Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Castrol India Limited's Quarter 4 CY 2025 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Saugata Basuray, Whole-Time Director and Interim Chief Executive Officer. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter and financial year 2025 earnings call today. As you're aware, our reporting follows the January to December calendar year. 2025 has been a year of strong and consistent delivery for Castrol India. We're at our eighth straight quarter of volume-led growth, closed the year with the highest-ever revenue, and gained market share in our core automotive lubricants business. For the full year, volume grew 8% year-on-year, supported by steady demand in the personal mobility sector, our continued scale-up in the industrial business, and our deeper distribution reach, particularly into rural India. Our industrial portfolio and our rural distribution delivered double-digit growth yet again, validating the choices we made over the last few years. The performance also reflects our agile approach, which enabled us to navigate market cycles.
Business grew from expanding our reach, deepening our relationship with key OEMs from the automotive sector, and better execution every day in line with our mantra, "Stay close to customers, make smart choices, and deliver with discipline." In the fourth quarter, we saw some momentum. Revenue grew 6% year-on-year, making it our highest quarter-on-quarter revenue in nearly two decades, while volume grew by 8%, reflecting sustained underlying demand. However, what is important to note is that this performance came in a very volatile operating environment. Competitive intensity continues. Raw material movement and currency volatility persisted through the year. Our focus remained on disciplined execution, staying close to customers, managing costs proactively, and continuing to invest in building our brands, bringing new innovations into the market through new products, and expanding our distribution reach.
During the year, we moved at pace on innovation, launched new products, and localized close to 20 products across automotive, industrial, and our specialties range. Some of the major ones include advanced Hysol and Alusol industrial products, the new Spheerol range in reach, and we upgraded our core offer in the personal mobility car space, which is Castrol MAGNATEC. We also launched new products in the auto care range. We continued to strengthen our distribution and our relationship with key OEMs across automotive ecosystems. We also forged a collaboration with Triumph Motorcycles for our brand, Castrol POWER1 , and signed an MOU with VinFast Auto India to support their EV after-sales at Castrol service centers.
Our brand-building initiatives reached an unprecedented scale, touching 300+ million consumers and trade professionals through multi-channel campaigns such as the #GarmiMeinBhi3xProtection , Best Oil Guaranteed on our commercial vehicle oil range, along with establishing our presence across multiple major racing events. These efforts deepened the brand's connection with consumers and trade alike. On the distribution front, we continue to expand our market reach. Our distribution network now covers more than 150,000 outlets nationwide. The Castrol Auto Care portfolio is now available across e-commerce, modern trade, and another 67,000 outlets in physical retail stores. Service network has also grown. We now have a network of 750 Castrol Auto Service points across the country, and we reached 30,000 bike workshops and more than 11,000 multi-brand retail outlets. Rural distribution continues to scale up.
We are now at over 40,000 rural outlets, and we have over 500 Rural Service Express installed in the country. These network expansion initiatives ensure our products and services are available to consumers wherever they live. Sustainability and community engagement remains a core part of our ethos. We introduced India's first RRBO-based engine oil. RRBO stands for Re-Refined Base Oil for BS6 engines, and co-engineered with leading OEMs. We also scaled up our community programs such as Sarathi Mitra through Highways as Classroom initiative, that reached truck drivers across 46 locations in Uttar Pradesh. Now, before I speak further, I will hand over to Mrinalini to take you through the financials in a bit more detail. Over to you, Mrinalini.
Thank you, Saugata, and a very good afternoon to everyone. Let me start with the full year performance first. In fiscal year 2025, we delivered strong results. Our revenue from operations grew 7% year-on-year to INR 5,722 crores. EBITDA for the year stood at INR 1,348 crores, which represents a 5% year-on-year increase, supported by strong volume growth and operating discipline, like Saugata just said. Profit after tax reached INR 950 crores, up from INR 927 crores in the prior year. These gains reflect healthy operational execution and a good product mix. Despite input cost volatility during the year, we were able to manage margins through disciplined cost control, pricing, and mix optimization, while continuing to invest behind brand building, distribution expansion, and capability development. Let me turn to quarter 4. Revenue stood at INR 1,440 crores, which is up 6.4% year-on-year basis.
Profit after tax for the quarter was at INR 245 crores, which is about 8% sequentially higher than quarter 3, and it reflects the improved operating leverage as volume scaled through the years. PAT was down from INR 271 crores in quarter 4/2024, though, which was impacted by one-time labor code-related changes in this quarter. Most importantly, our full year EBITDA margin, which reflects the structural health of the business, remained healthy, and cash from operations was robust, underpinning the quality of our earnings. From a balance sheet and cash flow perspective, the business continues to remain strong and resilient, supported by healthy cash generation and continued financial discipline. We managed costs and working capital tightly, which supported profitability even in a high-growth environment. This disciplined approach enabled shareholder value creation, and we maintained a strong balance sheet while returning cash to the investors.
In recognition of this performance, the board has recommended a final dividend of INR 5.25 per share, taking the total dividend for the year to INR 8.75 per share. This reflects our commitment to consistent shareholder return while ensuring that we retain flexibility to invest in the business. I'll now hand it back to Saugata to share our outlook.
Thank you, Mrinalini. Looking ahead, we expect India's mobility landscape to evolve steadily rather than change overnight. Internal combustion engines and hybrid engines will continue to form the backbone of the market for the foreseeable future, even as new technologies gradually scale up. Sustained economic growth and low per capita penetration of cars and bikes should continue to support the core lubricant demand in the personal mobility space. At the same time, government-led manufacturing initiatives are expected to underpin growth in the industrial segment. That said, we remain mindful of competitive pressure, the volatility in raw material prices, and currency movements. These are realities of our operating environment. We are focused on keeping an eye on them and responding as and when the environment changes.
Our response is clear: strengthen the core automotive business, accelerate supply chain localization, and grow in adjacencies where customers are seeking value, including services and solutions. With our scale, distribution reach, strong brand, and deep customer relationships, we believe Castrol is well-poised to adapt to the shifts in the environment and continue building a resilient and future-focused business. Thank you, and I'm now happy for us to take questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin with a question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and 1 on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking our questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. You may please press star and 1 to ask questions. The first question is from the line of Naeem Patel from Bastion Research. Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible?
Yes, we are audible.
Yes. Hi. Thank you for this opportunity. So I had some questions regarding our supply side of the business. So when we use lubricant additives in our products, are these lubricant additives sourced internally, or do we source it from some external supplier?
If I could just repeat the question so I've understood it, your question is the additives that are used in the lubricants, are these sourced internally from within Castrol, or bought from vendors? Is that what you asked?
Yes, from one of the either from the Big Four. Is it from external Big Four, or is it just from Castrol internally? Yes.
We have a variety of questions across our entire range of automotive and industrial grades. There are certain additives, core molecules that we develop internally within the global Castrol system. We have technology centers, as you may be aware, across the world. There are certain additives which we have procured from our global partners who supply specialized additives for specific applications. We do both.
Is there a mix like how much of it is internal or how much of it is external?
Well, it depends on the product range, right? And a typical product in automotive will have multiple additives, right? So you could say a majority of that is something that we source from our strategic partners.
Okay. And is one of those partners one of the Big Four lubricant additive players like Infineum, Chevron, Lubrizol, or Afton?
Yes, we work with all four in different segments.
Just to follow up on that, do we have long-term agreements with them, or do we switch our mix on a quarter-to-quarter or a year-on-year basis? If we do switch from one supplier to another for a particular period, what factors do we consider that have led us to switch from one supplier to another?
So I'll give you a broad answer. Typically, this is driven by our innovation requirement. As you know, this is a brand-led business, which we're looking to deliver value to customers that we are seeking. Whatever is the best-suited chemistry for that, then we go and figure out which is the right molecule to put into the product to deliver that benefit. So that's the way we approach it over time. There are different segments within Castrol. There's commercial vehicle, cars, motorcycle, industrial, so on and so forth. There are different suppliers who have strengths, and we accordingly work with them in each of the sectors.
Understood. Just one final question. Do we procure from any of the Indian suppliers in this aspect, or are they just the global vendors?
We have a variety of suppliers. As you can imagine, I can't keep specific names, but we have a whole variety of suppliers, global as well as local.
All right. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Robinson. All the best to you. That's all from me.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Tewari from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is actually a bookkeeping one. Can you give me the volume number for the quarter in million liters?
Mr. Tewari, very nice to talk to you. We engaged even last quarter, so thank you for rejoining our call. While specifics of how many million liters we don't usually share, I think what you heard, Saugata, speak at length was that it is sustained volume growth. As we closed the financial year 2025, in fact, all four quarters, we were able to deliver high single-digit 7-8% volume growth. So I think that is what we really pride on. The other good thing is it is a bit more diversified across all our portfolio that we play: automotive, rural, of course, and in the industrial part of the portfolio. Yeah, I will perhaps at this point leave it at that.
Thanks for that, Mrinalini. But I suppose we've been sharing this number historically in the calls, like in earlier calls, since I asked this question because you've been very specific with the volume number. And it would be great if you can give us the volume number for this quarter as well.
I understand. Let me help you a little bit there. Of course, I won't get specific. It has been a good year for us, and we have seen upwards of 60 million liters in all our quarters. So we definitely are celebrating a good year's closure for us.
About a 63-64 would be a good ballpark for this quarter?
It's a quarter of 60 in quarter 4 of last year. Every quarter, if I may just respond, has a certain seasonality in our business because there are different times of the year where the agri-business is big, and certain times of the year, the automotive, the core motorcycle businesses respond and have some demand. We anticipate that we will have similar seasonality this year, and we will hold on to our guidance of growing our volume at 1.5-2 times the market growth rate. We expect it to grow anywhere between 1.5%-4%.
That's fair, Saugata. I'm just referring to this quarter because you mentioned that you've grown at 8% for the year and also 8% for the quarter. So hence, I asked that would 63-64 million liters a good ballpark for quarter 4 to understand the volume number?
Yeah, broadly ballpark. Keep it at that. Typically, quarter 4, quarter 1 is slightly different, but you can hold it around that range.
Okay. Sure. My second question.
I can see you now as well.
Sorry, you were saying something, Mrinalini. Yeah. Yeah. Secondly, my question was.
You were saying that your estimate is a good estimate.
For that. My second question is with respect to your margin. Our operating profits have grown by about 5.5%, whereas volume growth has been at 8% as you indicated. We've seen a margin compression in this year vis-à-vis previous year, right? What are the key reasons for that, and how should we see this number going ahead?
Sir, Nitin, you would recollect that we had given a guidance that we will operate in the EBITDA margin range of 21%-24%. As we close the year, we are actually right at the top of range, the 24% EBITDA margin.
Ma'am, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Ma'am, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Can you please repeat because your voice broke in the middle?
Okay. I'm going to repeat one more time. Is my voice better now?
Yes, Ma'am, much better. I would request you to speak in the same manner, Ma'am, please. Thank you.
I'll do that. Thank you. Thank you for letting me know. So Nitin, as I was saying, we've given our guidance as operating margin, operating EBITDA margin in the range of 21%-24%. And as we close the financial year 2025, we actually closed it right at the top of range, almost at the 24% mark. So from that sense, we are very much within our guidance, and we are actually happy with that result. But you identified the mix correctly. As we grew volume by single digits and EBITDA grew about 5-5.5%, there is a dilution. And we've spoken about this earlier as well. As we expand, as we change our business mix towards the industrial side of the portfolio, we know that we cannot operate at the same level that an automotive industry does.
That level of dilution, we expect, we anticipate. Additionally, we have chosen to invest in the business. We are in a growth journey. You will see our fixed costs also growing, really focused on the investment buckets. Both of those have played out well for us, which is why you see the 5% return.
Thank you. That's a very elaborate one. I mean, with respect to more experience, so given that your main focus is shifting towards industrial demand, so is data center demand something which you think is a reasonable one which can come up in the years to follow? And what's your assessment of potential demand from data centers in the time to come?
Okay. Let me try to recap the question, and then between Saugata and I, we will try to address it. I think, Nitin, your question was on data centers. Your question was, do we see growth potential in data center business as a growth opportunity? So let me take a short break, and then Saugata can build on. So it is indeed very, very small for us right now. We are at a very early part of the journey. Being a part of the global Castrol, we do benefit from the research and development which has brought us to this place where we have a solution for cooling in data centers, very small in India today. And given the role that India will play in overall data centers for the world, more so looking forward, indeed, we do think it's a good opportunity for the future. Saugata, over to you.
Yeah. I'll just build on what Lini was saying. I think two things. It is a market which is growing fast. It's also changing quite quickly. And fundamentally, what large data centers require is to cool the servers which are immersed into liquid that can conduct heat but not electricity. The technology that was used and is used in many other places today is pure air conditioning. That is moving to immersion coolant. So opportunity is evolving. It is moving very fast. We think it is going to be a big market out there. We have trials that are ongoing. And we will see as the market stabilizes, what is the size of the opportunity. Still at a very early stage to project it.
I can send that, Saugata. But I suppose it's an early stage in India. But can you help us with any figures that we have from Castrol globally?
Mr. Tewari, your voice is also muffled. If you could use your handset, please.
Sure. Just give me a moment. Is this better than before?
Yes.
Yeah. So I was saying, Saugata, if you can help us understand from any of the figures that we can source from Castrol Global in terms of how much data center demand is Castrol Global catering to, and that will help us have an understanding on the potential for demand in India.
I won't be able to comment on the global demand, honestly, but what I can tell you is large demand is coming out of markets such as the U.S., out of China, parts of Europe, and India, of course. And again, as I said, you will have seen all the announcements of terawatts of data centers being created, but a lot of that is very early stage of execution. And at this stage, it's not completely clear what is the technology that is going to be used on coolant, right? So as I mentioned, it is something which will evolve, and that's the case even globally.
Got it. Fair enough. Thanks so much for taking my questions. I'll get back in the queue for more.
Thank you.
Thank you, Nitin.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Sabri Hazarika from Emkay Global Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon. So looking at your annual volume run rate of, say, around 240-250 million liters, are you fine with the current capacity of your plant, or is there a thought process of expanding capacity or something like that?
Yeah. Look, we have been growing very strongly, as you picked up. We have three plants in India. We feel that at the moment, we are adequately equipped to release capacity. There are always process transformation programs which are in play, and we'll be able to support the growth for the next couple of years, at least.
Okay. And I think you mentioned CY25 CapEx to be somewhere at around INR 130-140 crore. So I think INR 150 crore. So that is the run rate we can expect going ahead also. And CY25 was INR 150 crore. Was it different?
Sir, Hazarika, let me take that question. We invest CapEx, and really, it's a growth driver for us. We invest it in two forms. One is in our plants and building capacity for innovation, like Saugata just spoke, and making sure that we can enable all the new launches that he also spoke about in his speech, which is about half my CapEx. We also invest CapEx in our to enable our distribution growth, so in our dealer boards as well as in the market, and you know Rural Service Express investment as well. So overall, between the two buckets, we spend about INR 100 crores of CapEx, and that is the trend that we have demonstrated in the past. As we look forward, what we know for sure is we will invest when the investment pays out.
Given our strong structural margins, we know that every time there is a growth proposal, it pays out. CapEx is not a constraint for us. We have kept a healthy cash balance sheet, and we will invest wherever there is a business need.
Right. Got it. And just one small follow-up. Your dividend payout this time has been around 91%. I understand in CY 2024, there was a special dividend. But is 90%-91% the sustainable rate right now for dividend payout?
Indeed, that's a good question. I'm hoping the shareholders are happy with the payout right now. 90% is industry-leading payout ratios, and I'm very happy that we're able to do that. Last year was the celebration of the 125th year of Castrol because of which we had globally given that special dividend. We always look for such occasions to sort of delight our shareholders. Nonetheless, even without those special dividends, our dividend payout is usually 4.8%-4.5%. That's something we really want to see.
Got it. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
We'll take the next question from the line of Lokesh from Lone Pine Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon. Thanks for the update. I have two quick questions, please.
I'm sorry, sir. Your voice is muffled. I'm sorry, sir. Your voice is muffled. May I request you to use your handset, please?
Am I audible now?
Yes, sir. Please proceed.
Yeah. The first question is with regard to the BP, the parent company, recently announced it's selling stake, 65% to be precise, in Castrol's global lubricant business. So how could this impact Indian shareholders in terms of brand licensing agreement, R&D support from BP's global centers, and basically long-term strategic direction under new ownership?
Right. Thank you for the question. Let me try and address that. As you rightly said, the global announcement was made in December, which was subsequent to strategic review that was also flagged early in the year. At the parent level, bp has signaled that they will form a joint venture with an investor where bp will remain a 35% shareholder, and investor will take 65%. I must caution that this is all subject to regulatory approval, and we expect the transaction at some point to close toward the end of the year. As and when that happens, there would be, if any, regulatory-related disclosures to be made; such new shareholders would do that. To your question on what may or may not impact, very early, it's business as usual for us over here. Castrol India particularly remains a very big market for Castrol globally.
We are focused on executing on our plan, and we think that those are the metrics which have created that kind of value for our shareholders, including the ones who have invested.
Yeah. Thanks for the reply, sir. The second one is with regard to EV fluids. We have been talking about EV fluids for a few quarters now. Can you give us any quantitative update with regard to OEM approvals received in India in the last 12 months or the current run rate of EV fluid sales and the kind of margin expansion that we see with EV compared to ICE products?
Right. Okay. So look, the demand for EV fluid is directly proportional to the number of EVs being sold in a year, right? And you would know from publicly available information that the number of two-wheeler EVs is roughly 10% of the total new vehicles sold in each year, and in cars, that's about 5%-6%, okay? The good news is that we have access to the best technology on the EV fluid front, which is developed by our global team. We have a center of excellence in Europe on EV fluids. And in India, as things stand today, about 70% of the OEMs, especially in cars, they have approved Castrol products, and they used in a lot of the vehicles over here. But again, the population is quite small.
Therefore, it is not a material part of our business today, but we are prepared and ready to cater to that demand as that business scales up.
Yeah. I get it, sir. Just a bit on that, how would we see the margin expansion that we see? Is there any higher margins with the EV fluid sales compared to ICE?
So there are certain segments in which the EV margins are better. When you say ICE, there are a whole range of products that we sell, starting from commercial vehicle, engine oil. We have grease gear oil, and then we have the high-end synthetic products which go into cars. All those margins are higher. On an aggregate basis, I would say the EV margins would be at the same range as if you have a core automotive business.
Yeah. That's a great clarification, sir. Thanks for the update.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. We'll take the next question from the line of Vijay Pandey from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question, sir. Sorry, but this is the first time I'm coming to the conference. So I may not be well versed with much details about previous calls. So I wanted to understand what is our expectation because of the upcoming EV growth. So how do we see the transition from that? So how much impact will it be on our number going forward in mid-term as well as in the long run? And in the case of because of the increasing PHEV and hybrid sales, does that also carry lower contribution to our does PHEV and hybrids have a lower sales per unit sales for Castrol, or is it at similar level as compared to ICE? So that will be my first question.
Right. Okay. So I'll rephrase or I'll recap the question you said because the voice was not very clear to make sure that I've got it. You're asking what is going to be the impact of the transition into EVs in mobility space in the medium and long term, and does hybrid also have an impact on demand for lubricants? Are those your two questions?
Yeah. Exactly.
Okay. Thank you. Got it. So the first thing I would say is, look, we believe that the transition to low-carbon mobility is going to have multiple pathways for that. What do I mean by that? I mean that there are efficiencies to be had in the existing ICE powertrains, which is already happening, and the regulations that are making those engines much more efficient. Then there are multi-fuel engines which are being introduced in the market. So you have a lot of manufacturers now selling vehicles which are either on CNG, and even some people are experimenting in heavy commercial vehicles with LNG. And then you have hybrids and EVs. And all of these are happening in service of efficiency and bringing down the carbon intensity in mobility space.
So the second point I would make is the penetration level of personal mobility, especially in India, is quite low today when you compare to middle-income and developed markets, right? So the headroom for growth on motorcycles and cars remains very robust, and we can see that in terms of the growth that you see in new vehicle sales registered last year. So there are about 4.5 million cars being sold in the country, and there's another 18-20 million two-wheelers being sold in the country. The contribution of pure EVs within that today is still small, okay? But the contribution of multi-fuel or alternate fuel vehicles, CNG, LPG, LNG, all of that is growing. All of them, along with hybrids, require lubricants. And we have products, in fact, for hybrids. We have a new range of products called Hysol, and all of those are available.
But estimated in the medium term, in India, hybrids and ICE will remain the backbone of the market. And as and when EVs do scale up, we have perhaps all leading OEMs in two-wheelers and in cars, and we will cater to that demand too. I hope that answers your question.
Yeah. But partially, sir. So does the EV also.
Mr. Pandey, I'm sorry to interrupt you. There is a lot of background noise at your end, sir. I would request you to move to a quieter place and also please use your handset to ask questions so that we have more clarity on your questions. Thank you. You may please proceed.
Is it okay now?
Yes, sir. Much better. Please continue.
Yeah. So I wanted to check. So does the EV also require the requirement of lubricant sales? EVs should be lower than the requirements of lubricants in ICE and hybrids. Is this understanding correct?
On a per-unit basis, an EV is likely to require a lesser number of liters of product. The application of lubricants, the application of fluids in EVs can be in two places, and it's evolving. There are certain batteries that require immersion coolant technology where the coolant enables faster charge and better discharge rate for the batteries and therefore prolonged life of the battery, and that is a high-value product. And there are certain cases where the EV transmission fluids have dielectric coolants in that whereby it cools the motor, the transmission. At the same time, it removes heat but does not conduct electricity. So the application or use cases change, and these are differentiated products, and therefore not something which we can compare clearly with the lubricants that are going into ICE engines.
Okay. Okay. So if I consider as 2030, so how do you see our product mix changing between autos and industrials? And within autos, the hybrid, ICE, and EVs, if I just comment on that, that will be pretty helpful.
So is your question up to 2030, the contribution change between automotive and industrial, and within automotive, the contribution change? Is that your question?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. So today, predominantly, our business has been automotive, but we have informed all our investors a couple of years back that we want to scale up in industrial, and the industrial business has delivered double-digit volume growth. Our core business has delivered high single-digit growth. I anticipate that profile of growth from the industrial segment will continue, okay? So therefore, over time, going up to 2030, which is just about 4 years away, the contribution of the industrial business on the volume side is going to be higher than what it was and what it is in 2020, what it was in 2025. Within the core lubricants business, we see growth coming through in all three. That is a commercial vehicle, cars, and bikes. Different parts of the country are growing differentially.
So our two-wheeler business, motorcycle business, is growing very strongly driven by our reach into rural India where, based on media reports, you will see that anywhere between one in two or one in three new two-wheelers are being sold in rural India. And that's why we have invested heavily in terms of increasing our distribution in rural India in the last few years. That is bearing results. We anticipate that will continue, and that's what is going to drive our motorcycle category growth where we are the market leaders with a brand called Castrol Activ. In cars, it's a big city play. Again, we are leading in the market with a brand called MAGNATEC and GTX. We anticipate that is going to grow faster in terms of percentage growth compared to two-wheelers just because the penetration level of cars is quite low.
In the core commercial vehicle business, resilient, low single-digit growth, which is linked to growth of freight, there, we anticipate the business to move beyond the diesel, as I mentioned earlier, the multi-fuel vehicles going in the market. So we'll have products which can be used or which are used in powertrains that use CNG in commercial vehicles. We also have products that are used for last-mile mobility, your sub-1-ton delivery vehicles that you see in cities. That will contribute to the growth in commercial vehicles, but those are going to grow at low single-digit.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir, and all the best for.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhaval Popat from Choice International Limited. Please go ahead.
Congratulations on the results, and thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. My question is on base oil. So I see a recent announcement where there has been partnership with HPCL, and it has been trying to revive the used engine oil for base oil. So I understand 50%-55% of base oil is currently imported. And so can this percentage go down going forward, and how much incremental base oil can be procured from this partnership? My question is primarily to do with your gross profits. The more you get it domestically, the lower the impact of FX and higher the profits. So how do you see your base oil being procured locally? That's my first question.
Maybe, Dhaval, let me take that. Firstly, back, I remember speaking with you last time as well. So you are right. We do import about slightly more than half of our base oil is imported, and the rest is bought locally. And that is a trend I believe we would like to continue because as we buy locally, we save a little bit on freight, and it's better cost for us. It's also better response, like the lower inventory, lower lead time. So it's the right strategy. That being said, I heard your online question within that was, "Does it really protect us from the foreign exchange fluctuations?" There, incidentally, it doesn't because end of day, base oil is a commodity, and it is really back to the dollar price. That is a globally tracked metric.
So while we save a little bit on cost, what we don't really protect ourselves is on foreign exchange fluctuation, which is why our discipline on cost saving, on pricing, and on hedging is very important, and we continue to focus on those strategies. Did you have any other questions, Dhaval, related to this? The HPCL MOU. So let me hand over to Saugata, and we can talk about that.
Yeah. I think on the HPCL piece, Dhaval, that is an MOU that we have signed with HPCL to explore. There are two companies coming together to explore what we can do to help develop a base oil RRBO ecosystem in India. So one of the big challenges that we have determined, which is coming in the way of a very vibrant RRBO ecosystem in India, is the challenge on last-mile collection. And given the reach of Castrol and HPCL in different segments, we are exploring what could be ways of working together to try and get that going. And that in itself should then help at some stage to develop a wide RRBO industry in India. So that's at a very early stage of scoping out.
Okay. That helps. I understand you domestically procure base oil from PSUs, and IOC are coming up with more refineries or more output of base oils. Is there already some contracts in place? Are you guys already talking to them regarding procuring domestically, or can you shed some color on that?
Yes. So as you rightly picked up, we source base oil domestically from the PSUs, and there is a new base oil plant that IOC has commissioned with Group 3. So we are in conversation with them. And as and when that scales up and as requirements creep up, we always look at what is the most efficient way to source our base oils. And we are quite agile and tactical in terms of making choices as and when opportunities open up to bring efficiency.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much for your questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question, thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Mandar A. from Invesco. Please go ahead.
Hello?
Ma'am, your voice is not clear. No, ma'am, your voice is not clear.
Can you hear me now?
Yes.
Thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. Could you please share the current revenue mix between B2B and B2C segments? Additionally, what is the product mix breakdown within automotive segments, specifically on PCMO and MCO category?
Let me give it a short, Mandera. The industry is still heavily retail-focused. So I would say almost out of my automotive sales, 65%-70% still is in the retail segment. Balance would be, let's say, in franchisee workshops, etc. I think your second part of the question was about industrial versus automotive. Is that correct?
Yes.
Yeah. I think Saugata alluded to this earlier. Automotive is a big part of our business today. Industrial is still relatively small at about 12%-13% but growing very fast, and we expect that share to go up.
Okay. What was the advertisement and promotion spend as a percentage of revenue for most recent quarter?
You'll see these in our published financial results. We maintain it actually at a healthy 2%-3%. In financial year 2025, we approached at a 3% of revenue into advertising and sales promotion.
Great. In the recent commentary, you mentioned continuing to strengthen the relationship with key OEMs. So which new automotive OEM have you tied up with?
So we continue to work with the largest OEMs in the country, which is again in the public domain. We work with the Tatas, both commercial vehicle and passenger cars. We've been one of the early partners of Maruti Suzuki when it commenced operation in the country. We work with two-wheeler OEMs as well as with some of the EVs, which we talked about, so Tata Passenger Electric Car and like. So the point that we made on the announcement, we continue to invest in strengthening that relationship. For example, on the off-road side, we work with JCB, and we develop products which specifically meet their requirement, and that is what we have invested in. So those are the relationships that we continue to nurture.
We also made an announcement a few months back that we had signed an MOU with VinFast as they enter the country and help them meet their requirement for after-sales service for their EV cars.
Got it, sir. Thank you. That was really helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah from Sumangal Investments. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I was disconnected from the call for five to 10 minutes, so I don't know whether my question has been answered or not. Can you give the split between automotive and industrial, and within automotive, what is the subsegments like two-wheeler, four-wheeler, and commercial vehicles?
Mr. Vipul, good afternoon. Indeed, your question was picked up just before this by Lini So I'll reiterate what I'd said earlier. Our automotive business is the largest part of our portfolio historically and remains so. Industry is around 10%-12%, growing faster than automotive. So automotive is going in high single-digit. Industry is going in double-digit. So the ratios will change. Within automotive, we have a pretty diversified business. So we have a sizable commercial vehicle business which goes into trucks and agri. We have a market-leading position in motorcycles with Castrol Activ. We're the largest operators in that segment. And we have also got a market-leading position in cars. And therefore, across all three, we are material players, and that contributes to a very diversified and resilient business in automotive.
What is your overall market share and how it has moved over, say, last two years?
Market share has gone up in the automotive side. If you look at Nielsen, which is a third-party provider of market share, in the automotive space, our market share has gone up by 50 basis points at the end of the year, and it is in the early 20s. This is at an overall automotive level covering commercial vehicle, cars, and two-wheelers.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harsh, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hello, ma'am. Audible?
Yes, sir. Please proceed.
Yes, you are. Okay. Thank you for taking my question. So I just wanted to understand something. So we get a volume-based discount December quarter from our parent, right, for the volumes that we sell?
Sorry. What was the question? Could you repeat that again?
Hello?
Mr. Harsh, I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir. May I request you to use your handset, please, if you're connected on your headphones? Please remove that and use your handset, please.
Hello?
Yes.
Yeah. Is this better?
Much better. Please continue.
Okay. So yeah, I was asking, we get a volume-based discount for the volume that we sell from our parent in the December quarter, right?
We get volume-based discount from our suppliers of base oil, and those are some of those contracts are global. So it comes from the suppliers.
Okay. And it's in December quarter. So did we get that in this quarter? And I just wanted to understand because usually, we see a margin hike in the December quarter, whereas this quarter I just wanted to understand what happened. Did the Forex eat that hike that we get?
Maybe let me take that, Harsh. I, in fact, alluded to this earlier in the commentary as well. I'll just answer this question from an EBITDA standpoint. Average for the year, I close at about 24% EBITDA, whereas if you see Q4 margins were healthier at 26%, and that's actually the primary reason for the quarter four EBITDA margins being high. And you will see this as a trend in every year because indeed, these base oil rebates come to us at the end of the calendar year.
Okay. Fair enough. And my other question was, when do we take our annual price hikes, and what sort of price hikes can we expect in the next year?
So we look at the market. We benchmark ourselves to our key competitors, and we have a certain price range within which we operate. At the same time, we are very mindful of the cost inflation, currency movements. So as and when there are opportunities where we see we're bringing new innovations in the market or we see the cost inflation going beyond the range that we operate in, we take pricing action then. And that's what we have done. That is the approach we have taken for the last several years, and we'll continue to remain in that way.
Okay. So it's not a fixed-time thing. It's as and when we see something pop up, we stop recording. Okay. Okay. Okay. Fine. Thank you.
Yes. It's not a fixed time.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants that you may please press star and one to ask questions at this time. The next question is from the line of Kesha from Kotak. Please go ahead.
Hi. I just had one question. What is the reason for more than 200 basis points decline in EBITDA margin? So last year, if I can see, the EBITDA margin was closer to 27.8% in 4Q, and this year, it is somewhere around 25.5%. So what's the reason for that?
Let me take that, Kesha. Thank you for the question. Indeed, you have spotted the trend, right? It is on a percentage margin basis. It is lower versus same quarter last year. And I think the reasons are a few of the factors that we've discussed in the call. For example, structurally, we know that we are growing faster in the industrial business versus the automotive business, and that will have a certain play on the margin. Secondly, because I'm sure you're also very well aware, the foreign exchange exposure to dollar, to dollar euro has been very, very steep in the fourth quarter. So from a macroeconomic lens standpoint, we did have an input cost inflation. And like Saugata just said, we don't take knee-jerk reactions. So we have a structured intervention in play to address such macroeconomic trends.
Those structured interventions take some time to hit the market. Hence, Q4 saw a little bit of dilution behind those macroeconomic trends as well. Then so overall, nonetheless, like I just shared with the previous question also, we landed at 26% as an EBITDA margin, which is still beyond our guidance of 21%-24%. So I think we are still in a very healthy zone.
That's great. Thank you so much, ma'am. That was helpful.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Viraj Jyotish Mithani from Jupiter Financials. Please go ahead.
Hi. My question is about the coolants in data centers. Can you give some color on that?
I'm sorry, sir. Your audio is not clear. Mr. Mithani, your audio is not clear, sir.
Is it clear now?
Please proceed. Yes, sir. Please proceed.
My question is regarding the coolant season. Now is it clear and audible now?
Sir, I hope you're using your handset.
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Please continue.
My question is regarding the coolant using data centers, which we talked about. Can you give some color on that, where it will be used, and what kind of?
I'm sorry, sir. There is a lot of disturbance in your audio. We can't hear you clearly.
Hello?
No, sir. Your audio is not clear.
Is it okay?
I have a request to no, sir. We can't hear you. There is a lot of static on the line.
One sec. I just hold on for a second.
Sorry.
Is it clear now? Hello?
Sir, please try. I'll let you know.
It's a bit better. Yeah. It's a bit better. Please try asking a question again. We'll see if we can catch it.
Yeah. My question is regarding data centers, the coolant using data centers. Can you give some color on that, when this business will be starting, and what kind of growth we anticipate in this?
I think the growth percentage is not the main criteria because the business is very small today. So it will rapidly grow on a very small base. When will it become material? It's a bit difficult to project at an early stage because the data centers that evolve in India are still at an early stage of execution. So we'll have to see how that space evolves into data centers being established. And then there is also a technology change that is happening. The early data centers are being cooled conventionally with air conditioning. The new data centers in search of efficiency and scale are looking for immersion coolant where they dip the servers inside fluids, immersion coolant fluids, as we call them, which are dielectric. And that is where these products are sold.
So there is one element, which is to understand how far the new data centers are executed and put on the ground. The second bit is to understand how many of them and how quickly are they and helps people scale up and run data centers efficiently. We'll need a bit more time to quantify, to understand how big that opportunity could be.
I think it's good. [Foreign language].
Could be. Could be. Could be sooner than that too.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jay Shah, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello?
Yes. Please proceed.
Hello. Sir, in previous phone calls, we have mentioned about the pilot study being done with the data center players for the liquid cooling technology. Can you give any further update on the same?
Yes. I can tell you that there are those pilots that are happening in India. Our global technology center of developing data center fluids is in the U.K., and we have a team which is looking into it, and they're working with certain large hyperscalers in India to develop that. We also have a tech center in India in Patalganga, which further optimizes some of these products to make them suitable for use in India. And we continue to work with some of the people who have announced data center projects for India. So those pilots are still on.
Would it be possible for you to name them, and when can we expect the commercialization of the same?
Well, you can understand, I can't name them. It is their business, so that won't be appropriate for us. All I can say is that we are working very closely on the tech front to help them solve for removing heat, which enables them to operate data centers more efficiently. And that is where our technology comes into play, both the global technology center in the U.K. as well as the work that our technologists in Patalganga, which is near Mumbai, do to optimize the products for Indian environmental conditions. So as and when some of those arrangements close and those data centers are scaled up, we would make the necessary disclosures and announcements.
All right, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are at time. This brings us to the end of the call. On behalf of Castrol India Limited, thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Wish you a good day ahead. Thank you.