Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q2 and H1 FY2026 earnings 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 conference 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 end date of this call. The statements are not the 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, Whole Time Director; and Mr. Vikas Jain, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr.
Vimal Kumar for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I welcome our investors, analysts, and shareholders to the Q2 FY2026 earnings call. Thank you for joining us today and your continued trust in the company. This year, the Kharif season has once again reminded us that the Indian farmers are heavily dependent on monsoon. The rains have been very difficult and very seasonal. Many parts of the country experienced heavy and untimely rainfall. Several key regions experienced floods, causing crop damages and losses. According to the India Meteorological Department, the country received about 8% above normal rainfall during August and September 2025. However, Punjab and Haryana recorded 40%-50% higher than normal rainfall, leading to floods. Rajasthan and Haryana recorded 40%-50% higher than normal rainfall, leading to floods. Rajasthan received 30% excess rain. In Maharashtra, more than 6 million hectares of farmland were affected by floods, waterlogging, and submergence.
Overall, a challenging situation for the farmers. These extreme conditions caused serious damage to major Kharif crops such as soybean, maize, cotton, and pulses. Many fields remained submerged for long periods, and many farmers faced delayed harvesting and crop losses. At the same time, heavy rain also washed away pest infections and a fewer number of sprays. As a result, demand for agrochemicals remained weak in several regions. The early rains were good for the Kharif soybean and supported the crops, but then the excessive rainfall at the large stage of harvesting washed away all the gains. Unseasonal rain conditions till late August, September, and October. These rains resulted in substantial crop losses, especially for cotton, soybean, pulses, groundnut, and vegetables.
Looking ahead, the positive for the Rabi Season is plenty of groundwater and dams full of water, but the poor Kharif season led to delayed Rabi sowing and farmer losses and financial stress. Overall, we have seen the demand for agrochemicals being disrupted. Despite these challenges, Best Agrolife has navigated the season with discipline and resilience. We carefully managed our operations, maintained strict control on inventory, and stayed close to our customers through our strong field presence. Our focus has remained on maintaining cleaner inventories and financial discipline in every aspect of our operations. This year, we did significantly less replacement and sold our products closer to the liquidation period. This strategy has been a great positive for us. Traditionally, the agrochemical industry experiences the bulk of sales return in the third quarter.
However, with our revised sales return policy and our reduced pre-season order placement strategy, we expect significantly lower sales return in Q3 FY2026 compared to previous years. This reflects our proactive approach and strong operational planning. Our focus will be profitable and long-term growth. Another major strength this year has been our growing portfolio of patented products. Patented products now contribute to more than half of our brand portfolio. This shift is slowly enhancing our brand value. Our margin profile will continue to improve, and our competitive advantage will continue to grow. Today, whenever I speak with our customers' farmer feedback, I hear only positive feedback about our products. Despite the lower revenue, the quality of our revenue mix has improved. We are selling more of our patented products. Looking ahead, I am optimistically positive. The outlook for the Rabi Season is cautiously favorable.
With focus on research and development, operational discipline, and significantly lower sales return in Q3, I am confident that Best Agrolife is well positioned for growth and profitability. Thank you. Now, I request our CFO, Mr. Vikas Jain, for the detailed financial performance.
Thank you, Vimal , and good afternoon to everyone. I will now take you through the financial performance for the quarter and half-year ended September 30th, 2025. For Q2 FY2026, the company reported a revenue of INR 516.8 crore compared to INR 746.6 crore in Q2 FY2025, marking a 30.8% year-on-year decline due to unfavorable weather conditions. The moderation was expected as we consciously focused on optimizing inventory, streamlining channels, and aligning production with actual market demand to reduce working capital stress. Gross margins today reached INR 169.6 crore compared to INR 252.1 crore in Q2 FY2025. While the absolute margin declined, the product mix improvement towards higher-value patented formulations supported overall profitability resilience. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 77.5 crore as against INR 147.1 crore in the same period last year, translating into an EBITDA margin of 15% compared to 19.7% in Q2 FY2025.
Sequentially, however, margins have shown improvement, reflecting the impact of tighter cost controls and efficiency measures. Profit after tax for Q2 FY2026 was INR 38.3 crore compared to INR 94.7 crore in Q2 FY2025, resulting in a PAT margin of 7.4% versus 12.7% last year. For H1 FY2026, revenues stood at INR 898.1 crore, EBITDA at INR 123.3 crore, and PAT at around INR 58.2 crore, reflecting a phase of realignment and strategic consolidation. During the quarter, we maintained a strong focus on cash flow discipline, expense rationalization, and balance sheet efficiency. Our efforts on reducing OpEx and improving collections from trade partners have started yielding results, helping us sustain financial stability in a volatile environment. The business is steadily progressing towards stabilization with notable improvements in key operational areas, including lower sales returns and optimization of operational expenses, as well as a tight control on inventory.
Inventory levels have decreased by INR 207 crore from INR 873 crore in H1 FY2025 to INR 666 crore in H1 FY2026, marking a 24% year-on-year reduction. Through strategic resettling across regional operations, the company has achieved an OpEx reduction of 13% compared to Q2 FY2025 and 11% compared to H1 FY2025. We believe this belt-tightening will be based for our future. As we enter the Rabi Season, we expect volume growth to recover, driven by improved farmer sentiment and stronger demand for our wheat and potato-related crop solutions. With reservoirs filled and soil moisture levels favorable, we are looking forward to the next quarter with positives. Moving into the second half of FY2026, our primary focus will be on returning to profitability in Q3 and Q4. We are aiming to achieve an EBITDA margin of around 13%-14% with an approximate turnover of around INR 1,500 crore for the fiscal year.
In summary, while Q2 was impacted by short-term challenges, we are confident that our strategic focus on operational efficiency, innovation, and financial prudence will help us to deliver strong performance in the second half of FY2026. With that, I'll hand over to Mr. Surendra Sai.
Thank you, Vikas Jain. Good afternoon to everyone on the call. Notwithstanding a tough half-year, we remain positive about our future direction. Agrochemical business globally is subjected to unexpected feats and thrusts. We are cognizant of this unpredictability, and the management focus has been towards building a sustainable and predictable business. It is this endeavor that will be our focus. We believe that the steps taken by us in terms of expense reduction, sales policy, inventory control, and focus on analytics and the use of R&D will weather us through the H1 storm, if I may say so. Our IT systems are maturing as we roll out SAP automation and analytical dashboards. Each step will strengthen the organization. We are determined in setting the direction for becoming an agri-tech R&D-based company. Our R&D and IT teams were successful in garnering a new and novel Nano-Urea patent.
This is our first foray into the field of nanomaterials. In H1, we added four more patents to our IP portfolio. Our basket of intellectual property now includes synergistic patents, synthesis patents, nano-formulation patents, and we hope to make more breakthroughs with agri-tech patents. Our ability to synergize these R&D efforts into our sustained top line and bottom line will be our goal. As a forward-looking company, our commentary would be incomplete without mentioning the role of AI. Developments in the arena of Generative AI are transformational. Every week, there are new foundational models being released and new use cases for AI are being conceptualized. There is a significant scope for adoption of AI in the Indian context. We are cognizant of this transformation and, as a company, we will adopt, develop, and benefit from this revolution. Export is an area of focus, and our business in Africa is continuing.
As previously stated, after the successful completion of three consignments, we have been awarded further orders based on our quality. The feedback from the customers has been overwhelmingly positive. This year, we hope to do around $1 million business with this customer alone. We have started generating revenue from our China subsidiary and look forward to end the year with $6 million-$8 million in revenue generation. In terms of international trade, we are actively looking at R&D trade as a natural hedge against the dollar volatility. Our patented product registration in Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam are progressing. Our active ingredients and formulation products are moving through the approval process in Taiwan, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, and other key markets. With these efforts, we are strategizing on creating additional revenue streams in the coming years.
We are actively pursuing opportunities in the Kenyan market to commercialize our patented products and establish a market presence in East Africa. I thank all the participants, investors, shareholders, and well-wishers for taking the time to attend this learning spot. With this, I will conclude this short update, and we are now open for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchscreen telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two . Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Hemant M., an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi sir, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Coming to my question, sir, my first question is related to our patented revenues. We have done around INR 290 crore in H1 this year compared to INR 357 crore last year. In the AGM call, you were mentioning that you were placing a few patented products before the season. Can you give me a breakup of these INR 290 crore? How much you have placed before the season?
Hello. You are talking about only patented products?
Yeah, yeah, only patented products, yes.
Yeah, yeah, so patented products are strategy. This year, we had decided that as against placing 50-60 products, our focus would be only to place patented products. So the placement had happened before the start of the current season. Now, for Rabi, the placements would start from November end, and the main sales would happen in December.
Okay. How much of this INR 290 crores is liquidated till now to the retailer?
We have almost in October, we got 90%-95% of our sales returned back, as was endeavored this year by changing our policy. Whatever we have got back was around 10%-12% of our sales from the patented products. We have got everything back. There is hardly anything left from the current season in the market. There might be something where small year-end liquidation might be pending, but other than that, 90%-95%—everything is liquidated. For the sales return, what we had in October, we had adequately made provision in September itself. We have made enough provision for the actual returns we are supposed to get in October, and that way, our returns are a little lesser only as compared to what provision we have made.
What is the provision per Q2, sir?
September, we have made a provision close to INR 80 crores.
Okay. Coming to the Q1 numbers, this includes the provision of INR 50 crore. We have done around INR 430 crore. How much of this INR 430 crore is liquidated till now, and what is the sales return?
Liquidation is, as I said, for current season, almost most of our returns have come in October, and there's hardly any liquidation which is pending.
This includes the.
There might be some because of the delay in season in South, there might be some where the season is going on a little bit, but most of it has been liquidated, and whatever is not there has already been returned.
Okay. This includes generic products as well, right?
Yes, yes. Our overall strategy was to ensure and have to have much lesser sales return, which includes for both generic as well as our patented products.
Okay. With the new approach, we might do well in Q3 this year with all these changes, whatever we have done. If we see our Q4 revenue last year, only INR 90 crore came from branded revenues, and the balance INR 180 crore came from technical. If we see our technical margins are very less compared to branded revenues, we need to do at least INR 27 crore-INR 28 crore back in Q4 to be back positive. What will be the approach for this year to be back positive both Q3 and Q4?
Last year, what you see at INR 90 crore is not just INR 90 crore, but gross was much higher, and we had sales return also in Q4. This year, we have ensured that all the current related sales return has already been closed. Last year, we had certain material which came back later on in Q1 as well, which we would not see this year. Last year also, our branded sales was much higher. It was almost double, but because of sales return, it was only INR 90 crore what we could have seen. This year, we will not see such kind of sales return, and the sales of branded itself will be higher, and the technical sales would be a little lower as compared to previous year.
Okay. Next question related to this patented launches, how many were planned in the next 12 months?
You're talking about new products which we have to.
Yeah, yeah, new products, sir, yes. How many were planned?
Yeah, this year, we already have launched our product like Testament. We have already launched, and one product which we have launched is our C4 plus Mirror Hyper Showdown, the brand new Showdown, which we have launched already. For this year, we have launched, but for next year, we have planned for new products also next financial year.
Can we expect three to four products, sir, in the next 12 months?
No, maximum two products that we will launch in next financial year.
Looks like Best Man has done very well this year. Congratulations for that.
Yeah, definitely. Best Man, Fetagen, and Showdown. These three products have done fantastically, really good in the field. So these three products, Fetagen, Showdown, and Testament. You are correct, the Best Man is also getting very good response, especially on the thrips, which was a really serious issue for the farmer this year, some of the reason. Our Best Man has done really good for that, especially for the thrips and mites.
Yes, sir. My last question, sir, if you see our products like Ronfen, Best Man, and upcoming product project X or XR, all of these were related to sucking pest. What kind of challenges do you see in terms of scaling these products in the next two-three years?
No, it is not the same because if you talk about Fetagen, that is mainly the crops. It goes in the.
I'm talking about Ronfen, Best Man, and Cubax Power Extra.
Yeah, yeah. Actually, Cubax Power Extra, what you are talking about, definitely. And Best Man, if you talk more than Ronfen, if you talk about the Ronfen, it goes mainly on the white fly and the sucking pest, generally, if you talk about. And Best Man have sulfa and tolfenpyrad and abamectin and fipronil. There are two different chemistries. You can say as a broader way, both are working on the white fly and both are working on the sucking pest. If you go specifically, the Best Man is for aphid, chesid, thrips, white fly, mites, and borer. It depends on the climatic condition and area to area, but it is different sales than Ronfen because Ronfen mainly is with the diaphragm cron, which goes on the white fly. If you talk about Ronfen and Best Man comparison.
Okay. Sir, and in terms of this top line target for this year, in the previous call, you were mentioning you will be around INR 1,700 crores.
Yeah.
Any reason for the reduction to INR 1,500 crores now?
Yeah. No, this is only because we are going conservative, and our total debtors and stocks have reduced a lot, if you see. Even in the last one and a half years, we have reduced our debt of INR 150 crore. That is also there. If you talk about that way, that is the positive side, which we are controlling our debtor and the stocks.
Sir, if you see the average, if it is INR 600 crore for the next two quarters, we will do only INR 300 crore per quarter. We were not able to do positive margins with these numbers from the past two or three years. How confident are you this year to be back positive for both quarters?
Yeah, definitely. We have changed our strategy for this year, which we already told in my commentary also, that we have changed our strategy. According to our strategy, we are going in a right direction. If it is INR 1,500 crores-INR 1,600 crores, not because only we are reducing our sales return and control. Also, it is a season failure also in some of region. That is also one of the reasons for the sale. We are doing conservatively. That is also effect. At the year end, I think all will be satisfied with our numbers and EBITDA margins, that I can say. Either it is less or more, but each number will be satisfied in the terms of inventory, in the terms of debtors, in the terms of creditors, in the terms of our total, you can say, debt.
If you talk about total, in totality, it will be a good number, I would say.
Okay, sir. That's it, comment. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Saket Kapoor, from Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead.
Yeah, namaskar, sir.
Yeah, [Foreign language] .
Sir, as you were replying to the earlier participants, that we have made the necessary course corrections, wherein we are confident that going ahead, we will be reporting sustainable and predictable numbers going ahead. Firstly, if you could just allude to it in a much descriptive way, what are the few key changes other than the one which you have just explained? If anything else you would like to say, that how will the investors get the sense of your sustainable and predictability coming into force? Because this is the first quarter wherein the quality of statement has changed definitely from earlier conversation. Secondly, my question to Vikas is, sir, in the cash flow, we have seen provision for expected credit loss at INR 8.5 crores. We have been speaking about sales return, then provisions, and then again, there is expected ECL also.
If sir could explain the nature of this line item.
Yeah, yeah. With respect to your first question on the predictability, as we have been discussing since the last two meetings, this year we are re-aligning our quarters. You would have noticed that we are doing higher sales and higher profit in Q2, and then in Q3 and Q4, we are suffering because of the sales return and incurring losses. This year, the re-alignment has already been done, and we already start seeing the results. As you mentioned, inventory and details and all those numbers are already under control. Sales return also has gone down by 50% compared to last year. This will help. Also, with respect to the profitability number, because we are increasing our patented portfolio, whatever reduction we see in sales number, either because of the generic products going down or there is lesser sales of technical sales.
Otherwise, our patent portfolio is still strong and almost similar to last year. This is on your first question. For the second question, it's just a temporary provision which has been done because we have put a formula that, okay, beyond a certain number of days, we need to provide for the details. November and December, being the key collection months, we'll be able to collect those, and these provisions would be reversed. You'll see in December that there will be reversal because we use a certain formula above certain days of outstanding we provide. We have on a conservative basis provided, which is signed off by auditors as well. These are not actually bad in that sense because most of our collection generally comes in November and December when the harvest season is on and the cash flow moves in the market.
Rest assured that would be reversed in December.
Sir, if you could just give the number for sales return for the second quarter and the first quarter and the provisions which we have made accordingly. Provisions for sales return and the actual sales return, yeah.
Second quarter, anyway, it's mostly some part of Rabi. We had around INR 30 crores-INR 40 crores, and we had a provision of INR 50 crores. For September, we have done provision of INR 80 crores, and what we are expecting is our returns would be around INR 60 crores. Same thing last year was actually around close to INR 140 crores of sales return.
Okay. So.
From about INR 140 crore last year, we are going to have around less than INR 70 crore, around INR 60 crore-INR 70 crore for which we made a provision of INR 80 crore.
When you mentioned that INR 80 crores as provisions and the actual should be INR 60 crores only, there will be a reversal of INR 20 crores going ahead in the next from the provision and comment?
We will wait for November, December as for some part of sales, still there is liquidation happening in south. In case we do not receive much return, then obviously you are right, it might be INR 20 crore, or it could be INR 15 crore or INR 10 crore also. The reversal will happen in December. Anyway, the provision is much higher than the actuals.
Right. Sir, my question to Sai sir about the international business that sir has alluded to, and I think sir mentioned about one of the clients from which we have also got some $1 million contract. I missed that number. So out of the total sales for the first half, what portion is towards the international business, and how should H2 shape up in terms of we eyeing the international sales?
Yes. As far as from one customer for which we have already completed the registration for sales, we have done approximately $600,000-$650,000 of business with this customer. We look forward to another $350,000-$400,000 of orders in the next H2. This is our optimism. The key point being that this is just from one single customer. There are other customers with whom we are working. This will be a little slow, but we hope that once we are able to start with a customer, our product quality will be beneficial and our pricing will be beneficial, that we'll continue to grow. This is an early start. As far as our total overall sales numbers are concerned, $1 million international sale is relatively a very small drop in the bucket.
This is a segment that will continue to grow. This is just one aspect of the international business that we are looking at. There is some amount of institutional trading business that we are doing with our China subsidiary also, and that is also sort of generating revenue. Our ability to be able to get profitability and a better bottom line being generated and supported from the international business will be something that we will be looking forward to in the next few quarters.
Okay. Sir, can you quantify for the first half what is the contribution in revenue terms?
In the revenue terms, I had already mentioned. Yeah, yeah. In the revenue terms, I had already mentioned that approximately $650,000 was with one customer, and overall around $6 million top line was from our Chinese subsidiaries. This is from the revenue point of view.
In dollar terms, $6 million.
I'm asking in terms of dollar terms. I'm asking in terms.
Yeah.
In terms of profitability, yes.
Sir, last two points, I completely missed. Come again?
Yeah. As I mentioned, in H1, we have done around $650,000 with one customer, and we have around a top line of around $6 million from our China subsidiary. This is only from a top line perspective, yes.
Bottom line, sir?
Bottom line, at this particular point of time, we still have expenses. We are still trying to get these things into a better shape. This will happen over a period of time.
Okay. So they are not contributing to the bottom line. This is what you are attributing to.
Not much. Very marginal. Very marginal. Way percent margin at this point.
Okay. What steps have been taken, sir, to improve on the same and going forward, what can we expect?
Oh, definitely. Definitely. I think international business will become one more pillar over a period of time based on all the steps that we are taking. In terms of the registrations that we are going on, in terms of our ability to have a subsidiary do an opening innings of top line, that itself is a good step. We also hope to look forward to our technicals and intermediates to come online because that is one area of R&D which has been going on for the last two years. We hope this will also start off. By next year, definitely, I think we should be able to see some positivity from the technical.
Okay. The last two points, firstly on the CapEx part, if you could just explain where are we in terms of the CapEx that we have outlined earlier. Because in the capital work in progress, we are unable to find any meaningful number. Just a second, sir. The capital work in progress, only one huh?
You are absolutely right. You are absolutely right on the CapEx front. We have been a little bit slow. I mean, in a sense that the monsoons were so bad that we thought we wanted to focus on our regular business and the financial belt tightening to be able to invest immediately on the CapEx front. We have been slow on that aspect. I agree. We hope to be able to start very soon.
H2, what should we expect, sir, the CapEx to be?
The plan was only for this addition in our Gajraula plant. As we said, we are going slow because the focus is more on stabilizing the business. We do not want to focus another part on the CapEx immediately. That we have put on a second priority. It would take anywhere from three to six months for us to start this project. Other than this, we do not have any other CapEx.
Okay. So just to enact, we will be taking a second look again for when to start the CapEx because, I mean, it will not happen in the H2 also.
Yes. This is for sure that we want to do it. It is only the timing part, which you mentioned rightly, that we are relooking. It could be three to six months, yes.
Okay. So then the fundraising exercise and all whatever we have done, that fund is also not being utilized for the purpose for which we have drawn. We will relook on, yeah.
Yeah. We didn't want to take additional burden of all these, including to spend a lot of efforts on starting this plant, plus financing and everything. Since this year, as you see, the numbers have been tough for us to realign, to do a lot of discussion with the sales team and everything. We decided we'll delay by three to six months. It's possible. Financing is not a problem. Already we had confirmation from financing earlier to start as well. It's only from our side that we want to just take a few more months so that this Rabi Season also doesn't get affected. Then post that, we'll be able to start.
Okay. So just to conclude, sir, as Hemant M. was mentioning in the opening remark, we have to put the house in order, if we can say, from the earlier experiences what we had for the last 12-18 months. And now going ahead, we might look at a better H2 in terms of a good bottom line that we can expect, which was not the case earlier, as we have already made the necessary changes with respect to the sales returns and provision. So this understanding is correct as of now?
Yes. Already, we have put three important steps for this year. On all those three steps, we are pretty happy that we are able to follow it. One was reduction in OpEx that we have reduced by 11%-13%. Next was reduction in inventory. We have reduced by close to INR 200 crore. The third was reduction in sales return. We have reduced our sales return by more than 50%. We are pretty happy that all these steps are not only planned and have been implemented properly.
Okay. Lastly, sir, how are generally sales for the H2, means how does in the total proportionate of businesses that we do, the December quarter and the March quarter generally plans out? I think the December would be wherein the pre-purchases for Rabi is coming. How should these two quarters behave as a business for business sentiment?
Rabi generally mostly depends upon the water which is there in the dams. We are pretty optimistic because the dams are at good levels, which will help the Rabi growth. It is too early to give on any number, but as we said, if we are going to do INR 1,500 crore, around INR 1,500, we have good INR 600 crore to cover in the next six months. The proportion could be a little higher or lower, but this is what INR 600 we are going to do in H2.
Okay. So I just mentioned 16-17 now. No, no, you answered that. You were answered.
Sorry.
You were telling something. No, no, I interrupted you, sir. You were telling something.
What I was saying was INR 600 crore plus a better patent portfolio, which will help us to, and much lesser sales return, which will help us to have profitable quarters here.
Fine, sir. Let's see how things shape up going ahead. Sir, for the debt part, sir, it is all the working capital and the ECB part, that means foreign currency loan that we have currently in our books?
We do not have any foreign currency loans. That thing is working capital. We do not even have any term loans as well.
What is the cost of funds, sir, currently?
We are on an average between, you can say, around 9.5%.
Okay. And our rating, sir, lastly?
Rating is triple B.
When are the revision due, sir?
Revision will happen again next year. We had our rating close to four, five months back. Another six to seven months.
Okay. All right. Thank you, sir, and we'll join the show. Thank you to the team.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sanjay Uthkare, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good afternoon. Am I audible?
Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Sanjay, please.
Yeah. So because of this extended rain, definitely many regions got impacted, and even Rabi has been again pushed right compared to earlier years. Which regions are we seeing now, which are getting ready for Rabi? I mean, are we seeing that many regions are impacted and Rabi will be again pushed into Q4? Or some states are now, we are seeing that Rabi will be starting in Q3? That's the first question. Are we seeing that because of all this extension of monsoon and even harvesting is getting delayed and everything is getting delayed? Are we seeing that Q4 is going to be better than Q3 or Q3 is going to be better than Q4?
Yes, Mr. Sanjay, thank you for the question. Yes, your question is relevant, which I said in my commentary also, that Rabi season in Q3 for the Rabi side that is going on as of now, that is a delay for one month, but still we can say which was the sales in October and that will be in November end. It will come under Q3 only if we talk about the Rabi side of the Rabi Season. If we talk about insecticide and fungicide, that will come in quarter four. If we talk about year-end, there will not be any push of the quarter three. Quarter four will be just some of the sales. Generally, we have insecticide and fungicide in quarter four only.
It is a month-to-month change, which was impacted on the second quarter to third quarter, but it will impact for quarter three or quarter four. It will be in quarter three only and quarter four only.
Okay. So on the ground, are you seeing now that the regions are getting ready? I mean, many regions are getting ready for Rabi or there are still many regions are not ready for Rabi?
No, no. As per our understanding, quarter three will be quarter three and quarter four as industry will be better because of the overall rainfall. There is a moisture and which is needed for the Rabi growth that is already on the ground. We can say it is for the betterment only, which excess rain was in the Kharif. That is some damage in the Kharif growth. If you talk about Rabi, it will be beneficial for Rabi growth.
All right. Yeah. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sanjay.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Vijay Jhaver, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi sir.
Yes, Mr. Vijay.
Hello?
Yes, please.
Yeah. Sir, I just have two questions. My first question is, in January or February, we have raised the warrant with the investors at the price of INR 640. Today, our share price is trading like INR 300. How confident are we to get back the remaining 75% from the investors?
Yes, Mr. Vijay. In fact, that you are talking about percential, which we have done in January-February. Definitely, there is an 18 months of time as per the guideline. I think till that time, it should be okay because all the participants had paid out to us 25%, which was INR 150 crores. We have already got INR 32 crore—how many? 25%. INR 37 crores. INR 37.5 crores. INR 112.5 crores, it has to come through that. There is a time. Let's see. I think in the third quarter performance, I hope it should be there.
Yes, sir. But my question is, because we have a fixed cost of INR 120 crore-INR 130 crore per quarter in Q3, so how confident are we to break even?
Yeah. Definitely, as of now, we are confident because Rabi Season is going good, and there is no extra burden, which last two years we are facing the extra sales return that was impacting our profitability in quarter three and quarter four, which is not here in this year, which we already told that under provision it is coming. Whatever the returns are coming, which is under provision only, even we have some excess amount, which we will add in quarter three, which is not returned yet. That is our strength for the quarter three results and quarter four results, which was not last two years.
Just to clarify, our fixed cost during season was close to that number, but off-season generally we are at around INR 80 crore-INR 90 crore. So we have reduced our OpEx. Last year, total OPEX was around INR 420 crore, which is an average of INR 100 crore per quarter. This year, we have reduced it by around 20%, 13%. We will be at around, for full year, close to INR 380 crore also, which comes to around INR 80 crore-INR90 crore.
Sir, my other question is, we had an inventory of INR 666 crores. I just want to understand how much is the finished product and how much is the technical?
Out of INR 666 crore now in September, we have INR 666 crore. In INR 666 crore, close to INR 300 crore would be our finished goods, and the balance would be in technical and bulk form.
Sir, do we have anything which is getting expired, finished product?
No, no. We don't have any such inventory.
What we actually do is some product gets returned for two to three years. And then if it gets expired, what actually we do with it?
No, Mr. Vijay, this is not like they say. Maybe you have a word about our industry also. Returns, whenever we calculate return, it is calculated return from the one distributor. It does not mean it is returned to the company directly. It came returned to the depot, and it resell also. We calculate as a return because once we sold, it got return. We calculate as a return. After return, it comes to the stock, and we sell it immediately or we try to sell it in the same season only. We never carry the one season product.
No, sir. Yeah. So do we have any provision for that in our balance sheet if it gets expired or something?
No. We always keep tracking. We have such a system, very strong system. We never come that day, and there is no expiry at all. We always sell before the expiry of the goods. Even one season, even sometimes the product does expiry.
Sir, I'm an investor since last three years or four years maybe. I'd like in 2022, 2023, when our company was at all-time highs, like INR 1,700 crore. You will keep on saying that our branded margin business is around 35%-40%. Now all the patented products we have, and we have a good sale from patent. Why our margin is still in 12%-13%?
What you said in the last line, Mr. Vijay?
No, I'm just asking if our patented product mix is going higher. In 2022 or 2023, I don't remember, you told that our patented products have an EBITDA margin of 30%-35%. Why is our entire business now only ranging between 13%-15% EBITDA?
No. Actually, if you see our total gross margin, if you talk about that, it is around 45%. On average, if in total balance sheet, our gross margin is more than 36%. If we talk about this first half result, this is more than 36%. We have a total gross margin which is there. Definitely with the expenditure, and if you talk about the total top revenue, if you match it, then it is reduced in the EBITDA. In the next years, you will see when our sales will grow, that totally will come by EBITDA, whatever our additional gross margin will come. Because now it is 36%, and now this last six months, we have changed a lot.
Again and again, we are trying to say that we have changed a lot in our strategy to reduce our inventory, to reduce our data, to reduce our cycle, and to better cash flow. We are doing that effort. Last six months, we have done, and that result will show in the next six months as well as next year. It will be because when we are pushing to patent it and we are not selling generic products, that result you will see in next one year. What you are asking for, the total gross margin, how it will affect in total gross margin when it increase, definitely EBITDA will also improve.
Okay, sir. My next question is, do you have any plans to increase the shareholding in your company as a promoter?
No. As of now, we don't have any plan.
Okay, sir. Thank you. That's all from my side.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vijay.
Thank you. A reminder to all, to ask a question, please press star and one. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. As there are no questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
We thank all the people on the call for their participation. Predictability and resilience in our business will be the goal. Every quarter, we will focus on our sustainable business, and we will drive for long-term growth. I thank everybody once again, and we look forward to the next two quarters. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Best Agrolife Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.