Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited Q2 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Ambit Capital Private Limited. 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 this 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. Pranav Chawla from Ambit Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Neela. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Ambit Capital, I would like to welcome you all to the Q2 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call for Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited. Joining us today from the management, we have Mr. Sandeep Jain, MD, Mr. Sumeet Sood, CFO, Mr. Sahil Maheshwari, Head of Strategy. I thank the management for providing us the opportunity to host this earnings call. I would now hand over the call to Mr. Ankit Jain for opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, Ankit.
Thank you, Pranav, for the introduction. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Akums Q2 and H1 FY 2026 Earnings Call. I am Ankit Jain, and I head Investor Relations at Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited. I will commence with a standard disclaimer that any discussion on today's call might include certain forward-looking statements, which are predictions or projections of future events, as business faces several risks and uncertainties that could cause or our actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied in such statements. At Akums, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new confirmation, future events, or otherwise. I hope you would have had the opportunity to review our investor presentation and financial results that we posted yesterday evening. I would now like to hand it over to our MD, Mr.
Sandeep Jain, to discuss our performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ankit, and welcome everyone to our FY 2026 Earnings Call. I would like to begin by sharing news of the new partnership with the Government of the Republic of Zambia. We entered into a joint venture with the Zambian government to set up a manufacturing plant in Zambia. Akums will hold 51% in the JV. The facility will be located in the capital city of Lusaka and is expected to commence production in CY 2028. This will be a multi-dosage facility across tablets, capsules, topical, liquid, injectables, etc., and will cater to the growing need of antibacterials, cardiac, diabetes, CNS, gastro, ortho-gynecology, and other therapies in the region. The total project cost will be approximately $45 million, where Akums will invest in the form of both capital and product technology as well.
Additionally, we emphasize supplying medicines of aggregate value of $50 million from our Indian facilities to Zambia over the next two years. With the Zambia pharma market expected to grow to over $300 million by 2030, we expect this partnership to drive Akums' long-term growth as well as improve accessibility of essential medicines in Zambia as well as neighboring African countries. On the European front, our European CDMO contact is progressing as per plans. We underwent a European GMP audit for our plant in October and are expected to get the approval in Q4 of this year. During Q2, we achieved another milestone by dispatching our first commercial supply of Dapagliflozin tablet to Switzerland. Rivaroxaban tablet supply to Europe is also expected during Q3.
Our pipeline for Europe remains healthy over 10+ dossier in API, as well as we filed CEP for Cefuroxime, Axetil, and Cefpodoxime Proxetil in Europe. Coming to the performance during Q2 FY 2026, while our revenue remained flat, margins saw a dip as API prices continued their downward trend. The downward spiral of API prices continues to be broad-based across all categories of APIs. For our top 200 APIs, there was a year-on-year drop of around 8%. Our CDMO business witnessed a healthy volume growth of over 7%, even though the IPM volume growth was flat. Margins, however, also saw a dip due to slower-than-expected ramp-up of our new facilities and higher overheads. Our domestic branded formulations business is steadily gaining scale with focus on gynecology, cardiodiabetes, and pediatrics. While growing in Q2 was modest, we remained focused on improving coverage with portfolio margins too robust at 21.6%.
With multiple strategic initiatives underway, we expect the segment to continue on a growth path backed by improved primary sales and a strong portfolio. The international branded business impacted by seasonal factors is expected to have a strong S2 led by demand from our focus market. In the API business, we continue to focus on a higher gross margin portfolio and cost optimization initiatives. However, continued downtrend in API prices impacted the margin during the quarter. We continue to aggressively work on turning around our API business. We have filed two CEPs in Europe and are on track to file one more CEP this year this fiscal. The consolidation in the trade generics segment continues as we make efforts to reduce losses. Let me now turn your attention to our operating and financial performance. We saw a year-on-year revenue decline of 1.5% during Q2 FY 2026.
During Q2 FY 2026, CDMO achieved a revenue of INR 804 crores, with year-on-year growth of 0.7%. Domestic branded formulations revenue grew at 5.3% year-on-year to INR 122 crores. International branded formulations declined 14.3% year-on-year to INR 22 crores. Operating EBITDA declined 22% year-on-year due to operating deleverage. While the performance during Q2 was below our expectation, we remained focused on delivering long-term stakeholders' value. By further cementing our leadership position in the CDMO business, we are taking measures to grow our domestic and export branded business and curtailing losses in API and trade generics. Our long-term growth prospects remain strong with our newly formed Zambia JV, as well as targeted efforts in the European markets. Additionally, our robust cash flow during H1 has further augmented our net cash position to over INR 1,600 crores. This gives us leverage to pursue both organic as well as inorganic growth opportunities.
Before I hand over to the CFO, Mr. Sumeet Sood, I understand that the current financial results may raise apprehensions about near-term earnings, but I want to reassure you that our business remains strong and resilient. We are currently operating in a dynamic environment, but we have built a robust business model to tap growing opportunities in the Indian pharma market. Our strategy is to extensively work on the identified growth drivers, including strategic partnership, innovation, operational, and cost efficiencies. We are confident that these initiatives will drive sustainable growth in the coming year. Thank you for your continued trust and support. Over to Mr. Sumeet Sood for the financials. Mr. Sumeet Sood.
Thank you, Sandeep Ji, for the detailed explanation. Good afternoon, everyone. I will now take you through the financial highlights for the quarter ended 30th September 2025. The consolidated revenue stood at INR 1,018 crore. It is a decline of 1.5% year-on-year and a decrease of 0.6% quarter-on-quarter. Total reported EBITDA was INR 94 crore, a decline of 22% year-on-year, which was almost INR 121 crore, and a decline of 26.7% quarter-on-quarter, which was INR 129 crore. Margins were 9.3%, which declined from 11.7% in Q2 FY 2025. In Q1 FY 2026, they were 12.6%. The lower margins were largely driven because of the CDMO segment and more losses that got posted in our API division. EBITDA with other income stood at INR 127 crore compared to INR 135 crore year-on-year, and quarter-on-quarter, it was at INR 156 crore. EBITDA margins were at 12.1% compared to Q2, 12.9%, and quarter-on-quarter FY 2026, 14.8%.
The impact is seen in the chart also, which stood at INR 43 crore compared to INR 67 crore year-on-year and INR 65 crore quarter-on-quarter. Now, if we come down to business-wise, the CDMO, the branded formulation, export, and trade generics, and API. For the CDMO, the revenue stood at INR 804 crore, a slight increase from INR 799 crore compared to the earlier quarter, and a decrease of 1.1% quarter-on-quarter. The revenue growth remains modest due to decline in API prices. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 84 crore, a decrease of 31.3% year-on-year, and a decrease of 29.4% quarter-on-quarter. Largely, the margins remained impacted because of a flattish revenue that we saw in the business, while the volumes were at 7%, as explained by the MD. For the domestic branded formulation, the revenue stood at INR 122 crore, an increase of 5.3% year-on-year, and an increase of 13.5% quarter-on-quarter.
EBITDA for the quarter was INR 26 crore, an increase of 28.2% year-on-year, and an increase of 66.5% quarter-on-quarter. If we look at the international business, the revenue stood at INR 22 crore, a decline of 14% year-on-year, and a decrease of 36% quarter-on-quarter. This revenue was largely impacted by seasonality issues and is expected to be strong in the next half year. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 5.5 crore, an increase of 52% year-on-year, and a decrease of 31.8% quarter-on-quarter. API revenue stood at INR 44 crore. This was a decrease from year-on-year INR 59 crore and a decline of 1.3% quarter-on-quarter. As we had mentioned earlier, we are focusing on molecules which have relatively high margins, so we think that by the year-end, our EBITDA would be better than how it is showing. The EBITDA for the quarter was INR -14 crore.
It was very similar to Q2 FY 2025, but this has been something which by the year-end, we should be better based on our cost optimization, and we expect the full-year losses to be lower than last year. Trade generic, the revenue stood at INR 24 crore, a decrease of 26.2%, and an increase of 5.3% quarter-on-quarter. EBITDA, if you look at for the quarter, was -3% compared to FY 2025 quarter, which was -6%, and Q1 of FY 2026 stood at -5%. As the MD mentioned, there is a focus on trade generic business consolidation. Our balance sheet continues to be healthy with cash surplus of INR 1,649 crore. The free cash flow for H1 was INR 1,044 crore, driven by the part consideration received from the CDMO contract. Excluding the part consideration, the free cash flow was INR 90 crore, with a robust operating cash flow to EBITDA at 88.88%.
This concludes the financial highlights for the quarter. We will now request the moderator to open the forum for the question-and-answer session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We'll now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their 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 will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The first question is from Abdulkader Puranwala from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question with regards to the development on the export side of the business. Firstly, on Europe, could you highlight to us what are the developments there? Are we extending the contract beyond what was previously announced? I think now we are talking about two or three more plants getting EU GMP certified. Is there an increase for the existing plant or some new plants are getting added up here?
Sure, Abdul. Hi, this is Sahil. I'll address this. You'll have to split this into two things. One is the export contract for CDMO Europe that we announced, right? That is for an oral liquid formulation, which is plant two, which we briefed earlier, got EU GMP inspected in October of this year. Right? Eventually, we'll get the approval, we'll file the dossiers, get the approvals, and we are on track to start the commercial supplies around March and April of 2027. Right? Moving to the other side of the export business in Europe, which we are planning, this is dossiers which we'll file from multiple plants, which we will either self-market or out-license a few dossiers in certain markets based on the market strategy and our field positioning, right?
These are the dossiers, approximately 10 dossiers that Sandeep Sir mentioned in his opening remarks. Two of them, Dapagliflozin and Rivaroxaban, will be commercially supplying Q3. There are eight to 10 other dossiers in pipeline which are across multiple dosage forms, product types that we will subsequently launch over the next two, two and a half years. Abdul Sir, these are the two things. Hence, multiple plants, because what we see is there is an increased opportunity as in hormones, beta-lactams, and obviously injectables and oral solids, which we already have. This is broadly how we look at the European business.
Got it. Thanks for that. Sahil, any re-look on how the API business growth will pan out, say, from next year? In terms of the margins, how should we now look at for this particular segment with the European offering in place?
API, our API business, right? You're talking about APIs in general or our specific API business?
No, your API business. Now that you've started supplies to Europe, so.
Sure. I'll address it. As you rightly mentioned, we have filed two CEPs, Proxetil and Axetil, in the cephalosporin space for which we should get an approval in the next six months, right? We will start seeding formulations in those markets, and subsequently, we expect this business to be of higher gross margins in Europe, right? As Sumeet Ji also mentioned, while the initial half of the year saw an EBITDA drain of over INR 20 crore, we expect that it will not be a similar amount in H2. We should have some optimizations both on the gross margins as well as our operating expenses there. Once we limit it, honestly, the whole point is on gross margins in the cephalosporin business. If I really talk on the gross margins in FY 2025, we had a gross margin of 12.8% in the API business.
With the continued downward trend of last year's cephalosporin business in Q2, the gross margins of the business were only 9.3%. This is what is driving the majority of the losses, right? If we look at the employee expenses, we have done an annualized savings of almost INR 7 crore. We have done almost INR 11 crore-INR 12 crore annualized savings on the manpower, on the manufacturing expenses. All of those optimization initiatives are in place. While the gross margins in business remain high at 91%, we expect that the cephalosporin prices will gradually move up, as well as the European business will start contributing in gross margins. This is broadly, and we are positive about how this will plan out, but really saying when we'll be month-on-month positive, I think we are still six-seven months away.
Got it. Got it. Just on the Zambia project, the supply starts from next fiscal. On the P&L, how do you record this? Would this be a part of your India CDMO business, or will this get under exports international?
We'll call out when we do the explicit things, Abdul. But how do I look at it is our marketing business, our own brands, right? In Zambia, we'll participate in the government tenders and the government essential medicine supplies. Those are usually non-branded, right? This will be part of our CDMO. As the European contract will also come into play, we'll likely have CDMO split by domestic and global. That's how we might come up. A detailed version of how we split our financials, we'll let you know once we do it. Largely, this will be a part of contract development and manufacturing.
Sure. Sure. I mean, with the start of this project, I think you guys would have almost 12%-12.5% of market share in Zambia. Apart from this $25 million contract, is there any scope to increase this with the government once your plant comes up in place?
Once the plan comes up in place, then obviously we'll have a local preference because the local manufacturers will get an upper hand into tender bidding, right? For the initial two years, which is 2026 and 2027 calendar years, we would have $50 million as a cumulative amount, $25 million each. I don't think there is much scope to go beyond this. Once we launch our facilities, I think over the next three to four years, once we start commercialization, the opportunity is almost $200 million-$250 million of the medicines that this plant can serve. If we even take a 25% share, that still remains a good market opportunity.
Got it. Got it. Just final one from my end. Any guidance you would like to provide for FY 2026 for the CDMO and the overall business on the revenue as well as margin side?
Sure, Abdul. I'll first like to address business by business, and then we can come to a cumulative guidance. I think that will be more useful for you. First, if I talk about it, we mentioned API, right? That is something we discussed. Unosource, as we said, H1 was seasonally weak in major countries in the Philippines, Uganda, Nigeria, which are our prime markets. We saw a dip in the revenues, largely driven by limited orders. Some had election years, some had another seasonal variations. H2, given this is a make-to-order, we do not keep inventory in Unosource, right? We manufacture and we ship it. The order book in Q3 remains good, and the order book in Q4 also remains good, right? We expect this to bounce back in H2. Acumentis will continue its steady growth as it has shown in H1.
Trade generics, we expect a similar kind of losses. I think more of it is through provisions that we are taking of the last couple of years, whatever inventory and datas are there. We remain resolute that over the end of this year, we will either take a provision or only continue ones which are profit-generating, right? That is there. Coming to CDMO, I think one thing that we'll have to address is why the CDMO margins fell so sharply, right? If we really look at it, what went here is if you look at the gross margins in this business, in FY 2025, we had a gross margin of 37.1% in the CDMO business. If I look at just the Q2, where the margins were low, the gross margins are still at 37.6%. We have improved our gross margins from the last year, right?
The volumes have also gone up. You saw in the presentation, they are up almost 4% by H1 and 7% just in the Q2, right? Honestly, what's there in our hands is how do I expand my product basket through better gross margin products and through volumes, right? This is something we are continuously working on and are seeing an improvement. The challenge remains is the API downward trend that continues, right? Since it's a cost-plus model, we charge a percent on the API and our input costs, right? Then there is a factory overhead, a batch manufacturing expenses, fixed overheads that we'll have to account for, right? That is honestly what is leading down to this lower EBITDA margins.
Given there are some improvement cost efficiency measures which are taking up, there are some pockets of APIs which we now think have stabilized, and there is continuous investment into product mix. I think the rest of given the Q1 was good, the Q2 was underperforming. I think blended rates, I think H2 should largely be similar as H1 as an overall year. Given obviously the current market dynamics, while it remains for the Q3 as well, we are seeing a decent volume growth. Some pockets, as I said, of APIs have started stabilizing, which looks in control, I think. Once we see the rest of the year, I think the H2 should largely mimic the H1.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question is from Ankit Minocha from Adezi Ventures. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon. Just an extension of what you were talking about before, just on the very disappointing EBITDA margin for Q2. I mean, if I look at the EBITDA margin, the margin has gone down by 13%-9%. That's almost like a 30%-40% drop. Versus when you talk about API pricing, I think you mentioned earlier that the API pricing was down 8% for the entire basket. So to be honest, this correlation is not making full sense. I mean, it does not necessarily seem that it's only because of the API pricing and the cost overhead that this margin is kind of dipping so sharply. What is actually, what are the reasons which are driving this? Also, if you look at your peers, smaller peers with 20% of our market, they are reporting slight margin expansions.
This is very surprising, and I just wanted to understand what is the trajectory also on H2 that you're seeing here because currently this number looks very disappointing.
Certainly. As I said, API prices, usually in our cost sheets, API prices are 50% of our input, of our transfer prices, right? If the API prices go down by 8%, it is a direct 4% impact on my top line and equal impact on my EBITDA margins because these are simple erosions. That is one which is driving it. The second point, as you also mentioned, is the fixed overheads. If I look at my three recent plants which got operationalized, on an H1 basis, they had an EBITDA impact of almost INR 17 crore, right? These are the plants which are getting approvals from regulatory, getting client audits. We are filing product permission from those facilities, right? The newer injectable facilities, these are ramping up, right?
So this essentially I lose a chunk of my EBITDA percent on operationalization of new expenses, which is a part of the growth that we'll see from these facilities as we move into further quarters. As I mentioned, 8% dip is almost 4% hit on our EBITDA margins. This is what is driving. If you look at the other costs, if you look at employee expenses, while I said we have commercialized new plants, from last year to this year, our employee cost in the CDMO have grown only by 8%, right? While we have also institutionalized three new injectable facilities and also started blocks in the Baddi plant, right? Other expenses remain in control. Gross margins, as I said, have improved by 0.5% from 37.1% in FY 2025 to 37.6% in just the Q2 of it. Q1 was even better at 39%, right? Everything remains positive.
I think the hit we are taking is the model itself, which is a cost-plus model which the whole industry operates in. Coming to your second question on the impact not visible on other CDMO players, I think fair. While we are continuously monitoring our gross margins, which continue to do better than our peers, I think there are cost efficiencies we can build in our rest of the expenses as well, as well as there is investment into R&D and operationalization of new plants that is taking a hit. Given these will improve, and as well as, as I said, the product basket should get stabilized with the downward trend of APIs, we should, as the H1 margins are approximately 12%, so we should have similar margins in the H2.
Okay. Sure. Thanks. That adds some clarity. My second question was with regard to capacity. Currently, if I was looking at last time's investor presentation, I believe the capacity utilization that you kind of mentioned was below sub 40% capacity utilization across the business. Whereas even in the last comms call, we were talking about more CapEx. Currently also, I believe, like we were just discussing, CapEx is kind of going through. I mean, what is the rationale to kind of continue to build capacity without utilizing all bits of existing capacity? Secondly, what are the efforts, not only on the manufacturing end, but also on the front end to kind of increase this capacity utilization? Because I think this is kind of at this level, I mean, the return on capital for the business will remain super.
Yeah, I just wanted to address on that.
Sure. I'll address in three parts. One is what maximum capacity utilization can we do, right? While you rightly said we do at 40%, I think given the changeovers, the large number of SKUs, the maintenance, preventive maintenance, the overall equipment utilization can go up to 55% in most other dosage forms, right? This is an extra spare capacity that we currently hold, right? The front-end efforts are largely seen in the volume growth that we do with an expansion in the gross margins as well, right? The efforts are on with better products, better reachability to the clients, I think more penetration. I think most of the clients in the Indian domain, we currently work with over 1,500 customers, right? Now it's a matter of how do we go deeper with each client. That is a continuous process.
I think the second thing is also on scheduling and its enforcement. We are very hopeful that this will result in a shift in business to quality-conscious manufacturers. I think this is a spare capacity which will come handy once we see that kind of traction growth as well. You would have read some articles around the government asking monthly reports from states and so on and so forth, right? This will come handy, right? It is a chicken-and-egg story that what comes first, either the demand or the capacity, right? While we are mindful of the CapEx, this is an additional CapEx in the dosage forms. Where we have done CapEx, to your question, is we are only doing CapEx in dosage forms which either are fully utilized with us or we see we are not present and there is a market growth.
These are largely the kind of CapEx that we do. On the annual CapEx we have done, I'll request the CFO to address it.
Thank you, Sahil. You have a fair question. We are very mindful of our CapEx. Most of our CapEx is going in Akums in the R&D and the European contract that we are doing. If you have heard the latest announcement on GST, in our earlier years, we were looking at setting up a plant in Jammu. There was a CapEx that we were doing. Given the legislation change, that is on hold, so there is a mindful investment in the CapEx. It is being future-ready and also being mindful of the fixed assets that the company needs to do.
Okay. And just an extension to that, when you mentioned 55% earlier, if you're only operating at 55% capacity, would that be peak capacity for you or?
55% is the peak. We are operating at 40%. We report our total operational capacity that we can reach, right, of which 55% is the operational capacity broadly. We are currently at 40%. Once I hit a number, as I explained in earlier calls, if we hit a number of, let's say, 50% with any dosage forms, we'll have to start thinking of a new line. This varies largely. 50%, 55% is what oral solids can do because there are more changeovers, smaller batches. In injectables and oral liquids, we can go up to 60%-65% as well. It depends on dosage form, but given largely in India is an oral solids market and over 90% of our unit production is oral solids, largely 55% is an estimate which peak capacity utilization this can produce.
If I have to reverse and flip this question on what maximum revenue can we do from the existing facilities, right? If I do this set of revenue from a 40% utilization, we can simply do a basic unitary match to arrive at what is the revenue I can do at 55%, which is the peak from the current assets.
Understood. On the front-end sales part of it, I mean, could you help us with a little bit of a brief overview of what your sales team looks like currently? I mean, how much of the sales is driven by management versus a professional sales team and what's the structure like?
Sure. We follow a CAM-based model, a key account manager-based model, right, wherein we have almost 100+ people in our sales team. They have dedicated roles across new business development, business continuation, and support, right? There are technical experts. There are commercial experts in the team, right? That is a mix of the team. If we say 1,500 customers across 100+ people, that is usually every person on an average has 15, 20 clients, right? There are people devoted to new business across newer queries. This is how it looks like.
Spread between management, I think this is largely driven, this is entirely driven by the sales team, which day in, day out talks to the customers, understands their new product requirements, where we can partner with them in the pipeline projects, which are the cost efficiency projects which we have mastered, which we can offer to them. Are there some opportunities from in-house manufacturing to us? Are there opportunities where they are facing some delivery or quality issues with other manufacturers where we can move? All of those things are day in, day out, which our sales team does. All of this team is based out of Delhi.
Thank you so much. To bring in the scale and get your leadership in the.
All right.
Yeah, all right. Please. I'll rejoin the queue.
Thank you. Next question is from one of Achal Maheshwari from NAREDI Investments. Please go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes. Is she audible?
Yeah. So my first question is, can you give us some details on the large CDMO contract that we have secured? Since I specifically wanted to know what was the targeted therapy, if you can provide that detail. Where is the manufacturing facility located? Do we only have contract for a single product, or is it a portfolio of multiple products?
Sure. I'll quickly tell you this is a European contract which we have done with one of the largest pharma companies globally, right? This is a product in the oral liquid segment. This product is currently being manufactured in Europe across three sites, which for the European supplier, we will be the sole suppliers, as I said, starting April of 2027. This is a six-year commercial supply contract. Yeah, broadly. On your point on the product, this is a portfolio across multiple SKUs and packaging types. The base molecule here remains the same.
The manufacturing facility, where is that located?
In Haridwar, which we in October got the inspection for the European GMP.
Right. Okay. Thank you. The second question I had is, can you give me some clarification on the quarterly interest charge that we are charging, which is INR 20 crore, based on the customer advance that we are getting?
We are charging every quarter a notional interest of INR 19 crore, and cumulatively for the six months, it'll be INR 38 crore. It's because of the advance that we've got for this contract.
When does the charge go away on our financials?
I think it'll go away from the time we start supplying. Based on our supplies, how much of advances get adjusted will go away. Any which way, this is a notional entry, right? There isn't any liability as per the contract which needs to be paid. Over a period of time, as we supply, because part of the consideration they will pay us, and part would get adjusted from the advance.
Right. And sir, on your Cephalosporin API, so how much of our total revenue is dependent on this particular API?
Cephalosporin API, you're talking about?
Yeah, yeah.
Cephalosporin API is largely we today do 90% in India and 10% exports. These are exports to Asian markets only. Cephalosporin is almost 80% of our business, and 20-odd percent is in the last fiscal we did from the general APIs, right?
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Parasiman, you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question is from one of Jay Modi from EIML. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Sahil, my question was, we've taken multiple efforts to boost the growth, right, for our business. It was the European contract and the Zambia contract and our expansion in ROW. Now, when do you think our company will turn the corner and will start getting back on the growth path?
Can you please repeat Jay?
Sure, sure. See, what I was saying is that we've taken multiple efforts to boost the growth, right, because of the API impact in our core CDMO business. Now, in your opinion, when do you think that the company is going to turn the corner and enter the growth phase?
As we said, each contract has a timeline, right? If we really look at it, in 2026, we'll start seeing an additional INR 200-odd crore from the Zambian supplier from India. In 2027, we'll have both the Zambian contract as well as the European initial supply, which we envisage should approximately be INR 300+ crore for the annual revenue, right? Once we go into 2029, maybe starting January, we will have, let's say, $40 million, $50 million coming from the Zambian facility itself once it gets fully operationalized, right? These are at different levers of point, but they'll start firing from next year itself, right? Also, the European, as we said, there are a couple of other products in the pipeline which we think next year. All of those things should start coming in as we move ahead.
While this is all as an additional growth driver, which we are there, I'm also confident that domestic business will grow in 2026 driven by stricter enforcement, better volume growth, product pipeline being strong, API prices not degrowing, right? All of those things in our core business should also do well.
Got it. See, on the domestic front, now we've had a couple of incidents also, right? The cough syrup incident and then the regulation getting tighter, etc. Have we started seeing any tailwinds on that front? Are we seeing more outsourcing from our partners on this front?
Cough syrup, if I speak just the cough syrup, we have seen obviously a surge in the demand for the cough syrups, right? That is there. Obviously, what we call is alternate vendor development, AVDs. That has started increasing with us. There are more number of customers who have started reaching out. There have been signs that people are willing to take larger MOQs from us. There have been obviously positive signs around all of those things. Maybe that's the result of which we outperformed the market in Q1. We outperformed the market in volume in Q2. Q3 also looks superiorly strong, right? Partly would also be led by all of those happenings that took place.
Okay. See, given the current situation on API pricing, right, the continuous decline in pricing, have we started negotiating a better markup with our clients, or that is not something that gets passed on very easily?
That is something we do every two, three years, Jay, right? Specifically for this, because these are cycles of the business, if you understand it, right? When the API prices go up, then also usually the margins remain at similar levels. When they are stable, then also when they are lower. While we track it on a cost sheet basis, if something is excessively low, we ask for that specific product. In general, moving up the margins, that usually takes longer times. That is a work in progress, right? It is every year. I do with 10 clients in this quarter, 10 clients the next quarter. That is a work in progress. Specifically, I take a 15% margin, I move up to 20% for the timing. Usually, that does not happen.
Got it. Understood. Last question was on the European contract. Along with this contract, have we seen traction with other clients? Are we in discussion with other clients to shift their manufacturing to India or expanding the portfolio of product that our existing client has given us?
The 10+ dossier that the MD sir initially talked about, all of these were thoughtfully thought through in consultation with the global players, right? Either we'll manufacture, either we'll provide R&D services, or in-license, out-license these. All of these, we also had a very good presence in the CPHI Global in Germany recently, right? There we got some good encouraging leads as well. All of this is coming through, right, from Nordics, from Western Europe, from Eastern Europe, right? We have good leads, I would say, at current stage across multiple geographies.
Okay. Anything to okay. What are our CapEx plans for this year?
As I mentioned earlier, we are very mindful of our CapEx. Still now, for the first six months, our CapEx is close to INR 107 crore. We would probably, depending on the future requirement, foresee just a similar or slightly lower CapEx in the next six months.
Okay. Okay. So around INR 150 crore, is it so?
No. I said 107 crore for the next six months. We could look at INR 100 crore-INR 125 crore more for the next six months.
Okay. Got it. Understood. Lastly, what is the plan of the cash on the books? Are we actively looking at any inorganic acquisition?
Yes, Jay. We are continuously looking at, obviously, one thing that we keep it, it should be a profit-making business with decent margins acquired at a decent value, right? This is what our hook remains. The areas which we focus are two. One, either it should give me a dosage form capability or it should give me an export market capability, right? Across both of the themes, we are looking at some. There is nothing very close which we would have it, but there are things in pipeline which we are actively working with bankers.
Okay. Great. Great. Thanks. That was all for me. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from one of Pankaj Agarwal, individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. My question is with respect to not current quarter, but traditionally, our margin has not been so strong. Whereas some of the other companies in this specific quarter also, where we are seeing that API prices were down, for example, Divi's, Gland, or Granules, they have performed much better in their margin performance compared to what Akums has been doing. Is it because of our traditional diversified business size or capacity utilization compared to other companies who have more of a concentrated portfolio?
If I look at it, there are two ways to look. I think you mentioned Granules. There are a couple of companies who arbitrage the Indian presence when the prices are falling with the global businesses, right? This is something we are also trying to see, that while we have attained leadership in the Indian domain, can we replicate across a few markets globally? It also hedges against if there's anything that happens in one market, right? That is there. On the second front, both on the, as I mentioned, the new facilities which are coming up have some investment in arbitrage in this H1. Also, capacity utilizations that we continue to improve. We are working on gross margins. We are working on volumes. We are also working on cost efficiencies which we can build across functions and across production, right?
All of this, we are mindful that there are some margin improvement areas we can honestly further more work as we continue to be a more agile organization. This is what we are continuously improving on.
Okay. Second thing, with respect to this European business that we are saying that the supply would start coming from 2027, and we are talking of several other partners also talked about the CapEx, etc. Do we think that our future cash flow coming from domestic business would still not be sufficient to compensate for CapEx loss or interest loss for capacity development for that European supply?
No. I think our positive cash flows from operations and continued business performance should have internal, if you look at our annual EBITDA, and we will not have any interest expenses, we'll have a healthy free cash flow. Our cash flow should be good to maintain our CapEx. If you look at our treasury, it is only growing, so we will be able to manage domestic. If there is a need to expand European approvals to our plants, it will be done through our internal cash flows.
Understood. My last submission is that if I look from a three-year to four-year point of view, I do not see any major issue with Akums and the commentary of management with respect to the future business growth and even the current contract, what we have won. It all looks promising. However, even though we have not been able to command the respectable valuation even after such a commentary, do we need to do better jobs in terms of building the investor confidence through more of investor awareness or some sort of incentivization? I do not know. There could be multiple ways of enhancing the awareness of our commentary for better valuation.
Honestly, as you rightly said, we obviously can improve on all fronts, right? While we make an effort to rightly communicate our story, our growth levers where we have not really performed well with other growth levers, I think, and we continue to participate across multiple investment forums. If required, we'll again participate. We think from a point of both institutional as well as minority investments, and we are mindful that we have a cash surplus, inorganic dividends, everything is in thoughts. We'll do it when the time comes, right?
Okay. Last thing, as a duty for being a retail investor, the regulatory front for this year had been dampening in terms of negative news. If the company could avoid these kind of regulatory hurdles, probably this will improve the sentiment for remaining investors for longer term.
We'll take that into notice.
Sure. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. As you know, for the questions, I'll now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. We conclude the call at this point.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Ambit Capital, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.