Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to UPL Limited Q2 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anurag Gupta. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Gupta.
Thank you, Ranjit. Good evening, everyone. I am Anurag Gupta, Head of Investor Relations at UPL. On behalf of the UPL management team, I thank you for joining us today for discussing the financial performance for Q2 and H1 FY 2026. The investor presentation, press release, and the financial statements have been made available on our website, and we take it that you have read the Safe Harbor statement. From the management team, we have with us today Group Chief Operating Officer Toshan Tamhane, Group Chief Financial Officer Bikash Prasad, CEO of Global Crop Protection Business Mike Frank, CEO of India Crop Protection Platform Ravi Cherukuri, CEO of Seeds Business Advanta Bhupen Dubey, CEO of Specialty Chemicals Platform SUPERFORM Raj Tiwari, and other members of the leadership team. Before we begin, I would like to introduce you all to Ravi, our new CEO for the UPL SAS platform.
Ravi joined UPL in February 2025. He has taken over this leadership role in October. His predecessor, Ashish Dobhal, has transitioned into his new role as the Global Sales Head for UPL Corp. We thank Ashish for his outstanding leadership at UPL SAS, where he has played a pivotal role in strengthening the business, building high-performing teams, and positioning us for future growth. In this earnings call, Bikash will take us through the overall performance for UPL Limited for the quarter and half-year. This will be followed by Mike, who will share his detailed remarks on UPL Corporation, followed again by Bikash, who will cover the other platforms in brief. We will have the Q&A session post that. With that, I now hand it over to Bikash. Bikash, over to you.
Thank you, Anurag. Good evening, everyone, and a very warm welcome to UPL's second quarter and half-yearly FY 2026 earnings call. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. Before presenting the financial highlights for Q2, I want to start by expressing my appreciation and gratitude for your continued interest and support. Since stepping into this role as Group CFO in June, I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with several of you from the investors and analyst community who have shared their extremely valuable inputs and feedback in terms of market expectations and insights. This has helped us in looking at the business from an outside-in perspective, giving us a better view for evaluating and reporting our performance. Also, internally, we have been working closely, and I'm proud of the momentum we have built together.
We delivered a strong first quarter, and I'm even thrilled to report an even stronger second quarter, reflecting robust execution, disciplined financial management, and the resilience of our business model. In today's call, we'll walk you through the key financial highlights of the quarter, provide some context on the drivers behind our performance, and share our outlook for the full year FY 2026. The second quarter continued to witness a stable demand at farm gate level for crop protection products and seeds. Ongoing geopolitical uncertainties, including U.S. tariffs-related concerns, continued to affect market conditions and trade flows. Further, lower commodity prices led to farm income stress, continuing to influence the overall agrochemical value chain. Additionally, there were some weather-related challenges in India crop production business. On a positive side, reductions in sulfur rates have had a favorable impact on finance costs.
Before delving deeper into the financial performance, I would like to share key corporate updates from Q2. The first one is related to our corporate realignment. In September, we integrated our post-harvest business Deco with our seeds business Advanta. Both businesses share a strong service-led culture and a commitment to delivering sustainable science-based solutions to farmer and food producers worldwide. The move is expected to bring potential upside driven by synergies in adjacent focus areas, guidance from experienced and proven Advanta leadership team, shared back-end infrastructure, overlapping presence in emerging markets, and enhanced digitization. The second update is on rice issue. Our final call of INR 180 per partly paid equity share aggregating to around INR 1,625 crore or $200 million was called for in September.
This amount was 50% of the total issue price of INR 360 per share, comprising INR 1 towards face value and INR 179 towards share premium. I'm pleased to share that the proceeds from the same have been received in September. The final update is on the recent outlook upgrade. As shared during our Q1 earnings call. Two global ratings agencies, Fitch and S&P, had upgraded their outlook from negative to stable. I'm pleased to add that in August, Moody's upgraded their outlook as well from negative to stable. This is a strong endorsement of our financial resilience, strategic clarity, and commitment to sustainable value creation. Our actions reflect our continued focus on capital efficiency and long-term stakeholder confidence. Now coming to Q2 FY 2026 performance overview. We continued with our strong performance and improved further in this quarter.
In Q2 FY 2026, we reported revenue of INR 12,019 crore, a strong 8% growth versus last year. This was driven by a 7% increase in volume and favorably supported by a 3% exchange impact, partially offset by some pricing pressure. At the platform level, UPL Corp, our global crop protection business was up by 12%, supported by an even stronger 26% increase in Advanta. I'm pleased to share that both these platforms were driven by volumes, indicating our strong market presence and good acceptability of our products. This also indicates a recovery in our global crop protection business from Q1. My colleague Mike will cover this at length in his remarks. While our SUPERFORM business remained largely steady, the super specialty chemical segment within it showed a remarkable 18% jump versus last year.
This is a testimony of our focus on growing this emerging segment in a strong collaboration with global partners. Our India crop protection business, or UPL SAS, was impacted by unfavorable weather conditions in the quarter, with its revenue declining by 10%. Among key reasons, growth was led mainly by the Americas. Latin America grew by 13%, driven by fungicides in Brazil and Argentinian recovery, while North America was up by 63%, led by herbicide volumes. Among others, India was up by 6%, led by seeds and super specialty chemicals, offset by crop protection decline. Europe was steady, while there was some decline in the rest of the world. Our contribution increased to INR 5,041 crore, a significant 21% jump versus last year. The margin was around 42%, an improvement of 420 basis points.
This was driven by improved product mix, higher capacity utilization, and lower input cost, mainly in crop protection. This also reinforces our commitment to operational efficiency and strategic sourcing, leading to a favorable cost position. The SG&A expenses amounted to INR 2,836 crore, a 9% increase year-on-year in line with our expectations. I would like to add here that the Q1 non-cash provision related to distributor restructuring for around $13 million in Brazil was reduced by around $4.2 million in Q2, facilitated by the recovery plan. As highlighted in Q1, this will subsequently unwind over the period of recovery horizon. Higher revenue and improvement in contribution margin led to a strong growth in EBITDA to INR 2,205 crore, up by 40% versus last year. I'm pleased to share that EBITDA margin stood at 18.3%, up by 410 basis points versus last year.
Profit before tax, or PBT, stood at INR 784 crore, up by over INR 1,200 crore versus last year. This movement was driven by EBITDA at INR 2,205 crore, up from INR 1,576 crore last year. Depreciation and amortization expenses increased from INR 697 crore to INR 771 crore. Significant reduction in net finance cost, down from INR 847 crore to INR 518 crore this year. This was driven by several factors, including debt repayment of $250 million in March 2025. Favorable sulfur-linked interest rates, which have declined by around 125 basis points since last year, rating upgrade-related interest rate reduction, and our focused capital management. Additionally, other factors that impacted PBT were lower net exchange losses, down from INR 375 crore to INR 235 crore. Lower losses from associates and joint ventures from INR 135 crore to INR 54 crore in this period, as they have had improved performance during the current year.
We'll continue to monitor the performance of these entities closely. Finally, the exceptional items improved from a negative INR 8 crore to a positive INR 142 crore. This was as a result of a favorable verdict from the Brazilian Supreme Court on a VAC litigation. The gain was partially offset by the restructuring cost for one of our European manufacturing plants. We have also provided a detailed management P&L to better explain the numbers, including net interest and FX cost, as discussed during the last Q1 earnings call. We have also included a management balance sheet, which is slide 20, and the management cash flow on slide 23 for better reference. Profit after tax, or PAT, significantly improved from a loss of INR 585 crore last year to a profit of INR 612 crore this quarter.
I'm pleased to share that our PAT stood at INR 553 crore, up significantly by around INR 1,000 crore versus last year, driven by factors as explained earlier. Correspondingly, our operational PAT, that is adjusted for exceptional items, rose from negative INR 434 crore to a positive INR 411 crore, up by INR 845 crore. For H1, PAT was up by around a significant INR 1,300 crore. Moving on to the key balance sheet items. Our net working capital in September 2025 stood at INR 15,463 crore for around 118 days, lower by around five days versus an already tightened last year. The amount is higher versus the previous year due to improved sales in H1, especially in our seeds business and overall inventory built up in anticipation of our S2 plans. Inventory days stood at 124 days, up by around seven days, while payables were at 151 days, up from 127 days last year.
Our receivables stood at 146 days, up from 133 days in the previous year. We also saw a flat non-request factoring at around $553 million versus $558 million in the previous year. On the net debt, as of September 2025, it has stood at INR 23,802 crore, that is approximately $2.7 billion, reflecting a reduction of INR 3,729 crore, or $605 million, compared to INR 27,531 crore, that is $3.3 billion, in September 2024. However, the net debt increased versus March 2025, largely due to the impact of perpetual bond redemption of about $400 million in Q1 and higher working capital requirements in line with the historical seasonality. I'm also happy to share that our key gearing ratios, that is net debt to EBITDA and net debt to equity, have shown remarkable improvement compared to September last year.
The net debt to EBITDA improved from 5.4 times last year to 2.7 times, driven by strong operational performance and capital efficiency. This ratio was at 1.7 times in March 2025 due to seasonality-led higher collections in that period. Adjusted to perpetual bond, this ratio last year March end would have stood at around 2.1 times. Additionally, net debt to equity improved from 0.9 times last year to 0.6 times this year. On H1, let me summarize the highlights briefly. Our revenue is up by 5% versus last year, with growth led by all platforms, mainly Advanta and UPL Corp. The total contribution grew by 16% at over INR 9,000 crore, driven by broad-based margin improvement of over 400 basis points versus last year. EBITDA is up by 29% at over INR 3,500 crore, with robust performance across all platforms and led by contribution margin improvement.
PAT improved by around INR 1,300 crore, up from a negative INR 827 crore last year to a positive INR 465 crore in H1 this year. Similarly, our operational PAT improved by approximately INR 1,100 crore, up from a negative of INR 769 crore to INR 331 crore this time. I now hand over to Mike, who will take you through the details of UPL Corp. Mike, over to you.
Thank you, Bikash. Hello everyone, and welcome to our Second Quarter FY 2026 Earnings Call. Before we review the quarter, I would like to start by providing some insights. Channel inventories in all major countries are back to normalized levels. Global demand growth is in the low single digits, and prices have largely stabilized. With this backdrop, we are well placed to compete.
We are sitting on fresh inventory that is at the right level and at a competitive cost, giving us the opportunity to compete aggressively, to grow our market share, and to expand margins simultaneously. Grower prices for row crops continue to remain low, pressuring farm margins, which in turn creates liquidity stress on retailers and distributors in some regions, especially in Latin America. The breadth of our portfolio gives us optionality to serve farmers with post-patent, differentiated, and biological solutions. The current environment in relation to farmer margins is driving greater interest in post-patent solutions within our portfolio. Looking ahead, we expect this trend to persist into 2025, creating opportunities to strengthen our position in the value-driven segments. Turning to our Q2 performance, the quarterly performance of our business reflects the strength of our portfolio and the operational advantage of our supply chain.
In Q2, our revenue grew 12% year-on-year, supported by strong volumes in North America and Latin America. Looking at the performance of our portfolio, herbicides delivered strong results across North America and Latin America, driven by S-Metolachlor, Metribuzin, and Triclopyr. Fungicides led by Mancozeb continue to see strong demand in all regions. Our insecticides portfolio was mainly impacted by increased competitive pressure, leading to price erosion of our premium Sperto brand in Brazil, as well as lower volumes of Acephate also in Brazil. However, this segment is showing a solid recovery, driven primarily by our growing Ferocy brand sales, whose superior agronomic performance has strengthened this brand presence and demand with growers in Brazil. Our sustainable solutions portfolio in Q2 saw slightly lower volumes. However, total contribution margin grew on the strength of improved mix. Impressively, our contribution margins overall expanded to 35.1%, growing by over 400 basis points year-on-year.
This was mainly driven by improved mix, lower input cost, and higher capacity utilization. Turning to SG&A, we continue to demonstrate a disciplined SG&A approach while investing strategically in growth and transformation initiatives. Nevertheless, ECLs totaling approximately $9 million impacted our results, but to a lesser degree than Q2 last year. These impacts were mainly in Latin America. Finally, EBITDA for the quarter increased by 69% year-on-year, a margin of expansion of nearly 500 basis points, demonstrating our ability and agility to compete and drive profitability in this market. Let's now review the Q2 performance of our regions. In Latin America, we posted 10% higher revenues year-on-year. This growth is attributed mainly to Brazil's robust performance and partial recovery of our business in Argentina. As highlighted during our last investor call, the combination of disciplined execution, a resilient business model, enhanced customer focus, and a robust portfolio has driven.
A strong revenue recovery in this region. We are confident that this positive momentum will continue through the second half of the year as farmers across much of the region, and admit of the planting their first crops for the first season. In North America, 1% versus last year. While Q2 is a smaller quarter in North America, our performance demonstrates the momentum we are building in both Canada and the U.S. Growth in North America was boosted by a strong herbicide portfolio, with notable upsides coming from the demand for our post-patent portfolio key molecules such as Metribuzin, S-Metolachlor, and Glufosinate, which delivered significant year-on-year gains in both volume and revenue. This performance was complemented by key fungicides such as Mancozeb.
While our post-patent portfolio is performing well in North America, we're also in the midst of launching and scaling several new products, primarily in the differentiated and sustainable categories of our portfolio. This all positions us well for sustained growth in this North America region. In Europe, we recorded near-flat revenues, which declined 1% compared to the same quarter last year. This was primarily due to fungicide sales normalizing after an exceptionally wet season last year. I'm pleased to highlight that we continue to see sustained growth across key markets such as in Germany, Italy, Spain, and France. Unfortunately, the market in Turkey has been impacted negatively by an early season frost, resulting in lower sales, especially in the fruits and vegetable market there. We are confident of strong volumes and revenue performance in Europe during the second half, with overall growth projected for the full year.
In Africa and Asia-Pacific geographies, we delivered good growth across key markets, especially in South Africa, Western Africa, and Indonesia, resulting in a 12% revenue growth overall for this region compared to the same quarter last year. Lastly, on our Q2 results, our commitment to disciplined cash management and operational efficiency remains strong. We continue to optimize our inventories, receivables, and payables to achieve sustained and best-in-class working capital efficiency. To this end, I'm pleased to report that we've achieved a strong reduction in net working capital days compared to the same quarter last year. Turning to our outlook for the third quarter and full year of FY 2026. Based on our momentum, we are confident in accelerating our growth in the second half of the year.
From an SG&A standpoint, we continue to leverage advanced tools and technologies to optimize operations across all functions, enhancing our operating model and driving an enterprise-wide transformation. At the same time, we're strategically focusing our SG&A investments to accelerate growth in key priority areas. On the marketing excellence front, we continue to strengthen our new product pipeline, positioning ourselves to firmly surpass our target of $130 million revenue from new product launches this year. We are already seeing excellent results from products launched in the first half of the year, especially in Latin America, underscoring the growing acceptance and differentiation of our portfolio in the market. Looking ahead, we expect this momentum to accelerate in the coming quarters, further strengthening our market position and driving sustained growth.
In closing, I'd like to thank our team for their outstanding dedication and our channel customers for their continued partnership, which drove this quarter's successful results. With this solid momentum, I am confident we will deliver robust revenue and margin growth through the remainder of this year. Thank you. With that, I'll hand over to Bikash, who will take you through the performance of our other platforms.
Thank you, Mike. Let me now also provide a quick update on our other three platforms, which are our India Crop Protection Business, our seed platform, and our specialty chemical focus platform, SUPERFORM. UPL SAS revenue declined by around 10% due to lower volumes led by unfavorable weather conditions that prevailed in most parts of the country. Herbicides was the segment that was particularly impacted.
However, despite the above challenges, we improved our contribution margin by approximately 500 basis points, driven mainly by improved product mix and recent launches such as Centurion EZ and Canora EZ. The EBITDA margins improved from around 20% last year to 22.7%, an increase of nearly 270 basis points. This led to an absolute EBITDA growth of 2% despite revenue decline. Advanta, now integrated between our seed and post-harvest platform, delivered a strong 26% growth year-on-year, fueled by a robust volume expansion of 14% in the seed segment. Key contributors to this growth included corn in India, Latin American countries, and Indonesia, as well as sunflower in Argentina. Our platform EBITDA rose by a strong 57%, driven by higher volume. SUPERFORM had a steady revenue versus last year.
I'm happy to share that our super specialty business, or SSC, was up by 18%, driven mainly by volumes led by contract manufacturing. This strong growth has also helped us improve our non-ADCEM revenue share to around 25% compared to 20% last year. The platform reported a contribution margin of around 25%, up by a strong 370 basis points. This was driven by improved mix and increased share of the super specialty segment. EBITDA is up by a strong 24% versus last year, with 250 basis points improvement led by increase in contribution. Now, on some non-financial updates, I would like to talk about, in line with the previous quarter, where we presented our ESG commitments, I'm pleased to add here that our robust financial and business performance are also enabled by our state-of-the-art backward-integrated manufacturing and world-class R&D capabilities.
Our global manufacturing facilities, spread across major continents, enable effective catering to growing goals and customers' unique needs, offering built-spoke solutions, enhancing agricultural results. Our strategically located facilities, backed by advanced synthesis capabilities, a skillful and inspired team, provide us a favorable cost position versus most of our global peers. Our world-class R&D centers, distributed across the globe, fuel innovation for our customers, whether through synthesis and formulation or creating process IPs, quality improvement, or otherwise. With a strong team within this function, comprising PhDs and experienced professionals, we have received over 3,000 patents. Now, to summarize, Q2 has been an extremely positive quarter with several achievements. This quarter has been much stronger versus an already robust Q1, with broad-based EBITDA improvement and focus on overall quality of earnings led by financial discipline. Through this, our first half of the year looks strong as well on almost all indicators.
On the P&L front in Q2, our revenue grew by a robust 8% versus last year. A strong contribution margin at around 42%, an improvement of 420 basis points. A strong EBITDA growth of 40%, with margin improvement of 410 basis points. Patent improvement of around 1,000 growth. Similarly, on the balance sheet, our working capital days improved by five days, from 123 days to 118 days. Improved net debt with a reduction of over $600 million. Adjusting for redemption of perpetual bonds of $400 million, the net debt reduction is $1 billion. This also resulted in further degearing of our balance sheet. Considering our strong H1 and positive outlook for H2, I'm pleased to share our upgraded FY 2026 guidance as follows.
4-8% growth in revenues on similar lines to what we presented in capital market day in May, and 12%-16% EBITDA growth versus last year, up from 10%-14% as indicated earlier. Finally, I would like to thank our team for their efforts and our valuable stakeholders for their trust and support. I'm confident of delivering our financial commitments in FY 2026. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions. With this, we are now open for Q&A.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
The first question comes from the line of Saurabh Jain with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a stupendous set of results. First thing, I wanted to clarify on your ECL in Brazil. So how much is the total ECL in first half? Because there was some commentary about one Q, you booked $13 million, and then some of it got reversed. What is the total ECL in the first half for you?
Saurabh, maybe I'll take that from a UPL Corp standpoint. Bikash, you can add any commentary you want from an overall UPL perspective. In UPL Corp, our ECL in the first half was $30 million, and that compares to $23 million last year. So up $7 million versus the same half last year. You mentioned Brazil. That's total. That's not only Brazil.
That's our global ECL for the half. Can you split it out into the first quarter and second quarter also? Just trying to understand how much was the amount in the second half, because you also mentioned about some reversal. That is where I'm coming from.
Yeah. The net in Q2 is $9 million. The total in H1 is $30 million. You can say net in the first quarter is $21 million. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Also, there has been a bit of pricing decline in the second quarter amid some reports suggesting some of the products have seen price increases. What would be your assumptions and expectations in the second half? Whatever growth that you're going to deliver, can you split it out in terms of how much would be volume, pricing, and Forex? Yeah. As I mentioned, for the most part, we're seeing prices have stabilized.
Now, on the price side, it's primarily a mixed impact. We did see, as I mentioned, with Sperto, which is one of our high-value branded insecticides in Brazil. This year, we have seen some clones and generics come into the marketplace, and we have seen some price decline specifically on that product, which is a large product for us. On the rest of our portfolio, we've seen very consistent pricing. As we think about the H2, our growth in H2 will be almost exclusively volume-driven. We expect prices to be roughly flat, maybe down, again, 1% or so in Q3. Overall, in the second half, we expect pricing to be very flat, but volumes to lead the growth for our second-half business.
Okay. That is useful. One last question I would ask, and then I'll turn back the queue.
Given already we have seen two quarters, and there is good debt repayment that UPL has delivered. There is also a debt repayment obligation which is coming up in March 2026. I think it would be about $500,000,000 or so. Can you also explain to us what is your potential expectations of your debt by when you end this year?
Yeah. Sure, Saurabh. Thanks for the question. As you know, we have an opening cash balance of about $550 million. As on 1st of October, we also have unutilized working capital lines of about $1.7 billion Significant cash release happens during H2. In the last two years, if you look at it, the cash release has been in the range of $900 million-$1.1 billion. We feel very comfortable with our opening cash that we have.
During the H2, the cash release that will happen. We are confident to meet any repayment obligations for this year. I think that is not a challenge. The second question is about what are our expectations for the rest of the year and the end of the year. Like last year, we had ended at 1.7 times net debt to EBITDA ratio. Adjusting for PAR, it was about 2.1 times. Post-repayment of the perpetual bond, we had made the second and final call on the rights issue for the balance amount of approximately $200 million, which is also received in September. Our focus is to continue to drive cash generation from operations, which is supported by the disciplined working capital management, as you can see it in our H1 results as well. We will be significantly lower than last year at 2.1 times.
On a business-as-usual basis. Our short to medium-term priority is to deleverage our balance sheet. Probably, I would say, between 18-24 months' time. Compared to last year of 2.1 times, we are expecting somewhere between 1.6-1.8 times of gearing. We have H2 to deliver, and we'll see how things evolve. As of now, we are quite comfortable with our cash position, quite comfortable on our net debt and the leverage ratios.
Does that imply a net debt reduction of about INR 1,500 crore-INR 2,000 crore? Is that the way we should look at it?
Yes. We'll see how the working capital pans out in Q4. Q4 is our key quarter from working capital cash flows and net debt perspective. As of now, we are planning somewhere between 1.6-1.8 times. Yeah.
A related question is that the working capital on a year-over-year basis has seen an increase, right? There is a drawdown on the working capital. Would you still believe for the full-year basis, there would still be some release on working capital, or you would believe that there would be some cash absorption in your working capital needs?
Last year, we had really squeezed on the working capital. You know that from 86 days, we had reduced our working capital to 53 days. During capital market days, Mike and others have also commented that our cycle time between, say, 65-70 days is what probably is sustainable, and we will be comfortable with that. There might be some increase, although as of now, we are trying our best to see how we keep optimizing our working capital.
The season is starting now in America, and we'll see how does it go. There are still many global uncertainties and challenges we have to navigate. Probably Q3 will be a better quarter to give a better update on this.
Sure. Thank you. I have more questions, but I'll turn back the queue. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Siddharth Gadekar with Equirus. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. My first question is on the strong performance on the EBITDA side in 2Q and the guidance increase. What do we attribute the guidance increase to? Also, for the 2Q, the beat on EBITDA, the strong growth that we have seen, is it largely driven by the differentiated products, or is there something else also that is driving our EBITDA and the guidance for the full year?
Yeah, Siddharth, maybe I'll take that first just from a global crop protection standpoint. Look, I would say the tailwinds that were experienced in the first half and are going to persist, we believe, into the second half is, again, inventory levels are normalized, and so we're able to restock. Secondly, because we have such a broad portfolio of post-patent differentiated and biological products, depending on the country and the farmer economics, we are seeing, while we're still seeing strong demand for our high-value differentiated and sustainable products, we're also seeing really strong demand and accelerated demand with low grower margins for our post-patent products. I would say that's giving us the opportunity to simultaneously grow market share and expand margins. Maybe lastly, our supply chain is really performing well. As we're running with lower levels of inventory, as we manage working capital, we're also able to.
Replace inventory with fresh inventory at the market lowest cost. We're seeing, as the year plays out, because we're running the plants harder, we're absorbing fixed costs through a larger volume, and that is also helping our cost of goods, which is expanding our margins. I'd say there's multiple pieces that are driving both our volume gains and our margin expansion. Just adding from other three businesses also. At Advanta, also, we have a strong FY 2026 outlook, which will be volume-led growth with EBITDA accretion, SUPERFORM with continued strong prospect for our super specialty chemical segment, with, again, the margin expansions. Our India crop protection business, with our improved product mix, will also drive the outlook for the second half.
Got it.
Secondly, on the India business, how should we think about the inventory levels, and do we expect any large sales return in 2H?
Yeah. I hope you can hear me. This is Ravi. Yeah. Normal sales and returns is a feature of the business, and you know this very well. Last year, we had abnormally large returns because we were turning a corner from very high sales to a more subdued sales environment. This year, we have been very calibrated in placement of inventories into the channel, other than for early season herbicides, which we have to place. You cannot see what the season will be like. Where we went ahead and placed, we took back most of the returns already in Q2. We have been extremely calibrated in placement of other stock, other inventories based on the season.
We do not expect returns to be very high in the future. However, there will be some returns, and they will be well within our normal estimates. Lastly, just on SUPERFORM, this quarter, we have seen the share of non-ACM going up to 25%.
How should we think about the share over the next two, three years, and where do we see SUPERFORM eventually being by 2029-2030 in terms of non-ACM and ACM share?
Hi, this is Raj Tiwari. Of course, our ag business will also grow, but the growth of our specialty chemicals business will be far higher than our ag growth, and therefore this overall share of business of super specialty will keep on growing. Now, how the next couple of years pans out would be a matter of estimate, but if we just.
I mean, the pace at which we are going now, if we just look at that, then in the next 24-36 months, it would be somewhere around 30%-35% of our overall business share should be super specialty.
Any color you want to give that incrementally? What are we doing to increase the share in the super specialty product?
As you know, we have four or five key technology platforms. We have cyanation, we have phosphination, we have phosphorus, we have sulfur-based chemistries. Those would anyway excel the growth. Apart from that, also our contract manufacturing business, which will propel the growth in the next 36 months' time.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Ankur Periwal with Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers.
Mike, first question for you. You did allude towards the Brazil market, wherein there is some bit of pricing pressure in specific products. Your thoughts on the overall competitive intensity, and especially given the weakening farm economics, is there a shift from branded or premium products to more on the generic side? Your thoughts there, please.
Yeah. Thanks, Ankur, for the question. Look, I mean, over the last week or so, most of our peers have reported. You can see from the industry-wide results that the industry is still very competitive. Volume growth is still in the low single digits. Obviously, we are outperforming that, which we are pleased about. We think it is largely based on our broad portfolio and on our operational excellence in terms of how we are managing inventory and managing our supply chain. The pricing pressure in Brazil, I would say, is.
Mostly focused on our one large brand, which is Sperto. Outside of that, we're seeing some price opportunity on some of our portfolio, but most of the portfolio is remaining flat on prices while our cost of goods continue to improve, which is giving us a margin expansion. I would say that's how it's playing out, not just in Brazil, but in the rest of the markets. Finally, to your point, just on grower margins, as I mentioned, I do think we are seeing some additional demand in what we would call the value segment of our portfolio as farmers are looking for high-quality, low-cost products to solve their pain points. I think that's giving us some additional momentum because of the breadth of our portfolio.
Sure. That's helpful and clear. Second question to Bikash on the losses from associates.
We have seen a sharp decline there. Just wanted to understand, how should one look at these numbers? Is this INR 54 crore loss sustainable now? Because we were at INR 130 crore last year. Q1 was a profit, and now there is again a loss. How should one look at this number on a sustainable basis?
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for the question. I think during this year, we have seen that our associates and JV have improved their performance. It is still not there where we want to see them, but almost 9 out of 10 of our associates and their joint ventures have improved their performance in Q2. There is one. Still, there is an issue, and we are trying to turn it around as well. Going forward, I do see that at least on these 9 out of the 10 JV associates that we have.
Will have the steady performance.
Sure. Just a follow-up here. If I look at from a full-year perspective, this year, this number should still be negative and possibly positive next year onwards, or probably that turnaround will take a slightly higher time?
Next year, our target will be that it should be positive. This is our, as per how we are planning and working on.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you and all the best.
Thanks, Ankur.
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Tarang Agrawal with Old Bridge. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, team. Congrats on a strong set of numbers.
I would just like to take this forum to basically call out that considering how UPL was one of the first ones to call out the stress in the environment, taking the write-offs, I think life seems to have come to full circles, especially given the context in which some of the global peers have reported. Also, sincerely appreciate the improvement in the financial reporting quality and the earnings quality. We really hope this momentum, both on reporting as well as business, this momentum continues. Now, coming on to the questions, I actually have three. Firstly, on UPL Corp, what should be the steady-state contribution margins for this business? And where I'm coming from is I'm not trying to look at it on a quarterly basis, but, say, what is the target that you are hoping to achieve, say, in FY 2027, maybe 2028?
Secondly, what's the share of DNS business? I think these disclosures used to be given out. I think for the last two quarters, these disclosures are missing. It would help if you could incorporate it going forward. The rest are relating to Vikas and SUPERFORM.
Tarang, it's Mike here. Firstly, thank you for the comments on the overall performance. The way I would think about kind of what you're calling steady-state contribution margins, at least in the near term, it would be in that mid-30% range. There will be quarterly deviations from that, probably up and down a little bit, but on a full-year basis, we would expect our margins to be in that mid-30% range. Obviously, in the post-patent segment, and this kind of gets to your second question, in the post-patent segment, the margins are lower than they are in our differentiated.
Sustainable segment. We will disclose those numbers at the end of the year. We will continue to report them. We think it makes more sense to report them on an annual basis just because there can be quarterly variations that, I think, will send maybe not the right message if we report them quarter by quarter. For the year, we would expect that we'll be somewhere in the range, give or take a little bit, of 60/40. So 60% of our revenue will be from the post-patent segment, about 40% from the differentiated and sustainable segment. Over time, that will continue to move towards more and more share in the differentiated and sustainable segment. About 80% of our new products that we're launching are in that high-value segment.
As I mentioned earlier, we've got a strong class that we're launching this year with what we've guided to be at least $130 million of revenue. Now it looks like we're going to be able to overdeliver on that target. We have another really strong class coming in front of us. Those are the things that are going to continue to drive the growth of our high-value differentiated and sustainable segment. Again, we'll disclose that specifically at the end of the year.
Okay. Thanks, Mike. Bikash, how confident are you in continuing to yield the supply payment terms that you're currently yielding?
No, I think with our strong performance, it is giving much more comfort to our suppliers. It should continue. It should continue. I do not see any concerns as of now on getting the similar terms.
Okay. Last one on SUPERFORM.
We've seen a stark expansion in margins for the business. What's driven this, I mean, quite stark?
Yeah. Tarang. Raj here. Of course. This is because the super specialty business growth has been phenomenal. There, the margin expansion has been there. It's a mix. Naturally, when a super specialty growth is much higher as compared to ag, the margin expansions will keep on happening. It's a mixed issue.
Got it. As long as the mix keeps improving, that's the trend that we should look at. There's nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, just to get a sense, whether it's your super specialty business or your ag business, there isn't anything out of the ordinary in terms of the margins that you've reported for this quarter.
No, it is. I mean, that will keep on happening because super specialty will keep on growing.
Upwards of, let's say, 20% around. And ag will anyway grow 10%. Till this time, super specialty growth is more than the ag, the margin expansion will keep on happening.
Got it. Thank you. All the best, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Love Sharma with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you, Management, for taking the question. Just a couple of questions for me. I think, Bikash, you mentioned earlier in the call about your net leverage target of about 1.6-1.8 by end of this year. Just wanted to understand, given where we are currently and the rating improvement we have seen, and I know that the company has come a little bit of a long way from the IG ratings previously. Is it fair to say that you.
Would like to achieve those IG ratings back given these deleveraging targets? Secondly, I think you also talked about the $500 million loan coming due next year in March. Also, there is also, I guess, a September payment due as well next year. Any thoughts on refinancing them, or are you looking to just repay them, reduce debt overall using cash flows?
Definitely, first, on the $500 million, I think is the immediate now in the next couple of months. We are quite comfortable with our opening cash first. The cash release that happens during S2, as I indicated earlier, $900 million to $1 billion. If you're sitting with $1.5 billion, meeting this $500 million repayment obligation is not an issue. Now, your second question is about Q3 and Q4 next year obligations. Total is about $900 million. I think it's still.
We have some distance to cover. We will first focus on how do we look at generating operational cash flow. As we had indicated during Q1 earnings call and press release as well, that we are looking at various options to unlock shareholders' value. If some of those things we decide to take, that will also help in terms of deleveraging the balance sheet. We will see how things are progressing in the next three to six months' time. As of now, on the immediate repayment obligation of $500 million, we are well prepared and planned. There are no concerns on that. We will update on the Q3, Q4 next year repayment, probably in the subsequent earning calls.
Sure. Thanks, Bikash. Maybe on the rating side, if you could just share any views there. I know you have improved a lot.
We have seen decent improvement on the rating side. Are we looking to have more of those coming along? I think our first focus is to deliver a strong year this year, right? Once we have a strong result, we have a better chance. We have been in discussion with the rating agencies. We are continuously engaged with them. Besides our financial performance and liquidity, you know that the rating agency also considers overall industry outlook and other factors, which also influence the rating action. What we have in our control, definitely we'll try to deliver that. There are market conditions as well, which will impact the rating action. We are focusing on delivering strong financials, enhance our capital productivity, operational efficiencies, cash flow, and strengthen our balance sheet.
Okay. Thank you. Very clear. Thanks. That's it from me.
T hank you.
Next question comes on the line of [Naushad Irfan Jyoti] with Aditya Birla Mutual Funds. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. A few clarifications. Firstly, congrats on a very good set of numbers. On the seed business side. We have done wonderfully great if I look at the global PS versus us. I'm just wondering if we can be very specific and share what grades we have done in the past that is yielding this kind of growth to us. And what are we doing currently to keep that growth and market share momentum?
Thanks, Naushad. I'll request Bhupen to respond to that question.
Thank you so much for this question and this observation. As you may know. Seed business is a very long-term business. So. Normal, really good product from a variety takes 8 - 10 years to come out of it.
That is a long pipeline. Your question is right. What did you do good in the past, which is yielding results? What we have done is we have very strategic identification of the segment and subsegment within the global seed market, where we believe that we have very strong germplasm. That is a starting point. Wherever you have strong germplasm, marry with that crop and the geography market, and start investing in those areas right from R&D, technology development, marketing and testing, and then GTM. That is how it goes. That thinking, if you see last one decade, actually, every year on a year, quality of business, health of the business, quality of the portfolio, which is contribution to our innovation, is going up and up and up. That is how the results we see it.
Of course, there are internal things which are under our control, but that has to marry with the market opportunities up and down that may reflect in the quarter on quarter, year on year. Broadly, it is quite a robust movement. Going forward, same thinking continues for us, which are the markets which we need to enter in, and where we start acquiring our either develop in-house or acquire the germplasm. That is our trust area. Whichever segment we want to see ourselves growing in 8-10 years' time, we are strengthening our germplasm at this point in time, put our R&D resources, because that gives us the moat, that gives us sticking ability and sustainability. On a lower base when we started competing with this global giant who has this multi-billion dollar size in terms of the seed businesses.
Their germplasm inventory versus our germplasm, how it got us. A differentiation. That led to this market share gain. They would also be sitting on a similar kind of germplasm or inventory. Sure. The beauty of our business is we have a lot of IP capability. Germplasm is a unique proprietary asset of a given company who are R&D-based company. Big organizations are there. If you see their history, they are 130, 140 years of history they have. Advanta also is more than 65, 70-year-old history we have. That kind of rich germplasm we have, which is our own proprietary, which nobody has in the marketplace. Our own, and also we keep innovating on those, let's say, the parent seed brand which we have. It's a unique combination of genomics, which is ours, which we marry with the environment we want to target in.
That is the beauty of the seed business based on the R&D compared to the rest of the, let's say, chemical business which we see here.
Okay. Last, on this super specialty business, what exactly is this business, and how much, in terms of value, how much do we do the business through external sales in this piece of business, and how much capital we have deployed so far here, and what is the capital deployment plan in this business?
This business is basically the manufacturing part of the business, wherein we serve ag, and we have two anchor customers, one is UPL Corporation and UPL Trust. That contributes almost like 75% of our revenue comes from the ag business, wherein we manufacture active ingredients for these two anchor customers. Apart from that, we have the super specialty business, wherein we do contract manufacturing, but we also have.
Products which go into pharma intermediates, into lubricant space, into personal care, into flame retardants, and mainly five key technology platforms, what we call it as your phosgenation, your cyanation, then your sulfur NH2S chemistry, your phosphorus chemistry, and others. We are backward integrated, and that's where we drive value for our customers, and that's where we are able to also drive growth there. That's the basic outlook, how the business is structured. What is the size of this business in terms of absolute number through external sales only? If you look at, I mean, last year, last full year number would be around INR 10,000 crore. Out of that, last year, 80% of the revenue came from ag, and about 20% came from super specialty. That's the size of the company. I'm asking external sales, sir. You eliminate the rest is all, so let's say.
About INR 2,500 crore of sales comes from external customers.
Okay. Any capital deployment plan, if you want to share here, how you take this over, want to take this over?
It all depends on the opportunity, what we see. Of course, we keep on investing. I mean, last year, if you see at a UPL level on the tangible asset side, our investment would have been about $150 million or $140 million. That is the range which we keep on investing for growing the business.
Okay. Only, if I may also add here, now, if you look at this business, I mean, entire SUPERFORM business, it is fantastic from a working capital deployment or productivity perspective. Whatever credit terms that SUPERFORM offers to its customer, whether it is a third party or crop business or India crop production business, we get similar credit terms from our suppliers.
It's largely you will see that the working capital neutral business. On the fixed capital side, it will be between, say, $500 million-$600 million between specialty and ag. It's a very working capital efficient business. Fixed capital will be in the range of $500 million-$600 million.
Sure. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Somaiah V with [Avindas Park]. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. A few questions for Mike. First, in terms of low-cost inventory placement, is the cycle, have we come to the full cycle there, or is there further headroom based on current raw material prices or utilization levels for the second half of this year?
Yeah. I'd say we've come full cycle. There's no further headroom.
Obviously, as our volumes grow and we continue to run our plants and utilize them at a higher rate, I mean, there is a marginal benefit from fixed cost absorption. We have liquidated what we have previously referred to as high-cost inventory. We came into the year with about 100 days of forward coverage. That got liquidated for the most part in the first quarter. We are really now selling refreshed inventory.
Thanks, Mike. That is helpful. Second question is on Brazil. Considering the growth rate that we have had last quarter, would it be right to think that we have gained market share? That is the first part. Second, in terms of the season, current season, in terms of rainfall, in terms of planting, the progress there, and also any concerns in terms of farm economics that can impact offtake at the later part of the quarter?
Yeah.
Look, obviously, market share is we measure it on the annual cycle. I would say it's too early to declare any market share gains in Brazil on a year-to-date basis. The farmers are in the fields right now planting. For the most part, they finished planting their first season corn, but there's still lots of soybeans to be planted and cotton. We are pleased with the revenue we've achieved this last quarter. Our order book in Brazil right now is up about 20% versus this time last year. I think the market in Brazil is going to likely be up in the low single digits. Indications are strong that we're poised to gain market share. Obviously, as I said, though, there's a long season to play out there. From a weather standpoint, it's been a good start to the season.
It was unusually wet in the early spring, which is really good. Farmers were planting into moist soils, which always gets the crop off to a good start. I would say that's good for farmers. Also, it kind of tees up well for the products that we're selling there in terms of herbicides and insecticides and fungicides. We're expecting strong demand. I would say it's setting up well for a good market. Lastly, on your question with respect to farmer liquidity, last year, the way I think about it is farmers in most of Brazil grew a very strong crop. Even though prices were down, they commercialized it at lower prices but at higher volumes. Most farmers have liquidity coming into this year. Again, you can't say that for every single farmer, but generally speaking.
Farmers, I would say, they are optimistic about this season. It's off to a good start. Prices are where they're at. We'll see how this unfolds. The Chicago Board of Trade price just in the last 10 days has increased by about 10% on soybeans. That'll also put a little wind into the sails of soybean growers in terms of how they're looking at future prices.
Got it. One last question on the tariff part. Just want to understand in terms of value chain, how is this getting addressed, whether it's the producer who's taking it or the retailer distributor? It doesn't seem like there is a price increase at the end consumer end. If you could just help us understand that part.
Second, also what it means for us, whether we benefit, because there used to be a price differential or tariff differential that used to help us maybe at 10 percentage points. Does that still exist?
Yeah. No, thank you for that question. Look, at the start of the year, we probably had about a 20% lower tariff of India imports into the U.S. versus Chinese. That now has turned around where there is a small disadvantage where there is a higher tariff on imports coming from India. Obviously, as you all know, the tariff rates for imports into the U.S. have been incredibly dynamic since April. They have gone up 10%, then to 25%, and now to 50% on India. We are not going to give a specific dollar amount because it is still dynamic, and we do expect that the rates could still shift as the year plays out.
Our global supply chain team and our local US team have been playing through a lot of scenarios to really determine how do we best operate in this environment. The way I think about it, in the first half of the year, most of our US sales were made with inventory that was already in the country prior to the increase in tariff rates. There was a small impact from higher tariffs in H1, and that would be approximately a negative $3 million at the EBITDA line. In H2, our imports into the US since the higher tariff rate started, obviously, that'll have some negative impact on H2 results, just as you said. That being said, all of that impact is figured into our increase in guidance that Bikash talked about earlier on the call today.
Maybe lastly, just on your point in terms of what are we doing with pricing and supply chain, I would say there's probably three areas that we're focused on. Firstly, we're holding inventory that we're currently shipping to the U.S. in bonded warehouses, and we're holding it there as long as we can until we have to release it and pay the tariffs. For the most part, right now in the U.S., there's not a lot of product going on the ground. We still have, I would say, a month to two months in most of the U.S. before we need to start shipping products to our retail and distribution channel. We're staging that product in bonded warehouses in anticipation that there could be a change in the tariff rate between now and when we need to ship it.
That would be number one. Secondly, our product prices for the new crop year do reflect some of the additional tariff cost. Obviously, this is unfortunate for farmers as they're going to be paying higher prices for inputs at the same time that their margins are being squeezed. Of course, I would say it's on an active-by-active basis in terms of what our pricing approach has been. Lastly, we are exploring all options to minimize the tariff impact through alternative supply options, as well as formulating more product in the U.S. and adding more value there before we ship the products to our customers. That is kind of the overall picture right now in the scenario that we're working through with tariffs in the U.S.
Thanks. Thanks, Mike. Bikash, would you just want to add some color with respect to other business as well?
I think other businesses are not very material. Whether it's Advanta or our post-harvest business from the U.S. tariff perspective, it's not material. Our COP business is material, and Mike has given a detailed response on that. From the finance and from the year-end guidance perspective, I will also say that the discussions are ongoing between the U.S. and India. Some of those outcomes are still uncertain, unclear. As an organization, we are better prepared and plan for this scenario, including onshore manufacturing, strategic partnership, or supply chain optimization, pricing action that we can take. Therefore, I will say that this doesn't materially change our financial outcome expectation for the rest of the year. I will say that as of now, as the duty stands, it doesn't change our financial outcome expectations.
Those things have been baked into our numbers and the plans.
Yeah. Thanks so much. Just one small clarification, if I can. We did mention $3 million was the impact in H1, and we did also say that we have factored that into our full year number. Would it be possible to quantify this number, a very ballpark number, what we have considered in the second half?
Yeah. Look, I think it's too dynamic to put a number out there. I mean, it'll be larger than the impact in H1 if things don't change. Obviously, again, it's super dynamic. If things change, then the impact will change. Again, from a pricing perspective, we're currently pricing our products based on the current tariff rate and replacement cost.
If that changes, whether it's from competitors in China or from our own imports from India, then the whole dynamic in the market changes. It is very fluid, which I think we want to be cautious about putting a number out there.
Sure. Thanks, Mike.
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of [NTS] with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I just have two quick questions. One is with regards to your CapEx. If you could provide some guidance in terms of what you think CapEx for the current FY2026 might be, and also for FY2027, and how you will be using those numbers. Secondly, if you have had any further thoughts on IPO listing your Advanta and other platforms, if you could just share some thoughts on that. Thank you.
Yeah.
I think from the group perspective, if you look at it, usually our organic CapEx is in the range of $200 million-$225 million, which is largely split equally between our tangible CapEx and intangible CapEx, mainly the product registration. That is our plan for this year. On the IP for Advanta, probably I will request Bhupen to add further. We have lost the line of Mr. Bhupen. I'll reconnect Mr. Bhupen. Speakers, do you want to continue answering, or I connect Mr. Bhupen first?
Okay. I think the question was on the IPO. I think we had indicated in our Q1 press release and subsequently also during the earnings calls that UPL continues to evaluate various strategic opportunities to unlock shareholders' value across platforms, including restructuring or strategic fundraising, potential liquidity events like IPO.
You have seen that recently via the integration of post-harvest business with Advanta. If there is something material to share, we will do so in line with our disclosure obligations. As of now, not to share any. Mr. Bhupen is connected. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Yeah. Hi. Hi. Anurag this side. I think Bikash has responded to the question which NTS had on the potential liquidity event that [NTS] referred to. I think this was the last query that he had. Thank you all. On behalf of UPL Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may please disconnect the line.