Gentlemen, good day and welcome to Symphony Limited's Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by IIFL Capital Services Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Renu Baid Pugalia from IIFL Capital Services. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, Michelle. Very good evening, everyone. Today we have with us the senior team of Symphony for the 1Q FY 2026 earnings conference call. The management is represented by Mr. Achal Bakeri, Chairman and Managing Director; Mr. Nrupesh Shah, Managing Director, Corporate Affairs; Mr. Amit Kumar, Group CEO and Executive Director; and Mr. Rajesh Mishra, CEO of International Business. I now hand over the call to Mr. Bakeri for his opening comments. Thereafter, we can proceed with the presentation and the call. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much, Renu. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to this earnings call of Symphony. I will be handing over to Mr. Nrupesh Shah, who will take us through a presentation, after which we are all here for the Q&A. The customary safe harbor rules apply. Thank you very much once again. Nrupesh ?
Thank you, and welcome to Q1 conference call for FY 2026. As everybody knows, summer 2025 was a subdued summer due to on a very high base of summer of 2024. Like many other summer-related industries or summer-related products, Symphony has been also adversely impacted. Revenue during the quarter on a standalone basis stands at INR 229 crores, down from INR 373 crores, while PAT stands at INR 37 crores, down from INR 69 crores. During the quarter, we have succeeded in recovering about INR 5 crores from Pathways Retail Pvt Ltd, which was written off earlier and shown as an exceptional gain. As said earlier, revenue is lower on account of shortened and rain-disrupted summer.
On top of it, also to keep in mind, in March 2025 quarter, we had unprecedented sale and record sales, so in a way, there was also huge pre-season stocking as well as sales to an extent because of shortened summer and intermittent rain, even that impacted. However, also wish to highlight that June 2025 sales of INR 229 crores is the second-highest ever June quarter sales, surpassing sales of earlier based off the summer quarter. The earlier summer quarter base sales was June 2022. Vis-à-vis that, it is higher by 10%. Today board has approved interim dividend of INR 1 per share, totaling INR 7 crores. On top of it, as today, there was AGM, even final dividend of INR 8 per share in addition to earlier buyback and interim dividend of last year will also be released.
These are the financials for trailing 12 months as many of you wish to like to track for trailing 12 months. July 2024 to June 2025, revenue from operations on a standalone stand at INR 1,038 crore versus INR 996 crore. EBITDA INR 229 crore, almost flat, while PBT, before exceptional item, INR 283 crores, up from INR 275 crores. In terms of the capital efficacy during trailing 12 months, capital employed in core business was negative by INR 30 crores versus INR 24 crore previous 12 months, translating into ROCE of infinite, and return on net worth stands at 18%. Last year, the total payout was 84%, and over last 10 years, the payout has been in excess of 80% of the profit after tax and post that, the treasury stands at INR 363 crore as on June 30th.
Consolidated financials. Technically now, consolidated financials, we have to present in two parts. Part one is for continuing operations, and part two is for proposed companies which are on block. T his is for Symphony India, GSK China, and Brazil. Put together, the turnover is INR 251 crore and PAT is INR 39 crores, and PAT margin stands at 15.40%. GSK China continues showing strong growth momentum, having a huge potential. For Brazil, it was a non-seasonal quarter, but gearing up for summer season 2025. For IMPCO Mexico and Symphony AU, that is the companies on block, the sales stand at INR 99 crore, PAT stands at INR 3 crore, and their EBITDA margin stands at 12%. IMPCO Mexico also, after three consecutive rock solid years and summers, wherein it registered a year-on-year 30% CAGR growth.
Just like India, it was a mild summer and hence, the quarter has been impacted and EBITDA margin has been also impacted only and only on account of the operating leverage. While in case of Symphony AU, now our complete asset-light business model is in place. Our factory lease expired in July and we have not renewed that and hence, its outsourcing is in Australia, India, and China. Its product and market expansion is on track. On top of it, now it has a product portfolio befitting to the local market. W e believe that henceforth, the benefit of transformation should accrue, and this is second straight quarter of year-on-year growth. As it was conveyed earlier, the status of IPR transactions between GSK and IMPCO. GSK concluded nine IPR transaction and technology know-how sale to IMPCO Mexico as mutually beneficial.
The total transaction value is $5.2 million, amounting to INR 44 crore. Half of it, that is first tranche of INR 22 crore, has been concluded in June quarter, and remaining half will be concluded in September 2025 quarter in terms of the cash flow. GSK China has repaid the loan of INR 28 crore to Symphony India, partly out of internal accruals and remaining from sale proceeds of an IPR transaction. Now the loan to India outstanding is INR 26 crore versus peak of INR 60 crore in May 2024, and that also seems to be fully repaid by end of the year. INR 22 crore mostly in current quarter itself out of the sale proceeds of IPR and remaining from its internal accrual.
Henceforth, GSK China will also be in line with Symphony India in terms of the capital efficacy. During the quarter, we launched a new range of air cooler, that is Air Force range. It has received very strong traction, fueling scale-up as well as range expansion from several category of the markets. We have accelerated all season and counter seasonal product growth, which are in the category of tower and kitchen cooling fan, large space ventilator cooling fans, as well as water heaters.
It won't be out of place to mention that in trailing 12 months, the sales of this category plus export from India, that is non-household air cooler products contributed more than 25% of the sales in Symphony India, which used to be less than 10% earlier. Again, it has a huge potential to grow further. We are strengthening our market presence in alternate channels as well as more and more focus on semi-urban as well as rural markets. Thank you, and w ith this, we are open for question-and- answer.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only hands up while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. You may please press star and one to ask questions. The first question is from the line of Siddhant from Goodwill. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. I just wanted to know about the channel inventory and what kind of situation would be there over their end?
Siddhant, that's a pretty pertinent question. Given that the March quarter, we were placing inventory very adjustably with the channels. The end of the period inventory, at this point in time is higher than what we expect at the end of the summer quarter. That said, we are in the process of collating the entire data, and I am not at liberty right now to put in exact numbers at this stage.
But, it is more than the normal inventory on account of subdued summer. As you know, we have passed through many such summers in the past. That is part and parcel of the business, and still we have to overcome, and we have to perform.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants, you may please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Balas ubramanian from Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. On the different category side, LSV, tower fans, and water heaters, I think now these are decent double-digit sales. If you could share, what are the growth trend is expected and how will these categories mitigate seasonality risk, and how do you look at those specific products in going forward? What kind of new launches are in pipeline?
Again, that's a very interesting question, and especially given the way the season panned out, these categories may-
I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir. Sir, you're sounding a little bit distant. Can you come closer to the mic and speak, please?
Right. Is it any better now?
Yes, sir. Thank you so much. You may continue now.
These new categories that we are talking about, the tower fan, the kitchen cooling fan, the LSV also for that matter, if I look at last three, four years, they are clearly giving us 50% + kind of CAGR, and hence building a key part of the growth portfolio that we are building. Another thing, even after a subdued season like this, these categories, even within this financial year, they have grown by a similar rate versus last year. In that sense, these are giving us a contra-seasonal portfolio to continue build on and help make our portfolio more robust.
As you already mentioned, we are into double-digit percentages with these products in our total sales portfolio. Going forward, I continue to research. I see them continue to grow at a faster clip compared to the core residential coolers portfolio. I would refrain from sharing numbers at this stage, but clearly they would be at a faster growth rate compared to the overall company growth.
It won't be out of place to mention that to an extent this category was also a savior for June quarter, despite it was a subdued summer. As Amit mentioned, this category even in June quarter registered very robust growth.
Mr. Balas ubramanian, do you have further questions, sir?
Yes. Hello, am I audible?
Yes.
Sir, on this BLDC technology side, BLDC coolers and tower fans, what is the adoption rate and how we are differentiate compared to our competitors in terms of pricing and cost structures and margin terms?
This is a range. The BLDC range of coolers we launched two years back, and even in the tower fan, we have BLDC product that has been in the market for more than one year. Each of these are priced at, give or take, about 10%-15% premium over the standard non-BLDC products that we have in similar categories. The adoption has been mixed, I would say, in the tower. The adoption is better than in the air coolers, but we continue to be keen on building this, and we are looking at this as an additional kind of product segment as we go forward.
And unlike other brands wherein BLDC fans, despite their top-line growth, they keep on registering losses, we are having and we are going to grow with profitability.
Okay, sir. Sir, we are targeting exports, like doubling exports in maybe next three years. Because of the current tariff situations, are we focusing to scaling up in U.S. especially, and is there any challenges regarding capacity or logistics, and whether if you are doing exports, whether these tariff things we are completely taking care or we are sharing with our customers?
Look, U.S. tariffs are an evolving situation. Every day it's something different. We are not holding our breath about what is going to happen. In any case, our tariffs on products from India are lower than on tariffs China. Really speaking, at this point, it doesn't really matter. Whatever had to go for the summer of 2025 is already there. Now what really matters is what happens in the summer of 2026. That's a long way off, we'll see what happens. We'll cross that bridge when we come to .
Okay, sir. My final question regarding what is the channel inventory level status, sir, this quarter?
You probably missed the answer that we gave to the previous question, which was that same question. There is a significantly high inventory in the channel than it usually is. There is no doubt about that because of the weak summer that we faced. The exact numbers are something which is a different story. F or the purpose of this call, the inventory is high.
Okay, sir. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Shraddha Kapadia from SMIFS. Please go ahead.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes, go ahead.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question is regarding Q1. Q1 has normally been a seasonally strong quarter for the company, but the revenue fell sharply. How much of this decline is attributable to weather versus the structural or the competitor factors? Also, if you could help us with the current market share number for the company?
While the sales has fallen off a cliff as compared to last year, as was presented before the Q&A began, the sales were still higher than any other previous year. We have to look at it in light of that. The loss of sales is entirely on account of a weak summer because the same has been experienced by all industries in all summer categories like air conditioners, fans, coolers, of course, refrigerators and everything associated with it like stabilizers and batteries and so on and so forth. It is absolutely a summer related issue. There is no structural issue whatsoever.
Okay.
In terms of?
Market share. Yes, sir.
Yeah, in terms of the market share, the market share also remains what it was because everyone's sales has dropped. It isn't as if Symphony's sales has dropped more than others. If you've been reading the commentary of various other companies, and we have information from the market. Everybody's sales has dropped, probably more than Symphony's. A t the end, when we get the market share reports, it might so happen that Symphony's market share may have actually risen.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much for such a detailed answer. Also, sir, if you could help me with the region-wise demand, would that be possible?
The summer was the worst in the south, so I would say the degrowth was the worst in the south. It was, I would say, uniformly bad across the rest of the country.
Okay, sir. Have you seen any early recovery post June? If you could just give a basic outlook for the H2 of the upcoming festival and the winter season?
Shraddha, this is a category which the end consumer only buys in the summer months. In the current quarter, these are being the monsoon and the sort of the rainy season, there is no consumer sales. There is no tertiary sales that happens in this quarter. What we will sell will be largely to the channel. Because of the high inventory in the channel, which I spoke about a little earlier, that sales will also be subdued. We do expect some sort of, I would say, tapering off of sales in the current quarter as well, compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Okay, sir. May I continue?
Sure.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay. Considering the IMPCO and the Australia divestiture which is there, any update on the monetization, if you could provide? Last we knew that the bankers have been appointed, but if you could provide any more update, that would be great.
We've had some very good interest evinced by companies internationally. They are still at a very early stage of signing the NDA and all of that. We'll certainly share the news when the time is right, when we're closer to signing a deal.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Renu Baid Pugalia from IIFL Capital Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Given that this year, as in the start of the year, is already impacted by the seasonal headwinds, what are our plans to scale up the portfolio both on the export side as well as on the non-air cooler part of the business, both in terms of the industrial air cooling as well as the other products like fans, etc? Any specific initiatives on the GTM trade would be helpful.
Sure. Renu, for the other products, as again was in the presentation, the growth has been significantly higher than, o bviously the other products, the residential products have de-grown, but our industrial coolers and our tower fans and our kitchen cooling fans, all the other categories have grown, and grown very impressively. We are continuing to expand the market. Last year, as far as water heaters are concerned, it is another category that we introduced last year. That was only introduced in a very limited geography, in a couple of cities in the south.
Now we are sort of rolling that out to more cities across the country as well as to some modern retail stores. It is going to be a gradual rollout. I think it will only be a year from now that we will have a sort of a pan-India presence in the water heater category. Whereas for all the other categories, tower fans, industrial coolers, we are certainly present across the country, and those categories have been growing very impressively. We are sure that rate of growth will continue. Again, as was said, they constitute together about 25%, or?
About 25%.
About 25% of our revenue. That will keep on growing. On top of that, of course, exports has also done well and will continue to do well, exports to third parties as well as to our subsidiaries. The entire sort of future does not depend only on the sales within India. There are various other drivers which will sort of lead us to continued sales.
Got it. Secondly, with respect to capital allocation, do we have a targeted budget in mind that you would like to invest in R&D and product development for these tower fans or BLDC fans, or for that matter, the new portfolio which you are trying to scale up for water heaters there?
Again, good question again. Considering our business model, we do not require much CapEx to grow. Even last year, we introduced some 17 new models. This year also, there are several models in the pipeline. The investment that these will all require would be in several crores. We are not talking about the tens of crores, maybe less than INR 10 crores. The CapEx that is required in our business model for us to grow is nothing significant, doesn't really impact the numbers one way or the other. We will continue to invest whatever is required to meet the market requirements and to keep on innovating, to keep on addressing different segments of the market. That will just keep on happening as it has been for the last several years.
Sure. Last question, while exports now has been of significant focus for us, given that both the Mexican as well as the Australian arm, we are divesting it in the next few quarters. Following the last analyst meet, what would be the updates in terms of targeted investment to increase the direct reach with the channel partners and large distributors in the region and other countries aligned? Does the noise around, or the entire confusion around the tariff, non-tariff structure, has put these plans on the sidelines, or they continue to remain unabated?
Let me answer your second question first. As far as the tariffs are concerned, they have not impacted our plans in any manner whatsoever. That has been noise, to quote you. Even the tariffs which were announced yesterday on products from India are lower than on the tariffs from China, which is our primary competitor. As far as the other geographies are concerned, we don't really need to, again, invest a lot. All it really takes in our business model is to have people and invest in their travel. That is something that we have been doing in any way, so there is nothing exceptionally different that we will do going forward.
Even in Mexico and Australia, the two geographies that we are divesting from, or the two companies that we are divesting from, like we said before, we are not exiting from those geographies. We will probably continue to sell to the same companies, even under new management, under new ownership, at least in the foreseeable future. We don't really expect the divestment to substantially alter our international business numbers.
Got it. J ust a small clarification. For these regions, our eventual game plan would be to target supplies to these entities, but under the new ownership, rather than reinvesting back in the GTM in those regions, or say, for example, for U.S.A., instead of Australian market. Am I right, or it would be a combination of both?
It could be a combination of both. Because for the companies per se, IMPCO and Climate Technologies, it would be like white labeling. We would sell under those brands, Bonaire and the other brands in Mexico, which are owned by those companies. A t the moment, we own the company, so we own the brands. I n the future, when the companies are sold, or we won't own those brands, so what we will sell to them will be white labeling. O n top of that, we'll continue to explore opportunities to sell different products, different models of coolers under the Symphony brand in those same geographies.
Got it. Thanks a lot and best wishes, team. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Keshav Lahoti from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I just wondered at what time when you think the channel inventory will get normalized? Is it fair to assume channel inventory is possibly at lower levels than March?
Yeah. First of all, yes, your first question answers the second. The channel inventory will only sort of get normalized once tertiary sales begins, and closer to next summer, sales will begin and channel inventory will get normalized. Yeah, that is how it would be. That is how this industry sort of behaves.
Understood. T ell me one thing, if you compare the RAC industry with cooler, we see the RAC industry decline has been lower, around let's say 25%, but cooler industry have declined more. What would be the reason for the same? Secondly, how is your revenue mix in southwest and northwest and other regions?
The air cooler as a category is far more spontaneous. Purchase of air coolers as a category is far more spontaneous than air conditioners are. Air conditioners are more of a planned purchase, or even refrigerators are more of a planned purchase than air coolers. Because air coolers are plug-and-play, you can sort of just go out to a store the day the mercury sort of crosses 40- 42 degree, bring it home, plug it in, and it starts cooling you.
Whereas an air conditioner, it needs installation and all of that, so it's more of a planned purchase. Which is why the de-growth in air conditions may have been I don't have specific numbers, and I'm just going by what you just stated. I don't even know whether that's true or not. I f that is the case, then if the de-growth is less than air coolers, then the reason which I just gave would really be why.
By the way, in summer of 2024, the growth of air cooler category was far higher than air conditioner. I n that case, that base effect has also come into play.
Right. Point taken. How is your mix, I said, south versus northwest or that region? Border states?
Uniform across the country.
Got it. Okay, last question from my side.
Yeah, go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah. B y when you expect these two subsidiaries to possibly get monetized? Any time possibly this year or next year?
I wish I had a crystal ball, but I would say maybe towards the end of the current financial year or in the early part of next financial year. Difficult to say. It is still very early stage, so it all really depends on how things happen going forward.
Okay. This year has been paying for both the subsidies based on initial interest, right?
Sorry?
This year's paying for both the subsidies b ased on initially possibly what you have got?
Yes.
Got it. Very helpful. Thank you so much. That's it.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pallavi Deshpande from Sameeksha Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. I just wanted to understand on the Australia side, given the companies are on the block, does it affect market share? What would be the current market share currently, and how do we expect to maintain?
Can you repeat the question, please?
Yeah. Just wanted to understand in Australia, what would be the market share currently? Given the dealers would know these companies on the block, does that impact future market share?
Historically in Australia, we have been selling coolers, rooftop coolers, and gas ducted heaters. In both those categories, our market share was about 30%-33%. In the last year, there has been a regulatory change, and the sales of gas ducted heaters in the biggest market, which is the state of Victoria in Southern Australia, has been banned. Sales have almost competed out to next to nothing, and the same is true for the entire industry, not just for us, for all our competitors.
There, market share or lack thereof really is academic. As far as coolers are concerned, our market share continues to be about 1/3 . T he bigger story here is that what we have done is we have pivoted from coolers and heaters to electric products, which is sort of ducted reverse cycle air conditioners. Air conditioners which do both cooling and heating. We've also gone into a whole range of other heating products like electric fireplaces and panel heaters and oil column heaters and so on, so forth.
We have sort of diversified into a whole other range of products. We've also developed a channel which is appropriate for those products. Channel on the sales side and channel on the supply side. Going forward, as we said in the opening remarks, we've also exited from all the manufacturing. The entire transformation of that business is now finally in place. What we believe internally is that we are at the bottom of that Hockey stick curve.
It's taken a long time to get there or to get to the point where you sort of are at the beginning of the upcycle of the hockey stick curve, but we believe that's where we are. Going forward with none of our fixed overheads being on our books, we've transformed into a purely sales, marketing, distribution company, much like what we are in India and what we are in Mexico. That's sort of a long answer to a short question.
On top of it, we've added warehouses and we have added sales person and even people in new geographies.
Yes.
The tariff has affected the sales person, m any people have lost their job.
Correct. We have added sales people. We have added third-party warehouses across Australia. Australia is also a vast country, three times the size of India. It is a continent. Earlier, our presence was only in Southern Australia, but now our presence is in all the major cities, which are all spread across the coast of Australia. From Sydney and Brisbane to the east, Darwin to the north, Perth to the west. We are now present across the country.
Right. This air conditioner that you mentioned, it would be under Bonaire brand only, right, sir?
Yes. That is the legacy brand of the company in Australia.
Right. My second question was with regard to exports with China's heavier duties than us to the U.S. When do we see the export numbers kick in for us, given their summer would start this, I mean, post- January or whatever?
V ery honestly, like I said before, we are not losing sleep over this tariff thing because it is an evolving situation. The dust has not settled, and it takes a while for it to happen. Let us see what happens in the months to follow. Really what we should be concerned about is what happens when we have to begin to ship material for the summer of 2026. At that point, if the tariffs are still lower than the tariffs on China, we are in a happy place. It does not really bother us.
Even though in the U.S., we had a significant growth this quarter over the last quarter.
Correct. Rajesh here, who oversees the international subsidiary, has just pointed out and just sort of reminded me that, of course, our sales in the U.S. in this quarter is significantly higher than what it was last year at the same quarter.
And already we are in an advanced stage of finalizing with all the key retailers for the upcoming [crosstalk]
I am sorry, sir, your voice is feeble. We could not hear you.
Sir mentioned that [crosstalk]
This is Rajesh, who was going to speak about the U.S. market. Go ahead, Rajesh.
As far as U.S. is concerned, within U.S., our sales this quarter we have significantly gone up. We do have our tariff presence. There are subsidiaries there. The sales are up compared to last quarter. On top of it, for the upcoming summer, all the major retail chains have already shown interest. Not just interest, they have, in fact, shortlisted some of the models as we speak. Samples have reached them, and there is a process of finalizing, hopefully large orders for the upcoming summer.
Even our existing current and potential customers are not really losing sleep over the tariffs because they also realize that this is not the end of the entire tariff saga.
All right. Last year, we had a good performance on exports. I was just wondering if that same similar thing can be replicated this year.
Yeah. It should be, if not significantly improved upon.
All right. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shraddha Kapadia from SMIFS. Please go ahead.
Thank you again for the opportunity. S ir, I just wanted to understand that if and when the monetization happens, what would be the intended use of the proceeds?
No, I think we will cross that bridge when it comes. A s per our business model, we do not need much of the capital. It remains asset-light, capital-light, and by divesting, in fact, that will further improve. N o specific thoughts as of now, but mostly we will not need that cash.
But if at the back of your mind is a question of whether we will go on another international acquisition adventure, then that is something which I would like to categorically say that is not going to happen. We are not going to be acquiring any international or domestic company. We believe that for us, the model for export is similar to our Brazil model, where we have a local subsidiary. We have a team which sells. W e will have feet on the ground, people who are selling our product. We will not be acquiring more companies to expand our business internationally.
Sure, that was quite helpful. One more question from my side. If you could help with the realization as well as the margin profile for the adjacent categories, is it higher than the air coolers, especially the margins?
Well, in some products, they are higher. In some products, they are maybe a little lower. It is a mixed bag.
Also, if you could just help with the LSV, majorly.
I am sorry?
LSV?
What about it?
If you could help with the margin profile?
Yeah. Significantly better.
Okay. Sure. That was quite helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
All right. Thank you very much once again, everybody. To IIFL for hosting this call, and for all the participants, for your interest and your questions. I hope we have been able to answer all of them effectively, and we look forward to seeing you three months from now. Thank you once again.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you, members of the management.
Thank you, Ma'am. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of IIFL Capital Services Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.