Ladies and gentlemen, good day. Welcome to Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited Q1 FY24 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask a question after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference, please signal the operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Ronak Saraf. Thank you. Over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited Q1 FY24 earnings conference call. I am Ronak Saraf, the Manager, Investor Relations here at Advanced Enzyme. We hope you all have gone through our presentation closely and the CC, which has been posted in the investor relation section of our website. Today, we have with us Mukund Kabra, Company Director, Mr. Beni Prasad Rauka , Group CFO. Today, the management will discuss the performance and business highlights, update on strategy, and respond to any questions that you may have. As is usual for this discussion, we will look at the consolidated financials. Before we proceed, I would like to draw your attention to the forward-looking statement contained in the CC. During our call, we may make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations or predictions about the future.
Because these statements are based on current interventions and the factors that may involve different uncertainties, our actual performance and results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Now, without any further ado, let's begin today's call. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ronak. Good evening, everyone. I really appreciate you all for taking out your valuable time, and I welcome you all to the conference call for the quarter ended June 30, 2023. It is a good start to FY24, although the global business environment and geographical situation remain sensitive. The raw material prices are more or less stabilized. We are still experiencing higher power and fuel costs. We hope this scenario to settle down in the coming quarters. The company's overall performance improved on a year-on-year basis. The growth in the numbers are essentially driven by human nutrition business and bioprocessing business. I will take you through the quarterly performances.
Now, as far as the quarterly performance, our top line stood at INR 1,473 million, grew to 18% on a year-on-year basis and 6% on a sequential basis in quarter one. Our EBITDA stood at INR 400 million, grew by 14% on year-on-year basis, while it remained flat on sequential basis. We have witnessed a significant growth of 67% in the bottom line on year-on-year basis, while on sequential basis, it is declined by 8%. On the margin side, EBITDA margin stood at 30% and profit margin stood at 20% during the quarter one. Now I will just highlight the different segments. Human nutrition. The human nutrition segment outperformed during the quarter and remained highest contributor in the revenue pie at 67%.
It grew by 22% on year-on-year basis and 13% on sequential basis. Pharma API and biopharmaceutical in domestic markets and nutrition in the international markets primarily supported the numbers in human nutrition. Our animal nutrition business contributed 11% to the revenue in Q1. It grew by 1% on year-on-year basis, while it declined by 23% on sequential basis. Bioprocessing business during this quarter performed really well and contributed 15% to the revenue. It grew by 22% on year-on-year basis and 17% on sequential basis. The specialized manufacturing segment contributed 7% and grew by 16% on year-on-year basis, while it declined by 14% on sequential basis. We anticipate continued growth in coming times. We will continue our focus to enhance customer value proposition and deliver long-term sustainable growth going ahead.
With this, I will now hand over the call to Beni Prasad Rauka . He will walk you through the financials and key succeeding numbers.
Thank you very much, Mukund. Good evening, everyone. I hope you all are in good health. On the company's consolidated financial for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, year-on-year basis, that is, Q1 of FY24 versus Q1 of FY23, our revenue increased by INR 262 million from INR 1,211 million to INR 1,473 million, which is 22% of increase. Our EBITDA is increased by INR 131 million from INR 309 million to INR 440 million, registered a increase of 42%. Profit before tax increased by INR 177 million from INR 277 million to INR 414 million. Our profit after tax is increased by INR 118 million, from INR 176 million to INR 294 million, which is about 20% of our revenue.
On quarter-on-quarter basis, this is Q1 FY24 and Q4 FY23, our top line has increased by INR 86 million from INR 1,387 million to INR 1,423 million. The EBITDA is about INR 450 million as compared to INR 441 million. Profit before tax is down by INR 7 million from INR 421 million to INR 414 million. Profit after tax is down by INR 27 million from INR 321 million to INR 294 million. We'll explain the reasons of, you know, slightly downtrend if we compare on sequential basis. We'll give you some more perspective as we go forward. Our subsidiary numbers are as follows: JC Biotech, where we have about 90% of holding.
The top line was INR 134 million, as compared to INR 107 million in Q4 and INR 146 million in Q1 of last year. We have a Q-on-Q 25% increase. Year-on-year, it is down by 8%. EBITDA of this biotech stood at INR 9 million in Q1, as compared to negative EBITDA of INR 2 million in Q4 and INR 19 million positive in Q1. PAT for this quarter was negative by INR 1 million, as compared to INR 10 million of negative PAT in Q4 and INR 7 million of positive PAT in Q1. Basically, it's showing, you know, positive trend in this quarter as compared to the previous quarter. Evoxx top line stood at INR 54 million, as compared to INR 58 million in Q4 and INR 59 million in Q1.
EBITDA in this quarter is negative in Evoxx, INR 7 million, as compared to INR 20 million in the previous quarter and INR 18 million in the first quarter of previous year. Evoxx profit after tax is negative, this quarter INR 13 million, as compared to INR 11 million of positive PAT in Q4 and INR 8 million of profit after tax in Q1 of last year. SciTech top line stood at INR 97 million, and EBITDA is INR 4 million. PAT is INR 1 million, as compared to INR 117 million of revenue in quarter four and INR 24 million of EBITDA in quarter four of last year. PAT was negative in quarter four. Quarter one was top line of INR 66 million, and EBITDA of INR 2 million negative, and PAT was negative of INR 14 million. SciTech is also, like, going in a positive direction in this particular quarter.
The sale of our largest product, an inflammatory enzyme, stood at about 24% of our top line contributed revenue. This was 24% in Q4 of last year and 23% of Q1 of last year. The top 10 customers contributed 23% of our total revenue in Q1 of FY24, as compared to 30% in Q1 of FY23, and 24% of Q1 of FY23. This was about 26% in Q4, and last year, for the full financial year, it was about 24%. of 10 customers in FY23 was 24%. In Q1 of FY23, it was like 30%. Q4 of FY23 was 26%, and Q1 also continues to be 26% of our top line. Now we give you some numbers on R&D.
On standalone axis, R&D spend in Q1 was about INR 62 million. This is about 4.2% of our consolidated revenue, as compared to INR 79 million of that, INR 9 million of R&D expenditure, which is about 5.1% of our consolidated revenue. In Q1 of FY23, we spent about INR 76 million on R&D, about 6.6% of our consolidated revenue. Now, when we look at the R&D spend, after eliminating the expenses we have incurred in our subsidiary company, Evoxx, the consolidated R&D spend was INR 41 million, about 3% of our consolidated revenue, as compared to INR 61 million in Q4 of FY23, about 2% of our top line. In Q1, we spent about INR 62 million. This is again, 3% and 4% of our top line.
In FY 23, we spent about 4% on R&D, on consolidated revenue, as compared to 3% in FY 22. This one's from my side. Now we shall open the floor for question and answer session.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one on their 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 settles. Hello, this is the operator. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The first question is from the line of Shreyansh Gathani from SG Securities. Please proceed, sir.
Hi, good afternoon. I have 2 questions. The first one is related to the animal nutrition business. It seems like a pretty sharp call from the last year's, and so I'm wondering if there's, like, a loss of customer or because we've seen a circular rise in the business and the current revenue goes back to what we had over a year ago. Just wanted to get some color on the revenue drop in the animal health business.
Shreyansh , we don't think there is any loss of customer, but generally, it's a quarter on quarter. We cannot judge in the animal feed business or any other business. On the quarter on quarter basis, basically, there are in animal feed, there are a lot of export shipment also happens. If the delivery is not there, then there are the sales reversal as well. It's very difficult to judge animal feed business on a quarter on quarter basis. We, we haven't lost any of the customers, and we still expect the growth in the, in this year, in the animal feed business.
Got it. Okay. Okay. For the geographical segment, is there any new geography that we've added? Like, I see that you've come from the rest of the world revenue. Are we targeting other geographies? If you could include that geography from the rest of the world from that quarter.
It's again, a quarter-over-quarter. In some of the geographies, at some point you will see higher there, in some of those geographies, we will see lower sales.
The geography remains the same, wherever our presence is, like it's a increase in the business overall, like, that is what we expect.
Got it. Got it. Regarding the margins. As of now, you know, if I, if I see the margins, so there's some peak margins. We, we've lost some of the margins due to the gross on a, on a gross margin level. Then there's, like, power and fuel, which, which you mentioned. Besides that, we also I see that, you know, in the annual, there's like higher legal fees, which I don't know if you're, if, if they're going to continue because of the claims on the gross margins that you're filing or, how do we look at that going forward?
I mean, gross margins is like, you know, it, it, it all depends on, you know, many times on product mix issue also. Of course, you know, earlier in FY22 and FY23 in particular, the raw material prices and input costs has inflated. Because of that, if you really look at the growth contribution, it was, like, you know, slightly lower in FY23. That continues to be there, although we, we have seen some kind of, you know, softening of the input prices. That is not a big difference. Certainly speaking, it is, you know, about 1% change in that sense from a gross margin of 70, 67.5%. That is the kind of scenario.
Not, not, not a big difference in, in that sense, but if you really compare with FY22, FY21, that, that there is a lot of difference because of, you know, number 1, it is inflationary impact on the input cost. Number two, it is again, depends on the sales mix.
Got it. Yeah. I was mentioning, like FY21, FY22. Basically, is it correct to assume that our US business contributes to the highest margins and then the other ones are lower margin and or margin derived from, from the US business?
You're, you're right. Like, if you even look into this, our US business is more or less flat from the first quarter, from the last quarter, I mean, first quarter, right? We do expect to... In the last call also, like we said, that the first two quarters are going to be more or less flat, and we do expect the growth to come from the third quarter somewhere. It's still right for the US business to grow, to really improve on the margins, particularly.
This is pretty much contribute to the current around 30% EBITDA margin is what, you know, slightly lower than the US business is, would I assume it?
Yeah. Indian business is more or less competition, right?
Yes.
Yeah. Indian business is around 30% on the gross margin.
On the EBITDA margin.
Okay. Okay, got it. That's it from my end. Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question, press star then one on their touchtone telephone. Our next question is from the line of Lakshminarayanan with Sundaram Mutual. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. You mentioned that top product is 24% of the consolidated sales for this year, right? For this quarter, right? That is right, Lakshminarayanan . Okay. I think in terms of the India pharma sales, can you just give me the numbers of how much you got for the, for FY23 and also for the current quarter for the previous quarter of sales of previous year, Q1 of FY23 and Q1 of FY24 in terms of pharma sales. 1 minute. 1 minute, please.
Yeah. Lakshminarayanan, in Q1 it is INR 539 million.
Mm-hmm.
As compared to INR 499 million in Q4 and INR 378 million in Q1 of last year.
Q 4. Okay.
Okay. International sales, is about $56 million in Q1.
Mm-hmm.
INR 378 in Q4 and INR 429 in Q1.
Sorry, this is with sales or this is international sales?
Yeah.
Got it. What is U.S. sales?
It's about, US is... Yeah, $404 million as compared to $371 and $348.
Got it. Good. When you, when you started the year in terms of, your, your plans for the, for the full year, so far, what is actually going to price and what is actually not going as per the plans? I think the scenario is more or less, there is no surprise. These are like all factoring at this point of time.
Overall, Lakshminarayanan, we can say this particular quarter is operationally better than, you know, quarter four, because when we compare some, you know, one-off items in quarter four, and if I eliminate those one-off, then we could see that the EBITDA margin, which appears to be lower in terms of percentage from 32% to 30%, this is at the same level, number 1. Revenue has increased by INR 34 million in absolute term and 8% increase in, you know, EBITDA margin as compared to 6%, you know, growth in my top line. If I take the impact of all this one-off on my profit before tax, this is higher by about, you know, INR 51 million in this quarter. There's a, you know, increase in about 18% in my profit before tax.
Profit after tax also, there's a, you know, increase on overall basis after looking into the, the one-off items and taking out effect thereof. Overall, I mean, you know, the profitability is also increased by about INR 22 million. 8% of increase in my profit after tax. When we look at, you know, operationally, how efficient we were this quarter, this is, you know, much better than, you know, our previous quarters.
Okay. How seasonal is your business, or how you think it's going to be for this year Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4?
I don't think it is at any seasonal impact as such, except what happens in animal feed business sometime in Q4, there is like little bit of push, you know, in sales, incredibly in domestic market.
Lakshminarayanan, since we are present in the most of the different, different, different areas, something balances the other, right? Although, like the fourth quarter is generally the best in terms of... Because some issue is always there in the fourth quarter. Got it. Got it, got it. In terms of our, we had some pricing pressure in our top product, right? How that has panned out, how the competitive intensity in that segment has leveled off, or we shouldn't see the prices are under check. We will continue our strategy, and if you really look at it, our sales has increased. I think the increase is significant, right? Even like if you compare with the last quarter, it's more than 22%. 26%, right? We'll continue with your strategy, Lakshminarayanan.
On QoQ also, there's 8% increase in the top product.
Okay, okay. What is the comfortable band margin or return on equity you like to operate in for the next couple of years? Which is very comfortable to you in terms of the margin band or the return on equity, whichever way you look at it?
You know, our, our efforts are always like, you know, we maximize our return. As you know, you have also heard from the numbers that our equity has gone up substantially. Of late, we have accumulated a lot of, you know, cash on the books. Getting the same kind of, you know, profits on investment is like, you know, little bit challenging. We are looking for some other possibilities where we can, you know, earn more and, you know, maximize our return on equity and all our return ratios.
Okay. What has been our people intake for the last, you know, this, this financial year? What is the planned of scientists of your base? Has it increased over the last year, number of new people you are actually boarding on?
Right. R&D staff you're talking about, Lakshminarayanan?
Yes, yes, yes. R&D, yes. In terms of number of people, in the last one year, we have increased the people almost 20-25%. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. How is the team we are addition in the, the R&D space? 20% is, is gross number or the net number, sir?
Gross number I'm talking about, 25%.
Right. There is an addition of the significant amount of acquisition is what happened over the last year. If you really notice, like we have come up with the ESOP plan as well with this, in this quarter, in this last board meeting. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. The next addition would be around 10%, or it would be lower than that, just in the acquisition?
Ten to fourteen, fifteen percent-
It was on the higher side last year, and this year, like it is on the lower side from what we are doing and, we expect somewhere around 10% this year. Got it. And any, client base you have, on an annual basis, how many new clients you actually add, either, in, in the US or in, or in Europe? How, how do you think it happens from here as you're able to get those clients increase?
We don't track the number of clients. Honestly, it's very difficult for me to say how many clients we have added or not, right? I mean, some of the, like, when we talk about annual business, most of the business also happens to the distributors level.
It's very difficult to talk about on the number of clients. We help distributors to get the clients, but we don't track them.
Got it. Thank you so much, sir. Okay, thank you.
Thank you. We take the next question. A reminder to all participants, if anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one on their customer telephone. Our next question is from Abhishek Sinha with [uncertain] . Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Thank you for your insight on the business. I just wanted to ask a broad question to really understand what has been happening in the industry over the last two, five years. I mean, in terms of competitive intelligence, have you seen any significant competitors gaining strength in the market share? You know, in any particular segment that you operate in, or specifically in, you know, in a product?
Yes, you're right. I wish we, we just replaced some of the, the competitors, particularly into the food areas, in the animal food areas. Actually, this area, like where we are developing the solutions, I won't say that it's a replacement, it's a market creation, new market creation. Yes, we have replaced some of the, some of the competition in the, even into the pharma segment, which is there. It's always there. The intensity of the competitive, competitors differs, geo-geographically and segment-wise. There is no one single competitor, and I can't just map it exactly what is, and can't give it right away what is happening in which segment, because it's a big question, right?
Yes, sir. My question was, particularly from, you know, in domestic perspective, because in India, we don't see a lot of competitors gaining strength. Is it that Novozymes and, you know, other players in the DSM market, in Indian market? I wanted to understand what their strategies and, you know, what are their growth strategies compared to us.
Novozymes' strategy is more into the, the different areas, more into the textile areas, more into the Care industry , more into the... What I can say, animal foods, no?
Similar, yeah, animal feed.
Not in the animal feed. These are the basic, their focus areas. Our focus areas are the animal feed. We are getting into the food area, different industry. I won't say that we are replacing Novozymes here in India. We are developing the new applications out here. In the animal feed, certainly, like, it's there are a lot of different competitions are there and different small players are there. I won't say that we are replacing exactly their operators. In the pharma sector, there are, like, some of the traders which we replace in this sector also.
Thank you. Sir, how are things progressing on the feed enzyme E0? Do you have, you know, any kind of competition or positive response?
I think it's, this quarter was good. I won't want to comment just because of one, one quarter, because there are certain businesses which are like on a, on some quarters they may come, on some quarters they won't. Overall, we expect a good growth this year in the food business.
All right. Sir, in terms of India's consumption, especially in food, enzymes, you know, I mean, I know it's a very difficult question to answer, but I just want to understand where India stands against, you know, developed, developed economies in terms of enzyme consumption. You know, maybe is it going to be a five-year or 10-year thing that will, you know, get it to catch up?
I think India has a lot of potentials and our food enzymes consumption is on a really good side. Honestly, like, I feel there is a big potential as we grow, as the earning power of the people will grow, and certainly that will be the time when this market will really grow. If you ask me, at this point of time, Indian market is very, very minimum, and it's growing, but not in that way.
Got it. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Puneet Tanna with Redsea EMS. Please go ahead.
Hi. So, how much revenue do you make from the biocatalysis segment?
For this quarter, Puneet?
Yeah, this quarter... About 6% of our revenue has come from...
About 86, 8.6 fiscal year, roughly.
Okay. What is your long-term strategy for this segment? How much growth do you expect in the long term?
We expect a good growth in this area, as we already like, mentioning that a lot of our research is going into this area. We are developing a lot of good enzymes into this area. Some of the enzymes are on a trial scale, probably like, some of the business may start into the end of this year, maybe about third or fourth quarter. Over a longer period, we feel this area should grow and a lot of research goes into this area. That's what I can say.
Okay. My next question is regarding the proposed margin of lower than some years and so on. So do you expect any impact of the merger, any competition, intensity increasing because of the margin?
We don't expect anything on us in real sense, because, and the changes which we are looking into the Novozymes as well right now, is they are withdrawing from the most of the enzyme business and some of the enzyme business, and they are focusing more into the protein area, fermentation protein, basically. Maybe because of the power structure and the other structure, which is what we are looking at it at this point of time. More picture will, will be clear as we move on, maybe in the next two, three quarters. It's interesting, but I don't feel like there's a much of an impact because of the merger.
Okay. Just one last question, if you don't mind. Any competition intensity from the Chinese side increasing, or do you actually face some competition from the Chinese side? Because there isn't much information about the Chinese enzyme.
Some of the areas, China is strong in few of the enzymes, and where they produce, like, well, but most of those area we are not present. We don't see a lot of competition into this area. Some of the competition come in the API area, particularly into the area where, like, they supply the final API into the Indian market, and our enzymes are actually cost effective to really compete with the API suppliers. On the enzyme front, we are not really directly competing with the China.
Okay, that's it from my end. Thank you.
Thank you, Puneetji.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all participants, if anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchtone telephone. Our next question is from the line of Shreyansh Gattani from SG Securities. Please proceed.
Hi, thanks for the follow-up. Just 2 questions. Just wanted to know, what is the update on the R&D center they are building in Nashik? Since going on for a while. Just wanted to know when you complete and start hiring that the R&D center.
Sriyam, at this point of time, like, we are building a huge, close building, which is about 100,000 sq ft, which is a five-floor building. At this point of time, we expect the first lab to go on the 15th of September. We expect this building to complete by the next December, somewhere around that. It will take a while to really to induct people in the R&D center.
Got it. Okay. This, this will consolidate all the R&D, like, facilities, or every R&D project will get under one roof, for the company?
I won't say that it will consolidate all the R&D into one roof, but most of the second R&D will happen out there.
Got it. Okay. Okay. Just one question on Wellfa. Just to give how that, that's progressing, what's the response on that, and what's the strategy from here?
Wellfa is like, as you know, like, B2C business takes longer time. At this point of time, we don't expect any revenue this year as well, like in the initial. Like we said that, probably it will take 2 years to get into the revenue mode. At this point of time, we are focusing on the Amazon and, some other, some other web-website sellings. We will see in, like, few times, how, how does it, how does it, pan out?
Got it. Okay. Just one, like, could you just give some high color on what kind of product launches are you looking at for this year? In the pipeline that you have right now, in which areas, specifically, I know you mentioned about the in this area. If you could just give a high detail, idea that would be helpful.
I won't be able to give you exact APIs where we are targeting at this point of time because of the competitive nature. Just few products in those areas and few products in the specific areas. Some of them are already there and some of them are in the tracks.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder to all participants, if anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. Our next question is from Lakshminarayan, from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you. What do you owe for the freight expenses, as well as raw material expenses for the year? There are fluctuations on both the fronts in terms of transportation, freight expenses, and raw material expenses earlier.
Raw material is already high.
Raw material is softening. Some of the raw materials are softening, although they didn't come to the original level, we think that, more or less it will, it will stabilize, right? In terms of trade expenses, they also came down from the top, and still they are on a little bit on a higher rate, but still it's okay and opening. Got it. Given that we have gone through a big fluctuation on both the fronts, how have you thought through this from a business view? You now contracted raw materials. How, how are you hedging these risks which may again emerge in the future? Or is it that it's always like this, it would be fluctuating and we cannot hedge? We don't hedge it, Lakshminarayan, honestly, because a lot of raw materials are agriculture-based.
When we really look at it, in terms of the real value to this, this is 24%-25%, and we just don't want to do all the hedging from the, let's say, from the stock exchanges and other things, and the commodity exchanges, basically. We don't, we don't hedge it, most of it. One is the, the, the type, the type of hedging you've talked about. The other is to buy more and, and stock more, right? Have you changed your procurement policies, as well as freight booking policies? It's not, it's not too much, right? Most of them come through domestic. The freight really applies when we sell, because many of the sales are like, CIF, instead of procuring.
There is always a restrictions on the, on how much material you can store, basically. Since it's most of them are commodity-based as well, like, they also, they also get, for example, so I'll make it 20 days. We don't want to have a inventory on both fronts. We don't have so many big godowns where you can really just store them. We don't really look into the hedging all of those kind of thing.
Got it. Any, any changes-
2 to 3 months, not beyond that.
Sorry?
2-3 months of inventory is okay, but not more than that, because that impacts again, you know, your, ultimately the finished goods, because you need to use it for various purpose of implementation and all that. If there is any issue with regard to that, then, you know, the impact will come in overall profitability index. How much we can keep is something like, you know, we, we have some kind of timeline. That, that is what we stick to it. Off late, as already mentioned, now the raw material prices are softening and, I mean, you know, now we don't see any kind of, you know, adverse impact. I, you know, the, the situation continues to be the way it is now. Freight prices also, you know, to a great extent, stabilize.
That issue where we used to pay 3 times of, you know, what we had been paying earlier, that time is also kind of gone. I mean, you know, many of the input costs now stabilize, except, you know, power and fuel costs. This is not, this is something not in the control of anyone. It's like, you know, market-driven. Other than that, we see that, you know, most of the costs are now kind of, you know, stabilizing.
Even to the power costs in the longer term, we are planning for some kind of alternate energy.
Yeah.
W- by that way, like, we can cut down the power cost as well more.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And in terms of probiotics, there was some kind of destocking that was taking place earlier. Now, what is the, what is our sales in probiotics for the quarter? How does it compare either sequentially or comparative to Q1 of last year?
I think now the probiotics sale is still, you know, not so much sales compared to, you know, sales which we had in FY22 also.
Earlier this year, we might, might have a better sale, but we haven't really captured that as of now. That will be a positive surprise if that happens. Annually, what is the total of the sales? I'll give you those numbers. Lalji, any other question? I'll just give you those numbers.
Got it, sir. Last question is that, you know, being, we are generating sufficient amounts of cash, right? What is your plan in general, do you intend to keep high cash reserves, or do you intend to use it for any mergers and acquisitions? How are you thinking about this excess cash? What is the policy? We do intend to keep some cash, some treasure, by which we can do the acquisitions.
Unfortunately, we really didn't come up with a really good acquisition in the last-- I mean, I would say, like, we did acquire a company, but that was a very small one, a significant one. Excess cash, this year also, like, we gave a dividend, which we thought should be given, right? Mm-hmm. We'll continue to do that. Got it. As we start, started this year, you, you clearly mentioned that all your cost item visibility is very high for you, that raw material and the freight expenses, eventually we could give you that. There is a softening or, or, stabilizing. From the revenue point of view, how, what kind of visibility you have? Has, has your visibility increased as compared to last year for the coming year?
In the last time, we said that we stick to those growth profiles, what we last time mentioned, right? I should mention.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Got it. Okay. Okay.
Lalji, last year in FY23, probiotics was about INR 200 million as compared to INR 240 million in FY22, and this quarter it is about INR 51 million. You, you expect it to at least do something like INR 200 million for a year or you expect there is a structure? Expectation is there, but not factor too much of the number in this prediction. Whatever will come up will be the quality surprise.
Okay. This is predominantly in India. I mean, is it also any source of probiotics here? We are not mentioning about the blends which are going to the probiotics.
I'm sorry. We are not talking about in these numbers, the blends, which are, which contains probiotics.
Okay. This is, this INR 200 million last year, this is completely India sold. It's not exported. No, it is exported as well, but not in, in terms of blends. I mean, there, there are a lot of products which contains 3 probiotics, 5 probiotics, plus clear enzymes. It's very difficult to categorize. This is stand-alone probiotic actually. Something comes from the stand-alone. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder to all participants, if anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder to all participants, if anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand over the conference to Mr. Ronak Saraf for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for taking the valuable time for attending our earnings conference call. We will keep you posted for any further updates. I request you all to kindly send in your questions that may remain unanswered. Audio recording and the transcript of this call will be uploaded on our website in due course. I look forward to hosting you all in the next quarter. Until then, stay healthy.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you. On behalf of Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.