Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q2 FY25 earnings conference call of Torrent Pharma. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sudhir Menon, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, Finance. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah, thank you. Good evening, and welcome to the Q2 earnings call for FY 2025. We continue to see strong performance in our branded businesses, which accounted for 74% of the overall revenue this quarter. India business grew by 13% this quarter. Brazil grew by 17% in constant currency terms, and in terms of INR, it was 4% due to the currency depreciation. Germany grew at 8% in the quarter, and we continue to win additional tenders quarter- on- quarter. U.S. grew by 8% and was flat on rolling quarter basis. This quarter, insulin revenues were impacted due to the shutdown taken in the month of August for maintenance activity. The facility will be released for manufacturing in December.
Shortfall is planned to be significantly recovered in Q4 of this year, and consequently, there will not be any impact on a full year basis. Broad financial highlights for the quarter, revenues were at INR 2,889 , up by 9%, and operating EBITDA at INR 939 , up by 14%. The operating EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 32.5%. This margin accounts for the cost of 300 reps, which we have added so far this year. Adjusted for insulin revenue impact this quarter, the underlying revenue growth is 10% and operating EBITDA growth is 16%. Other income includes Forex loss. Net debt to EBITDA stands less than 0.5x as at end of Q2. I now hand over the call to Aman for India Business.
Thanks, Sudhir. India Revenue at INR 1,632 registered a growth of 13%. As per the AIS three secondary market data, the IPM growth for the quarter stands at 8%. Torrent's chronic business grew at 14% versus the IPM growth of 9%, driven by continued traction in our cardiac divisions and OAD new launches. The cardiac business, which is our largest contributor, has grown by 15% during the quarter versus a market growth of 12%, due to the restructuring that was undertaken last year along with divisional expansion. We continue to see positive traction in our consumer health business. We have expanded our coverage to 72,000 outlets from 68,000 outlets in Q1. Our key brands, Shelcal 500 and Tedibar, in particular, continue to benefit from focused marketing campaigns across various channels, national and regional.
On a MAT basis, Torrent has 21 brands in the top 500 of the IPM, with 13 brands more than INR 100 sales as of MAT, March 2024. Field force strength at the end of the quarter stands at 6,000 compared to 5,700 in the previous quarter. We are encouraged by the performance in the recently expanded divisions and geographies. This expansion is not only helping us gain regional market share in previously untapped areas, but will also provide a platform for new launches in the near future. We expect the India business to continue outperforming the market growth. Our focus during the year will be on continuing to improve our market share in focused chronic therapies, new launches, improving field force productivity in expanded divisions and regions, and continuing the scale-up of the consumer health business. I'll now hand over to Mr. Sanjay Gupta for the International Business.
Thanks, Aman. We'll start with our branded generic business in Brazil. Q2 constant currency revenue was at BRL 174 million, registering a 17% year-on-year growth. As for IQVIA, market growth was at 8% for Q2. Secondary sales for Torrent as per IQVIA also grew at 8%. During Q2, we launched Dexamphetamine for ADHD. It's a BRL 800 million market, and we are one of the two branded generic players. Our goal is to make this into a large brand, which in Brazil would mean annual sales above BRL 75 million. We have a rich pipeline of 21 molecules filed and waiting on Anvisa approval. In Germany, our German business registered a constant currency revenue of EUR 31 million, up by 6%.
During the quarter, we once again won incremental new tenders, which will start delivering incremental sales from Q1 of 2025, 2026. For the last six quarters, we have increased our overall value of wins in tenders. Moving on to the U.S., we have registered constant currency revenues of $32 million, up by 7%. Subsequently, U.S. business has delivered stable revenues. During the quarter, the U.S. FDA has issued an EIR with a VAI classification for the manufacturing facility at Indrad and the inspection has now been successfully closed by the U.S. FDA. The FDA also inspected our manufacturing facility at Pithampur and issued a Form 483 with one observation. Torrent has responded to the FDA observation within the prescribed time frame. I would like to conclude the comments here and open the call up for question and answer.
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 please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Tushar Manudhane from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Am I audible?
You are audible, sir. You may proceed.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, just on the insulin front, this issue is more of a temporary thing, and you think that this will get resolved soon, or it might take longer?
No, so I think the plan is to release the manufacturing in the month of December, and then what we've said is that Q4, whatever shortfall has happened for the four months will be recovered, so it's a temporary disruption, and therefore, on a full year basis, we should recover the revenue.
Understood. And, sir, if you could throw some light, let's say, in terms of this, GLP-1 set of products as far as India markets, you know, how are we preparing, let's say, to launch, in the India market, as and when, sort of the regulatory approvals comes through? Will the manufacturing per se will be a constraint, in terms of, you know, having this product available?
No, we are evaluating all options. Early days right now, but we are certainly working on possibilities whenever the launch is possible.
Just as a clarification, say, other products, as far as domestic formulation market is concerned, outsourcing is not that difficult. But do you think that these products, particularly Liraglutide, Semaglutide, will have the manufacturing concern?
We are not manufacturing or planning to manufacture any GLP-1 at the moment, if that's what you're referring to. This is a CMO business. The old business that we've had with Novo Nordisk for human insulin.
Got it, sir. Got it. No, I meant to say, as and when we launch, will not having a manufacturing facility of our own or maybe outsourcing, will that be a constraint even if the demand is there? So that was the thought first.
No, don't think so, but again, early days, we don't have any specific updates as of now.
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. The next question comes from the line of Damayanti Kerai from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on gross margin. So, we continue to see, I guess, a positive surprise on gross margin. So if you can comment, what is leading to consistent improvement in gross margins, and what kind of further levers are available from here on, and where do you see this margin settling in?
Damayanti, if you look at last year, full year, the gross margins were maintained at 75%, and Q1 of this year, we were a little higher, 75.7%, and this quarter is even higher. That's because the branded mix in the overall revenue base is higher compared to last year, as well as Q1. That has pushed up the gross margins for Q2. It's basically a function, I would say, of the branded mix in the overall revenue base. Looking to the last year's base of 75% and Q1 base of 75.7%, I think that should hold.
You think current levels can be sustained, or like, can be further improved?
Yeah, as of now, it looks so. Because the branded mix will not be changing substantially, I would say, at least for the next quarter.
Okay. My second question is on your efforts or initiatives towards the consumer health business. So if you can share, like, what kind of incremental initiatives are ongoing and what kind of spend you are incurring to really step up the consumer business in India?
So spends are two-pronged. One is on the ground through the retail activation and field force. We keep increasing the number of covered retailers across the country. That helps drive greater coverage and visibility. And second is on the advertising, which is both the traditional media and digital. Depending on the quarter and seasonality and offtake, the spends keep varying from quarter-to-quarter, but we can indicate that our spends this year so far have been higher than last year. Because we do see that the consistency of the advertising is helping further sales traction, especially in Shelcal 500 and Tedibar.
Okay. So very broadly, what percentage of sales is currently going towards the A&P for consumer business?
No, it's Damayanti, it's difficult to segregate and tell you the revenue numbers, because these products are already there on the prescription platform. So we know what we are spending. The only thing what we monitor is that wherever we are doing these programs, what has been the growth, historical growth, in these pockets versus the pockets where we are not doing these programs, and we see a good positive outcome happening because of PHC programs that carry on.
Okay. My last question is on the U.S. business. So I guess we continue to see a very gradual step-up there, despite now all the plants, all the key plants being cleared by the U.S. FDA. So how do you see U.S. sales moving up from here on? And if you can also update in terms of the launches which you are planning for next two years or so.
So in the U.S., we don't expect a ramp-up in the short term, because most of our filing ANDAs are, let's say, very old, right? Because of the lapse of time since the plants got into trouble. We expect, more similarly, the approval of newer ANDAs, and, you know, could largely compensate for the, the price, erosions and, things of that sort. So I don't expect the U.S. to ramp up anywhere very fast in the, in the next, two years. So we have slow ramp-up unless, you know, we get lucky with one or the other opportunity. So we do have a few which might be, a unique, unique product, but we cannot predict, because it depends upon the number of competitors that show up, and if we get CDMO or not. So I would generally guide towards stable to slightly increasing revenues, but nothing more than that.
Okay, sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press star and one. Ladies and gentlemen, that is star and one if you wish to join the question queue. We have the next question from the line of Amey Chalke from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for taking my question. Our first question on the India business. So in India business, we have been growing well for last few years. We have gained market share in value, which we see the data provided by Indian AIOCD. However, is it possible for us to give some clarity on the prescription market share, again, in our top 10 to 15 products over the last one or two years? How has been the trend there in some of our key products?
Prescription share has also gained. I don't remember the exact numbers offhand, but most of our focus brands in our chronic divisions and subchronic divisions have gained higher market share compared to the relative market, the covered market, so obviously the prescription growth has to be followed by the market share growth, otherwise it's not possible.
Got it. And, the second question I have, is it possible to provide the margin drivers for next three years? So far we have, like, we have reached around 32% plus now. So going ahead, what will be the key drivers, from here? Is there any geography where you think, if the ramp-up happens, the margins could improve or anything, any margin drivers you could, highlight, please?
No, so I think, Amay, two, three things, right? I mean, so I think as far as branded businesses are concerned, some amount of reinvestment keeps on happening every year. And that's something which I said in the opening call, where the Q2 P&L has already absorbed the full cost of 300 medical rep, which we have added this year, right? So to that extent, the reinvestment from margins will keep on happening. But in spite of that, I think the general guidance which I have been giving is that we should see anywhere between 50 basis point to 100 basis point improvement happening every year. At least the way I look at for the next three years, as of today, I don't see some major investments happening in the branded business.
As far as Germany is concerned, Germany is good, I would say, in terms of winning tenders, and there's good amount of visibility for the next two years. So I don't see any additional incremental spend happening in Germany as well. U.S., as Sanjay talked about, right? I mean, it's a slow ramp-up, which would happen over the next two, three years, which is only going to be positive on the overall performance of the company, so nothing negative from there as well.
The investment pace is coming down, so that's why the operating leverage will play out, and that's how the 50 to 100 basis points margin improvements will happen.
So there are two inherent levers which we've always talked about. So one is branded businesses, price increases, which we take every year. That's one lever. And the second is the operating leverage, which plays out every year for us.
Okay, and the third question I have is on the R&D spend. We have been doing 5% of our R&D, 5% of our top line on the R&D. Is it possible to give clarity on in what areas we have been spending? Because this has been quite consistent, even during the time, when we had issues with the U.S.
Correct. When we had issues with the U.S., what we did is, we actually diverted a decent piece of the R&D budget towards the market of Brazil, Mexico and Germany. And so we maintained the R&D spend, and we cut down the part of the R&D devoted towards the U.S. So hence, we don't intend, at least as of today, to substantially change the ratio of R&D to sales.
Yeah, Amay, two, three things actually. So in terms of absolute values, you see the R&D spend has been going up. Yeah, on the other hand, the branded businesses share has been going up, right? I mean, for example, Curatio acquisition, which we did in two thousand twenty-two, increases the revenue base, and therefore as percentage to revenue, it's around 5%. Okay? But if you look at an absolute value, it's been going up. The only, the only thing which is why it is not going up on relative basis is that, the spend on the U.S., we had lowered, right, and because of the internal issues which we've had, so I don't see substantial increase in R&D, at least over the next one year, but if everything is starting to go right for U.S., we'll see how to incrementally allocate the R&D for U.S..
Sure, and in terms of formulation, what all types of products are we putting the spend on, like, in terms of injectables or anything else, which we are trying at this point?
I think most of the R&D spend, which is done in-house, is on oral solids. The other types of platforms are partnered.
In fact, oral solids are oncology, dermatology. Classical oral solids.
Sure. Thank you so much. I will join back.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bino Pathiparampil from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Could you please explain the insulin issue in a bit detail, what exactly happened and how it will get?
Yeah. So, as I said, right, I mean, there's a shutdown taken for some upgradation and maintenance activity. This was something which was scheduled earlier, right? And what we said is, it's getting released in December, and we should recover the shortfall in Q4, most of it.
Okay. So it is just a shutdown for a plant upgrade. That's it?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Upgrade and maintenance activities, right? I mean, it happens once in two years or three years.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumit Gupta from Centrum. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, actually, question first on the India side. So now that 300 MRs are added, so what's the plan ahead? Do you plan to add more towards this? And what kind of MR productivity can we see over the next two to three years?
So 300 have been added this quarter, compared to 5,700 previous quarter, which is what we had also shared last time. I think given how we are encouraged by the performance, we will be looking to add incrementally from here. So maybe 100, 200 more end of this financial year, and potentially a similar number next year.
Okay. And the kind of MR productivity that we can target is?
More or less should touch, I mean, anyway, currently it's around nine lakh, if I'm not wrong, between 8.5 laks- 9 lakhs. Within the next 18 months, possibly should be between 9.5 lakhs- 10 lakhs. It's a broad range.
Okay. And sir, second question on the U.S. sales. So like, what is the profitability side like? Is the U.S. business profitable post R&D?
So we don't disclose profitability by country. What we said is that the U.S. is at a break even pre-R&D.
Right. Okay. So like post R&D, like, what, by when can we expect the profitability to break even?
The expectation is at least over the next three years, we want to make it a profitable business.
Understood. And sir, last question is on the CapEx. So how much of CapEx do you plan to incur over the next two to three years?
Around 250-300 per annum.
Okay, cool. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one if you wish to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Saion Mukherjee from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Just one question, you know, this insulin, can you share what's the revenue on an annual basis? And, is it that reason there was no revenue this quarter?
Yeah. Ideally, per quarter, revenue ranges between INR 75 to INR 80 , and this quarter there's shortfall of almost INR 40 .
Okay. And just one last question on Brazil. You had good growth, but if I look at the H1 , I think the growth is around 12 odd percent. Is that the right thing to look at? Because I understand there was some disruption in Q1, and, you know, there was spillover of sales et cetera. We just want to understand the underlying trajectory, because you mentioned IQVIA is indicating an 8% growth.
Correct. I would say that it's somewhere between eight and 12, but closer to 12.
Okay. Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. To ask a question, ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one on your touchtone telephones. The next question is from the line of Alok Dalal from Jefferies India Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening. Aman, can you provide split of volume, price, and new products for India?
Yes. So as per the AIOCD dataset, our growth for the quarter is 12%. Breakup of that is 1% of volume versus 0.2% of the market, 8% price versus 5.5% of the market, and 3% new products versus 2.4% of the market.
Okay, thank you. And, Sanjay, what will be the guidance for Brazil for the full year? You expect growth to remain in this range only?
Correct. So I would with a double-digit top line growth, and in Brazil, traditionally, historically, the H2 is a little better in the invoice space. So just the way the wholesalers work, it's not. So yeah, I think the market should continue to be 8%-9%, and we should be higher than the market growth there.
Okay. And, what is the plan for new launches in Brazil?
We have an aggressive plan because we have three teams in Brazil, two CNS teams and one CMP team, and then on top of it, we have a generics division. So ideally, we'd like to launch at least one-to-two products a year for each division and for generics, about at least five products a year to 10.
All right. Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one if you wish to ask questions. We have the next question from the line of Damayanti Kerai from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity again. Coming back on India, so I guess, we continue to see very muted contribution from the volume expansion, low single digits. So, what is the outlook here? Should we assume, going ahead, also volume contribution will remain muted in low single digits, and majority will be contributed by price and new launches? How do you see the volume moving up in the market, the broader market?
Oh, so, compared to the AIOCD data, our reported growth is higher by, I think, about 1%, so that we attribute to volume. And we have to look at it from a combination of volume and new products growth, because, in our case, it's some of our mature products which are now being. The share is now shifting to the newer products. So once the new product growth normalizes into volume growth, it should all be volume. So if we look at right now, the breakup is about 4% between new products and volume. So our estimate is somewhere around 3% is what the volume growth should be, and that should continue.
Okay, understood. But, what are your thoughts, like, in the India market, obviously we are seeing this, low contribution overall for last, couple of quarters. So what is attributing, mainly for this kind of, muted, I guess, contribution from the volume?
No, we still believe that, the market growth cannot be as low as 8%, and volume growth cannot be this low, because we simply cannot grow volumes at that rate, as we are reporting, if the market growth was that slow. So our estimate of the market growth is higher than what's in the data sets by at least maybe 2%.
Okay. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you. Participants, you may press Star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Rahul Jeewani from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir, thanks for taking my question. Can you quantify the quantum of Forex losses which are sitting in other income for this quarter?
Yes, around INR 22 , Rahul.
Sure, sir. And, sir, on the debt position, at least if I see the 1x numbers, our net debt is largely flat versus FY 2024. So what kind of a repayment have we seen in H1?
So, if I correctly remember, Rahul, the gross debt was roughly INR 3,900 as at March 2024, which has come down to INR 3,000. So the gross debt is INR 3,000. On a net debt basis, it becomes INR 1,800. So we've repaid actually INR 900 in H1.
Okay. Yeah, that's it from me. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press Star and one if you wish to ask a question. We have the next question from the line of Rashmi Shetty from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Just to follow up on gross debt, so the INR 900 we have repaid in H1, any more quantum repayment is expected in H2?
Oh, yeah, yeah. So I think we should be repaying around INR 500-INR 600 at least.
Okay. And, what about FY 2026, similar annual number?
Yeah, I think FY 2026, we should be net cash.
Okay. And just one on U.S. business, you know, with the Indrad also now coming out, and receiving the EIR, how many new launches are planned, you know, at the company level, from these facilities as well as your partner products, put together?
Just the single-digit number of launches. But,
Single digit and this would be high single-digit launches?
I actually cannot say because we've got the EIR, but it takes several months post the EIR for the FDA to approve the product. So we think, you know, at least mid-single digits should get approved in the twelve-month period post EIR.
Understood. And, but otherwise, this base sales of, you know, $32 million quarterly run rate, it would be maintained in the subsequent quarters also?
Yeah, our endeavor is to maintain and to enhance it as we.
Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you. That's it from my side.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Anubhav Agarwal from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just checking, am I audible properly?
You are audible, sir. You may proceed.
Cool. Thank you. Just one question from me on the India business. So the expansion of field force by, let's say, high single-digit percentage, on an annual level, what is the primary dominant factor there? For example, are you increasing your doctor coverage here predominantly, or this is largely for the new launches in the same divisions, or you're increasing more divisions?
It's a combination of all three. More divisions, more coverage, more territorial reach, all three together, and we have seen pretty good results in the expansion done in the last eighteen months as a result, so wherever we see whichever divisions or brands are yielding results within a certain period of time, we decide to take further expansion actions if required as well.
But on the first point on the doctor coverage, do you think that there is a potential to cover significantly more number of doctors that you're covering right now, and therefore, the field force for you instead of, is there a merit, first of all, instead of growing the field force by 7%-8% versus growing it 12%-13% or thereabouts, for example, and covering more doctors and getting, taking more market share from the smaller companies?
Yeah, because we are just not adequately present in some non-metro towns where we believe that there is justifiable reason for us to enter.
Can you give us an example, just to understand a little better. For example, when you say non-metro towns, for example, let's take. I'm in Mumbai, so just take an example, Nashik, for example. Would you quote Nashik as another example, and-
So if I look at Ahmedabad, for example, then nearby towns would have been covered from Ahmedabad historically, and that kind of compromises your frequency of coverage and total kind of extent of coverage. But if you have a full base in a nearby town which now has adequate population, I mean, population was never a concern, adequate doctor presence, that's where you can increase, and it justifies the need for your presence full-time in that region or in quarter. And that is where we are seeing that that addition is really helping some of the chronic divisions, the subchronic divisions, particularly in gastro, where we are seeing a significant uptick.
Okay, sure. Thank you then.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. We have no further questions at this point. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Gupta, Executive Director o f International Business, for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. We'd like to thank you for all your participation today. We continue to remain focused to grow the company in our branded generic market and to remediate and start growth in the U.S. market as soon as possible. And thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Torrent Pharma, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.