Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 and FY23 earnings conference call of Aether Industries Limited, hosted by HDFC Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be muted to 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 touchtone 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.
Thank you, Ashish. 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 financial year 2022-23. 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; 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 Q4 and FY23. Over to you, Shubhangi.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you, Nilesh, for the brief introduction. Last Saturday, on May 6, 2023, Board has approved the results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, and year ended on March 31, 2023. We have released the same to the stock exchanges as well as updated the same on our website. Please note that this conference call is being recorded, and a transcript of the same will be made available on the website of Aether and exchanges. Please also note that the audio of the conference call is the copyright material of Aether Industries Limited and cannot be copied, broadcasted, or attributed in press or media without specific and written consent of the company. Let me draw your attention to the fact that on 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 or its officials do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of future events or otherwise. Dr. Aman Desai will begin by sharing the ongoing expansions and strategies of the company going forward. Then Mr. Faiz Nagariya will cover the financial highlights for the period under review, and Mr. Rohan Desai will talk on a high-level overview of Aether's business. Now, I hand over the call to Dr. Aman Desai to share the updates. Over to you, Dr. Aman.
Thank you, Shubhangi. Good afternoon, everybody. In spite of it being a Monday, I do hope that everybody is doing well, and I'm happy to connect with you all to discuss the performance of our company for the quarter four and the full year of fiscal year 2022-23. We have, in January 2023, launched our Site 3 for the production, which is a greenfield production site for our new products. Trial runs have started in January 2023, and commercial production has also begun since January 2023, end of month. We will stepwise start up production of five new advanced pharmaceutical intermediates in this new Site 3. All five products will be manufactured for the first time in India by Aether.
We have also recently gotten possession of the Sites 3+ and 3++, which are land plots adjacent to Site 3, where we will be launching three new products for agrochemicals. This will expand our Site 3, potentially double its original size, and these three new products for agrochemicals, which will be in addition to the five new products, which are advanced pharma intermediates that we are manufacturing at Site 3. The land parcel for the next greenfield manufacturing site, which is Site 4, has also been increased from 8,000 square meters to 18,000 square meters in the recent months. Documentation for the possession of all the plots and the amalgamation into a large extended Site 4 is already going on.
Our plans towards the next two greenfield manufacturing sites, namely the aforementioned Site 4 in Surat and the Site 5, the large production site in Site 5 in Panoli, are all advancing well, and the activities are going on for these Sites 4 and Site 5 towards planning, including initial civil construction, production selection, regulatory approval, and overall design of these two new sites. The reason for the large CapEx is primarily on the backing of investment inquiries and outsourcing opportunities which we have been receiving, and which we remain confident in our abilities to grab these opportunities and work with world-class multinational innovators across the sectors in the chemical industry. The growth in our CRAMS business model is continuously on the rise in the current fiscal year, and the demand for the products in contract manufacturing is also increasing quarter on quarter.
We have also recently made a few public announcements in this regard which reflect this continuous growth, which include partnerships with Polaroid in Germany, Otsuka in Japan, and Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia, the last one which I'll speak shortly about as well. We remain upbeat and positive on this business model for future outlook, as in the last quarter, we continue to see a significant upward trend in inquiries, customer additions, previous contract renewals, and actual business being translated into revenues in both the business models of CRAMS and contract/exclusive manufacturing. The biggest announcement in this quarter which came from our end was the letter of intent signed with Saudi Aramco Technologies Company.
The letter of intent captures the preliminary terms between Saudi Aramco and Aether of a detailed licensing agreement towards the manufacturing and commercialization at Aether of the Converge polyols technology and product series, the manufacturing process for which has been previously jointly developed and validated at pre-commercial scale by Saudi Aramco and Aether. New customers added during this quarter are 15 in number, which all are added in the large-scale manufacturing business model. We have two returning customers with whom we have done this business previously for two years in the CRAMS business model, and they have come up with new molecules to be developed under the same CRAMS business model. This shows that the process we've built with these customers across all the business model returns for repeated business. R&D expenditure for 12 months of fiscal 2023 stood at 7.5% of total revenues. This includes revenue plus capital expenditures.
The R&D team has increased from 164 in March 2022 to 233 in March 2023. Our three business models continue to be robust, and we are seeing growth in all business models. Large-scale manufacturing business model, which was seen contributing less in the first three quarters of fiscal 2023 into the pharma sector being down overall, has contributed well in the last quarter of fiscal 2023 as new products are launched in Site 3 in the large-scale manufacturing business model, which are of high value and have significant demand in the market. The pipeline in R&D, as always, is packed with future molecules with plans to launch these molecules in the upcoming years in the Site 3+, 3++, Site 4, and Site 5 greenfield manufacturing sites. With that, I request our CFO, Faiz Nagariya, to share the financial highlights of Q4 of fiscal 2023. Faiz, over to you.
Thank you, Dr. Aman, and good evening all of you. The total revenue of the company was INR 6,676 million in the financial year 2023, which has led to an increase of 10% in the total revenue financial year-on-year rise. EBITDA has grown at 16% on YoY/YoY basis from INR 175 million to INR 208 million in financial year 2022 to INR 2,028 million in financial year 2023, thereby resulting in EBITDA margins of 30.4% in financial year 2023. That increase from INR 108 million in financial year 2022, which was 18.2%, to INR 1,304 million in financial year 2023, which is 19.5%, being 19.7% more compared to the last financial year. The company is planning for Capex of INR 7,000 million-INR 7,500 million over FY2024 and FY2025 for Site 3+, Site 3++, Site 4, and Site 5, along with R&D and pilot plant expenses.
We have written an enabling resolution for raising additional equity in our board meeting for taking care of the Capex plan over financial year 2024 and financial year 2025 for his approval to the SEBI listing submission. Now, I will request Mr. Rohan Desai to talk on a high-level overview of Aether's business. Over to you, bro.
Thank you, Faiz, for the financial highlights. In terms of the demands, we have continued to see good growth in quarter four, which has started in quarter three compared to the first half of the financial year. We are seeing strong demand for our products and expect the demand growth to continue and are not seeing any signs of slowdown for our customers in the rest. For our products, the end-quarter prices have been fairly stable across the board. Average selling price of our product, which was INR 1,450 per kilo in financial year 2022, has gone up to INR 1,766 per kilo in financial year 2023. On the raw materials front, we are seeing the prices getting stabilized, which will aid to our margins going forward. As mentioned by Aman, we are seeing great traction from customers based out of Europe and US, respectively, for the CRAMS business.
With the utility crisis in Europe, we have seen a significant increase in opportunities for the CRAMS business. This, to a certain extent, has been demonstrated by our recent announcements with respect to our partnerships with Polaroid and an increase in business with our existing agrochemical customers. Coming to the three independent business models, in financial year 2023, we have seen 52% of our total top line coming from large-scale manufacturing business model, where we anticipate good growth in the future due to the launch of new products in the greenfield manufacturing Site 3. 13% of our total top line comes out of contract research and manufacturing services business model, and our third business model, that is contract/exclusive manufacturing, contributed to 34% of our total top line.
We have achieved a good balance between our manufacturing business model, CRAMS, and contract/exclusive manufacturing, which does not make us dependent on any single business model. Our sales mix stands at pharma 42%, agrochemicals 35%, material sciences 5%, high-performance photography 6%, Printing 3%, and others, including oil and gas, at 9%. Our exports stand at 69%, which includes exports to SEZ and EOU units in India, and domestic sales stand at 31%. Export outside the geography of India accounts for 41% of our total revenue from operations. We believe that with the launch of new products between the new capacities, seeing the increasing demand from market clients across the sectors and geographies, and renewal of existing contracts, we are certain to deliver good growth going forward.
We are also excited about the growth at Aether and with the commencement of the CapEx for Site 3++, Site 4, Site 5, and we are confident of our new products launches, which are in our pipeline. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Rohan. We would now request the moderator to open line for question and answer.
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 touchscreen telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use hands up while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while your question queue is sent. On to the next question from the line of Jainam Ghelani from Swan Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yes, sir. We can hear you.
Yep. Hi, sir. Congratulations on the start of numbers. I just wanted to know, what is the current order book as of now?
The order book stands at INR 312 crores as of quarter four ending.
Can we divide it segment-wise? How much should be CRAMS, how much should be manufacturing?
We have not done that, but we can share that information with you.
Fantastic. What are the utilization levels for this quarter and FY23?
The total utilization is around 71% for the FY 2023.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Participants are requested to press star and one to ask a question. We have a question from the line of Noel Vaz from Union Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hello. Can I hear you?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Yes. Yes. Sorry about that. Yes. So I just had one question about the equity raise that we are planning from INR 750 odd crores. Could we have some kind of color as to what exactly the checklist will be going towards within which particular segments? I presume this will be for Site 4 and Site 5, I think, right? And some more details on that one.
So we are planning the Capex in three sites, Site 3++, which is recently acquired, which doubles the capacity of Site 3, Site 4, and Site 5. This will be to the tune of approximately INR 200 crores-INR 250 crores per site. We are talking about three sites at this moment, and it is a mix of contract/exclusive manufacturing and large-scale manufacturing. As we are working on the multipurpose plant, we do not differentiate between the large-scale and the contract manufacturing, and so it is hard to differentiate this whole investment in two terms. So we'll be investing in multipurpose plants in all these three sites, and as we see which products will be Printing into which site is what we are planning right now, and we'll be designing and we'll be updating you in the upcoming quarters.
Okay. Thank you. So just to confirm one more thing, just a follow-up. So the margin profile asset turn should be roughly very similar to what we are doing right now.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Okay. Thanks.
Maturity.
Yes. Thank you. One question I had was that they are working on sales. So looking at capex, it still remains on the steep side at the end of FY23. Could we have some more color on that?
Yeah. So you are right that the debtor days have gone up a bit, and that is because of the few customers, very big multinationals. They have reduced the payments, which they had done in the past also, and then they reduced the payments. Again, the payments which were pending in March have come in the April month and May month also. And we are hoping that the debtor cycle will subside, and it will be within the range of 120 days, 122 days by this fiscal year end. There are no provisions or no bad debt provisions required because all the customers are good with us, and payments are going properly.
Okay. So if we have received some payments in April, May, do we have some kind of rough indication as to how much is it reduced to?
It was reduced by at least 10 days or so recently.
Okay. Thanks.
Some customers also do not pay on 31st March. This is the advantage, maybe, and the payments then flow in the month of April. That has been the situation we have seen since last 2, 3 years also.
Okay. Okay. Okay. And lastly, just one specific question on quarter numbers. So OPEX for other expenses in fourth quarter has decreased potentially by a little bit. I mean, is there any particular reason for that?
No. See, there is no specific reason for that. I only think it's because the revenue, if you see, the fourth quarter was the highest of all the four quarters. Based on that only, the expenditures have remained the same. There are no major it will be very less decreased because of the electricity because our solar power plant started giving us full optimization in the last quarter, which started from July, but then it was coming up, and it started giving more outputs. In the third quarter and the fourth quarter, it was fully giving us the output. So that has reduced the electricity cost, and also steel prices, we were able to bring them down considerably in the last quarter.
Okay. Thanks. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Neeraj Todi from Profitmart Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, in previous calls, we have mentioned that we want to balance out all the 3 business models, basically. So my specific question is with respect to CRAMS, where it is now 13% and has the highest margin. So, sir, any idea how much time it will take to scale CRAMS to around 23% of the portfolio? And the second question was with respect to do we need any additional investment for CRAMS to scale up, or investment in Site 3++ and expansion in 4 and 5 will also aid in CRAMS business scaling up?
Can you repeat the last part of the question, please? Sorry.
So since we are planning to scale it to 23% of the portfolio, it will be 13%. So current investments, what we are doing in Site 3++ and 4 and 5, will that investment also aid in scaling up the CRAMS model, or how? Or will we need any additional investment separately?
Okay. Understood. Thanks, Neeraj, for the question. Let me clarify that a little bit. The CRAMS business model comes revenues come from the revenues of the projects done in the R&D and the pilot plant, and when the molecules and the products and projects from the CRAMS business model go into the manufacturing assets, these transfer into the contract manufacturing/exclusive manufacturing business model bucket. And so as a whole, you can consider the CRAMS and the contract manufacturing business models as one, for example, because in the CRAMS, they are in the R&D and the pilot plant, and the contract manufacturing, they go into the manufacturing assets. And so since the revenues were coming from different sites, Site 1, which is the R&D and pilot plant, we have bundled that into the CRAMS business model, and the other sites, for production sites, into the exclusive manufacturing umbrella.
We have bundled it into the exclusive manufacturing business model. In terms of diversification of the pie, you should essentially consider large-scale manufacturing as one business model and the combined CRAMS and contract manufacturing as the second business model, in which case we have already achieved the 50/50 split that we want because right now, today, if you look at our numbers, 50% is the large-scale manufacturing business model, and 55 + 13, which is 48%, 49%, are the combination of the CRAMS and exclusive manufacturing business model. That is one aspect of looking at it. The second aspect of looking at it is that since the CRAMS comes from the R&D and the pilot plant, which are typically smaller projects, higher value and higher EBITDA margins, as you have pointed out correctly, but the top-line revenues, the larger revenues come always from the per-kilo large-scale manufacturing.
The CRAMS business model will never be able to compete with the contract manufacturing and large-scale manufacturing business models in terms of the top line. Our ultimate goal is to have a 40/40/20 split of the large-scale manufacturing business model, contract manufacturing business model, and the CRAMS business model. In essence, we want to take the 13% gradually up over the next few years to 15%, 17%, and 20%, and for which, to address the second part of your question, we will be looking at maintaining the R&D spend as a percentage of the overall revenues as the revenues go up to be consistent at the 7%-8% level, typically, and will be invested into the R&D and pilot plant assets, which will help to grow the CRAMS business model from the 13% today to 15%-20% in the future.
I hope I answered your question, Neeraj.
Yes, sir. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Pratik Oza from Systematix. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. Just one question I had. Any of the products that you manufacture have its application in?
I'm sorry, I'm not clear. Can you please use your hands up?
Yeah. I'm audible now.
Yes.
Yeah. So I just had one question. Any of the products that we manufacture, does it have its application in the oncology segment in pharma?
No. Currently, not. The various Advanced Intermediates that we make have no direct application in the onco market. We do have a backpipeline, which I would not like to divulge at this point. The manufacturing assets do not have any application in oncology.
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Pratik Gohil from Akman B Ventures. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, Noel. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I just have one question. As I'm looking at your past performances, we were growing our top line more than 30%-35% as we were already at the nascent stage, so that it was easier for us to grow at a faster pace. But now, looking at FY23, we have grown just 10%. So I just wanted to know why is this happening, and what would be the growing growth rate for us, both top line and middle line?
Yeah. So thank you for this question. What we have grown over a period of time since last 3-4 years is because of the assets which are already on the ground. We were using capacities close to 80% previously, and we have bottlenecked and currently using sets at 70%. The Site 3 came online in December, January period. So we only had 3 months to deliver out of that product, and we had to stabilize the site also. So going forward, you will see Site 3 in full action, and it will attain its mature state in an 18-month period from now. So we were not able to grow, in essence, because we did not have assets on the ground, and that is the reason why we are going for a CapEx plan as we speak.
Also, looking towards the business segments, pharma was not performing well, so we lost quite a few top line in the pharma intermediates also in this current year, and which has also, again, regained shape as we speak. So pharma was globally down, and hence, this result was also affected in a way. Our targets were slightly ambitious this year, but we were not able to perform as per our internal expectation.
Okay. One more question I wanted to ask. Sorry. Continuing with the existing question, what is the growth we are expecting for next two years then?
Next two years, we will be looking at interesting growth. We have investment on Site 3 plus close to INR 200 crore, which will attain 60% efficiencies during this period of time. Also, pharma is already showing strength. I believe you can just guess, estimate this number by yourself and figure it out. I mean, I'm sorry. I would not like to put the number on this. The results for the next year would be far more better than this year. And in terms of the EBITDA and PAT, we have already shown a nice PAT number in terms of the percentage and in terms of the EBITDA percentage, and we would like to be better from here.
Okay. The second question which I wanted to ask was just a clarification. You said INR 200-250 crore of CapEx per site, right, to total 3 sites. So we can assume around INR 600 crore of CapEx. In how much time?
Yeah. So we have put up an enabling resolution of INR 7,500 million, and looking at this CapEx to be deployed in two financial years, this financial year and the next financial year.
Okay. And what would be the asset turns we can assume for this Capex?
We have been able to deliver asset turnover of 1.8x-2x, and we'll look to. From this. And we'll target minimum of 2x, and we'll build it up from here.
Okay. And this Capex will take how much time to reach its optimum utilization level after two years? When will it reach the utilization level?
18 months.
18 months. Okay. Thank you so much. That's it from my side.
Thank you, Ridhima.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press the button on your phone. We have a next question from the line of Prabhakar Venkatraman, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the relationship. Good stuff, Noel. My question is, with the CapEx which you are planning for the next 18 months now, will it in the short term create a net profit? How do you propose to overcome that? Because already, the current year growth rate has come down the earlier three, four years. Thanks.
Sorry. We were not able to clearly listen to you, sir. Can you please repeat the question?
No. You're planning INR 70 crore of capital raising in various modes. That gives us CapEx, right? That CapEx, Noel, it's going to take 18 months to materialize.
I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry to interrupt. Can you use your handset, sir? I'm not able to hear you clearly. Okay. Your voice is sounding muffled, sir.
I don't know. Can I repeat one more time? I don't know if I can send the email to you.
Yes. That would be great. We could also help you with the email address. We'll connect with you immediately.
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Priyank Chheda from Vallum Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Sir, I wanted to clarify the INR 750 crores CapEx that you said. Can you break it up between Site 3, Site 4 and 5? Would it be INR 200 crores each?
Yes. So in the range of INR 200-250 crore each, that is what the plans are. Site 3++ is in the range of INR 200 crore as of today. Site 4 and Site 5 are being designed and being formalized as we speak, and so it would be in the ballpark of INR 200-250 crore. And that would be the first phase of Site 4 and Site 5. However, Site 3++ would be completely closed for further CapEx after investing INR 200 crore.
Right. So now we have gone online with Site 3, right? So there was a Site 3+ also, right?
Yes. Site 3+ and ++ both are right now being expanded further, which will double the capacity of Site 3.
Got it. Got it. So we have spent INR 200 crores in Site 3+, and we are spending another INR 200 crores in Site 3++. I hope my understanding is correct.
No, Priyank. Let me just correct you. We have invested INR 200 crore odd on site 3 only, and site 3+ and ++. Sorry, Priyank. We are very sorry. Telephone problems. All right. So site 3 is equal to INR 200 crore of investment which we have already completed. Site 3++ and site 3+, which will enable this capacity on the land space to be doubled up, will entail further investment of INR 200 crore. And site 4 and 5 are being currently planned and worked on, but the estimate first phase of investment in site 4 and site 5 will be in the tune of INR 200 crore-INR 250 crore each.
Got it. Got it. That was clear. So we added 3,500 tons in Site 3. With Site 4 and Site 5 coming up, we would add another 3,500 tons.
Yes. Typically, yes.
Mr. Priyank Chheda, are you through with your question? Mr. Chheda, we'll move to the next question from the line of Santanu Chakraborty, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Good evening. Is my line clear, and can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay. One question on the bookkeeping. The inventory numbers for fiscal year 2023 are roughly up by 50%. Any flavor on why this is, and how can we clear this? And do you plan to keep an inventory right now next year, or how should we look into this?
Yes. The inventory is increasing because we have continuously launched new products all throughout the year in financial year 2023. For the new products, also for the old products, we keep inventory of critical raw materials in our inventory for at least five months plus. The new products have been launched, so we are putting more inventories on plan. That is the only reason. We will bring down the inventories gradually once the products are properly launched in the market. We will stabilize them to at least four and a half to five months down the line.
Okay. Thanks. Another question on the five new molecules you guys launched in Q4. Can you throw a bit of flavor on what kind of molecules, what kind of APIs these are? If they are APIs, then how should we use the markets for these molecules?
So these molecules were written down in the RHP also. They are Carbamazepine, Oxcarbazepine, Dolutegravir, Brivaracetam, Ambroxol intermediate, and another one was an agrochemical intermediate called Oxirane Alcohol. So these were the five intermediates which we have five chemicals for which we have launched the intermediates for. I mean, the APIs and end product which we have launched the intermediate for.
Okay. And then the last question that I have is the relationship with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, which has been mentioned in the presentation as well. If I read it correctly, you guys have mentioned roughly INR 51 crore of revenue per year, around 300 metric tons. That's around INR 1,700 per ton. And then what I also read is this is a 10-year supply agreement. Any flavor on what kind of chemicals is this amongst the ones that you just mentioned? And whatever you can mention about this agreement would be helpful.
Yeah. So if you read the RHP, again, there's a hint over there. We have formed an association where we were competing with each other, and now we have formed an association on that product. And that product was an identical product on the same line, on the same chemistry, and that was also given to us. So this agreement is for the period of 10 years, and then we'll automatically renew it every 1 year after 10 years of completion. And the revenues are INR 51 crores to start with per annum, which will enable us to grow beyond that as the demand grows of the chiral molecule also.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Indrajit Singh from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rohan. Aman Pesh, thanks a lot. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. A couple of questions I have on site 3. Can you just tell us what was the kind of utilization in site 3 and site 4, and by FY2024 end, what we think would be the stable state utilization rate in the site?
So currently, we are in quarter one, which we started in January, middle of January, and we have reached the capacity utilization on the total streams as 30% only as we speak. By the end of this financial year, we look at 50%-55% would be our target to utilize all the streams at 60%-65% level.
Was there a minute contribution in top line in quarter four from site 3? Can we quantify it?
We can quantify it, but we have not quantified it at the moment. But it was approximately INR 30-35 crore. INR 30 crore. Let's assume that.
Got it. Got it. Third, is the realization on site 3, is this similar to what we are kind of making on a full-year basis at around 1,700 odd levels, or this is higher than our average numbers?
This is higher in numbers, for sure.
Got it. Got it. And coming to your expansion plans, is it safe to assume that site 3+ and ++ start to kind of contribute to revenues from early FY24?
Yes. That will be the target to start towards the end of 2024 so that we can have something in terms of the top line contribution for FY2024.
Got it. And you have products already kind of in the pipeline for that?
Yes.
Got it. Last question from my side is, if we consider R&D expenditure as a percentage of sales, we are already one of the highest in the ITM industry at 7.5%. Would this continue to increase, or now it has stabilized at these kind of levels? Given that our revenues also are likely to come back on a very strong growth over the next couple of years, so in absolute terms, even at stable 7.5%, that would entail a fairly significant rise in R&D.
Yes. Indeed, we have already achieved 7% this year also in terms of our total revenue. So that's going to increase also.
Got it. Got it. Thanks. Thanks, Rohan.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Yash Shah from Investec. Please go ahead.
Hi, Sher. Sir, my first question was regarding our realization. Just to clarify, did you say that our realization for FY23 was INR 1,766?
Yes.
Okay. Sir, last quarter, we had mentioned that for nine months, our realization was around more than INR 1,900. So this quarter, have you witnessed a significant fall in our selling price?
Just a moment. No, no. The last quarter, the realization was around INR 1,600, not INR 1,300.
Oh, it was 1,600.
Yes.
Got it. Got it. Sorry. My bad. So this quarter, have we basically taken price decrease? Have we passed on the lower prices to the customer?
The correction of the prices has already started. So as the raw materials have decreased, you will be seeing the original levels which were prevailing before one year. I mean, so that will happen. But also, the margins will remain intact. And in fact, the margins will start growing because of that. So you will see a certain correction, but it will not affect the overall business of Aether because we had not shown a great increase in terms of the margin in the last one year also in terms of the pricing. So it will only come to the original level. It will not dip beyond the original level.
So it's safe to assume that even if the prices increase in the future, we should be able to maintain more than 30% of the margins?
Yes.
Right. Got it, sir. Got it. Sir, my second question was regarding the three big contracts we've gotten in the last financial year from Aramco, from Otsuka, and from Polaroid. So are we going to have dedicated plants for all of them? My understanding is that we'll have multipurpose plants. But then for a bigger contract like Aramco, are we going to have a dedicated plant?
Yeah. So interesting question. Polaroid is more towards the CRAMS, which is the R&D and the pilot plant segment. The Otsuka is more towards existing products in our portfolio. And we see the Aramco is towards commercialization of new technology. And so the Polaroid will most likely come from a mixture of the current assets in the pilot plant and new assets which we have already planned for, in essence, from the multiple first new pilot plants coming in. The Otsuka will be from the existing assets. And as the Aramco, as it progresses forward, will be dedicated production assets built for the technology. But anything that we do pick up in manufacturing assets is from our core competencies. So across the core competencies, all plants are fungible and multi-purpose in nature. And so even the Aramco plant will be multi-purpose plant across the core competency involved in the technology.
Got it. Got it, sir. Sir, another question which I had was, last quarter, we announced that we are going to basically make three agrochemical intermediate products. What will be the realization of those products, the blended realization? Will it be in the same range as the five pharma intermediates which we had announced?
North of INR 2,000, for sure. So it would be an interesting set of numbers in terms of per kilo. But we would only like to leverage now that it would be about INR 2,000 a kilo.
Okay. About INR 2,000 a kilo. Got it, sir. Last question, sir. For FY2024, how do we see our business mix changing? I mean, this year, we had 42% coming from pharma and 35% coming from agro. Do we expect it to remain the same for the next financial year as well?
No. Pharma will slightly increase, for sure. Yes, because we are launching 5 products in it out. That 4 products are in pharma space. So hence, pharma will take a lead again. But however, in the long term, it will again balance out with the 3 new products in agro for it also.
Got it, sir. Thank you for answering all my questions and all the questions.
Thank you, yes.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Noel Vaz from Union Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yes. Actually, just one small follow-up. Do we, as there isn't any specification as to what kind of form the equity rate will be taken, which instrument?
Yes. Regarding the sensitivity for equity case, do we have any idea as to how we are—I mean, what exactly is the instrument under which we are planning to do? Which issue, or what is the case? So we have to reach the minimum level of 75% in terms of the dilution. We have only diluted 13% as of today. So 12% is still due, which has to be due which has to be done in the next two years' period, approximately. And so we'll be looking for the dilution. And as for the saving guidelines about the issue by going for a primary raise only, we do not want to go into any OFFs at this moment because we are seeing a lot of expensive plants at Aether. And we are a bit of the opportunities out here.
We will look for only a very dilution in the coming year.
Okay. Thank you. That was my side.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Sanjay Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Have a good afternoon, all, and thanks for taking my question. I got a few of them. First, on the equity guidance and the revenue opportunity which we share, we have already spent INR 200 crore on the Site 3. We plan to spend another INR 650 crore in our Sites 4 and 5. So all put together, what we're looking at is the gross income capex of INR 900 crore-INR 1,000 crore. And if I put the 2x kind of an asset turn, I put the profit, which you said we will achieve through 18 months once this plant is up. So two years for the plant and 18 months. So what we are basically looking at is FY27, we could potentially be able to generate a revenue which is in excess of INR 2,500 crore-INR 2,600 crore. So is that the right understanding?
Yes. That would be, I think, the right understanding.
Got it. Just to understand this because this is quite a steep jump, can you help us understand which are the segments in terms of application we are looking at? I know it's very difficult, and it's way too far. But this is at least our intent in terms of mix between the pharma, agro, material science, including photographic printing. How would you intend to have this mix here in four years down the line?
Yes. Thank you for the explaining question. So the mix which we try to dream of or we want to achieve is 40% pharma, 40% agro, and 20% material science. 20% material science would include oil and gas, high-performance photography, electronic chemicals, and so on and so forth. That is a subpart of it. Yes. So we would have a three-equal distribution on this business model. However, 40, 40, and 20 would be the right target at this moment.
Got it. Got it. You were telling that material is slightly difficult. Can you elaborate on that? I think that's where we dropped off.
No. Material science is not difficult. Material science, we would prefer that material science also grows at equal pace. But that segment, it is quite an interesting segment, and it takes slightly more decision time as compared to pharma and agro.
Got it. Got it. On the pharma and agro side, do we intend to remain at the intermediate stage, or we are also intending to, say, move into value chain in terms of producing API and AI, which have a much larger realization when you compare to the intermediate? Do we intend, or are we working to move up into value chain until that stage?
No. So our focus is specialty chemicals, and it's intermediate only. So we do not want to go into the AI or API segment of combinations in the near future.
Got it. Got it. Fair enough. Just dwelling a little bit more on the agro and pharma, have we really identified the number of products? If yes, then how many products are in the pipeline, say, for the next 2-3 years? And at what stages are we in these products? And how does it look like in terms of portfolio versus what we have? Do we have a higher realization, lower realization, particularly in the pharma side? What are the key areas of focus in terms of diagnostics of the scientific area?
Right. So our pipeline of products in R&D is 29. We are into scale-up and into bottle scale, which is in R&D. So that is the pipeline. It is a mix of agrochemicals and material sciences and pharmaceutical intermediates only. We are looking at this pipeline in the terms of next two years of commercialization, three years of commercialization. So we'll be commercializing these products if we are successful in scale-up in the last few manufacturing business under the last few business models in the next two to three years.
Got it.
What was the second part of the question, sir?
This 29 product, what will be the addressable market size today? What will be this 29 product in terms of market today to understand the scale of this product?
We do not have that number on hand at the moment, but it's north of INR 3,000-4,000 crores at the marketplace.
Got it. Got it. Fair enough. Last question from my side. Sorry, I'm switching the latency here.
No, no. Please go ahead.
On the near term, we said that we anticipate to run the plant 3 at 60% utilization in FY24. We also anticipate some support from the pharma side as well, which is normalizing from the low base of FY23. If I backward it, we are looking at the top line in FY24 anywhere in the range of INR 950-1,000 crore. Will it be a fair assumption?
I would not like to comment on that, but I'm sure.
Arithmetically, that's how it comes, I hope. Arithmetically, I am right, right?
We'll try our little best to come to that number.
Got it. Got it. Fair enough. And nice hearing your question, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Jain.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Rohit Bahri from Progressive Shares. Please go ahead.
Hi, Aman. Good morning, sir. A few questions from my side. Post this expansion of site 3, 3+, 3++, and 4, you will still be having quite a lot of ample amount of free land. So is it that this is just the phase one of expansion of around 800,000 or something? And should we be looking at another round of expansion maybe in the same numbers if so?
Yes. You are right.
With the same kind of asset fund that we should be looking at in FY 2027, 2028?
Yes. We are envisaging the same asset turnover on all the products we produce.
Okay. In that case, what would be the debt? I ask because you are almost debt-free today. So will you be looking at some sort of fundraising, or will it be sufficiently maintaining the debt-free status?
Rohit, we have to achieve minimum shareholding quota of 75%. So we have to further dilute by 12%. We have put up an enabling resolution of INR 7,500 million only at this moment. So we still have a chance to do that in the next two years' time. And so to reach the 75% holding level. And we prefer to put all this 12% as a primary in Aether. So we have a good opportunity over here to invest all this amount, whatever we can do through these land parcels which we are owning, and build up from there.
Any thoughts on the board with the dividend distribution policy as a reward to shareholders? Any thoughts on that?
Currently, we are in the growing mode. We are in the investing mode. We would not prefer to give dividend at the moment.
Okay. Last questions, if you could, for the new products that are related to OTPI LSM with the new products. Will you be maintaining the blended margins of 29%-30% kind of range that we have, or you will be aiming at something higher than that with the new product profiles?
Absolutely. We'll be maintaining the margins, or we'll try to go above this margin. On the same product options.
Okay. And last question on the Saudi Aramco, the convergence case, or for the PolyOrbit. If you could just elaborate a little bit on what exactly Aether will be doing and what will be our contribution as to what sort of products are these or what sort of consulting is required for the case products or for the PolyOrbit. If you could just elaborate just two or three lines a little bit.
Yeah. So this is a joint partnership, joint development effort that has been going on for quite a few years now. And I feel also we had consent from them to publish their name as a customer. And so this is a joint technology development that we have done for the process to manufacture these Converge polyols. And going forward, this will involve the manufacturing at Aether and commercialization of the Converge polyol technology. And the applications would be differentiated and applied Polyol for the CASE industry. And so not going after the base Polyol that form the fundamentals of the CASE industry, but going after the applied and differentiated Polyols, which as a function of the Polyol that we are making from this technology will provide potentially enhanced properties as well as up to 40% carbon dioxide by weight.
And so potentially, it could be very interesting for us to see and also give differentiated and applied properties in the CASE industry.
Have you identified some more clients or customers to whom we intend to sell these products to?
Absolutely. If you look at the presentation that we have made, there's potentially another joint press release coming up in the next few months with another multinational company partner who is going to potentially launch new products based on this technology. And so it would be a three-way joint press release between Saudi Aramco, Aether, and multinational customer X on the launch of this new product launch involved in this technology.
So this target, which the previous participant was talking about, of around INR 2,000 crore, it seems to be slightly more conservative. And you can go more aggressively. If all things fall in place for you, probably reach up to INR 1,000 crore or something, right? Maybe 800 or so.
So I'll send a book of leads to your office. The good part, the good part, we have as we have always said, the fundamentals of the company are very sound. They're expanding in the right manner and approach in the R&D pilot plant and production with a practical, pragmatic approach. And the pieces have been set quite well. And so we are quite upbeat and positive in our outlook for the quarters and the years to come. The years to come will be much more interesting.
Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for answering the question. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments. Over to you.
Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. We hope that we have covered most of your questions. If you still have any further questions, please feel free to reach us. Stay safe, and have a great day ahead. Thank you.
On behalf of HDFC Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.