Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Acutaas Chemicals Limited Q1 FY 2027 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Nuvama Institutional Equities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Archit Joshi from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Thank you, over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Acutaas Chemicals Q1 FY 2027 Earnings Conference Call. Today we have with us Acutaas Chemicals management, represented by Mr. Naresh Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Abhishek Patel, President, Strategy, and Mr. Bhavin Shah, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to invite Mr. Bhavin Shah to initiate proceedings. Over to you, sir, thank you.
Thank you, Archit. Good evening, everyone. We are pleased to welcome you all to our earnings conference call to discuss Q1 FY 2027 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 forward-looking statement, must be reviewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces. The conference call is being recorded. 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 the copyright material of Acutaas Chemicals and cannot be copied, rebroadcasted, or attributed in press or media without specific and written consent of the company.
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. We began the financial year on a turbulent note, driven by geopolitical tensions in the Gulf. While these tensions persist, our team has done commendable work in securing raw material availability and ensuring supply continuity. The demand environment for our products remains strong, as reflected in the quarter's results. We continue to see healthy RFP activity across our CDMO and NCE products, and our R&D team is working around the clock to service this pipeline on time. Within specialty chemicals, demand for battery chemicals remains exceptionally strong. I am pleased to say that we have successfully completed the trial run of our battery chemicals plant and started commercial supply. Demand here is unprecedented, driven by tight global supply, and we therefore expect a rapid ramp-up over the coming quarters. Let me now turn to semiconductor chemicals.
What we are seeing is that AI is starting to push CPU demand higher, and that's pulling memory chip demand upright along with it. At a time when supply is already tight. To us, this isn't a passing phase. It is a structural shift. As more of the world adopts AI over the coming years, the appetite for CPUs and memory chips will only keep growing. Our ongoing engagement with customers reinforces our conviction that memory chip demand will remain strong, which in turn will drive demand for the materials we manufacture BFC and plan to manufacture at Indichem. Turning to our performance for the quarter. We delivered strong revenue of INR 329.7 crore, which is growth of 59.1% YoY.
This strong performance reflects the agility of our business model, our ability to adapt quickly to changing environment and keep delivering the products to our customers on time and without compromise. I would also like to compliment our team for navigating the logistical challenges through the quarter. On a different note, I am delighted to share that we have been certified as a Great Place to Work. This recognition means a great deal to us because it reflects the culture our people have built together, one of trust, collaboration, and genuine pride in what we do. Our team is the engine behind everything we achieve, and this certification is proud validation of their efforts. I'm equally pleased to report that we have received the Responsible Care Certification from the Indian Chemical Council.
Responsible care is the chemical industry commitment to the highest standard of safety, health, and environment performance, and earning it reaffirms our resolve to operate responsibly and sustainably even as we grow. To conclude, we have started the new financial year on a strong note, and I remain confident of delivering 25% revenue growth for the full year with stable margins. With that, I would now like to hand over to our Vice President of Strategy, Abhishek Patel. He will walk you through the detailed business update. Over to you, Abhishek.
Thank you, Naresh. Good evening, everyone. Let me share some additional insight into our business performance for the quarter. Starting with advanced pharmaceutical intermediate segment, this segment delivered robust performance with revenue of INR 292.7 crore in Q1 FY 2027, reflecting a strong year-on-year growth of 76.5%. While CDMO grew strongly year-on-year, as we expected, the core pharmaceutical intermediate business also delivered a robust growth. This was driven by our top products as well as by a couple of new products that are gaining volume traction. Moving on to the specialty chemical segment, as communicated on our previous earnings call, we are gradually phasing out commodity chemical from this financial year, replacing them with newer, higher margin products. Revenue stood at INR 37 crore for this quarter in this segment, a decline of 10.6% YoY.
Even though the BFC business recovered strongly, this was offset by decline in commodity chemical business, which is in line with our expectation. It is worth noting that while overall capacity remains largely unchanged, some minor CapEx is required to align the plant for the new products. As a result, there may be transition gap between phasing out of the old product and ramp-up of revenue for new ones. Having said that, we do not expect the overall specialty chemical business to decline this full financial year. While commodity chemical revenue will keep declining over the coming quarters, we expect that to be more than offset by growth in BFC and new revenue from battery chemical as well as the new specialty chemical products having better margin. Overall, we are projecting good growth in the new age specialty chemical business. Now turning to the capital expenditure.
CapEx for Q1 FY 2027 stood at INR 56 crore, out of which INR 15 crore were at the Indichem site. Remaining INR 41 crore in ACL site, which is primarily diverted towards the battery chemical project at Jhagadia site, and then pilot plant at our Sachin site and maintenance CapEx. As mentioned on our previous earnings call, we will incur additional CapEx for a new R&D center and for the acquisition of land for further capacity expansion. We will update the market once these projects are finalized. With that, I will now hand over our floor to our Chief Financial Officer, Bhavin Shah, who will walk you through the detailed financial update. Over to you, Bhavin.
Thank you, Abhishek. I would like to briefly highlight the key performance metrics for the quarter before we open the floor for questions. Let me start with quarterly performance. Revenue from operations for the quarter reached INR 329.7 crore, representing 59.1% growth YoY. Gross profit for the quarter was INR 190.9 crore, reflecting 73% increase compared to the same period last year. The gross margin expanded by 466 basis points YoY to 57.9%. Gross margin was driven by higher contribution from pharma intermediate business compared to same period last year. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 113.1 crore, which represent more than twofold increase compared to the EBITDA of the same period last year. EBITDA margin were at 34.3%, up 973 basis points YoY. EBITDA margin was driven by expansion in gross margin as well as operational efficiencies. PAT for the quarter was INR 74.9 crore, up 70.4% YoY.
PAT margins for the quarter were at 22.7%, which show an expansion of 151 basis points YoY. Moving on to the balance sheet item, net cash and cash equivalent were around INR 314 crore as on June 30th, 2026. Our working capital for the quarter stands at 99 days versus 91 days in Q4 FY 2026. This was driven by improvement in debtors and creditors, which was offset by higher inventory days. 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 questions may press star and one on their 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 questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press star and one. The first question is from Abhijit Akella from KIE. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, congratulations on a good quarter. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, just on the battery chemicals business, are there any revenues that we have recognized this quarter? If so, could you please quantify those? For the balance of this year now, what sort of revenue number can we work with for that side of the business?
Hi. As mentioned during commentary by our CMD Naresh Patel, the validation of those new plant has already been successfully completed, and that means that we have started the supply from that plant. Now, going forward quarter and quarter from second, third, fourth quarter onwards, it will keep on ramping up the production. I'm afraid I will not be able to share the particular number to it, but we are very confident that we will grow very fast in those two business because, as you know, we have already supply contract in place from our customer, and it will ramp up very fast going forward.
Okay, got it. Thank you. On the semiconductor side, the Indichem plant construction, if you could please just help us with a status update on that plant in Korea. What's the timeline over there?
This plant, we are happy to share that this is getting constructed even before the schedules and expected to get completed by end of this quarter. Maybe from next financial year onwards, we will have the revenue coming up from that plant.
Okay, got it. Just the last one from my side. On the pharma intermediates piece, is it possible to just split out the growth rates between CDMO and the base advanced intermediates business? Also possible to just split the margin between pharma intermediates and specialty chemicals.
Again, as we mentioned earlier that we are not giving any split between the CDMO and non-CDMO in pharma intermediate space. We have already guided about the growth in the pharma intermediate side. I'm afraid I will not be able to share those number on that side. Yes, on the margin side for those two segments, Bhavin will update on this.
With regard to margin, our spec chem business is having around 24% margin, and pharma business is having around 36% margin.
Got it. Thank you so much. I will come back in the queue for any more.
Thank you. Next question is from Rikin Shah, from Boring Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hi. Just adding on to the question for Indichem. Once the plant commissions, what would be a typical timeline in terms of trials, vendor cycle approval, and ramp up? Basically, are we expecting any sort of delay or time to be dedicated for this?
As you know, this is a newly constructed plant. The R&D facility has already commissioned there, and we have started product development from the R&D side. I think this will reduce our timelines to commercialize the product. Obviously, because it's a new product, we are not committing any timeline as of now. As I said, we are expecting this to get into a good commercial business from next financial year onwards.
Okay, got it. In terms of the type of product that we manufacture in Indichem, what is something that we are going to be doing here apart from photoresist chemicals that we do for BFC? Are we going to be targeting a similar line of products here?
Of course, there are photoresist chemicals, what we would be doing. There are multiple projects we are working on Indichem R&D as of now. I'm afraid I'll not be able to share details about those things as of now.
Sure. In our electrolyte subsidiary, we have sort of had a dilution and given 10% stake to ARV. Can you explain the sort of rationale here and what are we thinking broader term for this?
This is basically awarding our business partner their equity share, which was decided earlier only. The partner is one who actually has been there with us since the starting of this business, when we started with the product development and then the marketing of all those. He is the one who has been responsible for the whole business development as well as the future business development and the sales for all our electrolyte additive product. Against which, we have given them the equity share in that business.
Okay, got it. That's also my end, yeah.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to participants that you may press star and one to join the question queue. The next question is from Nilesh Ghuge, from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon, sir. Congratulations on good set of numbers. First question to Bhavin. See, Bhavin, if you look at the end cost, it is continuously going up. What number we should take for our, let's say, for 2028 as far as the employee cost is concerned?
Employee cost, if you see typically, so this quarter we have rolled out our annual increments and there are performance bonuses also given. There are one-time performance bonus for the current year is also there in this year. We should typically look at around INR 150 crore of employee cost for the current year.
Okay. Second question to Abhishek. Abhishek, last quarter you mentioned that the Phase 2 will be commissioned in FY 2027, Q1 FY 2027 in the electrolyte business. What is the current status of that?
For the Phase 2, which is for the third product of our electrolyte additive segment, which is going on schedule. As we mentioned earlier also by end of Q2 FY 2027, we would be completing our CapEx. That looks very well on schedule. We are expecting the trial runs to commission very soon.
Abhishek for this product three you are talking about, for that also there has been already a tie-up with the customer similar to for our other product?
Yes. We already have signed contract in place.
Okay. Ramp-up will be very fast. I mean, in FY 2028, we will see ramp-up not only from first two products, but the third one also. Is my understanding correct?
Yes.
Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Abhishek. Thanks a lot, and all the best. Thanks.
Thank you. Next question is from Akshay from AK Investment. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. First of all, congratulations on the great set of numbers. Sir, how do we look at the EBITDA margin for the current financial year?
For current financial year, for the full year as we guided during the commentary also, we are expecting a similar kind of margin as we had for full year FY 2026.
Okay, sir. Well, there my questions have been answered. Thank you so much, and all the best. Thanks.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to participants that you may press star and one to join the question queue. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask questions, please press star and one. Next question is from Vikas Angude from Paras Asset Management. Please go ahead. We seem to have lost the line for Vikas. We will take the next question. The next question is from Jason Soans from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir. Thanks for taking my question. First question, I just wanted to know, we have had a good profit growth trajectory up till Q4. Even Q1 has been good, you did allude to some caution regarding to the Middle East crisis and in terms of raw material supply and stuff like that. Just wanted to know our profit growth trajectory, 25% revenue growth, do you see any moderation going ahead with our CDMO and other growth areas, or are they still on track to post good growth? Do you see some moderation or some optimism tempered going ahead into 2027 for the whole year? Yeah.
We are still very much confident to deliver a 25% CAGR growth rate for the revenue as confirmed by the CMD also. For the margin side also, again, I want to reaffirm that we are confident to achieve similar margin as compared to last financial year.
Sure, sir. Sir, for this year, what is the CapEx estimated for 2027 and 2028? If you could give me, and the breakup also, if possible, for 2027 and 2028, what kind of CapEx are we looking at?
For FY 2027, CapEx is largely the spillover CapEx of electrolyte additive as well as the pilot plant CapEx, which is around INR 50 crore and around INR 40 crore-INR 45 crore of maintenance CapEx. That is what the already planned CapEx for this year. Over and above, as I mentioned during my commentary, that we are going to have a R&D CapEx also, and a land acquisition for our future expansion for our pharma business or any other business. For those two projects, we are yet to announce that CapEx. We will announce it at a relevant time when the full CapEx plan is in place.
Okay. Sure, sir. Sir, this land acquisition, it would be for what exactly? I know you're still forming up the plans, what exactly would the purpose of this land acquisition be?
For our pharma intermediate business, Sachin plant is already hitting the capacity utilization roof. The Ankleshwar plant is expected to get filled up in three years' time, maybe by FY 2028. We should be ready with some land parcel where we can have a new plant for our future capacity need, as well as the newer project for our chemical business. That's the reason we don't have any much larger piece of land. That's why we are seeking some additional land parcel.
Okay. Sure. Just, sir, also when you mentioned that you are phasing out the commodity chemicals and basically replacing with high-margin chemicals, that is basically only for the spec chem business, or I believe even the pharma intermediate piece, in the other piece, the core product side also, you're doing the same strategy. Could you just give some color on that?
If you go through our commentary last year, we have already done with the similar exercise for our pharma intermediate business last financial year, FY 2026. Now for this year, FY 2027, we are doing some of the restructuring in our old commodity chemical portfolio. That pharma intermediate is already done in last financial year.
Okay. Pharma intermediate, that rationalization is over. Now it moves to the spec chem side of the business drive margins ahead, improve margins going ahead. Okay, sir. That's all from my side for now. Thank you so much for answering my question.
Thank you. The next question is from Abhigyan Srivastav from Marcellus Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations on the great set of results. Sir, there's a dip in other income this quarter, from around INR 11 crore in the previous quarter to around INR 1.8 crore in this quarter. Is there a particular reason for that?
Abhigyan, in previous quarter, it was largely driven by positive exchange fluctuation rate available with regard to euro. In the current quarter, we have only positive fluctuation of INR 10 lakh as compared to INR 10 crore in the previous quarter.
Okay. Got it. Thank you, sir. This is all now.
Thank you. The next question is from Juhi Kumari from Nuvama Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations on good set of numbers. My first question is, other expenses like for this quarter has been in line with the previous quarters or has been moderated. What would you give as a guidance for the rest of the FY 2027 other expenses line?
With regard to other expense, it is in line with the previous quarters. We have seen some savings due to our solar project. We have also seen operational efficiencies. Whatever the expense for the quarter, we are looking the similar kind of expense for the rest of the year.
Okay, sir. Thank you, sir. Next question from my side would be regarding the EBITDA margin, which has expanded sharply to 34.3% in this quarter. You have given guidance for 25% margins for FY 2027. Do we expect to exceed this margin with this kind of run rate in the first quarter?
The 25% figure is coming from our guidance related to revenue growth. For the margin, we have guided that it will be in a similar line, which was for full year FY 2026. That will be reflected maybe around a similar line in FY 2027 as well.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My all questions are answered.
Thank you. The next question is from Archit Joshi from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir. Sir, I have two questions, slightly more strategic. Firstly, we've seen quite a few plants of the electrolyte salts, electrolytes, cathodes coming in recently. Given that we have made some inroads starting with the additives, have you given it a thought that there are export opportunities available that we should maybe go a bit more into the value chain, to start off with salts, electrolytes? What are your thoughts on that, if you can help us with that?
No, we do not have any plan for those business related to either electrolyte solution or the LFP. We are sticking to the electrolyte additive segment only.
It's our core strength.
That is our core strength. We want to stick to our strength only. I want to get into other people's shoes.
Understood. Sir, secondly, we've known the developments and solid growth that we are doing in CDMO. Sir, if you can explain what are the things that we are doing to get some of these larger available APIs from a business development perspective or development of chemistries, and if there is anything in the pipeline or anything that we are exploring to sustain the growth momentum, even though we have right now, for the forthcoming quarters and maybe few more years. How would that CDMO journey be if I have to make a, let's say, five to seven-year assessment of how our growth trajectory will be?
We will not be able to share any particular details about any particular projects or CDMO business. What we can assure is, we are doing a lot of work related to newer projects. There is a healthy pipeline of products for R&D, and there are various stage of R&D as well as the validation. Some of the projects already we have mentioned that few projects are already validated, and there are many more to come. There's the kind of normal day in, day out job for both our business development as well as the R&D team. What I can assure is we have a very good, healthy pipeline for the product in the CDMO space. Due to confidentiality nature of those businesses with the customer, under those agreement, we will not be able to share that particular detail about that business.
No, of course, sir. I was not meaning to go into the confidentiality sort of things. Not the exact details, just to get a sense of maybe, let's say, what kind of therapeutic areas we are looking at or any particular or a few chemistries that we target where we have some leverage. Rather, how are we getting the inquiries from the customers? A qualitative aspect of that will also be very helpful to understand. That would be my last question. Yeah.
Let me address your question other way around. Let's say we have already guided the market that we would be hitting INR 1,000 crore revenue from our CDMO business. That is based on our confidence and looking at our upcoming product pipeline for our CDMO business. We are very much confident to not only achieve this target and, in fact, we are confident to beat this target. That is what I can at least give you assurance on this business side.
Sure, sir. Actually, while we know that, given that the molecule itself is a very high growth engine, I was slightly speaking something beyond that. The other pipeline, if you could qualitatively help us. On those accounts, not the one that we already know of, which you have very well guided in the past.
When we say the CDMO business, it's not only that particular product, it's a mix of products. Obviously, that product is an anchor product, but there are other CDMO products based on which we are consolidated revenue for CDMO. That is what we are guiding.
Noted, sir. Thanks. That helps.
Yes.
Thank you. We'll to the next question. The next question is from Shreya Banthia from Oaklane Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes.
Yeah. Congratulations for the great set of numbers. I wanted to understand from the standpoint of darolutamide. Since there are new indications that are being currently under trials, which according to the report suggests that it will double the addressable patient pool. Does it also double the revenue opportunity for NUBEQA? That would be my first question.
I think for-
Any indication from the-
the customer pipeline?
innovator? Yeah.
It will be difficult for us to comment on a customer's pipeline and the research indication, research work. What I can reassure that we are confident on our business, and as I said, we are confident on whatever the guidance we have given for our CDMO business.
Understood, sir. Just if I can ask, related to this, Bayer has improved their revenue target, which would be somewhere around 5 billion. Does it include these two? Any sense on that, sir?
As I mentioned, see, we are guided by customers' purchase order for the year as well as the revenue expectation they will give. We are not guided by the market expectation or whatever the buyer would have propagated in the market.
Okay. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you. Next question from Rohit Nagraj from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a strong set of numbers. First one on the battery chemicals front. You said that we have contracted out the capacity. In terms of customers, is it a single customer or multiple customers, and which geographies are we going to cater to?
It's not driven by single customer. There are multiple customer. We have time to time shared that we have number of customer already in place for both VC and APC. In terms of geography, they are based in North America also. They are based in Korea also and other part of the world.
Sure. If we are commissioning, we have commissioned the plant now, and the ramp-up will happen subsequently in next few quarters. Can we expect that we will hit the peak revenue potential by, say, FY 2029?
Yes. We have already guided that in three years' time it should hit our full capacity utilization, we are more than confident to achieve that target.
Sure. We have now looking at the third product commercialization. Beyond that, are there any more products which are in pipeline? As and when we find in the commercial viability, what could be the gestation period to commercialize or put up the CapEx and commission the project? Thank you.
After this third product, fourth product is already been developed and now we are in the final stage of signing a long-term supply contract with the customer. Once that gets completed, based on the customer quantity requirement, we will plan and announce the CapEx for the fourth product. Apart from that, we have many other products which are already developed by our R&D and which are in the stage of business development. Once those product gets done with the business development part, we will announce those thing and the CapEx related to that. We have versatile large pool of basket in the product pipeline so that it will keep on growing our electrolyte business in future also, apart from first two product.
Right. Second question is on the semicon side. Here too, for the initial set of CapEx and products that we are targeting, are we completely sold out and the same trajectory would replicate here that within a period of, say, three years after commercialization, we'll hit the peak run rate?
As of now, as I mentioned, product development and business development work has already started with the commissioning of the R&D facility. It will be a slow start because it's a new business, but maybe in a three to four-year time, we should be able to fill up our full capacity at Indichem.
Right. Thanks a lot for answering all the questions, all the best, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from [Krishna Yoga] from [Family Fund]. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is very specific on the molecules. I know you don't want to reveal much specific molecules. It's related to Johnson & Johnson and the CAPLYTA. In previous calls you mentioned about it. What is the status on that particular molecule as of now?
Sorry, your voice is little not clear. Sorry. Can you come again?
Am I clear now?
Yes.
Is it clear now?
Yes, yes.
Yeah. Sir, actually, my question is on specifically on product. Of course, I don't want to mention a name also. The molecule which is from the Johnson & Johnson and with CAPLYTA. In the previous calls you mentioned about it. What is the status on that particular molecule as of now?
I'm giving the answer for that. That product, we don't deal with the Johnson & Johnson, but we have a generic-
Yeah, other key partners.
Yeah. That we already qualified with them. DMF is already filed, and now we are waiting for the launching of the same product.
Okay. What is the current status about the apixaban? Because apixaban is going to expire, the patent expiry in 2026, and the next one is 2027. Are we ready for the next Is our capacity is sufficient to fulfill that demand in upcoming years?
Yes. That product has already started picking up for us, and we have a sufficient capacity to cater that demand for that product.
Okay, sir. Another question, what is the status of the capacity utilization of the all three plants?
Okay, for the capacity utilization, for the Sachin Unit, the capacity is 83%. For Unit-II at Ankleshwar, it is 23%, and at Unit-III , Dahej, 55% for the quarter.
Okay, sir. Yeah. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from CA Nupur Kogta from NIPL. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hi.
Yeah. Sir, thank you for the opportunity. My first question is, we had four validated CDMO products which were expected to start contributing to revenue this year. Could you share the specific timelines and commercial ramp-up curves for these products? Additionally, we have a CDMO revenue target of INR 1,000 crore maybe by FY 2028. What percentage of this target is bagged currently? Do we have offtake contracts or long-term supply agreements or any pipeline opportunities for these CDMO products?
For this product, we have already mentioned that these are already validated product, and with our regulatory approval in place, we are expecting revenue to kick in from FY 2027 onwards. On a revenue potential side, these all products are expected to generate revenue between INR 50 crore - INR 100 crore for each year at a peak.
Okay. Thank you, sir. My second question is, when do we expect our commercial revenue recognition to begin from the electrolyte additive capacity that we inaugurated this year?
The revenue has already started. As we mentioned, we have done with the validation batches. Sorry, trial batches from that plant.
Okay. Trial revenues are done and the products are to be commercialized very soon. Commercial revenue would begin soon, right?
Yes.
Okay. Thank you, sir. That's all from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from Rikin Shah from Boring Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question again. It's perhaps adding on to an earlier participant's question on expanding our sort of pipeline, which I think you have answered. If I can perhaps add on to that part, maybe you can help us understand what is Acutaas today doing in terms of targeting new modalities, therapies, R&D with the new pilot plant at Sachin that you will be happy with the CDMO sort of pipeline expanding in a very meaningful manner over the next two to three years so that we are not prone to an anchor product in the CDMO basket.
Okay. Let Naresh come in to answer this question.
Thank you, Abhishek. Thank you, Rikin . Basically, Acutaas is highly focused on different segment and this clinical research molecule and CDMO segment is also vital for us. We are continuously getting lot of traction. Our BD team is doing excellent work. In our core chemistry strength, we are getting lot of inquiries, and we are converting these inquiry into the commercial samples as well. It's not a one way or it is not a stop kind of thing, but it's a continuous process. Annually we are developing around 30, 40 molecules and submitting to the different customer at a different level of investigation or I can say the innovation. It is continuous and out of that some are moved to the second phase, third phase, fourth phase like that way.
It is a continuous process for us and we are adding molecule every year, 30, 40 molecules in this basket. Are you there, Rikin?
We've lost the line for Rikin. We'll take the next question. The next question is from Jason Soans from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.
Sir, thanks for taking my question again. Sir, just in terms of battery chemicals, I just wanted to know, I understand that you have long-term contracts for VC, APC. Sir, I understand the revenue and all you have, but probably some ballpark or something you would like to share for two to three years. It will give us an idea of how it can scale up because battery chemicals is quite in a growth space right now, right? And it's really doing well. Just if you could give us a ballpark number or something just to get an idea of how this business will shape up going ahead.
For battery chemical business what I can say is we have already plant in place for the manufacture. In this business, let me assure that this business is not constrained by the demand in the market. There is a huge demand available. It is constrained by our plant capacity. You know that the plant, we have a capacity of 2,000 metric ton for VC and 2,000 metric ton for APC. It's a total 4,000 metric ton capacity and for which we are more than confident that we will be able to hit the full capacity utilization by end of three years. That's the kind of ramp-up. You know how the pricing are there in the market, so you can easily calculate the revenue potential at least from these two products only.
Apart from that, we have a third product already signed with the customer and the fourth product is in the pipeline to end. There are many more to come, this is how you can work out the ramp-up in this business.
Okay. Sure, sir. Sir, one question, just wanted to know, of course I know early days in Indichem, but sir, just wanted to know in terms of margin profile in the Indichem product, will it be similar to our API business or it will sit somewhere between the specialty chemicals and API business? Just some color on that.
For the margin profile of Indichem business, I think you should not look at the API, pharma intermediate business margin, you should benchmark with our BFC product or the business margin. It is very preliminary to give any number on this, but because these are similar kind of even better product portfolio than what we used to manufacture at BFC.
Okay. Sure. Any ballpark, sir, would you want to give on that on a steady state basis what it will be?
It's very premature as of now.
Very premature.
Give any number on this.
Sure. Thanks a lot for answering my question. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from Manav Kapasi from Antique. Please go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My question was more on a broader view, given that our battery chemical efforts will soon bear fruit and also the Indichem plant will start contributing to revenues maybe next year, next year or FY 2029. Where do you see our overall revenue mix going from the FY 2026 levels? Do we see the spec chem business contributing a little more as compared to now or do we still anchor on the pharma intermediates business in the next three to five years?
That's a good question. As you know, last financial year, our total revenue from pharma intermediate business was 87% of the total revenue and 13% was the spec chem business. From here onwards, because of these two growth engine related to electrolyte additive and the semiconductor business, it will grow very fast. You also know that the CDMO business is also at this revenue it is expected to grow even faster. Net-net, we can expect that the revenue composition should come down to around maybe 80% from 87% in next three years' time.
That is helpful. Additionally, sir, given that we are phasing out the commodity grade chemicals in the spec chem business and the new products which will come up from Indichem as well as the battery chemicals, which will have better margins. Do you see spec chem margins moving up, which will also in turn give us a push on our overall consolidated margin? Question being, where do we see margins, let's say three to five years down the line? Do we see them meaningfully improving from my FY 2026 number?
You know that overall margin of the company is a function of the product mix. As I mentioned, CDMO business contribution is increasing in the overall pie of the business in the pharma intermediate business. Similarly, meanwhile, battery business is also going to fire from this year onward, and which has a lower margin as compared to the pharma intermediate or CDMO business. That's the reason net-net, we are targeting that the overall EBITDA margin should be similar as compared to what it was last year, even at the higher revenue base also.
Got it. From a more five-year perspective, do we see it meaningfully improving, considering that all of our commodity grades would have been phased out, even in the pharma business, even in the spec chem business? Over five years out, do we see margins at similar levels, or would there be a 200, 300 basis improvement from these levels?
As of now, I will not be able to guide you related to five years margin. As I mentioned, it will be a function of the product mix between pharma intermediate, which is particularly CDMO, as well as the newer business like battery and semiconductor. Obviously it will depend on how fast the ramping up happens with respect to battery as well as the CDMO, sorry, semiconductor business.
Got it. Thanks. That's all. All the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from [Tirumala Reddy], who's an individual investor. Please go ahead. [Tirumala Reddy], you may go ahead with the question.
Hi, am I audible?
Yes, please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Yeah. Thank you very much for taking my question. My question is around the CDMO business pharma intermediates. With respect to the concentration risk, I think currently majority of the business is coming from very few molecules now. Going forward, how are we going to address this molecule risk or customer risk?
As Naresh already mentioned, we are working on multiple projects and every year there are a number of projects are coming in the R&D pipeline. Slowly, slowly it will de-risk our revenue concentration for the single product also. You know that by nature, we have always been a very diversified company, both in terms of product as well as the customer. Because of the very fast ramp-up in this particular product, the revenue concentration moved toward that product. Obviously it will get diluted over the years once the new CDMO and other product keep on adding to the basket.
Yeah. My next question is about forward integration. As we are very well placed on advanced intermediates, is there any plan to move forward to APIs or are there any queries from customers for asking API development and manufacturing as well?
Yes, we receive so many inquiries or requests from the customer. As we mentioned multiple time in early discussions as well, we do not have any plan move to the upward in the value chain. We do not compete our customer. That's our policy and we would like to stick to it.
Thank you. Thank you so much. That's all from my side.
Thank you very much. We'll take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management team for closing comments.
Thank you, Nuvama 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 happy weekend to you, all of you.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Nuvama Institutional Equities, that concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your line.