High margins, global orders, clean energy bets. Is Triveni the midcap Tata Power?

Indian Express

29-05-2025

In 2020, Triveni Turbine was a steady industrial player known for its steam turbines, mostly serving sugar mills and process industries.
Fast-forward to FY25, and the picture has changed dramatically.
The company recently reported its highest-ever revenue of Rs 2,005 crore, along with Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) of Rs 517 crore, and Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs 358 crore.
Its order book stands at a record Rs 2,362 crore, exports now contribute nearly half its revenue, and it's even building a CO₂-based energy storage system for NTPC, a first-of-its-kind in India. What started as a steam turbine manufacturer is now quietly becoming a key enabler of clean energy and decentralised power, both in India and abroad.
The stock has rallied accordingly, up nearly 3.5x in the last three years. But with valuation multiples running hot and new segments still scaling, one needs to ask: Is this just the beginning of a longer upcycle, or is most of the good news already priced in?
Let's break it down.
What does Triveni Turbine do?
Triveni's business is at the intersection of energy, engineering, and the clean-tech shift.
The company builds and services steam turbines of up to 100 MW capacity, often used in power generation for industries like sugar, chemicals, cement, oil & gas, and waste-to-energy.
These turbines aren't powering city grids; they're running industrial plants that need their own, decentralised energy sources.
A business built on three strong pillars
Triveni's revenue model revolves around three main engines:
1. Industrial turbine manufacturing (core product business)
This is Triveni's bread and butter: engineered-to-order steam turbines sold to industrial clients and independent power producers across the world.
In FY25, the product segment clocked Rs 1,363 crore in revenue, up 22% YoY. New order booking reached Rs 1,741 crore, marking a 38% YoY jump, the highest ever in the company's history.
This growth was driven by sectors like biomass, process co-gen, sugar distilleries, chemical factories, and waste-to-energy plants.
Triveni has also gained ground in the API (American Petroleum Institute) turbine segment, supplying to global oil refiners and petrochemical majors. These turbines meet stricter design and performance specs and fetch premium pricing.
The demand isn't just domestic. The company is present in over 80 countries, with more than 6,000 turbines installed globally, and is building a credible brand in high-quality industrial turbines.
2. Aftermarket services: Recurring revenue
Steam turbines need regular maintenance, spares, and upgrades, especially in mission-critical plants. Triveni's aftermarket segment provides exactly that, often for the entire lifecycle of the turbine, which can span 15-30 years.
In FY25, aftermarket revenue hit Rs 642 crore, up 19% YoY. It now makes up 32% of overall revenue.
The company booked Rs 6,216 crore in aftermarket orders during the year, largely flat YoY but healthy in absolute terms.
This segment is a high-margin cushion, it continues to grow even when new industrial capex is slow.
3. Global expansion: Exports and subsidiaries leading the way
A big part of Triveni's success story is happening outside India.
In FY25, exports contributed 48% of revenue, compared to 46% in FY24 and 41% in FY23. Export turnover grew by 26% YoY, reaching Rs 967 crore.
Export order booking stood at Rs 1,258 crore, making up 53% of total orders.
To serve global markets better, Triveni has set up fully owned subsidiaries in the UK (Europe HQ), Dubai (Middle East hub), South Africa (Africa servicing), and Texas, USA (entry into North America).
While the US business is still in its early phase, the management is bullish, especially in sectors like geothermal, pulp & paper, and industrial gas turbines.
Tariff hurdles may have slowed initial traction, but Triveni has begun localising operations and may even manufacture turbines in the US if needed.
Together, these three engines — core turbines, aftermarket, and exports — are what powered Triveni's transformation from a steady industrial player to a clean-energy growth story.
Next, we'll look at how a first-of-its-kind project with NTPC may signal a bigger pivot for the company, from just making turbines to enabling India's energy transition.
The clean energy pivot: More than just steam
For years, Triveni Turbine quietly built its reputation by serving traditional industries like sugar, textiles, and cement. But over the last three years, the company has deliberately repositioned itself as a partner in clean energy and decarbonisation.
And the biggest sign of that shift? A Rs 2.9 billion order from NTPC that has almost nothing to do with conventional steam turbines, and everything to do with the future of renewable energy storage.
The NTPC-Kudgi project: A glimpse into the future
In January 2025, Triveni secured a landmark contract from NTPC to set up a 160 MWh long-duration CO₂-based energy storage system (ESS) at its Kudgi thermal power plant in Karnataka. This isn't just a big-ticket order, it's a first-of-its-kind pilot in India, and only a handful of such projects exist globally.
So, how does it work? The system, developed in partnership with Italian firm Energy Dome, uses supercritical CO₂ in a closed-loop cycle to store and release energy. When excess renewable power is available (say, solar at noon), the system compresses and stores CO₂ in liquid form.
When power is needed (like at night), it releases the gas, drives a turbine, and pushes energy back into the grid.
It's clean, scalable, and built for the intermittency problem of renewables.
Why this matters for Triveni
This order does three things for the company:
1. Proves it can play in futuristic, high-tech energy segments. Until now, energy storage was seen as the domain of lithium-ion batteries or pumped hydro. Triveni has now stepped into the conversation with a differentiated solution.
2. Establishes credibility in grid-scale clean energy projects. NTPC is India's largest power utility. Delivering a complex, first-of-its-kind project for NTPC could open doors for similar projects across the country, and even globally.
3. Creates a new business vertical, if it works. The company has called this a 'proof of concept.' If successful, CO₂-based energy storage could become a product category of its own, expanding Triveni's addressable market well beyond steam turbines.
Clean energy is already embedded in the core business
Even outside this CO₂ project, clean and decentralised energy already makes up a big chunk of Triveni's order book.
In FY25:
In short, Triveni is already riding two energy transition megatrends:
The NTPC project might just be the first visible symbol of a deeper strategic shift that's already underway.
FY25 at a glance: Record-breaking numbers
So what's behind this steady margin expansion?
1. Higher Exports = Higher Margins
In FY25, Triveni's export revenue grew 26% YoY, compared to 17% growth domestically.
2. Favourable product mix
The company has been tactically shifting its focus from small, low-margin turbines to more complex, high-margin products, especially API turbines for global oil & gas players, power turbines for international energy clients, and CO₂-based ESS projects, which offer turnkey margins comparable to large industrial contracts.
This mix shift has been a major contributor to the 280 basis point jump in operating margins between FY24 and FY25.
3. Operating leverage kicking in
As revenue crosses the Rs 2,000 crore-mark, Triveni is now seeing fixed costs spread across a higher base, especially in areas like:
R&D and engineering (which are being scaled globally)
Aftermarket service (where incremental customers drive disproportionate margins)
International subsidiaries (which took time to scale, but are now contributing meaningfully)
4. Tight control over costs
Despite global inflation in raw materials (especially steel and alloys), Triveni's cost controls have held up:
Key financial ratios that stand out
This is capital-efficient, margin-accretive growth, the kind long-term investors love.
That said, the next question is natural: Can this momentum continue, or is Triveni nearing peak profitability?
Orders in hand, eyes on the horizon: Can growth sustain?
Management commentary suggests cautious confidence. Here's what they see as Triveni's next drivers:
1. Export Expansion
The company is doubling down on exports, especially in:
With new local entities like Triveni Turbines Americas (Texas), the company aims to reduce friction and eventually localise part of manufacturing if needed.
2. CO₂ storage as a scalable segment
The NTPC-Kudgi project is seen as a 'proof-of-concept,' but if it succeeds, Triveni believes it could replicate the model across India and even internationally. The margins are comparable to the turbine business, but the TAM could be much larger.
3. Aftermarket deepening
More turbines on the ground = more servicing revenue. And unlike capital goods, aftermarket is sticky, high-margin, and recurring. Triveni is expanding offerings to cover even non-Triveni turbines, including gas, geothermal, and utility-grade machines.
But what about valuation?
That brings us to the trickiest part. Triveni's stock has had a solid run and is no longer cheap.
At a recent price of ~Rs 580-600, the stock trades at:
Is it justified? Let's map out a few scenarios.
Valuation Scenarios (FY26E)
Scenario
EPS (FY26E)
P/E Multiple
Implied Price
Conservative (with 16% growth in EPS)
₹13
35x
₹455
Base Case (with 25% growth in EPS)
₹14
40x
₹560
Bullish Upside (with 34% growth in EPS)
₹15
45x
₹675
Note: This is not a prediction of where the stock price could head. It's just an if-then calculation for acade
Upside from here depends on one or more of the following happening:
Risks include:
Note: This is not a prediction of where the stock price could head. It's just an if-then calculation for academic purposes.
So is it still a buy?
That depends on your lens.
If you're a long-term investor betting on India's energy transition and want exposure to industrial clean tech, Triveni offers moated leadership, consistent earnings, and a clean balance sheet.
If you're a value-conscious buyer, much of the near-term optimism may already be priced in.
Either way, Triveni is no longer just a steam turbine company. It's a clean-energy engineering play with global ambitions, and over the next few years, it'll either scale into that potential or find itself in a high bar vs high multiple dilemma.
Note: This article relies on data from annual and industry reports. We have used our assumptions for forecasting.
Parth Parikh has over a decade of experience in finance and research and currently heads the growth and content vertical at Finsire. He holds an FRM Charter along with an MBA in Finance from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.
Disclosure: The writer and his dependents do not hold the stocks discussed in this article.
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