Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the fourth quarter earnings conference call of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited. The call will begin with a brief discussion by the company's management on the quarter four FY 2026 performance, followed by a question and answer session. We have with us today Mr. Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director; Mr. Jagdish Bajaj, CFO; Mrs. Sangeeta Pendurkar, Director and CEO, Pantaloons. I want to thank the management team on behalf of all the participants for taking valuable time to be with us. I must remind you that today's discussion may include certain forward-looking statements and must be viewed, therefore, in conjunction with the risks that the company faces.
Please restrict your questions to the quarter performance and to strategic questions only. Housekeeping questions can be dealt separately with the IR team. With this, I hand the conference over to Mr. Jagdish Bajaj. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the Q4 FY2026 earnings call of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited. Starting with the demand environment in this quarter. Demand trends during the quarter remained broadly in line with what we have seen over the past quarter. The wedding calendar was relatively weaker compared to the same period last year. At the same time, towards the end of the quarter, market began to see the emergence of certain disruptions in context of the geopolitical uncertainties, and we shall see how these developments play out. Against this backdrop, our company delivered a strong performance. Pantaloons was a key highlight with one of its highest year-on-year growth performances. The company's overall revenue momentum was broad-based across channels, with both stores and e-commerce continuing to perform well and building on the improvement seen in the previous quarters.
We also continue to invest in future growth through calibrated store expansion. During the quarter, we added around 70 new stores, taking the total additions for the year to over 180 stores. As these stores mature, they are expected to contribute meaningfully to revenue growth, productivity improvement, and profitability with operating leverage setting in. In summary, the quarter reflects healthy momentum across the portfolio, robust execution across channels, and continued investment behind avenues of future growth. Moving to the financial performance of the quarter. ABFRL posted 16% YOY growth to reach INR 1,990 crore, versus INR 1,719 crore last year. Within segments, Pantaloons segment delivered 19% YOY growth, led by 17% YOY growth in the core Pantaloons format. TMRW maintained momentum, delivering 45% growth year-on-year. I would like to emphasize on profitability for this quarter in context of a few one-offs in the base quarter.
It is important to note that last year included a one-time gain of INR 97 crore relating to inventory write-up and accounting treatment relating to demerger, which was explained in detail during Q4 results of last year. Please note that comparisons are made against a base excluding this impact. This quarter also saw a gain of INR 33 crore from derivative gain within TMRW's associate company, Wrogn, compared to INR 22 crore in the same period last year. These gains are getting consolidated at ABFRL level and are non-cash in nature. Excluding both of these impact, EBITDA grew 29% year on year, with margins at 11.5%. Within overall EBITDA, our ethnic business margin significant specifically saw a big expansion of 390 basis points year on year, mainly due to reduction in TCNS leases.
Reported loss for the quarter stood at INR 164 crore compared to INR 171 crore in the same period last year. This include a one-time exceptional charge of INR 11 crore related to the wage code. Here also, please note that last year's reported PAT included demerger gain of INR 97 crore. Adjusting for this, the revaluation gain is TMRW's associate and wage code impact. The loss at PAT level has reduced from INR 289 crore last year to INR 235 crore this year, highlighting a better underlying operating performance. Going to the financial performance for the year, ABFRL delivered revenue of INR 8,177 crore, registering an 11% YOY growth. This was supported by double-digit growth across ethnic, TMRW and luxury businesses.
EBITDA, adjusted for the demerger gain and the revaluation gain in TMRW, grew by 23% YOY to INR 903 crore with margin at 11% versus 10% last year. This reflects the continued improvement in operating performance across the portfolio. As of March 2026, ABFRL had gross cash of INR 1,549 crore at the consolidated level, while gross cash at the standalone level stood at INR 1,144 crore. The gross debt at consolidated level is INR 1,695 crore and standalone level is INR 740 crore. On a pre-Ind AS EBITDA basis, full year performance continues to improve. At TMRW, consolidated EBITDA stood a loss of INR 33 crore against loss of INR 75 crore in previous year. At the standalone level, we are at EBITDA breakeven. Our overall retail network stood at 1,273 stores, spanning almost 7.9 million sq ft.
During the year, we added 0.6 million sq ft of retail space on a net basis, further extending our presence and supporting our growth agenda. Now let me brief you on performance of individual segments. Coming to the Pantaloons segment, the business delivered one of the strongest growth quarters in the same period. With revenue growing 19% YOY to INR 1,048 crore, the performance was supported by healthy 14% like-to-like growth in Pantaloons format, reflecting sustained underlying momentum. Profitability also improved during the quarter, with EBITDA margin at 15.5%, expanding by 40 basis points year-on-year. This is despite the impact of continued ramp-up of OWND! during the quarter. Over the past 18-24 months, Pantaloons has undertaken strategic shifts that have strengthened its customer and product proposition, elevated the in-store experience, and sharpened execution across the business.
These actions are enhancing the relevance of Pantaloons for today's consumer, while positioning the business as a stronger and more sustainable growth platform over time. OWND! continues to strengthen its presence with its store network expanding to 79 stores. This included 12 new stores added during the quarter and 34 stores added in FY 2026. We continue to scale this business in a disciplined manner as we build it into an important growth platform for our company in the largest addressable market. Coming to the ethnic business. The business delivered annual revenue of INR 2,227 crore in FY 2026, growing 14% YOY and growth in Q4 stood at 4% versus last year. The portfolio continues to scale well, with a network of over 680 stores across key markets in the country. The business also delivered a 16% like-to-like growth during the year, reflecting continued consumer traction across the portfolio.
Profitability improved significantly with FY 2026 EBITDA margin expanding by 560 basis points to 10.8%. Overall, the ethnic portfolio made solid progress during the year across both growth and profitability and remains a key strategic pillar for us. As you are aware, our ethnic portfolio comprises of two segments, designer-led and premier ethnic. Our designer-led ethnic portfolio continued to perform well, delivering robust growth along with strong double-digit profitability. Revenue momentum was supported by focused category extensions, craft-led and contemporary product launches, and deeper brand collaborations across the portfolio. Within the premium ethnic wear brands, TCNS continued with its profitability improvement journey during the year. The business delivered 7% like-to-like in Q4 and 10% like-to-like growth in FY 2026, supported by a sharper product proposition, refreshed collections, and new launches that resonate well with consumers.
As indicated earlier, we made meaningful progress on reducing losses, with full-year cash losses reducing by more than half compared to last year. We remain focused on further improving the margin profile through better store productivity, cost discipline and operating leverage as the business scales. The business has also kickstarted its expansion journey this year in a calibrated manner, adding 23 new stores during FY 2026. During the quarter, we also launched the first W flexi store in Mumbai, which is an important step in strengthening the brand's retail presence and showcasing the refreshed proposition to consumers with all its brands under one roof. Tasva continued its strong growth trajectory during the year, delivering consistent double-digit like-to-like growth for the quarter as well as for the full year.
The brand continues to build strength across product, retail experience and brand image with a clear focus on scaling across India's key wedding markets. The network now stands at 94 stores, and we will continue to expand selectively in high potential wedding markets. Jaypore also delivered double-digit growth, supported by store expansion and healthy e-commerce performance. The brand now has a network of 44 stores and continues to strengthen its position in the premium artisanal and craft-led ethnic wear space. On luxury retail, The Collective and mono-brand business continued to grow profitably, with its total network including mono-brand stores at 49 stores. Galeries Lafayette, India's first flagship luxury department store commenced operations in November 2025 and has seen encouraging early traction. The platform continues to drive consumer engagement through curated luxury experiences and collaborations, setting new benchmarks in luxury retail in India.
Our digital brands portfolio TMRW delivered 45% YOY growth in Q4, underpinned by category extensions and high impact marketing campaigns. Q4 cash losses narrowed YOY, led by better scale efficiencies and operating leverage. The portfolio also continued to build its omni-channel presence, closing the quarter with 120 stores including Wrogn across key markets nationwide. As you are aware, with equity issuance of INR 440 crore during the year and more recent tie-up of INR 500 crore through NCD, TMRW is now adequately funded with INR 800 crore cash to pursue its aggressive growth plans. In conclusion, the quarter reflects strong momentum across our businesses, supported by steady improvement in profitability.
We are seeing encouraging progress across both established businesses and newer initiatives, driven by healthy L2L growth, robust channel performance and continued execution discipline. As we look ahead, the market environment will continue to evolve, and we will remain focused on responding with clarity.
Speed and discipline. Our priority is to stay close to consumer trends, make the right choices on product launches and network expansion, and continue executing with financial discipline. We'll continue to scale our newer businesses in a calibrated manner while building on the strength and momentum of our mature businesses. This balanced approach should help drive long-term growth, improve operating leverage, strengthen the overall margin profile, and build a solid foundation for sustained profitability over time. Thank you, and happy to take questions now.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touchtone 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 comes from the line of Archana Menon with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on the strong performance. My first question was actually on Pantaloons. The 17% Pantaloons format revenue growth-
Hi, am I audible?
Yes. Yes.
My question was on the Pantaloons format. If you could just help us understand what drove the 17% revenue growth. I understand there could be some benefit of the EOSS which moved into this quarter, any additional details you could help us with on this?
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Archana, for the question. This is Sangeeta . Archana, like we had told you in the last call, the reason why we had pushed our EOSS is based on our new strategy. We were pretty confident of our merchandising sell-throughs, and therefore we've chosen to move the EOSS to January. This is really a quarter where we think our strategy that we've been working on for the last 18 months with a concerted set of actions which are translating into results, which starts from, as Jagdish Bajaj alluded in his speech, fundamentally defining our target audience in a very sharp manner, strengthening the Pantaloons proposition with a superior customer experience.
Some of the key levers that we have talked about in the past where we've now seen results come through clearly are the reset of our merchandising strategy, specifically in three categories, which is women's western, menswear, and the non-apparel category. We've seen growth in excess of 20% in each of these categories in Q4. Our sell-throughs, which is again a very important metric of the success of our merchandising strategy, we've seen the highest-ever sell-throughs in our autumn-winter season. Secondly, I think the new store strategy with the new design with the purpose of creating a distinctive and superior customer experience seems to be paying off well. The customers seem to be liking our stores. We are well-accepted. We've seen the new stores also delivering very good results.
We've opened large stores, as you probably know, and while we may have reduced in terms of overall the number of stores, in terms of square foot, we have only added about 68,000 sq ft of space during the course of the year despite having lesser number of stores because the stores we are opening are larger stores because we have the confidence of our proposition working. Third, I think our online business, I'd alluded to this also in the last call. We feel again very confident of this business. It's demonstrated terrific growth in Q4 and through the year, and we're now ready to scale this business. We also relaunched Pantaloons as a brand, made significant marketing investments largely in the digital space, signed up on a celebrity. Again, we've seen good results.
Even if you keep the EOSS piece and you normalize, keep it aside and you normalize for that, and even if I look at November to March, which on the previous period kind of normalizes for festive shifts, and on this side normalizes for the EOSS shift, our growths are very strong both in terms of L2L and total growth even for the period November to March.
From a consumer profile standpoint, again, we are seeing that the customers who we were targeting demographically, we seem to be seeing us appealing to that set of customers in a more relevant manner. These are some of the drivers of our strategy, which we have talked about very consistently through the year. Our strategy has been translated into action. We had said in the last call we are seeing some green shoots, and we're very pleased with the quarter results that we've just delivered.
Thanks, Sangeeta. That's great to hear. Just continuing on this, firstly, could you help us with your online share of revenue for Pantaloons currently? Secondly, all of these positives that you spoke of, is that helping you in a higher customer walk-in or is it more conversion or ASP? Any numbers that you can help us with if not for the full year, at least for the exit which you think is more sustainable going ahead.
Yeah. Online as a business is still very small, and if you recall a couple of years back, we had said that we will not invest in that channel. Over the last year, we called out omnichannel as one of our priorities. Now we have a path to profitability. The reason why we had paused that business was because we wanted to make sure that we can get the unit economics right and make this business profitable. Today, it's about 3%-4% of our business. It's not very large. With all the shifts we have made this year, we feel confident of scaling up this business. To your third question, in terms of the customer KPIs, the biggest one which we feel very good about is our increase in our basket sizes.
That, again, is a ratification of the fact that the customers who are coming into our stores are liking what they're seeing, they're liking the experience in our stores, and they're liking the merchandise. Of course, it comes with a lot of operational discipline, which is a very important leg of our strategy as well in terms of how we serve the customer, the rhythm of how we display our merchandise, et cetera. Increase in basket sizes has been one of our biggest levers of growth.
Thank you. Just last question from me on the current environment with inflation. What is the level of inflation that you are facing for Pantaloons and for OWND!? What is the strategy around that? Where do you think you can take price hike, and should we be thinking of any margin impact in the next couple of quarters?
Archana , I'll take this question because this is, I think, broadly relevant to the entire portfolio, not just to Pantaloons. We are experiencing something like 3%-4% sort of inflationary pressure as far as raw materials is concerned. Obviously, this is not the entire cost. Raw material is a part of the cost. And therefore, effectively, it would put pressure in the second half of the year to fully counter it, take price increases between 5%-8%, depending on the category. We are still evaluating. We don't have a firm view on whether we'll pass on all of it, some part of it, and perhaps we'll be differentiating between different parts of the businesses.
Thanks. I'll come back in queue.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tejas Shah with Avendus Capital Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. First question pertains to overall your read on demand sentiment because this quarter was a slightly muddy quarter in terms of the first two months were very normal, the last month we saw disruption at a macro level, not in India, otherwise the sentiment wise and all and supply chain wise. Whether the last month has disrupted the flow materially or at all, should we extrapolate the sentiment revival that we have seen to FY 2027 as well?
Tejas, I think FY 2027 on a full year basis is perhaps too much of a stretch when things are changing on a daily basis. Would be hard to assess on a full year basis. To your question on a more near term, you're right. I think there was a marginal impact in March, which slowed down some of the momentum which had built up in the previous three to four months. We have seen demand nearly normal for most part of April and going into this quarter. As of now, while we feared a significant sort of risk on demand, as of now, we have not seen it play out.
Having said that, most of the inflationary pressures are perhaps still at work and may play out fully over the next three to four months, and therefore consequent sort of pressure on demand is something that we'll have to wait and watch for in the second half of the year.
Very heartiest congrats on super LTL and Pantaloons. Just wanted to understand what would be the breakup of volume versus price premiumization mix on that. The point that Sangeeta, you mentioned that it is still basket size increase that we are seeing. When do you think that this will actually convert into word-of-mouth momentum, and we'll see increased footfall also because of the changes that we have made in the last 18 months?
Yeah. Hi, Tejas. As far as footfall and walk-ins are concerned, we've anyway seen through the back end of quarter three and quarter four, we've seen an increase in footfall, and therefore we feel that the momentum that we've generated, walk-ins is a part of our growth because you need that funnel at the top to come in for us to be able to deliver conversions and basket size. We've already seen a step-up in our basket size, like I said, towards the second half of third quarter and fourth quarter. As far as pricing is concerned, our price increase through the year was negligible. We've hardly taken any price increases. In fact, in quarter four, our pricing would have been in fact marginally negative. A large part of the growth had come from volume.
Yeah. Looking at the response that we have got in terms of LTL also confirming that, should we revisit our mid-single-digit LTL guidance? Should we revisit our store expansion plan and much more upper end of the guidance?
I'll second. Just say I think strategy has taken time for all parts of its pieces to come together. As Sangeeta described in her response to Archana's question initially, actually from mid to late October, almost for last five months of the year and going into this year, we are seeing a fairly consistent uptick in almost all measurements, both quantitative and qualitative. Gives us confidence that much of what has been worked upon in last year and a half, is actually turning into a consumer benefit, which is showing up in the response. We would obviously in this environment be a little watchful, but I would be more inclined to go with your suggestion of slightly better and more rapid expansion. We won't change that.
It takes a long time for funnel to shift. Therefore obviously some of it will be back-ended as far as this year is concerned. Also hopefully we'll continue this momentum of strong like-to-like growth. Even if you take away this EOSS impact in this quarter, as Sangeeta said, that five, six-month delivery of high single digit, near double digit like-to-like that the business has been delivering month to month, that's something that we hopefully will stand out for later part of the year.
My only concern is really the demand compression towards, if any, coming towards the second half of the year when the cost inflation, not just in textile but overall basket, if it brings any slowdown the market. We are feeling very confident about the strategy. It's not just stores are looking good, products are looking good, consumers are responding well, and finally it's also beginning to flow into financials.
Thanks. That's all from my side and best wishes for coming quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes on the line of Garima Mishra with Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question is on the company's cash flow situation. It seems like cash consumed in FY 2026 is of the order of INR 1,400 crore. I'm just summing up the operating cash flow payments for lease liability and CapEx, right? How are you viewing your liquidity situation, considering per your earlier guidance, the company becomes FCF positive only by FY 2029?
Garima, Thanks. I'll give Jagdish to respond to that.
Thanks, Garima. At the standalone level, we started the year with a gross cash of INR 2,100 crore. As stated, we are planning to utilize it, INR 1,000 crore in FY 2026, INR 600 crore in FY 2027, and INR 500 crore in FY 2028. Post which we aim to be FCF positive in FY 2029. In FY 2026, we were cash EBITDA positive at a standalone level. As we aggressively ramped up our new businesses during this quarter, during this year, we consumed totaling to around INR 1,000 crore, INR 300 towards working capital, INR 450 crore towards CapEx, and infused INR 250 crore in our ethnic subsidiaries. In FY 2026, our investments were high due to one-time investment in GL and investment in working capital and CapEx of INR 450 crore working capital, and we rebranded OWND! with which aggregate to INR 200 crore.
This is some sort of one-off, one-time expenditure which I would like to call it. FY 2027, we aim to utilize INR 600 crore towards ramping up of businesses and invest in working capital and CapEx of INR 450 crore and INR 150 crore will go into investment in subsidiaries.
From now onward, as our subsidiaries, including Designer led brand and TMRW, have reached size and scale, they will fund their own growth as they have reached this level. In this context, TMRW has already tied up the debt funding of INR 500 crore by way of debentures. On completion of this funding, they will have INR 800 crore cash in their books, which will support TMRW's growth plan. We have to spend not more than INR 600 crore during this year, and I have roughly INR 1,150 crore cash available with me, which is sufficient for next two years' cash.
Garima, this response was from the context of standalone.
Standalone, yeah.
That's the investing entity and we have looked at investments in all the subsidiaries as well as our own internal needs for funding for the standalone parts.
The consol level, you are right, INR 1,400 crore, but which is in TMRW's losses, et cetera, for which they already raised INR 440 crore of equity raise.
Okay. Understood. You're basically saying that incrementally you're not foreseeing some big debt increase or additional large debt requirement that the company needs to take. There is debt, but against that there is cash and that cash you can keep consuming, basically.
That is right.
Okay, understood. My second question is on Pantaloons. Pantaloons in the last few quarters, the store count per se has not changed very meaningfully. Right. Maybe I have missed this number, but A, does this 399 store count include stores you own yourself? And B, how should we look at the store addition plan going forward?
Yeah. Hi, Garima. This is Sangeeta. 399 is just the number for Pantaloons. It does not include the OWND! number. As you know, again, as part of our strategy that we defined 18 months ago, we chose very consciously to close stores that were either not profitable or stores that are not in line with our strategy. Over the last couple of years, we've gone through that exercise and optimized our network. Going forward, as you heard Ashish mention, given the fact that we are seeing some early results of our strategy, though the plan for this financial year is about 20-22 stores I think as we get more confident, we will look at some point of time to step up this agenda and accelerate our store expansion.
Got it. Clear. My last question was on the ethnic business. Now here, I think the two large entities, especially on the everyday ethnic or whatever your festive ethnic piece are Tasva and TCNS. A, could you highlight the losses which TCNS incurred in FY 2026? What is the progress on Tasva? What is the response on stores that you are seeing? When do you expect the Tasva piece to break even? That's it from me. Thank you.
Garima, Tasva, as we have maintained, has remained on a very strong growth trajectory and today continues to be an investment phase. It's one of the exceptional breakout growth in the otherwise somewhat subdued wedding markets and ethnic wear category. With like-to-like growth of 20%+ for the full year for FY 2026 and overall growth which is in north of 30%-33%. That's on a very strong momentum. The profitability will take some time. We had said FY 2028, and we still feel that's the right assessment at this point as well. As far as TCNS is concerned, Jagdish Bajaj has opened the market talk about how the losses have halved this year versus FY 2025. We're still not profitable. We'll probably towards the end of FY 2027 is when we would expect to break even. On a full year basis, definitely be profitable by FY 2028 onwards.
All this I'm giving you are still their profitabilities are positive in both cases. I'm talking of cash profit.
Understood.
Thank you.
The next question comes on the line of Gaurav Jogani with JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. My question again is in relation to Pantaloons. If we add up the Q3 and the Q4 numbers and we compare it with the last year H2 base, the growth is 6%. The growth that we see in Q4, would you say just it's merely a shift of the one quarter to other? Or as you've been highlighting that the strategy is working out, so are you seeing the benefits again seeping in the Q1 numbers as well?
Hi. As I mentioned before, even if you normalize for the shift of the EOSS, as I mentioned before, even if I look at November to March, which normalizes for both the shift in festive from last year versus FY 2025, and if you account for the shift of the EOSS as well, our growth and therefore quarter three plus quarter four may not be the best way to look at it because there's a shift of festive sitting there. Therefore November, March is the cleanest period to look at the true growth. Our growths are pretty high, like to like, in fact, is in the range of about 7%, even in for those five months.
Sorry. When you say like to like, the reported growth obviously would be in the same line given the store additions have been negligible. Would that be the right understanding?
No. The total growth would be slightly higher than the like to like growth. It's 9%, to be precise.
Okay. Fine. Second question is with regards to the ethnics piece. Within that, the TCNS, would it be fair to assume that you have written that while the overall excluding the TCNS, the growth was in 25% nearby around that region. For the year, would TCNS revenues again would have declined by 9%-10%? Would that be a fair assumption?
No. TCNS revenues are virtually flat.
Okay. If Tasva has also grown strongly by 38% for the year and Sabyasachi is also grown by 33% odd. What would be then culminating to?
No, there are multiple other designers. There's three other designer businesses. There's Jaypore. It's a mix of six, seven businesses. I don't know which one you have left out. I'm giving you exact numbers. TCNS is just marginally negative, 1% or 2%. Rest of the designers have also varied between 1%, 2% to 31%.
Sure. I'll check back that. Thank you. Just last bit, when you say that you'll not be requiring the incremental cash from 2027 and 2028 as well, apart from the planned one, what kind of profitability are you building in across the major segments? That will help us to cross-check our numbers as well.
I think I don't want to give year-on-year numbers. We had indicated our overall segmental shift in profitability in our long-term plan. We pretty much stay on that range, both on the cash utilization as well as profitability journey.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Ankit Kedia with Phillip Capital India. Please go ahead.
Just within Pantaloons division, if you have to take OWND! out there, what will be the Pantaloons margins if I exclude OWND! and what are the losses in OWND! today?
Pantaloons margin for the quarter and I think for the year are also between 18%-18.5%, which is the margin that Pantaloons has consistently delivered, slightly higher than last year. OWND! losses are causing the rest of the difference between the segmental profitability. Business is still very small. We are investing. We've got a whole new team, separated the business, relaunched the brand this year. We'll have to wait for some more time to get a reasonable sense of profitability of this business.
In this environment, where you said demand challenges could come in second half, and we're also looking at price increases mid to high single digit, the confidence in Pantaloons will be significantly higher versus OWND!, and hence, should we have slower stores opening in OWND! versus Pantaloons this year?
If you look at it, Pantaloons and OWND!'s price segment and market opportunity, Pantaloons with 400 store network operating at higher price points is talking about 20-22 stores. OWND! operating at half the average price point, practically startup base, is also operating at similar level of this year, we're looking at 20-30, or at best 30-35 stores. Primarily, it's not to do so much with the market environment because these are multi-year businesses. We can't be reacting very short term to these long-term opportunities. This is more to do with us wanting to be clear, getting the operating parameters right, getting the store economics right, getting the merchandise mix, the team and everything else. Which is why this year we're not accelerating as fast as the opportunity might be.
Sure. My next question is for Tasva. A check suggests you're entering womenswear in Tasva as well this year. From a profitability perspective, FY 2028, does that include entry into womenswear in Tasva as well or no?
No, I think by then, Tasva womenswear, if at all we do launch, will be very small part of it. I don't think it'll materially create a shift. Unlike launching a new brand where you have three new costs, a whole new brand and marketing cost, a whole new store cost because you have to set up exclusive stores, and a new team cost. In Tasva women launch, we have no incremental cost that we're talking about. It'll launch in the same store under the same brand by largely the same team. Therefore, it will not materially change the economics either way. At least in the short run. In the long term, of course, we see this as a large opportunity.
Sure. I know you will not talk much about it, but in which category in womenswear are you planning to launch it, and where do you see the white space?
I think women getting married is the white space that we're looking at. You know the opportunity, it's very large. It's a fragmented market. We'll be in a position to talk about it, I think in the next six months or so. It's too early. I don't think even FY 2027 we'll see much action on it.
Sure. Last question, if I may squeeze in. Just on cash flow statement, if I look at lease liability last year versus this year, it's significant decline. High rental stores have that been closed or we have moved more towards variable rental? Why is the interest and lease liability decline in cash flow significantly?
Lease liability has gone up from INR 3,600 to INR 4,500.
I'm talking of cash flows, repayment of lease liability.
That is the lease agreement, et cetera. That is separate. My lease liability, because we are entering into agreements, which is there in the balance sheet. Cash flow is the adjustment of if there's some closure takes place or the old leases expire, that will come into there.
It's a significant decline versus last year. Have we changed some accounting for that?
No. No change in accounting. Nothing.
Okay. I'll take it offline.
Sure.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Sameer Gupta with IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, sir, and thanks for taking my question. Firstly, and I know a lot of people have asked on this, but Pantaloons. If I look at the full-year numbers and this normalizes for festive shifts, EOSS shifts, et cetera, it's a 2% LTL, and this has generally been a good year for apparel. We have a Shoppers Stop and a V-Mart both reporting 5% LTL growth this year. Is it a case of Pantaloons of the first half being poor and second half with all our strategies and actions? Is that the case?
Yeah, that's right. Absolutely.
Okay. If that is the case, why are we still not accelerating the pace of store addition? I heard in the other question you said 20- 22 store additions in FY 2027. This happens to be a multi-year opportunity. Why the confidence is not showing in our store addition guidance?
See, it will be very major reactions if we keep reacting to every quarter responses, which is why we look for long-term trends and opportunities, which is why, as Sangeeta mentioned, we have looked at last five, six months of last year as well as we're getting into this quarter. Increasingly, all the pieces of strategy are coming together. The store addition pipeline takes time to build. When you decide it takes six to nine months for right quality of stores, which is another part of our strategy because we were adding too many stores too rapidly and therefore in some sense the quality and impact and visibility was not at the same order that we wanted. That pipeline takes time to build. Anything that we decide to do doesn't really play out in six to nine months and that's why the guidance has not shifted.
As Tejas had suggested in his question and my response, we obviously are looking to scale up a little faster. In the shorter term, you may not be able to see the impact of it.
Got it, sir. We are still in a slightly cautious mode here or is it just the pipeline takes time to build?
It's a pipeline which takes time to build.
Sure. Great. That answers that. Second question, again, this has been asked in some different forms, but I have a slightly different version of a question here. INR 1,400 crore cash outflow this year, and in general, most of the segments' profitability has improved. First of all, when you started this year, did we envisage a INR 1,400 crore cash outflow in the overall business? Now because we are at a net debt position and the break-even in some of these businesses which still require investments is still some time away, you might see the net debt. I'm looking at overall net debt on the business on a consolidated level. That will keep increasing. Is there then a foresight of an equity infusion in near future?
No, I think we pretty much, Jagdish should explain the numbers. If you look at consolidated business, the net cash position was about INR 2,500 crores, INR 2,400 odd crores beginning of the year, which was about INR 2,150 crores on standalone basis. There's a plan of INR 1,000 crores this year, INR 600 crores next year, INR 500 crores year after. We are pretty much going as per that plan, which factors in the stage level of profitability shift across various businesses as well as growth in the CapEx needs of the business. Which is why while the debt may go up on a net level, there is adequate cash to fund not just standalone entity but if any investment's required in subsidiaries where we are investing. There are some subsidiaries which are raising capital on their own.
Jagdish should explain that TMRW with its proposed fundraise at the end of this quarter will be sitting on something like INR 800 crores of cash on its book. That's the one which requires highest growth capital. There are multiple other smaller subsidiaries which have strong profitability to be able to raise capital on its own books if required. We have factored in all this and that's why the calculation that Jagdish should give and explain everything.
I understand, sir. I also understood Jagdish's explanation. At the end of the day, we will have a capital structure with a significantly larger net debt which might be slightly risky in a retail business. How are you looking at that possibility?
No, we've seen cycles over a long period of time. Obviously if there is a COVID-like crisis we'll have to react differently but we are pretty confident that this is the sort of right structure which allows equity shareholders to maintain their levels of equity and the business to grow remarkably as we grow.
Is there a level of this net debt then which is where you will be comfortable, let's say on an absolute basis or a net debt to EBITDA basis?
No, we look at that number as it plays out. I don't want to give projections of this but I think we have maintained over last seven years in multiple presentations that as a company first Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited which included [Inaudible] businesses and separately here anything around two to three is what we have mentioned for any of our fashion companies. We are very far from it. That's the guidance we gave five years back and three years back. It's in public domain. You don't have to ask me this question.
We have some priorities. Last question, keeping one CapEx guidance for FY 2027 and in just the 2026 number overall INR 500 crore CapEx, if you could give a rough split between different businesses, Pantaloons, Tasva, TMRW, Galeries Lafayette and the guidance for FY 2027?
It includes INR 150 crore of GL, the store which we opened. That will not be there going forward. The remaining other CapEx have gone into OWND!, Pantaloons, Tasva, and the TCNS we opened around 30 stores. TMRW also opened around 30, 40 stores.
Going forward, sir?
Next year, this one-off type of thing will not come. In our plan, I already conveyed roughly INR 300 crores CapEx, INR 250 crores-INR 300 crores at consol level.
That's all from me, sir. Thanks a lot and all the best. Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Himanshu with Enam AMC. Please go ahead.
Good evening, team. Thank you for this opportunity. First thing I wanted to understand on OWND!. Now across the 79 stores, what is your experience in terms of consumer acceptance of our merchandise, the profile of consumers? Given that there might be some impact of inflation in the second half, how do you see the impact on this brand?
OWND! is in a very early phase in a market where there are multiple players between 300 to 1,000 stores. We've just started the journey. Early stage for us to make conclusive sort of points about it. There are largely two set of customers. One is young people who are looking for what one could call a disposable fashion, fast fashion, different names used for it, which is high fashion but low price. The other is simply customers who are looking for reasonable quality at low price, which is mid to low-income family customers. Both these profiles currently exist. We are obviously developing our point of view on where we want to shift our customer to, and that's something that's part of our overall strategy. I won't take too much in such a large market with such an early stage of evolution.
Don't want to sort of narrow our opportunity at this point of time.
Any impact you see on the demand if the inflation in the second half leads to some sort of price action?
We have seen both at some level. Sometimes inflation causes downward pressure, and therefore, value retailers gain out of it. At other times, it leads to lower discretionary demand. As I said, our size of our business compared to the size of the segment is so small that I don't think we will be material beneficiary. We won't take a significant hit on account of that. We'll have to remain cautious in terms of our pricing in this, and perhaps should be more conservative as far as pricing increase is concerned. I don't think anything that happens in this segment will be reflected in such a small business at this point of time.
Second, on the ethnic category, just wanted to understand your view on the competition, especially from the local or regional players. Is there intense or aggressive competition coming up, or the competition is getting down? Just your thoughts on it.
I think this is a category which has seen fairly large number of players entering this space over last, I would say 8- 10 years, from mid-2015, 2016, when e-commerce started to develop. It offered opportunity for multiple small brands, labels, manufacturers to put their product. In last five, seven years, that has further grown rapidly. I don't think new competition is entering this space because it's already pretty crowded with very low entry barriers and large number of players. I think the challenge is to create a distinctive brand where you can stand out and charge a reasonable premium to build a brand around it, and which is why we are building the business the way we are building. If your question is about the regular women's ethnic wear. On the men's ethnic wear, the market is fairly consolidated.
There is obviously a larger number of smaller players, but I think there the big players have taken a more formidable position.
Just last one, wanted to understand on the rent. Given we are in an inflationary space, how do you see the current rentals? Do you see, given that there might be some impact on demand, do you see the rentals lowering or remaining at current levels? Would that change the store addition trajectory for us?
Rentals are sort of midterm. They don't follow a very short-term phenomenon. If the demand compression is slightly longer, definitely there'll be compression on the rental side as well. If it's a very transient and temporary feature, then I don't think it'll significantly change that trajectory.
That's it for me. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Kunal Bhatia with Dalal & Broacha Stock Broking Pvt. Ltd. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, we have spoken a lot regards only as far as Pantaloons is concerned. Also, the online business in general getting more traction. Could you give some sense on how the competition is panning up? Are we seeing more competition even from the other players, especially on the overall online business is concerned? Also, your specific comments on the same with TMRW, because it's more of an online kind of a brand. How are you facing the competition there vis-a-vis how soon you expect the profitability in case of TMRW to come in this context?
I think it's very similar to the question that was asked in context of the ethnic wear. It's not that new online players are coming. Online players have got established. All the new players who had to come have come in the last six, seven years. There are new players coming in. Equally, there are older players which fall out. As far as TMRW business is concerned, you've seen consistently, we report every quarter the growth numbers. We're still growing on a full year and a quarterly basis at 30%+ . This is the third consecutive year and about 10, 12 quarters with the exception of one or two. We have grown in excess of 25%, 30%. We are continuing to see strong trajectory as far as TMRW business is concerned.
This is on the back of superior execution, building some of those labels into a stronger brand, giving management support wherever needed to the founders who had been in the business early on. Obviously, providing growth capital, which is really what has driven this. As far as profitability of TMRW is concerned, we had indicated FY 2029 as the year in which we expect the TMRW as a portfolio level, sum of all brands to become profitable. We still see that journey. In the interim, as I mentioned, all the growth capital is primarily to drive growth of this business so that it is not just profitable, it is also substantive and a large business at that point of time.
In case of TMRW to get to that profitability target with current situation wherein we will be having an INR 500 crore NCD for INR 23 crore equity infusion, would we be requiring more debt to fund this growth or the INR 800 crore of cash which we will be having should be enough to fund that growth in order to get to a profitability level?
We feel INR 800 crores is a substantial amount of cash on a business which is already on a run rate of INR 1,500 crores. If you look at the losses that we report on an annual basis, close to about INR 200 crores each annual. We feel that there is enough cash lever to both grow the business and with scale, also drive profitability within the brands and overall ecosystem. We feel comfortable with that.
Okay. sir, my second question is in terms of the overall raw materials. You will be obviously having your forward bookings for the coming season. What is your anticipation specifically on the ABFRL level? What is the kind of inflation, I'm not talking about industry in general, but for you per se, what is the inflation which has already kicked in for you for the next six to seven months?
I had indicated about 3%-5% in response to an earlier question.
Okay. Fine, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the management, we thank all participants for joining us. In case of any further inquiries, you may please get in touch with Mr. Amit Dwivedi. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.