Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited (BOM:500420)
India flag India · Delayed Price · Currency is INR
4,252.05
+60.55 (1.44%)
At close: May 4, 2026
← View all transcripts

Q3 23/24

Feb 2, 2024

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q3 FY 2024 earnings conference call of Torrent Pharma. 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 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.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for the third quarter earnings call for FY 2024. This quarter highlights our sustained performance in the branded segment, which accounted for 72% this quarter. Steady increase in revenues quarter-on-quarter in Germany on the back of incremental tender wins we've had, some of them starting in the next fiscal as well, and a stable U.S.-based business. We should see new launches in the U.S. starting from quarter one of the next fiscal, which will further help in enhancing the overall company performance from next year. Our efforts to enhance cost efficiencies are playing out well in the margin improvement. Our operating EBITDA margins at 31.8% looks to be the new sustainable base going from here.

During the quarter, the exceptional items of 88% growth relate to the net gain from the sale of liquid facility in the U.S., which was, in fact, during the earlier year. In terms of key financial performance indicators for quarter three, revenues were INR 2,732 crore, up by 10% YoY. Operating EBITDA for the quarter is INR 869 crore, up by 20% YoY. Operating EBITDA margins stood at 31.8%. Other income includes Forex translation losses of INR 35 crore, likely to get reversed in the coming quarters. The board has approved an interim dividend of INR 22 for equity shares. The overall leverage, which is to EBITDA, now stands at 0.88x. I now hand over the call to Aman for India business.

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Thanks, Sudhir. India revenue at INR 1,415 crore registered a growth of 12%. As per the AIOCD dataset, IPM growth for the quarter was at 9%. Our growth was driven by new launches, performance of top brands in focused therapies, and positive traction of the consumer health business. The Curatio business is now fully in the base as the acquisition was done in October 2022. Torrent remained number one amongst the generic players in the Sitagliptin market, clocking over INR 100 crore sales on a MAT basis as per this quarter. The consumer health division is progressing well, aided by new channel activations and increase in distribution into newer towns.

We continue to see robust growth in our flagship brand, Shelcal 500, supported by the impact of the national media campaign, and I shared it towards the end of the last quarter. We would also want to point out that brands that have switched to the consumer division, such as Shelcal and Tedibar, may not be fully reflected in the AIOCD dataset because they have a different distribution channel. Hence, the actual growth may be higher than what is reflected in the data. At the end of the quarter, Torrent has 20 brands in the top 500 of the IPM, with 16 brands more than INR 100 crore sales as of MAT December 2023. Field force strength at the end of the quarter stands at 5,700. We expect the India business to continue outperforming the market growth.

Our focus during the rest of the year will continue to improve our market share and focus therapies, improving new launch performance, improving field force productivity in the expanded divisions and regions, and continue the scale-up of the consumer health portfolio. I'll now hand over to Sanjay Gupta for the international business.

Sanjay Gupta
Executive Director of International Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Thanks, Aman. Let's begin with Brazil. In Q3, constant currency revenue was BRL 185 million, registering a 17% year-on-year growth. Growth is supported by new launch momentum and a robust pricing environment. We've had a consistent pace of launches. four brands were launched in 2021, four in 2022, and three again in calendar year 2023. Going forward, we intend to maintain three to five branded launches per year. As per IQVIA, market growth is at 6.5% for Q3, and Torrent's growth is at 11.6%. Expansion of field force in CNS has been completed. In Brazil now we have three sales teams, two in CNS and one in cardio diabetes. Total number of reps is 30 and 18. This will enable us to expand our reach and support new product launches.

In Q3, our generics business in Brazil has continued to deliver and presents about 14% of overall revenue. We sell 24 molecules and are seeking to add between five to 10 each year. Currently, we have 15 products awaiting ANVISA approval. Moving on to Germany, our German business has registered a constant currency revenue of EUR 30 million, up 5%. During the quarter, we won incremental new tenders, which will start delivering incremental sales in Q2 of 2024-2025. Since three quarters, we have had an overall increase in the value of wins. This results in a large part due to our cost optimization efforts. We are also experiencing better conversion of existing tenders, that is, our share in three-player wins has increased. Year to date, we have launched seven products, seven molecules. Next few years, we will continue to launch 10 or more products a year.

Our overall share in the German generic market has reached a new two-year high of 5.7% in Q3. In the U.S., we registered constant currency revenues of $33 million, down by 7%. Sequentially, we have seen a 10% growth in revenues backed by new contracts. New product launches, as mentioned by Sudhir, will start from Q1 of FY 2025, and this should fuel the growth going forward. We expect about seven to eight launches in the next fiscal year. To conclude, our focus will remain on deepening our presence in branded select markets, while continuing to grow in Germany and returning to profitable growth in the US. Michelle, we can open the call to questions now, please.

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may please press star and one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking your questions. 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.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Hello?

Operator

Tushar, may we request you to kindly use your handset, please? Your audio was not clear.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Okay, now am I audible?

Operator

Yes, please proceed.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So just on the gross margins and sequentially, where the Indian sa- India sales has been pretty stable, even Brazil sales have improved, but the gross margin have dipped. So any particular reason you would want to call out?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So Tushar, it's actually the U.S. sales have gone up by almost $3 million, I would say. So what played out is although there is there is this gross margin going down by [ half of percent], it's actually led to an improvement in the operating leverage, and thereby improving the overall EBITDA margins, I would say. So it's basically the mix which has caused the dip by [half of percent].

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Got you. In Brazil, at least the last two years, fourth quarter has been much stronger than the earlier three quarters. So, would that be a similar phenomenon this time as well?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Tushar, I would guide you to what IQVIA is showing us right now is that the market is at about 6.5% and growing at about 12%. I think that's a much better indicator than primary sales on a quarter-to-quarter basis, because in Brazil, sales vary, and wide sales vary on a quarterly basis. So I would say that we are looking at, you know, double-digit growth in Brazil, and we'll see what it gets into.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

So double-digit growth on a year-on-year basis, right, on the Q-

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Correct. Correct. In line with what you see in India.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Okay. And, even on Germany side, the tenders which we had won in the past, where the revenue was supposed to be coming in fourth quarter, so from that perspective, Germany also would be looking better, in the coming quarter?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So this quarter, we touched 30, and generally, we should keep seeing a trend upwards direction in the next quarter.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Just one last one, any regulatory update on Indrad?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No, it's still pending inspection.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Thanks. Thank you a lot for addressing my questions.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Damayanti from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, when you said 31% kind of margin looks a sustainable base going in, so can you talk about the you know headroom improvement which might be available for Curatio? Are you broadly done with the improvement margin which you are targeting? That's why like we we might be looking more at the sustainable margins or like you have more room to improve there.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah. I think, Curatio margins have improved, versus the last quarter, I would say. So there has been improvement which is continuing for Curatio portfolio. But I think what I can guide you from here is, look at, India business, as one portfolio. And, the two levers which I keep on talking about, plays out every year, which is, you know, the margin improvement because of price increase and operating leverage, because of the incremental growth coming in. And that should continue playing out for the next year as well.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Okay. Any expectation or any assumption about the volume part of the market, which you might be building in right now for next year or so?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Talking about the India market.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Yes.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

The quarter data was, for the market, about 9% growth. This time I'm talking AIOCD, which was 1% volume, rest was new products and price. As against the 1%, volume growth, we have done 3.5% volume growth and 4.1% of new products. So new products maybe should start tapering down over the next few quarters, but that would then start converting to the volume growth. We sense that this similar level of growth should continue in the next coming quarters.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Okay. Somewhere like 3%-4% kind of volume growth, you are comfortable with?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

That's right.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Okay. My second question is on like status of supply ramp up from Dahej. So although, like, we have seen a sequential improvement, like minor improvement in the U.S. sales, but, like, how are supplies picking up from Dahej, and what are you focusing on?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So I think the capacity is kind of we worked on realigning the capacities and bringing more cost efficiency, I would say. So it's some balancing which we have done in terms of picking up some high volume products out of Dahej and taking it to CMO. So that's something which has happened. And the capacities now which are available at Dahej are good enough to take care of the new launches and the products which are shifting from Indrad to Dahej, I would say.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

So, in coming quarters, it should definitely move up from this INR 33 million sales, which we are seeing for the quarter?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No. So what we said is quarter one of next year, we should start seeing the new products coming in, and then we should see an uptick happening from here.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Okay. So 1st quarter next. Okay. My next question is on Brazil business. So generic now you said moved up to 14% of total segment sales. So, can you talk a bit about, like, your launch plan for both the branded generic part as well as the generic part, and what will be your priorities for Brazil segment in next, say, two years or so?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No, it's 14%, yeah? Not... So one four. So,

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Yeah, yeah, 14, 1- 14, yes.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah, that's right. So, it will be, we think both businesses are present a good opportunity for growth. On the BG side, so far we are limited to CNS, cardio, and diabetes, and we have three teams, so our goal is to launch about six products, ideally five to six products a year. Because brand launch requires heavy lifting. So, you know, a good rhythm is one brand per team every six months. So that would be the focus, and it would be the focus in our current therapeutic area. And over a period of time, we are looking at adding additional therapeutic areas like dermatology, oncology, so we would add those in due course. We are in the process of building the portfolio to do that.

So that would be the focus of the BG business. On the generic side, we are agnostic as to which therapeutic areas, so ideally we should launch about 10 products a year, and currently we are selling 24 molecules. We think there's plenty of room, headroom available for growth in the BG business also. We don't need to expand the team further, so we have, you know, about 12 people for generic, and I think that's good enough for us, for quite a while. So there's a, I would say, room for operating leverage in the BG business, and we would be looking to expand our portfolio and increase our share in the molecules which, which we sell.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Okay. One, just last point on Brazil business. So right now you have BGs, the BG portfolio, GI portfolio. And do you have presence in tender market also, or it's not there anymore?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No, we discontinued that business, a few quarters ago.

Damayanti Kerai
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Okay, thank you. That's all from my side.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Neha Manpuria from BofA Securities. Please go ahead.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. On the India business, Aman, how much would the trade generic and the consumer healthcare business be of the total India business? I'm just trying to understand how much growth we are seeing in the actual branded generic business versus these new areas that we have been trying to grow over the last few years.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So, trade generics would be, maybe, you know, 2%, 3%, I think, total of the base, which is growing at about 25%-30%, depending on the quarter of seasonality. That kind of growth, that level of growth in trade generics, we see to be continuing for the next one or two years. And we aim to kind of make this a meaningful business over a three to five year period with reasonable profitability. So the focus has been on selecting products which are higher gross margin compared to the more commoditized products. So that's why though there are many more SKUs that can be launched, we'd rather focus on ramping up profitably.

In terms of consumer, it's we're not looking at it separately because the brands are also part of the prescription business. But just to recap, we only have four brands that are in the consumer channel right now, which are Shelcal 500, Tedibar, Unienzyme and Ahaglow.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

Okay.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So, the reflection will be in the prescription portfolio, but the investment in marketing will be on the consumer side as well.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

Okay, got it. So basically to have more, national ads, et cetera, like you had for Shelcal?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

That's right. That's right.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

Got it. You know, we are seeing a lot of our peers obviously trying to expand into you know, the chronic segment. It's much talked about by everyone. Particularly in markets that you know, Torrent is very strong in. In that context, how do we see ourselves trying to maintain our market share or even maintain this 3%-4% volume growth that you have talked about? You know, how do I balance the fact that you know, there is increased competition, there are new players trying to get in, as well as Torrent trying to protect its market share and at the same time maintaining margins?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So a number of factors would be at play here. One is obviously focusing as much as possible on new launch performance, which our track record over the last two years has been very strong and above the IPM growth of new products. So if you can get that right in as many products as you can, it kind of makes up for any volume loss in a product that may be going on a decline. So our focus has been to ensure that new product launch performance is the maximum possible. That may be by way of field force expansion or further divisionalization.

And Our focus therapies here will remain the same which we are currently looking at, which is diabetes, cardiac, gastro, VMN, and pain. So in these segments, we remain fairly confident that our pipeline is robust, and our field force expansion, which has now been ongoing for the last 18-24 months, does give us enough headroom to continue the other market volume growth for the foreseeable coming quarters.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

You don't see the need to add more MR to the 5,500 number that we have in place to, you know, keep the growth momentum in the India business?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No, so we have already added a significant number of MRs in the last one and a half years. Now, it should be more incremental. We think maybe 200-300 reps per year could be kind of a base level, and depending on any new product that comes up, it could be slightly higher. But nothing as much as we've done in the past two years, for sure.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

Understood. And, I know you don't want to talk about Curatio separately, so if I were to just say the entire portfolio that we have acquired, the pediatric derma portfolio, initially we were very strong in South and Western. The idea was to take, make it more pan-India. If you could give us some color in terms of what's the doctor coverage we've been able to achieve, you know, since it's been a year. You know, how much more do you think there is to go in that? And now that you've moved Tedibar to, you know, the consumer healthcare, is there any other brands that we can look at or brand extensions that we can look at on, you know, the post-acquired portfolio?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So we have done both. We've also added the doctor coverage in Curatio and also merged some divisions, so it's a factor of both. So that's how we've been able to get a lot of cost synergy in the last one year as well. So doctor coverage, I would say, has increased by maybe 20%-25% for pediatricians and dermatologists, and it's still not 100%, so we will be planning to increase it in the next year or so. In terms of the regional growth, we have been able to further strengthen the strength area, which is the South and part of West regions. So we are seeing accelerated growth in almost all the top brands here, led by Tedibar, followed by Atogla, which is a lotion, and there's creams.

So this basket of baby skincare products has kind of really accelerated in the strength regions. And the weaker areas we're seeing some improvement, but still it's not nowhere close to the growth that we're seeing in the South, for example. And we think that over time, this should gradually increase. So as of now, we would say that focus is on strengthening the core while gradually expanding in other regions, and efficiency has almost been achieved to an optimal level, I would say. So number of divisions have been reduced from six to three, and now we'll gradually increase the number of MRs possibly in the next six to nine months.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

Got it. Last question, if I may. Sudhir, now that you're less than one time net debt to EBITDA, you know, and a lot of the noise around M&A has gone away, you know, should I think about Torrent looking at more, you know, deals like we have done in the past in the India business?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No, I really don't know. I really don't know how to answer that, Neha. But I think as of now, there's nothing on the plate, I can tell you that.

Neha Manpuria
Senior Analyst of India Healthcare and Pharma, Bank of America

Understood. Thank you so much, Sudhir.

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Participants, to ask questions, you may please press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Shyam Srinivasan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Yeah, hi. Just the first question on the overall India industry growth, right? It's, you know, if you look at any data source, it's been trending down, right? Like you said, your first list calls out about 9% growth for IPM, right? I know we are growing faster, 200-300 bps like we have guided, but just want to understand, you know, and it seems to emanate more from volume growth, which you are better. So just trying to understand what's happening from an industry standpoint, and what we are doing differently to increase our volumes.

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So industry growth, you are right, that it's been not very predictable in the data set that comes out. You know, there's fluctuations both in both the data sets. But I guess if you look at it on an annualized basis, it still might give a more accurate picture than a quarterly basis. We think that the market growth has more or less stabilized now. If you recall, the earlier part of the year, there was an acute season that was low, and that's why there was a reduction, but then that was made up subsequently. So our belief is that if we are growing at this 12% range, the market has to be in the range of at least 7%-9%, and structurally, we don't see that changing anytime in the near future.

As to how our growth has been above market growth in terms of volumes, essentially, it's going back to new launch performance, particularly in the chronic space, and the field force expansion that has been taken in the last two years.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Got it. Helpful. I don't know whether I got the MR number right. It's 5,700 right? Or is it 5,500? Sorry.

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No, 5,700. We've added a few MRs, but also we've merged a few divisions, so net number is 5,700.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Got it. And on top of this, on an annual basis, you plan to add 200 MRs?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No concrete number yet, but you can expect that possibly by the end of the year, maybe 300 can be added.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Understood. And, any commentary on the productivity of the field force? Where does it stand right now, and is there any aspirations of where we want to reach?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah. So pre-expansion and pre-Curatio, we had crossed the 10 lakh number. Right now, obviously, we have dropped because of the number of reps added. I think we are right now in the range of 8.5 to nine, somewhere in between there. And aspiration remains that we want to go back to the 10 lakh level as well, which should be possible by the growth in the business and now m- ... in the number of MRs.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Helpful. Second question is on the U.S. business. You know, just looking at the commentary that growth will start from 1Q. Where are we on in terms of price erosion? Are we, because of the lack of launches, still seeing higher side of price erosion?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

I would say we are seeing a low single-digit price erosion right now.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Okay. And what is the prognosis here? Do we think that this remains, and once the launches start, you will start seeing, like, high single-digit value growth, you think, for next year? How should we look at U.S. business next year?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

I will not make a sales forecast because honestly, we have about seven to eight launches in the next 12 months. But the sales that will level of competition. So, of which I currently don't want to project as to how many players will show up at what time, so we'll see. But the momentum and the direction should be upward.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

I think the opening remarks, there was a comment about profitable growth in the sense that in the U.S.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Right.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

So can we reach the kind of scale that you're talking about? You know, when you mean profitability, what are we referring to?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

We are referring to positive operating profits before R&D.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

great. [crosstalk] Yeah.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Okay.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Correct.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Understood. And where is that now? Like, it's negative, I get it, but how? [crosstalk]

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So it's kind of breakeven I would say, at this point.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Sure. Okay.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

From here, we should start looking up.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Got it. So then last question on, again, sustainable margin I thought was not 31. 31.8 is the number for quarter three, so it's 32 then should be what we should assume as a base going forward?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Correct. Correct, sir. That's what I meant, yeah.

Shyam Srinivasan
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Goldman Sachs

Got it. Helpful. Thank you, and all the best.

Operator

Thank you. Participants, to ask questions, you may please press star and one now. We'll take the next question from the line of Rashmmi Shetty from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.

Rashmmi Shetty
Director Research of Institutional Equities of Pharma and Healthcare, Dolat Capital

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So what will be the R&D guidance now in FY 2025, 2026, since the U.S. business will be picking up?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

I think this should be around five to 5.5 for the next year, and maybe for FY 2026, between 5.5 to six, maybe. I think so.

Rashmmi Shetty
Director Research of Institutional Equities of Pharma and Healthcare, Dolat Capital

Okay. So with all the businesses on track now, U.S., Brazil, Germany, and even India, and, you know, the base level is now, of EBITDA margin is around 31.8%. Are you targeting, you know, that annually, every year we should improve at least your margin by 50-100 basis points?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

That's right. Yeah.

Rashmmi Shetty
Director Research of Institutional Equities of Pharma and Healthcare, Dolat Capital

Okay. Okay, sir. Thanks. That's it from my side.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may please press star and one to ask questions at this time. The next question is from the line of Nitin Agarwal from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Hi, thanks for taking my question. You know, I have a question on Brazil. Now, on Brazil, you know, on the macro market growth, it seems to have picked up a bit, so what is your sense, or what has really driven, you know, this improvement in the underlying market growth? And what is your sense, and how does it play out here from here on?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So I've said multiple times, Brazil is intrinsically a market quite similar to India. There is a lot of unmet needs, and it should be a double-digit growth market. And it is two factors. I would say three factors. One is there's a high level of products going off patent, so that leads to a volume growth in the branded generic segment, because while the patent is on, the volumes are kind of muted. And as you take products off patent, the volumes tend to increase quite dramatically. Secondly, Brazil is a positive pricing country. Every year we get price increases in April. Usually, in the past years, it's between 5% and 10%, so I would expect, like, on average, to be 5% price increases available to us.

So, volume growth, new product launches, and pricing should give you a market which grows high single-digit, double-digit, so that is the reason.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

In terms of our own plans for the market, apart from launches in the three categories where therapies we present right now, I mean, is there a plan to add some more therapies as we go along?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Correct. So we are working on the portfolio. So it, you know, because of the risk involved, you need a, I would say, a decent-sized basket before you start a promotional team in a new therapeutic area. So we are building that. Specifically, we've been building over the last couple of years in dermatology. At some point, we'll pull the trigger and start a derma force.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Okay. And secondly, on the, you know, the RoW market as they are ex-Germany, ex-Germany markets which are there, anything you want to call out, any markets where we made reasonable progress over the last couple, few quarters? And what is looking promising going forward?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So, actually, there's two markets that we don't speak about, where we have made decent progress. So one is on the, on the generic, generic, we've had good traction in the U.K. So the U.K. is right now trending at more like GBP 25 million a year. So it's a, it's a good momentum market, and, from the base that we have, we see positive momentum. Secondly, we don't speak in the branded generic side about a market like Mexico. So Mexico currently for us is trending again in the same ballpark, about $22 million-$24 million a year, growing at roughly 30%. It's a specialty CNS company that we have.

You know, next year we'll have about close to 70 sales reps in Mexico, and it should continue to do well. We are the second largest Indian player in Mexico, and, you know, we should be attaining number one down the line.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

So if I just go back to Brazil, in terms of size in Brazil, what is our size in the, in the branded generics market in terms of, you know, size of the companies which are there?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So we are by far, the largest Indian company, and if you rank all pharma companies in Brazil, Torrent is number 20.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

This is including the innovation, innovator, innovators?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah, all.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

How has this changed over the last three years or two, in terms of rank, number 20?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

I think about, like, if I remember, about five years ago, it was 27, 28, and then last year it was 22, and now it's 20. Currently running at 20.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Okay. And, like the way understood Indian market, I mean, is this a business where as long as there's revenue growth coming in, it's a, it's a business continuing to continuous margin improvement, as we go forward?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Mr. Menon will comment upon it. Is Brazil also a market where it leads to continuous margin improvement?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

No, no, absolutely, Nitin. I think what positively playing out for Brazil now is, it's reached a particular scale, right? And the expansion, which we did some 18 months back, with better growth coming in Brazil, the operating leverage will be much better than what we see in India, I would say. Because the fixed costs are comparatively very high in Brazil compared to India. So that story is playing out quite well, I would say.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Okay. So, you know, just taking off from there, you know, so you're saying there is a, there is a serious positive operating leverage in Brazil, and I guess U.S. with the scale that we start to get incrementally with whatever growth we get, we should get some positive leverage coming from there also.

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Great.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Overall, these two should be further positive factors from a, you know, margin expansion perspective as we go forward?

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

And then, lastly-

Sudhir Menon
CFO and Executive Director of Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

So I think, I think U.S. is, at least U.S. is not going to be negative on the overall margin improvement story, which continues every year. So I think more positive play is happening for the next year.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Perfect. Aman, in terms of India, you know, how are you looking at the new launch landscape for the next, say, 12, four to five quarters? Are there some interesting opportunities which are there?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah, in the next six quarters, there is there are a few interesting opportunities. One is in the chronic space, one is in the subchronic space. This will be more like the day one patent expiration launch, so we expect a number of players on the same day. But our recent track record gives us confidence that we should be in a leadership position in these launches. These are the two big ones. There will be some smaller kind of extensions and combination launches that will be also in addition to this.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Since you mentioned that, on Sitagliptin, you seemed to refer that in your, in your conversation, what has worked for us in your assessment in Sitagliptin? It's a reasonably competitive market.

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Difficult to pinpoint, you know, one or two single factors, but I think overall, probably the expansion that we have undertaken. 'Cause the biggest number of MRs that we added was in the chronic, cardio and diabetes divisions. That seems to have played out for us.

Nitin Agarwal
Research Analyst of Pharmaceuticals, Agri-inputs, and Midcaps, DAM Capital

Okay. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may please press star and one on their touchtone phone. The next question is from the line of Tushar Manudhane from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead. No, sir, we are not able to hear you. I'm sorry.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Hello, am I audible?

Operator

Yes, this is better.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Okay, thanks. So just this breakup of this RoW and contract manufacturing sales, if you could share?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah, Tushar, I don't have it right now. Can I share you after the call?

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Sure, sir. And, secondly, just on the India market again, like the in-licensing of products, any thoughts on pursuing that as a strategy, given that we have such a strong presence on the chronic side?

Aman Mehta
Director and Head of India and RoW Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Yeah. So in the last 12-15 months, we already have signed two licensing deals. One was in November, which is the latest one. We continue to explore many opportunities, mostly in the chronic space. So we do hope that this run rate of licensing deals should continue. It is becoming more and more of a kind of lower number of pipeline opportunities, but we still think there is a lot left in terms of newer treatments that are available. So we probably would think that one licensing deal per year in a chronic segment is something that we can target.

Tushar Manudhane
Research Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Good. Thanks. Thanks a lot for this.

Operator

Thank you. Participants, to ask questions, you may please press star and one now. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Gupta, Executive Director, International Business, for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Sanjay Gupta
Executive Director of International Business, Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Thank you, Michelle. Thank you for attending today's call. I think we can stop here. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Torrent Pharma, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Powered by