Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Acutaas Chemicals Limited Q1 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by JM Financial Institutional Securities 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. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Krishan Parwani from JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd. Thank you, and over to you.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Acutaas Chemicals Q1 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today, we have with us Acutaas Chemicals management, represented by Mr. Naresh Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Abhishek Patel, Vice President Strategy, and Mr. Bhavin Shah, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to invite Mr. Bhavin Shah to initiate the proceedings. Over to you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Krishan. Good evening, everyone. We are pleased to welcome you all to our Earnings Conference Call to discuss Q1 FY 2026 financials. Please note that a copy of our disclosure is available on the investor section of our website, as well as on the stock exchanges. Please do note that anything said on this call, which reflects our outlook towards the future or which could be construed as a forward-looking statement, must be reviewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces. The conference call is being recorded, and the transcript, along with the audio of the same, will be made available on the website of the company and exchanges. Please also note that the audio of the conference call is a copyright material of Acutaas Chemicals and cannot be copied, rebroadcast, or attributed in press or media without specific and written consent of the company.
Now, I would like to hand over the floor to our CMD, Mr. Naresh Patel, for his opening statement. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Bhavin. Good evening, everyone. I hope you are all doing well. Let me begin by briefly touching on the key industries we are operating, and then I shall move to business updates. Starting with pharmaceuticals, raw material prices have remained stable, and demand for our products is steadily improving. The CDMO segment continues to attract strong interest. Battery chemicals, this segment is seeing significant momentum. The U.S. has introduced the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, replacing the IRA. While this removes subsidies on EVs, which could impact consumer demand, it retains and, in some areas, strengthens the manufacturing-related incentives. The act restricts participation from a set of prohibited foreign entities and accelerates the sunset of manufacturing credits. This is driving urgency among manufacturers, and as a result, we are seeing a noticeable uptick in customer interest for our battery chemicals offerings.
Moving on to the semiconductor industry, we are seeing a similar dynamic. Customers want to diversify their supply chain and are looking for partners closer to their manufacturing bases. This brings me to a key development. We have entered into a joint venture in South Korea, named Indichem, where we are investing approximately KRW 30 billion. We will hold a 75% stake, while our Korean partner brings in technology and market assets in exchange for a 25% stake. The facility will manufacture specialty chemicals using chip production. We have strong visibility on both the product mix and customer base for this venture. While I can't share customer names, but would like to highlight that we already have good visibility on who our customers will be and what kind of business we are expecting from this venture once the plant is up and running.
Now, coming to our Q1 performance, our revenue for Q1 FY 2026 grew by 17.3% year-on-year to INR 2,072 million. The growth came primarily from our advanced pharmaceutical intermediate business, while the specialty chemical business was steady. Abhishek will walk you through the numbers in more detail shortly. Coming to the business updates, we successfully completed a virtual audit of our Unit II at Ankleshwar by Japan's PMDA, and I'm happy to say that it is now being declared GMP compliant. That means both of our pharma intermediate facilities are now PMDA GMP certified, something we are proud of, as it reflects our strong focus on compliance and quality. We are also continuing to strengthen our team, especially at the middle and senior levels, bringing in people with deep expertise to lead specific projects or business areas.
This helps us operate more efficiently and allows the core leadership team to focus on long-term strategy. To conclude, we have good visibility in our pharma intermediate business as well as for the specialty chemical business. Therefore, I'm confident we shall deliver 25% growth with stronger margins this year. With that, I shall now hand over to our Vice President Strategy, Abhishek Patel, who will take you through the detailed business update. Over to you, officer.
Thank you, Naresh bhai. Good evening, everyone. Let me provide further insight into our business performances. Starting with pharmaceutical intermediates, this segment delivers revenue of INR 165.8 crore in Q1 FY 2026, with a strong growth of 23.3% YoY, which was driven by core advanced pharmaceutical intermediate business as well as the CDMO segment. Moving on to specialty chemical business, this business segment reported flat revenue of INR 41.4 crore during the quarter, while the commodity chemical business saw healthy growth driven by volumes and steady pricing. This was offset by softer performance of Baba Fine Chemicals business. On the capital expenditure side, CapEx for the quarter stood at INR 69 crore, primarily allocated to Jhagadia site for electrolyte additive projects. Let me give some further updates on the CapEx. Ankleshwar CapEx stands completed. The last pending block has been commercialized in the current quarter.
Electrolyte additive CapEx at our site in Jhagadia is on track and expected to be completed by Q3 FY 2026. Coming to solar, in addition to the 10.8 MW plant, which was commissioned last quarter, I am delighted to share the successful commissioning of the remaining 5 MW solar plant. Now, we have in total 15.8 MW power plant, which will offset the majority of our electricity cost at our Sachin, Ankleshwar, and Jhagadia unit. The full benefit of this solar power plant will be visible from Q3 FY 2026 onwards. CapEx for the pilot plant has already started at our Sachin unit. We hope to complete the same within a year's time. Overall, the CapEx for the current year is expected to be around INR 250 crore, and we have sufficient cash on hand to fund this CapEx.
On the business update, starting with pharmaceutical intermediate segment, our remaining CDMO projects are progressing as per plan and are expected to begin contributions to the top line from Q4 FY 2026 onwards. Moving on to semiconductor business, as Naresh bhai mentioned, we are investing around KRW 30 billion in Korea in a joint venture named Indichem, wherein we will be holding a 75% stake. The remaining 25% stake is given to our Korean partner for bringing product technology and market access. To reiterate Naresh bhai's point, we have strong visibility on both the target customers and the product pipeline that we aim to manufacture under this venture. The capital expenditure plan and location of the plant have already been finalized, and we are now moving swiftly towards execution.
We expect CapEx to be completed in the second half of the calendar year 2026, with commercial production beginning by late 2026 or early 2027. On the customer front, we continue to build strong relationships in both Korea and Japan. While we are already well advanced in customer engagement in Korea, I am pleased to share that in Japan, we are in the final stage of discussions with a large multinational customer. In our battery chemical business, I am happy to report that we have introduced a couple of new products with both existing and the new customers. Due to confidentiality agreements, we are unable to disclose further details at this point in time. However, we expect these developments to translate into commercial contracts starting FY 2027.
Before I conclude, I want to reaffirm our confidence in delivering 25% revenue growth in FY 2026, and on the margin front, we are again committed to drive further improvements. With that, I will hand over the floor to our CFO, Mr. Bhavin Shah, for the financial update. Over to you, Bhavin bhai.
Thank you, Abhishek bhai. I would like to briefly highlight the key performance metrics for the quarter before we open the floor for questions. Before I start with the quarterly numbers, I would like to highlight that, as mentioned by Naresh bhai and Abhishek bhai in previous earnings calls, our Q1 is always a softer quarter due to the nature of business, and this has been the case for the last 15 years. Therefore, the number might look suppressed on a sequential basis given our Q4 is always the strongest quarter. Having said this, let me start with the quarterly performance. Revenue from operations for the quarter reached INR 207 crore, representing 17.3% growth YoY. Gross profit for the quarter was INR 110.3 crore, reflecting a 48.4% increase compared to the same period last year. The gross margin expanded by 1,117 basis points YoY to 53.2%.
Gross margin was driven by cost optimization initiatives as well as improved product mix. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 50.9 crore, which was up 72.4% YoY. EBITDA margins were at 24.6%, up 785 basis points YoY. EBITDA margin was driven by expansion in gross margin. Payout for the quarter was INR 44 crore, which grew 3x compared to the payout of INR 14.7 crore in Q1 FY 2025. Payout growth was driven by higher EBITDA margin and strong other income driven by foreign currency gains. Payout margin for the quarter was 21.2%, which showed an expansion of 1,292 basis points YoY. Moving on to the balance sheet item, net cash and cash equivalent were at INR 270 crore. Our working capital for the quarter was around 128 days, which was increased by 11 days compared to FY 2025.
This is mainly on account of the lower payable days due to the advanced payment for better pricing of raw materials, while for the full year, we believe our working capital would be around 110 days. Although there was an increase in working capital, I am happy to share that we have generated a strong cash flow of INR 94.6 crore from the operations during the quarter. With that, I request the moderator to open the floor for questions. Thank you.
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 the touch-tone 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 Akhand from JM Financial Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. I just wanted to understand what we are making in the battery chemical side and how scalable and how big can this business be over the next three to five years, and what is the profitability of these products in the first place? Because we are a little confused. We hear that profits are not very forthcoming in this business.
In the electrolyte segment, we are proposed to manufacture electrolyte additives, which is an ingredient for electrolyte solution that goes into the battery. For this, we have already done the market development. We have already signed contract in place with the customer, and then we are at the point of completing our CapEx with respect to this business. So once this CapEx is completed, the commercial full-fledged supply will start, and margin will again be a function of the scalability of that product in that plant. But we are hopeful that this business will fetch us a good margin as compared to other spec-chem businesses which we are operating into as of now.
So what is the total investment in this business, and what is the kind of likely turnover we can make from this business?
In this business, I will not give you the exact number for the turnover, but what we can say is we are expecting 1.5x the asset turn in this business. We have announced the capital expenditure of INR 177 crore for this business, which is for 2,000 metric tons of VC and 2,000 metric tons of FEC.
Okay, and the battery projects in India seem to be delayed. If we look at Exide, Amara, even Maruti and Tata Motors, almost everybody's battery projects are delayed, so do you think that we can see any benefit of this investment in FY 2027, or will it be later?
Good question. See, let me just bring to your notice that, as I mentioned, we have already signed an agreement in place for this business, and all our capacity, what I just mentioned, this is for our export business. We are, as of now, not dependent on this capacity on any of the Indian export business. In the future, whenever the India business gets going, we will supply with the additional capacity in place. So we are not dependent on the domestic market. As and when the production plant gets completed, sorry, CapEx gets completed, we will start shipping our materials, and it will fetch us the revenue by the end of this financial year, maybe Q4 FY 2026.
We are cost-efficient compared to Chinese, sir? If we are.
Sir, when we get into any business, we make sure that we have to compete with anybody in the ecosystem, and we should be competitive. Then only we launch any of our products.
Okay. Similarly, can you just highlight what the plans are for the semiconductor business?
Sorry to interrupt you, sir. I will request you to get back in the queue, and if you have more questions. Thank you.
Yes. Thanks.
The next question is from the line of Nilesh Ghuge from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. Sir, my question is related to advanced pharmaceutical intermediates. See, we saw the very good growth of more than 23% YoY. But is it largely because of CDMO and that too because of this Fermion contract? Is my understanding correct?
In fact, I mentioned during my commentary also that this business growth is largely driven by our core advanced intermediate business. Of course, the CDMO business is important, but the large portion of this growth comes from the ex-CDMO pharma intermediate business. Unfortunately, I will not be able to share the exact figures on this, but let me again restate that the large portion of growth is driven by ex-CDMO business growth.
Good. Great. And is it volume-driven, or there is a change in. I'm comparing YOY. So is it because of the volume has gone up, or is it price-driven growth?
Growth volumes are also there, but the realization has improved as compared to Q1 FY 2025 because of favorable product mix.
Okay. And there is, I mean, if I look at the gross profit level, there is a significant jump in the gross profit level, Q1, Q2, and YoY also. But at the EBITDA level, sequentially, there is a dip. So what cost has gone up? I mean, is it because of this operating cost, or is it because of the product mix that your EBITDA margin is below, I mean, lower than Q4? But at the gross profit, it's much, much better if I compare sequentially.
Nilesh, you have seen a better gross margin. And when we scale up, see, as I mentioned earlier, Q1 is always the lowest quarter. So as we grow Q2, Q3, Q4, and our sales number will also grow there. So margin will improve from here. So this is where we are standing. So in a nutshell, the gross margin improvement is there because of the, as I just mentioned, favorable product mix as well as the cost improvement measure which we saw in some of our largest products. And of course, as Bhavin bhai mentioned, the EBITDA margin level, the expense level looks higher as a percentage of sale because of the lower percentage base as compared to Q4 FY 2025.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Abhishek. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhijit from KIE. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Just on the battery business, rather, battery chemicals business, you mentioned some new developments in terms of possibility of entering into a new contract sometime towards the end of this year also. So just to understand, should we expect some further CapEx announcements in that business later on in this year? And are these new products also electrolytes, or are they in another part of the battery value chain?
Yes. As I mentioned, we have a couple of new products added in this segment. And from that segment also, the customer development is already being done, and now we are at a good stage to get the revenue, but not in this financial year. It will start from early next financial year. And of course, there will be some additional CapEx that would be required in terms of additional infrastructure utility as well as some additional CapEx, which will be around INR 40 crore - INR 50 crore in total.
Okay. And are these electrolytes as well, or they are some other category of products?
No, from electrolyte. Electrolyte additives, specifically.
You're right. Okay. Understood. Then just on Baba Fine Chemicals, as you mentioned in your opening remarks, the numbers have been a little bit soft. So if you could please just help us understand what exactly is happening there and how you see that semiconductor chemicals business overall trending over the next two, three years.
On Baba Fine Chemicals semiconductor business, the demand has been soft from our end customer side, which was kind of in the last quarter also. But as I mentioned earlier also, the purpose of this acquisition was to get into this semiconductor business, and that's the reason we are aggressively going into other markets of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and where we see a good traction coming in. So we are very hopeful that post-acquisition of this business and the kind of market traction we are seeing in this market, and as I mentioned, we are very near to a Japanese customer in this segment. So hopefully, this business will again pick up and fetch us a better revenue in the future along with the growth in Korea and Taiwan.
Right. Thank you. Just two last quick ones from me. I'll combine both of them. One is the gross margin has gone to 53% this quarter, and from your comments, it seemed like these cost improvements that we have made are sustainable in nature, so should we kind of expect gross margins to stay north of 50% in coming periods? That was question number one, and number two, just on Darolutamide, I believe there has been a label expansion in the recent past. So if you could please just share your thoughts on what this might mean in terms of implications for our growth in that business. Also, anything you would be able to add on your new pharma CDMO projects that you're expecting by year-end? Thank you so much.
For gross margin improvement, as I mentioned, it is driven by some of the cost measurement improvement. So it's a normal day-to-day practice for us to improve the cost for each and every product. So this is what we have done for some of our largest products in last year, and that is visible in the numbers also in Q1 FY 2026. So those are kind of sustainable and favorable product mix. So as and when this product mix becomes favorable, it adds to the gross margin. That depends on the product mix. On the label expansion of this Darolutamide, so the label expansion has been going on. It has been approved in some of the geographies earlier. Now it has been approved in the geography of Europe as well, apart from the U.S. and now in Japan also.
So this will definitely add to the demand of this product for our customer. For us, whatever guidance we are giving, that is based on the customer's demand. And that demand and the projection for the next five years remains intact, at least from our side and from the customer's side. Any additional demand, I think the customer will communicate to us, and we are hopeful to get a significant chunk from that also.
Okay. Great. Thank you so much, and wish you all the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Krishan Parwani from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Congrats on a strong set of numbers. A couple of questions from my side. First, on the semiconductor JV, I wanted to understand when will you start the sampling from the pilot plant?
So related to Korea JV, as I just mentioned, we have finalized the CapEx. The location has been identified and finalized. So now it's time for us to quickly move on to the execution of the CapEx. So that is expected to get completed by the second half of the calendar year 2026. And then by the end of 2026 or early 2027, we should be able to give the production.
Yeah. So understood. I was more referring to, as in, have you kind of made these products in Baba Fine Chemicals or have you worked on these products in your R&D, or how is it? So that's probably my question was from that.
No, no, no. These are completely new products from the existing products of Baba Fine Chemicals. These are advanced products than what we have as of now. Further, more detail, I will not be able to share it as of now, but the technology for these products is being brought in by our Korean partner, and there, some of the R&D work will also be done at the Korean site only.
I would just like to add in Abhishek's comment is that whatever the Baba Fine Chemicals products which we are doing and selling to Heraeus, we are not touching that at all for forward integration. Whatever we are doing is apart from that.
Okay. That's great to hear, sir. Secondly, just wanted to understand when will revenue contributions start from electrolyte additives and new CDMO project? I think you mentioned 4Q for the new CDMO. And what about the electrolyte additives?
That is also, we are expecting in Q4 also only.
Okay. And thirdly, how are things progressing on the ex-CDMO products such as Apixaban, Rivaroxaban, and probably Trazodone as well?
So those products are doing good. As during the first question, as mentioned, the growth in this pharma intermediate business is being driven by ex-CDMO products. And that shows up in our numbers as well. And as I mentioned, the gross margin is driven by the favorable mix of the products. So these are the new products which are contributing in a good number along with the existing products who are doing good with the improved margin. And this is how the overall pharma ex-CDMO business is doing well for us.
Okay. That's great, sir. And just the last bit, given we are doing a lot of CapEx, so just wanted to know what is the split of these CapEx in FY 2026 and FY 2027? Just from the how much will you spend in 2026 and 2027?
CapEx number, those are similar to what we discussed earlier also. The electrolyte additive CapEx is INR 180 crore, pilot plant is INR 30 crore, and maintenance CapEx is INR 40 crore. This includes some of the CapEx or infrastructure requirement in the electrolyte additive segment for the new product also.
Okay. Got it. Got it, sir. This is very helpful, and wish you all the best for the future, sir. Thank you so much.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhara. From ValueQuest, please go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my question. While all my questions are answered, I just have this one last question on the margins, the segmental margins for pharma intermediate and specialty chemicals.
Segmental margin for pharma is around 28%, and specialty is around 11%.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jason Soans from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you so much for taking my question, and congrats on a very good set of numbers. So I just wanted to understand one thing. I mean, one is that you mentioned that there is a higher other income, and you also mentioned that there is a higher foreign exchange gain for you. So is it possible to quantify that? What is the gain number in this quarter?
In this quarter, we have other income of INR 16 crore. Out of that, foreign exchange gain is around INR 12.5 crore, and interest income is INR 3.5 crore.
Okay. Okay. And sir, I just also wanted to know, I mean, of course, the electrolyte additive capacity CapEx will actually get conversion, let's say, by the end of this year, as you mentioned. So we have 2,000 tons of VC and FEC both. Just wanted to know, you did mention that you are looking at an effect on 1.5x on the CapEx. Just wanted to know, for 2027, do we have a certain volume target in mind for this CapEx out of 2,000, 2,000? How much are we going to looking at a sales target or something like that?
I will not put any specific number to it, but just let me give you the update that we now have a full visibility on the CapEx we have planned for 2,000 metric tons of VC and 2,000 metric tons of FEC. So it will ramp up very fast in FY 2027, and in fact, now the next step will be for us to set up or find a new capacity to cater the demand traction what we see in the market.
Okay. Sure. Sure. And sir, also wanted to know, I mean, you did speak about, of course, there's a good traction in the ex-CDMO business. How is the pipeline looking, sir, going ahead for the core intermediate business also and any long-term contracts? How is the Fermion order scaling up? How is the visibility looking at going ahead for the API business?
First thing, ex-CDMO business, we have good visibility in terms of our product pipeline as we have very strong product pipeline, R&D pipeline up to patent expiry of API still beyond 2040. So for which we have already developed the intermediate. We have already sampled it. We already submitted to customer on a commercial scale. So that gives us the visibility and the confidence that our ex-CDMO intermediate business will keep growing. And apart from that, we have a very good pipeline with the originator business also. This is how over the year we have structured our business and going well over more than 15 years. On the Fermion side, this is largely Fermion businesses. A large portion comes from the CDMO space.
There we have, for that particular contract, we have long-term contract already been signed for the product which has got patent expiry beyond 2033, and most of the jobs are going to be 35. Long-term supply contract is already in place. That also gives us a good visibility. Apart from that, we have other CDMO business also coming in in this financial year and next financial year as well.
Okay, sir. And just one last one from my side. Sir, I just wanted to know, of course, you are investing quite considerably in the semiconductors business. Now, of course, this is towards building the semiconductor material which goes to the likes of TSMC, the big Samsung, and of course, ultimately. But I'm just wanting to know, from a micro perspective, of course, this must be very, very critical and a very, very niche segment, a high-value-add segment. Probably there'll be a lot of competition also here. So just wanted to, if you can give us some color on how you are gearing up for this in terms of semiconductor, which can be a huge market for you, but just probably you are strengthening some side of R&D. Just could you give us some color on how you are gearing up for this?
Good question. So first thing, our existing business, it is already a proven business. Proven technology is there, and that is already going into this market. So we have that technology and proven track record already available in this segment. Now it was a matter for us to expand that existing product to a newer geography of Korea, Taiwan, Japan market. So this is how we are now progressing or expanding our reach into other geography. Now, apart from.
So, apart from now, we are venturing into the next level of technology and which is near to the customer's base in Korea and Taiwan. So there we are investing through our technology partner based in Korea. And that has got a good team of people who can help us on the commercialization of those technologies in that newer products.
So in that, I'm just adding that, Abhishek, that there is also we are incrementally apart from Heraeus product and which is already developed by Baba, that we are expanding into this area.
Okay. And this will start early 2027. That is the estimate right now, production and everything, as you mentioned earlier.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes. Okay. Thank you so much for answering my question. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash Shah from Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. And congratulations on a great set of numbers in the first quarter. Also, I have more of a clarification question. So you've mentioned that you've done around CapEx of around INR 180 crores for the battery chemical electrolyte additive business. We are going to be doing incremental of INR 50 crores, as you mentioned earlier. So is it going to be for the same VC and FEC electrolyte, or as you mentioned, that it is for electrolyte additives only? So what do we require this incremental CapEx for?
All products are in the category of electrolyte additives only, including VC and FEC. The additional CapEx, as I mentioned, that is because of the new introduction of new products for which the infrastructure building is being done is going to be done in this financial year, and from next financial onward, we are expecting these new products to start producing and giving the revenue.
So this will be different from VC and FEC. Is that right?
Yes. Yes.
Okay, and can you give any kind of an indication, sir, of how much capacity for the new product are we planning to do?
They have not disclosed.
Okay. Okay. No, no problem, sir. Yeah, that's all from my side, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Siddharth Purohit from InvesQ Investment Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. As you rightly said in the opening remark, that a lot of your growth during this quarter has come from the non-CDMO pharma intermediate segment. So when the CDMO thing scales up in a couple of years down the line, is it fair to assume that the margin will further have a much better margin profile in those set of products? I'm not asking for guidance, but a broad understanding.
Of course, the CDMO business fetches us the better margin as compared to the ex-CDMO pharma intermediate business.
Okay, and within the CDMO, what will be the key three therapies, the top three therapies that we'll be targeting on an incremental basis?
Sorry, I missed your voice. Come again.
What will be the key products in the CDMO that we'll be targeting?
So that actually, we have stopped giving any product-level guidance on names. But as people already know about one of the CDMO projects, which was publicly announced a year back. But then we have three more projects which are expected to get commercialized by the end of this financial year. And one of those new projects for one product, we have already supplied the validation quantity in Q4 FY 2025. So now, after regulatory approvals and all those things in place, it will start giving us the revenue by H2 FY 2026. So those products or projects are on track as per our projection or as per our budget.
Okay. So therapy-wise, oncology will continue to be the dominant one, both CDMO and also non-CDMO, right?
Non-CDMO oncology is the dominating therapy. Non-CDMO business, we have 17 therapeutic segments which includes anticoagulant, antipsychotic, antiparkinson, antidiabetic, cardiovascular as well.
Okay. Okay, sir. Got it. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pratik Oza from Systematix. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question from my side. Is there any specific intermediate which we manufacture that is used in the production of GLP-1 receptors like semaglutide or tirzepatide?
[crosstalk] No, we do not have any intermediate for GLP-1 products. We do some coupling agents here. For GLP.
Okay. Okay. Got it.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prashant Nair from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good evening. Just have one question on your margins. So Nareshbhai, usually your first quarter margins are the lowest, and then it keeps getting progressively better to Q3, Q4, and Q4. So should we expect a similar trend this year as well, especially on the pharma side, or would this have changed now that your CDMO contract has started? So would it be more evenly spread? How do we think about margins now?
On the revenue side, you rightly said revenue increases sequentially quarter on quarter from Q1 to Q4. Margin side, it's a function of product mix always, and as I mentioned during my commentary as well, we are committed to deliver better margin than FY 2025 margin, so that, again, we are sure to deliver in this financial year as well.
So with a better operating leverage, there is a scope for improving a margin of 50-100 basis points as compared to full year last year.
Okay. Understood. And just one question on the specialty chemical side. So how close are we, or how much more time in terms of maybe quarters or, say, years will we take to get to a steady-state margin profile there where, say, peak margins in that business?
See, on a steady-state side, it's always a function of market dynamic. On steady-state side, I am seeing the gross margin in the range of 48%-50% around.
So this is specialty chemicals that you're talking about? 48%-50% gross margin? Okay. So my question was on the specialty chemical side. So where do you expect this business margins to stabilize, and how long could it take to get there?
Spectrum business, as of now, is double-digit at an EBITDA level, and for that business, we are expecting in the same kind of territory only. Because once the electrolyte additive business picks up, it will have a better margin profile than this overall spectrum business.
Okay. So basically, starting next year, you should see some pickup happening here. Fiscal 2027 is the year.
Yeah, something like that.
Oh, all right. Got it. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's it from me.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kalpit Narvekar from EFG . Please go ahead.
Hi, hi. Congratulations on a good set of numbers, and thanks so much for taking my questions. So I have two questions. So the first one is, I mean, there's a lot of news flow and noise around tariffs and kind of dynamic changes around the tariffs. So is there any impact that you see of that on the export piece of your business and as well as on the customers, particularly on the CDMO or the API side? And my second question, yeah, maybe that's my first question. I'll go for the second one later. It's okay.
For pharma side, we have not seen any impact as of now, either on a demand side or pricing side because of the trade. Because of, particularly, the tariff situations.
Understood. And neither on the spectrum side, is it?
No, no. Specialty side also, as Nareshbhai mentioned, on a battery additive side, again, it's a regulatory environment which may even trigger a further rush in the large industry player to scale up the business in the supply line apart from the Chinese supply line.
Understood. And my second question is on the electrolyte business, right, where your electrolyte additive business, and you are doing a lot of CapEx, and you mentioned that the customer base is from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, etc. So how are you winning with business? As in, currently, those chemicals, etc., are supplied by some local suppliers over there or by Chinese suppliers? And what is your kind of competitive advantage versus these kind of current suppliers there, right?
On the electrolyte additive side, the customers are in Japan and Taiwan for our semiconductor business, not for the electrolyte additive segment. For this segment, largely at present, the supplies are from China only.
Understood. And you're doing this business because you are more cost-competitive from them versus them, or is there some kind of move from China plus one, etc., that's helping the business wins here?
The players are diversifying their supply lines from China, and that is where we are targeting a small portion of that business.
Understood. Thank you so much. Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we would request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Akshay from AK Investment. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. First of all, congratulations for the excellent set of numbers. My first question is whether there has been any revenue, sir, from Baba Fine Chemicals in quarter one, and what is our expectation of revenue in FY 2026 and FY 2027 from this business, semiconductor chemicals business?
So, Baba Fine Chemicals business side, we are expecting kind of similar revenue as compared to last year's revenue.
Sir, what was the last year's revenue?
That is available in our published financial results.
All right, sir. And my second question is, we have hinted about three CDMO projects that we will commercialize by the end of financial year 2026, right? So can it be as large as our current CDMO projects in the next two to three years down the line?
No, no, no. These new CDMO projects are not. This existing one is a kind of blockbuster product. These are not kind of those blockbuster products in the market, but we see the revenue potential of INR 50 crore- INR 100 crore each for those products.
After this commercialization, can we expect that our margins will improve from the FY 2027 onwards?
CDMO business has a better margin compared to ex-CDMO business. So as and when the revenue composition shifts towards the CDMO business, the margin keeps on improving.
Okay, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you so much for answering my question, and all the best for the future.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jason Soans from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.
Sir, thanks for taking my question again. So just had a small clarification. You spoke about these three CDMO contracts. Are we looking to start it by the end of FY 2026, or are they still in talks? Just could you give me some clarity regarding these three which are upcoming? You just spoke about INR 50 crore-INR 100 crore each. Yeah.
As I mentioned earlier, the one CDMO project, we have already supplied the validation quantity during Q4 FY 2025, and after completion of regulatory process, we are expecting to commercialize by the end of this financial year, which is Q4 FY 2026. Similarly, for the other project also, it may start from Q4 FY 2026. [crosstalk] Validation is already going on.
Okay. Okay. So they may come in by Q4 FY 2026. All of them, basically. That's what you're saying?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Okay. Sure. Thank you.
It depends on the regulatory approval. Yes.
It depends on the regulatory approval.
Depends on the regulatory approval. So it could probably go to the next year a little bit. Yeah. But they're all INR 50 crore-INR 100 crore, these three. That's the size what you're looking at.
Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B & K Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. So first question is on the South Korean investment. So do we have this exclusive partnership? And in terms of geographies, are we only looking at Korea and Taiwan, or will we be able to market those products across different geographies, given that even the U.S. is now going for semiconductor manufacturing? So can we sell the products across different geographies? Thank you.
So this product is not contained to any particular geography. We are mentioning this geography because that is where this industry is located. Otherwise, it is for worldwide except India.
Okay. Sure. And second, in terms of the structure of this particular business, I mean, we have not given what is the potential, but from the addressable market size for the chemicals which will be manufactured here, what is the potential size currently? We know that the growth will be probably in double digits, but as of now, what could be the addressable market?
I do not have a specific number to it as of now, but it's a huge industry, and we are only aiming for a very few fraction of this industry to begin with.
And just one clarification. These products are already established in the market, and they don't need any incremental validation, be it pilot scale or commercial scale. Does that make sense?
There are some established products as well, and some of the new products are also going to be there in this business. And of course, this will go through some of those standard procedures related to validation and qualification.
Sure. Thanks a lot for answering all the questions, and all the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lalit Kumar a s an individual investor, please go ahead. Hello, Mr. Lalit. Your voice is not audible.
Hello. I'm audible?
Yes, yes.
Yes. Good evening, sir. Sir, my two questions. First is, do you want to revise your guidance for FY 2026 like you gave 25% or increase your improvement in this guidance?
No, no. We have already given the guidance of 25% during my commentary as well as in this commentary, and we stick to that guidance.
Okay. Okay, sir. So can we expect more growth in the coming quarter? Will it remain the same as Q1?
Sure. It's a nature of business. Sequentially, it gets better and better, and ultimately, we are targeting 25% growth rate. So sequentially, it will definitely be better than the previous quarter.
Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you to the JM Financial team for hosting our conference call. We appreciate everyone's questions and hope we have addressed most of your queries. If we missed any of your questions, please reach out to our investor relations team, and we will get back to you promptly. Once again, thank you very much, and good evening to everyone. Have a nice day.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited and Acutaas Chemicals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.