Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 and 9-month FY2025 Conference Call of Best Agrolife Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as of the date of this call. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Today, from the management side, we have with us Mr. Vimal Kumar, Managing Director; Mr. Surendra Sai, Head of Strategy and Overseas; and Mr. Vikas Jain, Chief Financial Officer.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Surendra Sai for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and welcome everyone to the earnings call post our third quarter and nine months ending of the financial year 2025. I will talk briefly about the industry landscape and will explain the business, while Mr. Vikas will take you through its financial performance. Let me start by saying this season has not been kind to our farmer customers and the agricultural community, especially in the south. This is a region from where we expected much better performance. The recent cyclones in South India brought unusual weather patterns, caused delays in the monsoon cycle, and extended the period of rainfall. This pattern affected the crop cycles, primarily the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu were impacted the most. We had been expecting stellar performance from these states, but these witnessed a dull season.
At the same time, chili prices have dropped by around 35% from an average of around INR 19,000 per quintal in January of 2024 to around INR 10,000-INR 12,000 this year. This put significant financial pressure on the farmers. They were in cash crunch, and it made them reduce their outflow in terms of the crop protection products. The financial pressure also delayed some of our expected payments. A similar unexpected performance was also observed from cotton growers. We were initially very confident that despite the delayed start of the monsoon, the season will pick up and result in good numbers. However, there was continuous rainfall that disrupted critical herbicide application, as well as the granule treatment. On the paddy side, farmers are generally habituated to carrying out at least five sprays per season, but this year they were able to manage only two sprays.
All these, at the end of the day, impacted the demand side. We have observed the seasonality and the changing market scenarios. It is significant agility from our side to balance the changing market dynamics, and we need to be able to respond to the correct scene and the correct sales push. This has become extremely important in our shift towards the B2C business. Given that we have been shifting towards the B2C model with an expanded branded product portfolio and an expanded dealer network, we observed this quarter the absolute need for business agile to focus on timely liquidation. We focused sales, and this required a huge amount of focus from the sales and the marketing team. We will be implementing actions to identify areas where the performance has not been as expected, and we are absolutely certain that we need to take corrective action.
We realized that our B2C push needs us to be very sensitive to the changing ground dynamics we intend to have this finally achieved. We have invested in building our sales team, especially in the southern part of India, and this shift was very essential for our long-term growth and pan-India presence. This push also affected our profit margin in the short term due to a higher cost base. Although this change is crucial for our future, it is putting some pressure on our profits right now. Corrections and improvements are our primary focus. No doubt, this current season was a tough one for us, but it also offers valuable lessons for us for the future. Products that need fewer applications will help the farmers stay productive even when the weather is not ideal. Our product portfolio has been designed to improve or rather reduce the number of sprays.
We will continue to work on that. Development of resilient products is the key, and focus on R&D and linking home-grown products to the farmers is important. Our portfolio of patents continues to grow, but we will regularly and carefully introduce the key products. Coming to some important updates during the quarter, during this quarter, we have announced the formation of a strategic partnership between Best Agrolife and Shanghai E-Tong Chemical Co., which is a publicly listed agrochemical manufacturer based off of Shanghai, China. This partnership formalized through an MOU will focus on joint research, manufacturing, and developing new products for the global market. This partnership will also explore new opportunities for product registration and a potential factory cooperation through joint ventures in leveraging best practices to expand market reach.
Etron Chemical specializes in production and export of herbicides, fungicides, and the company holds a significant number of registrations across a large number of international markets, including Brazil and Vietnam. We are very happy to move from a buy-sell relationship to a cooperative R&D-based relationship for the global market. This is a shift from a typical MOU between an Indian and Chinese company. In another positive development, Best Agrolife has been granted a patent by the OAPI, or the African Intellectual Property Organization. This is a patent for Ronfen , and this is a 20-year valid patent. We also have been granted a patent by the Indian Patent Office for a new manufacturing process for a phenoxyl methyl glyoxalate. This is an important patent for us as this is a precursor for the manufacture of Strobilurin fungicides.
This adds to our plan of deriving backward chemistry for the manufacturing of important fungicides such as Kresoxim Methyl and Trifloxystrobin . Concluding, we recognize the need to enhance our marketing efforts and optimize our sales structure for performance. We are increasing our focus to branding, awareness campaigns, and demand-generation activities to solidify our presence in the market. Simultaneously, we are evaluating the structure of our sales team for agility, efficiency, and performance. Let me put it this way: our Q2 results are not to our expectations. We view them as an opportunity to fine-tune our operations for better margins. We intend to tighten our belts for reducing costs, by optimizing our operations and extracting maximum efficiencies. Despite the challenges, we remain confident in our long-term strategy. We understand that there will be demand fluctuations, but we are focusing on delivering value to our stakeholders.
Strengthening the product portfolios and our R&D efforts will no doubt yield results. We will remain focused on stabilizing our financial performance in the upcoming quarter. We intend to bring down costs as a percentage of sales and be better equipped to navigate current and future challenges. Our primary focus as always continues to be on IP generation, technical R&D, new formulation research, and development of innovative products, and we will continue with renewed zeal. Thank you for your support through this time. We look forward to addressing your questions that you will have during the call. I will now request our CFO, Mr. Vikas Jain, to take you through our financial performance. Over to you, Vikas Jain.
Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, everyone.
Coming to our performance today, first, Q2 has a 25-year-old strong demand for agrochemical products, primarily driven by an on-time monsoon, which led to all agrochemical companies, including ours, to put substantial stock into the market in anticipation of higher demand. However, as we entered Q3, we faced a shift in the market dynamics. While interest rates in Q3 significantly impacted growth activity, the lack of profiting sizes of key commodities like tomatoes and chilies directly influenced farmers' willingness to invest in the crop production solutions. Additionally, with healthy crop conditions across the country, the natural resilience of crops further decreased the perceived need for pesticides. All these factors combined to create a challenging revenue environment and weak cash flow in the market added to these challenges. In addition to weak market sentiment, increased competition drove down prices across the sector.
The aggressive push for sales ahead of price war further tightened margins across the industry. Our revenue from operations for Q3 of FY2022 was INR 275 crore compared to INR 315 crore in Q3 of FY2024. There was an increase in branded business by way of new product introduction and volume growth from the existing products. This growth was compensated by reduction in the institutional business by around INR 72 crore. Further, there was around 30% reduction in the product prices. In terms of profitability on Q3 FY2025 EBITDA, excluding other income, it was around negative INR 6 crore, and we recorded a loss of INR 24 crore for this quarter. There was significant improvement in the gross margins from 23% in Q3 FY2024 to 32% in Q3 FY2025 due to higher sales of branded products. The loss majorly is on account of foreign currency loss of approximately INR 11 crore.
Further, due to lesser institutional business, there was impact on the top line and the bottom line. Also, the investments that we made on the manpower and branding affected our profitability in the short term, but we are sure that this will benefit in the long term. All said, an important takeaway from this quarter is that we need to focus on improving cost efficiency. By reducing fixed costs as a percentage of sales, we will be in a better position to handle the current challenges and extend our financial future. We are focusing on cost optimization this quarter and are willingly zoned to reduce costs. Further, with respect to cash flow, cash flow from operations for nine months was INR 177 crore, and for the quarter, it was around INR 32 crore. To hand over back to Vikas Jain. Thank you very much.
Just as a closing remark, I would like to say that in short, Q3 FY2025 presented several challenges. We are absolutely confident that with continued efforts to optimize operations and strengthen our financial strategy, we will be in a better position to overcome these hurdles, and we intend to be able to take a wake-up sustain in profitable growth in the coming quarter. Thank you all for joining us today. We'll be ready to take the questions now.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press star and one. The first question is from Ram Tawa from Equinox Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Can you all hear me?
Yes, yes. Please go ahead.
Yes, please.
I have a couple of questions. What baffles me is in the last earnings call, which happened in the month of October, you were very optimistic that this quarter would be very good, even the next quarter, and that INR 1,800 crores, something odd, will be the top line for the next two quarters. October means almost 45 days of the season might have gone. Suddenly, why is the poor performance of this fall that the performance was not so good then when compared to last year? Can you just add some colors towards it?
Yeah. As I mentioned, the first thing is with respect to branded business, we are improving as we have been changing last few quarters, and that also can be seen in the improvement in the top line as well as in the gross margin. However, this quarter's reduction is mostly because of the reduction in our institutional business and also that we have taken good provision for future expected sales returns. Last year's sales return in Q4 was also higher. However, we have taken cognizance of that and have provided in Q3 itself so that we do not have a similar situation of Q4 like we had last year, so that we did not receive that we have little higher losses in this quarter.
This quarter, Q4, what is the expectation, and what will be the top line or bottom line closing numbers, tentative numbers by the end of the year?
Still, the season is going on. Only thing, we cannot give an exact number to say what could be top line and bottom line, but it will not be the worst what we had last year. It will be a reasonable quarter, even though we might have some losses, but not to the extent what we had in previous years.
The top line, like you promised, INR 2,200 crores is not achievable this year, and last quarter you guys promised that it would be around INR 2,000 + crores top line. Is it achievable or is it not?
2,000+ we'll not be able to achieve that in this year because of the fact that the technical sales were a little lower. Also, a few of the important crops where we have a very strong presence, especially in the south, didn't pan out the way we thought because till just about November, we were pretty confident and pretty much on the target to achieve all those numbers. Based on current situation, what we see, we will not be able to touch INR 2,000 crore, but we are considering the profitability and all gross margin and all those investing capital on those parameters will be improving, but will not be like the worst situation like what we had in last year Q4.
If I may add, there are two things which is there. Overall, we expect we wanted to achieve and what we wanted to expect in Q3. That expectation was that it would have been carried over forward, and that optimism would have carried forward into the Q4 and the eventual year closing. We have observed that the Q3 performance is not up to our expectations. We did expect too much better. This would certainly have an impact on the year closing. That said, the two things that are very positive for us, but we see that the margins from the branded sale continues to be good. This is something that we will take forward.
What we need to do is to be able to see, ensure that the sales cycle and the marketing cycle is agile enough to be able to run on all cylinders despite challenges being on the ground. This is something that we are very serious about. We are understanding the reason. We will take these as a lesson. Yes, we are already into the Q4 strategy. These changes will take a little bit of time to be able to come into place, but we are very cognizant of the fact that our agility and our ability to handle the sales in a much better manner is something very, very important for us. I think I have repeated more than once that we consider this as a serious quarter, but we will be taking action.
Thank you. The next question is from Raaj from Arjav Partners. Please go ahead.
Hello, everybody.
Yes.
Quarter two call, we said that quarter three is looking good and things are on track. I just wanted to understand that when we said that, what assumptions have we made and what exactly happened and where exactly we got it wrong?
With respect to expectation, I think the high expectation, including us and all the industry, we had till November also. Where it went wrong was because if you remember that this year, the rainfall had extended by one more month. This additional rainfall, what we have, that created an issue with respect to various crops, especially the crops where we are a little stronger in chilies and tomato and cotton. Later on, we were still hopeful because the rain got extended and we were still hopeful that the liquidation would happen. However, it did not happen as per our expectation. It was just in the month of December that the market realized that, okay, now further liquidation is not possible, and that's how it got reversed.
In fact, may I know the figure for sales return for Q3 FY2025?
Sorry?
I just wanted to know the amount of sales return we had in this quarter.
The sales this quarter was still 274 crore.
No, no. I'm talking about sales return.
Sales return?
Yeah.
Sales return this quarter, we had close to INR 180 crore. Sorry, INR 130 crore.
180 crores was in quarter three FY 2025?
130 crore. INR 130 crore. Last year, it was around close to INR 160 crore. This year, it was around INR 130 crore, whereas till about mid of October, till end of November, we were expecting it to be around INR 80-90 crore. This additional INR 30-40 crore took us backwards in our top line as well as bottom line.
All right. In fact, going to Q4 FY2025, we had reported a loss of INR 720,000,000 in Q4 FY2024. This year's Q4 is also looking the same as last year's Q4?
I'll repeat again, we will not have such high losses as what we had last year. This will be a better quarter than what we had last year. The losses will not be so high.
All right. Sir, how about FY2026? Would you like to comment anything on that?
FY2026, I think a few changes in strategy which we are doing now with respect to our cost optimization. What we have realized is, okay, we have built up a good team across India. However, based on performance of various zones, what we have been having since last one month, we understand that there are various places, various territories and regions where we can consolidate. We will be consolidating all those and ensuring that the per-employee performance is much better than what we had this year. This year, we had much higher strength of employees. However, the per-employee performance did not come to our expectations. We are consolidating various regions to ensure that each employee, we are getting the number what we expect.
Based on that, next year, also the few of the products which we have presented, close to eight patented products, wherein half of them were related to this year, we will see a full potential coming next year. Next year, revenue would be for all these products at full potential, plus with current cost optimization we are making, we will have a much lower effect. Already with respect to working capital, we see that there is an easing in working capital wherein because of the dumping of last year, we had much higher inventory. This year, we see that the inventory levels also will go down. Across all parameters, we will see that the performance will be much, much better in FY 2026.
All right.
Okay. Thank you all very much.
Can I just add just a few lines onto that?
The key takeaway for us from this particular quarter is that there needs to be a very good way of being able to monitor each territory's ability to change and take corrective actions despite any changes in the weather patterns and the cropping patterns. That is something that we will be doing. We also have been able to identify certain areas of, I would say, inefficiencies, and which is what we will be addressing them on a stronger footing.
All right. Okay. Okay. Thanks. All the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. Next question is from Deepak Poddar from Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, I'm audible. Hello.
Hello.
Yes, please.
Yeah, I'm audible, right? Yes. I just wanted to understand now. I've been tracking this company for some time now. I mean, what I've noticed is that whatever we guide, we always fail to achieve, basically. I mean, where is the gap? I mean, even last year, FY 2024, we were targeting some 30% growth, 20% EBITDA margin. We fell short by a huge margin. This year also, I think we are targeting, we were targeting 15%-20%. I think we'll have a negative growth, right, given the—where is the gap, basically? I mean, why is it that we always fail to achieve what we have been guiding or what we have been saying?
We have got this corrected.
Hello?
Moderator, can you hear us?
Hello?
Yes, we can hear you. Please go ahead. Could you please repeat your question, Mr. Poddar?
Okay. What I was asking is that I've been tracking this company for some time, and what I've noticed is that whatever we have been guiding, even for last year also, we had failed to achieve by a huge margin. Last year also, we were targeting some 30% growth and 20% EBITDA margin. We failed miserably. This year also, I think the gap is too huge. I think we were targeting 15%-20%, and we would be seeing a negative growth. I mean, where is this gap coming? How is it that always we fail to achieve what we have guided or targeted for ourselves? I mean, can you throw some light on that? It would be very helpful.
Yeah. As I mentioned, we had built up a team considering that our numbers and the growth will be coming from this because we had built up an India team, and also we had the products to back them. However, this year, obviously, two years, we have been just about managing at the same level. One is there is an improvement in the branded business and a significant improvement, which is the way we are moving forward. The reduction, what you see majorly is coming from the institutional business, which is a conscious decision to reduce. We are having success in building our brand and able to do it successfully. However, what you see is that the initial issue with respect to higher OpEx that has been built, however, the benefit of which we should be getting in next two, three years.
Yes, we have not been able to match the 20% numbers, what we have been saying since the last six months or so. The main reason for this is that first, we have built up the team. However, the sales based on climatic conditions and the seasonal factors, we are not able to achieve that. We are rationalizing now in this quarter because we understood, okay, building a team immediately and trying to get results has not given immediate results, but still able to give negative impact on this. We are optimizing our costs, and we are consolidating our people to have that improved performance. Yes, we are learning from whatever we have done in the last one year, and certainly, we'll see improvement in Q2 as well.
Okay. I mean, in terms of margins, I understood what you said. In terms of top line also, I think we fell short by a huge margin, right? I mean, is that something that our products are not getting traction, and that's why we are getting so high sales returns, and our products are not good? What is the process there? I mean, there's a huge difference of what we expect and what we are actually achieving. I mean, not in this year. I mean, it's two years in a row, right?
Yeah. That's right when you see number as a value figure. When you break this number into various businesses, branded business, we have done tremendously well. We have been growing since the last two years at 50-70%. That we have been able to do. The top line reduction is basically because of two reasons. One is the institutional business, which we are trying to reduce. That's the reason you see the similar top line not been able to achieve. Secondly, this year, there has been a price reduction of close to 20%. If you see current numbers, with the 20% reduction, our volumes have been much higher. Because of the 20% reduction, we see at the same value.
When did this price reduction happen? I mean, why as an investor, we were not kind of informed during the last call that this price reduction is happening?
No. In my previous call also, when you see in between June and September, we had indicated that there was a huge China dumping, which has happened. In our previous quarters also, this 20% was there. We had guided accordingly that there was a price reduction of 20% in the earlier calls as well. With respect to sales return, generally, the trend is that in case we want to grow, you need to place the material well in advance because almost all the players are having a good amount of inventory with them and would be ready to place at any point earlier than the season, which we also did, considering we have pretty good products.
Now, once we are in the season, we see that various crops, which are pretty strong, do not work out as per our expectation, then there are a little higher sales return. Yes. We have factored. You see, we had done provision last quarter as well. We have done this quarter as well for the coming quarter. There might be some increase in the sales return here and there, but it does not affect our overall strategy of the branded business.
In terms of price reduction, if you would have indicated, you were quite positive on third quarter numbers, right? I mean, you were saying we'll not see any sales return at all. I mean, in spite of, I mean, this price return, if the price decreased, you would have indicated last quarter, but you were still very positive on third quarter performance, right?
Yes. We were almost.
In fact, what we were saying, in spite of you knowing that price were reducing, your performance would not be good then because price was reducing, and then it would be very difficult for farmers to then invest in agrochemical products that you have.
Yes, Mr. Poddar. In fact, if you talk about, if you see what this third quarter, there is a, if you see our expense side, that is much higher. If you see our, the growth margin are still there. The basic thing is, if I say in a broader term, you can say we are into the B2C business, where this kind of thing we have to take because B2C business, we have not increased a lot from last year to this year and the last year to the previous last year. You can say that is the main reason because when we go into the B2C, their expenses and everything will be the same, where if the third quarterly sale is not there or either any impact, that will come. We can say it is not for always, but for this year, it is there.
We are hoping that this expenses, we think like an investment on our brand business, that next year will be very good. That's the thing.
Thank you. Mr. Poddar, we request you to rejoin the queue for follow-up questions. We move to the next question from Preet from Company Wealth Financial Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yes, sure. Good afternoon, everyone. I still want to continue with what the last participant was saying. Here, I think the company that you guys are, you keep on doing phases in con calls which you have no idea in following up. Let me give you an example. Last con call, the numbers were released in the second week of October because the reason you say this is that because the SAP system is there, you get all the information earlier, you will be able to give the data, and all subsequent results will be early. Now, because the December results are bad, the results are pushed to now the 14th of this month. I mean, this really says that con calls information is given without any seriousness, and to me, this is gross negligence also and significant lack of corporate governance.
I mean, why would you keep on saying anything that you say without any intention of following up or sending clarifications which you do not follow up? The management here is seriously lacking and should be held accountable for this kind of gross negligence.
Yes, Mr. Preet, thank you for your question. Yeah. In fact, about the delay of this, you are saying earnings, I mean, the results, that the delay is not for any intention or anything because that does not serve any purpose. Sooner or later, that has to be done, and we have declared our results. The results are delayed just because of our internal meeting with the brand business, with the reviews, with the next year planning because generally, year plan, we do from in January and February only. Even now, even our budget meetings are going on for the next financial year.
That is the main reason which we are busy in this. That's the only reason. For delay, your first question is delay. That is the only reason.
Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Preet.
Yes. We'll move to the next question. The next question is from Komal from ASK Investment. Please go ahead.
Yeah. How do you think you manage the balance sheet and what are your plans for fundraising? I mean, currently, you are having debt over INR 1,000 crore and inventory over INR 1,000 crore, and no bank will give you debt, and no equity investor would be interested. It all boils down to confidence. How will you be able to go through this? That's my first question.
With respect to working capital, compared to last year, you see cash flows, we have been able to generate close to INR 170 crore in nine months, 38 cash flows and INR 32 crore for this quarter. The inventory, yes, last year it was higher because of various reasons and failure of the beat completely. Inventory has been going down. Presently, it's only INR 700 crore. Be a little clear because I'm not able to understand. I mean. Yeah. I was saying that, okay, let me repeat. With respect to overall cash flows, we have been positive, INR 177 crore for nine months and INR 32 crore for the quarter. Our working capital was much higher last year, and this year, we have been able to get positive cash flows. Our six months was profitable as well.
Now, this quarter, because of various reasons, what we had mentioned, we had some losses. Our inventory and receivable both put together are much lower than previous quarter as well as previous year. Our loans, we have repaid during last nine months. There is no issue with respect to any bankers not giving us loans. Whatever we had, in fact, we have repaid loans in the last nine months. We do not see anything with respect to the balance sheet, what you had mentioned.
What is the current borrowing? Currently, how much is the debt?
Our current borrowing is, to give you the exact number here, about INR 5,000,000,000.
Okay. Are you sure that the funding?
Mostly is working capital, sir. Yeah. All our working capital.
Yeah. What about the preferential? Because we have allotted it some 60 or right? Are you sure that you'll be able to receive the remaining amount? What are the thoughts there?
We have already received the 25% committed amount from the investors. With respect to balance, obviously, this is a long-term investment, which our investors have shown on us. One quarter's typical performance will not rate with respect to our overall performance of the company in future as well. Obviously, we see a better future for the company, and we are pretty confident because people have invested at INR 640. We are pretty confident that our share price will be back to those levels so that they feel confident to pay the balance 75% as well.
Okay. Good. Coming to the business point, I have a question. When you say you are doing branded 64% for H-1 and rest 36% is B2B, the 64% is totally manufactured. I mean, what about the 100% we are doing, right? How much is internally manufactured, and how much is, I mean, we are doing sort of trading?
The branded, when we say, is all manufactured itself. There is no trading in the branded business because most of it, we produce all the important products, and important products, we manufacture in-house. For a few of the products, obviously, you buy from other companies and then sell directly. That portion is pretty small. Most of our products are manufactured in-house because most of our products, close to 50-60%, is contributed by our specialty molecules, and those are all in-house.
When I take 64% branded now, you are saying that totally manufactured by us, and the 35% is patented, right?
Yes.
By next year, how do you see this patented share going up?
As Vimal said, last 15-20 days, we have been moving around and having budget meetings with our tonight teams. We are pretty confident that our, and we have a special interest on our patented products. We should be anywhere between 40-50% of our overall branded business coming from our patented products.
By next year, what would be the branded and institutional sales number? I mean, percentage-wise, around 65%?
Overall, we have been able to achieve the target to sell to have around 65%-70% of our business coming from branded. Next year also will be in the same range.
Okay. Next year, you are saying that patented share will go up, but institutional and branded will be same range?
Yes. If I may add just a little thing, there will be some percentage of B2B business that will continue because at some point of time, it does help us in multiple ways. Although, yes, the margin may not be very high, the payment cycles are much more assured. Always in this sort of a business, what happens is we may be having certain products which are excess for us but shortage for somebody. We may need some product which is a shortage for us but excess for somebody. It helps us a lot on the B2B business to be able to support the B2C. The optimum percentage of good anywhere would be between the 25-30% for the B2B.
At this particular point of time, we wish to continue with the same strategy of maintaining a mix of around 65-70% as the branded business and anywhere between 30-40% as the B2B business. That is our strategy at this particular point of time.
What is the working capital days in B2B?
In B2B, working capital days would be close to 90-120 days.
What about B2C?
B2C also, we are falling in that range itself, close to 120 days.
Suppose if you want to lessen the balance sheet, what would be the strategy for us? Because we have to keep the balance sheet also in check, right?
Yes.
If we are trying to increase the revenue, then obviously.
We have done policy thinking for large branded business. With respect to various products, we'll be getting cash prizes for our products. That will manage the balance sheet. We have enough bank loans to manage this, and we are pretty comfortable with respect to the number what we have. In fact, we were carrying higher working capital from last year, which has been consistently decreasing quarter on quarter, and this quarter also, we are taking special stress on our working capital to reduce it further. We'll see improvement in our balance sheet going forward.
Thank you. Mr. Komal, we request you to rejoin the queue for follow-up questions. We'll move to the next question. The next question is from Saket Kapoor from Kapoor Company. Please go ahead.
[Foreign language] , sir.
Hi.
Yes, sir.
Firstly, with respect to the sales return, sir, what were the sales return number for last time, Q4, as a percentage of sales or just an absolute number if you could give some color?
Last year, Q3, Q4 put together, one was from the current season returning Q3 till December and a little bit in January, and December's return in Q4. Totally, we had close to 22% from our sales, which was sales return last year.
Okay. Can you quantify the number, sir? As you were maintaining that 130 was the Q3 number last year, this year it was 160 or 180, I think so. 50 crore was the gap.
Last year, it was INR 160, and this year it was INR 130.
Okay. Okay. This was Q3 last year. What was Q4 then?
Q4, we had around Rs 70 crores last year.
INR 70 crore. Okay. This year, sir, since now by now in the month of February, you would have an inclination how the sales returns have been post December quarter also. Any color you would like to give us on the same?
The liquidations are still going on. We'll not give the number because still the season is going on. This will be clear to us only by end of March. By that time, we'll be able to give a clear picture.
You were confidently mentioning that it will be much, much lower than last year's INR 70 crore numbers. Which understanding is correct, sir? We need to wait, or what you told earlier is correct?
Both are correct that way. One is whatever expected sales we plan, that is one thing. The expectation, expected return. Till now, we are having a season which is going on, and we think that the returns will be lesser. Our numbers last year, because of even higher sales returns from our key molecules, were the reason that we had losses. This time, we have taken enough provision in December itself to ensure that we will not have negative gross margins like last year. We have done provisions in December so that we take care of the returns we will get in Q4, which was a little lesser last year. Last year, we did not have so much provision, but we have taken a good amount of provision this year.
Okay. Now to the debt part, I think so, sir. As of September, we were not carrying, sir, any long-term debt. It is all the working capital requirement only that we need for our business?
Yes. As of now, also, whatever we have, it's all working capital loans.
Okay. What portion is in terms of foreign currency? I think we had an INR 10 crore non-cash item in terms of forex reversal, forex debit also to the P&L. If you could just explain that part to us, how much is in foreign currency, sir?
We have close to INR 400 crore, which are payable, which are in foreign currency. That portion already, because suddenly in December, you would have seen there was a huge spike in the USD INR rate, which did not happen since the last two years. Whatever deviation happened, just about 30-40 days. Yes, because of which this exceptional thing which was there in December, we have close to INR 400 crore worth of foreign currency payable which we have to do.
Thank you. Mr. Kapoor, we request you to rejoin the queue before we take the next question. Our request to participants is to please limit your questions to one per participant so that the management is able to address questions from all participants of the conference. The next question is from Hemant, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good afternoon.
Hi. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.
Sir, in the previous answer, you were mentioning that you are trying to consolidate your sales team. If I compare your B2C revenues with your dealer network, on average, you are doing only around INR 1,000,000 per dealer per year, which seems to be very less, only which seems to be very less. Whereas other players are doing around INR 2,500,000-INR 3,000,000 per dealer per year. Do not you think this number is very less?
Yes. You are right to two extent. One is, okay, compared to each dealer, our number is lesser. Also, as we mentioned earlier, that compared to the number of people we have, the per-person efficiency also was lower because we expected, based on our product portfolio, that we'll be able to ramp up our sales much faster. Yes, because of seasonal factors and all those reasons, we're not able to achieve those. That is the target for next year, as you mentioned. We have two distincts. One is to improve our dealer share, dealer wallet, and also to ensure that our each employee has completed the performance target for the next year.
Thank you. Participants are requested to please limit their questions to one per participant. The next question is from Sagar Shah, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead. Sagar Shah, you may go ahead with the question.
Hello. I'm available?
Yes. Yes, please.
Yes. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask you the question. My question is similar to all the participants because we always try to optimize ourselves. Quarter on quarter, we're promising to investors huge in terms of gross margin, in terms of revenue, and in terms of top line. Why we always fail is from I'm also from last three and a half years, we also taking your company. Each and every year, we are taking some loss in terms of loss in terms of our expectation. Is there any specific reason in terms of corporate governance, or is there anything in terms of our capability to enhance our company portfolio?
See, I think for us, few answers, we have just about answered this. The important part for us is that we are improving in our branded business strongly. We are improving in our gross margin strongly. And we have a portfolio in future to ensure that whatever steps we have taken to go towards branded should help us in future. Obviously, there is a setback in this quarter when we are not able to match the performance what we had guided because even we were, based on the season, based on the on-time rainfall, we were expecting and the kind of investment which we have done on manpower and brand building did not come out specific. There is a short-term pain which we are taking that we did not see the results of what we had expected.
The amount which we are spending on branding and all, obviously, will not go away because for the long term, the farmer will ease accepting our products, especially our patented products. Most of our patented products are doing pretty good, which we are not finding in the industry, that the first patent product itself was crossing INR 300 crore and others, that one is at INR 200 crore and the others are at INR 100 crore. This, obviously, the good acceptance will give us benefit because all the branding amount which we have spent this year will benefit us in future. As you rightly pointed out, it did not come out the way we expected because we were also pretty hopeful. We are taking corrective steps.
Since last one month, we have been, as I said, optimizing our cost to ensure that our future sales, gross margin and all, already we have achieved with those numbers. We will achieve higher sales growth with reduced number of people and reduced OpEx, which will certainly improve the future profitability.
Thank you. The next question is from Murali, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead. Murali, you may go ahead with the question. There seems to be no response on the line of Murali. We'll move to the next question. Next question is from Sanjay, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yeah. Just quick question about it was mentioned in last call that two more cutting-edge insecticide sites are set to release in Q4. Are you going to be on track to release those insecticides in Q4 or already done, or are you on track? About this income tax department, which is the thing is still open, I mean, right, start from September 2023. Anything you guys are doing to close this quickly because this is really creating uncertainty among the investors? What is the update on that? I mean, how quickly these things will get closed?
With respect to income tax, I'll answer with respect to product size. With respect to income tax, whatever we had issued last year, later on, there was no notices and no responses, anything from the income tax side. What we believe is and what we understand from the department as well is that the issue is closed from their end, even though we do not have a formal letter from them to say that it is closed. There is no notices and nothing which has come out, a single repeat for that, whatever had happened.
Okay. Yeah. Yes. Regarding the on-track for new products, we had already been talking about Shot Down, which is a proprietary herbicidal formulation with Haloxyfop and Imazethapyr. We are on track for this thing. We are just finalizing the right strategy to be able to take this forward. I would like to caution that the new products, whichever get introduced in the market, take a little bit of time to be able to settle down. They do not have a big bang approach of showing the results in the first quarter itself. We are focusing more in terms of being able to prove the product on the ground to the farmers so that there is a gradual, sustained, and continuous revenue growth over the quarter. We have also been working on one more insecticide, which is Vet-Plant.
This will see some traction in the rabi season. Shot Down will see some sort of traction from the kharif season. We may be able to see the effects of Shot Down somewhere in the next quarter coming.
Thank you. The next question is from Ram Tawa from Equinox Capital. Please go ahead.
You're all right. Can you all hear me?
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
There is a news saying that the deviation in fund utilization. Can you just throw some light around that deviation in the fund utilization?
Sorry, we didn't understand.
No. There is a deviation in the fund utilization from Crystal. There is a report which you have shared to the exchange.
Yeah. There is no deviation in the fund utilization. Whatever for INR 150 crore, the committed amount from the investors, we have got 25% from them. There is no deviation in the utilization because the balance 75% we are yet to get. As committed, earlier for INR 200 crore, we had mentioned that INR 70 crore will go for CapEx. Now for INR 150 crore, we have mentioned that INR 50 crore will go for CapEx, and the balance INR 100 crore will go for working capital. The initial amount we got, we have utilized for the working capital purpose.
There is no deviation there.
There's no deviation.
Thank you. The next question is from Veeranna Savadi, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. You can hear me, right?
Yes.
Yeah. My question is a simple question I have. I just wanted to understand what is your view on getting confidence back from FIIs and DIIs investors? Yeah, it looks like they all lost trust on your company due to non-standing on your words whenever you guys have a call. What is your view?
Yes, you are right to say that because this is more a seasonal business. Based on seasonal business, if we are in June, there is obviously an expectation which is built and how the season is going to pan out, how we are going to sell. That is how we build our expectation. When we have done our June and September quarter, based on those expectations, we had given our commentary to say, "Okay, what do we feel about this season?" We are preparing our company based on those situations as of that date. Yes, we have not been able to match that performance what we had been giving in June or September. What we know is based on our product portfolio, we feel that this is a short-term setback what we are having.
We are pretty sure that we'll be able to come out of this considering the changes what we are doing with respect to our cost and the learnings what we are having from our previous season.
If I may add, actually, I hear your point that there would be a certain drop in the confidence of FIIs and DIIs. What I would like to say is that it is based on our product portfolio, what we have demonstrated in terms of our R&D, what we have demonstrated in terms of patent. There are Chinese companies. There are Chinese very large manufacturers who have decided to work with us as an R&D collaborator. This is a good step in the right direction. Sorry. They view us not just as a buyer of Chinese products, but they view us as somebody who can sort of work with them.
The relationship has been built on the premise that we can help them in their R&D, we can work together, and we can utilize certain registrations which the Chinese company has already invested significant amount of money in the past year. That is one area that I wanted to say. The other area is that we had not been able to kickstart our export business. I can be happy to say that we have got the first export order, which we started after some time. The number of queries and the number of deals which are in progress are a few. We will certainly be working on the export front also to be able to ensure that our dollar payment and the checks on the dollar is sort of mitigated. Overall, in terms of our internal confidence, yes.
We are very clear that the path that we are walking on in terms of R&D, in terms of differentiated products, in terms of patented products, in terms of backward integration, in terms of being able to work on new molecules, in terms of developing R&D collaboration with important companies, we are sure that these things will yield results. Yes, you are right in the perspective that we expected things to be able to fall in place much faster. They are a little bit slow. We do look forward to good years to come.
Thank you very much. We'll have to take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference back to the management team for closing comments.
Thank you. Thank you all for presiding this conference. We will certainly work to keep the stakeholder value in our mind at the top of priority. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you. On behalf of Best Agrolife Limited, that concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect the line.