure, up 40.7% YoY to ₹15.15 Cr, alongside a 14.8% YoY rise in employee costs to ₹99.5 Cr. Net profit margin compressed to 1.9% from 6.6% a year ago (3.7% last quarter); operating margin (EBIT/revenue) fell to roughly 5.2% from 11.2% YoY. This directly confirms the caution management flagged after Q4 FY26 — a cautiously optimistic near-term outlook citing forex and raw-material headwinds, specifically copper and steel — while the offsetting tailwind they cited (government capex, central-utility outlay) has yet to show up in revenue growth, which remains modest at 4.8% YoY against a reported 50%+ YoY order-backlog build entering the quarter; this filing does not disclose fresh order-inflow or backlog figures to verify conversion. No formal analyst PAT consensus for this quarter was found in a web search, so the print cannot be graded against Street numbers directly; management has not issued a separate press release commentary in the materials reviewed. The same board meeting also cleared a revision of Kolkata plant capex to ₹291.2 Cr (announced July 3) and several leadership changes — Soumya Bagchi's elevation to Whole-Time Director and Nirupa Chander's appointment as a Non-Executive Director — none of which affect this quarter's P&L. A ₹12.16 Lakh CENVAT penalty from a lost tax appeal (July 30) is immaterial to the numbers. Going into Q2 FY27, the key question is whether the reported order backlog growth starts converting into faster topline growth, and whether copper/steel costs ease from their current elevated share of revenue.