01 — At a Glance
Pumping Water, Waiting for Cash — The WPIL Story
- 52-Week High / Low₹524 / ₹342
- Q3 FY26 Revenue₹539 Cr
- Q3 FY26 PAT₹76 Cr
- Q3 FY26 EPS₹5.56
- Annualised EPS (Avg Q1–Q3 × 4)₹15.73
- Book Value₹151
- Price to Book2.57x
- Debt / Equity0.39x
- Debtor Days168
- 3-Month Return+2.58%
Detective’s Opening File: WPIL just posted ₹539 Cr in Q3 FY26 revenue — up 41% YoY — and PAT of ₹76 Cr, more than double the year-ago quarter. A South African subsidiary won contracts worth ₹1,340+ crore. The Rajasthan Eastern Canal bagged a ₹320 Cr 30-MW pump order — the same engineering feat they pulled off at Kaleshwaram. The mystery? International business is booming (60% of revenues), the order book is swelling at ₹5,000+ crore, and yet the stock is flat over one year. The prime suspect: ₹300 crore stuck in Jal Jeevan Mission’s pockets and a working capital cycle stretched to 168 debtor days. Classic government client — all praise, no payment.
02 — Introduction
Pumps, Projects, and the Art of Not Getting Paid on Time
WPIL Ltd. Established 1952. Named after a Johnston Pump Company US venture that likely had no idea it would one day be winning billion-Rand contracts in South Africa while simultaneously chasing state water departments in India for payment. Life has a rich sense of humour.
For the uninitiated: WPIL makes large pumps. Not the boring centrifugal ones you find in your apartment basement. We are talking 30-megawatt metallic volute pumps — the kind that lift rivers over mountains for irrigation. They also execute entire water supply projects on a turnkey basis for state governments, municipalities, and industrial clients. It is essentially a company that moves water across India and increasingly across the world, and then waits politely for invoices to be cleared.
In FY24, the company had a spectacular blip — ₹684 Cr PAT — owing to a one-time gain from selling its nuclear pump subsidiary (Rutschi) to Newcleo France for €68.9 million. That was a one-time feast. Since then, it’s back to the real business of pump engineering. And Q3 FY26 shows real business is actually doing quite well, particularly if you ignore the JJM receivables situation, which — to be fair — management would also prefer you did.
International operations now contribute roughly 60% of consolidated revenues. A quiet transformation: in FY22, India was 57% and international was 43%. That ratio has completely flipped. Acquisitions in Italy, South Africa, and Australia have turned WPIL into a genuine global water infrastructure company. The stock hasn’t entirely noticed yet.
Concall Note (Feb 2026): “International is now around 60% of revenues.” — WPIL Management. Three years ago it was 43%. That’s not an incremental shift; that’s a strategic reinvention wearing the clothes of a boring pump manufacturer.
03 — Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?
They Move Water. Professionally. Globally. Slowly.
Picture a civil engineering firm that also manufactures the giant pumps it installs and then sometimes sticks around to operate them. That’s WPIL. Their two main segments are Products (pumps, accessories — now ~49% of revenues) and Projects (turnkey water supply EPC — ~51% of revenues). One builds things. The other installs things. Both need the same government to eventually pay for them.
The product portfolio ranges from conventional municipal water pumps to bespoke 30 MW engineered giants for river-linking irrigation schemes. They have 12 manufacturing facilities for casting, fabrication, machining, and testing — real industrial infrastructure, not just an Excel sheet calling itself a manufacturer.
Internationally, they operate through six subsidiaries: Gruppo Aturia and Finder in Italy, APE Pumps and Mather & Platt (rebranded as PCI Africa after acquiring Paterson Candy International in June 2025) in South Africa, and Sterling Pumps and United Pumps in Australia. In January 2025, they also quietly acquired MISA S.R.L. in Italy. By December 2025, Eigenbau in South Africa won a significant Nigeria contract. This is M&A at a pace that would make investment bankers nostalgic.
Q3 Revenue₹539 Cr+41% YoY
EBITDA Margin20.9%Q3 FY26
Intl. Revenue~60%of Total
Order Backlog₹5,229 CrProducts + Projects
O&M Ambition: Management is now building an Operations & Maintenance business on top of its EPC projects. Current stage: early traction. Target: O&M forms 25–30% of project revenues in 5 years. These are service contracts, not annuities — but proximity to customer assets means maintenance work and future upgrades flow naturally. A slow-burn recurring revenue story hiding inside a capital-goods company.
💬 Tell us: did you even know there was an Indian company pumping water in South Africa and Nigeria? Drop a comment!
04 — Financials Overview
Q3 FY26: The Numbers That Woke Up the Market
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