Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Vimta Labs Limited Q3 FY26 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Systematix Institutional Equities. 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star, then Zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vishal Manchanda from Systematix Institutional Equities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Bhumi. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Systematix Institutional Equities, I welcome you to the Q3 FY26 earnings call of Vimta Labs. We thank the Vimta Labs management for giving us an opportunity to host the call. Today, we have with us the senior management of the company, represented by Ms. Harita Vasireddi, Managing Director, Mr. Satya Sreenivas Neerukonda, Executive Director, Mr. Siva Rama Krishna, Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Sujani Vasireddi, Company Secretary. Thank you, and over to you.
Yeah, thank you, Vishal. Good evening, everyone, and a warm welcome to Q3 and nine months FY26 earnings call of Vimta Labs Limited. Please note that the investor presentation and the financial results are available on the company website and the stock exchanges. Also, anything said on this call which reflects our outlook for the future or which could be construed as a forward-looking statement, must be reviewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. This conference call is being recorded, and the transcript, along with the audio of the same, will be made available on the website of the company as well as on the stock exchanges.
Please also note that the audio of the conference call is a copyright material of Vimta Labs Limited and cannot be copied, rebroadcast, or attributed in the press or media without specific and written consent of the company. From the management, we have with us Ms. Harita Vasireddi, Managing Director, Mr. Satya Sreenivas Neerukonda, Executive Director, Mr. Siva Rama Krishna Kambhampati, CFO, myself, Ms. Sujani Vasireddi, Company Secretary. Now, I request Ms. Harita Vasireddi, Managing Director of Vimta Labs Limited, to provide you with the update for the quarter and nine months ended 31st December 2025. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, Siva. Good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to the Q3 and 9-month FY26 earnings call today. I will start with the business updates, and then our CFO will take over to discuss the financial performance for the period ended 31st December 2025. I would like to report that Vimta Labs has recorded quarterly sales revenue of INR 100.5 crores, showcasing sustained momentum with a growth of 10.2% on a year-on-year basis. This growth is a result of the pharmaceutical and food testing services contributing majorly. As innovation accelerates, quality norms become more stringent, the wellness sector continues to expand, and the demand for uncompromising product quality and safety continues to surge. With a wide array and advanced testing capabilities and strong domain proficiency, Vimta is well-equipped to seize new growth opportunities in all our services.
Coming to discussing the services we provide in a little bit more detail. Our biggest contributor to the revenue, that is the pharmaceutical testing and research services. They continue to do well, but I'd like to share that, we saw some lag in booking, clinical trials and during the quarter, and we also faced certain unexpected operational challenges in the analytical services, which resulted in some revenues getting deferred to next quarters. On biologics, contract research and development services, I would like to again inform that, the equipment procurement and the facility setup is well on track, and we are confident of commercializing these services by, quarter one of next fiscal. Our food testing division experienced good momentum during the quarter, and, we will see improved traction in the coming quarter with certain tailwinds in place.
In the electrical and electronics division, revenues have remained steady, and we continue to focus on increasing our penetration into the market. From an operational standpoint, the installation of second chamber in our life sciences facility for EMI/EMC testing is well on track. The current chamber is running at 24/7, 80%-85% utilization. Anchored by a strong scientific and operational base and encouraging market momentum, we are optimistic about driving continued growth across our service offerings. With this, I will hand over the call back to Siva for a detailed discussion on the financials. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Harita. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our Q3 and nine-month FY26 earnings call today. I'll begin with an overview of our financial performance for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2025. After that, we'll open the floor for questions. Before we move into the financials, I'd like to highlight that following the divestment of our diagnostic and pathological services business announced on August 30, 2024. The figures for the previous period have been regrouped to ensure a like-for-like comparison with the current quarter. We will start with the financial highlights for the quarter. Total income for Q3 FY26 stood at INR 1,005 million, as compared to INR 911 million in Q3 2025, a 10%, 10.2% growth on a year-on-year basis.
Quarter-on-quarter had seen a slight decline of 3.9%, when compared to Q3 FY25. EBITDA stood at INR 344 million in Q3 FY26, as compared to INR 343 million in FY25, up by almost 0.4% year on year. EBITDA margins for the quarter stood at 34.3%. PAT in Q3 stood at INR 176 million, as compared to INR 175 million in Q3 FY25, a growth of 0.4% year on year. PAT margin for the quarter stood at 17.5%. Basic EPS in Q3 FY26 was at INR 3.96.
Coming to nine months' performance, total income for nine months FY 2026 was at INR 3,043 million, as compared to INR 2,521 million in previous year, so it has grown up by almost 20.7% year-on-year basis. EBITDA for nine months was at INR 1,068 million, as compared to INR 915 million in FY 2025, up by almost 16.7% year-on-year. EBITDA margin stood at 35.1%. Nine months FY 2026, PAT was at INR 564 million, as compared to INR 484 million in FY 2025, with a 16.4% year-on-year growth. PAT margin was at 18.5%. Basic EPS for nine months was at INR 12.7%.
I'd like you to note that pursuant to the implementation of the new labor law from November 26, 2026, we have recognized an amount of INR 1.6 crore as past service costs. Considering the one-time nature of this impact, we have disclosed it under exceptional items in the P&L account. On the balance sheet side, we continue to have a net debt-free balance sheet. With that, we can now open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants who wish to ask question, please press star and one. Our first question comes from the line of Preet Jain from Niveshaay Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir, am I audible? Hello?
Yes, go ahead.
Sir, a couple of questions from my side. First being, regarding our growth outlook, could you provide color on expected revenue trajectory for next 12-24 months? Specifically, how should we think about the ramp-up timelines for your current available capacity, and at what stage do you anticipate reaching peak utilization levels?
The markets are very favorable in this industry. Whether you take food testing or within the pharma industry, be it preclinical research or clinical research, even the market for electronics testing. So the environment is very conducive for companies to do well in this sort of a growth growing market. Coming to Vimta, I think we have a good track record of 40 years, be it science or systems or our business fundamentals, they're all pretty strong. So growth, we are very confident when it comes to the, I know, near near term and even the long term. As such, we don't give any forward-looking statements with respect to numbers, so I will refrain from doing that.
I can just share my confidence on what we think would be a good growth future for the company.
In past communication, company set a revenue target of INR 500 crore for current fiscal. So given the numbers of 9 quarters are out, is that expectation still intact? Do you expect that quarter growth will be a back-end surge to bridge the remaining gap to that target?
Yeah, typically, H2 tends to be better than H1. Like I was mentioning in my opening remarks, there were a couple of events that happened that coincided for us, and therefore you see that slight dip in quarter-on-quarter revenue. So we expect Q4 to be much better, that's been the trend, and so far nothing says that we will not have a better Q4. Now, are we going to come to the run rate of INR 125 crores, which is basically, you know, what I have been trying to share? Maybe not. We may not touch that number, but I feel we'll not be disappointed with where we land at by the end of the year.
Okay. One more question from my side. On the strategic shift towards CDMO and CRDMO , can you give a update, can you give an update when these projects are coming into pipeline, and when can we expect the revenues in Q1 FY27, you told. So how much contribution can they provide to the top line?
Next fiscal will be the maiden year for the biologics contract research and development services. So maiden year, I don't think we should be really looking at how big the numbers will be. It's more about going out there and picking up some clients who can trust us with their, you know, projects and delivering them well, so that we build confidence and good reputation with our first few projects. I think that's more important. We will be ready to commercialize by Q1, and hopefully, you know, we will have a project also, but I won't be able to say that now.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, who wish to ask a question may press star and one. Our next question comes from the line of Disha from Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello? Hello.
Yes, you're audible.
Am I audible?
Go ahead.
Yeah. Okay, yeah. So you mentioned in your commentary that there were some operational challenges we faced. So could you just elaborate a bit on what went wrong?
Nothing went wrong. We are doing a lot of restructuring within our facilities to accommodate for expansion of our analytical facility. So there, I think, there is some dependency on external sources to help us do those modifications. So there we experienced some unexpected delays, and this has impacted.
Okay.
The productivities of certain teams.
Okay, and I think you mentioned that there was some spillover of revenue into Q3 or Q4. So what would be the quantum of that, if you could just help?
That is too nitty-gritty, and let's not get into that. I can just say that, you know, a couple of things happened together, and therefore you see that slight dip in revenues quarter-on-quarter.
Okay. But then I think from Q4 onwards, we'll be back on our yearly bad debt assumption?
Yes.
Okay. All right. Okay, that's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Santosh Keshri from SKK HUF. Please go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes, you're audible.
Yeah. Thank you for giving me a chance. So my question is about CapEx and the return on capital employed. So, what we can see is that the CapEx is on an increasing trend from 2-3 years back, from INR 50 crore now to over the past 2-3 years, it is more than INR 70 crore. And then, ROC is something like getting not very regular at above 20%. So what could be the reason behind it? Are we seeing some concern in the market landscape, or there is some work in progress, and we can see the ROC going up beyond 20% in the next few quarters?
So, I think first on the CapEx spend, typically, in our industry, we invest what comes out of our depreciation amount of the previous year. That is a minimum must, because you don't want to be technologically obsolete, and you also need capacities to, you know, expand or grow your revenues. Because things like equipment, you add on the go, you don't buy and keep those capacities idle unless you are developing a new service. So, that's typically the CapEx spend, and we have been very much on target with that. The last couple of years, if you've been following the company, you may know that we have done a lot of capacity, infrastructure capacity expansion. And, also recently, we announced a foray into biologics, you know, formulation or process development services.
That involved additional CapEx. That's the reason you are seeing those additional numbers. Coming to ROC, I think we have some of the best in this TIC CRO industry. I don't see a problem there.
Okay. So, are we saying that we can get back 20% kind of ROC in the next few quarters, or it would be remaining under 20%?
The ROC that you are saying in the presentation is, is for the period of nine months. Okay? So that is compared to the full year, in the previous periods. Having said that, this, as MD has just mentioned, with the addition of biologics, division, where we are spending and the revenues are yet to come up, so there is a slight dip in the ROC in current financial year. So it will come back to regular levels.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. To ask a question, please press star and one now. Our next question comes from the line of Diksha from SP. Please go ahead.
Hey. Hi, thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions, ma'am. One, we had discussed in past about the U.S. exposure, where I believe you had mentioned that it was about 35% and exports, and then 60% of that, which effectively translates into 20% of the top line to U.S. So if that proportion remains the same, if I look at it, top line contribution?
Yes, I think.
And my second.
That has actually, the export percentage-
Sure.
has actually slightly gone up in Q3. So exports, we are more or less doing good. No, in, in Q3, we have the export revenue.
I'm sorry. Can you repeat? I could not get.
Almost 39% of our income is from exports, which is actually better than the first half of the year.
Okay. And out of 39, what would be U.S. export, ma'am?
About maybe 60% is from U.S. We have.
So that proportion remains?
Yeah, yeah. Yes.
Sure. Second question, ma'am, on this top line guidance, I did not follow. Are we sort of still more or less aligned with that INR 500 crore top line for the next year, or that may be sort of revised?
No, no. Next year, we're definitely aligned.
Okay. Next year, annual target still remains INR 500 crore?
Yeah, like I said, I don't give out forward-looking statement with respect to numbers. But, since, you know, this 2025 by 2026 was a goal we took almost 5, 6 years ago when we even had diagnostics. So that's when we said we'll share this vision with the market, because it's always good to share long-term plans so that you know, you understand what we are working towards. Otherwise, it's we don't normally issue forward-looking guidances on numbers.
Okay. Okay, and any plans on inorganic, ma'am? Because, there are a lot of opportunity in the market for this, your line of business typically, where it is a lot of unorganized players are there who are trying to sort of get exit. Are we looking at that inorganic, mode of growth, or we are strictly no, no?
In principle, we, we too believe that the future would have some sort of inorganic, component, with regards to our growth. But, is there anything on the cards right away? I would say no.
Okay. Okay. That's helpful, ma'am. Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask questions, please press star and one. Our next question is from the line of Mr. Vishal Manchanda from Systematix Institutional Equities. Please go ahead. Vishal, sir, please go ahead with your question.
Hi. Sorry, I was on mute. Ma'am, in your opening comments, you hinted that there was still some positive traction on the food front that you are witnessing, and we'll probably see good numbers from next quarter. Can you share some color on, are there any positive regulatory developments there?
No. Food tends to be seasonal business, and Q4 is typically the quarter which does the highest numbers in the whole year. So that's why I mentioned tailwinds, because in Q4, you'll generally see that seasonal benefit.
Right. Right. While. But there are no major, there are no important regulatory changes happening in this space that can help, a lot.
Quite a few are happening. They are continuously happening, so a lot of effort is being put to continuously expand our scope under the NABL certification also. So, that is actually a good thing for the laboratory, and these are continuously happening. Now, we can't say, no, there is any major one, but small, small ones, they are the ones that add more and more testing revenue for the laboratories.
Okay. And second one, on the clinical trial research space, have we been able to kind of get more clinical trial research projects?
Yes. No, like I mentioned, I think even in the previous call, we are already working on a couple of more projects.
Okay. So we have initiated these projects, the new projects that we have got?
Yes, one is on its way, and the other one is under initiation.
Okay. So we will see the impact going forward in subsequent quarters?
Yeah. Small portion of our revenues, because it's just a year since we started. So even if it was, you know, doing well, the impact on the overall top line will still be very, very small. So I wouldn't attribute any growth in the previous, you know, quarters to clinical trials. It's yet to become significant for us.
Okay. So, just some clarity here on the... how many, so these are the phase three trials, right? Unlike bioequivalence trial, which are different. These are larger phase three trials, and probably they, they fetch you more revenues than bioequivalence trials. Is that-
It depends.
My understanding.
What we have done already are phase two trial. Phase three, we are yet to do any. But it could be, you know, different kinds of trials. You know, the population size can vary, you know, as small as 60, 90 subjects. The bigger trials, which are in, you know, hundreds of INR crores, could have much bigger populations. So here the variation is very high.
Okay. So you take the entire ownership of the trial, or you basically help the sponsor conduct the trial for them?
We do the entire trial for them.
Okay. So basically, the sponsor will be Vimta Labs. If I kind of go and do a clinical trial search, Vimta Labs should be the sponsor name in those trials.
No. Sponsor is the customer.
Okay, okay. So, will your name figure out... figure up in the clinical trial name?
No, I don't think so.
Okay. Okay. Like, in some trials, I could see, like, IQVIA names, IQVIA being the sponsor. While the drug is owned by a company, but the IQVIA is a sponsor there of the trial.
I see. No, I'll have to then reconfirm. Yeah.
Okay, okay. Just on the final one, on the biologics front, any direction you would like to give in the next 3-4 years? How do you expect this business to shape up? Can this be like one of your large verticals in the overall business?
I think it's too soon for me to comment on it. We should go through a year and see how we are able to navigate in this market. Let me allow me to come back to you maybe after a year on this.
But.
It does have the potential.
So is it fair to say, like, a single biosimilar project would probably be much larger in terms of the value size? Like, if you get a customer on board for a biosimilar project, the potential revenue size of that single project should be typically larger than other projects that you would have in on the analytical side?
When it comes to biolog.
Can I.
Yeah, sure. Go ahead.
Yeah, yeah. It depends, Vishal. What stage are we onboarding the projects? Biologics, we do multiple services for any biologics, biosimilars and peptides. One is analytical services, one is characterization, one is on the clinical side. We do preclinical studies, and the new one, which we are starting now, is the formulation development service. If someone is only--someone already has developed the process and he has some challenges in the process, he's only looking for troubleshooting and all, the project size may be a little smaller than if you get the full project. Let's say he already has a clone, which they have developed, or they have secured a licensed clone, and from there, all the way up to the process, up to the pilot scale development.
So these are larger projects, right? So it depends on what is the amount of exposure on that particular project to us. But definitely, I mean, if you get the full scale, let's say like what we are setting up here, up to 20 liters, 30, 50 liters. So as the scale increases, the price, I mean, the project size or the project value also increases.
Okay. We have capabilities across all the segments in place. We don't, we'll not need to hire neither from a, like you have human, you have personnel, and you also have equipment, both,
We have human, yes. The team is on board, the equipment is on board. The site is ready now. Up to the process level, lab scale, we are ready. Then, the next scale-up would be maybe after a year, once we see how this traction builds up in the market.
We got it, sir. Thank you very much. That's all from my side.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one. Our next question comes from the line of Tanay Malpani, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes, sir, you are audible. Please go ahead with your question.
So, first of all, I would like to congratulate the team that we have become a significant name in the CRO industry. So I have two questions. One question is on the line of the EBITDA margins. So we are maintaining a very healthy EBITDA margin from financial year 2023. So do we expect the momentum to continue in terms of margins?
Yeah, these EBITDA margins, I always say ±1% or 2%. They are, they will be maintained, at least in the near term.
Okay, and there is a trend of an increase in the use of AI, which is significantly boosting the EBITDA margins for various companies. In our field, do we see the use of AI?
Yes. We work with a lot of technologies, and all these technology companies have already built their AI components into these technologies, which we have been using for quite some time. In addition to that, Vimta has set on a digital transformation path almost five years ago. So we have own in-house digital transformation team that keeps working on our processes to make them more efficient and also help scale up the processes. So this is a continuous activity, and that's picking up a lot of momentum for us, especially last year. We expect to see a lot more of this happening in the next year in our laboratories.
Okay. So we can expect a further improvement in margins?
Margins, there is a plus side and a minus side also. On one side, we are definitely pushing our efficiencies, which is helping us the cost of the escalation in cost of manpower and also some input materials. We use a lot of chemicals, reagents, standards, columns. So on that side, you know, there is a continuous escalation in prices. Manpower, like in any other industry, when we have been severely impacted with the rise in costs, especially post-COVID. But all these years we have been able to successfully neutralize that by countering it with more efficiencies in our workflows.
Okay, and relating to manpower, there is an increase in competition in the CRO landscape specifically. So is there any manpower attrition, or we are just in line?
We are on par with the industry, I would say, but is the attrition low? No, attrition is quite high across the industry, and it looks like now that's going to be the norm.
Okay, hopefully we are able to retain the key managerial positions.
Yes. We are able to retain people who are key and critical for the sustainability of science and growth within the organization.
Okay, thank you. My next question is regarding the CRO landscape, that we are in the top five position. In almost all of the segments we have put our foot in. But in the electronics and electrical segment, how do we plan to get that status? Because there is several sectoral players there, but how can we capitalize on that? Is there any plan in line?
Yes, we have already doubled our capacity this year for electronics and electrical testing division. So the growth is as per our expectation. Here, just like in the food industry, you need more testing centers, because typically customers tend to prefer this, because if you're testing, for example, a drone or if you're testing an electric vehicle, very unlikely that you will bring your vehicle all the way from Pune to test it in Hyderabad. So there are such constraints in this industry. We have filled a gap that existed, especially in the Hyderabad region. So our majority of business comes from defense. Some of you may know, Hyderabad is a good home for a lot of OEMs that supply to the defense sector.
So that's a gap that we were able to come in and quickly fill. And, we were touching our capacity on the EMI, EMC testings. Therefore, we added one more chamber, which got qualified in the last quarter itself. Going forward, you know, to keep continuing to grow this business, we would have to open up more laboratories. That's the way to grow this business.
Okay, thank you. That's all from my side.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask questions, please press star and one. Our next question comes from the line of Aditya Chheda from InCred Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hello, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is on the employee expense and other expense. While they are flat sequentially, nature of investment slash expenses growth for the Q3 and nine months, is it related to the new facility? And whether some of these investments are ahead of the revenues, et cetera. Since the YOY growth in both of these segments is higher than the revenue growth, we would like to better understand the nature of investments or increase in expenses in both employee and other expenses.
Employee expenses, like you said, it's flat. As a percentage, it's slightly higher because of the slight dip in the top line. So there is nothing significantly that has grown there. Other expenses, yes, we are increasing our marketing efforts overseas, so there will be some, you know, additional expense on account of this in the coming quarters as well.
Facility expenses that we have added recently.
Yes, that's a large facility that we added, so there will be a little additional expense coming from there as well.
Well noted. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining the call, and thank you for the nice questions. I want to thank you and Vishal and Systematix and the host for hosting this call. Thank you, and have a pleasant evening. Bye-bye. Thanks, Vishal. Thanks, Bhumi.
Thank you. On behalf of Systematix Institutional Equities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.