Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Birla Corp Q2 FY2027 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Steve. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of HDFC Securities, I welcome all of you to Q2 and H1 FY2027 earnings call of Birla Corporation Limited. From the management side, we have Mr. Sandip Ghose, MD and CEO, Mr. Aditya Saraogi, Group CFO, and other senior leaders from the team. I now hand over the call to Sandip Ghose, sir, for his opening remarks. After his presentation concludes, we will start the Q&A session. Over to you, sir.
Very good afternoon to all of you. Pleasure connecting with you in this festive season, when everybody is gearing up for Diwali. Bombay, I suppose, is already on a celebration mode. As far as we are concerned, I don't think this quarter's results are exactly celebratory. We know it is modest and subdued, largely due to factors which everybody knows, especially on the cost side. Everybody has been hit by the fuel prices primarily, and we are no exception in that. But where we are probably affected a little more is our main presence, a very substantial presence is in the central region. And in central region, again, we play much more on the trade side, which all of you know, and the prices there have been depressed.
I was just checking, it's four years since some major acquisitions and mergers happened, consolidation in the industry, and thereafter also for a period of more than a year or so, there have been other consolidations which took place. All pundits believe that consolidation is going to be helping in terms of pricing for the industry. But we have not seen that happening, especially in the regions where we operate. We haven't seen any such impact of the consolidation. In fact, that has kept the prices soft, in particular also, not just in the popular segment, but even in what is called the premium segment of the A category.
Some market leaders who were earlier commanding a premium over the rest of their peer group have diluted their price positioning, and there is a continuous dynamic tension in terms of retaining market share, due to which the trade prices have not shown any significant increase, despite even in months when there has been fairly healthy demand. This does affect us, because we, again, the cost of reputation, we are very, very skewed towards trade sales and blended cement sales. Where people have the headroom are in non-trade. We operate, as you know, right now, this quarter, we operate 85% capacity utilization, but we go up to 90%, 95%, whereas many of our peer group or larger players also operate below even 70% capacity utilization, and they are all having more expansion plans on the anvil or in the pipeline.
Therefore, they do have an anxiety to garner market share or retain market share. This plays out largely in the non-trade segment. But the non-trade segment, okay, there was some degree of rational behavior in the last quarter towards the end, due to which the non-trade prices, which had really plummeted, there was correction. I am talking primarily of Central India because that is where our major interests lie. But non-trade prices increase does not really help us because we continue to dominate or be skewed heavily towards the trade sector. Some amount of increases, we are seeing some uptick in October, but I would not call them very significant uptick, and I would not really call them very solid increases, which may not slip if the market conditions change. We will come to that later. So that has been our, basically, the bane for us.
Whereas we have continued within that what we can do in terms of increasing our premiumization, not just in this core market, but also in markets where our premium percentage is low. For example, in Rajasthan, we have increased our premium percentage there. We have in Maharashtra, where we are operating, we have consciously cut down on leads and trying to focus and gain our trade market shares or even non-trade market shares in proximate markets of Vidarbha and Marathwada, Khandesh, to get it up there. So we have tried those mixes. In terms of costs, for some factors, our cost increase, while common with other people, certain places we benefited because of our captive coal mines ourselves. The second captive coal mine, Bikram, is on stream. From there also, we are getting captive coal for our things.
But we had some carryforward of shutdowns in that unit, due to which we had to buy some amount of clinker from third party, and the clinker cost hit us. So you may find that our cost increase relatively is higher than some of the other industry players, but that is largely the impact of purchased clinker, which we had in this particular quarter. This is broadly, I think, the overall context I will place, and I will come back to you towards the end to give our view of how the market will behave, how we are seeing the next two quarters or the last two quarters of the year, or H2 playing out. And statewise view, we will share with you. But I will now pass on the mic to my colleagues. First, Aditya Saraogi, our CFO, Group CFO, then Rajat Prusty.
And we have a new Head of National Sales. Mr. Kalidas Pramanik has taken early superannuation, but he remains attached to the company in a consulting capacity. But in his place, we have Mr. Tamal Pal, who was our Strategy Head of the company. Tamal has been with our company for a long time, but before that also, in the days of the RCCPL, the Reliance days, he has worked for Reliance. He is a graduate from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and he has now taken over this role. And I wish Tamal all the best. He has got into the groove already in the last couple of months, and he is on it. And Tamal will also speak to you, giving some of his views or early impressions of the market. Mr. Saraogi, please.
So, the increase in cost was primarily driven by the escalation in fuel prices, where both the prices of petcoke as well as domestic coal saw a steep rise. Petcoke, of course, was due to geopolitical reasons, as we all are aware. And even the domestic coal, one, the production was affected because of the monsoon season. The mines, coal mines, Coal India mines were flooded. And secondly, because of very high power demand by the power sector, the coal demand, the coals were diverted on a preferential basis to power sector. So the rakes were not available for supply to sectors other than power sector. So that created a huge gap between demand and supply, leading to unprecedented increase in domestic coal prices. And apart from the coal prices, the other heads where we saw bigger increase was the increase in the cost of packing material.
So these were the two heads where most of the increase of cost we were seeing. Going forward, as we see, at least in the near term, we do not see any respite on both these accounts. The fuel prices, we expect, in fact, the fuel prices, I think the international prices are expected to go up even further from the current levels. And as far as the domestic fuel is concerned, once the winter sets in and there is a reduction in the power demand and the supply improves by Coal India subsidiaries, I think that should bring down the prices of domestic fuel. But on the whole, at least in Q3, we are expecting the coal prices to increase from Q2 levels as well.
Yeah. Good afternoon to all. This is Rajat here. As rightly said by MD sir and Saraogi sir, last quarter, there was more of an availability of the coal also. In fact, we had to plan many things to ensure that with the continuous operation of the plant, because flood situation in many of the mines of Coal India, and especially in the MP part, lot of challenges were faced. And we were able to see that the plant run without an issue and also optimize the cost. So, our two things, three front actions which has helped.
One is enhancing the production from our Bikram Coal Block, which just started last quarter. Continuously, we are focusing to increase the production also in the Bikram Coal Block, and using part of the coal in the other systems, like apart from the CPP to kiln, and also optimize our fuel mix and the raw mix, all these things in the plant to ensure that we contain the cost, apart from the availability. The second one is the renewable power, where our continuous focus was there. Last quarter it was 32% plus, and going forward, we are planning to reach the level of 45% in the next one year time, for which already many projects or many activities are being planned.
The third thing is on improving the AFR uses also, which already our focus started on many plants to see how we can really optimize our fuel costs. Going forward, our captive mines use will further increase, not only for our M.P. plants, but for Rajasthan plants also, based on the fuel pricing and the overall optimizations. Overall, I just want to say that this is a very difficult time for all the manufacturing units, and everyone put their best effort to see how we can contain our cost. Going forward, what are the initiatives which I mentioned, will continue to drive or reduce the cost.
Thank you. We now open the house for question and answer session.
Thank you, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset when asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Your first question comes from the line of Shravan Shah with Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Couple of questions. Two, three things, but everything is kind of interlinked. Given that our all the capacities, the expansion plan, 6.2 million tons to come in FY 2029, how the volume growth will come? Obviously, last time we guided 20 million tons for this year, but for even FY 2028, that is one. Second, given the cost increase and whatever the price hike is happening, that is mostly in the non-trade, which you highlighted. Given that scenario, how do we see the second half in terms of the price increase for us and the cost? Net-net, the profitability, do we see this INR 482 per ton, EBITDA per ton, which we achieve in Q2, could be even the similar or lower in third quarter also?
There are a couple of points before handing over to Mr. Saraogi. This is, a lot of it is crystal ball gazing. The cost part of it, I think Mr. Prusty has already commented, Mr. Saraogi has commented. A lot of it, as you know, is linked to the international situation, which is also anybody's guess. It is very unpredictable. We do not know how it is happening. What Mr. Saraogi talked about, the domestic power and coal situation, that is about one degree of prediction which we can make on the cost side. While we will do our better than our best to increase our captive coal, as well as see how we ramp up our alternate fuel, renewable energy and alternate fuel consumption to bring down the power cost, especially over there. That is going to happen on that.
As far as you are talking about pricing, I would think that there is, here is, as we say, the spirit is willing, flesh is weak kind of a situation. Because I think today, the manufacturers are all come to a position when they would like to have a price increase. But, a lot of it is a function of how the demand also shapes. There are many variables on the demand side, which again, I would not like to make any astrological predictions. There is, we know today, although the monsoons behind us, but monsoons behind us has left behind, poor monsoons has left drought conditions in many areas, even where we operate, especially, for example, many of you are sitting in Bombay, you would know the situation in Maharashtra. Some areas are very, very drought affected. Rajasthan also, there are parts where there is drought.
There could be an impact of drought, and the drought impact now, how it is going to play out, even in the last quarter, we cannot say. Then there is, Mr. Saraogi was alluding to major election in U.P., which is our home ground. Elections, when it comes, sometimes initially you get a boost over there, but once the Model Code of Conduct and other things come into play, we have seen a softening of demand at that time, because especially in the non-trade sector, which obviously in turn will affect the trade sector. Those are headwinds we are cautious about. In some areas earlier, in North Bihar and parts of Eastern U.P., there was effect of floods. That should recede. Hopefully, Bihar will look up. By and large, despite the drought, Rajasthan should hold.
Gujarat also, I think there is a resurgence of the renewal of the infrastructure segment. So Gujarat also should hold up. With those, because I think all the players have been affected, so everybody is going into the second half having slipped in their ambitions for the first half. There will be general willingness for people to correct. But how that happens largely would depend, A, I think on the demand situation in the market, and most importantly, the large players where, depending on their strategies, we keep reading people talking about increasing or retaining market shares despite whatever situation. If those things continue, the ramifications on that, on prices, not just for us, for the industry at large, is difficult to predict.
We cannot be like ostriches putting our head in the ground to say we will continue to do whatever, irrespective of what the big brothers or big boys do in the market. That would be foolhardy. So we would give a cautious forecast in that direction. Mr. Saraogi will comment to the EBITDA, but we do not make very specific.
Yeah, we do not make specific comments. As far as the cost is concerned, definitely, the cost, I say, in Q3 sequential, just to give you a sense, fuel cost per million calorie was 1.81 in Q2, and in Q3, we expect it to be in the range of 1 to 1.05. So that gives you a sense. So on fuel account only, we expect the cost increase of about 100 INR a ton.
2 to 2.05.
2 to 2.05. On account of fuel itself, we expect the cost to go up by about INR 100 a ton. The costs definitely are going to go up in Q3 on a sequential basis. As Mr. Ghose said, all of us are trying to pass it on to the customers because, as it is, the profitability levels are nothing to talk home about. There is a clear attempt on our part to pass it on to the customers, but then we can't be different from the market. We have to operate within the market. Unless all the players in the industry show a willingness to pass it on to the customers, we cannot be operating that way.
I will stick my neck out and say something to Mr. Saraogi's point. The cost increase of 400, et cetera, which he's talking about, that may get recovered in the high season. But what we are not sure is the lag, what people have lost earlier in terms of the EBITDA, how much of that will get recovered is difficult to predict. About INR 100 or so.
There will be some fuel account and maybe some other accounts also possible.
Yeah, that you're talking about, say, between INR 5 and INR 7 or INR 10 per bag, that might happen. But others, beyond that, there'll be several other factors. I repeat, it depends a lot on the behavior of large players.
Sir, just to get just a clarity. So INR 100 fuel increase that Saraogi sir is mentioning in third quarter QOQ, what else could be the case? And for us, in terms of till now, the price hike versus the Q2 average would be how much? INR 5, INR 7 odd ?
You are talking in October?
Yeah.
Exit would be around that, but average may not be of that level.
Okay. And what cost extra apart from fuel would be hiring 3Q?
We are ramping up the production in our captive mine, Bikram Coal Block. There also, we have to understand, in Q1 and Q2, what we got was low-grade coal, which we are able to use only in power plant. Now we are trying to extract some better-grade coal, which we can use in kilns also. So that can actually substitute much higher-cost fuel. All that attempt and all that efforts are going on, and we are sure we will be able to get some positive results.
Okay. Thank you, sir. I have questions. Will come in queue. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Let's move on, please. Pathanjali?
Oh, yes, sir. The next question comes in the line of Pathanjali Srinivasan with Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, you mentioned that in your press release that heavy rains in some of your core markets, but you also mentioned that there was drought in some of the other markets. How do you see this affecting us? Do you think this will offset each other in terms of the demand going forward?
I am sorry to interrupt, Pathanjali sir. The voice is not coming clear. Could you please come closer to the mic?
Yeah, yeah. Pathanjali ji, the point is, you are asking the question about the weather to the wrong person. This is to be asked to the Meteorological Bureau and the weather watchers. We can only look at what is happening in the marketplace and how it is going. I cannot really predict about the drought and the-
Or the market is going to expect it to get affected by this drought and-
Yeah, that's what we're hearing, but we don't know how, whether exactly how much of the drought will happen or not. Floods, which we said was only parts of the thing, as you know, because of the Nepal overflow and things like that, northern Bihar and eastern U.P., which borders those areas, they were affected in the beginning. Thereafter also, there has been some unseasonal rains, et cetera. But that's behind us, I think, largely. We'll have to see if the drought plays, and drought will be playing in certain specific areas more. Like we have a clear visibility of drought today in Maharashtra, where in some places, I'm told, water supply is happening once a week, though those are not really our core markets, somewhere towards western Maharashtra. Those are the situation, Aurangabad, et cetera, which we are hearing. South Rajasthan, I was there earlier last week.
I know again there is water scarcity. But a drought has one immediate impact and one carry forward. There are all these predictions about this El Niño and having a relatively warmer winter, et cetera. That's really beyond our remit to comment.
Got it, sir. I thought your weather forecast feed will be better than mine. For captive coal-
Isn't it better? Isn't it better than
I think so. For captive coal, I wanted to know how much of a fuel requirement are we expecting to meet with captive coal this year, and what would be the cost differential between spot today and where we will be able to get from our captive mines?
See, so far as fuel is concerned, in this year, we expect about 15% odd from captive coal stocks. The cost is, I mean, it is quite dynamic because domestic fuel price is also very dynamic, and between our two mines also, the cost structure are also dynamic. But the important thing is that the grade of coal that we get is very, very consistent. So that gives us an advantage in productivity terms also. But clearly, there will be a significant benefit in commercial terms, financial terms also.
Any rough cut number you could say, sir, in terms of 10%-15% cheaper than what market price would be? Would that be a fair assumption?
As of date, it is 20%-25%.
Got it. Okay, sir. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes in the line of Harshal with Asian Markets Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Three questions from my end. Firstly, in terms of demand, we expect infra to be a key growth driver.
Mr. Harshal, could you please use your headset?
Is it better now?
Yeah, thank you.
Okay. So three questions from my end, actually. First is in terms of demand. So we expect infra to be a key growth driver for demand, and we are focusing more on the trade segment. So how do you expect our volume growth to pan out versus the industry? That is one. Secondly, in terms of pricing, so what is the quantum of price hikes across our core markets in trade and non-trade in October? What is the pricing gap between trade and non-trade? And what is the outlook on the near-term pricing, given that some of the large players are focusing on ramping up their capacities, particularly in the central region? And lastly, what is the fuel mix for this quarter? Thanks.
Go ahead.
Demand volume growth.
We have said, I think our overall assessment, we cannot really predict more than what we have already said so far in terms of how the market will behave. There are so many variables as I talked to you. There is the weather, there is the elections, everything taken together. So beyond what I have said on volume growth, there is not much to add. On cost side also, it has been discussed pretty much at length everywhere. Non-trade segment, what I saw, I told you that in U.P., there may be slowdown post the election announcement around that time because extra things will, whatever ongoing projects at the central level may go on. Gujarat, we are seeing things happening. Rajasthan also things are happening. But it is not that it is driving huge amount of growth in those areas.
It is a healthy demand of non-trade has helped the market prices stabilize. The non-trade prices, which were earlier sinking, has come up to reasonable levels. They have been able to increase prices of OPC in those markets. So those are stabilizing factors. Again, to say exactly how the non-trade everything will behave, we cannot say. Much of it, as you all know, is linked to the overall economy.
Sure, sir. Just a follow-up.
As regards the fuel mix in this quarter, about 1/3 was imported fuel, primarily petcoke and imported coal. About half of it was domestic purchased coal. Own captive coal was around 13%, and 4% was AFR.
Sure, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes on the line of Girija Ray with Nirmal Bang. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. Am I audible?
Hello. Sir, could you please use your headset? Your voice is coming very low.
Am I audible?
Yeah, please go ahead now.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. I have a few data points I wanted to understand. First, I will take the data point. If you can help me out with what is the total lead distance this quarter, and Mukutban lead distance as well?
Lead distance was 336 kilometers, and Mukutban was 411 kilometers.
Okay. Sequentially, Mukutban lead distance has reduced because last quarter it was 400.
Yeah, March.
Yeah. Yeah. What was the Mukutban volume?
Mukutban volume in this quarter was 6.5 lakh tons.
6.5 lakh tons.
Yeah.
Coming back to my main questions. Just wanted to understand the upcoming capacity in FY 2028 or 2029, 6.5 million tons. Is this on the stage? Is this coming on the right, commissioning on the right time, or is there anything getting delayed?
No, sir, we are maintaining our earlier guidance in terms of the timeline.
Okay. This INR 100 per ton increment in impact of a fuel cost, this we have already factored the captive coal mining things or in that or excluding?
Yes, yes.
Can you help me out, what is the packaging cost this time on per ton basis?
INR 240 per ton.
It has reduced sequentially, I can say, because INR 269 last quarter, right?
Yeah.
Was there any clinker sale this time?
No, in fact, we have been buying clinker.
Pardon?
I told you that that has actually hit our profitability because we had a carryover of shutdown, which was a planned shutdown, which was delayed in the previous quarter. We have carried it into this quarter, so therefore, we had to do some clinker purchase, which has also affected our bottom line, as I explained earlier, why our cost increase is higher than some of our-
Bottom line in terms of margins.
Yeah.
I mean, overall basis, of course, that contributes to the bottom line, but on a per ton basis-
Sure, per ton cost-
it comes down to
Yeah
profit margin.
Right. Thanks for clarifying.
What could be our CapEx for FY 2027, 2028, and if I may ask for FY 2029?
Those are too early to comment. Maybe towards the close of the year, we will be in a better position to give guidance on that.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much and all the best, sir.
Thank you. The next question comes on the line of Saket Kapoor with Kapoor & Co. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Namaskar, sir. Hope I am audible.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
Sir, firstly, with respect to the incentives from Mukutban, and I think now Kundanganj being also on stream, what have we accrued in terms of the incentives for the quarter and first half, and also in terms of the closing balances and the actual receipt from the government?
Incentive accrued in this quarter is about INR 30 crores, and closing balance is about INR 545 crores. This quarter, I don't think we have got any incentives.
Okay. For the first half, how much money we have received?
First half total accrual will be INR 63 crores, total accrual.
And the closing balance INR 550?
545.
INR 545. Sir, when we look at our net debt number, that has shown a reduction. So, in terms of we facing the headwinds with cost and margins taking a hit, how are we able to manage to lower the borrowing, both for the non-current as well as the current price, both long-term and short-term? We have also done CapEx to the tune of INR 300.
In fact, Saket, on a net basis, our borrowing has actually gone up.
Okay, sir.
Yeah, it has gone up to INR 2,432 crore compared to INR 2,200 crore as of June. It has gone up on a sequential basis. That is more because of the working capital requirements. If you are buying a petcoke shipment, which is 1.5x or 1.7x, obviously the cost of raw material, I mean, the inventory increases substantially. That leads to higher inventory, and that has a cascading effect on the borrowing as well.
Okay. Sir, as mentioned and replied to the earlier participant, it is the external clinker purchase that has created a dent on the profitability. This is the reason why our standalone numbers had taken a greater hit.
Saket, it is not about standalone number. The reason why the standalone number looks worse than the consolidated number is probably because of the fuel mix. In our RCCPL plant, we have got the mines, Sial Ghoghri mines. A large part of our fuel requirement is catered by captive mines. The other integrated unit that we have in Maharashtra, there we have got considerable linkage coal. There the prices are fixed, and there most of the deliveries are made by road. Those deliveries were not affected during the monsoon. Major impact was felt in, one, the petcoke prices, and secondly, the price of domestic coal in the central region, where there was a lot of flooding in the mines. Because of this preferential allotment of waste to power sector, the supply was squeezed to the non-power sector.
It is mainly because of the fuel mix between the RCCPL plant and BCL plant that there was a major difference in the cost structure of the two companies.
This will peter out, sir, for Q3 and Q4 onwards? Is this one-off which has happened?
For Q3, it will not peter out. In fact, it is, as I explained, it is going to go up. In Q4, as far as the petcoke prices are concerned, I do not think we are seeing any respite. It might even go up or may remain at these levels. Yes, in terms of the domestic fuel prices, we do expect them to come down in Q4.
Okay. Sir, lastly, pertaining to one of the cases with the West Bengal government, wherein they changed the industrial law and our receivables, where we have put, I think, a case in the High Court. Any update on where we stand in terms of the incentives that were canceled by some changes made by the previous government?
The matter is still sub judice, but as you know, there has been a change in the regime, and we are hopeful that this current regime will be more favorably inclined towards the industry and will not do anything which discourages the industry from making fresh investments in the state.
Have we made our case there, sir? We had pointed out to them that this was how it has affected us even after making the requisite investment.
Yeah, so the matter is, we have made our case in the court.
Everybody has explained this, Saket Kapoor, not just us. People are-
They are also seeing the matter.
There are people who are affected in much bigger numbers than ours. Everybody is the same thing. It is nothing that we have to explain separately.
Okay. Lastly, just to make a brief understanding, sir, since the external clinker sales were at a higher cost, are those companies who were selling clinker to the market making higher profit? Just wanted to understand why are clinker price higher than the cement realization? Means, why the-
How do we understand? No, higher clinker, we obviously will not buy clinker at higher than our real. Only if it makes sense for additional incremental profit, do we buy, which may be higher than our own cost of making clinker. But if we are able to sell our cement at a price higher than what clinker we are buying, only then we will buy. We will not obviously buy to keep volumes at a loss. Now, when others are selling, how do we know what is their cost? So, whether it is increasing their profit or not profit, that you have to see from those companies which are showing clinker sales.
See, Saket Kapoor, you have to appreciate, the EBITDA or the profit numbers are not bifurcated for clinker sale and cement sale. For companies who are selling clinker, they are able to improve their bottom line as well as top line, whereas the denominator in terms of the volume of cement remains fixed. So, optically they are able to show a better profit in terms of result percent because of sale of things, sir. In our case, it is just a rumor.
Right, sir. Lastly, on the jute part of the story, sir, this quarter number as well as quarter 1 was boosted by, I think so, one of the revision in the prices. So that has directly flowed to the bottom line, that INR 6 crore impact.
Which one?
Jute.
Jute. Yeah, expecting the-
This is the previous quarter. Whatever you see, that will flow to the bottom line.
Yes.
But at the same time, what has also flown to the middle line is the high cost of jute, which is the unprecedented level of jute prices. Being in Kolkata, you know that better than us.
Right, sir. So, actually, we have spoken about modernization, introduction of value-added products, and giving our jute entity unit a total makeover to profitability. What is our understanding since now the availability of jute may be much higher than what it was previously, and the prices might have also corrected. How-
It is profitable, but our thing is to take jute to the next level, the next generation. That is going to take time because it is a function of all things, developing the product, developing the market, developing the go-to-market strategy, all of it. That will take time, but we are proceeding as per plan. We are hopeful of making progress because the government is also, now central government especially, is very interested in promoting natural fibers. So, the Ministry of Agriculture is working at the farm level and encouraging research to come up. Then the Ministry of Textiles is equally concerned about promoting geotextiles and fabric. Now that West Bengal has got a government which is in sync with the center, so we expect a sort of a tripartite thing between the center, Planning Commission, state government, and industry, which should give jute a positive turn.
But it is too early, and for our stake, jute is a very minor thing for us to expect it. So, we are interested in that industry per se, but that is not going to affect Birla Corporation's bottom line or top line in any major way for us to spend a disproportionate time discussing this just now.
Yeah. Thank you, sir. All the best and good Deepavali to the team.
Thank you. Happy Deepavali to all of you. I think we can now close the discussion with wishing Happy Deepavali to everyone. Shravan Shah has already asked the question, so we do not need to do another follow-up, if you permit. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of HDFC Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.