Birla Corporation Limited (BOM:500335)
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850.10
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At close: Sep 25, 2026
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Q4 24/25

May 12, 2025

Summary

Q4 FY25 saw strong realization and profitability gains, driven by price increases in key regions and high capacity utilization. Major expansion projects are on track, with debt metrics expected to remain healthy and a focus on operational efficiency and long-term growth.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Birla Corp Q4 FY 2025 Earnings Conference Call hosted by HDFC Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will remain 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 the operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone telephone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajesh Kumar Ravi from HDFC Securities. Thank you, and over to you.

Rajesh Kumar Ravi
Analyst, HDFC Securities

Yeah. Thanks, Rayan. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of HDFC Securities, I welcome you all to the earnings call of Birla Corporation Limited to discuss the financial results for the quarter and full year ended March 2025. From the management side, we have Mr. Sandip Ghose, MD and CEO, and Mr. Aditya Saraogi, Group CFO, and other senior members of the team. I now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, which will be followed by the Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Very good afternoon to all of you. On this happy occasion of Buddha Purnima, I welcome all of you to this call. There is a very large, I find, participation. That's always encouraging. This morning's trading in this market has also been a cause of, I think, encouragement for us. Thank all of you for your positive response. I think when the numbers do their own talking, there is very little commentary to be added. So on this occasion, unlike in previous times, I will leave the floor to our Group CFO, Mr. Aditya Saraogi, and along with him, we have got our operating team, Mr. Rajat Prusty, our Chief of Manufacturing and Projects. We have Mr. Kalidas Pramanik, our Chief Marketing Officer, and some of our other colleagues.

They will chip in and I will come back to answer any specific overall queries you may have on the business or the outlook or the plans of the group. So with that, I hand it over to Mr. Aditya Saraogi. After he finishes, then probably we will open up for questioning.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. While we have shared most of the financial information in our press release, there are few numbers which I would like to share with you which have not appeared there, which I am sure you might be interested in. For example, the total incentive that we have accrued in this year is INR 103 crore. Of which, in this current quarter Q4, we have accrued INR 41 crore. Our fuel cost in this quarter was 1.39 per million Kilocalories. And our total CapEx for the year was INR 437 crore. So these are some of the key numbers which are not appearing in the press release. And I now open the floor for questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, 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 their handsets 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 Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.

Shravan Shah
Analyst, Dolat Capital

Yeah. Thank you and congratulations on a very good set of numbers. Sir, my first question is, you have, as mentioned, the incentive for this quarter was just 41 odd crore. Despite that, we have seen more than 7% kind of a QOQ improvement in realization. So just wanted to understand what led this sharp up move in the realization.

Kalidas Pramanik
CMO, Birla Corporation

So this is Kalidas Pramanik. I am talking about that realization improvement, how it has happened. If you look at in the quarter four across the country, mostly the price in the north region and east have also gone up. So our volume also, if you look at the eastern region, has gone up. So that has resulted in to increase our realization of almost 7% in the quarter four. And also if you look at in the central region, central region more or less remained flat. Here and there, little increase was there. But mostly the realization has come from the north as well as the eastern.

Shravan Shah
Analyst, Dolat Capital

Okay. Got it. So it means this is a structural realization that the company has achieved. If you can also help us in terms of currently how are the prices and this kind of a realization, is it sustainable? So net net, the important point is that the profitability that we achieve more than INR 1,000 EBITDA per ton. If that's the case, then it should be a kind of a sustainable number. That's the only thing I wanted to understand.

Kalidas Pramanik
CMO, Birla Corporation

If you look at the exit.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

First of all, on the realization, this is Sandip Ghose again. One point which we keep saying is the way we are distributed, our realization is usually a weighted average of more than others and how the regional prices play out. So when we talk about if you were to look at last quarter to this quarter, it is not always a like to like thing, because how the prices move in the different geographies between last quarter and this quarter could be very different. It is not a very linear Some lines, there is a lot of background noise, please. If they could switch off, because there is a lot of disturbance coming from someone's line. Therefore, that is one factor.

Secondly, therefore, as an extension of that, we are not going to hazard any guess in terms of our EBITDA, how it is going to happen move forward, and it will be, I think, misleading or it could be erroneous to extrapolate the EBITDA in the subsequent quarter basis, what has happened in Q4.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Yeah. Shravan, just to answer your question, there are no one-off incentive or any other one-off. It is purely operational number that has been reported.

Shravan Shah
Analyst, Dolat Capital

Great. That is great. Just two, three data points if you can share, Mukutban volume, lead distance, and then also if you can help us, the cash flow. There was a 346 crore working capital inflow, which is from the other financial asset. If you can help us, what was that?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Volume for this quarter was 750,000 tons, and lead distance was around 450 km. What is the third one? We got some incentive received, so that probably would answer your questions about the change in current assets.

Shravan Shah
Analyst, Dolat Capital

Sir, you said lead distance was 350 or 450?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

For Mukutban 450, overall it is 350.

Shravan Shah
Analyst, Dolat Capital

Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you and all the best, sir.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Siddhant Dand from Goodwill Warehousing Private Limited. Please go ahead.

Siddhant Dand
Analyst, Goodwill Warehousing Private Limited

Yeah, hi. I wanted to know our long-term strategy for our jute business. Because if you go into the last 10 years, there has been very little profitability, and it continues to be a drag on our ROCE. And would we take any impairment because it takes a very large part of our block?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

I wouldn't say so. In fact, I would in a larger context of the entire group we are sitting here. Jute business, I consider to be for Birla Corporation, a certain advantage. It gives us a very distinct and unique advantage. When you find a lot of our peer group companies are trying to make forays into adjacencies and new businesses. We have already got with us, I think, existing asset competencies of a business which has eminent possibilities of scaling up and increasing profitability, especially in the current context when geotextiles and eco-friendly fabrics are becoming more in vogue.

The point I'm trying to say is that, let's say, if we were to today try and foray into another adjacency, new businesses in the allied sectors, like some of our peer group people have done, the amount of time it will take us to scale up to a turnover like what we have in jute as on date, and what is the potential of increasing jute from its current level to a higher level, is far higher than what somebody else entering a totally new field would take to generate that kind of a top line, as well as an equivalent bottom line. I don't want to specify numbers.

If there is an X amount of top line people are generating, let's say, in the course of three or five years, and also a bottom line of Y, the amount of time they will take, efforts, investment, management intensity, and the rest of it, we have got a readymade opportunity in our jute business. And because particularly jute is now poised for growth is what we believe. Here, we are the only jute company. If you were to look at it, we are 100+ year-old jute mill company, one of the original jute companies. Rest of the people who are there, most of them have either come into the business much later, taking it over from the foreign jute companies which have moved out and taken them on, and their whole mindset about the business has been very different.

There are only, therefore, a very few players today who are taking a much more futuristic and enlightened view of the jute business to move up the value chain with value-added products, with new R&D and tapping the export opportunities, export market, as well as in the domestic markets, moving away from the traditional dependence only on government orders which are subsidy-led, et cetera. So we believe jute has a future, and we have commented on that in our press release, that we are now putting in a different management focus into the jute business. It's early days for us to speak about it. We have had a revamp in the management structure of the jute business. We are approaching it in a much more integrated manner, not treating it as an arm's length, as a different business which is handled differently.

We have now increasingly integrating it into our main operations so that it gets that kind of management focus from our E-team and the central management. We are looking aggressively at what are the scope of increasing not only efficiencies in the existing business, but how, as I mentioned earlier, to move up the value chain. This company, some of you would not know, had in fact pioneered years ago on many jute value-added products, which we had done, but probably we were then ahead of the curve, ahead of times, and it did not commercially succeed. We are very encouraged to see some of those products, like using of jute, say, in automobile upholstery or other kind of jute product mixed with other laminates, et cetera. All of those things are making a huge comeback. Internationally, there are even more possibilities.

We are looking at jute in a very new way, and we don't see that as a drag at all in our business. Being part of the Birla Corporation structure, we believe we should be able to nurture and grow it further. Because of both our emotional connect, which we have, if you really speak Birla Corporation, that is the mother business. Not just the Birla Corporation of the entire larger Birla fraternity. That is where it all started. We therefore have a very strong, both sentimental as well as emotional connect. We know that business, and therefore, for us, there is that weight. We have not just come in subsequently, taking over a business from some other company which was leaving the field for other thing and then treat it as a short-term opportunity or a trading opportunity.

We have long-term stakes, and we have been around for 100 years, and hopefully we would like to be in this business for another 100 years.

Siddhant Dand
Analyst, Goodwill Warehousing Private Limited

That's wonderful to hear. Is there some kind of, let's say, five, seven years once the business is nurtured, the kind of margin expectations that you have? When can we expect double-digit ROCE in the company?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

As we said, it's early. We have made some indications. We would not like to, if you read this time's press release, there itself we have commented a few things, but it's very early days yet. I repeat myself, we have put a new management team. We are taking a very new, different look at this business. I am personally confident that like you have seen a lot of turnaround in the company's main cement business over the last 10 years, you will see a transformation in the jute business also in the times to come.

Siddhant Dand
Analyst, Goodwill Warehousing Private Limited

Okay, one last question before I join the queue. We also have a lot of equity investment outside the MP Birla Group, including in the largest cement player. Considering just the valuation difference in both theirs and ours, would you consider selling those equity investments to do further cement CapEx?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Those are non-strategic investments for us. Currently, we don't have any plans. We feel that we have got enough internal accruals to cater to our CapEx requirements. As of now, we don't have any immediate plans to sell those investments.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Those will be financing decisions that arise at a particular point in time. As Aditya mentions, it's a non-strategic investment. It is not going to be part of our growth strategy. We will take a call on it when we have to as a part of our financing decision and at the right moment. We have to see whether we are getting the right value out of it or not. We are under no distress or pressure to sell that to fund our growth.

Siddhant Dand
Analyst, Goodwill Warehousing Private Limited

Okay, that's great. Thank you so much.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time and fairness to others, we request you to restrict to two questions per participant and rejoin the question queue. The next question comes from the line of Jyoti from Nirmal Bang. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Great set of numbers. Can you hear me?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Yeah, we can of course hear you, Jyoti. Welcome.

Speaker 8

Yeah.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

The first time I think you're speaking in any of our conference calls.

Speaker 8

I mean, the entire industry has done very well. We have done almost like if the numbers are correct, we should be doing year-over-year 10% growth. Which means we are in line with industry. EBITDA margin also, almost everybody would be doing some 250+ . Now in FY quarter one also, we expect similar numbers. Will this sustain in second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter when we're going to have such massive capacity coming in? Do we expect similar consistency of numbers going ahead? Considering I don't see any major disruptions happening in the economy so far, whatever it was, how do you see things going forward for the industry on the whole? On the consolidation part, do you think going forward, prices are going to stabilize because of consolidation?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Jyoti, as you have seen us over the last two, three years, we try to do what we think is right for our business. We are not that large to influence industry trends or basically make those predictions. We have a clear strategy, and we try to stay to that and stay close to our promises to our stakeholders as well as our investors without getting carried away by what's happening around us. Because those are things for there are other larger players who've got different sets of priorities for them to look at it. Our job is to manage our existing businesses, not only profitably but in the most value-adding way, create value for all stakeholders, not just investors and shareholders, for everybody. We have a commitment there because we are here for the long term.

Secondly, now that we are undertaking, we have committed ourselves for expansion and a new phase of growth. We would like to deliver that in the best possible way. We do not like to get deflected on day-to-day basis. Whatever will have to happen in the larger context, it will happen, and there are bigger people to take care of that. We would like to keep our head on our shoulders and try and deliver a reasonable performance quarter- on- quarter.

Speaker 8

Okay. Thank you so much, sir. All the best. I wish you only progress and do well going forward.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Thank you very much, Jyoti. We appreciate your wishes.

Speaker 8

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

Namaskar, sir, and congratulations to the entire team for a very good set of operational and financial set of numbers. Firstly, Sandip Ghose sir, a question for you, sir. We are targeting a capacity of 27.6 million tons. If you could just articulate to us on a three-year basis what would be the likely capacity addition?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

S ince you got my name wrong, Saket, despite living some 3 km from where I am sitting, I will pass on my question to Saraogi, whom you forgot to thank.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

I'd rather turn the capacity to Rajat.

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

Yeah. Good afternoon to all. I am Rajat Prusty. As you rightly mentioned, our capacity will go to 27.6 million tons by FY 2029. But if you see, maybe by December 2027, Q3 FY 2028, we should be reached with Maihar Line 2 and two grinding setups at Prayagraj and Gaya phase I, which will add on our capacity to roughly 25 million tons.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

For the coming first five, I mean from year 2026, 2027, what kind of then additional volumes we will be going through? I just missed your last point.

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

This 2026, 2027, you can say that our capacity will remain only addition of 1.4 million tons, which is going on presently on time, Kundanganj Line 3. That will be commissioned and that will continue to ramp up that volume to 21.4 million tons.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

Sir, obviously the CapEx number for the current financial year and also sir, in the cash flow as well as in the non-current assets, we have given INR 100 crore inter-corporate loan. Can you please explain to whom and the rationale for the same?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

In terms of CapEx for this year, we expect that total CapEx to be around INR 1,100 crore, including the project CapEx. That is the number. And INR 100 crore is the inter-corporate deposit we have given to another company at arm's length.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

Another company, sir? Did not get the name.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

On an arm's length basis, yeah.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

Sorry, sir. I did not understand, sir.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

We have given it to another company on an arm's length basis. It's an inter-corporate loan. We do not want to specify the names, et cetera, here.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

Okay. Sir, for the coal mining part, sir, if you could just give color in the press release, we are also not mentioning about off-take from our coal mine and the target which we have set in terms of the self-sufficiency which we will be achieving about the Vikram coal and the other coal mining activities that we have initiated.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

In terms of coal mines, Bikram coal mine, by Q3 of this year, we are expecting to start that coal mine. But meaningful production will start from next financial year only. Regarding the other coal mine, which is Marki Barka, that we expect to start only in FY 2028.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

Okay.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Saket, you see that there is no salvation in just saying what is the self-sufficiency. Coal mine captive versus purchase will all depend always on the cost benefit, the cost equations. Sometimes you may actually decide to mine less if your cost of mining is more than your purchase of coal. As I said, there is no absolute virtue in only mining your own coal. That is a call we will take. Our job is to keep the fuel mix in the most efficient and most economic manner. To that extent, there is no color to add to coal mines. Coal is always black. It will remain black and white.

Saket Kapoor
Analyst, Kapoor & Company

Yes, sir. I will join the queue for two more follow-ups, sir. Sorry for the name, Sandip sir. I am extremely sorry.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

No problem.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pushkar Jain from Milli Capital. Please go ahead.

Pushkar Jain
Analyst, Milli Capital

Hi, sir. Congratulations on good set of numbers. I just wanted to know the trend in power costs, as we have seen a significant decline in power costs.

Operator

I am sorry to interrupt you, Pushkar. If you could please use your handset and ask your question once again. Thank you.

Pushkar Jain
Analyst, Milli Capital

Hi, sir. Congratulations on good set of numbers. My question was regarding power costs. We have seen a meaningful decline in power costs. I just wanted to know the trend. Do we see it going forward?

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

Power and fuel costs combined together, you can see the trend. Already it is in a going trend, downward trend of INR 1,000 per ton. Of course, that depends on the coal prices, as rightly said by Aditya, sir, in the beginning of the conference, that our fuel cost is 1.39 per million Kilocalories. We are working on a different models, that is, continuously see what best fuel mix we can do so that we can optimize our cost. Parallelly, for clean power also, of course, now it is around 25%. We are working on certain projects both in solar, hybrid, and renewable power of WHRS also. So we have planned many improvement projects, including additional capacity. Going forward, you can see that our green power is going to increase in next year's time to around 36%-37%.

Power, obviously, if we see only electric power, then it will remain almost similar and better than the today's number.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

You should see a gradual declining trend. In terms of power cost.

Pushkar Jain
Analyst, Milli Capital

Power cost. Okay, sir. Got it. Thanks a lot.

Operator

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

Siddharth Gupta
Shareholder, Private Investor

Yes. I wanted to ask about the Chittorgarh mining case. There was recently a news article stating that the state government is considering ban on mining within 10-km radius to Chittorgarh Fort. I wanted to understand what is the update regarding this.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

We have no such information on this. That statement was made, but we have not found any veracity, and we would be surprised if such a position is taken because it is contrary to anything which has been stated in the past. The case has been progressing in a particular manner. There has been certain studies which were prescribed by the Supreme Court. The studies have been completed, and the reports are at the disposal of the court to consider. We shall wait. We do not see any material change from whatever the position was earlier.

Siddharth Gupta
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. Does the company have any alternatives if such a situation would arise?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

That is a very hypothetical question. We are not even considering that as a situation just now, because there is no reason to think anything like this. Case, as you know, has been there for a very long time. All aspects of it has been gone into. There is really nothing to comment at the moment on that end, and there is therefore nothing to talk of an alternative just now.

Siddharth Gupta
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. Just one last question. I wanted to know what is the current realization compared to Q4 average, if you can share that.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

This quarter? You are talking of the current quarter?

Siddharth Gupta
Shareholder, Private Investor

Yeah, ongoing quarter, and downward Q1 FY 2026.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Ongoing almost remains same. There is not much variation.

Siddharth Gupta
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vipul Kumar Anupc hand Shah from Sumangal Investments. Please go ahead.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations for very good set of numbers. Mr. Saraogi, would you repeat the Mukutban volume for quarter and year, please? I could not listen it properly.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

750,000 tons.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

Sorry?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

For quarter. 750,000 tons for the quarter.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

What was the yearly volume, sir?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

2.5 million approximately.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

Sir, we have taken another expansion. What will be the debt trajectory over the next two, three years? Our debt had started coming down meaningfully and again, now we are taking a debt-funded expansion route. Can you comment on the debt trajectory for the next two, three years?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

The debt in absolute terms, definitely there will be some increase in the debt. As we have always maintained, you should look at our debt in terms of debt- to- EBITDA metrics. While we have always maintained that as a policy, we would always like to remain below three. For the current financial year, the debt- to- EBITDA ratio, we are expecting to be well below two.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

Okay. No, I am talking about the next two years, sir.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Next two years also I do not see my debt- to- EBITDA exceeding much beyond two.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

Okay, sir. Thank you and all the best.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Amit Agicha from HG Hawa & Company. Please go ahead.

Amit Agicha
Analyst, HG Hawa & Company

Good afternoon, sir. Am I audible?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Yes, please.

Amit Agicha
Analyst, HG Hawa & Company

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, sir, and congratulations for the good set of results. Sir, most of the questions have been answered. Just a request, sir. The investor presentation has not yet been updated on the stock exchange.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

We do not come out with investor presentation. We always come out with a press release, which has been uploaded.

Amit Agicha
Analyst, HG Hawa & Company

Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Girija Shankar from YES Securities. Please go ahead.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

Hello, sir. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. I have a small bookkeeping question. Just wanted to understand the total capacity expansion, what we are going to do for Prayagraj, Gaya, Aligarh, and Kundanganj. Kundanganj is 1.4 and Gaya is 2 million tons. Prayagraj and Aligarh number I want.

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

Gaya is 2.8 million tons in two phases, and Aligarh is 2 million tons. Prayagraj is 1.4 million tons.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

Aligarh is? Sorry.

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

2 million tons.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

I will just repeat. It is Kundanganj 1.4, Aligarh 2 million tons, Gaya 2.8 and Prayagraj is?

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

1.4.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

Okay, 1.4. Okay, this is 7.6. For this 7.6 and including Maihar clinker, the total CapEx we are estimating INR 4,335 crore, right?

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

6.2 million tons because Kundanganj Line 3 already the job is going on, we are in the process.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

4,759 is the number including Kundanganj Line 3.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

Okay. Is there any clinker sale we did for this quarter?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Very marginal something would've been there.

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

20,000, 30,000 tons.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

It's hardly marginal.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

There is no enough in our top line growth, right?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

No.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

Okay. This Prayagraj, Gaya, Aligarh, these are the three grinding unit which is expected to come by third quarter of FY 2028. Kundanganj-

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Third quarter. By calendar year 2027, we are expecting Maihar Line 2, phase I of Gaya, Prayagraj, and of course, Kundanganj Line 3 is expected in the second quarter itself.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

Okay. Kundanganj is first quarter of?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Second quarter of this financial year.

Girija Shankar Ray
Analyst, YES Securities

Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Moksh Ranka from Aurum Capital. Please go ahead.

Moksh Ranka
Analyst, Aurum Capital

Hello. I wanted to know your total clinker capacity and your total limestone reserves in metric tons.

Rajat Prusty
Chief of Manufacturing and Projects, Birla Corporation

Total clinker capacity is around 13 million tons as of today, and plan for another 3.7 million tons, that is Maihar Line 2.

Moksh Ranka
Analyst, Aurum Capital

Okay. And limestone reserve?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

We have sufficient limestone reserves. We can't give a specific number as of now.

Moksh Ranka
Analyst, Aurum Capital

Okay. That's it from my side.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Uttam Kumar Srimal from Axis Securities Limited. Please go ahead.

Uttam Kumar Srimal
Analyst, Axis Securities Limited

Yes, sir. Good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on the good set of numbers. Sir, in your press conference here, you have mentioned about RMC business. Just wanted to know how many RMC plants we are going to set up this year, what kind of CapEx we will be incurring in the RMC business, and what will be the margin in this particular business?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

This is early for us to talk about it. We are still firming up our strategy. We have made a beginning in U.P. We are finalizing our strategy. Hopefully, by next quarter, we should be able to give you a clearer picture on this.

Uttam Kumar Srimal
Analyst, Axis Securities Limited

Okay. And sir, last one. Sir, if you can give volume guidance for FY 2026, that will be very helpful.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

The industry is expected to grow maybe between 6%-8%. We should be in line with industry, if not better.

Uttam Kumar Srimal
Analyst, Axis Securities Limited

Okay, sir. That's all from my side, and all the best to you.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Patanjali Srinivasan from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Patanjali Srinivasan
Analyst, Sundaram Mutual Fund

Congratulations. Good set of numbers, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. Sir, previous quarter end, we were a little bit watchful in terms of the commentary because we said that this whole Prayagraj event was going on and pricing environment was very benign. But when we look at our results and the numbers that we have shown, things seem to have turned around in a very quick manner. Could you just tell me one or two key things that came in as a surprise or came in because of our efforts, which was different from what you had expected initially?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

First of all, we are always conservative but realistic. That's something I hope you'll give us credit for because from every quarter- to- quarter, we have always tried to take a very realistic view of things. Therefore, it was not that we were exceptionally pessimistic or anything when we spoke at the end of the previous quarter. In fact, what we talked about that time, the Kumbh Mela, if you're referring to that indeed affected our operations in central India because for a long time, eastern U.P. was inaccessible, and because we feed Bihar largely by rail, but not largely, entirely by rail, our rail movements were also affected.

But what I think happened, and which I would not say it surprised us, but what we have done very well is despite these constraints and everywhere else, the way both our manufacturing and the sales team have operated, we have operated at a very high level of capacity utilization not only in our old markets, but even in our new markets like Mukutban, we have, I think, exceeded our own internal expectations of what we have done out there. So therefore, our volumes have been definitely what we would have taken a realistic or a conservative estimate of that has gone up. And wherever we have had uptick of prices, which is more than north as Mr. Kalidas Pramanik was saying, had been a very depressed scenario for three quarters, and north showed an improvement in the fourth quarter. East showed up an improvement there.

Those came in handy for us. There was a slight improvement also in the Maharashtra area, which was earlier, for a long time it had remained depressed, but post the elections, everything stabilized in Maharashtra and that picked up. So all those were tailwinds which we got, which might have given us a little ahead of our. And of course, fuel prices, et cetera, were benign. Input costs were benign. So that together. No big surprises per se, except as I said, that our people exceeded, I think, our expectation in terms of the operations.

That has been huge because when you have a capacity like ours, which is not very large, if you see that if you have to do it on a sustainable basis, maintain despatches and sales from day one of the month to the last day of the month, that calls for tremendous coordination, planning of operation between sales, marketing, logistics, and the rest of it, and that is where I think we did very well.

Patanjali Srinivasan
Analyst, Sundaram Mutual Fund

Sure . Sir, just a related question. So when you say pricing improvement happened in terms of demand also would have played a factor. So if we operate largely in three regions, if you could tell me which region, what were the rough increases in prices that we were able to see at our organization?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

I don't think we'll get into that specific. The overall market prices you are aware of. As we mentioned that in the North.

Patanjali Srinivasan
Analyst, Sundaram Mutual Fund

Just directionally, where would we have seen the highest increase in price? Something like that, if you could give me a direction.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

North and East. East was probably higher, but our presence in east is not that high. But within that, we have done well, and north, of course, was good, especially in the initial months. Thereafter, it plateaued, but initial months, north picked up quite a bit from being in a fairly depressed state in the third quarter.

Patanjali Srinivasan
Analyst, Sundaram Mutual Fund

Sure, sir. Just last question for Saraogi, sir. What would our net debt absolute number for 2026 be and CapEx for 2027 also be, if you could help us with it?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

As I said, net debt is expected to increase in this financial year because of the CapEx program. As of now, we expect it to be in the vicinity of INR 3,000 crore. But in terms of net debt- to- EBITDA, it could be definitely below two for this financial year.

Patanjali Srinivasan
Analyst, Sundaram Mutual Fund

Sure, sir. CapEx for 2027, sir?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Total CapEx, I do not have that number for 2027. I do not have the specific number for next financial year.

Patanjali Srinivasan
Analyst, Sundaram Mutual Fund

Sure. Thank you so much.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah from Sumangal Investments. Please go ahead.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

We will close after this. It's the last question.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

Hello.

Yeah, thanks for the follow-up. Sir, what type of volume we are expecting from Mukutban for this year?

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

We are doing a steady ramp-up. We have been operating close to 80% capacity utilization. Next year we would be probably 8. Huh?

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

Through performance around 2.8, and next year for the year is around-

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Will exit 85.

Aditya Saraogi
Group CFO, Birla Corporation

85. We should exit at 85.

Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Analyst, Sumangal Investments

Okay, sir. Thank you.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

Thank you very much. Rajesh, shall we close the call now because others are repetition. We have already answered questions for Dolat and Kapoor & Co.

Rajesh Kumar Ravi
Analyst, HDFC Securities

Sure, sir. I think that is all, moderator. Sir, if you have any closing comment, after that we will close the call.

Sandip Ghose
Managing Director and CEO, Birla Corporation

No, but I think we thank you very much. We can only thank you once more. We are, I think, confident, and now we are setting our hearts and minds to basically delivering not only on the existing thing, but all the expansions we have committed, the new projects. We will try to get Kundanganj, the new line, operational. And everything allied to that, including what we discussed about jute business, RMC, and the rest of it. Hard work ahead, but we feel confident after the delivery of last year. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of HDFC Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.