India Glycols Limited (INDIAGLYCO) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to India Glycols Ltd.'s Q4FI26 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Incred Equity. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all PileSpin 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 star, then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nitin Avasti from InCredEquities. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Avasti.

Thank you. Firstly, I would like to thank the management for giving us this opportunity to host their conference call today. From India Glycors Management, we have their CEO, Mr. Rupak Saraswat, their CFO, Mr. Anand Singhal, their head of liquor business, Mr. S.K. Shukla, and their head legal and company secretary, Mr. Ankur Jain. I would now like to invite Mr. Rupak to initiate the proceedings with his opening remarks. Post which, we shall open the floor for a Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Yeah, good afternoon, Githin, and thank you for hosting this call. Also, my apologies for us starting a little late, and I'm also joined with one of our other colleagues, who is Akshay Mansal, who heads the NHF for our business, and also, due to some experience, he is not here. So, nevertheless, I think I have a good year to report because we are talking about the annual performance. So, as you have probably seen the numbers, we have had gross revenues of 9,827 crores, which is up 8.7%. Net revenues of 4,211 crores, which is up 11.8%. Now, the revenue growth has been led to a large extent by the growth in quotables, spirits, and bioblues, and we will talk about this segment a little bit subsequently. And EBITDA growth from, EBITDA has been 654 crores, which is up 24.5% over last year, and the EBITDA margin itself is up 15.5%, up 162 basis points. And We have seen EBITDA growth more or less across the business. The secrets and segments of protobilds, spirits, biofuels, as well as chemicals have driven the margin improvement, particularly led by the chemicals and biofuels. At a fat level, we are posting 2-months, which is up to 26.8%. And the path margin at 6.9% is also 84 basis points. So, all in all, a strong operating performance, and therefore, also resulting in a good increase in profitability. If you look at the quarter, we have a net revenue of 976 crores, which is up 13.1% for the same for the prior year. And in this quarter, all segments have delivered strong growth. And that is resulted in this 13.1% growth for the quarter. In EBITDA terms, it is 167 crores, which is up 13.3%, and the EBITDA margin at 17.1% is up 5 basis points. Now, if you add other income, actually our bid-time margin is close to 20.8%. And the reason I mentioned this is that the most significant part of our other income is actually income from the JV. And why it is not the kind of a once-off income, it is an income which is very much interrelated and integrated with the chemical business. And in a way, we sell EO to them, and the way idealizes this profitability is through this steady other income. So in that sense, when you look at the chemical business or the business or the quality of the business, it might be good to look at both. And, as you would expect, our finance costs have been lower, and all segments, talking about the segments, you know, India reached 20% blending as far as bio-flow is concerned, which drove quite a lot of growth, both in terms of profit as well as sales, and as we will talk later, there is talk about how and whether the government of India can increase the blending to 21% to 22% or even looking at flexi vehicles. In the portable spirit space, we have maintained our market leadership in the markets that we are present, and broadly, as far as IMFL is concerned, we successfully look at implementing the strategy for premiumization, and monthly public continues to be the largest selling brand within the country. In chemicals, we've seen a bit of a dip in sales, but having said that, I think we saw significant uptick in terms of the margin percentages as well as growth in overall margin. Now, that based on some readjustments in the business and, you know, letting go of some low margin businesses, but we continue to focus on. I have Value Added Chemical. In short, our performance chemicals portfolio has started to do well, though it's a smaller part of the overall chemicals business, but our pipeline is strong, and we expect that it will continue to drive good growth in chemicals. In NNHR Biopharma, you will hear later as well, the top line by and large has been stable despite a relatively challenging global and macroeconomic environment as well as cost pressure, but the symbolizing is that we've been acquiring new customers and the progress that has been made in terms of launching of brand new precipitals, getting more standards and certificates, etc. is good, and we expect that the business will recover and do well in the times to come. Now, as I report this year, I may like to point out that we've had an interesting journey over the last few years. So, I talk about some ratios, for example. Our EBITDA ratio in FY22 was 11%. In 23, it became 13%. In 24, it became 14.2%. In 25, it became 13.9%. And in F526, it became 16.4%. So, bias, if you remember, when we started doing this call, we spoke about certain challenges that the business had and a strategy to overcome those challenges, both in terms of actions in the marketplace, diversifying our portfolio, taking some cost actions. And of course, we always depend on some headwinds and tailwinds, but when that, it is the result of a strategic trust with both of the colleagues of the business. Similarly, if you look at some of our ratios, our debt-to-equity ratio has gone down from 0.9 to 0.6 this year, our interest coverage ratio has gone up from 3.17 to 4.13, and if you look at ROSI over the last three years, it has gone from 7.7 to 11.9%, and Rona has gone up from 7.7% to 11.7%. So, I am... I'm optimistic and I think I'm happy to report that we've made progress and we've made progress over the years. We've made steady progress and we've made good progress. And, you know, the other thing which is talked about, and I must brief you, is whether the war has had any impact on us. Well, the short answer for everybody is yes, but it has had a mixed impact on us. Now, the reason it has had a mixed impact, probably overall a little positive, is that what it has led to, it has led to sharp increases in the crude price, and also some availability constraints as far as MED or ethanol is concerned. Which means that our relative competitiveness for products which are based on ethanol is somewhat better, or, you know, significantly better in some cases, and which has helped us improve margins a little bit, get market a little bit more. And I will talk about food price a little bit more subsequently. And as far as exports is concerned, it has impacted us adversely because for big customers like New Park, where we send our oil, pay, chemicals largely to the Middle East, that business is largely on hold. I think fundamentally the business is strong. We continue to work on new products and new application areas, but this has caused some problems. As you also know, as a result of the war, many Drom-Til-P-stops For example, propylene oxide, prices have gone up. Availability is a challenge. So it has affected some areas. And as you would imagine, given a sustained situation of work, the demand itself has softened in some areas. So all in all, a mixed impact, but overall, nearly slightly positive, given the fact that in the ethanol-based materials, it has improved our competitiveness. Now, talking about business performance from an HBU or segment perspective, so in the chemicals business, we've had a net revenue of 1203 crores, which is down 10%. But our EBIT at 141 crore is up to 12.5% and our EBIT margins are up to 11.7%. So I spoke about the reasons for the weak sales, but it is a good improvement both in EBITDA margin as well as overall EBITDA. Now, if you look at EBITDA without adjusting the other income and probably some streamlining that is required in-house, we will start to see that the quality of the chemicals business is probably going to be better than this going forward. As far as the portable spirit business is concerned, we posted a top line of 1,331 crores, up 14.2%. And an EBIT of 285 crores, which is up 11.1%. For the biofuels business, an excellent year with 40.9% growth, delivering a top line of 1,470 crores, and an EBIT of 115 crores, which is nearly double, which is up 103%, and an EBIT margin of 7.8%. And this is a bipodmite, as I mentioned. Top line has more or less been similar to last year, but margins have been under pressure, and we'll talk about the actions which we are taking and making good progress on, which would see this business becoming stronger in this year as the last three years going forward. For the quarter, the net revenue for chemicals is up 18.8% at 401kHz. The EBIT is, at 37 crores, is up 37.4%, and EBIT margins are 12.2%. And this is given some of the factors that I spoke about. The business, in my opinion, will start to look better going forward. In portable spirit, we posted a top line of 306 crores for the quarter, up 7.9%, whereas margins for the quarter were somewhat under pressure, but that was... A bit of an odd quarter in the last year at 68% growth. Overall EBIT margins were very good at 22.1%. For biofuels, for the quarter, 11.6% growth, posting a top line of 3-5% growth, and an EBIT of 30% growth, which is up 90%, with an EBIT margin of 9.9%. N Nature Biopharma saw a turnaround as far as the top line is concerned with a 24% growth in the last quarter. Any bit of secret, as I said, the margins have continued to be under pressure. Talking about a few other things, I spoke about one of the things that we often talk about, which is the EO price and the if-not price and the relative price of EO to Reliance's EO price, because it impacts several of our businesses. So we saw a period, and for the last couple of months, we have been competitive as far as Reliance's EO price is concerned, and that is because of rising food prices and also... Ample availability of ethanol within India, that we've talked about the ethanol capacity and the fact that we have Now, a little more than the capacity that biofuel consumes in India. Now, the reason I mentioned about this is that I do feel, however, that whilst the petroleum prices or the crude prices may soften, but the crude prices may, and that's my opinion, whilst anybody's guess as to what's going to happen, are expected to stay a bit firm. And the reason I say this is, first of all, the war, different people have different expectations had lasted a little longer than what most people expected. There has been a significant amount of damage, and the damage has been to a number of friends of the U.S. and people who control oil, and I would imagine that one of the ways to to some extent recover is to keep oil prices somewhat higher. The second reason, in my opinion, is that America also wants to sell oil. You know, you remember Mr. Trump saying Jill, baby, Jill in his election campaign, which means that there's a possibility of America wanting the prices to be a little more firmer than they have been. We've seen a period of low crude prices for a period, and they also control Venezuela, to some extent Iran. So I would imagine that, you know, it's not suddenly the competitiveness that is kind of... I also imagine that some customers would like some diversification in terms of sources. Even if it is a smaller percentage of share, we should be able to benefit in some cases. Now, the reason I say this is that we have seen a period of lower food prices. And if you go back before 2021, for a period of 15 years, we were equal or less than Elance's view price. So, I don't know which period to call that novel, but we did see significantly lower food prices for a period of time. Related to this is also the ethanol price trends that we monitor. It is important to several of our businesses, chemicals, potable spirits, biofuels. Because of a number of factors including freight and others, the imported ethanol prices in India went up quite significantly. Whereas the domestic prices have more or less been stable or maybe even saw a bit of a tip. Now, given the fact that we have Good hyphenol capacity is in-house. We talked about the 3x3 strategy and the fact that we have grain, molasses based, as well as the option to import. It allowed us or it allows us to also use in-house hyphenol for our chemicals as an intermediate without worrying too much about extra hyphenol capacity. So I think that strategy which allowed us to kind of tide over some of the difficult times. Also, it's helping us right now because we've toned down our imports quite significantly and we've been able to support our chemicals business to a large extent by it's not produced in-house. So, talking about the segment which is in higher spirit these days, which is essentially quotable spirit to start with, continue to have a very good year with 14.4% top-line growth, as I mentioned, 11.1% EBIT growth and improvement in EBIT margin as well. So, we've made a strong entry in the CSE business as we spoke about. Bunty & Bubly continues to remain the highest selling brand in India. We've maintained a market leadership position as far as Indian-made Indian Dekaristan, Indutri and Uttarakhand. And we launched several new brands and we'll talk about a little bit. In Uspachan, Indian made Indian liquor, we saw a growth of 21%. In UP, we saw a growth of 11%. You know, and despite our being in only these charities, as far as Indian made liquor is concerned. And, you know, we have done several things to continue to strengthen this exciting business. We have expanded coverage in Western UP with new brands as far as IML is concerned. IJL has maintained the leadership position in UP. So our leadership position has been amongst the top two and very close for a long period of time. We have increased our coverage in the state with almost 10 new stations. We have introduced 7 new brands in the market to the new stations. And as for the government policy, also added the 100ml SKU in the market and we are getting a good response. We've also opened 42 company-operated warehouses in UP, which will continue to drive this business. For IMF in UP, we've successfully introduced Amrut Prestige Whiskey in dealer segment and sold 51,000 cases so far. We've introduced Bunty Vodka, Jira, and Cranberry Flavor in the middle of this year. We've achieved a 66-cent growth in Amrut Macintosh Whiskey. Overall, a 30% growth in iron fill volumes for the year. Successfully launched amazing godka, jamun godka, jamun flavor, which is Banti Vodka in Q1 as well. We've also successfully launched Durandar Whiskey in the regular category. Similarly, talking about our initiatives in Uttarakhand, Amazing Vodka achieved a 21% market share against an 18% market share last year. Amazing Whiskey in Uttarakhand secured a 76% growth, and we also introduced Ambrose Trestri Whiskey in the middle of this year. In Bunty Vodka, we saw a 122% growth, and we have continued to maintain our leadership position in the regular whiskey category with Solmat Black. We've successfully introduced the amazing Jamun, Bhanti Jamun, and Trin Diri, and these, I think, will continue to drive growth in these segments, both in UP and Uttar Khan, and other than that, of course, as you know, our growth is also coming from new areas like TSD and paramilitary, which you'll hear more about a little later. So, Rajvi, would you like to talk about that? No, I should.

Thank you.

I have already spoken about biofuels, so I will not come to the numbers once again, except that, you know, in general, the government's policy of 20% lending was finished ahead of schedule, which was initially scheduled for 2030. Now we have somewhat excess capacity in Isnol, which we all know, and there are discussions with increasing talk about securing in-layered energy, reducing correct outflows, or... Probably increasing it beyond 20%. So you can increase a few percentage points beyond 20, depending upon the government policy decision. The other thing that has been talked about is, in a selected manner, going to select the vehicles which operate at 85% plus. As some of you may know, or most of you may know, there is an operating range for ethanol. You can't linearly go from 20 to 85. There is a wide range, you know, broadly between 13 to 85, which is a no operating range for various reasons. So both these may help further, you know, pull up demand for biopool. But having said that, I think if India continues to remain a... High-volume, cost-effective producer of ethanol, there are a number of other outlets for ethanol, including ethanol-based chemicals. And similarly, we saw good sales growth in our ENA business, which is extra-neutral alcohol. Now, dual flexibility, as you know, that we can produce ethanol from grain and molasses, has helped us. With optimizing the cost as well as offering people different cheap stock based E&M. Our domestic volumes are stable and we also see steady demand from IMF, Pharma, Profumery as well as the packaging that we do for Bacardi. Now we keep a track of our margins and the few factors which affect our margins for the biofueled business include the price of course which has more or less been steady. The good thing has been that the grain prices have been somewhat stable, in fact, a little lower than what we saw earlier last year, and there is increasing accessibility of DDGS, which is a protein-fried product, which means that the profitability in the biofuels business, as you see, has also improved. Now, these are questions which many of you, over the years, continue to ask. which was about growth in biofuels as well as how will we sustain the profitability in biofuels and we continue to at least have an opinion that the policy by and large is not a short term policy, it is a long term policy and there is enough thought that the government has given to make sure that the industry is sustained with reasonable margin at the least. So why from time to time So, profitability varies, but remember, it never became red, and by and large, there were adjustments in the market, either due to a natural adjustment or because of price adjustments that the government did, and the profitability of the industry has remained healthy. Now, talking about chemicals, we have spoken about the numbers. In short, the story in chemicals is that we continue to see very good growth in performance chemicals, although it is a relatively smaller segment as of now, and we are quite confident that that growth... You know, it's going to stay for the years to come and drive growth as a chemical business plan. So, we've spoken to you in the past about carbon smart materials. We continue to build that business. We continue to build the business in oil-filled chemicals, working with several global majors like BFF, New Park, and now even some others. We continue to work with big majors like Dow, L'Oreal. We spoke about biobase remines. We had a slow start, but we did mention to you that IDL became the first manufacturer of a green bio-based amine for such an application, and our first customer, we are proud to say, is L'Oreal, with whom we also did some core development over the last four, three years, and we started commercial supplies for them. There are a number of new products that we are working on, which includes digesting esters for foundries, wire enamel, certain products for the personal care space, and the flavors and fragrances space. Our glycols did well. We saw some growth in the glycol space, and we've maintained our market in Southeast Asia, despite the challenges. You know, I don't even think that I should talk about those challenges right now, because the Reliance MEG, you don't compete with. I think the point here is that the niche customers have continued to buy glycols from us and have continued to grow. Then coming to end nature by a farmer, we spoke about the numbers in terms of growth being steady, in terms of top line, a nominal degrowth is what we saw, however, margins being under pressure. So, the QCO revenue performance saw a strong comeback, as I mentioned, driven by sustained increase in high-cold sucroseide crisis, recovery of the nicotine business, and strong use of social numbers. We've strengthened our branded pharmaceuticals portfolio to global certifications, clean carry back, ingredient launches, and we expect that the business will come back, given the actions that we are doing, in the time to come, both in terms of volume as well as profitability, and my colleague Akshay will be here to answer or talk about this business a little more. Now, allow me to take a pause as I request my colleague Mr. Singel to take you to the finances.

Since most of the financials have already been covered, I will only give our cover three points. One point is that the company has prepaid almost about 804 crores in this quarter, which has been funded by 467 crores through equity, which we did in November 25, and rest of the funds has been put in through the cash flow. So, this 804 crores includes the long-term debt, the working capital, and the short-term loans, causing us, or rather, resulting 20 crores saving in the interest cost, which is already there in the results. Number two, there are so many queries relating to the dividend showing in the consolidated results. Just to update that the Accounting Standard 28 do not allow us to show the dividend as income. The amount of 38.38 crores which we have received from our JV Clarion has been adjusted against the investment which is there. Third point that there was a planned shutdown for the change of the catalyst from 17th March till 2nd April. So this has also resulted the reduction in the production as well as some sales. Apart from this, most of the results have already been covered by Mr. Rupaf and that's all. I don't want to rather take more time and I will like you to raise your questions. Thank you.

So, should we start the Q&A session now?

Yeah, you can.

Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may please press star and one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking our questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Please press star and want to ask questions. The first question is from the line of Pragyam Laddha from Omni Securities. Please go ahead.

Good evening, sir. Am I audible?

Yes, you are audible. Please proceed.

Sir, my question was firstly on the plan shutdown which you talked about. How was your business disturbed due to this? Can you throw some more light on it?

Yeah, so... You know, we take shutdowns for two reasons. One is generally for catalyst changeovers, which takes some time, which is required roughly in one and a half years. Now, the way the business gets impacted by that is that we are a continuous plant. So we also make ethylene oxide, which we sell to, for example, the Clarion joint venture. So, which means that that business, to some extent, gets affected, to the extent that they cannot build up stock. And obviously, sometimes there are new orders for which you've not planned and they're stocked. The other thing is that it also impacts, it has not impacted our MEG business, but it impacts some other businesses like glycolators or specialties, etc., which you can't stock up too much in advance. So, that's how it impacts that.

Okay, okay, sir. Secondly, sir, on the portable spirit segment, the EBIT is down Q2. BCV are continuously moving towards streamization. So, sir, first question is, what is the split between country liquor and IMFL, and how do you see it going forward? Also, what would be the EBIT margins for, say, F527 going forward for this segment?

Okay, thank you for the question. Approximately 25% of the pie is towards IMF and this is approximately 75% towards India-made liquor, but we are making definite Good morning, everyone. We have different focus to improve the IMFL part of it, without losing focus of the IML, Sahar. With the result that, you know, we are, now I will like to tell you what are the steps we are taking for increasing the IMFL segment, particularly premium segment. First of all, we take satisfaction in mentioning that two of our key brands, That is the soulmate whiskey, which is a millionaire kid brand, also for Zumba Limon, which is... Very popular in the market, have been introduced in the CSB, and we have already started supplies in the entire country. For the benefit of those who are not very much familiar with CNC details, this is a lifetime registration, which is obtained after a lot of screenings by the armed forces, because it is meant for the consumption of the view-free. And then we go to the call. So this is one, and also a third brand of ours, that is Zumba Black, which is the mainstay wellness, the rum, black rum. of the military. Also, has cleared the preliminary screening committee, CSB we call it, which consists of the entire board of the administration of CSB. In other words, in principle, they have accepted our third brand also. Of course, final board approval will be awaited. It will take little time, but this is also very positive news. Now, our approach, as our CEO rightly Like I said, has been very strong in the IMF, in the IMF, particularly premium segments, and we expect to continue to grow rapidly in the IMF premium segment. Now, how this is possible is in two days. The first point is that we are taking more geographical coverage. We started with Kerala market. We are very cautious about giving credit. So our first focus is on the corporation-led markets in particular, where the money is secure and we can, because the working capital is required for our MFLs. So, we want to go steadily, but with very firm grounding. So, Kerala has given us very good response. We introduced our new Kerala brandy in Kerala. We used French blend, which took us a lot of time, a lot of research was done. We don't introduce brands off the cuff. We do a lot of research and then we do it both internally and externally. So the brand is well accepted in the market. We have started a business in other states and very soon we will be doing in Andhra and other markets like Rajasthan. So one is geographical coverage and second is with new brands. As you rightly said, we have introduced brands like Jamun and Cranberry, which are in demand or if I may use the word, which are in vogue. So, because of we being a tropical country, Sam Jamun and Cranberry are well accepted. We have two more brands in the offering, but for obvious reasons, we cannot disclose at this stage. But very soon, they will see the light of the day. So, both geographically as well as new brands will stem the growth to high double digits. And we expect to consolidate our position in the markets like Delhi, UP, Kerala, and other markets very soon. Most important is that we have in-built capacity. See, as opposed to competition, if I may say, we have an inherent advantage, where we do not use even one liter of DNA for our brands. And we have enough in-built capacity to use our ENA. For the benefit of, you may not be aware, Our DNA goes to top companies like, top multinational companies, including Radico, and Tilak Nagar, and Bacardi, which is our partner since over 15 years. So there is no reason why we should not be able to make our brand as good or better than competition. So our ingredients are good. We have laid the foundation of our new brands. I'm sure, any time to come, we will have a... Any other questions?

So, just to share some data with you, UP is one of the largest market where for IMSL, if I'm not wrong, Flash scale was 25%. IMSL, which is a relatively premium part of portable spirits. Now, the broad numbers that I have for UP for example, while Indian made Indian liquor is 65% of the value, but it is 52% in terms of volume, but 52% of volume. IMSL, on the other hand, is about 16% of the... The medium and economy brands over there have grown close to between 4-7%, but the premium brands of IMFL... Retaining from coating it. We are very strong in terms of high-quality ethanol manufacturing. As you know, we are also the first company ever to start doing third-party bottling for Bacardi and Kashibu. In addition to that, I think... The fact that we've got a strong base in terms of Indian-made Indian liquor is a good way for us to make our presence felt and graduate some of our customers. In addition, I think our approvals in CFC as well as paramilitary, we think, would be growth drivers, and the traction that we have seen with the inorganic growth in terms of acquisition of Amruth brand is also good. Which allows us to state with some confidence that we will continue to drive premiumization in our portfolio, which will not only drive growth, but also make the business richer in terms of margins.

Yeah, if I may just add a supplement to what our CEO said. See, now we are poised for growth because now we've got the entire range of brands. Our Solmet Whiskey, which is our... We have got our vodka, which is amazing. Vodka with various flavors, including cranberry and jamul, which are doing very well, which are a challenger brand to the leader brand. We have got our Zumba Limon, which is again number two brand in that segment. And now, We have also, now it is in public domain, so I can clearly say that we have got, in a few states of the north, we have got the distribution rights of our Amrut Dakhshadi Maltz, which are world famous and loved all over the world. There was unmet demand for these brands. So it is slightly more than distribution. But for obvious reasons, I cannot disclose. But we have got the entire range now. So when our sales guy goes, he has a regular range brand up to these single months. The future is in premiumization. So we are in a good position to attend to the names of all sectors.

Okay. Thank you, thank you, sir, for such a detailed answer. Like, since the IMFL portfolio is growing, do you see the margins to be north of 22% if I'm not wrong? 22% is unique margin.

Sorry, can you repeat your question?

For the portable spirit segment, do you see the EBIT margins to be in north of 22% for the IMF segment, or for the portable spirit segment?

For the portable spirit segment, I think I have already shared the number, which for Q4 were 22% the EBIT margins. You know, going for a second. Now, I think the point that we've made is, we've made certain assumptions in terms of ethanol, the growing market premiumization, as well as sense of ideal. So, I would imagine that there is no reason for us to believe that we should be able to maintain these margins and, you see, for the effort that we put in mix, we will try and improve it.

Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir.

The next question is from the line of Saakit Kapoor from Kapoor Company. Please go ahead. Hello.

Yes, sir. Please receive it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Firstly, for the opportunity. And congratulations, firstly, to the team, sir, for posting a good set of tidy needs set of numbers. I hope I'm audible. Hello.

Yes.

Sir, firstly, if we look at our numbers in the segment part, the BSPC segment ka performance thoda sa muted ra hai. So, if you could just give us some understanding on the factors that has led to the revenue going down, and how should this segment shape up? In the coming year, what are our preparations? So, some color understand.

Sakit, thank you and thank you for your nice, kind words. Just give me a second, Sakit. I want to get some other secondary data. So, first of all, it will be slightly incorrect to say that the performance has been noted. I think top-line growth has been noted.

Yes, sir.

Right, whereas we have seen growth in absolute EBITDA as well as EBITDA margin, EBIT margin, right? Now, since we cannot discuss EBITDA separately, RSE EBITDA performance is much better. We've got streamlining of certain costs, etc., which will also result in that. Yes, we lost some top-line, essentially because of loss of some markets like Lycolycer, and also some top-line loss in Gap. Now, the reasons why we saw some drop in sales of businesses like Lycolycer, Is that we had much lower cost material available from China, for example, and some of the other variants which are like propylene or brucylene-based glycolycer, which gather some of our markets. Now, some of our degrowth actually also came from the EO optake by the joint venture. And one of the challenges here was a large delta between Reliance and IEO price. Now, to some extent, not to some extent, right, now to a large extent that has been adjusted and we believe that the huge delta that we saw for a period of one and a half, two years, hopefully, in my opinion, may be a thing of the past and we should see much better competitiveness on that front as well. We've seen good growth in terms of glycol, we've seen excellent growth in terms of performance chemicals, which in terms of, you know, value itself is up 40%, in contribution is up 40 plus percent, and we are hoping, that I'm not projecting, but we are hoping for in excess of doubling this business this year and maybe continue, if we continue to do our projects well, continue to maintain that momentum for years to come. In gases, the reason we saw a top-line decline was that in the year before, we saw extremely high argon prices, and argon is something which is very volatile. There was a shortage in India, partly because of steel plants, partly because of increased consumption and putting up of electronic plants, etc. So that also led to some top-line decline in gases. And some of our smaller business, which we were selling as CEO to some of our customers here, which wasn't particularly high margin, again for the reasons of competitiveness with clients, we could not do last year. So, going forward is what we see based on the action that we are taking, you know, not in terms of... You may be a little here and there in terms of timeline. Our quality of business will continue to improve. Our width of portfolio will continue to improve. The people that we are engaging with are, you know, good end customers. That will continue to improve. And for a year at least, we see that we should have improved profitability and also top line growth. And beyond that, we are working on quite a number of projects, I take some of them if you are aware of, and I will state them as if we start materializing, which have a huge upside potential as well. And I will leave it at saying that it is potential because we need to make them happen. But since you asked me as to what the future of the chemicals business is, I am... I am kind of cautiously optimistic for the immediate term or rather optimistic, but I am bullish based on the actions that we are taking that this business will continue to and will. And as we get in a little more focus on this business, you will find that this business actually shows us better than what it may be getting seen right now.

Thank you. Then the NSU segment, I think, so that will add to your growth because some traffic was done and we were doing some commercial. So, pilot plants also, and some sales had also happened earlier. Last quarter, certainly, aapne itphe ulit kia ha, but where are we in terms of that, Anchors? And secondly, sir, currently, are all our plants running at optimum level? Because generally, we also see that a revenue decline is attributable to maintenance or a shutdown. So, are things at optimum level?

So, as I said, There are, you know, I have the numbers in front of me, we saw the value decline in glycol ether, we saw value decline in gases, and we saw value decline in terms of the etrin oxide that we sell to the Jb. Now, the shutdown does directly impact the etrin oxide that we sell to the Jb. Because for 15-20 days, there is no air supply to the Jb. Right. Or most of the sales that we book under Romtel sales in the JV is at least in upside, which is completely stopped during the shutdown. So yes, that's a contributing factor as well.

Okay. But, sir, still then with the shutdown, our JV's contribution to the profitability was significantly higher on a Q-on-Q basis. So, do we have any one-off or what has led to this jump to 13 crore? However, only annual basis number is flat, 46.42 versus 46.40 crore. How should the performance of then the JV shipping up, and as per, I think, for the JV, we have. Sir, 51.49% ratio is there. So, going ahead, how are we going to monetize as per the terms, if you could just give some more comments?

Saket, you always come up with difficult questions for me, but I will try and answer. So, like this, the JVD performance is not only reflected by how many EO they buy from us. And direct TO supply in a particular month is not a reflection on the total turnover of the JV from the year. Neither is the profitability. Now, the JV, if you look at the JV's performance, and by and large, JV's performance has improved by improvement in mix, and also improvement in certain imported traded materials that they get from Clarion. And when we get back, or when we plough back the profits from the joint venture, it is a sum total of all of that. Yes, going forward, if the EO-based volumes also pick up for the JV, and we don't have a shutdown, we expect that the EO-based volumes will also contribute to growth, and they will contribute to growth in my opinion. So, JV's profitability, don't judge the EO of Tech, so I'll just judge the question.

Okay. In normal terms, the profit is 60 crores. The factors are coming in the same way. They are still in the continuity. And now, JV's monetization exercise, what is our thought process? Thank you. Thank you.

To be very frank, the fourth quarter, the JBE 49% which we have taken into consolidated results, that will continue. So this year, when you are seeing that 46.42% was the income from the JBE or share net profit from the JBE, I think that will improve drastically. And as I have already told that in 28-29, we are going to shell out 24% more equity as per the agreement. So depending upon the agreement and whatever, that will give us a very handsome amount, which will again be utilized for the payment of the term loan and making this company as a debt free. So in 28-29, I am hopeful that the chemical will be totally debt free.

Right. Very good to hear that answer. Firstly, the finance cost number is one of, I think, the lowest number posted by the company. So the finance team added by you have been. Very good job. And I think that we can maintain that in this quarter, the promoter inclusion was because of our number 26-27 and going ahead. What should we be thinking in terms of finance cost going ahead?

Because I have covered in the beginning itself that we have prepaid 800 cows and the promoter funding was only 467. So, 333 crores has been funded from the internal F1. So, whatever you are saying, that run rate will continue and will continue to reduce our interest costs in the years to come. Although there is the normal repayment of the thumb run also, but we will continue to prepay some of the high cost tax. So, you will see those numbers in first quarter and onwards in the 26-27.

These are consistent numbers, and what is the current maturity, sir?

This year, this year, we have a liability, normal liability of, say, about 268 crores, which is, say, in liquor, it is 168 and 100 crores in chemical. Right. And we will pay, and apart from this, we will try to make some of the prepayment also.

Okay, sir. In two points on the RM part, sir, how are currently the grain prices for our bioethanol segment shaping up at the availability of the same? And if I remember correctly, sir, idea when we had this shutdown and all, we had also realized some sale of some silver also because of some catfish change, if I remember, twice or thrice we have done that. How has that benefited us, sir, in terms of our reportable number for this quarter?

I will cover the silver and grain will be covered by the CEO, sir. So silver sale during the year, during the shutdown was 98, so we got out of the silver sale. While the purchase price of the silver was 51, and since we have not provided the consumption of the catalyst, which we are doing every month, so basically there is no profit on the silver. So that's why that has not been shown in the book, sir.

Yeah, so, Saket, as I mentioned earlier, there is adequate stock of grains, and the grain prices have been stable, and if I may just state to you, in the middle of last year, grain prices were running close to 24 rupees a kilo, and then in the last quarter of last year, they were running close to between 21 and 22, or, you know, 21 plus minus. And the good thing was that the DGJs started to fetch a better price. My opinion is it is because there is greater acceptability of this protein source in the world. And also, you know, you see a distinct shift in terms of the feedstocks which are being used to produce ethanol. If you go back to, say, 2019, 2020, out of 170 C, you know, in terms of ismol, C heavy molasses and B heavy molasses were contributing to 43 and 39% respectively, and sugar cane 9% and damaged food gain only 9%. So grain was contributing only about 9% of the total 100% of ismol production. Now, coming to 25-26, grain is contributing 5 plus 27 plus 46, which is close to 70 plus percent of ethanol production is coming from grain. There also a very interesting shift has happened. So, what was initially largely being serviced by Damage Pool Gain and FCI Rite, And because zero in 29-20, 46% is being covered by maize. So I think there is a part of the policy initiated by the government realizing that we need to diversify in terms of the feedstocks for ethanol production. There is also increasingly maize being used. We believe that there would be several things being done on this front. First of all, it's a hardier crop which can be grown in many parts of the country, even in somewhat drier climatic zones. And also there is ample scope for improving the productivity of grain. I do not know if it will be speculative, but one of the things which could cause a significant jump in maize productivity, for example, which makes the U.S. quite an efficient producer of ethanol, is the introduction of genetically modified maize, specifically for ethanol. Now, I am not making this as a projection. These are some of the things which may, in going forward, significantly improve the productivity and efficiency of bioquill production in India.

Right. So let me just add one more point and join the queue is about the NNH biopharma, I think. So that segment also, the profitability has improved. So, and also in your presentation, sir, the outlook is mentioned that the segment is. I expected to perform well in future on account of both customer addition, volume growth, and price realization. So, if you could just throw some more color, and when will this segment achieve, sir? I think, sir, the environment has changed significantly. How is this segment going to perform?

So, I think this is a chair. So basically, the segment was originally, the division was originally dependent on one of the products, which has the highs and downs of the price in terms of the total contribution to the net margin and as well as the top line. But as a company, what we have done in the last three years, we have diversified the business. So the more focus has come to the highly Good morning, everyone. We have a growing product, a growing market in nutraceutical, which is basically the branded nutraceutical segment. And we have invested very significantly on some of the clinicals for the highly growing indications of women's health and some other indications. So, already we have completed some of these studies in the last one year, and there are a couple of more studies which are ongoing, and that is likely to be completed by this financial year. And then we have a... We have a target focus on multi geography presence. In terms of right now, we already have a strong presence in Asia Pacific, but we are also trying to get Hold of US market, which is the one of the biggest market. And then we also have opened our office very, very recently for us to have that trajectory and momentum in US. So this is broadly in terms of a nature biopharma. We are on the right trajectory. We are investing in high growth component in terms of both in terms of our manufacturing capability and also the customer acquisition in various markets. And so we'll continue to remain in that. So I hope that I answered your question.

Only on the profitability, friends. Can you give one more color? How was the profitability shape? I think the last time, because of some products and some new plants were also commissioned, because of which the realizations were down, and so was the profit. So, our key products, I am able to spread it hydro, some key products of nicotine and all, wherein IT, one of your competitors also came up with a new unit, and that has put pressure on the realization. So, how will that product profile shape up?

You know, for us, the nicotine business is we are diversifying into more of a value-added customer. We are trying to add a couple of customers which are long-term short. So broadly, if you look at where we started this business, we had some of the customers which are from the commodity side, but again, they are volume-based driven customers, and that is given a good top line. But strategically, we have taken a very strategic shift in the last three years for us to shift to more value-added customers to sustain a long-term growth and to contribute on the profitability. So this is broadly in terms of nicotine. I mean, I would say the business right now is in the focus. But in terms of the EBITDA improvement, we may not see the significant improvement in this financial year, but definitely the investment and the growth and the customer acquisition, what we are doing right now, is going to contribute towards more of EBITDA and the profitability of the particular manager biopharma segment.

Yeah. Thank you for all the answers, and thanks to the both also for the interim dividend that has already been paid to the investors, and that too on the higher side. So, thank you for looking after all the management. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, kindly limit your questions to only two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. We'll take the next question from the line of Bala Subramanian from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead. Good evening, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

My first question on the debt side, any further debt reduction plan is there in the coming year?

Mr. Balas Subramanian, your audio is not clear. There is a background noise from your... Currently, now it's going to be... Please repeat the question, sir.

Yeah, yes. Sir, on the debt profile side, is there any plan to further reduction in the coming year? And right now, it's around 25-26 crore kind of per quarter on the interest cost side. Whether this rate will continue in the coming quarter, and what is the average borrowing cost right now, sir? Is it possible to share that debt break up all three segments?

Madam, I have already given this answer that we are rather in the process of reducing the debt. There is a liability of 268 crores for the year 26-27 which we will pay. Apart from this, here, as for the cash flow, we will target the prepayment. As such, there is no nothing has been written in the paper that much of how much we will pay, but here. And the second thing, what you are saying that 25, 26 crore per quarter, that we will reduce. Okay. And if you want the debt profile, I will give you the debt profile of all these three units, which is in process, and I will share with you.

Okay, sir. So, second question is on the scheme of arrangements submitted by NCLT. I think the hearing is expected 21st of May. Is there any expected timeline for the completion of de-merger?

21st May, we are hopeful that we will get the order for the de-merger of the division. And another hope is that in first 10 days of the June, we will get the order. So, once we get the order, we will start working for filing that in ROC and the other matters which is related to energy.

Okay, got it, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Varun Mehta from Wealthlink Investment. Please go ahead.

Good evening, sir. Am I audible?

Yes.

Sir, I just have a question on the balance sheet side. Basically, this year, we have done around about 830 crore of capital expenditure. And that also in last six months, it is gone from about 600 crore in last six months. Can you just throw some light on, sir? Where have we invested this money?

Actually, there are two distilleries largely, which are the main capital expenditure. One is the grain distillery in Gorakko. And one is the grain distillery in Kashyapur. So basically, out of whatever amount you are saying, say about 400 crore is out of these two distilleries capitalization. And apart from this, we have some more capacity, which is not a major amount, and that has been completed. So this is what is the amount which we have spent on the capital.

Okay, and secondly, on the debt side, we have repaid around 800 crores, but net debt from last year is only down by 220 crores. So, will our interest cost remain at 45 or it will go slightly higher?

No, our interest cost will be remaining about 25 range. Actually, you are not able to see the reduction because we have reduced our cash credit limits.

Okay.

So, some of the amount which has been repaid against the long-term loan, that is visible. But the amount which we have paid out of the cash period limit, that is not visible.

Okay. All right, sir. Thank you so much.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akash Gupta, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Good evening, sir. I hope I am audible. First question I have on portable spirit segment. So I think you answered this in the beginning of the call as some other participant asked. I wish that you could just repeat. What percentage of our total revenue of portable spirit comes from IMFL? And within this, what percentage is it from

IMFL revenue? Please, the second question, please, Akash.

Akash, please unmute yourself and speak.

Am I audible now?

Yes.

So what I'm asking is, out of total portable spirit revenue, what percentage comes from IMF? And within that, what percentage comes from Amroof? Okay. Amroof.

So, Akash, the total tech revenue percentage, whatever we have declared, it is around 31% from the total quotable section, and Amruth's share is likely to be around 5-6% out of it.

Okay, 31% is that, right? If I remember correctly, last year it was around mid-10, 16-17%. So, are we saying that our INVS has acquired?

So, I think our presentation has been already answered by our CEO that we are now shifting from our regular segment to the premium segment. So the revenue percentage is increasing in the RFL and we are aspiring to shift more percentage by introducing more premium brands.

I'm sorry to interrupt you. Your voice is breaking. Can you come in the network area?

Okay, I am actually, how is it now?

Please continue.

Yes, what I'm asking is, sir, the bottling that we do for Bacardi,

I think that directly flows into our margin, right? So, for portable segment. So, excluding that, what is our margin on portable spirit? A bit of margin.

So, this Bacardi business, you know, it is for the, like, they are low proof and the high proof brands. For low proof, the major portion belongs to the low proof brands, like Blizzard and all. So there, we are only charging, you know, the selling cost from them, and this directly gives the revenue to us in liquid segment, but it comes under the miscellaneous income segment, not in the sales revenue.

Right. So excluding that, what will be our margin for portable segment, portable spirit segment?

So I don't see that. This could be a very greater percentage in this. This could be at least 2 or 3% of the total putable revenue.

My suggestion is, Akhat, you can send an email and we can revert with more precise detail in terms of breakup architecture. If required, have a separate discussion. We will speak separately if required.

Sure, sure. I'll do that. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now have the conference over to Rupak, sir, for closing comments. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Yes, let me thank you all on behalf of my colleagues here for turning up for this conference and also giving us your time and a lot of interest in our business. A big thank you to Saket for all the interest that he gave, good suggestions. And he was still waiting to come back in the queue. So, Saket, I'm sure we can have a discussion on your question. But on that note, all of you have a good evening, good day, and we look proud to see you again. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of N-Career Equities, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.