Max India Limited (MAXIND) Q2 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q2 at H1F527 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Max India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing start and zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajat Mehta, MD and CEO from Max India Ltd. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you. Namaste, everybody, and a very good evening to all of you. On behalf of Max India Ltd, a very warm welcome to all of you on the Q2FI 27 earnings call. Once again, sincerely appreciate your continued interest, your trust and confidence, and your support. It's invaluable for us as we progress our journey to strengthen our businesses and remain focused on creating long-term value for our stakeholders. Also, I appreciate the time you have taken off today to join us. With me and my colleagues, Dishan Khanna, the CEO for Antara's District Care Services, Ajay Agarwal, who is the Deputy CEO, CFO, Antara's Inner Living, and Head of Investor Relations, Sundeep Partag, the CFO for MaxIndia, and Legal Head for MaxIndia. Anankit, who's the CFO for Dara Assisted Care, Abhishek Kumar Singh, part of our IR team, and from SGA, we have Rahul and Dev Raj. We uploaded the deck a little while ago. I'm sure some of you may have a chance to glance through it. It's actually been quite a hectic quarter. In fact, hectic six months. We have been very focused on execution, and we've been able to overcome some of the challenges. And now we can see the positive results across all the business verticals. There is clarity on future expansion, and some of this will become clearer as we make announcements over the next few months. On a consolidated basis, a very healthy growth on Y&Y and on quarter-on-quarter basis, on top line, and also the losses have substantially reduced. We have successfully handed over possession to more than 200 residents in the Noida community, which is the second community which is now becoming operational, or 340 residents. So very positive, you know, development, a very important milestone for the company. The residents have been waiting for quite some time, and we are very happy finally we've been able to welcome them to the Antara family. The entire facility is entirely, you know, is all operational now, and we are making every effort to ensure that the residents have a seamless and pleasant experience. Both Estates 360 and 361, which were intergenerational projects. We are also progressing, you know, as per plan, with very good sales velocity coming through on 361. 360 was sold out already. And I will discuss some of these details as we go forward. With the completion of Antara Noida and a stable Gurgaon sales, we are now actively pursuing growth in other geographies. For Bengaluru, the diligence is about to conclude, and we have already started discussions around the definitive agreements. This is a 6.5 lakh square feet. Development with a potential sales value of approximately 900 crores. This is a pure DM arrangement, wherein Antara provides its know-how on design, will also handle sales, marketing, and also become the operator for the community. And we earn a pro fee based on top line of the project. As stated in the last quarter, we have been pursuing another opportunity in Dehradoon. Again, estimated sales potential of INR 850-900 crores. Relatively small in scale, but quite boutique, and we are leveraging the existing brand we already have. There's a long wait list of people wanting units, you know, in Deiradun. And we'll make formal announcements as and when we formalize all the arrangements. There are a few more projects in Delhi and here, and one more location in South India, for which disclosures will be made as we close the commercials. But our commitment of 1,800 raw sales value every year will be more than met for the next few years, depending on how we close the company. The expansion of our care home and AGC business is progressing as planned. On a Q&Q basis, the business delivered a 55% growth in top line. Occupancy across 485 beds in care homes is gradually increasing, and the consistent quarter-on-quarter growth in revenue gives us confidence now to explore other growth opportunities in the latter part of the year. The contribution margin for the same capacity in care homes has improved from minus 86 to minus 19 percent. AGC is also witnessing a significant growth with revenue and all key financial metrics improving significantly compared to previous years across all channels. The CM2 trajectory for AGC, which is very important since we have made a commitment that we will be EBITDA break-even in the last quarter of this year, is also progressing well and is now steadily down to below minus 20 in Q2 versus minus 48 in Q1. Our focus remains on making sure that we meet our promise on this one. Now, let me share some numbers to substantiate what I have said so far. First, on a consolidated basis, coming to financial performance, all our financial measures are showing upward trend. The consoled revenue is up to 95.5 crores in Q2 F527 as compared to 50 crores in Q2 F526, representing a Y&Y growth of 90.4% as compared to quarter, it's a 40% growth. The revenue 68.6 was his. The revenue in Q1 F527. The EBITDA loss for Q2 F527 stood at 11.4 growth, which is half of what is stood in Q2 F526, which was 20.3, and 24.9 in Q1 F527, reflecting a 55 reduction by and by and 54% on Q1 Q basis. The reduction in EBITDA loss alongside revenue growth demonstrated a continued progress towards profitability. The improvement has primarily been driven by higher revenues and cost optimization across all verticals, but as you know, the ASL business, which we have said many times is lumpy in nature, depends on the construction link payment, so that could go up and down depending on when the milestones are crossed, but our focus remains on improving gross margins, optimizing costs, and driving overall profitability. As of September 30th, 2026, the Treasury assets at Max India stood at 52 crores, with a consoled net worth of 395 crores. Now, coming to the residencies business, starting with Deiradun, which is a very stable community now, steady profits, steady revenue. Our focus is entirely on making sure that the resident engagement experience, you know, is to stop class while maintaining consistent profitability. The operating revenue was 6.5 crores in Q2, up 13.4% buy-on-y basis, and 5.6% Q1Q basis. The operating profit was INR 0.94, up 25% buy-on-y, and 1.8% quarter-on-quarter. There were three units which were released during the quarter, which gave us additional revenue of approximately INR 2 crores as marketing fee. And the satisfaction index also was 89%, very stable over the last few quarters. As regards NOIDA, in Q2 FY27, we collected 113.8 crores. If you recall, we had to collect totally about 169 crores. As we speak of that, about 163 crores has already been collected. So two or three customers were awaiting bank approvals. So that should also be in the next month or so. We earned a management fee of about roughly 10 crores from this project in FY27. And now we are eagerly awaiting the acceptance of the resolution plan, which has been submitted by a lead developer on the sports sector, because once that gets, you know, on record by not authority, we can then apply for our revalidation of building plan for phase two. Just to remind you, during COVID, when we had started to sell this community, and all sales were clocked in the first, you know, two years or so, and therefore phase one, you know, didn't see much profits. However, in view of the robust market, Just to recall the numbers, we have started selling phase 1 at about 3,500, 7,000 rupees. The market price today is about 18,000 rupees for phase 2. So that should be a decent profit for us, and therefore overall project IRRs, we will achieve 15 to 17 percent. Coming to Gurgaon, which was the first international project, a straight 360, the inventory is already sold out, collection continues to be strong. 28.5 crores for the quarter of ITD 51 crores and ITD 585 crores on this project. We earned about 2.6 crores DMV in this quarter and in H1 we earned 4.72 crores DMV. ITD DMV earned is 50.3 crores. The second project, which is Estate 361, which is adjacent to 360, we launched, if you recall, 180 units in December 25 and 180 balanced in June. In a very short period, we've been able to sell, you know, about 263 units as we stand today. 127 was sold in FY26. So about 97 units to go. The first 180 are totally gone and only 97 left in the second lot. The total collection for the quarter has been 69.2 crores, and ITD, 177.4 crores, and we earned a management fee of about 4.9, and overall ITD earnings are 12.8 crores. We have a very healthy sales velocity in the last quarter, about 31 is the average 50 crores. Totally earned management fees are 17 crores in Q2, FI27, and 23 crores in H1 from the combined 360, 361, and NOIDA sector 150 projects. So that's the story on residences. On care homes and services, the care home services revenues were up by 12.28 crores, up by 40%, Y&Y and 6% in Q&Q basis. The care homes revenue has increased 3x from Y&R 3 crores to Y&R 9 crores over the last 5 and 6 quarters. If you remember, if you map the last 6 quarters, we were about 3, went to 4, 5 and now 9 crores. Occupancy has shown a similar trend. If I look at H1, you know, the occupancy ranges between 16 to 40 percent depending on the care home, and if I add the September exit, we are now witnessing in some care homes occupancies of 52, 55, 48, 47 percent respectively. Four of the eight care homes align with or better than the plan, which makes 80 percent of our capacity not performing closer to plan. We are confident in the next few months the remaining care homes will also get traction. Occupancy for all the beds in Q1, Q2, F2 and 27 is 29% compared to 26% in the previous quarter. The occupancy for old beds has moved up from 21 to 36% in the last few quarters. Sector 41, Gurgaon, 37% in Q2 and 29 in Q1. Chennai UMR, 21 versus 12, same period. Noida, 31 versus 27. And DLFK, Rome, 45% within three months of launch. Our care homes and services have served over 2,700 patients so far during Q2F527 and about 55,000 since inception. The overall customer voice should act about 92% in Q2F527, again reflecting consistency and quality of care and service we are delivering. Overall, the CM2 improved a lot from negative 107 to 63% Y on Y and marginally dropped from negative 62 to 63 on Q on Q basis. Coming now to the RPOP in Q2F527 was about 6,900, and average RPOP increasing steadily over the last six quarters from INR 5800 to INR 6900, with a peak RPOP of about 8,400 for all fresh move-ins in September 26 exit. This reflects the increasing appreciation of the quality of our services and the willingness by customers to pay a premium for the same. On AGZ, we achieved a net revenue of 35 crores in Q2F527, showing a 1.7 times Y&Y growth and a 1.9 times Q&Q growth, primarily driven by marketplaces and offline channels. AGZ recorded its highest ever monthly revenue of INR 14.9 crores in September 26, which makes the exit ARR more towards 180 crores. The overall ROAS, which is Return on Ad Spend, A measure of efficiency and of customer, you know, brand pool for us in Q2 FY27 improved to 4.7 versus Q1 FY27 exit of 2. This is a 135% growth in marketing efficiencies as compared to previous quarter. Oral CM2. Y on Y from negative 44 to 29, and from Q on Q from 48 to 18.5%, with a further improvement to 11% in September. So the more it is trends towards zero and then eventually positive is when we start seeing EBITDA break-even. So we're on its path to meet the commitment we have made to all of you. The gross margins remain under pressure due to the geopolitical situation in Middle East, which is impacting logistics costs. We are able to maintain the online G2C and marketplaces at 45% in Q2-FI27 exit, and the satisfaction index remains stable at 82% unchanged from Q1-FI27. We are also pleased that products, which is one of our biggest differentiators, the portfolio now has 10 patents, 8 design and 2 utility. We used to have 6 earlier, now it has become 10. Covering our senior-focused innovative products, of which four have been granted and six have been filed, including one, international filing. This reinforces our commitment to continuous innovation and developing senior-specific differentiated solutions for seniors. This will also serve as a very strong competitive moat, trending on market positioning and creating a sustainable competitive advantage. AGD so far has touched about 11.7 lakh lives. With 1.14 lakh repeat customers served since inception, and achieved an NPS of 49 in H1 FY27, again reflecting improving customer stickiness as usage depends, you know, deepens over time. AGZ continued to strengthen its brand presence by leveraging the Anupam Kherkamp campaign, which achieved a reach of 25 million during Q2 FY27 alongside regional campaigns and influencer-led initiatives. These efforts translated into encouraging demand indicators with brand searches increasing by over 50% and direct website traffic more than doubling between April and August 2026. We are also creating about 100 current content assets every month to drive customer engagement and product awareness. Today, over 5 lakh families trust AGC, reflecting our growing brand reach in customer confidence. The PBD in care homes and services, ADZ improved from minus 60, 6, 8 in Q2, FI 27, versus 106 in Q1, FI 27. Strong endorsement by customers and by customers and everybody else on the brand. We are pleased to share AGC was recognized as Service Provider of the Year, Medical Devices and Equipment, at the sixth edition of the EET Healthcare Awards 2026. Additionally, we have four care homes now, which have been certified by NABH, and our care at home services in Chennai and in NCR have been certified by the Healthcare Sector Sales Council. These recognitions reaffirm our commitment to quality, service excellence in delivering trusted senior care solutions. With that, I'll stop here and welcome any questions.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use answers while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Harsh Kudani from ABS Alpha. Please go ahead.

And a couple of questions from my end. Firstly, just double-clicking on AGZ, excellent monthly run rate, you know, how much of this would you attribute to seasonality versus, you know, something that you see as sustainable increase, whether or not, you know, product level or otherwise? And, also, there was a sharp bump up in the offline revenue in the AGZ part. So, any reason for that? Are you increasing your SKUs out there or increasing your reach? How to read into it?

Hi, Harsh. Shishan here. How are you? On your first thing on the seasonality, we've always said that there is an inherent impact of two things, mostly on the AGZ trajectory. One is obviously the festive period, which is where the marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, etc., they do their sales, so that obviously bumps it up, and we saw that impact in September. The second is the impact of weather and the onset of winter season, because that is when products like nebulizers, kneecaps, that... But if I talk about the big search that you saw, because it was a combination of all the three channels put together, 75% or 80% of this is sustainable. Some of that will get rationalized in the month of October.

Second question is on the cost side. There has been a bump up in the employee expenses. Now, obviously, this would be because of the newer projects getting access. So, where should, you know, one see stabilization from an employee cost standpoint? And if someone could also, you know, help us understand what is the nature of this operational expenses for assisted care line item? To understand, you know, how this line item could move.

I think the employee calls Harsha primarily a function of three things. One is in order to get operationalized and therefore addition of manpower. Back now, labor code, and the revised PF, revelation that came through. So all are, you know, coming. Those two were unhappy.

First, which is Operational Expenses Assisted Care, it's primarily...

And, to answer your third question, when you said when is this going to get stable, so frankly, the corporate costs... and that place, there is only replacement of any vacancy which happens because of normal iteration. It will always be available, as Raditz sir rightly pointed, will be able to as and when we are going to add more communities. As a DMV, operations will see a much higher surge. But you know, when I go for new geographies, new communities, then also we'll have some addition in our manpower costs, which we will take for specific projects. So that will keep on growing.

So we will only see variable employee costs going up when we set up new projects, new geographies, or new care homes. Only then you will see, otherwise you will find stability.

That's quite it. Thanks for this, and all the best.

Thank you, Ash.

Thank you. Participants who wish us to ask a question, please press start and 1. Next question is from the line of Kostar Bhubna from Kamana Holding. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. So, I have a couple of questions. The first one is on the revenue recognition in your residential business. I wanted to understand the 10% odd fees that you earn on collections from sales of Max Estate units. I wanted to understand... How is it recognized? Is it recognized at the point of when the money is collected from Max's state or when the project is complete? When does Max India show it in the income statement and the cash flows?

So it is based on collection, which has been done by Max's state. So the collection comes. We charge 9.5% on such revenue, minus the pass-throughs, minus the brokerage cost being paid. That is the commercial arrangement between Max Estate and us. So, when we get paid by Max Estate, we recognize it. Correct. As in when we raise the invoice, we recognize it.

Okay, so it's not when the project is completed, it's in real time as collections happen.

Correct, sir. Because that is the time when I get it accrued, this income gets accrued and I ask that.

Excellent. Now in the assisted care business, I wanted to understand, you know, currently our average revenue for operating bread is around 6,000, 7,000. In three to five years, as this business becomes... The steady state.

All that goes to make the RCOF and

on the horizon of the RCOF. One can say that in the next 12 months, the aspiration is to take this closer to 9000 rupees, and that will happen as more and more.

Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and 1. Next question is from the line of Nikhil Gupta from Vaju Capital. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. My first question is on finance income from the Dehradun community and the treasury income which is accrued to our senior care vertical. Can you please highlight those numbers, please?

Yeah, so, Nikhil, the financially income is approximately 15 crores for this quarter, similar to what we earned last quarter. And what is the other income you asked for? Treasury income. The Treasury income at Max Indelay.

No, the Treasury income under the residence is vertical.

Residences vertical is showing a total other income of approximately 10.7 of which 2.7 gets eliminated. So it's 8 crore rupees. This income will include the income what we are earning from treasury and also on the loans what we have given to content which is a joint venture company.

My last question is on Noida, our community. I missed the number of the DMV we collected this quarter, and I think when we last spoke, we mentioned that we will be doing the counting this quarter, and whatever the 40%, I forget that number, that the share of our loss will be attributed to this quarter, but I cannot see that numbers as of now. Maybe I'm missing something, so can we highlight in that aspect?

For NOIDA, one, we have recognized the revenue this year. We have done 127 handovers, plus four registries were done. So we have recognized the revenue for 131 units against 340. When we spoke about the numbers, we spoke about the cash deficit, what we are going to happen. While when we have done the accounting, the phase two expenses have been kept in inventory. The club has been kept in inventory and only the project related to, project cost related to phase one, tower one, tower two, tower three has only been accounted as a expense. And that's the reason why we are not seeing any loss. We are seeing a very marginal.

Okay, and what is the DMC we recognize from this Noida community in this quarter?

9.98 crores. This is actually a half-year DMC. June has recognized 33 lakhs, and the balance has been recognized in September quarter. So 9.6 approximately.

Thank you so much. It's quite clear. It's very helpful. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Participants to ask a question, please press star and 1. Next question is from the line of Shashank Rastuki, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Hello, can you hear me? Yes, please. Sir, do you have any plans to, you know, demerge your age-easy business in the future once it reaches certain skills? I'm here to be 500 for all.

Well, there are plans that we have of restructuring, both from governance and investors' perspective. Difficult for me to comment in the time those are crystallized, but there are restructuring thoughts in our heads currently as we grow the businesses.

So, one more question. When do you think the business will be EBITDA positive? I'm talking about entire business.

You mean on a consolidated basis?

Yes, sir.

So, I think, you know, as we have said, AGD will become EBITDA break-even and marginally positive in Q4 of this year. ASL is always, you know, it's a lumpy business for the moment you recognize the DMV. And we have multiple projects running, that point of time, and that timeline is expected to be in post.

So, basically, if I may add, residences will always be a beta positive number because the costs are static and the revenues are lumpy. So, if you see from a project cycle perspective, it will always be beta positive. It's just that the lumpy nature of the revenue, because the collections are lumpy, you know, affects the TM fee. With a static cost, that only brings, you know, one quarter, it is a loss and second quarter, it is a profit. But on a project cycle basis, it will always be a beta positive business.

On Kairom, they have said they are expecting it to be a beta break-even. By the end of H1.

End of H1 next year. Yeah, FH18, yeah. Okay, okay. Thank you. Thank you for it.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Nikhil Gupta from VAYU Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the follow-up. If you can elaborate on the restructuring, the thoughts you have, I think it would be good for the investors. Whatever you can share at the moment would be a great deal.

Too premature, Nikhil, at this point of time for me to comment. But obviously, as the businesses grow, we are looking at the three businesses we do and say what's the best structure to accommodate them. As I said, both from a governance perspective, efficiency perspective, and for investor interest. Some of them are interested in one, not the other. These are only premature thoughts. Once we crystallize, definitely we'll be sharing with you all of them.

But just to give you a sense, you know, if you see our structure, you will see our structure is very flexible. So there's a whole company and then there's an ops company which is sitting as a subsidiary. So, you know, it is very, very flexible. We are in constant discussion with our consultants depending on whatever feedback we get from time to time with various stakeholders. And if anything is going to come, obviously, we'll come back to the shareholders.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rajesh Shah from Essend Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah, so a couple of questions from my side. Despite the significant improvement in revenue, the company continues to report an EBITDA loss. What are the key milestones required to achieve consolidated EBITDA bill, and can management provide an indicative plan?

See, we just answered that question. We have been saying it over the last few calls as well, that we are in a both stage, therefore it will take time. AGC will break even by the last quarter of this year for the commitment. We are on the path of that. Ajay explained that ASL is always a beta positive over a project life cycle. It may vary quarter on quarter because of the DMP recognition, which is linked to collections and linked to construction milestones. Otherwise, over a project period, ASL is never negative. And the care homes, you know, will show breakeven by the end of EdgeCon F520A. So maybe sitting in last EdgeCon F520A, you'll be able to see positivity everywhere.

Okay, also Noida Phase 1 has completed around 127 handovers out of 340 units. What is the expected timeline for completing the remaining handovers, and how will the pace of handovers transfer into recurring maintenance? And community management, everything.

So actually, we have done over 200 as of now, as you speak today. We do five or six every day because it's the two to three hour process for each handover. We have, you know, depending on the requests, already lined them up. Hopefully, they should be over through by the end of this month. We should be able to through with that, though apartments are ready. On the ACP, on the collections for maintenance charges, those have begun as and when the possession was given, or for others, it will start from 1st November. So that is not necessarily linked to, so for 1st November, everybody will be paying maintenance, but others were moved in earlier or taken handover earlier, paying from the date of the handover.

So, just for a data point, 11 lakh rupees odd has been recognized as revenue in the month of September when we started, in the quarter of September when we started giving possessions. So, the revenue has started coming in.

Okay, okay. Okay, thank you, sir, and much of luck. Thank you.

Thank you. Participants who ask a question, please press star and 1. Next question is from the line of Devanshi from HUS Capital. Please go ahead.

Hello, thank you for the opportunity. So, I had a question with regards to the care home capacity. So, sir, with the expansion of care home capacity to 485 beds, what is the minimum occupancy required for individual centers, you know, to achieve positive evita, and what is the expected timeline for reaching this threshold?

So, the model which you explained many times, I will repeat again for your benefit, that each care home takes about four quarters to hit about 40-45% occupancy, by which time it is EBITDA, sorry, it is contribution margin, you know, at unit level positive. It takes eight to ten quarters for it to hit maturity of 60%. That's when the unit level contribution margin is 30-32%. And the beta will then become, after HO cause, about 16 to 18 percent.

Got it, sir. Got it. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Participants, to ask a question, please press star and 1. As there are no further questions from participants, I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments.

Thank you. Thank you for all these questions, which helped us, you know, really transparently share more data with you. Overall, as I reiterated, the company delivered a very strong performance in Q2 and H527, healthy revenue growth across all business verticals, and a significant reduction in EBITDA losses. All the business segments are doing well, with improving operating performance and encouraging growth momentum. We are steadily moving towards our goal of profitability, supported by revenue growth, improved margins, and continued cost optimization. We believe on the right track, a lot more to be done, but we are remaining focused on sustaining this momentum, strengthening our businesses, and therefore creating long-term value for all our stakeholders. Also from the team and my side, we take the opportunity to wish all of you a very happy Diwali. May this festival bring all prosperity, happiness, success, peace, and joy. So wish you and your families well, and thank you very much for joining the call.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Max India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thanks for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.