Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the ASK Automotive Q1 FY 2027 post-results earnings conference call hosted by Adfactors PR. As a reminder, all participant line will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rushabh Shah from Adfactors PR. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. A very good evening to everyone, and welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings call of ASK Automotive Limited. From the senior management, we have with us Mr. Kuldip Singh Rathee, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Prashant Rathee, Joint Managing Director, Mr. Aman Rathee, Joint Managing Director, and Mr. Naresh Kumar, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Manoj Sharma, Chief General Manager, Investor Relations.
Before we begin the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made during today's call may be forward-looking in nature, and hence it may involve risks and uncertainties, including those related to the future financials and operating performance of the company. Please bear with us if there is a call drop during the course of the conference call. We would ensure that the call is reconnected at the earliest. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Kuldip Singh Rathee, Chairman and Managing Director, for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Rushabh. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's my great pleasure to welcome you all to our Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call. I hope you have had the opportunity to review the detailed presentation submitted to the exchanges and available on our website. FY 2027 has begun on a strong note for the Indian economy, which continues to be the world's fastest growing major economy.
Domestic demand remains robust, private consumption is resilient, and the Government of India's structural reforms, particularly GST 2.0, continue to energize the broader economy, and importantly for us, the automobile sector, given its deep forward and backward linkages. As you are aware, after February 28th 2026, the geopolitical conflict in West Asia had created undue volatility in energy, commodity, and currency markets and had led to a sharp phenomenal increase in aluminum alloy prices, which affected our industry.
Despite these challenges, we are optimistic that the growth momentum will remain in the coming quarters. Now, let me begin by sharing a quick overview of the broader industry, as reported by SIAM. The Indian automobile sector has carried strong momentum into the first quarter of FY 2027. Overall vehicle production across all segments registered a robust year-on-year growth of 22.1% in Q1 FY 2027.
The two-wheeler segment, which is most relevant to us, recorded production growth of 22.8% on a year-on-year basis, with total two-wheeler production of 72.5 lakh units in Q1 FY 2027, up from 59 lakh units in the same quarter last year. I would remind you that in Q1 of last year, two-wheeler production had grown by just 0.7%.
The turnaround this year is therefore significant, driven by the GST 2.0 rate reduction, the personal income tax rationalization announced in the Union budget, successive rate cuts and liquidity measures by the Reserve Bank of India, the favorable base, and the introduction of new models.
Looking ahead, we believe the industry will continue to benefit from these far-reaching reforms Improving consumer purchasing power and easier access to vehicle financing. The monsoon deficit witnessed earlier in the season has eased on the back of rainfall in late June and early July, supporting the outlook for rural income and two-wheeler demand in the run-up to the festive season.
Before we move on to ASK's business performance, we would like to highlight that on the green energy front, as already shared with you earlier, I'm happy to update that our 9.9 MW solar power plant at Sirsa, Haryana, has been fully operational and is delivering the sustainable operational economies on the expected lines.
Our second captive solar plant of 11.55 MW at Bikaner, Rajasthan, is ready and is expected to be commissioned in quarter two of FY 2027. This reflects ASK's special focus on green energy. Moving on to business updates. I'm delighted to share with you that we had a strong performance in the first quarter in both revenue and profitability. This is the 11th consecutive quarter of robust performance by us since listing of the company. We achieved highest ever quarterly revenue, EBITDA, and PAT.
We delivered strong performance in business and recorded consolidated revenue growth of 52.1%, excluding passthrough impact of significant decrease in alloy prices on revenue that is 33.4% in wheel assembly business strategy reduction, which reduced by 6.6%. Overall, net revenue has grown by 25.3% on year-over-year basis. We continue to outperform the two-wheeler industry vehicle production growth. We achieved EBITDA of INR 164 crore with 32.7% year-on-year growth. EBITDA margin at 12%.
However, EBITDA percentage was impacted due to abrupt and phenomenal passthrough alloy price. Achieved PAT of INR 85 crore with 28.8% year-on-year growth. This reflects the result of our continuous focus on expanding value-added businesses, improving utilization of production capacities, and bringing cost efficiencies. We have outperformed the industry growth, and our aim is to continue on this growth path on a sustainable basis with clear focus on the bottom line to enhance the shareholders' value.
Volatility in alloy prices may affect margin percentages due to the denominator effect. With the aluminum prices expected to remain benign in the coming quarters, we anticipate an improvement in our EBITDA margins. With strong performance, our earnings per share has increased to INR 4.32 per share against INR 3.35 per share in the last year's same period. Our all three product segments performed well in terms of revenue growth.
We have sustained our market leadership position in the advanced braking system. Our advanced braking system revenue grew by 48% in Q1 year-over-year basis. The Aluminum Light Weighting Precision Solutions revenue grew by 75% in Q1 year-over-year basis. The Safety Control Cable revenue also recorded growth of 20% in Q1 year-over-year basis. Our revenue from exports was at INR 39 crore in Q1 FY 2027 against INR 33 crore last year. Key updates.
We are happy to share that the technical collaboration with Kyushu Yanagawa, Japan, has been successfully implemented at our Karoli plant, first supply of high-pressure die-casted alloy wheel has started to our esteemed Japanese customer. Strategic closure in low-margin wheel assembly business is complete, from April 1st 2026, wheel assembly revenues are mixed.
We also remain optimistic on the medium-term industry outlook, supported by improving consumer sentiment, expected benefits from the 8th Pay Commission, continued policy support for manufacturing and formalization through labor reforms. These structural developments provide greater confidence in India's long-term consumption and manufacturing growth trajectory. We are confident that we'll continue to grow not only in mid-teens, I'm confident that we'll be now growing for the full year in high teens. Thank you very much for your patient hearing. With this, we leave the floor open for Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Raghunandhan from the Nuvama Research. Please proceed.
Congratulations, sir, on extremely strong numbers once again. Firstly, alloy price inflation impact is 33% in total revenue. Approximately how much would be the same alloy wheel inflation impact for the braking systems division?
We are not calculating in that way, but we will let you know separately.
Sure, sir. Thank you.
It will be approximately, I will put it like that if it is increased by 48%, then the impact will be around 28% or something. How much?
Total.
Total. We have not calculated, as the CFO is telling you.
Noted, sir. Second question on the new orders, can you indicate how much can be the revenue for alloy wheel in FY 2027 and 2028, also for the Ford order for the current year and next year? If you can throw some colors, if there has been any more order wins.
Well, alloy wheel, as I have explained earlier, we have confirmed orders of about INR 70 crore -INR 90 crore, depending on how we gear up and how the customer gears up for this financial year. However, for next financial year, we have confirmed orders of about INR 250 crore. As regards your second question of Ford Motors, we will be doing exports of about INR 40 crore -INR 45 crore this year, next year it is likely to go up to INR 60 crore.
Got it, sir. Any more new orders which you have received or are having in the pipeline, anything you can talk about?
Yes, we are getting new orders with one of the existing customers, which I would not like to name, happy to share that immediately, though it was not in our plans, but we'll have to set up a new plant immediately in South.
Noted, sir. Congratulations on that. Coming to the, before I fall back to the queue, one question. Can you remind us on the utilization at Karoli and Bangalore facility and also the CapEx plan for FY 2027, given that you are setting up this new plant in south?
Yes, Mr. Raghu, our Bangalore plant, which was our 18th plant, is running at optimum capacity utilization. Near optimum. Again, happy to share that against the installed capacity in Karoli plant from 60%-65% that we were in the last quarter, we have now gone up to about 75%, and we are confident that by the last Q4, we'll be around 80% of the capacity utilization, because we see the visibility for the Q4. That is the need that we have to urgently set up for the new orders that have come.
We have to set up a new plant in south that will be in Bangalore at a war footing, and we hope to operationalize it before March in this financial year. The other question of yours was how much CapEx to be done. We had given a guidance of about around INR 450 crore-INR 500 crore. The way we are going and the way we are receiving the orders, because as I today revised the guidance to high teens, I think our CapEx may go to something like INR 700 crore this year.
That's wonderful to hear, sir. Wishing you all the best. I'll fall back to the queue. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Ronak Mehta from ICICI Securities. Please proceed.
Yeah. Thank you for giving this opportunity and congratulations, sir, for a very good set of numbers. My first question is on the AISIN JV. Can you throw some light on, or can you give us an update on the JV? Where are we in terms of revenue, margin, et cetera, product portfolio expansion, number of dealers, any color on the JV, and by when can we see the profitability of JVs improving? Because I believe it is still making losses. Yeah, that would be my first question.
Ronak, yeah, AISIN JV is ramping up, and we are introducing more products into the pipeline. We are also expecting that by the end of this year's quarter, that we will also see some profitability there. However, it will not be significant because it is mainly trading.
Understood. Any color on the revenue that you expect from this JV, maybe say, by the end of next year or this year end or next year?
I think this year there is not much significant revenue we are expecting, but maybe in the last quarter call, we will be able to give you some good guidance for the next financial year.
FY2028.
Sure, sir. Thank you. My second question is on the commodity prices. Like you indicated during your opening remarks that commodity prices have started to cool off and you may see improvement in the margins going ahead. I just wanted to clarify one thing. Is there any pass-through of last quarter, which is still pending, or everything is fully passed so far?
Actually, Mr. Ronak, there is a complete confusion of the margins. In our casting line, we have to see the absolute EBITDA, which as I've always explained, because there is 100% pass-through with the customer back to back, we are hedged, fully hedged, so the absolute margins remain the same.
Yes, sir. No, sir, my question was something else.
When we talk of the margin, it is only the percentage that looks like low.
Yeah.
Which is looking 12, when the prices are coming down, the same percentage will look 13% or 13.4%. Like that.
No, sir, I completely understand that. My question was more from a pass-through which happens with a lag, with a three month or six month lag. Is there any pass-through which is pending?
No, not pending. We have received everything from there.
Okay. Perfect.
Our customers are very esteemed customers, and they have passed it on.
Perfect. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Joseph George from IIFL. Please proceed.
Hello, sir. Hope you're well. Just one question that I have. You mentioned that in the first quarter, revenues are inflated, or rather growth is inflated by about 33% because of aluminum or the pass-throughs. If I look at this quarter's revenue, which is about INR 1,358 crores, and if I divide that by 1.33 to remove the element of price hikes for aluminum, I get to about INR 1,020 crores.
There is no impact on EBITDA because of the pass-through, and if I use the EBITDA number and divide it by this modified revenue, I get a margin of some 15.7%. What I want to check is, one, is the math correct? Second, is this kind of a margin sustainable, adjusted for the effect of price hikes in revenue?
Hi, Naresh this side. Actually, your calculation is right, but some part of opening inventory may be there in the revenue, so this margin of 15% is not sustainable in our industry. Our margins remain the same line.
The overall margins you'll be finding around 13.5%-14%, in between that.
Understood, sir. The back working that I did, that is logical, right? Where I got more than 15%.
That's nearly logical, yeah.
Okay. Understood, sir. Thank you. That's all I had.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of [Vinit Agarwal] from Bajaj Alternate . Please proceed.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations, sir, on great set of numbers. Just one question from my side. How do you plan to fund the new CapEx which you're targeting?
That will be.
Yeah. Actually, keeping in mind our high mid-teen growth, our internal accruals will be sufficient. Yes, for cash flow management, we will have to take the result of some external financing.
External will be borrowing, sir?
Yeah.
Term loan. We will be taking term loans. These for machines.
Understood. Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mrunmayee Jogalekar from Asit C Mehta Investment. Please proceed.
Hello. Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, please.
Sir, congratulations on a great set of numbers. I had a couple of questions. You mentioned that you have received some new orders based on which there's a new capacity that you're putting up. Can you give some more color on these orders? Are these more on the EV side because we are seeing improving penetration, or is it broad-based across ICE and EV?
This is broad-based ICE and EV. Yes, EV also is substantial because, as you know, the EV share is now increasing, and it's mainly in the ALPS segment.
Okay, sir. Got it. Sir, any updates on the alloy wheel with the Taiwanese partner?
That is under testing. As I told you last time also, in the last many calls I said that it's in the final stages of testing. Whenever the approval comes, because being a safety item, we don't pursue it, that the customer should take their own sweet time. We are very confident that even that will pass.
Got it, sir.
For both the collaborations, I had given the guidance of H2, but we have been lucky that at least one of them has certified one quarter before.
Right, sir. Yes. Sir, anything on the sunroof cables business?
That is also going as per plan. In fact, we have received very good orders in that, and next year it will be shaping up very well.
The supplies may start in H2.
Initial supplies will start from H2, but next year you will see a substantial growth there.
We'll start in H2 of this year and then ramp up next year.
Yeah.
Perfect, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vaibhav Mehta from Axis Mutual Fund. Please proceed.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Thanks for taking my question. My question was regards with the solar plant that is coming up in operation from Q2. Lately there is a good jump in our usage of solar and renewable energy. How-
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Vaibhav. Can you be a bit—
Not audible.
—closer to the device?
Hi. Is it better?
Yeah.
Yes. My question was with regards to the savings in the energy cost by the captive solar plant that is coming up, if we can quantify that number and how would it impact our margins for the next.
We can't quantify that number exactly, but we know very well that our payback of the investment is in five and a half years.
Okay. Yeah, sure. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naveen Kumar Dubey from Narnolia Financial Services . Please proceed.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Congratulations to the team on robust performance. You guys are really setting up new benchmark of growing at 30%. Sir, my question is related to the industry performance as we see that second half of FY 2026 has seen growth of close to 25%. How do we see that the growth should be in FY 2027 second half?
See, as I mentioned in my calls today, and even now, just now, we expect a high teens growth. I've revised my forecast. You can see that even this quarter is going very well, and we expect this momentum to continue in the whole of the financial year.
Okay. Sir, what could be the growth drivers be in second half because of the base was high in second half last year?
See, base was high, but the industry is growing, I think the way economy is growing at about 6.7%, I believe lot of money is percolating down the line. After this GST reduction from 28% to 18%, I think because the prices have become rather reasonable and customers are buying the product. Especially two-wheeler, there is a lot of tailwinds. The only negative possible factor was the El Niño effect, which it seems now that has diluted to quite some extent. Because I believe the water tables are almost 90% level even in Bombay.
Yeah. Yes, sir. Right, sir. The second question related to the margins that we have seen some 300 basis points of gross margin contraction in recent quarters. Do we expect that the margin should come back to 34% levels, gross margin to 34% levels in next two, three quarters?
Yeah, it will certainly come. The moment the prices come down. They have already started coming down, because the supplies have become not normal, but near normal. At one time, the raw material was just not available, so the prices had shot up by more than INR 100. The aluminum prices that had shot up to INR 365 have already come down by more than 10%.
Okay. We can safely assume that 13.5% -1 4% EBITDA margin is easily achievable as of now.
Should come.
Yeah.
It all depends on the geopolitical situation. If tomorrow, Hormuz gets clear, then certainly it will come. Suppose there is no agreement and signing off and again they block it, I can't say anything on that.
More important is the absolute value of the data.
Yes.
The growth in the absolute value.
Okay. Sure, sir.
Yeah.
Sir, my third question is related to, sir in our investor presentation, we have mentioned in the February investor presentation, the workforce number for 7,000 +, and in May it was 9,000 +. I think it's roughly some 25%—
Last—
—So.
—It is the 2,000 people added in the last two plants, in Karoli and this Bangalore, I think that was added.
Okay.
Because they are very big plants. In that, more than 1,500 people got recruited in Karoli only.
Oh, that's a huge number. Yeah.
Sir, that's a huge plant. We have already invested INR 750 crore there. It's a plant in 23 acres, that kind of workforce will be there. I think the board will be recruited. I think 500 board at least will be recruited soon. This number will keep on changing.
Okay.
Shortly you will find, next year you will find more than 10,000.
Oh. Great to hear, sir. Sir, one related question. Is the land fully utilized or we have some more scope to set up more capacities there?
Karoli, there is a little more scope, about 20% or so.
Yeah.
The revenues have really shot up in Karoli and from INR 60 crore monthly, we have touched INR 110 crores in the last month. Which is an appreciable jump. maybe that plant will give us about, next year it should give us INR 1,500 crore turnover.
Oh. Yeah. Two last questions, sir. One is, we have invested in the captive solar plant, so what kind of saving we do expect in those plants, from the first plant and the second one is coming? I think the power cost is close to 3.5% for us.
Sir, we have explained that we have estimated that we'll get our payback of the investment in five and a half years.
Okay. Five years.
Five. Yeah. If there is more sun, we'll get it in five years. If it remains cloudy, then maybe six years.
Okay. The last question, sir, related to you mentioned that INR 700 crores of CapEx, we'll be doing this year. Have we increased our debt from March FY 2026 level?
Actually, this is a recent development. I said, it's not even 15 days development. We have immediately, the board has decided that we'll go for the next part very, very fast. It is only the revision from INR 500 to INR 700 because of if the need arises. Let's see where we end up in this financial year. However, there are such good internal accruals we'll be utilizing. As you know, the philosophy of the company is to completely plow back the internal accruals. We'll be plowing that back and wherever, whether working capital or term loan need arises, we'll take the loan.
Okay.
However.
Till then.
Still we are very confident that our debt equity will remain under control, and it will be not exceed 0.5.
Okay. Sir, have we increased our debt levels in Q1 from Q4 levels?
Yes. It has increased because due to sudden increase in working capital requirement due to commodity price increase.
Okay.
There is an increase in debt.
Okay.
It is actually INR 100, sir, the price. Working capital, it impacts.
Can you specify the debt numbers, sir? Current debt levels?
We will update in the Q2 results because at that time we'll provide.
Okay.
Statement of liabilities.
Oh, okay. Sure. Thank you so much, sir, and all the best for future.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask the question. To ask the question, please press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Yash Agarwal from Nirmal Bang Securities.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and first of all, congratulations on the great set of results. My first question is basically, one of our client, Honda, is expanding capacity, and they plan to launch 10 new models. How is the content per vehicle there versus overall content per vehicle?
That is our most prestigious and largest customer, so the content per vehicle is also highest, and that will continue in the new models also.
Sir, basically, what's the export outlook for FY 2027? Last year was slightly weak, but Q1.
Last year we could not go near the target anywhere. This time we have given a guidance of 20% increase in the exports, at the moment, we are still very confident we'll achieve it.
Any update on the export order execution timeline and any new export order win recently?
We are in negotiations with two, three players. I think a big export order. I'll tell you when it materializes, not before that.
Also, sir, now the alloy wheel ramp-up is started, so the revenue guidance that you gave in the last earning call, does it remain same or do we improve from that, like you have adjusted that?
Today also I've given a revenue guidance, so it will remain the same, what I've given today.
Okay. Basically one last secondary question on the ABS mandate implementation. Any update on that?
I don't know. We read in the newspaper that you also must have gone through. Nothing has come so far. It only remains a draft. I believe there was a news item that some revised draft is also coming. I told last time, we'll not discuss on the draft thing. Whenever the final thing comes, we'll discuss.
Sir, one last question on the segmental revenue growth. Two-wheeler ICE growth is close to two-wheeler EV growth. Overall in the market, we have seen that EV is growing at much faster pace, and the penetration is close to 10%-11%. Why our growth is kind of similar and not higher in the two-wheeler EV?
We also are growing in the EV with all that top customers. One of the major customers, which we had a very large revenue, that is not performing for the last some time. Because of that, the percentage looks a little distorted.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Best regards.
Thank you. Participants who wishes to ask a question may please press star one at this time. That was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Kuldip Singh Rathee from ASK Automotive Limited for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for very patient hearing. I think we could answer to any of your queries quite satisfactorily. However, something is left, we're always happy to clarify because we are a very transparent company. I would like to assure that now we'll be working hard to achieve the revised guidance for this year, which I said that we'll be growing at high teens. Give us all your best wishes so that we can achieve that target. Thank you very much once again.
Thank you. On behalf of Adfactors PR, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.