Reference

Glossary & KPIs

The metrics and terms that come up in coverage conversations, defined in plain English.

$/kWh Electric Vehicles: Battery pack cost per kilowatt-hour of capacity. Because the pack is the largest cost in an EV, this figure drives price parity with ICE vehicles.
Aftermarket / MRO Aerospace & Defence: Spares, maintenance, repair and overhaul revenue. It typically carries higher margins and more recurring income than original-equipment sales.
Backlog (aircraft) Aerospace & Defence: Firm orders not yet delivered. Airbus and Boeing backlogs of several years support supplier visibility.
Book-to-bill General Industrials: Order inflow divided by revenue. A ratio above 1.0x means the backlog is growing.
Buy (Indian-IDDM) Aerospace & Defence: The highest-priority DAP category, for products that are Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured. It typically requires at least 50% indigenous content.
Control premium General / Deal terms: The excess over the unaffected share price that an acquirer pays for control, often 20–40% in public M&A.
DAP 2020 Aerospace & Defence: Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, the rulebook for capital procurement by the Indian armed forces. It defines the buy categories and their indigenous-content requirements.
Demerger / record date General / Deal terms: A split of a company's businesses into separate entities, with shareholders receiving shares in the new entity. Shareholders on the record date are entitled to the new shares.
EPC General Industrials: Engineering, Procurement and Construction: turnkey project contracting. Margins are thin and working capital is heavy, so execution risk sits with the contractor.
EV/EBITDA General / Deal terms: Enterprise value divided by EBITDA. It is the default trading and transaction multiple for industrials because it is capital-structure neutral.
GST 2.0 Automobiles: The 2025 rationalisation of GST rates that lowered taxes on many vehicle categories. Buyers deferred purchases ahead of it, which distorts year-on-year comparisons for September 2025.
Inventory days Automobiles: Dealer stock expressed as days of sales. Elevated levels point to discounting and future production cuts.
LFP vs NMC Electric Vehicles: The two dominant lithium-ion cell chemistries. LFP (lithium iron phosphate) is cheaper, safer and longer-lasting but less energy-dense. NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) offers more range per kg at a higher cost and with more commodity exposure.
LTA Aerospace & Defence: Long-Term Agreement between an aero OEM and a supplier that sets volume shares and pricing for a programme, often over 5–10 years.
Net working capital days General Industrials: Receivable days plus inventory days minus payable days. This is a key cash-conversion metric for capital goods and EPC companies.
Offsets Aerospace & Defence: Obligations on foreign OEMs to reinvest part of a contract's value in Indian industry, historically a route to aerostructure and component work.
OFS General / Deal terms: Offer for Sale: existing shareholders sell shares in an IPO or follow-on, so the proceeds go to the sellers rather than the company.
Order inflow / order book General Industrials: New contracts won in a period, and the total unexecuted backlog. Order book divided by trailing revenue gives years of revenue visibility.
Penetration Electric Vehicles: EV sales as a share of total sales in a segment, for example e-2W units divided by all 2W units. This is the main measure of how far the transition has progressed.
PLI (ACC / Auto) Electric Vehicles: Production Linked Incentive schemes that reward incremental domestic sales of Advanced Chemistry Cells and of advanced automotive technology. Eligibility depends on localisation and investment thresholds.
PM E-DRIVE Electric Vehicles: India's demand-incentive scheme for e-2W, e-3W, e-buses, e-trucks and charging infrastructure, which succeeded FAME-II.
Positive Indigenisation List Aerospace & Defence: MoD lists of items that can no longer be imported after specified dates, which creates a guaranteed domestic market for local suppliers.
Powertrain mix Automobiles: The split of sales across petrol, diesel, CNG, hybrid and EV. It matters for supplier exposure and capex allocation.
Precedent transactions General / Deal terms: A valuation method that applies multiples paid in comparable past M&A deals. These multiples usually include a control premium.
Price variation clause (PVC) General Industrials: A contract term that passes commodity cost changes on to the customer. Fixed-price contracts without a PVC expose margins to steel, copper and aluminium price swings.
QIP General / Deal terms: Qualified Institutional Placement: a fast-track equity raise by a listed Indian company from qualified institutional buyers.
Realisation / ASP Automobiles: Average revenue per vehicle sold, driven by mix (SUVs, premium models), pricing and exports.
Retail vs wholesale (dispatches) Automobiles: Retail is registrations to end customers (FADA and Vahan). Wholesale is factory dispatches to dealers (SIAM and company data). The gap between the two shows whether channel inventory is building or being drawn down.
T&D General Industrials: Power transmission and distribution: transformers, switchgear, cables, substations and HVDC links.
Vahan Electric Vehicles: MoRTH's national vehicle registration database. It is the standard source for monthly EV registration data in India.