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Hitachi Energy plugs into profit as revenues surge in Q3 FY26
MUMBAI: Power flows may ebb and surge, but Hitachi Energy India Limited clearly had the current on its side in the December quarter. The energy and power technology major reported a sharp jump in profitability for Q3 FY26, riding strong revenue growth and improved operating margins, even as fresh order inflows moderated from last year’s highs.
For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Hitachi Energy India posted revenue from operations of Rs 2,168 crore, up 29.6 percent year on year from Rs 1,672 crore in Q3 FY25 and 13.2 percent sequentially from Rs 1,915 crore in Q2 FY26. Including other income, total income for the quarter stood at Rs 2,168 crore, reflecting sustained execution momentum across projects and services.
Profitability surged far faster than topline growth. Profit before tax, before exceptional items, more than doubled to Rs 402 crore, compared with Rs 184 crore a year earlier. After accounting for an exceptional charge of Rs 54 crore linked to the impact of new labour codes, profit before tax came in at Rs 348 crore, still up nearly 89 percent year on year. Net profit for the quarter rose 90.3 percent to Rs 261 crore, compared with Rs 137 crore in the same period last year, even as it remained largely flat sequentially.
Margins told an equally strong story. PBT margin expanded to 16.0 percent in Q3 FY26 from 11.0 percent a year earlier, while profit after tax margin improved to 12.1 percent from 8.2 percent. Operating EBITDA jumped 100.4 percent year on year to Rs 338 crore, with margins expanding to 15.6 percent, signalling tighter cost control and operating leverage.
On a nine-month basis, revenue for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 5,604 crore, up from Rs 4,520 crore in the corresponding period last year. Profit before tax for the nine months surged to Rs 878 crore, more than three times the Rs 270 crore reported a year earlier, while net profit climbed to Rs 657 crore, compared with Rs 200 crore in the previous period.
The only soft patch came on the order book. New orders in Q3 FY26 stood at Rs 2,478 crore, sharply lower than Rs 11,594 crore in Q3 FY25, when the company had benefited from a large one-off order win. Excluding that outsized contract, management noted that orders actually grew 73.7 percent year on year, underlining steady underlying demand. Sequentially, orders rose 11.7 percent from Rs 2,217 crore in Q2 FY26. For the nine months, total orders edged up to Rs 16,034 crore, broadly in line with Rs 15,983 crore a year earlier.
With revenues accelerating, margins widening and execution staying on track, Hitachi Energy India’s Q3 numbers suggest that while headline order comparisons may flicker, the business is firmly switched on when it comes to profits.
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UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
