Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to SKF India Limited Q4 and FY 2026 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 Cilvina Pereira. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. With us, we have SKF India Managing Director, Mr. Shailesh Sharma, our CFO, Mr. Mayank Holani, our Strategy and Business Development Head, Mr. Prahlada GirishKumar, former Interim CFO, Ms. Aashi Arora, and Company Secretary, Ms. Mayuri Kulkarni. The purpose of today's call is to share our Quarter Four results and our overall financial year's performance. Please note that financial information for previous years, as reported in the presentation shared, has been extracted from consolidated financial statements of erstwhile combined entity and may involve some assumptions by the management pertaining to the de-merged industrial undertaking. These are prepared in accordance with the Appendix C of Ind AS 103 business combinations by using the financial information maintained by the SKF India Limited.
Before I turn over the call to the management, I would like to remind you that in this call, some of the remarks contained forward-looking statements which are subject to risk and uncertainty, and actual results may differ materially. Such statements are based on management beliefs as well as assumptions made by and on the information currently available to the management. The audience is cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and making any investment decision. The purpose of today's call is to purely educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and the financial quarter under review. Let me now turn over the call to Mr. Shailesh Sharma. Over to you.
Thank you, Sylvie. Good morning and welcome, everyone, to this Q4 financial 2025-2026 investor call. I am Shailesh Sharma, Managing Director of SKF India Limited. Let me start with the agenda, which is on slide number three. I am sure you must be having your presentations. You can refer to slide number three. We will cover a quick executive summary, then we will talk about macro sector updates, followed by quarterly and annual financial highlights. Last but not the least, our strategy going forward and some success stories. In the end, we will take your questions. We can move to executive summary, which is slide number five. Here, as you can see the results, we are glad to inform our investor that we had positive sales growth this quarter, which is about 3%. We will focus more on quarter-on-quarter comparison as stated in the introductory statement.
Here we are comparing Q3 of financial year to Q4 of this financial year. January to March 2026 is being compared with October to December 2025. As I said, we had a sales growth of 3% with INR 5.6 billion of the sales. We had 770 basis points drop in our profit before tax, which is about 9% due to some previous quarter performance, which included certain one-off gains leading to a higher profitability, which includes gain on Forex transaction, higher income from fixed deposits, and reversal of some employee cost provisions. Moving to our net working capital. The quarter, it increased by about 4.6% due to one-off factors, and the same is expected to normalize as we move forward. If you look at our full-year performance sales growth, its sales grew by solid 12.8% to amount to INR 20.3 billion.
However, profit before tax dropped by 694 basis points, which was due to a variety of factors including mix, discounts, as well as the reasons explained in the introductory statement. For the full year, net working capital improved by 3.7% year-on-year. Moving to slide number seven, which talks about macro key indicators. IIP growth since last three quarters has been stable and was 4.1% for Q4 2026. Manufacturing PMI growth stood at 53.9 for March 2026.
Automotive production has been an upward trend during last quarter for the passenger vehicle, Commercial Vehicle, as well as two and three-wheeler. Iron and steel production was highest during Q4 financial 2026, with 9.7% year-over-year growth. These were some macro key indicators. I will request our CFO, Mr. Mayank Holani, to take us through the detailed financial performance.
Good morning, everyone. Happy to be connecting to you and speaking about our financial performance. Now we move to quarterly performance highlights in slide nine. We achieved highest quarterly sales of INR 5.55 billion for this financial year, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3% and year-on-year growth of about 14.8%, which was primarily driven by higher growth in cars, two-wheelers, and powertrains, partly offset by a drop in distribution business. In terms of mix, original equipment manufacturers accounted for about two-third of our sales. That is about 66%, while distribution sales was about 20%, export 8%, and SKF Industrial share stood at 6%. In terms of growth, you will see primarily quarter-on-quarter and annual growth was driven by volume. Moving on to slide 10 now. Here we'll talk about the profitability for the quarter.
Our profitability for the quarter dropped to about 9%, which is primarily impacted by one-off factors. These factors are expected to normalize as we move forward. It was lower mainly due to one-off gains in previous quarter, that is quarter three of financial year 2026, related to interest on fixed deposits, Forex gains, and employee cost provision reversals. Those were one-off factors. Talking about year-on-year change in profit before tax. There were certain one-off factors, including cost related to demerger, mix impact, as well as the comparability issue, as mentioned in the introductory statement. Let's move to slide 12 and focus on our full-year performance. Sales for financial year grew by about 12.7%. Mainly it's contributed by OE sales, which grew by a strong 20%, while exports and distribution dropped a bit. Let's move to slide 13 on profitability.
Profitability for the year dropped to about 12.3% due to a mix of reasons, as mentioned earlier. Again, similar reasons here also impacted full-year profitability. Let's move to slide 14 on cash flow. Our cash flow for the year stood at 4.05 billion INR, which represents a cash conversion ratio of about 85%. Cash flow during the year was also impacted by certain one-off factors related to the demerger, and these are expected to smoothen as we move forward, and we look forward for the next financial year. This brings us to the end of financial part of the presentation, and now I'll request Mr. Prahlada GirishKumar to talk about our strategy and success story. Over to you, Girish.
Thank you, Mayank. Now I draw your attention to slide number 16. We call the strategic priorities as a RACE strategy. It's an acronym of the full value chain in our focus. Starting with products that are meant to help our customers build efficient vehicles. New energy vehicles, also the vehicles which are now being designed into new environmental and emission standards. Accelerate growth through commercial excellence. The purpose here is to really sharpen the efficiencies, both on the top line and the bottom line performance as well, and it is driven through number of full value chain actions. Also, the capability and the capacity development across the full value chain. Not the least is about execution of the strategy with speed, agility, and attentiveness. Holistically, this is addressing the complete SKF India automotive business, basically.
These are the four pillars under which various initiatives are being driven that directly addresses the financial performance of the company. Next, I draw your attention to slide number 17. This strategy needs to work, and the indication is basically the portfolio of the wins that we are having across three verticals: two-wheeler, three-wheeler, passenger vehicles, and commercial vehicle. The character of the wins that we are having in quarter one is reflecting the market shift to EVs as well, and the OEMs going back to the drawing board to redesign their drivetrain subsystems to new emission norms that are coming in, mainly the BS-VII and the CAFE norms as well. Some of the listings that we have done here is primarily the wins that we have with electric motors, and also some of the wheel hub bearings.
Primarily, the new launches that are upcoming into the 2026, 2027 financial year. This represents quite a strong portfolio in the order book, going up to about 2030, basically. Customer awards as well. The shift and the focus and the drive that we have in sustainability initiative on the operations, the supply chain, and also the product advocacy, is gaining recognition across our supply base and also the customer grouping. Out of three, what you see is basically a clean energy champion among the supply chain partners of TVS Motor. This is a prestigious award which basically signals that we are the leaders in the market as recognized by TVS, which sets us an expectation to really add more value to TVS in their future development as well. In a similar way, our environmental initiatives have been recognized by Honda Motorcycle. Again, a prestigious award.
The third one is essentially the business performance from Suzuki Motorcycles. This is in recognition of the top-of-the-line excellent delivery performance through the year that we basically had. These are the high-level customer recognitions that we got in the quarter one. Now we come to the end of the presentation. Now I hand over to Cilvina Pereira. Over to you, Cilvina.
Thank you. Now we open the forum for question and answer session. Moderator, kindly let us know who is the first one in the queue.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin with the question and answer session now. 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 handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Krupashankar N J from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is a book-keeping question. Just wanted to get a sense around what would be the mix of end segments, which is two-wheelers, passenger vehicles, and CVs for the quarter and FY 2026. Would you be kind enough to break up between what would be the % of exposure we would have to engine transmission and wheel end in our entire portfolio?
We don't comment on the sub-segments per se, Krupa. Our portfolio on wheel end dominates the transmission, if you're talking about passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle. Transmission is following the second position there.
You would not be sharing the end segments of two-wheelers, passenger vehicles and CVs, the revenue mix from them?
No.
Okay, got it. Second question would be more on margin profile. What we have seen, of course, is a deterioration on a YY basis. Just wanted to get a sense around what would be the one-off cost relating to the demerger in the fourth quarter of FY 2026. With respect to margins, what can be the sustainable margin expectation going ahead into FY 2027?
If you look at the quarter four of financial year, there won't be too much of demerger-related cost. If you look at the one-off costs, which I mentioned in the Q3, one-off gains in Q3, if we remove them, it was more or less at par. Now, going about the sustainable margin, we could be looking at 11%-12% kind of margin in the near future. While obviously, in long term, the focus would be on improving it further. That kind of margin we could be looking at.
Got it, sir. Looking at FY 2025 performance and what you have shared, I think the margin profile over there were far more robust at close to about 20 odd %. Just want to get a sense around what is driving this sort of guidance of 12% going ahead. Is it more of a traded proportion which is increasing in our overall RM mix? Probably throw some light around that, sir.
Sorry, what percentage you mentioned?
What I meant was the EBITDA margins, last year was close to about 20 odd % in FY 2025.
I was not talking of EBITDA margin. I was talking about the PBT.
Oh, understood, sir. From a gross margin standpoint, what I was also looking at is that given that automotive business is largely localized, the purchase of traded goods in the third and the fourth quarter has been quite high at around 15%-20% of revenues. Just wanted to get a sense around what is exactly that we are buying. Is it primarily from SKF Industrial, and how long is it expected to continue?
Okay. In Q4 or before that, actually, this is going largely from SKF India Industrial Limited. From automotive perspective, we have almost more than 90% localized products. We don't trade, we don't bring too much of our bearings from overseas and sell it. For automotive, it is fairly localized. Industrial, yes, that is continuing, and I'm sure you must have seen the results of industrial separately. Did I answer your question or there is anything?
Yes, sir. I just wanted to know till when. Is this going to continue until our new plant in Haridwar and Pune ramp up, or are we expecting this to be ongoing on a continuous basis? Some light around that.
No. As I said, in automotive, our focus is on localization. It's already more than 90%, and that is going to continue. For industrial, if you are a little bit confused with the industrial mix, that is not going to sustain. Of course, over a period of time, it will go away. Industrial will be separate things and automotive will be highly localized.
Understood. Last question from my side, if I may. Just wanted to get a sense around the EV piece of business. While you did allude to new business wins from the EV motors bearing set of things, wanted to get a sense around, given that we have seen a certain bit of scale up over the last two, three years on EVs, have you seen the content of vehicles being similar to the ICE in EVs despite the number of bearings coming down? Going ahead, do you want to call out anything on the EV related contribution to your overall revenue proposition with the margin accretive? Will it be more margin accretive vis-à-vis your existing business?
Yeah. Of course, the number of bearings in EV are lesser than our ICE engine, and our growth as of now is going in two-wheeler mainly.
Sorry to interrupt you, sir. I'm really sorry, but your voice is breaking, sir. We're not able to hear you.
I'm not able to. Is it better?
Yes, it's better now. Thank you, sir. You may proceed.
Okay. Yes. What I was saying is, yes, number of bearings in an electric vehicle is lesser than our ICE engine. As of now we are going in both the situation, but in two-wheeler, especially in EV, our share of business is 50% around. As you see, the EV adoption is still not caught up the pace which was anticipated earlier. Giving a specific number, Girish, maybe can you add the numbers on it?
Yes. The current two-wheeler is about 6%, then the passenger vehicles is about 4%. Krupa, to specific to what you mentioned, certainly the performance of the electric vehicle products is much, much higher than the ICE vehicles. If you are referring to any kind of margin erosion due to the reduction in volume and other things, for sure, more positions are getting opened up in terms of, let's say, the motor bearings and also the electric insulation high speed bearings which are multifold in terms of its pricing. That will offset some of the losses that we might have in the revenue there. Otherwise, much of the assortment, what we see as a high-value bearing would remain common between ICE and the EV, especially on the chassis and the axle bearings.
Thank you very much. Appreciate the response.
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Mumuksh Mandlesha from Anand Rathi Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Sir, firstly on the cost side in Q4, how much was the demerger related impact in the other expenses? Going ahead, do you see further impact due to demerger related costs, sir?
We don't have much of the demerger related costs in Q4, and going forward also we don't see any demerger related costs specifically to be in our P&L.
Got it, sir. Sir, we're seeing a lot of raw material prices going up. Just want to understand how are the pass-through happening in both aftermarket and OEM? What kind of price hikes are being taken, sir?
That is on the way. Starting with the aftermarket and as per agreement with OEM, whatever increase in steel price and something happens, we get it. As of now, we have taken only from two customers, and for similar discussions are happening with some other OEMs.
Got it. Even aftermarket price hikes have started, sir?
Aftermarket is a little bit different game altogether, and that is also expected. I can't reveal the exact information, but yes, it's going. That much I can tell you also.
Got it, sir. Maybe in transitory, sir, there could be slight more gross margin pain with the lag in the pass-through, right, sir?
Sorry, come again.
Just because the pass-through would happen with the lag, sir, on the cost inflation. In near term, there could be pressure on the gross margin side.
Yes. That's true.
Got it, sir. Sir, this year we've seen exports and distribution being down YOY for full year. Any reason why both those areas are down, sir?
I'm not sure which number you are saying, but yes, on automotive, our aftermarket business is slightly down. Yes, that's right. If we talk about volume, somehow we are keeping it flat. On net sales point of view, it is little bit down because of the discounts we offered to remain in the market and to beat the competition. Export is more or less steady. I'm not sure. It is slightly lower with two reasons. One is India for India. Our focus in first to serve our domestic customers, and there is a huge demand coming from all of our customers, so capacity is still limited. For overseas customers, we are trying to fill that demand from the nearby factories to the customer, but it is not very significantly dropped off also.
Got it.
Car is automotive.
Got it, sir. Sir, for the FY 2027, what kind of CapEx expected, sir?
From 2026 to 2028, we have around INR 500 crores investment, which will go through each year. This year, 2026 will be around INR 200 crores.
Current the 2026 you're saying, right? The FY 2026?
2026 to 2028, yes.
Three years.
3 years, INR 500 crores.
INR 200 already spent in FY 2026 you're saying, sir?
It's going to be spent, which will spill over to 2027 a little bit in the first quarter.
Got it.
You can say our financial year 2026, 2027 is around INR 200 crores.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions from the participant, we request you to kindly limit your question to two questions per participant. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Viraj from SiMPL. Please go ahead.
Yeah, I have two, three questions. Sir, just trying to understand on the gross margin piece a bit more in detail. If you look on an annual basis, the aftermarket, as you said, has not de-grown. I mean, it has not de-grown significantly. If you look at our overall localization, right, we are already at 90, 95% plus level, whether be it aftermarket or the OE piece, right? What explains the drop in gross margin, say from 2025 to 2026? It has dropped from, say, around 55, 60% levels, now we're talking about 46%, so almost a 9 -1 0 percentage points drop. Similarly, if I look at other expenses, which is excluding the demerger, we have been seeing an increase in other expenses in last two, three quarters.
What are the key elements in other expenses which is driving this increase? That is one question.
See, when you say aftermarket sales has not dropped much, you're right. On the growth, if you see, has all come from OEM. The full year, if you see, it's almost 20% growth coming from OEM. Which the margin, there is a big difference between aftermarket and OEM. Coming to other expenses and its comparison to previous year, I'll refer you to the opening statement which Selvi made. See, the previous year numbers at all places may not be exactly comparable because we have split it from the combined entity. Which is now expected to stabilize. If you see from last quarter onwards, when after separation, it will be more clear and visible. Plus, you will have a stable performance that way.
Sir, just follow up on this. If I look at pre- demerger also, and if I compare other players in the space, where in auto, given the high localization and healthy mix of distribution. This is at somewhere between 16%-18% in terms of EBITDA margin and gross has been upwards of 55%. This is what we have also pre-demerger earning in the Automotive Business. I'm just trying to understand that how should one look at the margin structure in our business going forward? What is a sustainable margin one should look at and what should drive? Second is, can you explain a little bit in detail what is the arrangement with SKF Industrial?
What product segments or application we buy from them and what we sell to them, and similarly, any payouts in terms of royalty or service charges to them.
On margin, I already answered, we are in almost to another question that we are looking at in terms of PBT about 11%-12% is what we expect in the near future. Probably, I will request Shailesh to answer about the other question.
What kind of product we deal. Generally, these are two very different businesses. Industrial makes larger size of bearings and Automotive is slightly on lower size, where when I am talking about size range. Yes, there is some certain overlap in between where because of the kind of assets we have for on both the companies still we have certain amount of trading from each other, largely from Industrial to Auto because of certain product line like medium size DGBB and taper roller bearings. The capacity is a little higher side or I must say the demand and capacity point of view, we are short of in Automotive. We are short of little capacity, so we are buying from Industrial. It is not particular application of certain things. It is about basically what we can get from there and some of our customers located.
Is there any other payout in other expenses which either we have to pay to SKF Industrial or we receive from SKF Industrial in terms of any manufacturing service charges or anything?
Yes. Our plant is common as of now, and this plant belongs to SKF India Limited. Right now, Industrial assets are lying in this plant till the new factory of Industrial comes in. Till then, we receive rent from Industrial. There are some certain service charges which we get from Industrial.
Can you quantify what is it on an annual basis?
No, as of now, we don't have that exactly. This only it started from last October, so it's too early, but that is there.
Okay, fine. I'll come back in queue. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question come from the line of Varun Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good morning. My first question was on customer concentration. Can you tell us what percentage of your sales comes from top five, top 10 customers and who are the top one to three customers?
Okay, Varun. The top five customers would typically represent about close to 50%. If I have to name top three customers basically in the two-wheeler segment, Bajaj is our number one customer, followed by Mahindra, mainly the passenger vehicle and Tata, both the entity combined, the commercial vehicle and the passenger vehicle combined.
The top 10?
Top 10 will have remaining OEMs the likes of Royal Enfield, Honda, and some of the Tier one companies as well.
No, sir, my question was what percentage of your revenue would they constitute?
Top 10, I would rather say it could be close to about 70%.
Okay. Sir, my second question was on the CapEx plan which you laid out. This INR 500 crore, once it's all on the ground, what is the revenue potential it has?
Okay. See, there are two things which we are trying to do. One is to reduce trading from Industrial. Some capacity will go into our own Automotive capacity, which will not essentially add to our revenue because anyway that revenue is there as of now. The only thing is through trading. The second is looking into our growth, which is about 6%-8% growth. Girish, do you remember the number by 2028? What's the number we are talking?
I need to check up. I do not have the right away checks.
Yeah, you can consider around 6%-8% CAGR.
6%-8% revenue CAGR you are telling?
Yes.
Okay, sir. That's all. I will come back in. Thank you. All the best.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Laxmi Narayan from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hope I'm audible.
Yes.
Yeah. I just want to have 1 question. As management, what are the two or three strategic priorities you are working for the next one-three years? How you like yourself to be measured, or how you are measured in terms of sales growth or in terms of margins, so that as investors, we can also use the same lens to track company?
Okay. Girish, maybe you can take through our strategy.
In terms of the strategic priorities, the focus is basically to shift portfolio significantly to energy efficiency and the emission norms, addressing value propositions to the customers across vehicle segments. That would be the single most priority. Certain manufacturing capabilities will have to be invested upon. The investment amount that you heard is also growing in terms of not only capacity, but also upgrading some of these capabilities as well. Significant portfolio shift will happen towards passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle. In proportion, these two segments have a high potential for us to grow, and also the premiumization in the market that is happening is driving certain product value propositions that are in the sweet spot for SKF to really do well in those segments. That's number two. Number three is to amplify the value selling. That means close partnership with customers.
Much of the OEMs new launches that are being announced since last year, and into this quarter as well, is to be in close coordination with customer R&Ds, and we already see major partnerships already developing there. These are the three priorities that we are invested in, and we are building our, let's say, capabilities and capacities both on the supply base, also on the manufacturing capabilities. This is how we basically look at it. As Shailesh was mentioning, this kind of strategy, we believe, will give us an edge in the value propositions that are likely to give us a bit of a pricing power. That's where we believe in the next quarter that follows, once the industrialization and the vehicle launches really happen, we should be in a position to really see a better business performance on that.
Sir, in terms of how you measure the company's performance in terms of top-line growth, how do you benchmark either with the industry or with your peers or competitors? In terms of margins also, what is the kind of thing which you like to measure? Because some companies use operating margins, some companies use PBT margin, some of them would say that we want to grow X% more than the automotive growth. Some color on that, so that we can also track the company in the same length.
The color that I can give you is, of course, the cash is more important to us, so we are more driven on quality of earnings that we basically make. Certainly not the top line is a number one priority. Of course, we need to really win the space that we believe we have an advantage, and that's what actually I mentioned, the premiumization that is happening in the sweet spot for us to really do well. To that extent, we'll try to focus there. As you mentioned, the focus would be on margin improvement.
You mentioned the PBT margin of 12% or thereabouts, if I heard it right. Is that something which you Which band of margin the company is most comfortable with to operate, where you would not go below X? I just want to understand that particular bit.
Sorry.
PBT or operating or free cash or gross cash income.
Sorry, can you repeat your question?
No, I heard you saying that 12% margin at the start of the call, and I think again you mentioned it. As a management, what are you calibrating yourself on as a band of margins you like to operate? Is the band of margin is evaluated at the PBT level or at the operating margin level? What is that band? Is it like 9- 15 or I mean, some kind of a spectrum would be very helpful.
This 11%-12% margin range we gave you is a kind of average across it. Yeah, within the different products and market segments, the margin range is varying. It will be varying between distribution, exports and OEM. 11%-12% is the overall at the group level, company level, what we would be looking at. Obviously within the product range, there are multiple factors which we have to review that we will be using already, like the mix of new products and different segments.
Sir, your voice is not clear. I think even the earlier participant question, I had some difficulty in hearing you. Yes, slightly better, sir. If you can just come closer to the microphone.
Yeah. You see, 11%-12% overall margin or PBT % is what we are looking at. Within that, different segments have different margins. OEMs will have different margins. Aftermarket will have different margins. Exports will again have a different kind of margin. Overall, as a bouquet of products and market segments, 11%-12% is what we would be looking at in the near term.
Got it, sir. My last question is that, sir, I've been either owning or tracking the company for the last decade or so. There's always been a practice of you sharing the industry mix of OEMs broadly in terms of two-wheelers and passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Can you just, at an aggregate level for the full year, can you just help me understand what is the mix of revenue across the three segments? This is something which you always give.
Not sure about it. What we can actually say is about the retail and the OEMs. I think that's what we provided in the beginning. It's about 20%, or rather, even if you exclude the export, it's about 28% is the distribution, and the rest is on the OEM side. What I can actually share is, of course, two-wheeler is by far a very dominant volume contributor to us, followed by passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle.
This is the white space you have identified because you are strong in B2B2B. In terms of the other areas, you just put a matrix across different segments and different type of bearings. Which are the areas where you think you are putting your effort on to win the markets? What are the white spaces? Can you just elaborate?
White space for us is the unitized bearings for the wheel application in the SUV segment and also in the light commercial vehicle, if I had to call out those as an area that we can do significantly well, and we are doing well there. Specifically, the new generation transmissions that are coming in for the CAFE-III norms with our portfolio of low friction, low weight assortment, that's a space that we are relaunching ourselves to be a dominant player there. These two are standing out as significant white spaces for us.
Thank you, sir. I'll get back to you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ravi Purohit from Securities Investment Management Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, generally, I would like to share that we've been tracking, just like the earlier participant was saying, that we've been tracking our company for more than 10 years. The investor communication under Mr. Manish Bhatnagar was very transparent and very articulate. We were able to kind of understand where our margin structures are, what the gross margin levers are, where the new product introductions are. Increasingly, post the demerger, what we are realizing is that the investor communication and the disclosures have dropped substantially, and there is absolutely no clarity amongst investors, both for the industrial company as well as for the auto bearings industry. What the normalized margins were pre-merger and what they are today, they look significantly lower than what they were pre-merger. Is it because we have started paying out more royalties to the parent?
Is it because of the transfer pricing arrangement between SKF Industrial and SKF India Auto? In the last six, seven years, if you see our average EBITDA margins used to be 16% and 17% of the combined entity. Today it looks like both the entities are much lower than that. Is there something changed during the demerger, which the shareholders should be aware of, but they are not being made aware of? I will really appreciate if you could kind of share some thoughts about this and at least share this concern with SKF parent also. There was a lot of effort being taken previously, doing meetings and all for the demerger vote. Since then, the communication has dropped, disclosures have dropped, and there's absolutely no clarity as to what the long-term sustainable margins for SKF is. SKF is global leader by far. Right.
In India, SKF trades at a 50%-70% discount to its peers from market valuation point of view. From margins point of view, its margins are probably 200-400 basis points or even 500 basis points lower than the peers. This does not look like a market leader's attributes. Just wanted to share this feedback. I missed the industrial call, could not share it with them. We are already existing shareholders, we thought we should kind of air our views on this aspect. We would really appreciate if you could kind of help us understand the numbers, overall numbers, and margin structures better. If you could just answer if there is a significant increase in royalty that has happened pre-merger and post-demerger.
Okay. Just before Mayank talk about, thanks for feedback. If you think so, that's a good feedback for us. I can just assure you we would like to remain transparent as it was earlier, and we are very committed to that. SKF as a company always value our investor, our customers, our community and everything. We have no intention to hide anything.
If you feel so, that's a feedback, we will work on it. If in particular some information which you need, maybe if it's not confidential in nature, we will be happy to share, maybe.
Your feedback, well taken, and we'll see how to further improve the communication so that this feeling goes away. We'll make effort towards that. As far as royalty is concerned, there is no change in any royalty or trademark fees from the earlier setup. It remains the same how it was pre-demerger.
Is it fair to assume, because pre-demerger, when we had spoken on con calls, when the con calls were held and the meetings were held in the run-up to demerger, what was communicated to us was the auto on its own makes about 16%-18% EBITDA margin. In fact, higher EBITDA margin as compared to the industrial business because it is 95% localized in India. If I take the average of the last five, six years, the EBITDA margins used to be 16%-17%. If industrial is basically 60% of the revenue and the margins of industrial are significantly lower than the average because it is predominantly a trading business as of now, then logically, mathematically, the auto bearings margins should be closer to 18%-19% EBITDA level, right?
If it is 18, 19%, as of now, since the demerger, we've not seen those kind of numbers. Can you help us? If you could break it down for us as to when do we see those kind of margins coming back? When does this arrangement between us and Industrial change on the transfer pricing or whatever contract manufacturing that they are doing because they hold the land on which our line is located or set up?
In fact, it's other way around. It is SKF India land where we have given on kind of rent to SKF Industrial.
SKF India Limited, see the demerger which happens at group level, the carve-out or in India it's a reverse carve-out. Generally, automotive has come out of industrial. Overall, at group level, automotive is close to 30% of total revenue.
Right.
In India it is slightly higher. It is slightly 34, 35% from revenue point of view. In India it is a reverse carve-out where industrial has gone out.
SKF India Limited remains as automotive division.
See, the EBITDA margin which you mentioned, okay, so last financial year, if you look at it's about 15.3%. Okay, slightly lower than the previous year, what, 16% something you were mentioning for automotive, but we hope we should be back to the level very soon.
This is a kind of transition which is happening, one-time cost sitting here and there slowly. Maybe you may be seeing, but we are very hopeful and we are confident about going forward, maybe after couple of quarters we will become stable and will back to normal.
Sir, if I can just take this point forward, if someone from your team can actually read the transcripts of the con calls which happened in 2024 and maybe early part of 2025 and 2023. If you see, particularly when the demerger was announced, around that time if you see the con call transcripts and if you see the numbers. If you analyze the last five years, 16% was the average of both the businesses combined. Industrial is actually lower margin business, and it is a 60% business, total revenue business. Automotive business, this was on record said by Mr. Mukund that we will basically move back to 16%-19% EBITDA margin range. In the earlier calls also he had mentioned Auto is significantly more profitable in India because it is fully localized.
Just to also on this trade contract manufacturing, on this year's P&L that we have reported for the results, there is a very large amount of purchase of traded goods. I'm assuming there must be something that the industrial piece is also manufacturing for us, right?
Yes, of course. Industrial, as I said earlier, Industrial is definitely making and because of capacity shortage in Automotive, after GST cut, we are seeing a huge growth in all sector, all segment, and we have limited capacity, which we are anyway working on. As I said, already two new product lines are coming in our Haridwar this year only. Some things are also in pipeline. Because of that, we are kind of trading from Industrial. About EBITDA, see, this is true that in Automotive we are more localized product. If you see, Automotive is very price sensitive market, especially OEM. Distribution market, both in Industrial as well as in Automotive, it works on more or less in the same margin.
Yes, maybe because of the import cost, maybe the margin somewhat get impacted in industrial, but overall, as per me, industrial is a little higher margin business than automotive. At a global level, if you see for any automotive industry outside India, if you see 8% operating margin is considered to be very good margin for automotive, including OEMs. In India, of course, our plan is to always to remain in double-digit. There may be some compression because of all this transition, and we are confident we will go back there.
Sir, if you could from next quarter onwards, if we can actually include in our presentation, the breakup of the cost or the margin compression. This is because of one-off or merger related costs. Even this transfer contract manufacturing related cost between SKF Industrial and us. It will help us understand and appreciate what our true business margins are. If you compare us to our peers like Schaeffler India or Timken India, they are at much, much higher margin levels. They are your competitors. They sell products at a discount to SKF India's price because SKF India commands premium. SKF globally also commands a premium over Schaeffler and Timken. Even if the premium is 2% or 3%.
The point is, if they are making 20% EBITDA margins, and if we have communicated in the past, just a year back, if someone can actually read the con calls and understand, and you see the numbers and see the commentary that was provided to us in the run-up to the merger, it was very clearly communicated that our margins are going to be significantly higher once we localize more. Auto already makes a significantly higher margin. There seems to be a very distinct difference between the communication post the merger and pre the merger. Just a very sincere feedback. Please help someone in the team to read the transcripts or the communication or the information that was provided to shareholders pre demerger and what we are communicating today. Is there a significant difference between the two?
If yes, can someone take the effort and initiative to bridge that gap?
As I said, feedback taken. We will try to give even more detail, but just to extend the answer. First of all, now after post de-merger, if you see, we really don't have somebody to benchmark because now industrial is purely industrial and automotive is purely automotive. Timken and Schaeffler both are still combined. They're industrial plus automotive. Earlier there was a good comparison, but now it is no more actually. Even if we want to compare, there is not a single listed company which is purely bearing purely for automotive. There is no such company exist with which we can compare. Probably same thing goes with industrial also. I'm just giving you little bit a heads up so that you can think about it. It is not apple to apple comparison.
About localization, as I said, if Mukund has said, yes, there are lot of investment which has been made in even in Ahmedabad factory and even in Pune factory for industrial, but I should not talk about industrial as such, if you must have attended that call. The statement which was made, that is true. We don't want to go back, and we don't want to say, "Okay, that was not true." Everything is true what we said. It's maybe a matter of time. It's just a transition time which we are going through. Okay?
Okay. Sure. Thanks a lot, sir. I really appreciate if you could include some more information and data points on the margin breakup and one-off de-merger related cost in the subsequent presentations that we make for the quarter research.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Vishal.
Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing remarks. Thank you, and over to you, team.
Okay. Thank you very much for your question and continued trust in SKF India. This year has been one of the transformation and resilience. While restructuring costs temporarily impacted our profitability, our strong revenue growth, robust demand across automotive, and strategic focus on electric mobility and sustainability give us confidence for the future. The de-merger position is to unlock greater value by enabling sharper focus and agility in our business. We remain committed to innovation, operational excellence, and delivering consistent shareholder return. As we move forward, our priorities are the clear margin recovery, sustainable growth, and strengthening partnership with customer and stakeholders. We appreciate your support and look forward to continue this journey together. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of SKF India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.