Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Poly Medicure Limited Q1 FY26 earnings conference call, hosted by ICICI Securities. 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, or enter star four. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Darshil Jain from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to Q1 FY26 earnings conference call of Poly Medicure Limited. Today, on this call, we have with us the senior management team of the company. We are represented by Mr. Himanshu Baid, Managing Director, Mr. Naresh Vijayvergiya, CFO, and Mr. Rahul Gautam, President, Strategy and Corporate Development. I would like to thank the management team of Poly Medicure for giving us this opportunity to host their call, and with this, we will hand over the call to the management. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Darshil. Thank you very much. A very good afternoon, everyone. Again, I welcome you all to our Q1 FY26 earnings call. I sincerely thank all of you for being here today. Before I provide you with the performance review, I'm very proud to announce that Poly Medicure was awarded Medical Device Provider of the Year 2025 by Financial Express. It was a humbling moment to be recognized for the journey in the healthcare sector.
These recognitions reflect our collective efforts of our entire team, and I accept them on behalf of our employees, partners, and stakeholders who have been an integral part of our growth and success over the years. I'll now take you through the business and financial update for quarter one, and after that, we are open for Q&As.
On the business update side, we received approval from our esteemed shareholders for the appointment of Mr. Vishal Baid as the Executive Director. Mr. Vishal Baid has been part of the core team and has played a very pivotal role in strategy growth and international expansion of the company. He's been associated with the company for the last 14 years, and before his appointment as the Executive Director, he was designated as Senior President, Sales, and Marketing.
Also, I'd like to update that the board, in its meeting today, subsequent to shareholders' approval, has approved the appointment of Mr. P. K. Gupta, who was President of Operations and Executive Director of the company. He joined Poly Medicure as a senior manager in 2008 and rose to become President of Operations, leading key operational advancements. His strategic leadership significantly contributed to the company's growth.
We welcome him to the board and are looking forward to his strategic insights as we scale up our manufacturing presence in India and globally. I'm also pleased to announce that we have signed two contract manufacturing contracts, and this was, if you remember, I had shared earlier that we are exploring some opportunities in the contract manufacturing space, specifically where we see reasonable margins, and we have signed two contracts in the Q1.
Companies are based out of. One company is based out of the U.S. One is a Hong Kong headquartered company, which has major operations in the U.S., and both these companies have products in vascular access and in pain management segment, so these are new products we are developing for these companies. These are brand new, so this is basically more like a CDMO operation, where we do the contract design and manufacturing operations.
These are some of the kind of businesses currently we are building internally, also to build a resilient manufacturing setup. In terms of our international expansion, we have also established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Brazil to expand our presence. Over the next few quarters, we will expand our presence in this key South American market.
We are already doing some new product registrations there, and we are very excited about this dynamic Brazilian market. We would like to have more depots enrolled, so we will set up a wholly-owned subsidiary with people out there, where we'll be interacting directly with the customers. It'll be moving from B2B to B2C operation, and this is one of the major markets for us, and we have decided to go directly in that market.
Also, we are awaiting our land allotment letter from YEIDA for around a seven-acre plot at Medical Device Park, which is near the Jewar Airport in Greater Noida. We have already received the letter of comfort from the UP government, and this Medical Device Park is very strategically located and will also have a lot of common facilities like labs and other infrastructure, which will help manufacturing of medical devices in the country. On the financial performance side, quarter ended June 25.
We have a consolidated revenue of 403 crores, marking an overall growth of around 5%. Gross profit was close to 276 crores, reflecting a margin of 68.4% at a gross level, an increase of almost 170 basis points as compared to quarter one last year. Operating EBITDA for Q1 was 106 crores, delivering EBITDA margin of 26.3%, slightly down from 27% last year.
On the bottom line, PAT totaled around INR 93 crores as compared to INR 74 crores last year, translating to a net margin of 21% up 50 basis points. I would like to call it that our R&D spend has increased by 20% in this quarter. I would also expect that our R&D spend, as a percentage of revenue, will rise going forward as we get into high-end technology segments such as cardiology and critical care.
In Q1 FY26, our domestic revenue grew by 20% to reach INR 126 crores. Domestic revenue growth in the private sector was 25%, while the government business witnessed a degrowth of 10%, so net was around 20%, and that is in line with our projections, in line with our strategy.
This clearly reflects our focus on building a strong and sustainable domestic business and to exit the business which we don't meet our margin threshold, specifically in the government segment. Contribution from the domestic revenue to our overall consolidated revenue has increased to 31% in Q1 as compared to 27% in the comparative period last year. We continue to outpace the market and competition growth in the domestic market quite significantly.
Hence, our conviction to invest higher amounts in the domestic market is getting only stronger. This is reflected in the fact that we added 22 new sales associates in Q1. We have set up a target to add around 100 people this year. Out of that, 22 people have already joined in Q1. Hence, we are on track to hire 100 sales associates for FY26.
And this will give us a lot of firepower to go to tier two and tier three cities, especially the hospitals we have not addressed earlier. So, we are expanding our reach into more deeper markets and territories. In Q1 FY26, our international revenues stood at INR 275 crores, which reflects a dip of 1% from INR 278 crores in Q1 FY2025. We continue to witness some growth challenges in the European market, which witnessed a degrowth of around 6.7% in Q1.
The current geopolitical situation, as well as uncertainty in global trade due to ongoing tariff wars, is leading to some deterioration of customer sentiment. The recent tariff announcements by President Trump on India do not augur well for export markets, of course, but we are hopeful that a reasonable solution will be found in the ongoing trade negotiations between India and the U.S.
Of course, a 50% tariff is kind of unsustainable for exports from India, for I think any segment we talk about. All these factors are leading to customers being circumspect in predicting the business growth, supply chain stability, and hence on focusing on inventory liquidation to meet end-use demand instead of building additional inventory, so in our last call, we had highlighted overstocking in certain customers, specifically in the Southern European region.
We are now starting to see the situation easing out in those markets. Hence, we are hopeful that things will be better in Europe in the second half of the financial year. International revenue from the rest of the world region has done relatively better, growing at 5% to reach 142 crores in Q1 FY26. Now, let me give you an update on each of the business segments.
Renal business, where we have been putting a lot of energy and efforts, has grown by around 46% in Q1 of FY26 to almost 44 crores. Till July 31, we have sold an additional 130 machines across the country, and we are on track to sell close to 500-600 machines in the current financial year with dialysis machines.
We continue to remain excited about these prospects in the industry. I think the government of India, under its Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program, they have implemented dialysis centers in 751 districts with almost 1,700 dialysis centers which are operational today. Also, it has been now covered under Ayushman Bharat. So, further expansion of networks and community health centers will be also taken by the National Health Mission. So, overall, we are very bullish that the demand will continue to increase.
We are also ramping up our capacity, and by the end of FY26, we'll almost double our manufacturing capacity in the dialysis business. So, I think that's also a very important task we had undertaken last year to expand the capacities all across in this segment. We continue to remain bullish, and we aim to reach at least 15%-17% of market share in the next two to three years from the current around 8%-9%.
Let me now move to our cardiology vertical, which we had started at the end of last year. It was just kind of a trial period, and this year was the real start, and I'm pleased to announce that we have already implanted around 1,350 drug-eluting stents with very positive feedback received from clinicians.
These stents were specifically designed at Poly Medicure, and all the design elements were done by our R&D team. This is indicating growing acceptance of our products in cath labs among intervention cardiologists. We remain excited about our pipeline of products. We have already launched our angiography catheters, angiographic balloons.
We are also launching drug-eluting balloons and PTCA catheters and a whole number of guide wires, hydrophilic guide wires, and PTFE-coated guide wires. A lot of devices are coming into the intervention cardiology space, which are getting manufactured at Poly Medicure right from scratch. We are one of the first companies to make these products in India. Most of the companies were importing and selling them. We are one of the first companies to make such products in India.
I'm also very pleased to announce that we have initiated an open-label multi-center, single-arm, clinical investigation to evaluate performance and safety of our Risor Everolimus drug-eluting stent. The study aims to assess safety and performance of this stent in treating coronary artery stenosis patients, and this will be a clinical registry of 2,000 participants.
This is the first time a clinical registry of this scale is happening in India for stents across 50 sites in India and one in Europe. We have also partnered with Dr. Praveen Chandra, Chairman of Interventional Cardiology at Medanta Medicity Hospital, and he will be the principal investigator in India for these clinical trials. The study will be completed in almost 24 months.
From a strategic standpoint of view, this trial underscores Poly Medicure's commitment for post-market evaluation in India and pre-market readiness for the European market, and positioning the company in the global growth of the coronary stent markets. We are gradually moving up the technology chain in the medical device market, and such initiatives position us strongly to capture market share, initially in the domestic market and over time in the international markets.
Our second growth segment was critical care segment. This vertical remains a very important part of our growth journey, especially in the treatment of oncology. The Government of India is already playing an active role in setting up 200 standalone specialty oncology centers, eventually expanding to 700. So, we are strongly positioning ourselves in this segment, especially with Make in India products, and continue to invest significantly in new product development.
Over the last 12 months, we have launched over 20 products in this segment, and we expand our manufacturing footprint. Our transfusion segment has been growing steadily. It's grown at around 18% in quarter one. There's a slight slowdown in our infusion therapy business, which is our core business, and this is mainly because of slowdown in Europe.
That's what we have witnessed, and historically, I think we have done well in this segment, but I think we are seeing some headwinds, which we saw in quarter one, but I think from quarter two and quarter three onwards, I think things will change and are on track to deliver a better performance. This segment, we are strongly globally competitive. We have a lot of innovation, which is sitting within the company. Hence, we are very confident in continuing to gain market share in the coming quarters.
Liquidity position, currently, we entered the quarter with a liquidity of INR 1,249 crores. Such strong cash flow allows us to continue back our ambitious growth strategy, both organic and inorganic. On the M&A front, our thesis focuses on technology acquisitions that are complementing our core verticals, critical care, cardiology, and other adjacencies. We are actively evaluating opportunities, which we believe are quite exciting in terms of technologies, markets, and customers.
We'll keep the market informed once these transactions are finalized. Let me now connect to our forward-looking outlook. We continue to remain bullish on the domestic market, and we reiterate our guidance for revenue growth of 30% for the domestic business for FY26. For international business, we expect a revenue growth between 5% to 10% this year, which is lower than what we have given guidance earlier in quarter one, 12% to 15%.
This is reflective of the current ground realities. We'll keep you updated and have better clarity, I think, once we see this quarter ending. Further, Poly Medicure also set some ambitions to grow in the U.S. market. I think we already have FDA approvals, which I informed earlier. There are some products in pipeline. We are in the process of getting them also approved.
We have already signed contracts with two large GPOs and distributors in the U.S. And I think we are on track to achieve the revenue, which we have projected $15-$20 million, and then that is overspread over the next two to three years. But I think currently, the current situation, we are not sure how it's going to pan out, but I think we're keeping our fingers crossed. But in the current financial year, we don't have too much impact from the U.S.
Because our U.S. revenues are less than $3-$3.5 million. So, we don't see a major impact on our business because of the U.S. tariffs. So, I think we are very, very insulated because of our strong presence in Europe because one-third revenue still comes out of Europe. So, I think we have strongly protected for our business with India, Europe, and the rest of the world presence. So, let's see.
I think we keep our fingers crossed for the next few weeks and see what is going to happen. We are keeping our EBITDA guidance margin in the range of 25%-27%. We have done Q1 EBITDA of 26.3%. So, we are very much within the range, as we called out earlier in the beginning of the year.
The EPIC side, we maintain our guidance for a spend of around INR 250 crores plus for FY26, as we have two new plant facilities under construction in Palwal and Haridwar. Also, our Gamma plant in Palwal has started. The phase one operations have started. We have received the license for our Class A and B devices. We are waiting for further licenses for C and D devices and also expansion of that capacity, which will move from 300 kCi to 2,000 kCi.
So, that's a major achievement, I would say, because we are one of the first companies to have their own Gamma sterilization plant, which gives us a lot of strength in terms of sterilization of the products using a special technique to do Gamma sterilization, which is very unique to medical devices.
Also, of course, the guidance is building some caution right now around international business, given the current geopolitical and macro uncertainties. But we are very confident. We have almost 30 new products in pipeline, which we launch over the next two years or so. And so, we have a huge pipeline of products, which is getting ready. We have also new regulatory approvals, which are expected during the year from major markets like Europe.
And also, some approvals are coming from Latin America. So, once we have these new approvals, we'll be able to launch some new devices in those markets. There's a strong domestic momentum. So, we're very confident about the domestic market, and I think it continues to give us a lot of wings to fly to date. And I think we can pretty well offset these headwinds, which we see, which has been like one-off phenomena.
I think just to recap FY26, I think the business is fundamentally very strong. The model is that we have developed and moving from, let's say, from vascular to critical care and to cardiology products. We have done that transition over the last two to two and a half years. Invested a lot in new technology, new products.
I think that is going to start bearing fruits. Most of these products are from higher margin categories. We'll continue to make healthy margins in the next years because of the new products we are launching. I think the domestic market is very strong for us right now. We'll continue with the growth trajectory, which we have already told earlier. I think we'll continue to invest in R&D. That scale-up is happening. A lot of green initiatives have been taken.
By September, October, 40% of our power generation will be from green power. So, we invested in solar capacity building. So, we have done a lot of heavy lifting in the last few years. And definitely, in the coming years, we will see a lot of new things happening with contract manufacturing opportunities with the U.S. business. Of course, there's a caveat there because of tariffs.
But I think, as we see, I think tariffs are temporary, and I think we have a long journey ahead on that U.S. market. We have some very important contracts, which are already in place. And of course, we are deepening our presence in Europe with more product launches. So, all in all, I think we are in great shape. I just wanted to update you on this performance of the company.
And I'll be happy to answer questions from our listeners and people who are on the call. Thank you again, everyone. Thank you for your time.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Rashmi from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. So, one question on the gross margin side. Despite all our international business, our gross margin was pretty high during the quarter. So, what has this segment or what has actually driven this kind of margin? And what kind of gross margin would be sustainable for the full year?
See, I think gross margin which Rashmi generally tracked between 65% and 67%, that has been the historical gross margin for our business. But as we go dig deeper into these critical care cardiology areas, I think there the product price is also much higher compared to what we have been selling in the past. So, the gross margin in these products is very high, much higher than the products we have been selling in the past. So, I think that correction will keep on happening. So, I think a run rate between 65%-68% is a great run rate to be in at the gross margin level.
Okay. So, you mean that the major gross margin has actually come from this particular category, which has been launched basically in India. So, from the domestic segment, this time the margins are better.
Yeah, definitely. Because if you see export sales have gone down, typically the margin contribution used to come higher from the export business.
Yes.
In spite of international business going low, still we have sustained our margins in terms of EBITDA, which is not a big difference from what we have been doing in the past.
Okay. And
Only 50 pips variation is there in the Q1, which I wouldn't say is hardly any variation.
Understood. And on the export market, if you can explain a bit, in Europe, you had seen issues and growth challenges in the Q1. And you are saying that things will get eased out in the subsequent quarters. This is because the U.S. had imposed a tariff on these different countries, and that is the reason it was an indirect impact on India.
I think Europe was going through some financial, let's say, I would say, restructuring. I think most of these countries had kind of liquidity issues. And I think there was also overstocking. And this whole uncertainty around tariffs was actually where people would have actually reduced the inventory levels.
Normally, in our industry, people maintain four to five months of inventory because they are constantly supplying the national systems. But what we realized is that people went down to two to three months of inventory. And in fact, in the last few months, last month or so, we have also made a few rate trades because they have run out of inventory with higher consumption.
So, I think we are seeing the demand coming back from Europe. So, I think that's where we are positive. So, and that's the reason we are saying that we should end up closer to 5%-10% of growth overall in the international business going forward for the next three quarters, quarter two to quarter four.
And excluding Europe, even the rest of the world has seen just 4%-5%. Have we seen the similar situation over there, or the reason is different?
Yeah, I think we are seeing also this quarter, the growth is coming back. And I think in subsequent quarters also, I think we are quite sure that we'll be in a better space.
Okay. And one last question. You are saying that you will be adding 100 sales associates in FY26 in the domestic market. This will be targeting which regions? You mentioned tier two, tier three cities. But exactly which state would it be? Pan India, or it would be some dedicated state?
Because today, Poly Medicure is a national company. So, we are present pan India. So, in fact, the focus is to expand more in, let's say, tier two and tier three. And in that segment, also South India and West India are the core markets we are targeting.
Okay. Got it. Sir, thank you so much.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Suruchi Parmar from NX Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. I just wanted to ask, you have told that you have a considerable good share coming from Europe revenue share. But you are saying that exports in this year might see a revenue growth of meager 5% or slow.
Yeah, 5%-10%.
Yeah. Yeah. Lowering your guidance. So, it is just because of the U.S. or Europe is also facing some problems? That's why you are lowering the guidance?
See, Europe is also facing challenges. I think we have seen it since the beginning of the year. I think there has been an inventory correction in Europe. And I think there was a disturbance in supply chain also. I think Chinese companies also started dumping products because of their lack of reach to the U.S. market. So, I think everything kind of got disturbed. But I think now the demand is back. The supply chain is kind of recalibrated.
And that's the reason we are confident that now we are getting back on the track. Even with a, let's say, -1% growth in international business in quarter one, I think we are already saying that we should be between 5% to 10% of growth for the whole year, international business. I think still things are very fluid, I would say, globally.
But I think at least we can see from now onwards, as we have seen the first four months of this financial year, I think we are more confident about the growth, what we can do. And of course, we are still conservative. Things can change a lot. Of course, we have adequate capacity to meet additional demands. So, but at least we want to be a little bit more conservative and see how things are panning out in the next few months.
And sir, will we benefit from this U.K. FTA?
Definitely. That's a big one. Sorry, I meant to mention it. Thank you for reminding me. So, again, U.S. FTA also now, because earlier duty was around 4%-5% for U.K. imports, now it's getting 0%. So, I think, and we see a renewed interest for U.S. companies, sorry, U.K. companies to buy products out of India. So, I think after the FTA, we have already received a couple of companies which are willing to expand the business with us. So, I think it's very positive for us, at least on the U.K. FTA side.
So, you are bullish on acquiring more market share there?
Yes, definitely. We are bidding for more products in the U.K. market. I think hopefully in 2026, because the NHS operates on a cycle, because 90% purchasing is done by NHS in the U.K. This operates on a cycle. The new bidding is happening for 2026, basically. We have now bid for almost six to seven new product categories.
These products will be in the critical care or vascular?
Core is vascular.
Both will be there?
Vascular is 95%.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question comes from the line of Keshav Prasad from SVP and Associates. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Am I audible?
Yeah. Yeah. Please go ahead, please.
Okay. Okay. So, my question is particularly on your renal portfolio. So, my question is, what are Poly Medicure expansion plans in terms of the HDF as well as the CRRT portfolios? As I understand, these spaces are less penetrated currently in India. So, how is the market overall looking like, and what is your take on this? And what is Poly Medicure going to do, anything about it in terms of taking active steps in terms of either catering to the market or government advocacy? What exactly is Poly Medicure's view around this? That is what I wanted to understand.
No, I think that's a great question, very great technical question, I will say. So, basically in India, the HDF market is close to around 10%. And it's mostly dominated by large multinationals like Fresenius and Nipro. And 90% is basically the normal market. So, we have plans to launch our first HDF machine in 2026, analyzer machine.
So, that's what we are targeting. And so, we are already under development for that product. And it is currently under development. And then we'll go for clinical testing and the licensing of this product. So, we are hopeful that sometime mid- to end of 2026, we will launch this new dialysis machine with HDF capabilities. And CRRT, we have not put so much focus right now, but maybe that could be the next product development, maybe for 2027 or 2028. But I think HDF is very promising.
Okay. Okay. Understood. And have you?
See, the only problem with HDF is the cost of dialysis. That goes up. And the government reimbursement is limited to INR 1,800 today under Ayushman Bharat. So, whether we will include this under reimbursement or not is a question mark.
But at least in the private sector, which is probably like 30%, 40%, that is where probably we can see usage of HDF. So, even HDF machines, if you see currently, they are only deployed in private centers, not in places where they're doing, let's say, sick patients.
Correct. Correct. Correct. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But is Poly Medicure also seeing growth in HDF machines in other account archetypes, such as charitable institutions, government hospitals, etc.?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Again, see, they are very conscious on the cost side of the product. So, they don't want to, and charitable is, again, so much subsidized. So, they can't afford to have an HDF machine. And the cost of the treatment also increases.
Correct. Correct. No, no. I was just particularly talking about HD also. HD is there, right? HD machines are penetrated.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Just one follow-up question on this. So, are you also looking at the development of the HDF machine in India only? You are going to be manufacturing?
In India. In India. In India.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
In India.
Understood. Understood. Thank you. That's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question comes from the line of Harsh Shah, from Dalal & Broacha . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Just one question from my side. So, if you could a bit of dwell upon the contract manufacturing contracts that you have won in the products of vascular and pain management. So, as you mentioned, right, that these are new products. So, what are the—
Yeah, these are CDMO, basically CDMO opportunities.
Correct. Correct. Yeah. How should one look at in terms of the scale-up of revenues? When should one expect this kind of flow to our numbers this year, next financial year? Some bit of highlights in terms of how big the scalable, I mean, how scalable is this, I mean, in terms of.
So, basically, the first thing is to identify the relevant partners and getting into an arrangement. I think this is the first time we have explored this opportunity of CDMO. And in fact, if you remember, a couple of calls ago, we were discussing about this, about these opportunities. So, now we have zeroed down. We have signed two contracts. And of course, both are very innovative products, patented devices, basically. These are patented devices. So, we are part of the core development of this project and device in terms of its performance and manufacturing.
These are new devices. I don't have really relevant data to tell you what kind of scale-up would be there because these are new products that will take two, three years, four years to scale up to a certain level. I think the revenues should start kicking in from next financial year because we have already started development, manufacturing development of the devices.
Already the initial proof of concept is done. Regulatory approvals are getting in place. The 510(k) approvals for U.S. market, so these are getting in place. Also, these products will be launched in other global markets. The company which owns these devices, they've already started that process based on the initial pilot run. Now we are much, but to call out any numbers will be not the right time.
Maybe next year, this time, I'll be in a better position to answer this question.
Okay. Got it. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Parth Singal from Swing Masters Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir.
Yeah. Hi.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Yeah.
Sir, my question is, is the company planning to enter in radiology space by any chance? Like CT scans and MRI machines by any chance?
No, no, no, no, no, no. Not at this moment.
Okay. How much revenue do we make in cardiology segment by selling stents?
No, we have just launched these devices. See, this is the very first year of operation of this business. So, for example, this year, our plan is to deploy around close to 20,000 stents. That is what the number we have in our mind that we'll be able to deploy. So, that scale-up is already happening. So, this is the very first year of operation, commercial operation.
And then launching a lot of new devices. We are waiting for regulatory approvals for a lot of other devices to come from CDSCO. So, as in when we receive, we will start scaling up. And these are not easy products to sell. So, I think maybe only next year we'll have full visibility where we can call out special numbers and say, "Okay, this is like renal." Today, we are able to give numbers because we have been working on the project for five years. So, I think for cardiology, we'll need some time to really start giving numbers on how things will pan out in the next few years.
And if I ask about dialysis machine, how much margin do we make in dialysis machine?
Sir, we don't give specific product margins.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Bharat Shah from Ask Investment Managers Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Himanshu.
Good evening, Bharatbhai. Good evening.
Yeah. Good evening. Good evening. Himanshu, on the international business, which is the most significant dominant two-thirds of our total business. Correct, sir. I mean, if you think about your biz, it appeared to us that nothing can go right. Sorry, nothing can go wrong with that business. Strong margins, continuous traction, strong 22%, 25% kind of a growth, and new product categories. And it looked like as if there is no stopping there. But in less than one year, it seems to be a picture which is radically different.
Therefore, what do you think this should drive our thought process and planning process? What kind of impact it should legitimately have on that? Because our product plans, and I know that you have calendar year by year for product launches each quarter for a specific geography, specific category, specific.
Correct.
And for a period of years ahead. So, what kind of lessons need to be drawn from this, in your opinion, in terms of our planning process, how we conceive the business opportunity, or imponderables, how do we take into account so that this sudden fierce competition in a way is presented to us that we witness actually degrowth in the European territory, which I'm sure would have come as a huge surprise to you.
So, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, we saw that. What do you think of all this? So, Bharatbhai, it's a great question. And I think I'll answer in two, three parts. One is about the market, so the European market has been very flat. The only market we were growing, the reason we were growing was we were taking market share from certain customers, companies there.
Market has been very flat. Secondly, what we saw was some kind of an inventory, kind of a de-risking by European players. And why it has happened in the beginning of the year? Because of this whole tariff situation with China, U.S.-China thing, a lot of Chinese companies started dumping products in the European market.
And people were confused about the situation that how the situation is panning out. So, we also got a shock that how Chinese companies can dump products so pricing so much in the market and where it's even sometimes hitting below the belt also in terms of pricing.
So, that kind of, and then, of course, this whole mismatch started happening. But what has happened in the last six after this whole mismatch happened in the Q1 of the European financial year and even in the Q2, what we have seen is now the demand has come back. I think the inventory mismatch which was there has kind of flattened out.
And now we are seeing the demand coming back. So, I think the most important key development is our UK market where we have seen demand coming back strongly and also in Germany. So, these were. Germany was something which was a laggard for us. And Germany has actually started coming back on track. And I think that was very significant for us.
And also, we have seen huge growth coming in Italy because Italy, where it was kind of a market where we had a lot of control and a lot of tender was getting slowed down because government, the health systems were not granting new tenders. And they were delayed. And now most of these tenders have been awarded. And I think now we are seeing the demand coming back.
So, overall, and some new product offerings have come out because if you recall, we got our EU approvals only in April, May. If you recall, we had also called out in the last call. Most of the EU approval, which were renewed, the EU MDR. And some of the approvals have only come in June. So, you can see the record of our certificates on our website, basically. So, all these approvals have just recently come.
So, once these approvals are back in place, so now we are getting back on track and the accelerator is back on the revenue side. So, I think now we are very confident about the European market coming back to growth. But what we have lost, we have lost. So, we can't cover it today, what we have lost. The quarter is gone. So, now quarter two, quarter three, and quarter four, I think Europe should come back on track.
Which means if you look at in the Q1, we have degrown as far as.
Yeah, we've degrown by minus 6%, 7%.
Right. And year in entirety, we are saying we'll grow 5%-10%, which means the remaining nine months should be a period of decent double-digit growth rate for.
Absolutely. Absolutely. That is the point I'm calling out that we should come back to that double-digit growth, high double-digit growth, and that is what we are also calling out again.
Also, domestic growth in the Q1 by 20%, but year in entirety, we are saying we should grow 30%. That means the nine months we should grow well over 35% to make that happen.
That is already on the card. This is already under the process, Bharatbhai. Because we have started two new divisions last year, and these two divisions have become active, so the cardiology and critical care. They are ramping up. As we have talked about our stent deployment from 1,300-1,400 stents to go to 20,000 stents by end of the year, and then critical oncology segment is growing. And then our renal segment is growing at a healthy rate.
So, all in all, domestic, and we are hiring 100 people in domestic market. 22 already been hired in the Q1. So, all in all, I think, but in the private sector, we've already grown 25% in quarter one in private sector, which is 90% of our business. So, overall, the ramp-up is already happening.
And which means the remaining nine months should represent a materially different outcome compared to the Q1. And given that scale, hopefully, margins also should be higher?
Bharatbhai, hopefully, yes. You are right. My math clearly says that. When you do the math, it clearly says because even in the Q1, our gross margins have improved. It's not that our gross margin has decreased because we decreased our export sales. So, we have done a lot of hard work in terms of launching new devices with higher margins.
So, we continue to work in the direction where we maintain a steady margin and a healthy margin. So, yes, as the revenue kicks up more, most of the expenses get already absorbed in the initial period. And I think we should see some margin improvement. But still, we are saying we are going to have a muted guidance of 25%-27%. But definitely, the target is to beat that number.
And to that extent, Himanshu, would it be fair if one were to say that actually, domestic market, we need to regard it a bit more than what we have done probably so far?
I totally agree, Bharatbhai. We should regard it. I think we have disregarded before COVID. We were disregarding this market. Only after COVID, we realized the true potential of domestic market because then there was a huge push even from the private sector to buy local products because the imported products were not available after COVID.
There were export restrictions. There were import restrictions from different countries. So, the industry kind of carved out of this whole COVID wave. And you have seen the med tech sector has grown phenomenally after the COVID wave. When you look at a few companies where Apax invested in Healthium or Meril has got new investments, especially in there because of the cardiology and orthopedic business. So, there is a renewed, I would say, interest from the private sector in the local products, which are now equally good in quality.
So, in a way, it was probably for at least some time, [Foreign Language] ghar ki murgi, dal barabar type.
[Foreign Language] Aisa hi tha. आप देखेंगे ना, कुछ देखिए क्या होता है कि आप स्टैंड लगाने जाइए, बोलेगा इंडियन लगाओ या इंपोर्टेड लगाओ। अब आज की तारीख में हम सबको पता है 70% स्टैंड्स की मार्केट इंडियन कंपनीज के पास है। आज से 10 साल पहले हमारे पास 10% थी, 90% इंपोर्टेड के पास थी। हाँ,
Boston, Surgical and Johnson।
[Foreign Language] और आज सेम चीज ऑर्थोपेडिक इंप्लांट्स में भी वही है। 50% ऑर्थोपेडिक इंप्लांट्स आज लोकली मेड है, 50-60% लोकल यूज हो रहे हैं और 40% इंपोर्टेड है। तो ये मार्केट बदल रही है। So, Bharatbhai, if you see the market, the trends are changing. And I think that's our now the real trajectory which we can see in the domestic market. Market is not growing at 30%. Market is growing at around 12-13% healthcare industry. But we are growing much faster than that.
That means we are taking market share from international players.
Right. And what will we say about the next year? Should we expect that Europe and international territory will come back to 100%?
100%, 100%, Bharatbhai. We have 15 new launches planned next year in the European market because we have one more cycle of approvals which is pending right now, especially for our critical care products, which are also better margin products. We are also increasing our presence in Italy through manufacturing. Our current operations in Italy are also seeing some uptake. Europe will come back strongly, I think. Our focus has been Europe. One or two quarters are not going to make any difference in our long-term strategic plan.
Will it be fair to say that Europe will chug back to that 20% plus kind of a journey?
It's very hard to say. Bharatbhai, it's very hard to say. I don't want you to hold my neck for that, but I think we are on track, and I think even in the coming quarters, you will see the improvement. I'm very sure, and definitely, see, Bharatbhai, we have one thing very clear. We will commit only what we can do. We will not commit something higher and say, "Oh, we didn't do it.
There were X, Y, Z reasons." We know, and even in the beginning of the year, we have called out international market business is looking slightly different than what it was previous years, and we have called out earlier, and even now, we see Q1, we have seen that though there is no impact, significant impact on margin. If you see EBITDA margin is only dropped by 70 basis points.
In spite of India business growing significantly, exports showing almost a flat trajectory, still our margins, that means we have done in terms of product improvement, better profitability. So, we have done a lot of hard work in hindsight, in the backend. So, that is going to give long-term rewards where exports growth come back, India business grows with a higher trajectory. So, all that will show into numbers in coming quarters.
Sure. One last question. How do we take into our planning system these new insights so that we are not kind of caught up with a sudden surprise of a kind that we got thrust into in this quarter? The signs were there in the last quarter when you said that.
Yes, they were signs. Yeah. Yeah. There were signs in the last quarter already. See, Bharatbhai, always you have to recalibrate. So, our recalibration was focused more on India. That was our first recalibration. So, then we said, "Okay, we were recalibrating for the U.S. market." We said, "We'll not be over-dependent on one market like Europe."
And now we have seen that we have opened a subsidiary in Brazil for our direct presence in Brazil in B2C category. Earlier, we were B2B. We are going B2C. So, for every market, we are strategizing and seeing what's the right thing to do. And we are taking long-term views on every market. See, Polymed is not for a short term. We have products, manufacturing, ecosystem. So, we are taking long. And today, we are still the second largest med tech company after Meril in India. And Meril operates in a very different segment. So, continue to.
Just allow me one last short one. Therefore, 2026, 2027, if I have to put a little broad outlook, domestic growth, which you said it is strong 30%, which in nine months will mean even higher. Something similar should continue in the year thereafter, right, with the Make in India product initiative.
Yeah. Domestic market, we are very hopeful that will continue and it's a high 25% number. So, I've not called out a number for next year, so I can't give you exact precise detail or any guidance. But I think during the year, we will firm up the guidance for next year because we have a very concrete business plan, Bharatbhai.
Every year, when we give a guidance, we have a very concrete business plan. That is what we will do in each segment. And you rightly said initially, for every market, we have a very strong plan and what product we will launch, when we will launch, how we will launch. So, it's a very clear path defined.
And Europe, of course, will continue from where we are now beginning to pick up the trade. So, if not, we are already seeing that the healthy double digit should be there.
Yes, yes. We are already seeing the green shoots. Already, we have started seeing the green shoots.
Thank you, Himanshu, and all the very best.
Thank you, Bharatbhai. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Shubham Harne from Purnartha Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Just want to know the status of plants which we are building and how much growth is dependent on these plants?
Basically, the plant which is coming in Palwal in Haryana. This is for expansion of our renal capacity in years to come. So, with the current capacity, we'll be able to manage up to FY 2026-27. Now, going beyond FY 2026-27, we need additional capacity for renal. So, that is what we are building there. And also, in the cardio space, as we build more capacity, we'll be building.
So, all these are planned for FY 2027-28 capacity building in our core category business, which is cardiology, renal care, which are new businesses. That is where we are expanding more.
So, in Palwal, we are manufacturing for renal, planning to manufacture.
Yeah, that is what we are. And also, we are expanding our transfusion capacity.
Okay.
And we are also doubling that capacity there.
Okay. And other than Palwal?
The other one is in Haridwar. Haridwar will be for domestic expansion. Whatever products we are making for domestic market, that is where we will continue to expand our capacity in Haridwar. By when it can go live? These are all planned for next year, mid of next year.
Palwal as well as Haridwar next year, mid of next year.
Already mentioned, I think, in our earlier call also.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Zain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, please.
Hello. Yeah,
Yeah, please go ahead. I can hear you.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity, sir. Sir, I just want to ask about dialysis machine. Post-installation of dialysis machine, do you receive any services or do you provide any services for the repair or maintenance?
Yes, yes. So, we give warranty for three years. And after the warranty, then these are service contracts.
And can you qualify how much is the servicing?
No, no. We don't have any significant service revenue, so we don't call that number out.
Okay. And second question.
It's not part of our core strategy. I think the important thing is to sell the machine. Servicing is just part of a maintenance thing. So, it is not part of the core business.
Okay. And on second question, on other income, it was high. So, does it include Forex or anything?
Treasury. Mainly treasury.
Mainly treasury.
Yeah.
Okay. That's it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The last question for the day comes from the line of Harsh from Marcellus. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Just one question. On the European side, can you give us an update on the Chinese competitive intensity? Are you getting that it had increased during the Q1s? Are you seeing that the madness sustained during this period as well?
Could you repeat that? Harsh, sorry, it was not very clear to me.
Yeah. Hi. Am I audible?
Yeah, you're audible now. The question was not very clear.
So, yeah. Yeah. So, the question is with respect to the Chinese competitive intensity. You were getting that it increased during the Q1 where they were selling at very low pricing. Are you seeing this competitive intensity sustained during the current quarter as well?
No. No. As I said, we are already seeing green shoots, and we are already seeing the market bouncing back. So, I think we are pretty confident now that this quarter, Europe will do better than what is done in the past.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. There are no further questions from the participants. And now I hand the conference over to management for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
So, thank you again, everyone. And I think, yes, it was a tough quarter, but I think we have been very resilient in terms of the business. The fundamental strength of the company is very strong. The R&D pipeline is very, very strong. And the hiring, we have done significant hiring, and we continue to add more people, more headcounts in the organization.
Of course, it's a cost, but then it helps us to build for future. So, I think that's what we are building. And I think overall, I think we would maintain a similar guidance, what we have told earlier, with India growing 30%, international growing 5%-10%. But yes, as time progresses in the next few months, are very critical for global businesses.
And I think we are pretty hopeful that certain tariff issues will be resolved soon, and that will help us to go stronger in the U.S. market and maybe also in Europe in the near term. Thank you again very much, everyone. And thank you for being on the call.
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.