Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Alicon Castalloy Limited 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 this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mit Shah from CDR India. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Darwin. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Alicon Castalloy Limited's Q3 and 9M FY25 earnings conference call. We have with us on the call today Mr. Vimal Gupta, Group CFO, and Mr. Shyam Agarwal, Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Vimal Gupta will provide an overview of the operating and financial performance for the period under review, following which Mr. Agarwal will take us through the developments in the global markets and insights on domestic business. Thereafter, we shall open the forum for a Q&A session. Before we begin, I'd like to point out that certain statements made in today's call could be forward-looking in nature, and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings documents that have been shared with you earlier. I'd like to invite Mr. Vimal Gupta for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Alicon Castalloy Quarter Three Financial Year 2025 earnings conference call. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time and interest in our company. I hope you have had a chance to review our earnings documents shared earlier. Performance in the third quarter was influenced by a volatile macroeconomic environment, which impacted demand across key segments and geographies. While we navigated the challenges with resilience, our overall performance was slightly weaker than anticipated. Reflecting the thoughts of those industries' conditions, revenues for Quarter Three FY2025 stood at INR 393 crore, compared to INR 406 crore in Quarter Three FY2024. Top line was impacted by subdued demand in key export markets, with severe weakness in Europe.
We also had some customer-specific incidents with a production shutdown at India plant of a leading Japanese OEM and challenges with one of our European two-wheeler OEM customers, impacting the ability to absorb volumes of our products. While demand for two-wheeler in the domestic market continued to be robust, it was not sufficient to offset the broader revenue impact. The macro environment remains challenging, with slowing of growth and persistent inflationary trends. As a result, the GDP in real terms is set to slow across most major geographies, resulting in normalizing of growth happening post the COVID supercycle. In the context, the USA is seen to be holding up well, but there is sluggishness, particularly in Europe, where demand weakness persists. These trends are also concerning with a slowdown in industrial production, which is anticipated to have bottomed out in Quarter Three.
Turning to the financial performance, gross margin for the quarter came at 45.81%, making a decline of 543 basis points from 51.24% in Quarter Three of FY2024. This was largely driven by shifts in the sales mix, as lower sales in the commercial vehicle segment and carbon-neutral products were not entirely compensated by the growth in two-wheeler volumes. We also made upfront investments in new technologically advanced plants, imbibing robotics, automation, and new age manufacturing processes. As these units are yet to scale, the recovery of fixed cost has been suboptimal, impacting the gross margins for the quarter. Some of you may recall our discussions on the earnings call last quarter, where we had indicated that gross margins were softening due to the changing mix. We have seen further impact of that trend this quarter, along with the effect of some set of costs for the new projects.
The EBITDA was INR 350 million compared to INR 530 million in Quarter Three of FY 2024, with a margin of 9% versus 13% in Quarter Three last year. The impact on gross margin from higher fixed cost and adverse product mix had flowed into EBITDA. Depreciation rose to INR 235 million from INR 200 million, reflecting investments in machinery and tooling, as well as automation and advanced manufacturing technologies. Pre-tax profits stood at INR 10.5 million compared to INR 230 million in Quarter Three of FY 2024, while net profit for the quarter was INR 7.8 million versus INR 170 million last year. This is reflecting the impact of the adverse sales mix and the upfront cost of establishing new lines, for which impact is evident on gross profit and EBITDA level too. For the nine-month period, total revenues stood at INR 12,980 million, up 14% from the INR 11,420 million in nine months of FY 2024.
Gross margin was 47.91% compared to 50.6% last year, while EBITDA for nine months of FY2025 was INR 150 crore, a 7% increase year-on-year basis. The profit after tax for the period was INR 37 crore compared to INR 41 crore in nine months of FY2024. Our capital expenditure for Quarter Three stood at INR 42 crore, while for nine months of FY2025, it was around INR 140 crore, with investments directed towards machinery and new product development. For Quarter Four, we expect further CapEx of around INR 20-25 crore, aligned with our growth initiatives. As we started FY2025 with had guided for INR 1,800 crore in revenue, targeting 15% growth for the full year. After a strong performance in the first half in the earnings post last quarter, we had indicated that we witnessed softening of demand in export markets of Europe and the U.S., as well as in the domestic market.
Like we are seeing across the industry with other players who are supplying to the markets of Europe and the USA, there has been a sustained weakness in the demand in Europe, as well as uncertainty around the evolving dynamics of tariffs and regulations that the new regime may introduce in the US, which has made buyers and OEMs adopt a cautious stance. Further, for Alicon, there were some customer-specific disruptions this quarter. All of this has meant that volume offtake by customers, as anticipated by us at the start of the year, did not materialize, as we believe that full-year performance will be bit lower compared to expectations. While the near-term environment remains challenging, we believe this is a temporary phase, and the long-term growth potential of our industry remains intact.
Forecasts for the industrial production indicate a bottoming out in calendar year 2024, with a revival anticipated in calendar year 2025 and thereafter. Our strategic initiatives focused on product diversification, expanding market research, and strengthening our leadership in hybrid technologies position us well to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Our ongoing engagements with the key clients, including domestic leaders like Japanese auto manufacturers, reinforce our confidence in the road ahead. Our business visibility is strong with a healthy order book position. We are confident that there will be a recovery in the fourth quarter performance and believe that quarter three marked the bottom for both revenue and margin, and we will continue to see steady improvement in performance going ahead. We remain committed to navigating the current headwinds while driving sustained growth and value creation for all stakeholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to Mr. Shyam Agarwal for the operating highlights of the quarter.
Thank you, Mr. Vimal. Good afternoon, everyone. In Quarter Three FY2025, global auto industry witnessed 4.6% YoY degrowth in volumes. Within this, Europe volume declined by 5% and North America by 4.5%, respectively. In contrast, the Indian auto industry reported a healthy performance of 6.6% volume growth, driven by the two-wheeler segment. Analysis of growth by segment indicates 8% growth in two-wheeler segment, 2.8% growth in PV segment, and 1.8% degrowth in commercial vehicle segment on a Y-o-Y basis. As we progressed through the quarter, a few headwinds began to emerge. The sustained decline in the CV segment took a bearing on the volume offtake by our customers. This was accompanied by challenges in our export markets too. Supplies towards CV products and to customer in Europe are among the categories with the highest value add in our business.
Thus, even as we have added volumes in our two-wheeler business, the impact of top line was only partially offset. The European market witnessed a sharp drop in commercial vehicle segment in quarter three compared to the same quarter last year. As recently in quarter two, trends were projecting sustained demand, and the fall in volume has been fairly sharp, taking the entire industry by surprise. We have seen slightly elevated pressures in supplies to commercial vehicle customers in Europe due to persistent weakness in demand. In Europe, one of our two-wheeler OEM customers faced some challenges during the quarter. Following this, we have completely stopped production. As a result, they paused volume offtake of parts being supplied to them from our facilities in India, as well as from Europe.
Coming to the India business, supplies continued to a leading Japanese OEM this quarter, with consistent demand for four-wheeler cylinder heads. In addition to that, Alicon has received one more cylinder head business, which will give us additional sales starting from financial year 2025-2026. Volumes to India plant of a European OEM continued to ramp up, and as we have steadily scaled up volumes to this customer over the last couple of quarters, we are now in talks to enhance the volume further. This customer is making its Indian facility into an engine manufacturing hub, which will serve the domestic market, and from which engine will also be assembled and exported to Europe. We are now in discussion to scale up the capacities to align with the second phase investment by this OEM, which will see them double the monthly volume offtake.
Interestingly, all of the incremental volume will be for onward supply to global markets, and with this expansion, we will be catering the demand from the new region within Europe, thereby indirectly servicing markets that we have not been present so far. A leading Japanese OEM continued to witness strong demand for their four-wheeler hybrid models in India. After the plant shutdown in Quarter Three, we anticipate the volume to pick up in Quarter Four. In fact, over the next two years, the expectation is that the monthly supplies of cylinder heads will increase by roughly 80%. Thus, a strong outlook for production from two Japanese OEMs who have good focus on hybrids, coupled with scale-up capacity in the European OEMs, India plant argues well for the PV segment.
For another leading European OEM, after supplying initial volumes for their requirements from our European plant, we are scheduled to shift production into our India operation. For this, we have established a plant in India and have already successfully submitted samples with small lot supplies set to commence shortly ahead of their upcoming launch in Quarter Three of calendar year 2026. Our state-of-the-art automation plant for this OEM integrates artificial intelligence, robotics, and IoT to set new benchmarks in precision, efficiency, and smart manufacturing, featuring cutting-edge technologies such as robotic arms for enhanced accuracy and safety, advanced digital process control for real-time optimization, and machine intelligence for data-driven decision-making. The facility aligns with global best practices to meet the evolving demands for our customers and their product requirements.
By embedding AI and IoT into our operations, we have significantly enhanced the productivity while reducing rejection rates, ensuring a more efficient and responsive manufacturing ecosystem. While upfront investments in automation have led to higher depreciation and fixed costs in the short term, which are not being fully recovered at present due to the low volume in the initial phase, these advancements position us for the long-term scalability and operational excellence, with an elevated margin profile as production volume increases. Now, coming to the business wins, in Quarter Three, we have added seven new parts from seven existing customers. This includes four parts from ICE segment, one part from structural, and two parts from the non-auto business. Of these seven parts added, five parts pertain to the domestic business and two parts pertain to international business.
In India, we have won business from the leading Japanese OEM for a product set to be launched shortly. Traction with two-wheeler customers is strong for product category to ICE technology. We have also won an order for the structural part for a leading two-wheeler supplier in India. The two parts for the international business cater to requirements of marquee global customers in the non-auto segment. Looking ahead, our total new order booking stands strong, providing good visibility for future growth. On this note, we can open the floor for the questions.
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 touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have the first question from the line of Yash Bharat Dalal from Sushil Financial Services Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Good afternoon to the management. Just a few questions from my end. Firstly, in terms of the margins, of course, they've been compressed this quarter. I want to understand from the expenses, are there any one-offs in this quarter that we won't be seeing in the coming quarters?
Yes, if you see that mainly, if you review the results, the major impact has come from the gross margins, where this is due to the change in the sales mix, where we have seen the reduction in the volumes of high-value addition parts and some increase in the volumes from the two-wheeler parts, where margins are low. That is the major impact. When we are talking about the expenses, definitely, as a company, we are taking a lot of actions for further cost reductions. One time, yes, there is some cost we have absorbed due to some issues we have seen with one customer, a global customer. There, we have to absorb one-time cost.
Okay. Okay. What is the impact of these development costs for advanced technology and your new lines in Q3?
Yes. When we are talking about this, when we were earlier, we were discussing that the new EV parts, the e-axles, we are developing. That development is now full swing, and it is a very critical part. Due to that, a lot of what we call challenges we face in this development. Due to the criticality, failures, rejections, all this, and then we have to do a lot of experiments on that too for the development. Those costs are there.
Okay. You had mentioned about your CapEx. What kind of capacity will it be adding?
I think this major CapEx is going on for the EV parts that developments are going on, and hopefully, because this will give additional approximately INR 200 crore-INR 300 crore, INR 250 crore-INR 300 crore in that range of additional capacity in the next coming two years.
Okay. Okay. Coming to your order book, what is your total order booking for FY 2025 and your overall till date, if you could quantify this?
Yash, our order book is around INR 9,000 crore as of today. We have added in this quarter also the seven parts, which is almost INR 500 crore turnover from the new order. If you see this with the INR 9,000 crore, we have almost run rate of we have covered for next five years as far as our current turnover is going on.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Can we still, you had mentioned earlier in your previous calls that for INR 2,200 crore top line by FY 2026, does that still stand? What is the outlook beyond FY 2027?
Yes, we feel that because now we have to just keep our fingers crossed and how the geographical challenges we are seeing. Let's see how the things are moving. Definitely, it looks difficult because now the numbers are softening in this year. What we were talking about, those were the original, I think, three, four years back we had put that target. Due to some delays, what we are seeing from the EV OEMs, maybe that we need to postpone by at least one year.
Okay. By FY 2027. Just one last question. Could you please provide an outlook on your EV and export business?
Yeah. Yes. First, I complete the previous one. We have our budget-making exercise, which is going on, and it will be completed by the second week of the next month. Maybe in our next investor call, we will give you more idea on the next year turnover. That will be more logical from our side, Yash, just to cover that. Yeah. What was your next question, Yash?
Just a short. Just your outlook on your EV and export business.
Yeah. Yes. As you know, the EV is not doing good globally. You know that we have taken lots of new orders from the EV, and currently, we are seeing the demand is not very good in India and also on the export market. We are very hopeful that in one or two years, the demand should pick up, and there we will see the good numbers from the EV, for which we have put lots of effort from our side and also lots of CapEx investment, which we have done. Right now, if you see, we are getting just a minute, I tell you. Yeah. EV currently covers 18% of our total turnover right now. If we see the export, export is around 30% of our total turnover.
Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's it. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Yash.
Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Yash, for your questions.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raghunandan N L from Nuvama Research. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Can you help us in understanding the mix on a YTD basis? For nine months FY 2025, what would be the share of two-wheeler, four-wheeler, commercial vehicles, and how was the same mix last year?
Yes, Raghu. Two-wheeler currently contributes 40% of our turnover, if we see, and passenger vehicle around 38% and commercial vehicle around 15% of our total turnover. This is, I am saying, cumulative till Quarter Three.
Thank you. Can you give a comparison versus last year?
Yeah. Last year to this year, if we see the two-wheeler, last year, the contribution was 42%, which has reduced to 40%. Passenger vehicle, which was 32% last year, now it's 38%. Commercial vehicle, as you know, globally, it is coming down. Last year, it was 20%, and this year, it is 15%.
Understood. Specific for this quarter, how much would be the two-wheeler?
This quarter, quarter three, it is 36%, the two-wheeler contribution. Sorry, it is 43%.
Got it, sir. Thank you. In terms of exports, the share of export has gone down to 24% versus 28% last year. Within exports, what would be the rough share of Europe and North America, and how much has been the decline in both these regions, YTD?
If you see, Europe contributes Europe and U.K. They contribute almost 65-70% of our export, and 30-35% is U.S.A. If you see in the decline side, we have seen more decline in Europe as compared to the U.S.A.
Understood. As you indicated that it's better to be cautious as of now, what is the sense you are getting based on your interactions with customers? How long do you think the weakness can continue, and when do you expect the recovery? Relating to that, you are obviously working on strengthening your presence in overseas markets, negotiating order wins, hiring more people in marketing, and also diversifying into new segments. If you can give some thoughts as to how you see this segment pan out over the next one to two years.
Yeah. Raghu, if you see the macro environment right now, we are seeing the worst was Quarter Three, if you see the global indicators. We are seeing there should be a recovery in the global market as well as in the domestic market. Here we see the faster recovery, or the holding will be more in North America, while Europe still takes some more time. The sentiment in Europe is still weak as compared to North America. If you see in the segment, if we see like commercial vehicle will still be affected in Europe, while the recovery will be much better in North America in both commercial vehicle as well as in the passenger vehicle.
If we see in the technology front, we are seeing the hybrid will still do good in India, as well as we are seeing in North America, the demand for hybrid is much better as compared to pure EV vehicles. However, everybody is anticipating there is a natural transition from ICE to hybrid and then hybrid to EV. I hope this should be more prominent after three to four quarters later.
Understood, sir. Vimal Sir, if you can indicate, you referred to that some upfront cost incurred relating to new lines. How much should be the quantum, and is that likely to repeat in the coming quarter?
Raghu, it is a decent amount because approximately we can say that it is in the range of INR 40,000,000-INR 50,000,000 that we have lost for the development for the new projects. Definitely in coming quarter also, maybe there will be improvement because once we start, then there is a huge impact of the cost, and then slowly we start recovering that and the improvement in our operations. We hope there will be definitely declining quarter four, but further impact we see on continuous quarter-on-quarter basis.
Understood, sir. These are certain overhead fixed costs which you have upfront started taking. As the ramp-up happens for the new orders, that fixed cost absorption will happen.
Definitely, you see that because now this is you must have seen that Alicon is having the biggest CapEx in this year in the history of the last 20 years. We are now developing the most critical part for the EV also. These are the challenges we are having initially.
Understood, sir. In terms of business ramp-up in FY 2026, you referred to two Japanese OEMs, one European OEM. There is also one U.K. OEM. What is the kind of SOP that can get added for FY 2026 based on your current understanding?
Yeah, Raghu. I just highlight on that. When we mentioned the new volume addition from the Japanese OEMs, there we see good traction on that. With both the Japanese OEM, as I have mentioned in our con call also, we see the volume will be picked up almost 80%-100% in next one to two years' time. That kind of a volume we are seeing. Same way for the European customer, whatever volume we are supplying, we are adding the capacity, and the volume will be doubled by end of this year. That kind of a volume we are working on. As Mr. Vimal mentioned, because of these addition in our capacity, we have done lots of CapEx, which is the highest in the history of Alicon, if you see.
We are seeing that from this quarter onward, we will see the good performance from Alicon. Sequentially, it should improve on quarter-on-quarter basis.
Got it, sir. Thank you very much. I'll fall back in the queue.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jyoti Singh from Arihant Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted an idea on the order book side that we plan to supply for Tata Motors, if you can highlight.
Sorry, Jyoti, your voice was not very clear. If you can repeat once again.
Yeah. Sir, if you can give us an idea on the order book that we have for Tata Motors, what's the update on that trend?
Okay. Jyoti, generally, we avoid the specific customer detail on con call. Maybe we can take your call offline. Specifically to the customer, we would like not to answer in this con call.
Okay. Noted. Sir, how is the margin we are seeing from the new business?
Hi, Vimal Gupta, but we request you to change the mode on your device because it echoes a little in between.
Yeah. Sure. Just an idea on the new business side, how is the margin we are seeing from the new business?
Jyoti, generally, when we were explaining that when we are finalizing the new businesses, we always look for the better margins and the ROC. On that basis, we are finalizing. Yeah. Jyoti, also, I would like to elaborate a little bit on this. If you see whenever we take the order, it depends in which category we are taking, whether it is a two-wheeler, four-wheeler, it is a domestic export, and what is the criticality of the parts. Based on that, the prices, the margins are decided, and also it is also affected by the competition. Generally, if it is more critical part, which we are expert to develop, we charge higher margin. If it is a very simple part for the two-wheeler, of course, the margins will be less. It is as per the market demand and the criticality of the part, the margins are decided.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Also, sir, as we have a major revenue mix from India, but a lot of issue that is going on in Europe and the U.S., how is the demand we are seeing from the India business comparatively to Europe and the U.S.?
Yeah. Jyoti, if you see in India, we have grown by 6.6%, while Europe and USA, we have seen that degrowth. Of course, we are seeing the higher demand from India, not only in this quarter and also in the next quarter onward, that the demand from India will be higher. As you will also appreciate, we also have to do the risk mitigation. That was the purpose that we have developed more part for Europe and for the USA and also for the various technologies like EV. We were the early movers in the EV. We developed lots of parts. Somehow, EV currently is not doing good. In future, of course, it will do good. There we will see the fruits, what efforts we are putting right now, or the CapEx we are putting.
We are very hopeful that in future, we will see a higher performance, much better performance in terms of the top line as well as for the bottom line. Secondly, we are also working on the skill level of our people. Also, as Mr. Vimal told, we are putting lots of efforts on the smart factory, which we have put in for the robotics, IoT, and the AI, the use of AI. That will also give us much better performance in the coming quarters.
Thank you, sir. Sir, last question on the geographic side that's not doing very well for us and for other OEMs. Are we planning to shift any plant to India?
Jyoti, generally, if you see, we are in the business of B2B. Okay. When we are supplying the part, it's going to the OEMs. There, if they change the source or change the location, it needs lots of PPAP activity, the vehicle validation, lots of costs are there. Some of the customers do, but these practices are very less in the B2B businesses, considering the long lead time for the development and the validation cost. Of course, as you know, India is a leading cost country. Because of lots of geopolitical issues, lots of OEMs want to source out of India. We see the sourcing, of course, will increase out of India. The resourcing is always a challenge, considering the cost which is needed for the validation and the development of the part.
Okay. Sir, how much currently capacity utilization across the plant if you can give us the average?
Yeah. Jyoti, currently, we are running if we specifically see the quarter three, we are running at the capacity of around 70-75%. Yeah. Because we have dedicated facility for different parts. Some parts which we have developed, but it's still in the ramp-up phase. There, the capacity utilization will be less. Some of the parts which are running in the full swing, the capacity utilization more. If you see on the average term, it will be around 70-75%.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Devang Shah from Asit Mehta Investment Intermediates Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, sir. Sir, as far as the EBITDA margin is concerned, as you were saying, because of one-time expense, we have seen some kind of decline in margin, and it was somewhere close to 9%. Moving forward, would you be comfortable with your original territory of EBITDA margin with your new product mix somewhere close to 12-13% kind of range from coming quarter onward and for the coming years?
Yes, definitely. This is a short-term jerk that we can say that we got in quarter three due to the change in the sales mix and maybe some one-time costs. You will see quarter on quarter the improvement. Very soon, that will catch up the numbers.
Okay. Sir, as we did a heavy CapEx this year, what is the CapEx plan for next year?
I think that will be good that we discuss in the next call because at this moment, we are in the process of finalizing our budgets for the next year. Maybe in mid of March, we will be able to finalize it. That will be the right time to give some idea about that.
Sir, initially, you have mentioned that you are finalizing your budget. As far as revenue growth and trajectory also, are you going to highlight from a next con call or after the next quarter results, sir, after you finalize your budget?
Yes, sir. Yes.
Okay. Last question, sir. Any kind of generally, we are seeing that I read somewhere because we are exporting some kind of auto ancillary to the U.S. as well. Because of such kind of tariff war emerging so far started, do you feel there is some kind of opportunity also emerged from the global market, especially from the U.S.? If I'm wrong, then also correct me, sir, if something has been misunderstood by me.
Devang, very right question. We are also keeping our finger crossed. We are seeing with lots of things right now that tariff war is going on, new tariffs on some countries that are going on. Hopefully, India has a good relationship with the U.S. Hopefully, we should be benefited. Let's see how it moves on. Maybe in one or two months' time, once we will see more clarity, then we will be able to answer you in a better shape.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Moksh Ranka from Aurum Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Sir, I used to follow a company from 2018. We used to be exclusive supplier to it. We were the ones who led the first design in their product. Do we have any plans for supplying aluminum casting for their new models? Also, they are setting up a capacity which is close to our plant. Will that be a possibility in the future?
Moksh, you are talking about Toyota? Because your voice was not very clear.
I'm talking about Ather Energy.
Okay. Moksh, we actually, if you see, we are not pushing more sales for the two-wheeler, considering the margin pressure, and especially on the EV. We are focusing more on the PV side, the commercial vehicle. That is why if you see the contribution for the different segments, we are putting more focus on the PV and the CV. Currently, the two-wheeler EV is not our focus area.
Okay. Okay. That was my only question. Thank you.
Thank you, Moksh.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Faisal Hawa from HG Hawa. Please go ahead.
Sir, we are talking of this order book of around INR 8,000 crore. Sorry, INR 9,000 crore now. Is there some deadline to the orders being completed? Would it be a right expectation that in three years from today, at least our revenue will be doubled from what it is today?
Faisal, thanks for the question. For the revenue guidance, as Mr. Vimal said, we are in the middle of budget preparation. Maybe in the next call, we will be in a better shape to give you the idea on our revenue for the next year and onward. However, as we have mentioned in the con call, we have a strong order book, and we will see a good growth in the top line as well as in the bottom line. Right now, it's very difficult to give you the numbers on that.
There must be a deadline to these orders, right? Are there perpetual orders?
Yeah. It is for the five years, till 2028-2029.
Okay. We have to complete them by then?
Yes, absolutely.
It will not be a very regular or uniform progression of the orders being completed. In some years, we may have some very good execution also. In some years, the call-ups may not be so good.
No. Faisal, if you see, this is mainly for the OEMs in the automotive market. Generally, a project for any OEMs, it is the life of five years, seven years like this. Okay. When we get any order, it is for the lifetime of the project. Okay. It will be a consistent supply from our side. There will also be the end of production for some of the products. We will get the new businesses, we will supply for the new models, and some old models that will discontinue. It is like it will go. It is based on the product life cycles that we will have to follow.
Is there one customer who is contributing to almost more than 20% of the order book today?
No, Faisal. We have very, very balanced customer portfolio. Right now, none of our customers contributes more than 20% of our turnover.
Sir, there was this project within the company to increase the ROC and ROE of the organization. Have you made any kind of progress on it? If not, how soon can we expect some progress on this?
Progress is going on maybe if you see year on year, last four, five years. There is a continuous improvement in the ROC. Definitely, this is on. On a quarter on quarter basis, maybe this is the worst quarter we have seen in this quarter three. After that, you can easily see that there is a continuous improvement in the ROC.
Thank you, sir. I appreciate your answer.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
We have a follow-up question from the line of Jyoti Singh from Arihant Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, just clarification on the guidance side. We are keeping INR 1,820-2,000 crore for 2025-2026. Are there any changes on that side?
Jyoti, for 1,800, that in my speech, I have already explained that maybe we will not be able to hit the exact number. Maybe some decline in this because of this sudden decline in the CV demand from quarter three. For next year, the guidance, we are just finalizing our budgets. That we will explain in the next con call, we will be able to give more clarity on this.
Okay. Also, sir, are we doing any changes in our strategy because earlier, till now, we are focusing more on the PV side. Still, Q1Q mix has been changing and more favorable towards two-wheeler. I know demand is good from the two-wheeler side, but still, we are shifting again on the two-wheeler side. What is your view on that side?
Jyoti, our strategy is for the long term. It is not for the one quarter or the two quarter. It may happen in one quarter or two quarter. One particular segment can do good. We define our strategy on the long term. In the long term, our firm belief is that if we focus more on the passenger vehicle or the new technology like hybrid or the EV, there we will get more fruits in the future. With that, we are working. Right now, also, we do not have a change in any strategy to put more focus on the two-wheeler. Of course, two-wheeler is important to cover the fixed cost. That we are doing. Our ultimate plan is to put more focus on the passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle, EV, hybrid, and the export market. Those are our focus areas.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Sir, can we talk a little bit on the Maruti side with the new plant in Gujarat? How the progress is going? Also, how the order execution that is going on, if you can explain on that side, it would be helpful.
Okay. Jyoti, I would say Maruti Suzuki, as you know, they are the leading four-wheeler company in India. And we have a very good amicable relationship, very strong relationship with all Japanese OEMs, including Maruti Suzuki. I would say in this call, not specifically for one customer, but we have a strong relationship. We are seeing that very good volume growth we will see in the coming quarters with all OEMs and also with the Maruti Suzuki.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. We have the next question from the line of Manas Jain from JUS Enterprises. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello. It's Manas here. Just looking across the prior quarters for last quarters from FY 2021 to FY 2024, we had given similar product mix in FY 2021, 2022, and still our gross margin and EBITDA margin was at least around 10-11%. I mean, what is explaining this? I was trying to dice the data from all the angles, but I still can't understand how we have gone to 8%. Within the worst of times, we were there around 10-11%. There is something I want management to at least help us understand. What led to this with such a bad fall?
Mainly, the raw material cost is going up when you see maybe comparison for the last three, four years. When you're talking about from 2021, the prices of aluminum have gone up, but the value additions have not grown in the same proportion. Automatically, the ratio goes up of the raw material. As a percentage, the margins go down. When we have built up in the last year, last two, three years, we have started building up the margins based on bringing the new businesses from the commercial vehicles and the passenger vehicles. That is the main reason that we have built up and raised up the gross margin of 51%, more than 50%. When we go to the two-wheeler, maybe in that mix also, when we are talking about it, it is not like only two-wheeler and four-wheeler.
In the four-wheeler also, there is a mix. Some parts, especially the commercial vehicles, we are having a very good value addition, the gross margins. That has given a big hit when we saw that approximately 30% decline in this quarter. That has given a major impact.
When we are saying 5% fall in the CV volume, when we compare as a percentage to sales, that 5% had the severe margin impact. Is my understanding right? It had such a severe impact even quarter on quarter.
No, it's not 5%. It's 30%. I'm talking about commercial vehicles. And then the KTM, where the export two-wheeler, having the good margins, so that is a slowdown.
Okay. Also, I mean, the second question, as you said, Toyota, there was some shutdown due to which we had an impact on that too. What will be the impact, and will it slow in the next quarter if there is, I mean, if the activity starts again?
Yeah. Okay. Manas, for this particular customer, of course, there is a year-end shutdown there. In between, they stopped the production to increase their capacity. Okay. Now that shutdown is over, and from this quarter, from January, we are seeing the regular uptake from their side. With their plan, we are seeing that demand should further increase. In the next two years' time, we will see the 80% increase on the volume front from this particular customer.
Okay. What was the impact this quarter? Just for bookkeeping purpose.
Generally, Manas, in this con call, we don't give the specific number for a particular customer. We can discuss it offline.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as a last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. As we have shared, we remain confident of an improved performance going forward. Our deep engagement with customers and the growth plans they have indicated, indicating provides comfort that we will see increased volume from quarter four onwards with our process expertise, backward integration in design and engineering, combined with focus to enhance manufacturing capabilities with the addition of newer technologies. Our focus is on strong execution of the orders on hand. We also believe the quarter three marks the bottom of the cyclicality in the industry, and that there will be an improvement in export markets of Europe and the U.S., as well as an enhanced demand environment in India. This will ensure that our revenue and margin performance will improve going forward, starting with a sequential improvement in quarter four and further building up into FY 2026.
Our association with Enkei positions us well to optimize the opportunities ahead. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions satisfactorily. Should you need any further clarification or would like to know more about the company, please feel free to contact our team or CDR India. Thank you once again for taking the time to join us on this call, and we look forward to interacting next quarter. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Alicon Castalloy Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.