Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Schaeffler India Q4 CY 2025 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Gauri Kanitkar. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you. Welcome to Schaeffler India Limited's Earnings Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter and 12 months ended December 30th, 2025. We have with us from the management today, our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Harsha Kadam, and our Director of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Hardevi Vazirani. Mr. Kadam will first take us through a short presentation on the results, after which we will open the floor for questions. Thank you. Over to you, Mr. Kadam.
Thank you, Gauri. Good morning to all of you. A warm welcome to this earnings call. I have with me my CFO, Ms. Hardevi Vazirani, as well.
Hello.
Let me straightaway get into the flow. Let me take you through the brief presentation that has already been uploaded. I draw your attention to Slide 2, and I always begin my presentation with some success stories, and success coming from the customer speaks high about the good work that we as an organization, as a motion technology company, have been striving to do over the years. Now, that said, I am on Slide 2, and in the quarter Q4, 2025, as you can see, we have been awarded few awards. Three coming predominantly from the customers, one from each of the business divisions that we play in, and two of the awards coming for our CSR effort that we undertake as well. Let me start with the first award coming from Voith.
We were awarded from our industrial customer, Voith, for the best performance and continuous commitment to excellence. Fundamentally coming on the back of zero quality complaints in the last 12 months. This has been a commendable win, particularly based on the fact that we started business with Voith a couple of years back, and our commitment to deliver the best quality products remains on top, and we have lived up to the expectations of the customer.
The second award I would draw your attention to is from Eicher Motors. Here again, this is awarded in the aftermarket space, fundamentally because of our outstanding contribution in supply chain transformation, wherein we have made investments to ensure on-time deliveries to our customer there. This too has been recognized for our performance in the quarter for the entire year, 2025. The third award is from our esteemed customer, Mahindra & Mahindra, again here. This again is coming for on-time deliveries for the engine systems, which we have consistently maintained month after month. We were recognized for this as well. Moving on, you know, we were awarded in our corporate social responsibility initiative. Doing Good for Bharat Awards, which was held at South Asia's largest CSR and ESG summit in New Delhi.
Now, this event focused predominantly on women and inclusion, employability and livelihood, which highlights impactful projects driving social change. Our project, Women's Skill Development and Nisarg, which was showcased on the 10th of October, 2025, reinforcing our commitment to empowering women and also fostering inclusive growth. The last award that I wanted to share with you, has been a consistent winner for us, our water conservation project, the Jal Samruddhi, won another award under the Beyond the Fence category, and this was at New Delhi again. Fundamentally, this is about water absorption trenches, the recharge ponds, the drainage line deepening, and the check dams that we have invested in building in an arid region. Also couple that with solar powered pumps, with drip irrigation systems, that we have been able to consistently invest over the years.
Which has eventually enhanced water harvesting capacity of almost up to a height of 1.04 meters above the groundwater levels. This has impacted almost 2,500 people in the village around, and we are very proud of this corporate social responsibility projects that we remain committed to and we remain focused on. On that good note, let me now move to throw some light on the economy, and I move to Slide 4. As you can see from the GDP growth in India's momentum reflects a combination of domestic demand resilience, structural reform continuity, and a clear growing role in the global supply chain.
Now, obviously, it goes without saying that a combination of the policy rate cuts, the regulatory relaxation for the banks, and to some extent, even the weaker exchange rates, they all eased the financial conditions in India. Not to mention, of course, the softening of the income tax and the Goods and Services Tax cuts supported a kind of nascent recovery in our urban consumption. While the rural consumption recovery was also sustained. What is important to note is the inflation, which was significantly lower in 2025, and as you can see in the chart down below, the overall average for last year, 2025, the inflation has been averaging around 2.2%. Especially in Q4, as you can see, has recorded the lowest inflation ever at 0.8.
However, the core inflation on higher precious metals inflation, mainly on gold and silver, still remains high. The real private consumption showed a recovery as such, and overall, you find that has been a very substantial sound fundamentals within the Indian economy. When you look at the index of industrial production too, you do see that in the quarter, there has been a further appreciation to an extent of 5 percentage point over the preceding quarter, which used to be at 3.8. One of the hallmarks for last year, and that was specifically for Q4 last year, has been the GST 2.0 reform, which has been a big boost for the industry. The government's push for GST 2.0 reform, which is a landmark step towards simplifying compliance as well as fueling economic growth.
Particularly, what this meant for the automobile sector, obviously, streamlined tax structures, you know, lower cascading costs in manufacturing and even after sales, and obviously, resulting in an increased affordability of, for the vehicle consumer. That said, overall, the automotive production in the production growth in the quarter has been pretty strong comparatively, which began to see a strong uptick. Talk about the consumer price index too. The food inflation moderated, the core inflation stayed soft, energy prices remains stable. Overall, all the indicators for a very sound growth in GDP for the country. I would like to throw some light on the core sector performance, and to that, I ask you to look at Slide 5.
Now, what you see here is the specific industrial sectors, and as you can see, month after month, compared to the preceding years, every sector has posted pretty strong improvement and strong productivity growth as well. Cement production has been very strong, which contributes to 5.4% to the economy, as you can see, has grown 10% overall. Steel production, close to 9% overall. Mining and coal has been muted a bit, but still in the positive range. Energy, which is clearly an indicator of the production and the manufacturing activity in the country, also has remained more or less stable, has not seen any decline, so to say. All said and done, has been pretty strong on the industrial sector.
If I were to move now a little more specific on the automotive sector to slide number 6, what you get to see is all the sectors have grown strongly, obviously, riding on the back of the, you know, the GST 2.0 reforms that I earlier referred to. If you look at the two-wheelers, as you can see in the quarter, we had a strong growth month after month, compared to the previous years, and growing at a average of 8.6% at the annual level. Passenger vehicles, again, at 8%, strong growth. Commercial vehicles, too, which was sluggish last year, has come back and has posted about 8.4% growth there again. Tractors, again, a very strong growth at 17.2%, as you can see.
All in all, the biggest beneficiary of the GST 2.0 reforms, clearly is a good indicator of strong rebound in the automotive sector performance. If one were to look at the production numbers that have been registered, you know, passenger vehicles, almost, even the export markets have posted a strong growth. While the production numbers grew at 8%, the export numbers or export sales went up to 16% in passenger vehicles. Look at the commercial vehicles. There again, it was a hoping 58% improvement for the entire year, January to December, in the export market for commercial vehicles. Talk about two-wheelers again, there we have seen a 24% increase in exports for the full year compared to the last year. All in all.
Very strong performance on the domestic sales at single digit, 8%, 9%, on the export side, definitely double-digit growth. All attributing, this is something that as Schaeffler India, we were able to leverage the growth in a very efficient and agile manner, which the numbers, as I move to the next slide, will tell you. I move on to Slide 8, wherein I want to throw light on the quarter four performance. As you can see here, the revenue, we closed the quarter at INR 2,643 crores, which was a clear 26.9% better than Q4 2024, and also a 12% increase over the preceding quarter, Q3 2025.
This volume growth also resulted in a strong EBITDA, as you can see, bringing in INR 505.6 million, and resulting in an EBITDA margin of... I don't see that now. Okay. Which is a clear increase of 19.1% over the Q4 of 2025, and the preceding quarter, an increase of 20%. Strong bottom line performance as well, which ultimately resulted in a profit after tax of INR 328 crores in the quarter.
One of the highlights has been the strong focus on free cash flow generation, which, as you can see, we have been able to bring in INR 254 crores into the kitty, and this has helped us to also shore up all the spending and the expenses that had to be, you know, aligned with and decided in this quarter, which I think I'll share in the subsequent slide. On this back has been a pretty sound and good financial performance of the organization in the quarter Q4. Q4 has been one of the highest performances in the last four quarters for the entire year. While the market did enable our growth story, however, it's also I would like to attribute that a continuous preparedness in terms of acquiring new businesses also contributed equally strongly to the growth story.
I draw your attention to Slide 9, where our sustained business development activity in terms of new business wins, whether it is in the automotive technology space, we did have some good wins again on passenger vehicle clutches and the dual mass flywheels. We had new business wins in the hydraulic camshaft phasers as well, and we also had some clutch win businesses in the light vehicle category as well. Even on the vehicle lifetime solutions, we had some strong wins on the Front End Auxiliary Drive mechanisms, the timing kits for the passenger vehicles. We continued our focus in adding more products to the portfolio as more and more Bharat Stage vehicles started to come back for repairs.
Lastly, on the bearings and industrial solutions, too, we did have significant business wins, particularly in the product lines of ball bearings, needle roller bearings in the two-wheeler sector, and quite a lot in the needle bearings as well, and some of the industrial applications on the sphericals, the four row and the two rows, cylindrical roller bearings and the tapered roller bearings, specifically in the cement and the steel sectors as such. This has been our endeavor continuously to ensure that we have pipeline of business wins coming, so that we are ever prepared to capitalize as the market begins to, you know, the demand begins to show more traction. With that, I now move to the third part of the agenda, which is the financial highlights, and I draw your attention to Slide 11, revenue from operations.
As you can see, and as I mentioned earlier, when you look at the top chart and you look at the 2025 bars, you will find that quarter-on-quarter, we have been able to demonstrate a sustained growth, and the last quarter, Q4, has been a significant increase, as you can see, in terms of the revenue. At an annualized level, we have closed the year with INR 9,395 crores as turnover. Well, if one were to look at the Q4, the quarter-on-quarter growth has been 12%, and the year-on-year growth of 26.9%. Very strong top-line growth that we have demonstrated. Where is this coming from?
If you look at the table, at the bridge below, you will find that the automotive brought into the system for the quarter, INR 270 crores, aftermarket, too, contributing INR 43 crores, bearings and industrial solution also bringing in INR 120 crores. Our export business also did bounce back very strongly in the last quarter, and that came in at about INR 128 crores. All in all, helping us to close the quarter with INR 2,643 crores for Q4, which is a clear 12% better than the preceding quarter and a 26.9% better than the same period compared to last year. That said, obviously, our mix, how is that looking now?
As you can see, we still continue to sustain a pretty balanced mix of automotive OEM business and our bearings and industrial business at 35% and 39% respectively. The aftermarket, too, has performed much better and registered 11% share of the total sales mix, with our exports sustained at 15%, which is exactly in line with our plan as such. That said, I move to the earnings quality slide, which is on Slide 1 2. Here what you see is the EBITDA performance for the quarter, once again demonstrating that every quarter-on-quarter, we have been able to increase our EBITDA numbers.
As you can see, while at an annualized level, we were able to deliver 19.6%, what you see is a quarter on 6.2% better than the preceding quarter, bringing in INR 505 crores into the kitty. The bridge clearly explains as to where did this come from, and obviously, the gross margin contributed with the blend of mix and volume effect that is coming in. We did have some expenses related to employee costs and some of the other income and expenses that were there. All in all, a strong bottom line performance, and this has resulted in a strong profit after tax, which is clearly visible in the third bar chart that you see down there.
I would also wish to point out that there were some special or exceptional expenses that were coming in, and we have ensured that the impact has been absorbed. Impact coming due to regulatory changes on the labor code, which was attributing almost 0.8% for the quarter, and which we have already absorbed that in the results that you see. With that, in spite of the absorptions, we have been able to post a strong profit after tax, as you can see, at 12.4%, compared to the 12% of the preceding year, Q4 of last year. I now move to the working capital and the CapEx spend on Slide 13. Here again, our commitment to continue to invest in our CapEx, the journey continues.
While it may look that we are spending lower CapEx than what is, what was spent last year, yes, that's because we have now started to leverage and ensure the sweating of the assets that we have already invested in last year. We have judiciously started to adjust our investments in line with the demand and in line with the capacity that we have already installed. As a percentage to sales, we continue to operate at about 4% of sales in the last quarter, as you can see.
We did have some good control on the working capital management, and in the quarter, we were able to manage and get the working capital as a percentage to sales down to 17.9% in Q4, which is definitely much better than the 19%, which we were there for the same period last year, or even on the preceding quarter, which was at close to 19% again. That said, I did talk about the strongest performance also has been on free cash flow generation, and as you can see, the year-on-year change in the quarter, 56% improvement in the quarter itself, has been a clear demonstration of the effort, sustained effort of the entire team to ensure that we bring in the cash to run the operations in a smooth and an efficient manner.
With that, I move to Slide 14, which talks about the key performance indicators. I did already talk about the revenue in the quarter coming in and at an annualized level, closing the year with INR 9,395 crore, which is a clear growth of 16.3% over the previous year. EBITDA at 19.6%, which definitely is better than the 18.5% that we delivered last year, resulting in an EBIT margin of 16.1%, again, better than the previous year's 15.2%. Profit after tax at 12.7%, which is better than the 12.1% last year. Obviously, the free cash flow has been strong as well, comparatively in this 12-month period, as you can see.
I move to Slide 15, which gives you the consolidated picture of our own subsidiary as well, the KRSV Innovative Auto Solutions Private Limited. KRSV, or Koovers, as we call it, also have been able to generate a revenue of INR 81.5 crores in the quarter. Although we still have some way to go in the bottom line performance, all I can say is that the performance of Koovers or KRSV is exactly in line with our plan. At a consolidated level for the Q4, the revenue stands at INR 2,724 crores, with an EBITDA of 18.4% consolidated, resulting in an EBIT before exceptional items at 15%. With that, I now move to another important subject, which is the dividend payout on Slide 16.
Yesterday, we concluded the board meeting. The board of directors have approved and recommended and approved 35 INR dividend per share payout, which is well within our targeted dividend payout ratio, which we try and keep it between 30%-50% of the net income. I'm happy to say that this has been finally approved per equity share of 35 INR. This is something now that will result in the execution of it going forward as well. With that, I also want to draw your attention to another milestone that we crossed on slide number 17.
I must say that we are extremely proud that we have been now evaluated by S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Index Score, and we came out with flying colors, and Schaeffler India Limited has been ranked first in India. Incidentally, Schaeffler India has been ranked seventh globally as well. This, to us, is a very important step, clearly demonstrating our focus on our sustainability focus and the ESG targets that we have set for ourselves. Post the evaluation, the overall CSA score stood at 76 out of 100, which was a clear 40 point increase from the earlier evaluation that we did. Clearly, this is very motivating for us.
Looking at all the three areas of environment, social, as well as governance, we are happy to see that we have continued to establish strong credentials and build the confidence in the stakeholder community, and we will continue to work on whatever little gaps do exist. We have clearly identified action plans to that effect, and we will continue to work towards that. I move to Slide 18 to summarize. We continue with our clear double-digit growth momentum, which we have delivered every quarter, and we have sustained that on a much stronger footing in the Q4. As a result of which, the volume growth, our earnings quality also has improved with managing our capital efficiency very well.
Clear focus on our localization, which we continue to march ahead, and we have managed in the quarter to take up the localization percentage as well. CapEx, as I already mentioned, that we continue to keep the focus and watch the market development and accordingly keep adjusting our sales when it comes to CapEx, as well as leverage the already installed capacities that we have put in our plants. I'm happy to say that the last quarter, the capacity utilization in our plants have been pretty robust, and we had all the plants running well above 85% capacity utilizations. On this note, positive traction in the marketplace, sound footing, the fundamentals being strong, our focus clearly on growth, pipeline generation, and managing the cost elements within our operations.
We enter 2026, we look forward to a sustained growth and continue to deliver the strong results that we have, much to the expectations of all our stakeholders. Thank you very much. I hand over the call now to Gauri Kanitkar.
We can now begin the question and answer session, please.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants, you are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have the first question from the line of Mukesh Saraf from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir, good morning, and thank you for the opportunity. I'll just get the bookkeeping question out of the way first. On the other expenses, this quarter, we've seen that rise to about INR 400 crore. Is there any lumpy item that you'd want to call out within that?
Okay.
Yeah. Just give me a minute.
Yeah, sure.
The description?
It's for the quarter, that means quarter vis-a-vis quarter.
Yeah.
Quarter vis-a-vis quarter, we have other expenses in total increasing by INR 72 crores.
Right.
Within this INR 72 crores, we have certain services and true up of costs.
Okay.
For the previous quarters were received in Q4.
Okay. Okay. Okay. There's no one-off as such, it's just a timing of certain costs that are bunching up this quarter?
Absolutely.
Got it. Now on the business itself, we've kind of seen that there's a large plant of the competitor on SRB, CRBs for the industrial segment now beginning operations. I mean, have you started seeing any increase in competitive intensity, say, for segments like iron and steel, cement, et cetera, on the SRB, CRB bearings, given localization has increased within the industry? Anything that you could highlight there?
Yeah, Mukesh, rightfully, our strategy is very clear. We keep increasing our localization content. I think, last quarter.
Mm-hmm.
We reached 78%. Correct? Localization.
Yes.
It was at 78%. clearly-
Right
... we will continue on this journey to continue to localize. Predominantly our focus is on the spherical roller bearings, where we see a lot more potential to continue with localization.
Okay.
To the other part of your question, is there, you know, increased activity in terms of competition? Well, competition always exists in the market. We acknowledge the presence of the competition. However, our focus remains on carrying our own growth strategy. We'll continue to do that.
Got it. Got it. Secondly, your automotive technologies growth is quite strong. I think in the past you have kind of mentioned that you have decent supplies for strong hybrids. Have you started seeing any benefits? Because I think we've seen one launch, one mass market launch on the hybrid side from a large OEM, and we also noticed that a lot of the other OEMs are talking about a lot more hybrids, say, in the next, say, coming year or so. One is, have you already started seeing some benefit? Secondly, are you seeing significant increase in activity levels with respect to hybrid powertrains?
Let me treat that. There are two parts to that question. One, yes, we are, already have a business in on the hybrids, which we have started the series production as well as supplies from our Indian plant.
Mm-hmm.
Certainly there are a few more projects in the hybrid space with some of our esteemed customers that we are working with. Correct. They have to go through the homologation and the validation process, which is work in progress. I'm sure we will sustain that as well. Regarding, is there an increased, you know, interest from our OEM customers?
Yes
we will have to wait and watch, because, yes, hybrids, too, has become very attractive for our OEM customers. While the battery electric vehicles also have seen an upswing, we are also seeing attraction on the hybrid technology. I think we believe that both these will coexist forward as well.
Right. The CPV, the content for us is higher in hybrids vis-a-vis ICEs?
Yeah, obviously, because the hybrid technology, what we deliver is at a module and a subsystem level.
Okay
value of which is definitely much higher. Which obviously
Sure
content per vehicle. That's number 1. Number 2, the hybrid product or solution that we offer is an add-on to the IC engine technology, it kind of obviously increases.
Sure
our content per vehicle.
Great. Thank you for this. I'll get back with you.
Yeah.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Abhishek Ghosh from DSP Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sure. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, in terms of Vitesco, if you can just help us understand where are we in terms of the integration? Are the benefits of that already accruing in terms of the new wins that you spoke about?
Can you come closer to the mic?
Yeah. Your position was not so audible. Please, if you can repeat that.
Is it better now? Is it better?
Yeah, that's better.
Yeah. My question was around Vitesco. Where are we in that journey in terms of the integration of the operations? Are we already seeing some benefits of coming through in terms of new wins or the margin profile? Just your thoughts on the Vitesco integration. Thanks.
As we already have concluded the merger of Vitesco in front of the customer, there is only one brand that is represented, and that is Schaeffler. Regarding your question as to whether we have new business wins, of course, we do have new business wins. We have a lot of business wins in the BMS or the Battery Management System, as we call it, particularly in the battery electric vehicle space with a couple of our OEMs. I think our designs have been approved, and that's something we foresee. Surely, there's a lot of offerings since it's in the electronic and in the hardware space, coupled with the software that we give. I think we are seeing very good response, and we believe that we can definitely leverage the offering going forward.
We have started to consolidate and grow our offerings with many other OEMs as well. Surely, Vitesco portfolio is very complementary to our, you know, mechanical product offerings that we have been giving all these years. We now are on a stronger footing to give a much higher value add to our own customers. We see that already represented in the new business wins, like the BMS that I talked to you about.
Okay, sir, that's helpful. Just in terms of the exports, we have seen very strong growth coming in there as well. Is it base catching up? Is it again, you know, or from a particular region, are you seeing good demand from wind or any particular segment which is driving, if you can help us with that, sir?
I mean, so far as our exports is concerned, the numbers that we report does not have wind in it. Our sales to the wind customers is in our domestic sales, who onwards export their products. If we talk only about our own exports, we have seen the growth coming from all the regions, mainly from Europe and Asia Pacific.
There are two parts that Abhishek was asking. One is our own exports to our sister concerns across the globe. Wind, since you touched upon, our own wind business has grown quite significant. At an annualized level, we have already grown at 17%-18% over the last year, comparatively. Even in the quarter, while the quarter was a little lower compared, you know, Q4 over the same period last year was just about 4% growth, Q4 over Q3 was still a 15% double-digit growth that we have registered. A strong performance in the quarter from our wind business. As Aditi was already explaining, we don't bracket or categorize the wind sector business under exports. Our customers would be exporting those equipments, that we don't treat as export for us, it's a domestic sale.
Got that, sir. Sir, one last thing is, you called out your utilizations are north of 80%. You are, you know, continuing to grow at a much higher pace. You also, you know, largely in the CY 2025, you have moderated your CapEx. How should we look at your CapEx from a 2-3-year perspective, given that your parent has also, you know, rolled out a 5-year strategy for you all? In this light, sir, how should we look at it? Will growth get compromised at any point in time because of capacity constraint? Your pace of growth is far higher than the underlying industry. That was the last question. Thanks.
I will explain your question in two parts. Yes, our capacity utilization is over 85%. The plants continuously work on improvement of productivity and OEE through some small measures, so they can still absorb much better capacity utilization. The second part is, yes, we had moderated our CapEx in the year 2025 deliberately, because we wanted to focus on utilization and capital efficiency. Talking about 2026, we will be stepping up again to the average of previous three years levels, over INR 500 crores to begin with, in 2026. The numbers which were announced by Mr. Rosenfeld, our group CEO, are for the period of 2026 to 2030, and beginning 2026, you will see the CapEx scaling up.
Also, if I may add, Abhishek, if you look at our performance, we have strived to always deliver a double-digit growth rate. Clearly on a midterm frame, as Aditi pointed out, we want to sustain a double-digit growth rate. If we have to do that, obviously, it goes without saying, commensurate with the growth rates, we'll have to continue our capacity investments as well. We will continue to do that. What we want to do is also look at the market dynamics and bringing the appropriate products into India for localization, not do some things in a hurry, and then we realize that the market has changed. It's important that we align our capacity investments in line with the future product demands that are very spec specific to India needs.
Hence, we would moderate at times, however, we might even accelerate at times. You will see this happening.
Great, sir. Thank you so much for answering my questions. Wish you all the best. I'll come back and thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Mahesh Bendre from LIC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I have one question. Sir, India and the European Union is expected to sign a trade agreement shortly, detailed one. Will there be any benefit come on our way?
Yeah, surely there will be benefits coming our way, specifically when we talk about import of raw materials and components or child parts, there we expect. However, the further details of FTA are not announced.
Okay.
Currently, we are paying duty in the range of 7.5%-15% on import of raw material, but the new rates have not been announced as yet. Talking about import of finished goods, yes, as a group, we will be benefited, but even the rates have not been announced. On exports to Europe, the import duty is already in the range of 0%-2%, there we do not see any major benefit or change.
I think it's pertinent, Mahesh, to also factor that, you know, some of the component level imports that we do is because we do not have suppliers locally. While we have strived to localize the development of these components as well, now with the FTA getting signed, obviously it is important for us to revisit those strategies as well. If it is now competitive to continue to import the components, should we go for localization? That is something we will definitely take cognizance of.
Sure. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Bala Subramanian from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. Good morning, madam. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Congratulations for good set of numbers. My first question, you mentioned the wind business growth rate 70%-80%, but if you look at last quarter, some sluggishness because of timing differences in project-based sectors like wind and railways. I'm trying to understand the Q4 improvement. It's simply the realization of those delayed projects, and we could give some updates on the railway side. It's only because of the wind, or we have seen improvement on the railway side also?
Mr. Bala Subramaniam, you have asked many questions. If we look at all the sectors that we operate in and do business in, you know, some of the sectors also have a business cycle. They are dependent, time dependent as well. In the fourth quarter of last year, for us, the railway and the wind actually posted lower numbers. It was definitely not in the negative range, it was better. Compared to the other sectors, such as power transmission or the raw material sectors or industrial automation or even the aftermarket business, what we see is that while all these sectors registered a very robust growth, there were a couple of sectors which showed a little weaker growth.
I would say this is only due to the, either it's a timing issue or some of them are tender-based businesses, so tender's not forthcoming. This is what I would talk about the raw material, I mean, the railways as one of the sector and the wind energy.
Yeah. I mean, having said that, as Harsha said, that, full year growth was very impressive.
Very impressive.
If we look at quarter-on-quarter change.
There are.
Project-based and tender-based, timing issues.
Got it, madam. Madam, my next question on that KRSV side, we have seen the losses has been widened, nearly 18.3% to 14.7% in this quarter. What are the specific milestones for FY 2026 to get on track for 2027 break even? Our current strategy is basically dark store expansion, since majorly prioritizing top-line growth at the cost of higher expenses. When will the focus will shift into profitability?
In 2026, you will see that we have done quite a good infrastructure setup of dark stores and hubs now, and this particular growth will now moderate in 2026. More focus will be on the channel and product mix from now onwards, because we have now sufficient dark stores and hubs in place. More focus will be on channel mix. We have three channels there: wholesalers, retailers, and workshops. We will be balancing our channel mix there, as well as we will be looking at the product mix based on different geographies. Moving forward, you will see that also the financial parameters will start improving.
Also, if I may add, all the last two years, we've been investing in establishing the infrastructure base, which we have done. Now the focus is on. We have a very clear plan when to break even. What is important is to stay focused on the services mix that we have, the product mix that we have, as well as increase the efficiency of the processes that we have put in place. The focus is on how do we increase the business and sales to happen in each of the locations that we have started to operate in, and we have started to keep the focus high on deliverables from each of the places where we have started to invest in. The last quarter performance clearly indicates that we are well on track to deliver the numbers.
In fact, we did see some better improvement in profitability as well going forward. I'm sure we will be able to register or sustain the same momentum and deliver in line with the plan that we have set for quarters.
Thank you so much for the detailed explanations, all done.
... Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Raghunandhan N L from Nuvama Research. Please go ahead.
Congratulations, sir, once again, for the stellar number. Firstly, sir, on the Shoolagiri plant, can you indicate how the capacity ramp up is expected to pan out in future? If possible, can you indicate the investment in CY 2025 and 2026, and how you see the capacity utilization in 2026?
Capacity utilization in all our plants is over 85% currently. This year's CapEx was in the range of INR 375-400 crores. We will be again scaling this up in 2026, in line with what we did from 2022 to 2024. We will continue to invest in capacity for the products which are relevant for the market and new technology that the market is expecting.
Noted, ma'am. On relocation of the clutch line from U.K. to Hosur plant, has this reflected in revenue in Q4? Can you indicate the revenue potential for this clutch line in CY 2026?
The relocation is done. However, it takes time to lay out the complete lines and all, and we will see the realization.
Yes, that is work in progress.
Yeah. The full realization we will see in this year. Still, we will not be disclosing the numbers, as the order books are being relocated based on the stocks availability at different locations.
Noted, ma'am. Thank you for that. On the e-axle, can you indicate how the progress is happening? How are you expecting the ramp-up to take place for next year, given that you already have a very large order book there?
Let me start on the e-axle with the numbers that we had projected for 2025. I'm happy to say that we have exceeded those numbers, which is very encouraging for us, because we had started to invest in the next phase of localization of the production itself, which is going according to the plan that we have already laid out. That said, looking at the, our customer vehicles winning in the marketplace, we are now seeing more traction for new platforms as well, which we have started to engage with other customers. Rightfully, as and when we have the new business trends that come up, you will get to hear in the future earnings call as well from us.
Thank you, sir. On exports, can you indicate how do you see the demand conditions in key geographies? Recently, there was this news on the RoDTEP scheme, where the incentive has been reduced by half. Would you be able to quantify how much was the RoDTEP export incentives for CY 2025?
We see that the order book for 2026 is in line with last year. That means 2025. In 2025, we already saw the demand coming back, but moving forward, we don't see that the same momentum of 30%-35% will continue now, it will moderate. Based on the economic growth projections, specifically of Europe and Asia Pacific, we do not see that it will be more than 5%-10%. That is going to be the export scenario in 2026.
Thank you, ma'am. Would you have it handy, the RoDTEP export incentive for CY 2025?
no, I will let investor relations reach out to you.
Noted. Noted. Thank you so much. I will come back in the queue.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity. My first question is on the BIS segment. We have posted a very healthy growth on both year-over-year as well as quarter-over-quarter basis, after a few relatively muted quarters. What changed in this particular quarter? You have highlighted the timing of projects in railways and wind as one of the reasons. Could you also highlight other factors, and do you believe that the current revenue run rate will further accelerate from here in this segment?
Harshit, is your question towards the other sector performance?
In Q4.
Q4, I know.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
If you, if one were to look at our Q4 performance compared to Q4 last year, you would see a double-digit growth in all the other sectors on the industrial space, which is a clear indicator that obviously the market demand had a positive traction, which we were able to better leverage. As I already mentioned, some of the weaker performance was from the wind and rain, but however, all the other sectors registered a very strong performance in the quarter.
Right. Understood. Secondly, on the automotive technologies, we have posted a growth of almost 42% YOY, which is significantly ahead of the automotive production volumes growth in the country. Obviously, you have mentioned some of the key business wins that we have registered for the past several quarters, and that would have definitely contributed. Would you say that the majority of the growth in this particular quarter would have come from the ramp-up of the e-axle project? Would that project have the highest share of this growth that we have posted?
Will we see, I mean, obviously, the growth rate could moderate from this very high level, but could we see, could we continue to see the hiking kind of growth in the automotive technology segment ahead?
Let me clarify that. While what you said about the e-mobility business growth being very strong for us, yes, it's a fact, as our customer models are winning in the market, and so we are riding on their success. It goes without saying that we will continue to increase our competitiveness here by way of the localization phase two, that is currently ongoing in the production lines for our e-axles. I must also point out that even in the internal combustion application, the IC engine applications, we have registered pretty strong growth, whether it is in the clutch applications or in the damper systems. Engine and transmission applications also, we have registered pretty strong wins. I already pointed out, we continuously strive to secure new business wins, and we have a very strong book-to-bill ratio going forward.
We remain focused on ensuring that we continue to create the pipeline, and accordingly also make the appropriate investments in production capacities, even for the IC engines, as we believe that in the midterm, we still see growth happening in the IC engine applications as such. It goes without saying that, even if it were to grow at a 4%-6%, GST 2.0 reforms notwithstanding, it is a clear indicator that we must continue to invest if we want to sustain the growth and also capitalize the market opportunity that we see. There have been areas like valve train systems as well, we have started to focus. The numbers are small, but we're confident going forward, the belt and chain drive systems.
All the application and the products that go in and around the IC engines, we continue to keep our focus. What you see in the Q4 is exactly that. The focus has helped us to grow at a very strong double-digit growth rate in Q4, even in the IC engine application also.
Understood, sir. Thank you very much for answering my questions, and all the best.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Sagar Pareek from Renaissance Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, sir. I think you have answered my question, but, essentially, I just wanted to understand this FTA with EU. Just I'm reiterating what you said. You said that on the export side, there is no impact because the rates are almost 0%-2%, right?
Correct.
On the import side, we are still waiting for the rates to be seen. We pay right now 7.5% duty. If that goes down, we can see more imports from EU. Right understanding?
Absolutely.
Okay, perfect. anything on the U.S. FTA, where we can see some momentum or nothing there?
Those now, there is nothing as such. Also, you know, the U.S. FTA clarity is still to come, correct? At the commodity or on item level is still not been released. Yeah, I think our exports to U.S. is also not very big, so I don't think that should be-
Can it become meaningful if U.S., if there is some, mean, material changes in the rates?
Again, I guess, the similar pattern would emerge, where the import duties would have to come down, because the bone of contention is what is imported into India, right?
Right.
What goes out of India, obviously, if the export duties were kept at zero, or rather import into USA were kept at zero, we don't see that any differentiation there as such. We believe that, yes, our export business would strive purely on our own competitiveness within the Indian market space when looked at globally. I guess that's the only differentiating factor that we have.
All right, noted. Thanks a lot. That's it.
Yeah.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions from the participants, that concludes the question and answer session. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Gauri Kanitkar for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please do reach out to me at Gauri.Kanitkar@schaeffler.com. With this, we conclude the call and wishing you a good rest of the day. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, all.
Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Schaeffler India, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.