Good morning, dear members and all the panelists. I am Deepak CS, Company Secretary of APL Apollo Tubes Limited. We welcome you all to the thirty-seventh annual general meeting of APL Apollo Tubes Limited. We have with us our Vice Chairman, Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta, and other board members who have joined through VC and in person, and also other panelists. Also sitting along with me is Mr. Deepak Goyal, the CFO of the company. They have all joined either in person or through VC. I welcome everyone to the meeting. As the members are aware of, in accordance with the relaxations provided by SEBI and MCA, this meeting is being conducted through the electronic platform in VC mode. This is a Webex facility provided by CDSL, which without the physical presence of members at a common venue.
The current relaxation provided by SEBI and MCA continues till the meetings to be held till 31st December 2022. For the members who have joined this AGM through VC are by default muted by the host to avoid any disturbance arising from background noise and for ensuring smooth conduct of the AGM. As you are aware of, the remote e-voting facility was provided for this AGM from 9:00 AM yesterday till 5:00 PM. The shareholders who cast their vote in the remote e-voting can still participate in this AGM, but their voting, they cannot vote at this AGM. Those who have not cast their vote in the remote e-voting can vote in the voting facility provided during this AGM.
During the proceedings of this AGM, members may raise their queries through the chat box facility, which is available on your screen. Depending on the nature of the query, they'll be answered either immediately or subsequently through email. If any member faces any technical issue during the conduct of this meeting, they can contact helpline numbers of CDSL, which was provided with the notice of this annual general meeting. Since our chairman, Mr. Sanjay Gupta, could not be present due to unavoidable engagements, I propose that the vice chairman, Mr. Ashok Gupta, be elected as chairman of this meeting. Therefore, I request the host to conduct a polling on the proposal for electing Mr. Ashok Gupta as chairman of this meeting.
I request the host to please put that question regarding election of the chairman on the screen, and we'll wait for two minutes, and thereafter the results will be announced. Host, please do that polling. Host, am I audible? Yeah.
Yes, sir. Polling has been open for three minutes.
Okay. All the shareholders are requested to vote on the question that has been put on the screen about the election of the chairman. Sustainability and governance. Host, can you please show the result of the polling? Yeah. A polling result had been displayed on the screen, sir. Yeah. A majority of the participants have voted in favor of election of Mr. Ashok Gupta as the chairman of the meeting. Ashok, sir, I welcome you to the meeting.
Thank you.
I request you to kindly chair the meeting. Sir, the quorum is present. The presence of 30 members is a requisite quorum, and we have about 40, 45 or so. The quorum is adequate. I request you to kindly start the proceedings of the meeting.
Thank you, Deepak. Thank you, members. May I give a very warm welcome to all the members of the company who are present here today, to the directors who are present, director of the board who are present here. Ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome to all of you for this annual general meeting of your company. I'm sure you and your loved ones are well and safe from this difficult COVID period. Before we formally proceed with the meeting, I shall request the company secretary, Mr. Deepak, to conduct a roll call as per the system. Please, Deepak.
Thank you, sir. Now I request Ma'am Neeru Abrol, who is also the chairperson of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, to start the roll call process. Ma'am, please do the roll call process.
Okay. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm Neeru Abrol, Independent Director of APL Apollo Tubes. I'm joining the AGM from my residence in Lajpat Nagar. There is no one else who has access to this meeting. Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am. Welcome to the meeting. Mr. Amit Gupta, Independent Director. Sir, please do the roll call.
Good morning, everyone. This is Amit Gupta, Independent Director of APL Apollo Tubes. I'm attending this meeting from my office from Noida, and there's nobody else in the room right now. I can hear and see everybody clearly. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Mr. VS Jain, Independent Director. Sir? VS Jain, sir, you're on mute. Please unmute yourself.
I am VS Jain, Independent Director of the company. I'm attending this AGM from my residence. There is nobody else present in the room, and I can see and hear very clearly.
Thank you, sir. Welcome to the meeting. Abhilash, sir, Independent Director. Mr. Abhilash Lal.
Morning, everyone. This is Abhilash Lal here, Independent Director. I'm attending this meeting from Bombay. I confirm that I can hear and see everything, and I have received the documents related to this meeting. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you, sir. Welcome to the meeting. There are other, some, a few other invitees also who have joined this meeting. Mr. Rashim Tandon, who is the representative of the statutory auditors, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP. Rashim, sir, can you do the roll call process?
Yeah. Hi, good morning. This is Rashim Tandon. I'm joining this meeting from New Delhi, and I'm here as a representative of the statutory auditors. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Welcome to the meeting. We have Ms. Sarvari Shah, who is a representative of the secretarial auditors, Parikh & Associates. Sarvari, can you please do the roll call process?
This is Sarvari Shah from Parikh & Associates. I'm attending this meeting from Mumbai. I'm a representative of secretarial audit.
Thank you, Sarvari. Welcome to the meeting. Then we have Mr. Jatin Gupta, who is the scrutinizer for this meeting. Mr. Jatin, can you please do the roll call? Mr. Jatin Gupta, am I-
Good morning. I am Jatin Gupta, acting as Scrutinizer. I'm attending this meeting. Am I audible, sir?
Yeah, you are audible. Please go ahead.
Am I-
You're audible, Mr. Gupta.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good morning. I am Jatin Gupta, acting as Scrutinizer, and I'm attending this meeting from Connaught Place from one of my client's location, and nobody has access to this room except me.
Thank you, Mr. Jatin Gupta. Welcome to the meeting. Sir, the roll call process of the panelist is complete. Please go ahead with the meeting.
Thank you.
Thank you, Deepak. Now I would like to introduce the panelists. I introduce Mr. Romi Sehgal, Executive Director, who's sitting with me on my left here. I will also like to introduce Mr. Anil Kumar Bansal, who is the Chairman of the Audit Committee and Stakeholders Relationship Committee, who has joined through VC. Madam Neeru Abrol, the Chairperson of Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Shri Virendra Singh Jain and Shri Abhilash Lal, Independent Directors who have joined through VC. Mr. Amit Gupta, who has joined through VC. Then we also have certain our members, Mr. Rashim Tandon, Mr. Abhishek Lakhotia, the statutory auditors. Madam Sarvari Shah, who is a Secretarial Auditor, as well as Jatin Gupta, who is a scrutinizer, who has joined through VC. Sitting here along with me are Mr. Deepak Goyal, who is the CFO of the company, on my left.
On my right, and also Deepak, who is a company secretary, on my right. I welcome all the panelists who have joined through VC as well as physically. Now, may I request the company secretary to please record the absence of some of the directors who could not be present due to their preoccupation or other programs. Further, as you have noted, the statutory auditor, the secretarial auditor, and the scrutinizer all have joined through VC. I note that the presence of quorum is there and the mandatory participants are also there. With this requisite quorum being present, the meeting is therefore called to order.
Thank you, sir. I request you to give a brief on the performance of the company for the financial year 2021-2022.
Honorable directors and dear members of the company, it gives me immense pleasure to bring to your notice the performance of the company for the year 2021-2022, and also the road ahead. The year was a year when the Indian economy reported a sharp turnaround in fortune, as the GDP grew almost by 8.7% against a contraction of 6.6% in the previous year. The recovery of the industrial and services segments resulted in an appreciable spike in government revenue. Further, exports touched a new pinnacle, even as imports continued to climb. As a result, India's fiscal deficit remained within the budgeted numbers. Favorable government policies and an accommodative fiscal environment facilitated investment by the private sector. The demand for steel and steel products increased.
APL Apollo, being the dominant player in the structural steel products, which is significantly used in construction, was able to capitalize on the resurgence to report its best performance in its journey so far. As you all know, we started the financial year with India in the grip of second wave of pandemic. It hit the nation, it hit the world, and the country's healthcare system was very, very highly impacted. This also impacted the businesses and economy. By the time we closed the year, the Russia-Ukraine crisis assumed center stage, and it adversely impacted economies, the supply chain, the prices of food grains, commodities, fuel, and almost everything. Your company was also affected by these challenges equally. However, we could end the year on a high note. In financial year 2022, the company reported encouraging result, both by way of revenue and bottom line.
Turnover of the company on a consolidated basis increased from INR 8,500 crore in FY 2021 to INR 13,104 crore in FY 2022, registering a growth of 54%. Net profit increased from INR 408 crore in FY 2021 to INR 619 crore in FY 2022, again growing by almost 52%. This was largely owing to the combination of factors like significant focus on value addition, building of brand Apollo, and market expansion, both in terms of verticals and geographically. We continued our mass branding campaign, which included outdoor media, print media, IPL sponsorship, and TV ads. We enrolled Bollywood celebrity Tiger Shroff, as you all know, as our brand ambassador. We launched a massive campaign around our new brand ambassador through TV commercials and social media platforms. We generated a heartening response and enlarged our brand visibility.
From a business perspective, it was a satisfying year. The company successfully implemented important initiatives that hold the promise of growth in future. The most important among them is the launch of the tubular technology for constructing high-rise buildings. I'm happy to inform you that the company received a contract for supplying its high-strength columns for creating the superstructure for six very large multi-specialty medical buildings, medical hospitals in India. The other path-breaking initiative was the launch of Aalishaan app, which is a B2C tech connect that will enable the company to come closer to the ultimate consumers. The consumers can directly connect in the app and make use of company's products. Incidentally, this app has received an overwhelming response from the consumers and promises to be game changer for the company in the medium term, particularly in an era when everything is going digital.
During the year, our average working capital cycle improved to seven days as against eight days in the previous year. Our net debt position, which had improved considerably in the previous year, remained at comparable levels. Further, return on capital employed increased from 26% - 35%, which I am sure you will be happy to know. We could also sustain the debt-to-equity ratio of 0.1 as in the previous year. The company's market share has increased from 50% - 55%. I would like to inform you that we have invested an amount of around INR 100 crore in the equity of Shankara Building Products Limited, and another INR 80 crore is to be invested through warrants. This is a very strategic initiative from our point of view. This will strengthen our presence in South India, a large and growing construction market.
Shankara Building Products has a robust distribution network, and we believe that strengthening this relationship will lead to significant volume growth and value accretion, both for Apollo and Shankara. Further, the proposed merger of Apollo Tricoat Tubes Limited and an unlisted subsidiary of APL Apollo Tubes is in an advanced stage, with the honorable NCLT already having reserved its order. This would provide a strong platform for both the companies for growth and pave way for simplification of the structure while achieving synergy of operations and pooling from combined resources. As you all know, the company had invested and continues to invest in its Raipur facility. This facility will manufacture pioneering products which will significantly widen the market size and strengthen its dominance in the structural tube business space.
While trial production of Apollo columns commenced during the year under review, the first phase of this project is expected to commence in the current year. The company targets to increase its installed capacity to 3 million tons in FY 2023 from 2.56 million tons last year. To add this capacity, the management has identified two new product lines in the value-added category. First, large size 500 by 500 diameter tubes and sections under heavy structural tube segment. Secondly, color-coated tubes under home decor segment. Both of these products will have capacity of about 200,000 tons each and will be launched in India for the first time, which is in line with the company's strategy to create new market, new products for structural steel tubes in the long run.
The project is being implemented, as you all know, in the new greenfield Raipur facility in Chhattisgarh. The CapEx for this facility is around INR 800 crore, being funded partly from internal funds and partly through debt. The commissioning of the Raipur unit should help the company in strengthening its presence in the eastern part of the country. The company is also planning to make strategic investments towards exploring its manufacturing footprint beyond our shores, perhaps in the Middle East. It's also investing in new technologies which would considerably optimize operating costs. As you know, we are one of the lowest cost producers in the country, and these technologies will help us to further strengthen this. This will go a long way in sustaining our organization for a long, long time.
Not only that, these investments will also increase our sales volume and reduce our cost of production, thus making the overall business more profitable and sustainable. I'm happy to share with you that the company, in its first ESG document, received a 56 percentile in the DJSI 2021 score. This is a significant milestone. It inspires us up the pecking order going forward, and the scoring is expected to be higher this year in view of the further steps we have taken in improving the ESG standards. The company is laying a lot of emphasis on developing efficient and sustainable products and processes targeted at reducing carbon footprint, preserving natural resource consumption, and fight the climate change.
The details of the steps taken by the company in this direction, whether in terms of introducing environmentally friendly technologies, consumption of resources, minimizing harmful discharges, all have been detailed in the annual report. I believe that the company is capable of dealing with the challenges posed by evolving as well as uncertain environment. We are in a very good position to leverage the opportunities which the economy, the global world is throwing open. As a team, we will persistently explore ways to improve our prospects over the coming year. I did take this opportunity to especially thank the directors of the company who have been steering this company day and continuously for further improvement. I also express my gratitude to all the executives of the company who are working tirelessly for the benefits which you are seeing and also the workers involved.
I also thank all the stakeholders, the government authorities, the members, the customers, suppliers, the associates, the lenders for their continuous support. We hope to get the continued support from all the stakeholders in future as well. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for the speech. Before I continue with the proceedings, the formal proceedings, with your permission, may I request the independent directors if they wish to say a few words.
Sure. Sure. Please. We'll welcome you.
Anil Bansal, sir. You had some technical issues joining earlier. Sir, am I audible to you? Sir, can you please do a roll call process before-
Yeah, I'm Anil Bansal, attending this AGM of Apollo Tubes from my residence in GK 2, and I'm able to hear and listen now, everybody. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Anil sir is an independent director, and is also the chairman of Audit Committee and the Stakeholders Relationship Committee of the company. Anil sir, would you like to say a few words as the chairman of the Audit Committee about the systems and procedures and overall governance standards.
Dear stakeholders, only thing I feel happy to be part of this company. This company has been following or complying the laid down norms, guidance, and is doing good job. My other colleague directors are also very scrupulously following the whether the company is doing anything which is warranted to be done or not warranted to be done. Timely action is being taken by the management of the company. I'm, as a chairman of the Audit Committee, happy and satisfied on the governance of the company. Thank you. With these few words, I wish all the best to the chairman of the company and all the directors. Thank you for opportunity. Thank you, Ashok ji.
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Neeru Ma'am, would you like to say a few words?
No, I, you know that, supplement what Mr. Bansal is saying, that over the years we are finding so much improvement across all the compliances and the company is doing so well, and the growth has been enormous and, with this merger of Tricoat and Lakshmi, I think we'll be still going up further and exploring all possible diversification and also taking part in CSR activities. I wish all the best, to everyone involved in this company's, operations and to the shareholders for, participating, in the growth of the company. Thank you.
Thank you, Neeru Ma'am. The other independent directors, sir, Amit sir, Abhilash sir, and VS Jain sir, would you like to say something? Amit sir.
Okay. Yeah. Sorry.
Yeah, please.
Abhilash here. Thank you all, everyone. My thanks to the chairman for giving some credit for the company's continued success to the independent directors. I think the real hard work is done by the executives, and board and down. I also would like to thank all the shareholders for their continued faith, in the company. I can assure you, I supplement what, Neeru Ma'am and, Bansal Sahab have said. We continue to adhere to the highest standards of compliance, and we are sure the company will only go to greater places from here. Thank you all so much.
Thank you, Abhilash sir. VS Jain sir, would you like to add something? Muted, sir. VS Jain sir is
Yes. VS Jain here. See, I want to assure the shareholders that this company puts a high degree of value on creation of shareholders wealth. The working of the company is very transparent and it is on the growth path. As independent directors, we want to make sure that all compliances are in place and shareholder value remains in the forefront of our mind as a foremost priority. I'm sure the company is moving in the right direction.
Thank you, sir. Amit, sir, would you like to say something?
Yeah. Good morning once again. It's been an honor and privilege to be on the board of APL Apollo Tubes. It's been a year since I've been on the board and I can share that during all the proceedings I have witnessed that the board is very, very transparent and open to accept and discuss things and you know take the suggestions and move the company forward. I'm quite pleased with the progress in the last one year in terms of you know the company taking steps towards corporate governance as well as the kind of strides it's been taking in terms of expansion and increase in sales as well as profitability.
The overall financial performance all the shareholders are already seeing it's much more disciplined over the last couple of years and it's great way. Look forward to continued success in future. All the best to everyone. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. I thank all the independent directors for expressing their views and sharing their perspective of the company with the shareholders. The register of directors and KMP and their shareholding that is maintained under Section 170 of Companies Act and the register of contracts under Section 189 are available for inspection by the members on the website of the company. There is also a link for the same if the shareholders could notice at the login itself. After logging in, there is a link for you know accessing those documents.
With the permission of the members, I shall take the notice of the 37th AGM, which is 17th August 2022, and the board reports and its annexures as read. The annual report and the notice are available on the website of the company and also that of the Central Depository Services (India) Limited. As far as the auditors' reports are concerned, the statutory auditor's report and the secretarial auditor's report. The statutory auditor's report issued by Messrs Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, chartered accountants, on the financial statements of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2022, do not contain any qualifications, observations or comments or other remarks, and hence is taken as read in pursuance of the relevant provisions of the Companies Act.
As for secretarial audit report, again, there are no qualifications, observations or comments which require any explanation on the part of the board. Since there are no comments, the secretarial audit report issued by Messrs Parikh & Associates company secretaries is also taken as read. Now, Chairman sir, if you permit, I shall take up the agenda items.
Please.
Dear members, there are four items in the agenda of this meeting. The first one is to receive, consider, and adopt the audited financial statements of the company, both standalone and consolidated, year ended March 31, 2022, along with the reports of the directors and the auditors thereon and the annexure. This is an ordinary resolution. This is proposed to be passed as an ordinary resolution. The second item is to declare a final dividend on the equity shares which the directors had proposed for the financial year 2021-2022 at 175%, that is INR 3.5 per share of face value of INR 2. This is the second resolution, again, as an ordinary resolution.
The third one is to appoint a director in place of Mr. Vinay Gupta DIN 5149, who is liable to retire by rotation and being eligible offers himself for reappointment. This item is also an ordinary resolution. The fourth one, again, is an ordinary resolution, but a special business. It is for seeking ratification of the remuneration payable to the cost auditors for the financial year 2020 to 2023. This is an ordinary resolution. Ashok, sir, Chairman, sir, you can. There are some persons who have pre-registered for speaking. If you permit, I'll request.
The members may raise their queries, if any, in the chat box. Further, the shareholder speakers who have pre-registered their names may, if present, speak now. I request the host to unmute the member. The video may also be enabled with his permission. Due to paucity of time, I request the speaker to confine his speech to maximum two, three minutes.
The speaker number one is Mr. Pradeep Sood. Host if, yeah.
Sir, Mr. Pradeep Sood is not available in the meeting.
Speaker number two is Mr. Kaushik Shaukar. Is he available?
Sir, Mr. Kaushik have also not joined the meeting.
The third is Miss Celestine Elizabeth Mascarenhas. Is she available?
No, sir. Miss Celestine is also not available.
The fourth speaker registered is Mr. Manjit Singh.
Continue.
The fourth speaker is Mr. Manjit Singh. Is Mr. Manjit Singh available?
Sir, Mr. Manjit Singh is also not available.
The next speaker who had registered for speaking is Mr. Yashpal Chopra.
Am I, sir? Am I audible?
Yes, sir, you're audible.
Should I try for this video?
Yes, sir.
Anyhow, I'll just speak it. Hello? Hello?
Yes, sir. You're audible.
Yeah. Honorable Chairman, sir, and the eminent board of directors. I'm Yashpal Chopra calling from Delhi with client ID 82570454. Actually, sir, I'm a speaker in almost all the big companies in Delhi, and it was at the suggestion of my friend Mr. Raj Bhushan Sahani, who is my financial advisor. I just have tried, and this is my maiden speech in your company because I was not aware of that. When I just got the balance sheet, and it is a fantastic balance sheet, and after looking at that, I saw that Mr. VS Jain, who is my ex-boss from Indian Oil, and so he is also one of the director over there.
Definitely I made it a point that I must speak that, though I did not get the specific link, because I had been asking for the link for the last three days. I was expecting that I will be sending some link over there because I'm a person of 83 years old, and I speak only wherever I get the link. Today, just 10- 15- 20 minutes before I was told that link has to be searched out from this CDSL and all that. Then I had a vehicle and went to one of my relation's house and asked his grandson to get me connected. Now I'm speaking from the house of one of my relatives. Sir, I'm very much proud of the team. You are holding it.
They are really the dynamic people and the project in hand, that is definitely excellent project, which is supplementing the dreams of our Prime Minister, that house for everybody. Because though, we are not having that much land as the number of person population we are having it or we will be having it there because there's no control on population. Only the skyscrapers will help us to solve the problem and our company with a very nice and solid project. They are just making us, helping us to construct our houses. Those house which is a dream of a salaried person who is saving throughout his life. With all those saving, he will go for a house and then for making a house, he has to suffer so many problems.
He has to run here and there for cements, for terrazzo, for other things. Sir, you have just created and facilitated the job of just having a house. Now our house through this superstructure, through these our ready-made structures, those we can get it constructed within a very, very short time. There is economy in the time. There is economy in the investment. There is a comfortable no running here and there. Sir, as regards the performance of the company, I'm very, very much proud of the team because the performance is just for six months. The first three months were impacted because of the corona, COVID corona. It just put everybody in the lockdown.
The last three months were impacted because of the Russian-Ukrainian war, where then there was disruption of the supply and all that. In spite of all that, when the global economy was in doldrums, when our own economy was suffering.
Our company has made a way. They have just shown an excellent progress. It's a matter of pride, and the credit goes to our chairman and the team and the eminent directors around that. I am proud of the team. I am proud of the CFO. I'm proud of the company secretary for consolidated that fantastic balance sheet. It is covering in the tabular form, in all those forms, and particularly that page of value creation is input, output, outcome. That is a fantastic thing. Sir, my prayer is only one thing, that when our Raipur plant will be just on commission, because once it is commissioned in full, I think that our company share will cross even INR 2,000 because that will give us an ample profitability. I'm proud of the team, and I pray to God for the positivity to you all. Positive.
Thank you, Mr. Yashpal Chopra. The next speaker is Mr. Vinod Agarwal.
Working with-
Host, can you check if it freezes? Can you hear? Mr. Sanjay Gupta ji.
Or hang up voice. Can you hear my single voice? Hello. The host. This is to the host. Hello, this is Vinod Agarwal. Hello, can you hear me? Hello.
Yes, your voice is coming.
To the chairman of today's meeting, Mr. Ashok Gupta, CFO Deepak Goyal, and our CS Deepak CS. Sir, I voted in favor of all the four resolutions sought to be passed in today's AGM. Sir, one thing, sir, even the earlier speaker said, there was no contact from the company secretary department, no link sent to the speaker shareholders to join today's meeting. This is a normal practice by all companies to send the link to join the AGM from the company's this thing. Even the telephone number given along with the notice 011, 22, 37, 34, 37, which is there in the notice of the meeting, is a non-existing number. Why do you give a fake number so that the shareholders cannot contact? Now, coming to the performance, sir.
The company's performance has been excellent. The operating revenues were INR 13,063 crore against INR 8,500 crore last year. The PAT was INR 557 crore and an EPS of 22.3 crore against an EPS of 14.46 crore, sir. Sir, only thing, sir, two or three issues, sir. Last year, the capacity of our total capacity was 2.6 million ton, and we produced 1.75 million ton, and we sold 100% of our production, sir. That was 1.75 million ton we sold. That is about 65%-70% of the capacity utilization was there last year, sir. How will we be streamlining, putting in more capital into all your plants? Raipur, you're putting in another 300 million, 300 crore, and you already put in.
That will be coming functional in 2023-2024, sir, for the steel, structural steel tubulars. I am sure that it will give good revenues to the company. Sir, planning to install a CSR activity of INR 3.07 crore. Even the Aalishaan app, which you have launched, is giving us good revenues in B2C customer. Sir, even the 17,000 tons you have done for the six buildings of the hospital is a good sign that will be a showcase project, and it will bring us lot of orders in coming time, sir. The Raipur facilities, when it will come, it will be a multi-product, multi-dimensional. It will give us good revenue, sir. I'm signing off, Vinod Agarwal from Mumbai, sir.
Sir, next year, give a proper telephone number so that the speakers will know whom to contact. This fake number should not be given. 22, 37, 34, 37. It is a fake number. It says non-existing numbers when we dial up, sir. If you want to see, you can dial up now and see it, sir, by yourself also, sir. It says it is a non-existing number. Why give non-existing numbers to the shareholder, sir? This is for the secretarial department to look into, sir. I'm signing off, Vinod Agarwal from Mumbai, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Vinod. Next speaker. Mr. Gagan Kumar. Mr. Gagan, you are unmuted. Kindly ask your queries. Yes, Mr. Gagan, please say. Mr. Gagan, you are not audible. I think, host, there is a technical issue. Can we, sir. There is another person who was not pre-registered, but he's requesting for speaking.
Please allow.
There is Mr. Santosh Mahindra from the chat box, if you can see. Host, can you please allow him to speak? Host, you are not audible. Host, you are on mute.
Hello.
Sir, I'm just allowing him. Yeah. Mr. Bhutani, you are unmuted. Kindly ask your query.
Am I audible? Hello. Namaskar, Ji.
Namaskar.
Regarding e-notice annual report, sir, this was received in time, and I found that the all section has been covered in detail and transparent manner. I appreciate the efforts of the management for taking the steps for safety of the employee during the pandemic time, second and third wave. We know that was a very bad phase, not in India, all over the world. Sir, I remember I support all the regulation. Sir, I want to know your step to contain costs and reduce the impact of the prevailing issue, that is inflation and rupee depreciation. Sir, there is no sign to end of the war between Russia and Ukraine and some issue with Taiwan and China. Sir, how you will addressing this type of issue, sir?
Your medium and long-term strategy roadmap on the challenges and to counter competitive platforms, sir. Sir, next is geographic expansion and product positioning. I mean, position of [uncertain] parameter compared to others, sir. Sir, what efforts has been made on the recovery of bad debts and strengthen the internal legal and collection process? Sir, do we have any major CapEx plan? Sir, Vivad Se Vishwas scheme, we have seen this scheme has been launched by the government and a good response has been noticed from the other company. Any settlement under this scheme of our by your company in regard to the old matters? Sir, regarding performance, I already spoken. Over the last two years, company has recorded a well-balanced growth across company portfolio of business.
I think this trend will continue and company will enhance the growth level and turnover quarter to quarter and year and year in the coming time. Sir, we as a shareholder hope and confident that the rich experience of the board will help the leadership team in achieving bigger milestones, and it will soon reflect on our stock price too in coming time. Best wishes to each one of you ahead of the festival season. Thanking you all, especially Deepak GS. You have allowed me. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much to everyone.
Thank you very much, sir. Thank you, Santosh Ji. Sir, there are one or two more persons who have requested. One is Mr. Dinesh Katochia. Host, can you please check if the person can be logged in, can be allowed as a speaker?
Sir, can you repeat, please?
Mr. Dinesh Katochia, if you can see in the chat box. Sir, one more registered speaker, Mr. Kaushik Shakur, has joined. He had already registered. Whoever gets logged in, please allow him to speak first. Yeah. I'm just unmuting Mr. Kaushik Shakur, then we'll unmute Mr. Kotecha.
Okay. Okay.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes, you are audible, Mr. Kaushik.
Thank you, sir.
[inaudible], sir, question please.
Good morning, everyone. First off, I would like to thank the board of directors for giving me the opportunity to speak in this forum. Many of you would remember me from the conversation of last. I will keep both my ask and introduction brief. I hope I'm clearly audible.
Yes.
Thank you, sir. Myself Kaushik Shakur, a qualified chartered accountant from Mumbai. I have been suffering from dystonia, which has rendered 55% of my body paralyzed, impacting my right hand, my right leg, and the speech. While I have not let that come in my way of becoming a chartered accountant and a practicing, I do request your support in helping me continue to be self-reliant. I hope I'm clearly audible till now.
You are audible.
Thank you, sir.
You're audible.
I was approaching after our conversation we had last time about me working for our organization. In certification work, including Form 15CB. However, nothing has progressed since. While I understand things may have not progressed due to pandemic situation last year, I do hope that after our conversation today, our organization will start engaging me in this area as soon as possible. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to speak today, and I hope to see a positive moment forward with my ask. I support all the resolutions.
I will appreciate if our team can take some efforts to engage me in this area. Sir, I'm also aware that this is not platform where I should speak, but how else I can reach you? So, finally, how is our company fulfilling our PM's dream of Atmanirbhar Bharat? Is any PLI scheme applicable to company? Thanks. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Kaushik. The host, Mr. Dinesh Katochia, is there.
Yes.
Mr. Kotecha. Mr. Dinesh, you have unmuted.
Yes. Yes, sir. I can. Can I audible? Can you hear my voice and see my video? Yeah.
Yes.
Good morning to all of you. Sir, I'm very happy at the outset that, you know, we have tightened our working capital very nicely. Is it a year-end exercise or throughout the year we keep our debt-equity ratio at 0.1 to 1? Is it a March year-end exercise? That is what I would like to know. Secondly, your working capital cycle, you said is of seven days. Now, again, is it a year-end, what you have to go throughout the year we maintain that seven days working cycle.
Sir, I would also request you that, you know, the entire balance sheet, you should mention only one denominator. You are mentioning millions, then you are mentioning billions, then you're mentioning lakhs, then you're mentioning crores. The entire balance sheet should be in only one denominator, that is crores. That will help us to understand the balance sheet better. Again, physical copy is required. I'm requesting the company, so if you send one.
No problem.
Collection of all of them. Sir, my questions are, you know, basically, you have said that the merger of Apollo Tricoat and Shri Lakshmi Metal Udyog is at an advanced stage. By what period you expect that the merger should be completed totally and we'll get the Apollo Tricoat shareholders will get the shares of. Then, you know, what I'm saying, what I was trying to understand is our net profit ratio, which was 4.1% last year, now is 4.3%. Now, asking cost rationalization, cost, you know, reduction in all areas so that this profit margin of our net profit margin, minimum 7%-8%, sir. Because 4.3%, anytime it can lag to 2%- 1%- 2%, etc. So that will be a big blow because.
Why I'm saying this is because, you know, during this economic uncertainty, lot of things are uncertain globally, internally, policy-wise, government orders, you know, government policies and all that. I am little bit, you know, skeptical about this growth which you said that from INR 1.5 billion to INR 6 million last year and INR 3 million by 2023. Is there a cost overrun or a time overrun that 2023? By which quarter you will complete that by 2023? In this year, 2023, you mentioned you the quarter, which quarter you will complete that? Can you mention that also to us. Sir, again, 6 subsidiaries-
Sir, you're not audible.
We are having six-
Sir, you're not audible. There are network issues with your thing.
Sir, I am very clear, sir. One second. DD guys, just give me one second, sir. Give me one second. Yeah.
Sir, you're not audible. Please make it brief, sir.
Sir, is it audible now?
Yeah, you are audible. Please make it brief.
Yeah. Sir, I would just like to know, since we have got six JVs, out of which four are making profits and two are making losses. Now, how will you rationalize these JVs? Why don't you make it a one big unit? You know, one company, everything under one company. What is the need for all these six JVs? I don't understand. Sir, our target for renewable energy at all plants by 2025. Again, are we on target for that or is there going to be any. Sir, what feedback suggestions were received by all, in the shareholders, the suppliers, the customers, your stockists, your end users, were received in the previous year or current year for still better performance? What feedback and suggestions have you received?
Sir, what is the major speed breaker experienced by the company in the current year and which still needs to be in place? Any horizontal or vertical takeover of any other company planned during the current year? Sir, I would like to have a list of top 10 shareholders from the public shareholding 15.94%. Because I am from the public, so I want a list of top 10 shareholders from the public shareholders, not the promoters, not institutions, so that I can understand who are the top public shareholders. Because if I know some of them, and if they have invested, that gives me more confidence to invest my money more in your company, sir. Please help me with that also.
Sir, lastly, I wish you all the best, and I would request, sir, that, you know, one plant visit should be arranged for the shareholders. If I'm staying in Bombay, the nearest plant for me may be, I mean, your Raipur or whatever. I mean, you can just take us to that plant. Who are there in Delhi, you can take them to the, your other plant in Noida. You know, we can see the plant at least and try to get the feel of the working of the company. Sir, lastly, I would like to visit one of your CSR site because I want to see in actual whether the CSR is done or whether it is just on, you know, paper and. Many companies do that. I fully understand that you must be doing CSR properly.
You know, CSR is a charitable work which we do for the government actually. It's a government job to do that all the CSR. They are collecting indirect tax, they are collecting taxes from us, everything they are collecting. Now even TDS we have to pay, sir. Even if you increase the dividend, TDS is on our head. Your company is not paying any TDS. Earlier the company used to pay the TDS. Now see, that also should be taken into account when you pay the dividends, sir. Other than this, sir, I wish you all the best. Be blessed for your all your plans that you have made for the growth of the company. I would expect answers for all my questions. Thank you very much, and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Chairman, sir, there are a few questions which has been put on the chat box also. Shall we take up those or any you'd like to answer?
Is there any other speaker now?
There seems to be no other speaker. There is Smita Shah. Miss Smita Shah, who is not asked for speaking. She has put questions on the. So I'm not sure if she wants to speak. Questions, we can take up those questions.
Okay.
Can we take up these questions now?
We-
We'll be sending to them?
We will give the answers here itself. Mr. Yashpal Chopra wanted to know about our new plant. My dear colleague, Romi Sehgal, will give response to that.
The Raipur plant.
Raipur plant. When is it likely to be commissioned completely?
See, the Raipur plant is under commissioning now, and the civil structure is nearly 60%-70% complete, along with the PV building. We have started commissioning one by one, the equipments. 60% you can say it is commissioned, and by December all the machines will be commissioned, what we had planned. The full capacity utilization, I think gradually we can think of March, the year-end, financial year-end. That's the status as of now. Because of the pandemic and because there's a lot of monsoon rains there, prolonged rains, so that has a little bit delayed the project, but now we are back online.
Thank you, Romi. Thank you so much. Mr. Vinod Agarwal desired that systems in the company secretary department should be improved upon. We have noted your suggestion, sir. Mr. Santosh Bhutani wanted to know what steps you are taking to contain cost. I'm happy to inform you that I think our company is one of the foremost. My colleague Deepak may like to say something on containing cost.
Yeah. Good morning, everybody. We are regularly focusing on our cost efficiency. In the last years we have put up solar plants in all the plants and we are focusing especially on the working capital cycle. It's reduced two year. Earlier it's around more than 30 days, now it's seven days. It's drastically cut down our interest cost and it's improved the efficiency. We are working all around on the cost efficiency sides and our main prime focus on the cost only.
Thank you, Deepak. He also wanted to know what is the medium to long-term strategies. As you are aware, our goal is to increase our production and our capacity and as well as our marketing to significant level. We have been working on cost reduction, new technologies, new areas, new products. Practically all that is being done and you have got. You can go through our report. You'll see lot of new areas, new development taking place in the company. Medium to long term, we hope that the company is already number one in the country, will further strengthen its position in the structural steel section. We are also looking at geographical expansion beyond our borders to Middle East and other places.
In medium to long term, I think the company has a bright future. Mr. Dinesh Katochcia wanted to know about the NCLT decision. My colleague Deepak may like to say on that.
Yeah. NCLT has reserved their orders in the last hearing, and it's listed for the pronouncement for the thirtieth September. We are quite hopeful the order will be pronounced on thirtieth of September. Both the company is merged after that.
Thank you, Deepak. You were talking also about renewable energy. We are, I think, one of the foremost in using the renewable energy in our plants. My colleague, Romi Sehgal has full facts on that. Romi, can you like to say something on that?
Not exactly.
Basically, on renewable energy, we have got solar panels on our rooftops in our plants. By that method, we are able to reduce our, the energy which we are taking from the grid. I think in many of our plants we have put up solar power plants. That way we have a consumption of both carbon footprint as well as of power from the grid has reduced. Smita Shah has wanted to know about the demand outlook. Smita, the demand is good now. As you know, festival season is starting. In the country, the season after rainy, monsoons is pretty good and we are already in that. August, September, October is normally good for consumer demand.
As you know, our products are highly used both for industrial infrastructure as well as consumer needs, so we are seeing a good uptake of demand. The volume is likely to be more than last year. As you know, we have been continuously growing in our volume year after year, and this year also we expect the growth momentum to be maintained. EBITDA per ton should remain almost the same range it was, it has been for last two, three years. We are continuously striving. We are developing new products, but that impact of improvement in product will come gradually. EBITDA levels will slowly improve over the period of years. I think these are all the points which were raised by the members. I would like to thank all the members for the keen interest you are giving.
I'm really happy to see that so many members in the public and the minority shareholders and small shareholders, they're taking so much interest in the company. It gives us a lot of confidence as, and as well as motivation to even work further in this company and make sure that, you know, our shareholders are truly rewarded. With these words, I again come back to our Company Secretary, Mr. Deepak, to continue the proceedings.
Thank you, sir. I hope all the shareholder queries have been answered. If there are a few questions left out, we have the recording of the proceedings, so if there are some questions left unanswered, we'll send by email, which we have advised in the notice also. Voting, so the members, as I had mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, members who have not cast their remote e-voting or e-voting during the proceedings of the AGM are requested to now vote on the proposed resolutions. On your link, that voting option is available. Once these proceedings conclude, the voting window as available on your login will be kept open for another 15 minutes, during which all the members present and have not voted earlier through remote e-voting can cast their votes. The scrutinizer, Mr.
Jatin Gupta, who is already a panelist here. Once the voting is over, Mr. Jatin Gupta, scrutinizer, will present his report to the chairman, and the results on voting will be declared within the prescribed timelines, which is currently two working days. We'll try to declare it as early as possible. The same shall be posted on the website of the company and also shall be disseminated to both the stock exchanges. Now I request Mr. Deepak Goyal, the CFO, to propose a vote of thanks to the chairman.
Yeah. Now I propose a vote of thanks to the chairman for and on behalf of all the members and the board of directors present, all the stockholders present in the meeting.
Thank you, Deepak G. I hope that all the members had an uninterrupted audio and video and had a seamless meeting experience. Now I request Mr. Ashu Gupta, the Chairman of this meeting, to formally conclude this meeting.
Again, dear members, I must thank all of you, all of our shareholders for reposing their faith in us. It is because of you that the company has grown so much till date. Not only you repose your faith in us, you have participated so actively in this meeting that it makes us feel proud and motivated. I'd also like to thank especially our board members who have taken time out of their such a busy schedule and are participating here personally. I think it's a great honor to us that they are present here. It really strengthens our resolve. I must thank again the board members, and I thank the auditor, the scrutinizer for attending this AGM, and CDSL for providing the platform. With this, I declare the meeting is officially concluded. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. First, we'll be keeping the voting option open for 15 minutes, isn't it? Yes, sir. Okay. Can we log out? The meeting is formally concluded. Yes, sir. Voting will remain open for next 15 minutes. Thank you. You are logged. Thank you all.