Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to UFlex Limited Q3 and Nine-Month FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants' 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ronak Oswal. Thank you, and over to you.
So thank you. Hello, and good afternoon to everyone. On behalf of Arihant Capital Markets Limited, I thank you all for joining into quarter three and nine-month FY 2026 earnings conference call of UFlex Limited. Today, from the management, we have Mr. Sumeet Kumar, Executive Vice President, Finance, and Mr. Surajit Pal, Vice President, Head of Investor Relations. So without any further delay, I will hand over call to Mr. Surajit Pal, Vice President, Head of Investor Relations, for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ashok. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Q3 and nine-month FY 2026 earnings conference call of UFlex Limited. Let me draw your attention to the fact that on this call, our discussion will include certain forward-looking statement, which are predictions, projections, or other estimates about future events. These estimates reflect management's current expectations about the future performance of the company. Please note that these estimates involve several risk and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied. I would now request Mr. Sumeet Kumar, Executive VP, Finance, UFlex Group, for his opening remarks, following which we will open the forum for question and answer session. Over to you, sir.
Hello. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining UFlex Q3 and nine months FY 2026 earnings call. I'm Sumeet Kumar. I'm Executive Vice President, Finance, and in fact, I'll take this opportunity for those joining us for the first time to briefly introduce UFlex and our business operations for those who are joining us for the first time. UFlex Limited is India's largest multinational flexible packaging and solutions company, uniquely integrated across the entire packaging value chain, from raw materials to finished consumer-ready packaging solutions. Our integrated ecosystem begins with the production of virgin PET chips and recycled PET chips, which form the backbone of our BOPET-based films. Our packaging films portfolio includes BOPET, BOPP, CPP, recycled PET films, and a wide range of value-added specialty films, which includes AlOx, specialty films, high barrier films, et cetera.
These upstream capabilities are complemented by a strong intermediary products portfolio of high-performance inks, adhesives, coatings, holography solutions, printing cylinders, and engineering equipment, enabling a full in-house capability, quality control, and operational efficiencies. At the downstream end, we provide complete packaging solutions, including flexible laminates, pouches, tubes, and aseptic liquid packaging cartons. We serve leading global brands across FMCG, across food and beverages, pharmaceutical, personal care, and industrial sectors. This fully, this fully backward integrated model enhances supply chain reliability, drives innovation, strengthens sustainability initiatives, and positions UFlex as a comprehensive one-stop packaging partner globally. Now, before I come to performance about the quarter, in fact, I would like to highlight that this was a challenging quarter in terms of the macro headwinds, which were...
There were two major macroeconomic events, which were the drivers under which we have done this quarter and nine-month performance, and both coming from domestic as well as, you know, internationally. So overall, for our international markets, we had the impact of the U.S. tariff related uncertainty as a major driver impacting the performance, and at the same time, we were in the midst of a GST transition, and as a GST rationalization had an impact within India to a great extent. And despite such a challenging demand environment in certain segments, we remain focused on operational discipline, product mix improvement, cost optimization, and long-term value creation.
All of that is reflected in the numbers of the quarter, which are: for the nine months, we clocked a revenue of INR 114.157 billion, which was on a corresponding period of last year, was up 0.8% year-on-year. We had the reported EBITDA at a stable level of INR 13.571 billion, which was more or less in line with last year's EBITDA of nine months for the same period. We had the normalized EBITDA, which was at almost INR 13 billion, which was down 9.6% year-on-year, and margin at 11.4%. We had PBT, which was up 136% to INR 1.863 billion, which was supported by lower exceptional impact versus last year.
We had a major swing in the PAT at INR 1.21 billion, versus loss of INR 263 million in the nine-month period of last year. Coming to the performance for the quarter three, per se, we had revenue at INR 36.329 billion, versus INR 40.775 billion rupees, which was 3.8% down on the corresponding quarter of last year, and that was largely on account of volume softness because of the factors mentioned below, and also because of a lot of import-related pricing pressure in the market. We had a reported EBITDA, which rose 79.7% at INR 4.596 billion, and there was a margin expansion of 180 basis points on a quarter-on-quarter at 12.7%.
During the quarter, we also had foreign exchange and derivative gains of INR 201 million, which were adjusted, resulting in a flat normalized EBITDA for the quarter. Hence, the normalized EBITDA was at INR 4,395 million, which was up 12.8% on a sequential quarter basis, and margin overall improved to 12.1%, which was a 200 basis point expansion on quarter and quarter. We had the profit before exceptional items, which increased 56% quarter and quarter to INR 643 million, and PAT stood at INR 361 million, which was up by 34% on a sequential quarter basis, and EPS was at INR 5.01 per share. I'd like to touch upon slightly on the aseptic packaging business.
Our aseptic liquid packaging business delivered steady growth during the period, with volumes increasing by 2.3% year-on-year to 1.8 billion packs, as against 1.76 billion packs in corresponding quarter three of last year. For the nine-month period, volumes grew 4.4% to 5.9 billion packs, as against 5.7 billion packs in the nine months of last year, reflecting strong execution and improved product mix. This reinforces the structural growth potential of the aseptic liquid packaging category, as we see. Looking ahead, as we know, quarter four and quarter one are seasonally the strongest quarter for aseptic packaging business. The current quarter, the next quarter, are expected to witness much better prospects, supported by category tailwinds and also pre-season loading.
We expect this momentum to strengthen and anticipate a robust season and summer in FY 2027, assuming trade inventory liquidation and inclement weather conditions are now largely behind us. And we expect our aseptic packaging business to have a total sales volume of close to about 8.5 billion packs in the next fiscal, subject to overall F&B beverage industry behind. Thank you. I'd now request, if you have any questions, I would love to take that.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use headset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Aman Kumar from AK Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir.
Good afternoon.
Sir, so far, so good. We are doing very well as far as turnover is concerned. Sir, but could you please outline the company's roadmap for debt reduction? And are there any specific leverage target or timeline over the next one to two years that the investors should be aware of?
Yes. So in fact, we see at the current leverage level, we see this trend seem to be plateauing at the current level. We must keep in mind at this stage, that we are near commissioning stage for three of our large projects, which includes our INR 12 billion expansion, INR 12 billion capex expansion of aseptic liquid packaging facility in Egypt. We are having almost 40,000 tons recycling plant at the near commissioning stage in India, and we have also woven polypropylene bags, which is 80 billion bags production capacity in Mexico.
Mm-hmm.
So we are almost at the end of this three major project, commissioning. And given that, we largely feel that now on, it will be a leverage, it will be a function of improving EBITDA as a result of this project being operational. And significantly, it should reduce the leverage overall. We are not looking at this debt level in isolation. We look at the impact of the bearing on the leverage. So with the improving EBITDA and largely this CapEx cycle, being at the juncture that we are, we expect this leverage should be more or less, should be peaked at the current level.
Oh, sorry. You have told that you will freezing the debt level to this level. But again, you have announced a BOPP project. So, on every now and then, you are announcing projects and keeping the debt level to the money, to a very high level. So, whenever there is a downturn in the economy all over the world, I think the company will be in deep trouble if we don't look in the to control the debt. Because in the past, Mr. Bhatia used to say that the, this is, that, debt we will not increase anymore. But again, we see that there is increase debt in the next quarter.
So, I think you have to assure the investor that this is the debt, the maximum debt the company will have, and then how the management will repay this debt over a period of time.
... Yes. So in fact, thank you for, for this point. And in fact, we take this point in the spirit of, you know, the guidance that the concern about this leverage is something which is very much, very much top of our priority, too. And we look at it as an interplay of the debt level, the current debt level, and the current CapEx. But at the same time, we see this improving more on account of this EBITDA improvement from here. So what I can say is that we see this leverage ratio, which is at the current level, more or less being at the peak. And, so far as no reduction of that, it will be an interplay of overall repayment, which in fact is during the year.
At the same time, EBITDA improvement will lead to this leveraging coming more under moderation, is what I can say.
Which key markets are currently performing well for UFlex, and where we are facing challenges? What sectors are driving the differences in performance across geographies?
Yes. So in fact, as you see that, we have now current revenue mix of close to about 44% coming from within India. We have 56% of the revenue now coming from overseas markets. We see that, overseas, Egypt and Mexico as the two largest setups outside India, definitely driving the growth. And, while most of the market, not just in India, but as you know, the tariff-related uncertainties have also resulted in our packaging films business, which contributes to almost two-thirds of the overall revenues, also being impacted because of the U.S.-related headwinds and also tariff-related uncertainties, a lot of exports were reoriented to the non-U.S. market.
That meant that to some extent, even the Europe or Middle East, North Africa market, which are the other major markets that we operate in, also impacted by this kind of supply gap, mismatch. That resulted in some kind of pricing pressure on the realization. Now, we see the good part is that we see in the current quarter, that trend, in fact, is showing some signs of reversal. We and as we all know, that now this tariff-related thing is easing those uncertainties, which will mean that this will be stabilizing, going back to the normal supply chain operations. That will help us improve our performance in these major markets, and also definitely in India, where we have seen already the prices improving. There is a price recovery for BOPET film, currently at about $100/ton.
Likewise, we have seen marked improvement in the BOPP films. During the quarter, as we started the quarter, these were the things which were actually weighing on the industry as a whole. But we see by the end of the quarter, and more particularly in the current quarter, those trends being reversed. So we are confident that overall, we feel that this is, will result in the current quarter and more pronounced places in the, in the next fiscal, these things to hold extremely good for us.
So this is the domestic scenario. What about the, sir, international scenario as far as BOPET and BOPP is concerned? Do you think that the margin will improve like India, overseas?
Yeah. So in fact, I can talk about the way we see the market improving, because if you talk about this, now U.S. market currently has major imports of BOPP films. So U.S. itself is not a local producer of BOPP, and with the increased demand of BOPP, it is being catered by different markets. We definitely see U.S. market as a major prospect for the BOPP films, for industry, for us as a whole. Overall, we see that an Egypt and largely Mexico plant being benefited by this overall demand, which is showing us signs of improvement.
Sir, could you share the expected commissioning and stabilization timeline for aseptic packaging plant in Egypt, the recycling plant in Noida, and WPP plant in Mexico?
Yeah. So largely, it seems to be very much on course. I think, I can say that, between the current and the next quarter, we should see these three projects being commissioned, give and take a few months here and there. But I expect that between now and, end of the first quarter, we should have all these three projects up and running.
Thank you. This is from my side. Yeah.
Right.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Chirag Singhal from First Water Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on Asepto. So what are the target volumes for FY 2026? And if you can also help me with your targets for 2027 and 2028.
In fact, we see that in the current nine months, the nine months ended December 25, we had a total of 5.9 billion packs, as against 5.7 billion packs in the nine months of last fiscal. Largely, we see that year we should be having this total aseptic packaging business to be in the range of around 8.5 billion packs. Though we expect that this can, this can be slightly better, but we are keeping our guidance to about 8.5 billion packs.
Next year onwards, as we are almost near commissioning stage of the similar capacity in Egypt, and now with the full impact of the extra 5 billion packs expansion in India, with increased capacity utilization, and particularly, as I said, quarter four and quarter one being the peak season, we expect that to translate in better utilization of these capacities. So I can, I can say without putting a number... that it should show a significant improvement from the current year numbers of 8.85 billion packs or thereabout.
Is it possible to give a range, at least for FY 2027? Because you will have the India as well as Egypt up and running. So just trying to understand what kind of increase in volumes we should expect.
Yeah. So in fact, we are very, very upbeat about the current quarter. And we feel that by end of this quarter, we would be in a fairly, you know, good position to give a proper sense of the numbers to expect from fiscal 2027. I think that will be an appropriate time, because now we have to first reach a stage of commissioning of the aseptic liquid packaging facility in Egypt. And once we have that, first year, of course, will be a ramp-up, and utilization level, we have to calibrate as to what extent. Of course, it will be linked to the market demand and everything. But we feel that, you know, both the facilities, you know, firing together and also the improved demand should lead to a much more improved number in the next fiscal.
At this stage, I'd rather wait for another quarter to give a specific number guidance for the next year.
Okay. And this Egypt plant, are you expecting the commissioning to happen in current quarter or in Q1?
So I'm expecting this between current and next quarter. We are just around the corner about commissioning of that plant. I think it may be, it may be somewhere, somewhere maybe within 90 days from now. So that can be either, either end of this quarter or somewhere in the first quarter. So I'll, I'll-
Okay.
rather put it as, as over the next 90 days or so.
Okay. Next question is on, you know, specific locations, capacity utilization. So if I look at Mexico, Hungary, Poland, there was a sharp dip in the capacity utilization during the quarter. So what were the key reasons, and, what should we expect for, the coming fiscal?
Yeah. So most of the places, I think this is, this is not different from the overall theme, which impacted, to some extent, the packaging film production volume. Europe, Poland, Hungary, as you talked about, were also, to a great extent, impacted by the reorientation of the exports and a little bit of supply glut. And that meant that, to some extent, these production volumes were curtailed. But at the same time, having said that, the trend seems to be reversing many places, largely as a fallout of things happening in the U.S., thankfully. That should result into restoring of the normal utilization level for these markets as well. But overall, if you ask me to answer your question, it was impacted for the same factor that I mentioned earlier of, of, U.S.-related fallout also impacting the non-U.S. markets overseas, including E.U.
What are you guiding for, like, capacity utilization at these three locations for the coming fiscal?
So, yeah. So overall, we see it will be at the level where it was earlier, which is about 80% plus kind of capacity utilization is what we can expect from this.
So Poland, which is showing at 56.7 in Q3, even that you are saying it should go to 80% or in the coming fiscal? Because the rest are not as low as Poland, but, I'm just trying to get a confirmation.
Yes. So overall, in fact, we are saying that, you know, these three locations put together, looks like, improved capacity utilization and, also for Hungary and this. More particularly for Poland, if I, request, Sudeep to just pitch in. He had a point to make. I request him to add.
Yeah, Chirag, you must be aware that, you know, this is seasonally, pretty, diminutive character in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe, so plus holiday season. So every year, similar kind of things happens, but this time, along with this seasonal, you know, fallacy, we also have the impact of this extra supply from the, the kind of films which we have received, which was actually destined for U.S. But because of this uncertainty, that has actually flooded the European market as well as North Africa and Middle East. That is one of the reasons. Another reasons is that when this kind of opportunity are seen by the market players, particularly the warehouse guys or the wholesaler guys, they were also holding less, because they were expecting price will come down.
So as a result of it, they are not buying very big quantity. They are not giving big commitment. Now, once these various multiple countries are making deals with U.S., and more or less, this uncertainty has tapered off and everybody is getting back to normalization, these things we already are observing in the reflection of price realization, both in India and export market. And that's why Sumeet has suggested is that you might be seeing much better improved quarter in Q4.
Okay, got it. Just one last question on the PET resins plants, both the plants that we have. What was the capacity utilization in Q3? And again, the same, what are you guiding for in FY 2027?
Yeah. So Egypt plant operated at about 45%-46% capacity utilization in quarter.
Mm-hmm.
For next months, about 57.8%. In fact, this was on back of the commissioning of the Egypt plant in the fourth quarter of last year. So in very first year, in nine months of operations, we have seen the utilization close to about 60% since commissioning last year. And India's plant, Panipat plant, for PET chips, in fact, had the overall nine-month capacity utilization of close to about 79%. For the quarter, again, for the same reason, it was slightly less compared to previous year at 68%.
Should we, is it fair to assume full capacity utilization in the coming year?
Yeah. So in the coming year, in fact, we'll see, number one, the capacity utilization is steadily improving. And from a 9-month utilization of 58%-60%, we should see Egypt plant utilization in the range of close to about 80%. And for Panipat plant, we expect this to be further improving from the current level of 79% to upward of 85-90%.
Understood.
Yeah, if I can add to what Sumeet's commentary is that we have also technically improved ourselves in Panipat into more into BG grade chips. So what it means is that even if we stay at the similar kind of utilization, our realization will be much better, our margin profile will be much better in Panipat. So we are not focusing on, say, 75, 80 for initial two years is pretty good utilization level. So if you cross 80%, then you are thinking of a 90%, you are thinking of putting up a new plant, which is not required actually at this point of time.
Because, given that the government's, you know, initial phases of implementing, you know, PET chips and, recycled PET chips and all these things, so the situation what, what has tumbled out is that we are focusing on more value addition. And, and if government implementation more and more expanding across the industry, there will be more, demand for value-added BG product or bottle-grade chips product, where we are focusing more on that. So, so, so going forward, you can say that, we are definitely going to increase our capacity utilization, but quality value utilization.
Understood. That would be it from me. Thank you.
Thank you, Chirag.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Kaushik Poddar from KB Capital Markets Private Limited. Please go ahead.
So what is the kind of margin you are looking at? Right now, you are at EBITDA margin of 12%. What is the kind of margin you are looking at for this quarter as well as for the next year?
So overall, if you see, in fact, we are still not at 12%. We are at 11.5% kind of margin for the nine months. We definitely see that margin, while it has shown on a sequential quarter basis, it has seen an expansion of 200 basis points over the previous quarter, which is currently at for nine months, it's about 11.5%. We see it in the range of now about 12% or so for the year as a whole. And moving forward, as the product mix improves, as we are able to realize, price realization is better for our packaging films and for value-added films, that should show a consistent and steady improvement. But as for this fiscal, we expect this to be in the range of 10% or so.
Can we expect a better margin next year?
Yes. That's exactly what in fact, we have... We see it as unfolding because as a result of I said that improved product mix, we see a more of no cost realization and also a, a better price realization from our OCs in Indian market. All this translating into a better EBITDA margins, improving from 12% further upwards. And, this is what we can see as the, the trend and the expectation in the next fiscal of FY 2027.
Yeah. See, another thing, these three plants that are coming into operation this quarter and next quarter. I think what the projection given was that these three plants will give an incremental turnover of INR 2,000 crore with a margin in, margin for these three plants at 20%. Are you sticking to that?
Yeah. So I think I just to place it in the right perspective, these three plants, once commissioned, the numbers-
Yes.
Which are expected, or what we are discussing is in context of the full capacity utilization of these three plants.
Okay.
As we currently expect, and it's very, very, not much expected, that this utilization will be a ramp-up over a period of time. So say for the next fiscal, if you are having 60, 70% utilization, we can accordingly calibrate the numbers. But we expect on a full capacity utilization, yes, these numbers do hold good, and we should get an incremental revenue on account of these three projects' contribution of close to about INR 2,000 crore-INR 2,500 crore. With the, with the margin, which is not 20%, between, we can expect a high teens margin. Yes.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor & Co. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Namaskar, sir. Hope I'm audible?
Yes, you are.
Yes. Sir, as you mentioned, that there were, there were external factors that led to lower utilization for the film segment, especially domestically. So in terms of the exit of Q4... What should be the film segment utilization levels that we may expect? Or if as an entity, including aseptic as well as the film packaging, everything, where should we land for Q4, which is seasonally also a better quarter?
Yes. So when we talk about quarter four, we'll have to basically look at it more. I'd like to give a more nuanced response to that coming from different segments. So for packaging films, to start with, for packaging films, as we see, this was a quarter of softer demand. This was a quarter of pricing pressure. And definitely that all translated into a little bit, I'll say, resilient, but not robust performance for the quarter. And having said that, for quarter four, for packaging films as such, we expect that not the worst, that the challenge is behind us, and which is very much reflected in the current signals that we're getting from the market. As you are aware, the prices have firmed up.
In fact, it has held up and now holding up at the level of 110 or thereabout for BOPET and likewise for BOPP. And if you see in the quarter performance, we also had definitely a marked improvement in our flexible packaging business, contributing to the overall revenues. So while overall numbers state one, but at the same time, within that, if you actually little bit analyze, you will find the packaging business has already started showing signs of improvement from the successful GST transition. And also we expect that a lot of, you know, destocking, which is over, will result in too much better prospects for flexible packaging business. And aseptic business, as you rightly said, the quarter four definitely is typically one of the better quarters. Quarter one being the best, and quarter two also is very good.
So all that for the different segments, I think will look good, look promising for us for quarter four overall as the performance. And on the back of this behind us, we expect these numbers to be much better for quarter four as a whole. And definitely, as we talked about the three projects under commissioning, I think the full impact of that, or at least the substantial impact of that, will also be seen in the fiscal 2027. So here on, in fact, I'm very confident that we see starting quarter four improved trajectory, which we'll be more particular about rather than chasing a number.
Right. So you mentioned about prices for the film holding, and so can you give some color on how the trends are shaping up for the commoditized film for both BOPET as well as BOPP for the month of February, or what was January and February trends?
So in fact, if you see, it had gone all the way low of almost like INR 90 per kg. We are talking about BOPET films, which with a steady, increase and also as part of the containment strategy to some extent, has resulted in import, the pricing pressure from import of those films now subsided. As a combination of these things, the prices have been steady, have held up, and now reached a level of close to about 110 on the BOPET side. Likewise, on, likewise, on BOPP, if you see the prices are, for the different grade, which is TNT and NTT. So you see the prices of NTT, largely the segment that we operate in, is the prices of 120, 121 per kg now, which has again improved significantly from the previous month.
And sir, have the RM also moved in that bracket and putting pressure on margins, or these are all demand-led and, RM being same, the conversion margins are higher?
So RM, it's actually an interesting aspect that we need to understand, that RM was also to a great extent, also to do with, to some extent, as we gather from China. And, as, RM was, in fact, weighed down by a lot of imports from China and because of, Chinese producers more changing the volume than the price. But we understand of late there has been a conscious shift, or at least direction, from Chinese government to rather focus more on holding the price and not changing the volume. And with that, we expect that of late the trend has been the RM prices have been more consistent. And moving on, I think it should be more tracking the RM prices rather than being moving in different directions.
Largely the prices uptrend and all will also be underscored by the same trend being followed in the raw material prices.
Sir, last point come again, I missed you.
So I was telling that raw material prices, in fact, have now shown some kind of steady trend. And to some extent, it was also to do with what we gathered from the landscape, is that there is a direction in China also about focusing not on changing the volume, not on increasing the volume, but focusing more on price realization. Which has meant that there is no undue pressure on the raw material prices, which is also reflected in the firm prices for the packaging films. Largely, we feel that this trend, which like tracks the raw material prices, to continue, and that's where we feel that there will be, there will be, you know, some kind of steady trajectory for both the raw material as well as for the end packaging films prices.
All right, sir. And now coming to the debt part, as our first participant, so Aman sir has mentioned about the debt being at the higher levels, I think. So, just as a starting point, sir, what are our current maturities going ahead for the next financial year? I think peak debt is our gross debt is INR 8,000 net debt. So what is our first year current maturities for the coming into year?
... Yeah. So in fact, when we talk about the debt profile, this is actually important also to understand that number one, the-- it has to be also seen that we see an improvement in the debt profile in the sense that cost of funds, we see it's maybe a little premature for me to give specific, but we are working on a plan where we see cost of funds is really going down. And, as we are significantly done with, there's no three projects, CapEx plan. So we feel that combination of three factors, which is like the three projects, major CapEx cycle being over. Number two, the translation or result of this into a positive improvement in EBITDA.
Number three, the cost of funds is expected to come down further based on certain plans that we are working on. We see this debt profile, and moving forward, it will give you a lot more comfort to all of you.
Mm-hmm. So can you give me the current maturity part? And then, sir, a small point, even with the rationalization of cost for the finance cost is going to rise since we will be capitalizing projects into two quarters. So the absolute number will go up.
Yeah, but at the same time, given the repayment cycle, it's a kind of, you know, kind of, you know, offsets each other, as you rightly said, with the capitalization, with the CapEx spend part. So that way, the debt part will not be showing an increase on that count. At the same time, very rightly pointed out by you that it will reflect in that being expensed out, which will definitely mean slightly higher interest cost per se. But what I was alluding to was the cost of funds. So cost of funds, we expect that to come down based on the plans that we are working on.
What is the current blended cost of funds, sir? My last two questions.
Yeah. So current blended cost of funds will be about 7%, 6.9%-7%. Mm-hmm, blended, blended cost of funds.
Okay. And can you give the number for the current maturity for next year?
It will be close to about INR 1,450 crore-INR 1,500 crore. That's CPLTD, the current maturity for over next one year.
Right. Thank you, sir. I joined the team.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Krisha from Grow Capital. Please go ahead.
In the last earnings call, top line growth guidance to that 5% and EBITDA to be in the range of INR 1,800 crore-INR 1,815 crore. Are we confident of achieving the same? Can you provide some guidance range for EBITDA margins?
Yeah. So in fact, EBITDA margin, I said that for the FY 2026 fiscal, we expect it within the range of 12%, translating to an EBITDA, which largely should hold the guidance given earlier of INR 1,800 crore-INR 1,850 crore for the year. So we are confident with this, improved performance in quarter four, which we are expecting and we are witnessing to some extent. We feel that that guidance holds good in terms of EBITDA expected numbers for FY 2026.
Okay, sir. Got it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next follow-up question comes from the line of Aman Kumar from AK Securities. Please go ahead.
My question is that, we are setting up a liquid packaging plant in Egypt, and we are expanding our capacity. We have already expanded our capacity in India. Since a lot of export was happening to the market where Egypt we cater. So do you think that, since export market will now take care by Egypt plant, so how we will sell from this Indian plant so can we can fully utilize the capacity here?
Yeah. So largely, if you see right now at 8.5, expected 8.5 billion packs of capacity or number of packs for the fiscal, it's largely being catered to by the plant in India, which is at Sanand. Of course, you know that 7 billion capacity, we expanded by another 5 billion packs to 12 billion packs here. And given the demand, which is now, which is from overseas, which is largely expected to be catered from the plant in Egypt. Why we chose Egypt was also because you will realize that Egypt generally is a, is a, the geography. Stable tariff regime, very stable, you know, the trade relations with most of the major markets, including U.S. and E.U. So Egypt, for us, was a strategic decision to set up this expansion of facility.
From there, we see that as a gateway catering to many markets which are not to the fullest extent, but are being catered to from here. So we see that this will be very complementary to each other rather than being in any kind of conflict in terms of market.
Sir, because 40% of our production, the capacity when it was 7 billion pack, the 40% was exported. Now our capacity is 12 billion pack, and the export market will be taken care of by Egypt. So do you confident that you will be able to turn, sell 12 billion pack in India only?
... Yes, so I think this is where, to some extent, this is also, we are actually relying on two things. Number one, we expect an exponential growth in industry segment per se, for liquid packaging. And on top of that, in India, we are already the market leader, and we expect to consolidate further that position from number two to, the leader. That will mean that there is a lot of upside in terms of market demand within India, which of course will be catered, and that has been the reason for us to strategically invest in expansion of the capacity. Had we not been confident of the domestic market demand, we would have, first added the overseas facility to more look at the export market.
We see this India market and also the larger global market being of, of great prospect for our liquid packaging business. Hence, both the things of the same capacity looks like we are confident of that being leveraged in a position to cater to the increasing market share and holding the margins to great extent, and that's what we expect from our liquid packaging business on a whole.
Sir, what is the reason for dip in the chemical business in this quarter?
So overall, in fact, chemical business, yeah, it was, it was actually a combination of the change in the product mix, and also something to do, all derivatives and no value-added products, largely reflecting the broader trend in the, in the underlying industry segment, which were also impacted. So, but we feel just like no other segment, this also is stabilizing, and we expect a better performance from the, from the chemical segment as well.
Sir, one more question that we have invested a lot of money in this commodity film business, whether it is BOPET or BOPP or CPP. So instead of putting money in commodity film, where like it requires a lot of CapEx, why we are not invested in value-added film, where the CapEx is quite low, but the margin and are quite high?
Yeah. So actually, in fact, if you see, that's exactly what I was meaning by improved product mix in the sense that on one hand, we have the base layer as the, as the base packaging film. But most of places, including Egypt, including Hungary and other places, we have also invested and added the capacity of, as I talked about metallized, AlOx, and ultra-high barrier films. And those are now forming an increasing share of the overall packaging films segment. Because on one hand, this does not mean that incremental CapEx of the same proportion, and also it helps in terms of the better realization. And most of the evolved markets, in fact, there is a great demand for these high barrier, metallized, value-added, and specialized film.
That's where this segment, as you know, things have stabilized in the U.S. and other places. We expect that now this investment and strategic focus on this high value-added film segment will hold good for us.
Okay, sir. Thanks, sir. This is from my side.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Kaushik Poddar from KB Capital Markets Private Limited. Please go ahead.
We are going to start another year in another 15 days. Do you see any change on the EPR front as far as your company is concerned?
EPR, in fact, is very close to our heart. It is very strategic investment from our side, and we feel that this government is also equally committed to this thing, translating into what we believe should be something which should be of excellent no prospect for us. And if you see the general guidelines about the EPR mix for rigid, flexible, as well as, you know, multi-lateral, multi-material, flexible plastic, where the... There was a guideline about 30%-10% or 5% of this recycling material. Government has only pushed it out to some extent, and largely it has meant that, you know, that what was expected to happen by this fiscal is only going to pan out, play out in the coming years.
There has been the window available for next three years to make up for what was not implemented now, and that also shows, in our view, that shows the commitment of government of the highest order. We feel that this will mean that sooner or later, as more and more, you know, manufacturers adopt this, it will help our strategic investment in this and should hold good for your company.
I mean, do you see as a result, your margin also coming up?
Yes. Overall, in fact, we see as this now actual implementation of this happens, that will largely track the increased utilization. And we, being one of the best entrenched players in the recycling capacity, we will be the early beneficiary and should be able to get the benefit of our significant strategic investment in that as it start getting implemented, resulting in the numbers of this renewable mix.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor, from Kapoor & Co. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, as you mentioned, that, the current maturity results came up INR 1,450-INR 1,500 crores, sir. Is that figure number correct for the next year?
Yeah.
...So we should be, yes, so for the next year, should we expect that debt to decline by that number itself or on an absolute number? Because net debt to EBITDA would be a misnomer with the contribution from the new projects. Still, we are just contemplating and planning for the next year. So on an absolute number basis, will this number be reduced, the opening, the closing number for December?
So as I said that, in isolation, looking at the net debt number will not give the right perspective in the sense that we see this, the EBITDA performance for the next fiscal to improve, bringing or making this leverage ratio, net debt to EBITDA ratio, which in our opinion, has peaked at the current level to improve. Now, with the repayment or current portion of the long-term debt repayment over the next 12 months of INR 1,400-INR 1,500 crore, and there is a remaining CapEx of close to about INR 1,200 crore, largely it should square off. We don't expect any significant addition in the debt, but at the same time, improvement in the leverage profile based on the improved EBITDA is what I can say.
Not necessarily reflecting in the reduced debt number, but we can see improvement in the leverage ratio.
So the 1,200, which you mentioned right now, will be spent for the next financial year in which project?
So some part of this, as we talked about these projects, which are yet to see the full completion and commissioning. We have about 36 million. We have about close to about INR 350 crores of CapEx spent, which will be, which is remaining for after the quarter three for our Egypt aseptic plant. We will have for remaining CapEx of close to about INR 110-120 crores for the recycling plant at Noida. And we will have the next one will be the BOPP Dharwad plant expenditure. So all put together, that is residual CapEx, which based on the current plans of the CapEx, seems to be incurred to a significant level over the course of next one year.
So given the repayment of this and remaining CapEx requirement of so much, I think largely it will kind of offset each other. Holding the debt level, I don't say that it will come down in the immediate year, but, this has to be seen in the context of the improved EBITDA, and the resulting in a leverage ratio being better is what we can expect.
Okay. That point is well taken. Now, just to conclude, so we are operating in various geographies. So in the net debt numbers, if you could provide us, in next time in the presentation, with geography-wise, a working capital debt as well as long-term debt, so that will suffice some understanding of where the debt is currently being held. That would give us a much more clear picture about the same. And, sir, hello?
Yeah, yeah.
So that bifurcation is, would be, would suffice a lot of, a lot of our queries, where, where the debt is held in which geography, and then we can contemplate about the, the currency transmission and other issues also, the risk part there itself. That, that is different part of ballgame. But my request is that if one can, look forward a presentation of debt, geography-wise, segmentally, so that will suffice the issues. Sir, and then we are operating in all across the globe, so what kind of systems, IT systems, SAP, are in place wherein we get real-time position of, all, all the, all the plants that are operating across the globe? Or do we need to accumulate data post the quarter ends, and how do we, reconcile things, sir?
Yeah. So I think there were two parts to your question. One was related to debt profile, and you were specifically looking at the split of long-term and working capital, and also to get some sense of India and overseas.
Yes.
So in fact, we probably kind of having an inkling of this. From our side, if it, if you actually see slide number 24 of the presentation shared, there is already a profile, a split given of long-term debt and working capital.
Mm-hmm.
So long-term debt is about 74% of the total debt, and working capital and short-term is 26%. Likewise, within the long-term debt, there is a split given of domestic and overseas. So domestic at 40% and overseas at about 60%. And largely, you will also see this also bringing out a very clear pointer that 60% of the overseas business is in line with our major growth plans, which are from overseas. So this debt is aligned to our CapEx investment, major growth plans, and that largely is being reflected in the split between domestic and overseas business, overseas debt at 40%-60%. Coming to the second point, which you made about the IT system, ERP implementation as a policy.
In fact, in all locations, we follow the uniform ERP Oracle that is already implemented across all locations, all entities. So there's nothing like quarter end screening for the numbers and trying to collate those numbers based on a parallel Excel kind of MIS. So that is very much part of the ERP implementation, which has been done across all the entities, all across all the geographies.
Okay. Sir, then, sir, what should investors read into the always declaration of result on the penultimate day of the statutory requirement? Every quarter, either our results are declared on tenth, eleventh, or twelfth, that is the penultimate day remains, or fourteenth. So, why is that? In fact, sir, since we are on the call of UFlex, we should discuss only the other. In fact, the industry itself, the entire co-concept for the film industry, every results for the film packaging film industries are at the fag end, either on tenth to fourteenth are the numbers. So we will be speaking to other companies on their platform. But we would like to know from the UFlex team that what remains pending that we need to come up with results only on the penultimate day?
Yeah. So number one, first of all, let me assure you that this is not because of anything pending as such. This is not something to do if it is related to the ERP or Oracle system implementation. As I told you, that is something which is already in place. It is not something results in any holdback or delay in terms of getting the data. So we take your point that, penultimate day or a day before and all, may be something that can be a pointer, can be a suggestion for us to look at.
Having said that, I think about the industry players, I should not be commenting on that, but, maybe to some extent, we being the industry leaders to some extent, this may also be, you know, somewhere closer to there's no major industry players announcing their results. But I take your point. I think this is a suggestion, which is welcome suggestion, and it is not for any kind of constraint or anything. It is largely something that we can talk about. I will refrain from talking about other, players in this who have more or less, as you rightly said, announced around the same time. So, so that part I will not comment on, but I take your suggestion as a welcome suggestion to see if we can actually, push it a bit ahead.
Yes, sir. Just look at the bottlenecks and get them, get that sorted out, so this will help your investor community. And since we are—we set the benchmark, so, yeah, the other people will also follow through. That is what my understanding was. And lastly, sir, one more request, if we could also have on our conference call our Vice Chairman, CEO, Mr. Anantshree, to spare time with the investing community, since the com... Since there is no representation from the promoter.
Although, sir, this is not to undermine your or Surajit's or Pandeyji's significance or credibility, but it is just a humble suggestion from minority shareholders, that there should be some representation in one form or the other, either on a half-yearly basis or on an annual basis, wherein we hear from the promoter who are also a partner with us in this entire profile. I think all other are professional people, including you, Surajit, and Pandeyji, who are conducting and answering to us during the calls. So that's again a humble suggestion, if that could be deliberated on the merit of it and look forward.
No, most definitely. I think that is a suggestion which is definitely worth taking home. And, as you rightly said, that, you know, I mean, end of the day, in our own humble ways, we try our best to do justice to this presentation. But I understand there is a difference always, you know, in terms of a strategic vision in the roadmap ahead. Hearing it from the promoters, you know, does have a different impact, at least in terms of vision sharing. So this point is well taken. We will definitely take it to the promoters to hear it.
Sir, only to add to that, vision and everything is being informed by them to you, and you are deliberating and explaining to us. Am I correct on that front, sir?
No, that point I will say that is despite, you know, with all humility, I'll say that's something which basically needs more understanding. It is not something that we hear-
Okay.
And we are communicating to you.
Okay. Thank you.
This is actually from the management side, with all responsibility. It is something which is on behalf of UFlex.
Right.
Whether you hear it from Mr. Anantshree or from us, it will be the same message coming from the-
I got your point. Yes.
But at the same time, we are-
Yes, sir.
Hearing it in your strategic vision ahead. Of course, there can't be any substitute to the promoters, the founders. That point-
Yes, sir. Yes, sir, with all humility, I made my submission, sir, not to pinpoint on any aspect.
Yeah.
And we are truly satisfied with the way the calls are conducted, presentations are given, updates are sent, so no, no questions on that. But we, we would definitely want to have our, promoters representation on the call going ahead. So that, and that's all from myself. Thank you, sir. And all the best to the team for the coming ensuing quarters, sir.
Thank you. We need your wishes. Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing remarks.
Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time, questions, and continued support. The transcript of this call will be made available shortly on our website at www.uflexlimited.com. We value this platform as it enables us to engage meaningfully with our investors and stakeholders, and look forward to keeping you updated on our progress in the coming quarters. Wish you all those present here, thank you.
Wonderful experience interacting with you. We welcome your questions, suggestions, lot of insights, and look forward to engaging with you again. Thank you so much.
Thank you. On behalf of Orient Capital Markets Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.