Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Aether Industries' post-results call hosted by HDFC Securities. 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 Mr. Nilesh Ghuge from HDFC Securities. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Ghuge.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Renju. Good afternoon all. On behalf of HDFC Securities, I welcome everyone to this Aether Industries conference call to discuss the results for the quarter and half-year ended September 2024. From Aether Industries, we have with us today Dr. Aman Desai, Promoter and Whole Time Director; Mr. Rohan Desai, Promoter and Whole Time Director; Mr. Faiz Nagariya, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Kushal Doshi, Lead Investor Relations; and Ms. Shubhangi Desai, Executive IR. Without further ado, I will now hand over the floor to Ms. Shubhangi Desai to begin with the earnings call for Q2 FY25. Over to you, Shubhangi.
Thank you, Nilesh. A warm welcome to everyone. Today, on October 18, 2024, our Board has approved the financial results for the second quarter and half-year end date on the fiscal year 2025, and the same has been filed with the exchanges as well as updated over our webSite. Please note that this conference call is being recorded, and the transcript of the same will be made available on the webSite of Aether Industries Limited and exchanges. Please also note that the audio of the conference call is the copyright material of Aether Industries Limited and cannot be copied, rebroadcast, or attributed in press or media without specific and written consent of the company. Let me draw your attention to the facts around this call. Our discussion will include certain forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other estimates about future events.
These estimates reflect management's current expectations on future performance of the company. Please note that these estimates involve several risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied. Aether Industries Limited or its officials do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of future events or otherwise. Now, Mr. Rohan Desai will begin by sharing Aether's business outlook, then Mr. Faiz Nagariya will cover the financial highlights for the period under review, and Dr. Aman Desai will share the ongoing expansions and the strategy of the company going forward. Now, I shall hand over the call to Mr. Rohan Desai for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Good evening. I hope everyone is doing well, and I'm delighted to connect with you all to share our company's performance during the second quarter of financial year 2025. During this quarter under review, total volume has increased, but the prices remained low due to China's dumping. While we feel prices have bottomed out, the current change in the trend is only likely to start in the fourth quarter of financial year 2025. The demand for our products remains strong, and we have added 12 new clients during this quarter. The fire-affected Site 2 has been redesigned and is planned to be fully operational by mid-November 2024 in a highly compliant and safe manner, as we are awaiting regulatory permissions to restart at 100% capacity. We expect to commission Site 3+ and 3 ++ in early quarter one of financial year 2025-2026.
Our greenfield CapEx expansion is on track on Site 5, which is located in Panoli, with Phase I being expected to be completed in quarter three of financial year 2025-2026. Due to a prior delay in finalizing the contract and subsequent long lead times in procurement of raw materials for Baker Hughes contract, Site 4 is likely to witness an increase in production beginning from quarter three of this financial year. We have commissioned 10 MW of solar power plant out of a total order of 15 MW, which was given earlier. The remaining 5 MW power plant will be commissioned by the end of October 2024. This is a significant investment towards our sustainability goal, and we also will help us save money on electricity overheads, which will enhance the company's operational profits.
With respect to Aether's business model, we have seen 57% of contribution coming from Large Scale Manufacturing business model, 27% coming from Contract/Exclusive Manufacturing business model, and 14% coming from Contract Research and Manufacturing Services business model during the quarter two. We have seen volume growth in all the three business models. Contract/Exclusive Manufacturing is expected to rise significantly beginning from quarter three and quarter four of this financial year when the commercial orders from the SSA with Baker Hughes will begin to be shipped. Our exports and our domestic revenues stand at 50% of our total revenue each in quarter two of financial year 2025. Last week, we showcased ourselves in CPHI in Milan, which gave us great insights into the prospects of the current business dynamic landscape and helped us to position our capabilities globally.
With this, I would like to thank you for speaking and wish you all a very Happy Diwali in advance. I would now request our CFO, Faiz Nagariya, to touch upon the financial highlights for the period under review. Over to you, Faiz.
Thank you, Rohan, and good evening, everybody. I'm glad to present the financial results of Aether Industries Limited for Q2 and half-year end date for financial year 2025. The total consolidated revenue of the company stood at INR 2,098 million in quarter two of financial year 2025, as against INR 1,920 million in quarter one of financial year 2025, which is an increase of 9% quarter-on-quarter. This has resulted in EBITDA of INR 613 million in Q2 of financial year 2025, as against INR 521 million in quarter one of financial year 2025, an increase of 18% in the comparing periods. EBITDA margin stood at 29% in Q2, as against 27% in Q1 of financial year 2025. The PAT has amounted to INR 348 million in Q2 of 2025, as against INR 299 million of quarter one of financial year 2025, an increase by 16%.
The PAT margin stood at 17% in Q2 of financial year 2025, as against 16% in Q1 of financial year 2025. The standalone PAT has been INR 381 million in Q2, as against INR 303 million in Q1 of financial year 2025, resulting in a healthy PAT margin of 18% against 16% in the comparing periods. The consolidated revenue in the half-year of H1 of FY25 increased by 18% to INR 4,017 million from INR 3,417 million in the first half of financial year 2024, enabling an EBITDA margin of INR 1,134 million in H1 FY25 against INR 1,071 million in H1 FY24, and PAT being INR 647 million in half-year financial year 2025, as against INR 665 million in half-year 2024.
The main reason for the decline in the PAT margin on the consolidated basis on half-year is result of the operations are still to begin in Aether's facility, whereas the expenditure of common natures like salaries, utilities, etc., is coming up. We expect this to be turned around well by the end of financial year 2025. During the quarter, we had submitted the stock loss claim resulting from the fire accident, which had taken place on 29th of November 2023, to the insurance surveyor, and the claim will be processed and claim settled by the insurance company in Q3 of financial year 2025. The revamping of the affected site is progressing as per the plan, with certain delays from our regulators. Still, we anticipate 100% operations at the fire-affected site within a month or so.
The remaining claim for the fixed assets for the loss will be put up to the insurance company in the month of November 2025, along with the loss of profit claim, and we are confident to get the claim settled by the insurance company prior before the end of this financial year 2025. We have been able to reduce the inventory cycle to 178 days as on 30th September 2024, as against 210 days as on March 31, 2024. The debtor cycle has also been reduced to 136 days on September 30, 2024, as against 142 days as on March 31, 2024, encompassing the payment flows from the customers. With the commercialization of SSA with Baker Hughes, we anticipate to have better debtor and inventory cycles in the future. Now, I would request Dr. Aman Desai to share updates on Aether's ongoing expansion plans and strategies going forward.
Thank you, Faiz, for the financial highlights. Good evening, everybody. I'm very pleased, as always, to connect with all of you again. To begin my section, we have been working diligently in augmenting our capabilities with our ongoing CapEx across multiple sites, integrated with the incremental additions and chemical reaction capabilities in our core competencies, where we begin all the way from R&D through pilot plant all the way to commercial scale. And this is aiding us significantly in enabling and developing newer technology, which we are translating into our CRAMS business model. We continue to witness a significant influx of business inquiries in the CRAMS business model against the backdrop of the various global scenarios. This business model of CRAMS has indeed grown quarter-on-quarter. This is on the backdrop of our expanded state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure, what we think are cutting-edge technology and chemistry core competencies.
With our efforts to broaden our range of end-use industry applications, we have again successfully proved this CRAMS business model by entering into and publicly announcing our Contract/Exclusive Manufacturing contract with the SEQENS Group of Europe. It's a take-or-pay contract. Under the take-or-pay contract, Aether will produce a series of natural bio-based products exclusively for the SEQENS Group.
The innovative manufacturing process, which involves continuous reaction technology, which is one of our core competencies, was collaboratively developed at Aether by Aether and the SEQENS Group over the last three years in the CRAMS business model, and this is now translating into the Contract/ Exclusive Manufacturing business model under the current executed contract.
Sustainability and renewables continue to be an important emerging area for us, now evidenced by numerous publicly announced collaborations with Saudi Aramco Technologies Company, Novoloop in the U.S. , a major lithium-ion battery producer, and now the current contract with SEQENS Group. We are further working on numerous other projects in this overall platform, and we anticipate several positive developments in the near future in this overall platform.
The near future should also see significant projects being translated into the Contract/Exclusive Manufacturing business model from the CRAMS business model, specifically a significant project for our Site 3+ +, as well as multiple projects in our Baker Hughes partnership. Our R&D expenses for the quarter one of the fiscal year 2025, which is the current quarter past, stood at INR 143 million, i.e., 7.5% of our total revenues was R&D spent.
Our in-house pilot plant has enabled us in enhancing chemical development and scale-up of our in-house molecules, as well as further expanding our CRAMS portfolio. We have been working relentlessly to leverage the learnings from the upheaval that we faced because of the fire accident in the past year, with continuous sustainable improvements and enhancements being made across the board to implement stringent safety measures, which are also progressing and have been bolstered by numerous full-scale HSE audits led by various regulatory bodies, as well as our innovator customers across the globe. Just in the past quarter, we have faced nine customer audits, including four full-scale HSE multi-day HSE audits by four of our multinational global leading innovator customers, and we have successfully passed all these audits, and in the process, we have also reinvigorated our collaborations with these various innovators.
All in all, I believe we are proceeding in a significantly positive direction. With that, thank you, everybody. Wish everybody a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year and a safe and satisfying vacation wherever you all are. Looking forward to your questions and pushing back to you.
Thank you. Shall we begin the Q&A?
Yeah, sure.
Thank you. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your 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 comes from the line of Krushan Mundada with NJ Wealth. Please go ahead. Mr. Mundada, please go ahead with the question. Mr. Mundada, if you have muted your phone, please unmute yourself and please go ahead with the question.
Hello. Am I audible? Hello?
Yes, please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible? Okay. Good evening, everybody. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, regarding the operating capacity utilization at our sites, what was the capacity utilization for second quarter at Site 2 and manufacturing Site 2, as well as Site 3?
So the capacity utilization at Site 2 was around 55%, and at Site 2, it was at Site 3, it was around 62%.
Okay. So we are improving gradually. And what is the target for the end of the year?
So our target for the year-end is around we should be 100% on with the Site 2 also, and so we should reach again the 70% mark. And for the Site 3 also, we would expect to reach around 70%-75%, which is the maximum we try to go ahead, and then we keep the other capacities free for any kind of downtime or any contingencies.
Okay. And on the realization front, our product portfolio saw some growth. I don't know.
Your voice is not clear. Your voice is not clear, can you speak? Yeah.
Okay. On the realization front, did our product portfolio see some growth at Site 3, the newly launched chemicals, pharmaceuticals?
The average realization trend is the same as quarter one.
Okay. So are we seeing any improvement in the realization, or increased Chinese pressure would further cause it down?
We expect the realization to improve from quarter one of this financial year. The quarter four, sorry. Quarter four of this financial year, calendar one, quarter one of calendar year.
Okay. And since the Baker Hughes contract has not yet started contributing to the revenue, so our projections regarding Baker Hughes contract of INR 200 crores top line this year and INR 400 crores next year, is it still intact?
That would be impacted for this current year, but for the next year, it is standing still the same.
Okay, and I have a question. Regarding the capacity, we have around 7,000 metric tons per annum capacity at Site 4, and our contract to manufacture the chemicals to Baker Hughes is around 17,000 metric tons. Are we going to expand from where we are going to supply the additional capacity?
The capacity of Baker Hughes will be utilized from Site 4, basically. And Site 4, we already have the necessary approvals which are in place, and it is available in the public domain.
Okay. Thank you. I wish you a Happy Diwali.
Thank you. Happy Diwali to you too.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Ankur Periwal with Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. And sorry for the background noise. First question, in your opening remarks, you did allude towards the new customer addition, the double-digit addition that we had done. Just your thoughts on which are these customers specific to some segment or end application, and which geographies are we seeing good traction from?
They are broadly in Pharma, Agro division majorly. And we have two customers in coatings, which we are already selling that product on commercial level. Also, we have added two customers in Contract Research & Manufacturing Services this fiscal. And majorly, seven customers are from India, and the remaining are from outside.
Okay, great. And you did mention two of them to whom we are selling the existing products. Will it be fair to say that all of them will be selling our existing products to them, or there are some new products as well, which are getting sold to these new clients?
No, no, no. Existing products only.
Okay. Secondly, on the new productions and the new, sorry, the new products and your discussion with clients, any feedback you can share across maybe even Agro or Pharma customers? How is the demand outlook there? We had seen some deferment in demand earlier, but any updates there will be helpful. Thanks.
Yeah. In the earlier quarter, we have suggested that the demands are back. The pricing is still a challenge. The pricing of the products are driven by China, and the dumping from China, which is affecting the price levels for us. However, we are seeing demand for the new molecules are coming back to its normality, and also new products are being discussed with a lot of customers, and new opportunities are also being discussed with a lot of customers. So except for the price, everything seems to be good at the moment.
Sure. Just two follow-ups there, if I may. One, from a volumetric growth perspective, what is the thought process, both from existing customers as well as from the new one? And secondly, you mentioned that Q1 CY25 onwards, we should see some pricing uptake. What gives you the confidence there?
It would be a new year for Chinese. We hope that in the new financial year that is based on the calendar year under which they operate, we can assume that they will change their stance and start increasing the price. That is what we are assuming. And during our visits and in the exhibitions and meeting with the Chinese suppliers who are supplying to us, we understood that they are all in tremendous pressure. And so we hope and we are assuming that the prices which are bottomed out will start increasing from quarter one of the calendar year, next calendar year.
Sure. Thanks a lot. That's helpful. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Krishan Parwani with JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi sir. Congratulations on a great set of numbers. Just a couple of things from my side. First is we can see there has been a sharp improvement in your Agrochem intermediate sales. So by when do you think or when do you expect uptake in other segments too?
We are seeing a good uptake in Pharma segment also. Oil and gas is going to increase. It's just a matter of time at this moment. So we're not seeing any challenges on oil and gas. High-performance polymers has been pretty stable. The textile divisions have shown great increase, and which will also increase in the future, but not immediately, and on the coating side also, we expect a certain percentage increase in the next two quarters. That is how we are seeing this business in quarter three and quarter four.
Understood. And when you mentioned that you are expecting price improvement from 2025, so were you referring more to, let's say, Pharma intermediates? Because I think Pharma intermediate sales have been flat-ish quarter- to- quarter. So were you referring more to that in your commentary?
Yes. So we are referring to overall prices. Overall prices from commodities has to change to specialty has to change, basically. So you should see a price correction in various pockets from quarter one of the next calendar year. That is what we are assuming. And as per our understanding and discussion, that could potentially happen.
Okay, and a follow-up to that. With improvement in pricing, would we see further improvement in our EBITDA margins, such as a jump from 24%-27% in this quarter? Would we see kind of this kind of trend continuing going forward?
If there is a price correction, it will definitely increase the margins for us. But also remember that the raw material prices are also dependent upon China. So if the prices of our products increase, there is going to be a little bit increase in the raw material prices also. We see the traction, and we are on the target to reach our original margins of around 29% EBITDA margins.
Yes. Yes. I was coming to that only. Yes. Yes. Got it. Got it. That's fair. And just last one from my side, sorry, if I may. From which site will this SEQENS contract be served?
Aman?
Yeah. So it will be Site 3++ .
Noted. And just last bit on that. So I'm not sure whether we have given any revenue potential from this. And also, are there any more products under work with SEQENS given this is, I think, in your opening remarks also mentioned that looking at more sustainable products. So what's your view there?
Yes. I think we are under strict confidentiality terms, and so giving a revenue outlet will be difficult in terms of the confidentiality agreements that we have, but we are working on other products, and also, this is a series of launch products for them, and so the 100 metric tons contract that we have currently is a launch and market development quantities and kind of a demo plant, and so with 100 tons as a launch quantity, then you can imagine that the ultimate commercialization mature volumes will be significantly higher than that. We are currently discussing with them as these projects move forward.
Perfect. Perfect. That's all from my side. Thank you for answering my question. All the best for coming quarters, and wish you a very Happy Diwali.
Thank you. Thank you. Happy Diwali to you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Nilesh Ghuge with HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Congratulations for a good set of numbers despite these challenging times for the chemical industry, particularly. So congratulations for the Aether Industries team. My question, first question is to Faiz, particularly on the working capital. So how is the current situation as far as the working capital inventory is concerned compared to FY24 end?
In the FY24, in the financial year 2024, we had a fire incident, and then we started the facility in the month of January, February. Most of the products were in the production, and the inventory had increased tremendously, and it was around 210 days inventory, which we have been able to bring it down to 178 days as of 30th September. So a good decrease, and we are continuously working on that. And because most of the raw materials are now available in India, so we are taking the materials as and when required and for the production which is required. So we will be still working on that, and our target is to bring it down to 160 days or by end of this year or more than that. And the debtor cycle also, which was around 142 days, has come down to 136 days odd.
As I mentioned in my commentary also with the Baker Hughes, which is another contract manufacturing project start with other customers, this cycle also will be coming down, and our target is to reach around 130 days by end of this year and then further bring it down to 115-120 days in the next year. So working capital and also our cash flow from operations is positive just because of the good working capital cycle management which we have done in the six months.
Okay. The second question is to Aman. Aman, can you just elaborate on the number of molecules and the type of molecules that we are planning to come out from our Panoli facility?
Yeah. It's a good question. So we have currently been planning for 16 production blocks in Panoli. We have a line of sight and visibility for about six or seven of these production blocks already in terms of the in-house molecules that we are developing in the pipeline as well as the Contract/Exclusive Manufacturing opportunities that we have in the CRAMS pipeline. So we already have visibility of about 40%-45% of the total production capacity of the Site 5, which I think is a really good place to be considering where we are in terms of timeline.
The products will be a mix of in-house as well as external manufacturing. We are currently into several advanced talks with several of our customers, especially in the Renewable and Sustainability segment and the Oil and Gas segment for Contract/Exclusive Manufacturing partnerships in Site 5, and so we have those products that are going to go in there in these industry applications, and then we have a few pharmaceutical advanced intermediates that we are developing in our Large Scale Manufacturing business model currently in advanced stages, and one or two other, one, I believe, Agrochemical advanced intermediate in very advanced stages, finishing of the pilot plant phase validations right now, again, in our in-house Large Scale Ma nufacturing business model, so we will look at both models, and in the Large Scale Manufacturing models, it will be heavy on the Pharma and Ag sector.
In the Contract/Exclusive Manufacturing business model as it stands today, it will be heavy towards the Renewables and Sustainability segment as well as the Oil and Gas segment.
Okay. Okay. Just you touch upon this CRAMS segment. If I look at the numbers also, the CRAMS segment is continuously doing better and better every quarter. What kind of revenue do you envisage, let's say, FY25, FY26 from our CRAMS business? Currently, we are doing a run rate of more than INR 25 crores per quarter.
Yeah. Let me not give you numbers on that, but let me give you an idea of what we are doing for that. We expanded our R&D significantly last year or two years ago. We are further expanding by additional 2x in the same site in an adjoining plot, our R&D center. That will happen by next year, 2025.
We have what we've been calling the world's largest pilot plant. It's certainly one of the world's largest pilot plants, and I have been calling it the world's largest pilot plant, and both the R&D infrastructure and the pilot plant are significant, extensive infrastructure, and all of this is focused toward the CRAMS business model. Our CRAMS business model has become the growth engine of the company. Our R&D is the growth engine of the company. It's the foundation upon which the company stands on. We are very upbeat and positive on the CRAMS business model going forward, and we are continuously adding new customers. These customers are the innovators, and they are across the industry spectrum. We are not dependent on any industry spectrum. We are really across the industry spectrum.
Our partnerships are in the pipeline of these customers, and we are working with the R&D Directors and the Technology Directors and the CTOs of these companies, of these innovators. So the vision of the CRAMS business model remains upbeat, even more upbeat than ever, which if it is possible, because I have always been very upbeat on this business model, but I'm even more upbeat than ever on this business model. And we should be seeing and we should be having really good fun with the numbers on this business model in the years to come.
Okay. Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Aman. And wish you all a very Happy Diwali. Thanks. Thanks for answering my questions. Thank you for questions.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Atishr ay Malhan with Fortress Group . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening, team, and thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions, but first, a clarification. So in the investor presentation and the results disclosure you provided, the stated revenue for Large Scale Manufacturing and Contract manufacturing is about INR 75 and INR 64 crores, respectively, but in the corresponding quarter, the corresponding disclosures you have provided last year for Q2 and FY24, the stated revenues seem to be INR 112 and INR 27 crore. So has there been some sort of a reclassification for some products from Large Scale to Contract manufacturing?
Yes. Yes. There was a reclassification in the last year's quarter. That's why there was a change.
Can you maybe provide some names or some contracts, something of the sort?
Pardon?
Will you be able to provide the names of the chemicals or some contracts that have been shifted from Large Scale to Contract M anufacturing?
Unfortunately, no. For confidential reasons, we cannot do that.
Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. So I didn't hear you too well earlier. So I need a clarification regarding the Baker Hughes contract. So again, please correct me if I'm wrong. So last quarter, you had provided a guidance of about INR 200 crores-INR 250 crores from the contract for this fiscal year and about INR 350 crores for next year. And now, because of some of the delays that you had spoken about earlier, the guidance for next year seems to be intact. But the revenue guidance for this year will be a bit less than INR 200 crores-INR 250 crores, right?
Yes.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough. And just another question. I think last quarter, you had mentioned that there were some delays in the Otsuka contract. Has that been sort of figured out, and is that commercialized from this quarter?
Yes. It's already back on track, and we have already received the orders.
Okay, so those numbers are reflecting in this INR 56 crores in the Contract Manufacturing for this quarter?
By 2026.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you so much. That's all from my side, and wishing the team a Happy Diwali.
Happy Diwali to you too.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Rohit Ohri with Progressive Shares. Please go ahead.
Hi, Aman. Congrats on adding one more feather to the hat that is the SEQENS Group. And every nine months or so, the team at Aether keeps surprising us with something or the other. So my question is that if you can take us through what exactly are these natural bio-based products and where are the applications and what is the market size that we intend to cater to?
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the time, which is, if it is up to me, it would be much more frequent than nine months. So I hope we will be making it even more briefer than that. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of efforts and coordination to be able to get approval for name release, especially for these innovators who are very, very protective with how their publicity is seen worldwide. And so I think the fact that we're able to get a few of these, I think, speaks to the kind of partnerships that we have, but hopefully, it will be much more in the future. And we are continuously working towards that. I'm afraid I'm not able to give a lot of information because, as you can imagine, the R&D pipeline project is rolling off into commercialization for these innovators.
And we have been working with them on developing the process for the last three years now. And before that, they were in discovery for a couple of years, at least since all things have been rolling off now for the last five, six years from the pipeline into commercialization. And as you can imagine, these sort of companies are very, very secretive on what these products are, what their applications are, and what the future looks like. But these are natural bio-based products. Continuous Reaction Technology is very innovative technology of making these materials, which previously, as you can imagine, had been obtained from raw materials which were based in crude oil. And so they are end-of-industry applications. We are now switching out the products which were previously available from crude oil to completely bio-based raw materials and starting materials towards the sustainability of these end applications.
And as I mentioned before and announced to your previous question, they use our market development quantities for this customer and launch quantities. And so if 100 ton is a launch quantity, then the ultimate commercialization will be much bigger, which we do hope to be a partner for with the SEQENS Group. And so hopefully, much more to come in the years to come on this as well.
Aman, is it possible to share from which of the segments that you'll be working? SEQENS generally works on pharma, personal care, and some specialty custom-made products. So if you can just share some more details, which is the domain that you intend to work on with them?
It's not the pharma. I wouldn't say that.
Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Will you be interested in moving more towards certain products which are related to PEKK or certain resins or fluoropolymers or something like that?
I didn't get the first one. I got the fluoro polymers, and then I didn't get the other two.
Polyether ketone ketone, PEKK.
Okay. Yeah. In the general field of polymerization, we are entering into significantly. For example, the polyols, CONVERGE polyols that we make with the Saudi Aramco Technologies Company, and that is still in commercialization is a polyol example. For example, the Novoloop is the depolymerization of PE polymer back into monomers and then circular economy and upcycle towards other polyols. A lot of the Baker Hughes products are polymers, in fact, and using oilfield services. We are working on potential contract manufacturing of hydrocarbon resins with other partners as well. We are in the general field of polymers, but I don't think you have one that you're talking about.
Would you be interested in working, as you say, that going forward, there are many things more in the offering from this partnership that's come from SEQENS? Would you be interested in working with Arkema also?
Arkema?
Yeah. A-R-K-E-M-A?
We don't have any business with them currently, but for sure, we'd be interested, yes.
Okay. Okay. So my next question for Rohan, right? So we used to, there was a time when the molecules which were sold by Aether were at par, or they were much, much better in terms of the pricing with the Chinese counterparts. And post that, and we see that since last three or four quarters, there's been immense pressure. So your thoughts on where exactly and what is exactly that is going wrong? Because there was a time when we were in a position to sell certain products or molecules which were far better than the Chinese prices.
Yes, so even today, we are holding majority market shares on all the products in spite of the fire accident which has happened nine months ago, or I mean, 11 months ago. The raw material prices have also corrected quite a bit, and there's a pressure in the APIs and the AIs, which is pharmaceutical end products and agro end products, and hence, the prices had to be in line with the Chinese competition, and we are still competitive or at par with the Chinese prices, and this is clearly reflected in our margins also. In terms of the percentage margins where we are producing more, we are still able to retain the same percentage margins, which shows that we are able to perform better.
Again, if you see, we do not have a better business edge as compared to China in terms of the currency devaluation, in terms of the export benefits, and so on and so forth. I consider that we are doing better in these dire circumstances also.
Rohan or Faiz , is it possible, or is it fair to assume that going forward, that we try to inch more towards the traditional margin levels which we used to have in the past to the numbers of like 28% or 30% EBITDA margin kind of level for the second half of the year?
Yes. That's the target.
Okay, so thank you for answering my question. Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, we have reached the end of question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for participating in the call. We hope that we have addressed the majority of your questions. If you still have any further questions, then please feel free to reach out to us. Stay safe and have a great day ahead. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of HDFC Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.