Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Ajanta Pharma Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this call is being recorded. With this, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Yogesh Agrawal, Managing Director of Ajanta Pharma Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening and welcome to all of you. With me I have Mr. Rajesh Agrawal, our Joint Managing Director, Mr. Arvind Agrawal, our CFO, and Mr. Rajeev Agarwal , our VP Finance and Investor Relations. The results are already with you. We will take you through the business-wise performance for the quarter one current year along with the comparison of the previous year same period. The year commenced on a strong note, with revenue from operations growing by 14% and margins remaining resilient despite higher expenses. We remain committed to sustainable growth, strengthening every aspect of our business to create long-term value for our shareholders. Our financial strength continued to improve with ROCE at 33% and return on net worth reaching 26% at the end of June 2025, reaffirming our position among the best in the industry.
Our performance resilience is further demonstrated by the strong cash conversion ratio of 18% and free cash flow to PAT conversion of 82% during the period. Let's move to the business details. Let me take up the international business and I will first start with the Branded Generics business in Asia and Africa, which contributed 41% in the total revenue. Let's begin with Asia. Ajanta's Asia business spans nearly 10 countries across Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. In Q1, the region delivered sales of INR 304 crores, up 10% from INR 277 crores in the previous year. We are pleased to report the launch of 10 new products this quarter, primarily in chronic therapies, which further strengthens our portfolio in the high potential market. Our continued investment in both people and products reflects our strategic intent to scale this business meaningfully.
This expansion reinforces our position for sustained growth in the current year and beyond. Let's move to Africa. In Q1, our sales from Africa business stood at INR 228 crores, a slight degrowth of 1% compared to INR 230 crores in the same period last year. As previously indicated, the Africa pharma market is expected to see moderate growth in the current year as also for Ajanta with the impact of high base in the previous year. Despite these short-term headwinds, we continue to strengthen our presence in the region with the launch of two new products, further expanding our chronic therapy portfolio. We remain confident in the long-term growth potential and strategic relevance of our Africa business. Let us talk about two other verticals of International Business. Now let's move to U.S. Generics. U.S. Generics business contributed 24% in the total revenue during the quarter.
As guided, the business performance has been excellent with Q1 sales at INR 310 crores against INR 228 crores, posting a very healthy growth of 36%. This growth is attributed to five new launches made in the second half of the last year and one new launch in this quarter. We are expecting two to three more launches for the year. Our superior execution continues to keep us as a preferred partner of choice for our buyer. Let's now move to Africa Institution. Africa Institution contribution from this anti-malarial business is just 3% now with a revenue of INR 38 crores in Q1 against INR 42 crores in the previous year, posting a degrowth of 8%. As highlighted over the year, this business remains unpredictable with its dependence on procurement agencies and we maintain a cautious outlook on this segment. Now I invite Mr.
Rajesh Agrawal, our Joint Managing Director, to take you through India business. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you. Good evening to all of you. FY 2026 indeed has started well for our India business. Few new initiatives taken in the previous year have started showing good signs coming to the performance. We continue to outpace the IPM and the Indian Pharmaceutical Market by 29% as per IQVIA MAT June 2025 with Ajanta delivering an impressive growth of 10% compared to IPM's 8% growth. Notably our value 70% [audio distortion] by 46%.
Sorry to interrupt. Sorry to interrupt, sir, but your voice is breaking.
Am I audible now?
Yeah, yeah, you are audible now.
Yes, sir.
This positive trend is evident across most therapeutic segments in which we operate where our growth has consistently outpaced segments. As a general, we remain confident of sustaining this momentum in the coming years. In Q1 FY 2026, India business contributed 32% to the company's revenue supported by the launch of eight new products including one first time in the country. During the quarter, sales stood at INR 409 crores compared to INR 353 crores in the same quarter of the previous year, registering a healthy growth of 16%. Our India business also includes revenue from the Trade Generics segment which contributed INR 39 crores in Q1 against INR 41 crores in the covered market. We are 5th class in the IPM and among top 10 in our therapeutic segments.
As for IQVIA, for MAT June 2025, Cardiology contributed 37%, Ophthalmology 30%, Dermatology 23%, with remaining 10% coming from pain in the branded phase. The new test stage of gynecology and nephrology have taken good shape and are expected to contribute meaningfully in the coming years. I now invite Arvind Agrawal, CFO, to take over the panel to take you through the financial performance. Thank you and over to you.
Thank you and good evening to all. O n this call o ur discussion includes certain forward- looking statements which are projections or estimates about future events. These estimates reflect management's current expectations about future performance of the company. These estimates involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied. Ajanta does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward- looking statement whether because of new confirmation, future events or otherwise. We will look at the consolidated financials and provide year on year comparisons. The key financial highlights for Q1 FY 2026 are as follows. Total revenue in Q1 stood at INR 1,303 crore against INR 1,145 crore, posting a healthy growth of 14% which was in line with our guidance.
Our gross margin stood at 79% in Q1, an improvement of 200 basis points over previous year. Improvement in margin was a result of better product mix and favorable API prices. Full year FY 2026 margin is expected to be around 78% ± 1%. Personnel cost showed at INR 303 crore against INR 284 crore, an increase of 7% over previous year. Our R&D spend was at 4% of total revenue and is expected to move to 5% for full year. Lower expenses were due to non-filing of ANDA during the quarter. In Q1, expenses were INR 56 crore against INR 51 crore. Other expenses in Q1 stood at INR 373 crore against INR 263 crore, an increase of 42% from previous year.
The expenses were higher due to our thrust on the Branded Generics business where we are consistently investing in products and people which will keep other expenses elevated in FY 2026 in mid-teen range. The expenses also include mark-to-market hedge loss of INR 25 crore in Q1 FY 2026. Our EBITDA margin stood at 27% for Q1 against 29% in previous year. EBITDA stood at INR 351 crore against INR 330 crore, a growth of 6% in Q1 FY 2026. Higher percentage cost for MR additions and saving expenses for addition of new therapies and divisions in H2 of FY 2025 will keep EBITDA to be around FY 2025 range in FY 2026. In Q1, our PAT margin stood at 20%. PAT was INR 255 crore against INR 246 crore, a growth of 4%. Mark- to- market FOREX loss stood at INR 25 crore.
Excluding the impact of FOREX loss , EBITDA stood at INR 376 crore reflecting a 14% growth with an EBITDA margin of 29% which is equal to last year. PAT grew by 12% with a PAT margin of 21% if we remove the mark to market FOREX loss . Other income was at INR 26 crore in Q1, which includes FOREX gain of INR 9 crore in Q1 FY 2026. Income tax stood at 23% for Q1 and is expected to remain in the range in FY 2026. We incurred CapEx of INR 72 crore during the quarter and is in line with our guidance of INR 300 crore for this year. Our cash flow from operation stood at INR 282 crore for the quarter with cash conversion ratio of 80%. Free cash flow generated was INR 209 crore with 82% cash conversion. This reflects our efficient cash flow management.
ROCE and RONW continue to improve and be comparable to the best in the industry. ROCE stands at 33% and RONW at 26% at the end of June 2025. With these highlights, I open the floor for the question and answer. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone 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'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Rehan Saiyyed from Trinetra Asset Managers . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening to your team and thanks for giving me the opportunity. Sir, I have a couple of questions. First, on the R&D side, like your R&D spend has risen from the quarter. Could you highlight the key select areas you have prioritized and when we can expect the meaningful revenue insight from this [audio distortion]?
No, your voice is not clear. We are not able to clearly understand what you're saying.
I repeat my question again for you, sir. This R&D challenge has crore this quarter. Could you highlight the key therapy areas we are prioritizing in R&D and when we can expect meaningful revenue impact from this industry?
When can we expect meaningful what?
[audio distortion] f ocus in the R&D and is there anything which we will get from that?
No. R&D, as you were seeing, the expenses have been very much in control for the current quarter. In fact, it has slightly dipped. It became 4% of the revenue as compared to 5% for the previous year. The focus for the R&D remains in the same therapeutic segment where we are present in India and emerging markets and also for the U.S., and continuously we have been giving in our investor presentations also the number of new product launches which we are making in India and other markets. In my opening comments also I mentioned, all these are outcome of our R&D only. It's a long cycle. From the time we take the development of the product, then it goes for the manufacturing, generating the data, then filing with the regulatory agency for the approval, and then launches.
All the growth which you have seen every quarter, we have been giving the growth for the new product which is coming in, that is a result of our R&D only. Already the meaningful results have been seen for last two decades on the R&D output.
Okay, fair enough. Second, on the working capital side, sir, working capital efficiency has helped us steadily in recent years, like quarter on quarter end. Do you believe there is a still scope?
No, I think we have reached quite a peak from here. We don't expect any further efficiency in developing capital cycle.
Okay. Okay. The last question on the CapEx among this quarter and for [audio distortion]
F or the CapEx, this quarter we have spent about INR 72 crore and for the whole year we have given a guidance of about INR 300 crore. The normal CapEx, which is the maintenance CapEx, is something in the range of INR 150-INR 200 crore and balance is something which we are expanding the capacities in one or the other plant. For example, now the liquid plant is getting ready in the Pithampur facility . Those kinds of additions keep on coming. Otherwise, INR 150-INR 200 crore is normal maintenance CapEx and balance will be the expansion. It will not be more than this. It will be industry.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. That's it for me.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Tushar from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Am I audible, sir?
Yes, yes, yes.
Just on gross margin, like sequentially the proportion of the segmental mix has been largely stable or even on the year-on-year basis. If you could just help explain the improvement in the gross margin for this quarter compared to fourth quarter. That's my first question.
Okay, so I think I have mentioned it already and I will say similar, repeat the same thing that the product mix supports the revenue mix which you are talking about, the Branded Generics and U.S. Generics. That is something which has changed time. There is definitely an improvement in terms of the products which are giving the higher margin as compared to the normal margin. That is something which is relatively big. Another aspect in this particular quarter is that we do the provisioning for the returns and the expiry. That is something which this quarter I got in one off here. That has added me almost about 1% improvement in the gross margin.
That might be non-recurring, that's why.
Absolutely. That's why we have mentioned that it will be about 78%.
Okay. On the U.S. business side, while for full year they have guided for 10- 12 ANDAs, but these are not filed yet in quarter till date FY 2026. Any color you would like to show on that, any revisioning number?
We are very much on track to deliver in that range. We are very confident of filing 10, the products which are manufactured, bios are underway or they have completed. We are very, very confident of filing around 10 ANDAs, ± 1 or 2.
Got it. Lastly, if you could let us know how many MRs you've increased in Asia region compared to last year.
As you know, we don't need the region-wise breakup of the increase, but in the emerging markets for the current quarter, we have added only 40 MR. For the rest of the year, we are looking to add another 200. For the whole year, our strength increase will be about 250 people in the emerging markets. From 2,000, it will become 2,250. About 10% increase will happen during the whole year.
2,000, sorry, total, I missed the number.
Last year was 2,000. In the current quarter, the increase is 40 for the entire emerging market, and for the rest of the year, we are expecting another 200 to get added. For the whole year, we are expecting 250 new headcounts to be added to the field site for the emerging markets.
Lastly, on Cardiology as a therapy for us, it has been a little soft for some time now compared to IPM. If you could just elaborate on corrective measures or how to look at it in terms of growth over the coming near to medium- term.
I think it is an intensity of competition which is increasing. I think we have already started working on it and we should be able to certainly come back to our normal IPM growth. We will come back on that. It's just that it is a time lag. Maybe in another two, three quarters you will start seeing the improvement.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vishal from Systematix Group . Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. With respect to the U.S. number this quarter, can we expect this run rate in the upcoming quarters? The run rate to remain at current levels, or can it further ramp up from here?
No, the run rate should sustain at the current level going forward.
Are there any limited period exclusivities that we are running here?
We have some products which are limited competition products, and we believe that the visibility which we have, they should remain like that for the whole current year. We don't expect any addition in that limited competition product. We feel comfortable giving the guidance that the current run rate should continue for the rest of the three quarters.
Okay. On the oral liquid plant that we are investing in, is that for the U.S. market?
No, it is for the emerging market, ROW. We have one of the oldest facilities. We have very small capacity, which now we are expanding, Pithampur we have put a brand-new facility, which is also global standard . That is primarily to cater to our emerging markets.
Okay, are we investing anything for the U.S. market in terms of manufacturing capacities?
No, it is existing, or plants which are there, they are only taking care of the requirements.
Okay. Okay. One question with respect to India, just wanted to understand, we do not have very large brands in our portfolio. Any thoughts on that?
I think we have large both brands. Met XL is a very large brand. If you take the full family of Met XL, it is exceeding about INR 250 crore. That is a large brand of INR 300 crore. There is Cindol range, which is about INR 120 crore. Atorfit is touching INR 100 crore. Feburic, t here are quite a few good brands which are touching about INR 100 crore.
Got it. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder to all participants. You may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Bino from Elara Capital . Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Your question, the Africa branded business in British terms, it looks flat year- over- year. I believe that your billing for Africa branded business happens in euro terms and euro has appreciated by about 10% Y-o-Y over rupee. In euro terms, the difference is down roughly 10% Y-o-Y . Is that the right way to look at it?
The benefit for the rupee depreciation against the euro, that is what we have pointed, the INR 25 crore FOREX loss which we have incurred in the quarter where we have a sharp increase, that was in one month only. I think pretty much the rupee has depreciated against the euro. There has been very less impact of the rupee depreciation against the euro in the current quarter. The FOREX loss mark-to-market INR 25 crore has come because of that only. Right now I think there is no impact of the rupee depreciation of euro in this current quarter.
Okay, the difference is in local currency or whatever currency it is. It is roughly flat Y-o-Y ?
Correct. That's right. That's right.
Okay, got it. Thank you.
Sure.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Rashmi from Dolat Capital . Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. One question on India. Your new launch contribution is also going up compared to the IPM. Whenever you launch around seven to eight products, you are targeting which therapies, and in which therapies have you launched these particular products.
If I may answer. Yes, that's correct. These are across all therapies and wherever we find the opportunity, that is where the launches take place. A few may be in Cardiology, fewer in Gynecology, some in Pain and Ophthalmology also.
Okay. The subsequent quarters, that is second and third quarters, generally it's very good for the domestic business. We have already reported 15.9% during this quarter. What is the guidance on the India business? Is it something that we would be in mid-teen's growth for India business this year in FY 2026?
Two things. One is the quarter two for us has not significantly been higher because our product portfolio is not an antibiotic or seasonal dependent product portfolio. It's almost the same across all quarters. Secondly, if you look at the growth forecast, we would like to maintain our original growth forecast which is growing at 20%- 25% higher than the India growth rate, IPM growth rate. Essentially, if the IPM is growing at 8%, then we are aiming in our aspiration to grow at 10% and above.
Understood. Got it. Related to your Africa branded business, this year you are expecting that there will be a moderate industry growth. We are also doing a lot of new launches, also we have invested into the people. That would also bring some MR productivity . Is this a one-off quarter? From the subsequent quarters at least we would be able to see some single- digit growth.
Last year we have posted a very robust growth in the Africa market. We posted the growth of around 28%, which was very robust, which is significantly, it's 2x of the normal growth which we post. Normally we've seen our growth of 13%, 14%. Against that we posted 28% growth. At the beginning of the year itself we had guided that considering those were very high base which has got created last year, the current year we would have the growth of the mid single digits. We still are confident of delivering the same number for the whole year, though the first quarter has been the flattish number. Overall for the whole year we feel comfortable that we should be able to achieve the mid to high single- digit growth for the full year.
Understood. Coming to Asia branded, we would be again at that 11%-1 5% sort of growth.
Correct. We have guided for the mid teens, and I think we feel we should be able to achieve that kind of number for the whole year for Asia.
Okay. On operating margin front, if you remove the FOREX, this quarter we have done around 28.9%. You have said that you know FY 2026 EBITDA margin should be equal to FY 2025, whereas in last quarter you mentioned that EBITDA margin guidance would be 28% ± 1%. I just need a little clarification. We would be improving on the gross margin. I understand that other expenses in R&D will be higher. Are we on track to achieve at least around 28% this year?
I think we will be comfortable at 27% ± 1%. You know, you can always say it can be 28%, 26% also. 27% ± 1% is something which we will be more comfortable.
Okay. This is mainly because of increase in other expenses. What is the outlook for FY 2027 because most of the expenses will be done this year? So, can we expect expansion in e xpansion in FY 2027?
Yes, certainly.
Okay. All right, thank you. That's it from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Abdulkader from ICICI Securities, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Just first quickly on Asia business, would you like to highlight why has that growth been split down to say mid- single- digit? I understand you have been guiding for this, but considering the geographies we are into, shouldn't it be growing at a slightly faster pace as compared to what we are growing now?
As I said, I think we have given guidance of mid teens and we feel that we are on course to achieve for the full year. The export business, you have to keep in mind, the quarter to quarter numbers may not be the exact reflection. Sometimes the sales get refund, sometimes get postponed. Inventory full year will be the right way to look at the export business. 10% in the current quarter we have delivered the Asia growth. For the whole year we feel comfortable that we will be in the range of mid teens growth for Asia.
Understood, sir. Second, on the Trade Generic business, if we look at the segment, I think it's growing slightly faster than our core Branded Generics business. Going ahead, how should we look at this business? What are your growth and investment plans here?
I think this quarter we are almost flattish, almost degrowth by -6%. It is not something which is very large. I think for the whole year we are expecting it to be around 10% growth.
Understood, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Jitesh, an individual investor. Please go ahead. As there is no response from the participants. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question.
If there are no more questions, I think we can then close the call.
Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Yogesh Agrawal for closing comments.
Are there any further people, anyone wants to have any questions? Are there any callers? If there's, I'll be happy to take that. If not, then I'll give my closing comments. I guess there are no more callers. Thank you very much everyone for joining this call.
There is one question. There is one participant.
Okay, sure.
We can take that question, yeah.
The next question comes from the line of Yogesh from InCred Equities . Please go ahead.
Thank you sir for the opportunity. My first question is I wanted to understand on our coverage from the new therapies which we have added, gynec and nephrology, how are we seeing the growth, whether it is in line with what we had anticipated. Second, on the MR addition front within the India business for the new therapies, last year we added again 200 MRs in these two therapies. Whether we are looking to add further more.
Sir, you would like to reply? Yeah. As far as the India business is concerned for the new therapies, I think we will be able to comment on these therapies only after one year because in just less than one year that we have launched these therapies. I think it will be good if we review them or look at their performance by this year end. In terms of the MRs, we have added about 70 people in this quarter for India business and we are expecting another similar number to be added in the rest of the year. Hopefully about 150 people will get added in this current year.
Thank you, sir. That answers my question.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Amit Kadam from Canara Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Sir, somewhere in the middle of the call you mentioned about some comments on the cardiac division, about why our growth rate is lower than the IPM. I think you referred to some pricing related thing . Can you just elaborate that particular part? What was why the division was lower than IPM? That's it. Thanks.
Cardiac, w e have said that our performance has been a little lower than IPM, but we are working on it and hopefully in coming quarters you will see the improvement coming in. It may take three, four quarters for correcting that particular situation. We are quite confident that we should be able to come back to the IPM growth.
Any specific category of products or any prices in the market, which led to that or something?
Not anything specific. It is just the competitive intensity which keeps on happening, and it is a cyclical thing which happens like what you must have seen in the past. Also, there are some divisions or some therapies which have not worked well, but it's now picked up very, very well. I think same is the case with cardio also. Hopefully, it should also come back.
According to you, it will take more than two odd quarters. Two to four quarters is what you are assuming. That means this would resume or maybe start between the IPM [audio distortion]
Yeah, I think we should be able to match IPM in over, you know, period of two to three quarters.
Basically, it has been, and we hope to reverse it soon.
Okay, so it's a volume underperformance. It's nothing to do material with the price point, or is it?
Correct. There is nothing to do with the price point. Our price remains an optimum pricing. It is mostly the volume and some market share loss in some of the brands.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press Star and one to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, the next question comes from the line of Aman Kumar Singh , an individual shareholder. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. This question is regarding why our profit after tax has been reduced, I mean has increased just by 4% but top line, etc. We have done pretty well. What was the main reason behind it please?
As we mentioned, you see the other expenses have been the real growth which is there and FOREX loss of INR 25 crore which is the major effect. If you remove the INR 25 crore loss, the growth is almost 14%. It is just the FOREX loss which is the major contributor to that particular growth of 4%.
Is it a one-time loss what we are expecting, or can it be a concurrent loss?
It is a one-time loss actually because it is the sudden movement in Europe from 93 to 100 which has really caused this particular loss. Hopefully, now Europe should not go beyond this level, and because of that it will be a one-time loss only.
Okay, thank you.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants. You may press Star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Tushar from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Just one more follow up on U.S. Your sort of outlook for U.S. is largely driven by existing launch products, or do we have new approvals per se which will drive growth for FY 2026 and subsequently for FY 2027?
In the US, we have launched five new products in the last year, second half, and in the first quarter we launched one product. During the year, all going well, we hope to launch three more products. The last year we've seen some part of the five launches which we done in the second half. Some sales have come in, but actually the full sales of those five new products which we launched has started to come from this quarter. That is where you have seen, and also there have been some increase in the market share in our existing product portfolio. There is a combination of the new launches last second half which has blossomed full year in the current quarter, but increase the market share on the existing products as well.
Is this market share gain on the back of some competitor moving out of that product or between different pricing?
No, no, some competitors have moved out from the product.
And sorry if I may drag that, but is it to do with their regulatory issue, or more so just purely from the competition? Probably they are not into the market for that product.
Very difficult to say. We don't have such visibility on what would be the reason which could be there. It could be capacity, it could be regulatory, it could be anything. Very difficult to comment on that.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press Star and one to ask the question. The next follow-up question comes from the line of Yogesh from InCred Equities . Please go ahead.
Thanks once again for the opportunity. My question is on the Africa branded business. Though this year we are seeing some moderation, what kind of corrective measures or steps are we taking to resume faster growth in next year?
Actually, I'll just once again roll back. As I said, last year our growth was 28%, which is 2x of our growth of 14% which we normally do. If you take last year growth of 28% and this year we have guided high single- digit, if you take a blended two- year growth it will still be in excess of 16%, 17% growth. There is no such correction which is required. We are doing just fine. Just last year the base was built up a bit high, that's why we are seeing a slower growth in the current year. All the fundamentals are well in place to deliver the sustained growth. There is no such issue which we are facing or correction which is required. I think we should be able to be comfortable and current year as we said high single- digit growth.
Next year again we should bounce back to the double- digit growth because the last year base effect should get normalized in the current year.
Understood, sir. One more question on the India business. If you could bifurcate India growth into value, volume, and new launches.
In terms of the volume, it was 2.5% against the IPM growth of 1.5%. In terms of new launches, we have done against 2.3% of the IPM, we have grown by 3.3%, and the price increase was 4.2% for IPM, whereas it was 4.4% for us. Practically, we are ahead of the IPM almost in every aspect. From 8% of IPM, we are at 10.3%.
Understood, sir. Thank you for the clarification.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Dikshant Gupta from Geojit PMS . Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening, sir. My question was what exactly was the rationale behind entering the two new segments of nephrology and gynec?
I think we spoke about it in the last call in Q4. I will just repeat that Nephrology was a natural extension for us because we were covering Nephrology through our Pain Management segment. That was a very natural extension for us. Gynecology is something which is growing quite well, and we felt that we will be able to add value there by giving a lot of good productivity to the market. That is where the consideration was. Both these segments are something which we will watch for in the next one year.
Okay, sir, thank you. That was my only question.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Nirali Shah from Ashika Stock Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi, I have one question. With 80% EBITDA to CFO conversion and 82% FCF to PAT , how are you thinking about capital deployment over the next 12- 18 months? Would you prioritize scale up in India or Asia versus U.S. or is any inorganic trade being explored ?
Generally, t here's no requirement of prioritization of one geography or another. All kinds of resources are independent in each of the geographies and they perform independently. There is no constraint on the resources for each of the geographies, so there is no prioritization as such. I n terms of capital allocation, w e will see how to go about it till the year is there. The Board will make a suitable decision on what will be the payout for the current year and what kind of reserves we build for acquisition for the coming year, if any. We will see. In terms of inorganic growth, yes, we have been active on the lookout for finding the right asset and the right opportunity. These are some things which we cannot force to make happen.
We will see what are the possibilities which are there and if there is anything which we can do on that front also. Actively, we are actually pursuing that avenue as well.
Understood. Any specific geography that we are looking for in organic, and I'm asking just to understand what kind of valuations are available, say for example in India or probably in geography. What would be our focus geography?
Our geography focus remains first, primarily India for the acquisition, and second is Asia and Africa. These are the primary brand engagement business, whether it is in India. If India, we would love to do acquisition in India which would have a synergy with us. Second is Asia and Africa also. We will be very open to doing that. These are the three areas where we are actively looking.
Understood. Thanks.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question.
Okay, it seems there are no more questions. Thank you everyone for joining this call. If there are any further questions, please reach out to our Investor Relations team. They will do their best to answer it. Thank you everyone for joining the call.
Thank you on behalf of Ajanta Pharma . That concludes this content. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.