Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Carborundum Universal Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by Equirus Securities 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 zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Patel.
Thank you. Hello. Good morning to everyone. We welcome you to Carborundum Universal 4Q FY 2026 and full year FY 2026 earnings conference call. We have with us from the management Mr. Sridharan Rangarajan, Managing Director, and Mr. G. Chandramouli, Advisor and Head of Investor Relations. I would now request the management to give their opening remarks on how the fourth quarter as well as full FY 2026 went by and provide some outlook for the future. Over to you, sir.
Good morning. I'm Chandramouli. Let us start the proceeding with a disclaimer. During this call, we make certain statement which reflect our outlook for the future or which could be construed as forward-looking statement. These statements are based on management current expectations and are associated with uncertainties, and risks are more fully detailed in our annual report, which may cause the actual result to differ. Hence, these statements must be reviewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning to all of you and a very warm welcome to our fourth quarter and full year earnings call for the financial year FY 2026. I trust you and your family members are safe and healthy. We'll begin this call by providing an overview of the company's performance for the full year FY 2026 and Q4 FY 2026, followed by an outlook for FY 2027. We also plan to share some glimpses of our Aspiration 2030 later in the call. To start with, standalone sales. On a full year basis, standalone sales in FY 2026 was INR 3,024 crores compared to INR 2,784 crores in FY 2025. This is a growth of 8.6%.
It may be noted that the company has crossed the mark of INR 3,000 crore in standalone revenue this year. Growth at standalone level was driven by the electromineral segment, which grew by 11.1%, recording a sales of INR 906 crore compared to INR 815 crore last year. Ceramic segment grew from INR 939 crore last year to INR 1,000 crore in this year. This is a growth of 6.5%. Abrasives increased from sales of INR 1,195 crore in FY 2025 to INR 1,270 crore in FY 2026, marking a growth of 6.2%. Across the standalone segment, growth rebounded strongly over H2 and particularly in Q4 FY 2026.
Standalone sales increased from INR 1,410 crores in H1 FY 2026 to INR 1,614 crores in H2 FY 2026, reflecting a strong sequential growth of 14.4%. On a year-on-year basis, H2 FY 2026 grew by around 14.1% compared to INR 1,415 crores in H2 FY 2025. You may note that H1 FY 2026 was only marginally higher by about 3%. Standalone abrasive grew from INR 594 crores in H1 FY 2026 to INR 675 crores in H2 FY 2026, which is a growth of 13.7% on a sequential basis. On a year-on-year basis, abrasive grew 15.6% compared to the last year same period.
Ceramic increased from INR 466 crores in H1 FY 2026 to INR 534 crores in H2 FY 2026, marking a sequential growth of 14.5%. Year-on-year it grew by 8% in H2 FY 2026 and 4.9% in H1 FY 2026. Electrominerals from INR 425 crores in H1 FY 2026 to INR 481 crores in H2 FY 2026, an increase of 13.2% sequentially. On a year-on-year basis, the segment delivered a strong growth of 15.5% in H2 FY 2026 and 6.5% in H1 FY 2026.
Overall, the growth in H2 FY 2026 was broad-based across all segments with abrasives, ceramics, electrominerals, all contributing double-digit sequential growth, leading to a strong performance in comparison with H2 FY 2025, as well as in comparison to H1 FY 2026. In Q4 FY 2026, standalone recorded at INR 845 crores compared to INR 769 crores in Q2 FY 2026, reflecting a sequential growth of 9.9%. Compared to INR 686 crores, Q2 FY 2026 sales grew by 23.1%. In that period, abrasives grew from INR 323 crores in Q3 FY 2026 to INR 353 crores in Q4 FY 2026, marking an increase of 9.3% sequentially. Compared to Q4 FY 2025, it recorded a strong growth of 21.5%.
Ceramic increased from INR 255 crores in Q3 FY 2026 to INR 279 crores in Q4 FY 2026, marking an increase of 9.2% sequentially. Compared to Q4 FY 2025, it grew by 21.7%. Electrominerals rose from INR 229 crores in Q3 FY 2026 to INR 252 crores in Q4 FY 2026, marking a growth of 9.7% sequentially. Compared to Q4 FY 2025, it grew by 22.3%. Standalone profit after tax, FY 2026 PAT was INR 416 crores compared to FY 2025 PAT of INR 322 crores, reflecting a growth of 29.4% year on year. The PAT of FY 2026 includes a dividend from one of the subsidiary about INR 76 crores.
H1 FY 2026 PAT stood at INR 209 crores compared to H1 PAT of INR 180 crores, registering a growth of 16.4%. H2 FY 2026 PAT was INR 207 crores compared to the H2 FY 2025 PAT of INR 142 crores, a strong growth of 45.9%. Q4 FY 2026 PAT came in at INR 122 crores compared to Q4 FY 2025 PAT of INR 61 crores, resulting in doubling of profit in this quarter. I move to the consolidated results. Consolidated sales on a full year basis was about INR 5,149 crores in FY 2026. This marks a growth of 6.5% over the sale of INR 4,333 crores in FY 2025.
It may be noted that the company has surpassed the mark of INR 5,000 crores in the consolidated revenue this year. Consolidated growth was driven by ceramic segment, which grew from INR 1,160 crores to INR 1,268 crores, marking a growth of 9.3%. Consolidated abrasives segment grew by 5.1% from INR 2,159 crores to INR 2,271 crores. Consolidated electrominerals grew by 3.7%, going from INR 1,574 crores to INR 1,632 crores. The muted consolidated electromineral growth reflects the higher base in FY 2025 due to VAW. You will note that VAW was sanctioned in January 2025. In FY 2025, VAW had a normal sale of three quarters.
In Q4 FY 2026, consolidated sales were INR 1,383 crores compared to INR 1,199 crores. This is a growth of 15.4%. Growth in Q4 was driven by abrasive, which grew by 13.4%, ceramic, which grew by 18.6%, electro minerals, which grew by 14.6% over Q4 2025. Compared to Q3 2026, which recorded sales of INR 1,273 crores, sales in Q4 grew by 8.7%. During the last call, I said the consolidated sales would grow by 5.5%-6.5%. Against this, we have recorded a growth of 6.5%. Now I'll cover the consolidated PBT profit.
Consolidated PBT before exceptional items in FY 2026, consolidated profit before exceptional item and taxes stood at INR 416 crores compared to INR 572 crores in the previous year, reflecting a drop of 27.2% year-on-year. A majority of this decline was on account of VAW, almost about INR 87 crores, Foskor almost about INR 22 crores, AWUKO INR 19 crores, RHODIUS about INR 46 crores. I will cover all these in detail later. Exceptional items, Foskor and AWUKO. In FY 2026, exceptional items amounting to INR 135 crores have been recorded in consolidated financial statement. In FY 2025, there was an amount of INR 104 crores for the provisions relating to the foreign currency deposits and receivable outside of CUMI Group, following the imposition of sanctions in January 2025.
During the financial year, CUMI International Limited, the holding company of AWUKO, approved to initiate the closure of AWUKO through a voluntary winding up process under the applicable laws in Germany. Considering the continued underperformance of the subsidiary with the mounting losses and its inability to turn around in view of the prevailing market conditions. Exceptional items relating to this closure amounts to INR 119 crores. Foskor Zirconia Private Limited is a subsidiary of CUMI International Limited. CUMI holds 51% stake in Foskor Zirconia. Foskor Zirconia has not been able to achieve sustainable profit since 2013, despite several strategic and operational restructuring initiatives undertaken in the past. Further, the escalation in electricity and other input costs in South Africa, coupled with the intensifying global competition and foreign exchange fluctuations, has rendered the business commercially unviable.
Turnaround initiatives have been adversely impacted by the prevailing market conditions. Marking continuation of operations unsustainable. Accordingly, the board of Foskor Zirconia, based on the recommendations of the management, have concluded that there is no realistic alternative to carry on the operation and will be seeking requisite approvals in this process. Accordingly, the consolidated FY 2026 financials include the impact of INR 16 crores relating to the write down of various assets to the realizable value. I will cover the profit before interest and tax. Standalone PBIT. At standalone level, the business reported total PBIT of INR 525 crores in FY 2026 as compared to INR 425 crores in FY 2025, reflecting a strong growth of 23.4%.
Segment results of INR 491 crores in FY 2026 is marginally higher than the results of INR 418 crores in FY 2025. At segment level, Electro Minerals delivered a strong performance, increasing from INR 63 crores to INR 83 crores, registering a robust growth of 31.1%. Abrasives PBIT was INR 195 crores in FY 2026 compared to INR 193 crores in FY 2025, registering marginal growth of about 0.9%. Ceramics declined from INR 233 crores to INR 214 crores, reflecting a drop of 8%. We'll cover this later in the call. Consolidated PBIT. Consolidated PBIT was INR 404 crores in FY 2026 compared to INR 541 crores in FY 2025. This marks a decline of 25.3%. The drop is due to VAW, Foskor zirconia, AWUKO, and RHODIUS.
As explained earlier, I will cover this later in detail. I'll go to the segmental performance. Abrasive segmental performance. Consolidated abrasives. Consolidated abrasives recorded a sales of INR 2,271 crores in FY 2026 as compared to INR 2,159 crores in FY 2025, registering a growth of 5.1%. On a quarterly basis, sales of INR 610 crores in Q4 2026 grew by 13.4% compared to INR 538 crores in Q4 FY 2025. On a sequential basis, sales grew from INR 516 crores in Q3 FY 2026 to INR 610 crores in Q4 FY 2026, reflecting growth of 7.2%. Consolidated abrasive sales growth was driven by growth in standalone segment, RHODIUS Abrasives, AWUKO Abrasives, CUMI America, and Sterling Abrasives.
During our last call, I communicated a sales growth of 4%-5%, 5% in consolidated abrasives we can expect. We are now at a growth of 5.1%. Now I'll cover standalone abrasives. Standalone abrasive level, abrasives recorded a full year performance of INR 1,270 crores as compared to INR 1,195 crores, reflecting a growth of 6.2%. On a half yearly basis, H1 2026 stood at INR 594 crores against INR 611 crores in H1 2025, registering decline of 2.8%. However, in H2 showed a strong recovery, increasing to INR 675 crores from INR 585 crores in H2 FY 2025, reflecting a growth of 15.6%.
Overall, performance improved from INR 594 crores in H1 FY 2026 to INR 675 crores in H2 FY 2026, marking a growth of 13.7% sequentially. You would note that the business faced such issues such as inventory correction from the dealer channel and seasonal rains which delayed construction activity in some markets, tepid demand in industrial segment, and a short period of caution in the northern markets following Pahalgam attack. We undertook a range of go-to-market initiatives, including market expansion activities such as dealer appointment, new product introduction, re-branding of established products in newer geographies, onboarding of key potential OEMs as customers, and a host of other initiatives.
Besides this, implementation of GST rate rationalization and a rebound in festival season demand provided a growth impetus. I'll move to RHODIUS Abrasives. RHODIUS Abrasives, the sales in FY 2026 was EUR 61 million compared to sales of EUR 67 million in FY 2025. This marks a decline of 8.8%. Q1 FY 2026, RHODIUS made a transition to a new third-party logistics partner. Considering the long-term operational efficiencies, this transition resulted in loss of sales of about EUR 5 million. We communicated this earlier with you. While operations resumed normalcy by Q2 FY 2026, the lost sales in Q1 FY 2026 could not be regained over the rest of the years. Yeah. Overall, I think they delivered sales of EUR 61 million compared to EUR 67 million.
We expect sales in FY 2027 to grow by 5% in FY 2027. The loss, the PAT loss in FY 2026 was INR 2.6 million compared to INR 0.2 million in FY 2025. We expect FY 2026, the PAT to be a very smaller loss. CUMI AWUKO Abrasives. AWUKO recorded sales of EUR 10.5 million in FY 2026 compared to sales of EUR 10.1 million in FY 2025. This is a growth of 4.6% in euro terms. The loss before exceptional and tax increased from EUR 6.6 million to EUR 7.7 million in FY 2026. This marks an increase of 15.8%. Losses were higher in AWUKO on account of various factors. Anyhow, we have decided to wind down the company as following the legal process as given by respective countries.
Abrasive PBIT in the standalone abrasives FY 2026 recorded a marginal growth of 0.9% year-over-year. Looking at the half-year dynamics, there was a strong sequential recovery with the H2 FY 2026 growing by approximately 31.3% over H1 2026. While there was a significant gain in the momentum over H2 due to reasons explained earlier, the impact of low volumes in H1 and the resultant lower cost absorption offset the profitability gains in H2. A standalone PBIT margin percentage decreased from 16.1% in FY 2025 to 15.3%, 81 basis points drop. This decline was mostly on account of the lower volume in H1 FY 2026. At a consolidated level, PBIT margin dropped by 36.2% going from INR 151 crores to INR 97 crores. Higher losses at RHODIUS AWUKO contributed to this decline.
You know, RHODIUS lost INR 45 crores versus nearly INR 0.44 crores in FY 2024, and AWUKO INR 75 crores of loss versus INR 58 crores of loss last year. At the consolidated level, PBIT percentage of abrasives segment dropped from 7% to 4.3%. During the last call, I said PBIT margin of abrasive would be 4.4%-4.5%. We are now at 4.3%. EMD segmental performance. Consolidated Electro Minerals recorded sales of INR 1,632 crores in FY 2026 compared to sales of INR 1,574 crores in FY 2025. This marks a growth of 3.7%. The growth at consolidated level is entirely on account of lower sales at VAW Russia, which declined by 22% in INR terms in the Electro Minerals segment.
VAW Russia, in ruble terms, VAW recorded sales of almost RUB 6 billion compared to RUB 9.4 billion in FY 2025. This marks a decline of 35.3%. Sales in abrasives segment in VAW was about 14% lower compared to FY 2025. Sales in ceramic segment was lower by 31% compared to FY 2025. Profit before exceptional items and tax of the entity declined from RUB 1.7 billion in FY 2025 to RUB 617 million in FY 2026. Lower sales and profits are on account of the sanction imposed by U.S.A. Despite the volume being considerably lower, the business continues to be profitable at its current level of operation. Standalone electro minerals.
At the standalone electro minerals, electro mineral recorded a full year performance of INR 906 crores in FY 2026 as compared to INR 815 crores in FY 2025, reflecting a strong growth of 11.1%. On a half yearly basis, H1 2026 stood at INR 425 crores against INR 399 crores in H1 2025, registering a growth of 6.5%. H2 FY 2026 increased to INR 481 crores from INR 416 crores, reflecting a stronger growth of 15.5%. Sequentially, the performance improved from INR 425 crores to INR 481 crores with a growth of 13.2%. Overall, the full year growth was driven by stronger growth in exports.
Exports grew by 100% from FY 2025 to FY 2026 and currently contribute to little over 33% of the total sales compared to 11% of the sales in FY 2025. Exports were driven by leveraging business existing relationship with many global OEMs across abrasives and refractories. Introduction of treated grains coupled with anti-dumping duties against Chinese grains by EU all helped to achieve this. Foskor Zirconia Private Limited. Sales at Foskor Zirconia recorded ZAR 465 million compared to ZAR 415 million in FY 2025. This marks a growth of 11.2% in rand terms. The loss after tax increased ZAR 27 million in FY 2025 to ZAR 77 million in FY 2026. In terms of loss before exceptional and tax increased from INR 37 crores in FY 2025 to INR 77 crores.
The volatility in zircon sand price drop in Z450 price and an appreciation of the rand against the US dollar impacted the bottom line and hence the losses increased. We decided to find that this is not viable anymore to continue. Electro mineral PBIT. Consolidated PBIT on a full year basis recorded INR 91 crores in FY 2026 compared to INR 177 crores in FY 2025. A majority of this drop was on account of the sales drop due to sanctions at VAW and on account of the higher losses at Foskor Zirconia. Standalone electro minerals PBIT grew by 31.1% at INR 82 crores compared to INR 63 crores. During the last call, I gave a guidance of 1%-2% of the sales growth in consolidated electro minerals.
We are at 3.7% now. The last call I said PBIT margin could be 4.5% to 5.5%. We are at about 5.6%. Consolidated ceramic sales of full year was INR 1,268 crores compared to sales of INR 1,160 crores in FY 2025, which marks a growth of 9.3%. Growth was driven by standalone business, which grew from INR 939 crores to INR 1,000 crores in FY 2026. I'll cover in detail the ceramics. I'll first cover ceramics portion of the business. Our ceramic segment consists of industrial ceramics, which is 57% of the ceramic segment, and refractors, which is 43% of the ceramic segment.
Industrial ceramics full year sales stood at INR 569 crores in FY 2026 compared to INR 528 crores in FY 2025, reflecting a growth of 7.8%. As sales in H2 grew by about 10.7%, industrial ceramic is broadly divided into three segments: wear ceramics, engineered ceramics, and metallized ceramics. wear ceramics, which constitute roughly 30% of the business, offers wear resistance products and engineered ceramics, which constitutes about roughly, again, one-third of the business, as a suite of customized engineered ceramics such as C channels, spark plugs, rings, X-ray image intensifier tubes, et cetera. Metallized cylinders are used in vacuum interruptors in the power transmission and distribution industry that constitute another one-third of the business. Standalone ware ceramic business, which grew by 9%, sells to 3 broad geographical segment.
It sells products to CUMI Australia, CUMI America, and India. While the Australia grew by roughly 13%, India also grew well by 12%. The export to America degrew by 40%. Within the wear protection business, sales in Australia and subsidiary grew by 13%, driven by strong orders with the OEMs. Our domestic business grew by 12%, engineered ceramic segment grew by 30%, driven by the associate segment, which is seeing a strong demand in the AI-driven data center segment. Metallized cylinder business grew by 9%. This segment, which typically grows about 14%, was impacted by production-related challenge that cropped up in H1, got addressed by Q4. This was resolved by Q4. Operations are back to normal.
Hence, there is a fall in growth to 9%. I'll cover refractories now. Full year refractories consist of two broad segments: refractories and anti-corrosive products. Refractories constitute 77%. Anti-corrosive constitute 23%. Segments stood at INR 437 crores compared to INR 418 crores, reflecting growth of 4.7%. The refractory business dropped by 4.3% compared to H1 FY 2025, and this was aided by strong return of deferred projects, especially in the glass segment. Orders in anti-corrosives and structural composite business have been well sustained over the year. They grew very well in last year. Sales driven by fertilizer industry and structural composites business demand was strong in various sectors. During the last call, we gave a sales of growth of 13%-14% in ceramic.
We achieved 9.3% growth in ceramics. We'll move to CapEx. Consolidated CapEx was INR 309 crores, of which standalone constituted INR 235 crores. We communicated CapEx estimate of INR 350 crores during our last calls. I'll provide a brief about what CapEx we did last year. In FY 2026, we commissioned the first module of exclusive facility for the manufacturing of advanced ceramic components for semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment with a CapEx outlay of INR 66 crore. The facility comprised of an end-to-end capability from preparation of high purity powders to precision machining and cleaning will cater key global OEMs like Applied Materials. Serial supplies of qualified products will commence in FY 2027, with the line utilization gradually improving. Further expansions in line with the development roadmap and long-term strategy is on, is very much there.
In the first year of serial production in FY 2026, the focus would be on assimilating technologies and establishing stronger system. A gradual ramp-up in FY 2026, the focus supplies to the key customer, Applied Materials, will be on. In aerospace and defense segment, we have commissioned a new facility with an outlay of INR 49 crores to produce advanced ceramics for ballistic protection of vehicle and personnel. The business is expected to scale up high in 2030 gradually. Further ramping up will happen around that time. In this segment, we have secured STANAG 4 qualification of vehicle armor and for personal protection of ceramic qualified BIS threat level 5 and 6, equivalent to NIJ III+ and IV levels. We are awaiting SCOMET approval, which will enable us to expand the business.
The next major program is the upgradation of existing white fused alumina furnace from 2 MVA to 4.5 MVA, which will increase the existing capacities substantially. CapEx outlay for this is about INR 2-3 crores, including the installation of 110 KV substation to meet the future power requirements of the plant. The incremental capacity will have a maximum revenue potential of INR 95 crores for the full utilization. We have increased the treatment facility as well. This is a CapEx outlay of INR 30 crores. This CapEx is a maximum potential revenue of about INR 120 crores. Additionally, pilot facility was established for the manufacturing of ceramic powders for solid oxide fuel cells. The facility will leverage the technology tie-up we had with the CGCRI.
During the year, the business also entered into an agreement with the leading industry expert for the transfer of technology towards manufacturing of aluminum nitride and silicon nitride powders. The next major growth project is the commissioning of thin wheel capacity at Hosur using the assets that we bought from Dronco. Total CapEx outlay is INR 83 crores and can produce 46 million thin wheels with a peak revenue of about INR 120 crores. FCF, free cash flow on a full year basis at a consolidated level is 56.6% to PAT compared to last year's 16.1%. Standalone level, FCF to PAT was 46.5% compared to 14% last year. Debt-to-equity ratio is 0.08. Now I'll go to the guidance.
At the consolidated level, we expect the sales to grow approximately 4%-4.5% in FY 2027. However, if we exclude the revenue contributed from Foskor Zirconia and CUMI AWUKO, which accounts to INR 343 crores in FY 2026 sales, and compare it with our business plan, comparable growth will be 11%-12%. Consolidated abrasive sales are expected to grow by 5.5%-6%. However, if we exclude the revenue from AWUKO, which is about INR 108 crores in FY 2026, sales growth would be 11%-12%. Consolidated ceramic growth is expected to be in the range of 15%-15.5%.
Consolidated electromineral sales are expected to decline by 6.5%-7% on account of the closure of Foskor Zirconia, which accounted for INR 235 crores in FY 2026. However, if we exclude the revenue contribution from Foskor Zirconia in FY 2026 and compare it with what we are planning to do in FY 2027, the growth would be 8%-9%. Consolidated abrasive margins are expected to be around 9.5%-10%. The reported margin in FY 2026 is 4.3%. However, if we exclude the comparable margin, if we exclude AWUKO losses, it would be 7.9%. Basically, it will grow from 7.9% to 9.5%-10%. Consolidated ceramic margin would be 20.5%-21%.
The reported margin's 20.2%. Consolidated electromineral margin could be 9%-9.5%. In FY 2026, the reported margin is 5.6%. However, if we exclude the loss of Foskor Zirconia and compare it, the FY 2026 margin would be 9.1%. From 9.1%, it would be 9%-9.5%. We expect to do a CapEx of about INR 400 crores in FY 2027. The key CapEx program for FY 2026 include expansion of advanced ceramics for power electronics, including substrate, metallized tubes, rings, brazed assemblies, expansion of brown fused alumina, and addition of integrated furnace facility for thermal spray powders and zirconia furnace and grain passing facility.
We also intend to do 110 kV substation and a tile kiln for refractories. These are the major projects which should account for about INR 400 crores of CapEx. Now, I would quickly cover our Aspiration 2030. The company launched its Aspiration 2030 in FY 2026 is the first year. The Aspiration is built on seven key building blocks: building a high-performance organization, ambitious growth for the current businesses, focusing on innovation, exploring new opportunities for the growth, achieving manufacturing excellence, strengthening sales and marketing excellence, and supporting all this through digital and ESG initiatives. Progress is regularly tracked through structured reviews, involving teams across the business. In abrasive business, the company has a clear market strategy across the segments, and it's expanding dealer networks, strengthening relationship with existing partners.
The focus is also gaining on the new customers and increasing business with the current ones. The company is strengthening its presence in the areas where it has currently low presence. It has also growing sourcing business and has set up a new vertical for this, a clear roadmap for the new products to be introduced with the well-supported investment in R&D team and capability and process building in R&D team. The thin wheel capacity based on assets acquired through Dronco has been discussed earlier. To stay competitive against the low-priced products, especially from China, the company has launched a cost optimization program across significant SKUs and strengthened the coordination between sales, product development, and quality teams using digital tools. In electromineral business, the capacity is being expanded by upgrading furnaces.
The company is also increasing its capacity in value-added products in aluminas and diversifying the raw material sourcing. Exports are a key priority and already form a significant share of the business. Electro minerals. I would like you to look at it in three broad categories: Core. Our range of fused alumina products, including BFA, WFA, and silicon carbide products, constitute our core product portfolio. We have expansion plans in both WFA and BFA. While the core products will continue to form the bulk of our product basket, its share is expected to current level of 85%, it will come down to 55%-60% by 2030 as other product categories would scale up. Treated products, which include products that undergo heat treatment and coating, are relatively high performing in nature.
As discussed earlier, we are undertaking a related CapEx initiative in this area. We aim to increase the share of treated grains from 5%-6%, at the current level, nearly 20% by 2030. Specialty products. The business currently manufactures alumina zirconia products catering to applications in abrasive refractories, metal matrix, composites, and related industries. We also produce some zircon mullite grains. We have expansion plans for both alumina zirconia as well as ZirMul. In addition, as part of the LTS initiative, we plan to start production of calcium stabilized zirconia and monoclinic zirconia. Collectively, this suite of zirconia-based products will form specialty products portfolio, whose share is expected to increase from 8% currently to 18%-20% by 2030. Transformational products.
At the same time, the company is investing in new technologies and products such as SOFC powders and nitrides, which are expected to drive future growth. In FY 2026, we have commissioned a pilot lab facility with a spray pyrolysis technology to prepare powders for SOFC and SOEC cathodes. This was done based on the technology transfer from CGCRI. We will focus on capacity creation and securing anchor customers. There has been good progress on nitride side as well, with a leading technology consultant being onboarded in this year. Apart from this, business has achieved 5N purity on HPSiC and will be working on securing customers for the same over FY 2027. The technology route for 6N purity of HPSiC also been initiated, and the business currently working on a pilot scale manufacturing facility for the same.
Besides this, we are working on establishing application for graphene in bioplastics, coating, concrete, and rubber. All these areas such as thermal spray powders, electrolytes, or ceramic powders for SOFC, SOEC, nitrides, HPSiC, graphene are collectively called transformational products. We expect transformational products to contribute around 10% by 2030 compared to the current level, practically very little. Growth in this segment is expected to be gradual, as these are advanced materials catering to the emerging sector. We believe we need to create a good base in the transformational product in the Aspiration period and create a new leg of growth beyond 2030. Ceramics. When we come to industrial ceramic segment, we can view it as core and emerging businesses, where metallized cylinders for vacuum interrupters, engineered ceramics for diverse applications would fall under the core business.
Emerging business encompass components for semiconductor wafer fab equipment, aerospace and defense electronic substrates. In the core segment, the business plan is to increase metallized cylinder capacity substantially from the current level. Additionally, the business would expand production facility to meet the growing demand in SOFC segment. In the emerging segment, the company is entering into high growth areas like semiconductor through newly commissioned plant, which manufactures components that go into wafer fab equipment. Products have been approved by key customers for serial production. Work is also underway to build capabilities in advanced electronic components through global major tech partners. Additionally, the business is entering into AMB and DBC, active metal brazed products and direct bonded copper products, substrates and based assemblies for power electronics. A qualification program has been drawn, both these critical product segments and prototype development submission will be completed this year.
In the refractory business, the growth will be based on both fired and monolithic business. The fired refractory portion of the business, we are increasing the capacity by 75%. Additional capacity will focus on mullite, high alumina and IFB bricks, PCFC shapes for application in glass, petrochem, superalloys and ceramics. We are also progressing on our plans to increase our monolithic capacities. We'll gradually ramp up our capacity in composites business as well, in carbon bricks, floor coating, advanced structural composites. While we do this host of initiatives at the business, we have also done a good work in terms of the support functions. CUMI's Manufacturing Excellence Program, which works on integrated manufacturing excellence framework, improvements in quality, cost, delivery and operational efficiency across businesses.
This program is delivered to entire cost savings in the first year through automation, digitally enabled queue accuracy and throughput improvement in key assets. Beyond savings in the MX focuses on institutionalizing a culture of Manufacturing Excellence and the support of the Manufacturing Excellence Academy, which runs the program for both management and non-management staff. The company is also strengthening sales capabilities through CRM implementation and the Sales Excellence Academy, which aim to drive more data-backed approach to sales. Digital initiatives are further enhancing manufacturing and planning systems, including the rollout of manufacturing execution system, MES, across identified plants and implement the S&OP software. Safety and sustainability remain central to the company's long-term strategy through a structured EHS excellence framework. The company is advancing its goal to near zero emission, water positivity and improved material circularity.
FY 2030 targets include increasing renewable energy use to 50%, reducing emission intensity by 25% and lowering energy intensity by 20% from FY 2025 levels. Progress is supported by renewable energy adoption, cleaner fuels, waste heat recovery, energy efficiency initiatives. Company has also made significant progress in zero harm journey recording a substantial reduction in LTIFR through risk management and behavioral safety programs. People capability development remains a key enabler of growth and the program called FACED to Perform. The framework consists of focus on the factory, which is the first major initiative. Acquisition of talent, rewarding career path, employee experience and development of talent. We aim to do a high performance organization leadership.
Development initiatives include the Next 100 programs are helping build a strong future-ready talent pipeline. Alongside this, the company is driving cultural transformation through Be Fast behaviors, bold and timely decision-making, embracing change with a solution-driven mindset, fairness to all stakeholders, accountability in decision-making, and standing up for each other. I would like to summarize that we continue to drive the focus execution across functions with multiple initiatives. The progress achieved in the first year of execution is really giving us confidence. We have delivered, you know, the top line as well as the bottom line as per our internal targets, and the progress from the functional level also has gone well. With this, I would like to open up for Q&A. I know it is a long opening remark, but I thought it is needed.
We would have a 45 minutes of the Q&A.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin with 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 remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star 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 one to ask a question. The first question is from the line of Jonas Bhutta from Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. Firstly, you know, just want to congratulate the management in taking a timely decision on the divesture of course. I had two questions, both sort of relating to your high growth or emerging segments. Firstly, if you can touch upon the SOFC segment, there we've seen the client place some very large orders on another vendor in India, provides line of sight right up till calendar year 2029 and in fact, 2030 as well. In your case, if you can give us the lay of the land in terms of how has that business for you grown? You know, what is your wallet share? Are you one of the many vendors for those ceramic parts?
Do you see any disruption in the technology that leads to lower adoption of ceramics in that thing? You know, can this business become like a 10%-12% portion of your sales maybe three or four years down the line? That's the first question.
Right. Thank you. I think, first of all, we feel that we are very important shareholder of the particular segment that we serve to the SOFC segment. We believe that we have a vision at least going up to the next year, and there's a line of sight the management provides, the customer provides going up to, say, 2028 like that. The customer also is growing well. We have to build the capacities using that as a, as a, as a clue, plus the intermediary guideline that they always give for the next one year.
This is how we are looking at, and we feel that, given what the customer is embarked upon and the kind of growth that they are facing, we feel a very strong growth possibility in this segment. We have grown well last year, and we expect, you know, to grow well in the coming years as well.
What would your wallet share with the client be?
Yeah. We wouldn't like to share such details at this call. As I said that we feel that we are an important supplier to the customer.
Sure. Any guidelines on how big can this business be three years out, sir, for you? Not a number, but at least as a percent, can it be meaningful in terms of, like, 10, greater than 10% of sales?
Definitely it will be a meaningful share that we will have. As we said that the engineering segment itself, you know, is currently, is one-third of the business. That substantially it would grow up is our feeling.
Understood. Thanks. The second question was on the new CapEx that you've done for Applied Materials. If you can dwell a bit on what exactly will that help you get with, you know, for Applied Materials, where is this product used particularly? You know, with the, I think if I got the number right, did about INR 60 crore-INR 70 crore of CapEx for that. Where does it take you? Is it predominantly first to get the first articles out and get the prequalification and post which will require a further CapEx? If you can give a timeline to that. That's my final question. Thank you.
Right. We've crossed the qualification stage on set of products, and this is an initial investment, as I said. We expect that this investment could go at least three to four times higher, and we are geared for that. We also expect the revenue potential also is substantial from in this industry.
Got it. I'll take this offline. Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Sir, firstly, on abrasives, China has removed the export rebate on abrasive products from 9% to 0%, effective from April onwards. Has the domestic market pricing improved because of this? We have been able to garner a little bit better market share in the last one or two?
It's a very recent phenomenon at this point in time. A lot of people will have inventory through the imported materials. All that is happening. We believe that this is good for the domestic industry, and it will help us to grow. Of course, the growth in H2 is about 15% is very encouraging. A lot of that could be due to this factor as well. I think overall, we see a rebound and our work in terms of all the areas, whether it is GTM initiatives, new products that we introduce, bringing cost down of our products, all these combined effort of our strategy is playing out. This we have been doing in over the last 18 to 24 months is now playing out.
Understood. Just a follow-up to that. Given that we posted such a strong growth in the fourth quarter, if you could explain your growth in terms of how industrial market did, how precision did, how retail abrasives did, and what would be the outlook on these three sub-segments going ahead?
I think I gave a broad outlook in terms of the segmental sales that what we are looking at. We feel that standalone, we grew 6.2% this year. We believe that we can grow in the range of about 12% next year.
Understood. My second question is on standalone electro minerals. What has been the contribution of volumes and higher pricing in the 22% YOY growth that we posted for fourth quarter? Even the full year growth at 11% was reasonably healthy. Also, you could comment on the Chinese import intensity, whether it has increased or decreased in recent times in that electro minerals business based out of India.
The Chinese intensity continues to be there. There's no kind of coming down of it. We started focusing more on the treated products export segments, and that is the focus that we are looking at. That gave us this growth that we posted in the full year as well as in the Q4. The predominant growth has come from volume, where price is probably you can treat it as flat or slight, some small percentage.
Understood, sir. Thank you very much for answering my questions. I'll come back in the queue.
Right. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ravi Swaminathan from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is with respect to the FY 2030 vision, 2030 vision. Any revenue target or growth target that we have and any margin target that we have for this?
Ravi Swaminathan, thank you for asking this question. We have not been sharing a guidance. We have started sharing only a one-year guidance and also giving a programs that what we are looking at going for the Aspiration 2030. We believe that it would energize and bring the growth substantially from now onwards. We have kind of addressed some of the issues that we are facing in terms of loss-making subsidies, so we should see a rebound.
Got it, sir. With respect to the ceramics and refractories business, if you can once again highlight. You had mentioned numbers in terms of bifurcation between ceramics and refractories. If you can call it out once again, and what kind of growth that we should think of in each of these individual subsegments, if you can give some detail.
I think, I gave an elaborate one, but I'll just give a broad outlook to you, is that we feel that 57% of the ceramic is industrial ceramic and 43% is the refractory business. The growth that we are looking at in terms of Just a second. The growth overall in ceramic segment that we are looking at, this year we achieved 6.5%. We expect next year will be in the range of about 14%. I'm not sharing the individual data of the refractory and the industrial ceramic, but they would broadly form part of around this range, 14%.
Understood, sir. Yeah. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Amit from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to understand how has been the exports across the segments. I think you mentioned something, 11.33%. I missed that. If possible for you to give us some color in terms of exports within ceramics and abrasives and what is the kind of outlook there?
I shared the export share of electro mineral business, which I said that we have reached a 33% share in the current business, over INR 300 crores of export in electro mineral business. That's what I shared.
Right. sir, how has been the export in ceramics and abrasives? If we can get the breakup and what's the outlook there also.
Ceramic is the biggest portion of the ceramic. Over 80% of the business is all exports, that is doing fine. I mean, that basically whatever is the growth that I talked about on industrial ceramic predominantly comes from those areas. Abrasive, very small portion of the abrasive business is the export. It's less than 10% is export.
Understood, sir. My second question on RHODIUS. I think you guided about 5% top line growth and kind of breakeven or some very small loss. What exactly is affecting it? The growth seems to be still kind of in mid-single digits, but we are expecting the breakeven. Where exactly the improvements will happen? If you could elaborate more in terms of how business volumes are happening in RHODIUS and what will lead to the turnaround this year.
If you see the last year, the big reason for the drop.
Welcome all of you to our post-earnings conference call.
Can you please unmute, please, sir?
Yes. Yes. Sorry. Yes. I'm sorry, sir. Yeah, go ahead.
Right. Last year we had almost EUR 5 million impact in terms of the logistics change. That really affected the top line change. We feel that they have been growing in the range of about 6%-7%, and we feel that that growth should happen. Second is that because of this loss of sale as well as the margin impact due to this loss of sale, along with the logistics costs on the shift, these things would come down, and hence we feel that we should get back to a small loss or a breakeven. The third reason is that we have also now working on a program with the RHODIUS team in terms of how do we accelerate the profitability as a special program.
These are the reason why we think that we should get here.
Understood, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harshit Patel. Please go ahead. Harshit?
Harshit, you may ask your question. There is no response on the line of Harshit Patel. The next question is from the line of Akshay Thakur from Helios Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for such an elaborate call. Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, yes. We are hearing you.
Yeah.
Please go ahead.
My question is pertaining to the stationary armor in within your defense, and also, CFRP products for aerospace. Currently there is a lot of ecosystem being developed for aerospace and for aeronautics and for this defense as well. Almost 100% of that would be imported. How do you see this, like in terms of commercialization, where are we placed? Are the certifications right? Are we negotiating with the OEMs or, where are we placed on that?
I think, you kind of very clearly described this. Step one is to have the certifications in place, which we are definitely doing it. I described the certifications that we already got. Pretty much we are in good shape as far as certification is concerned. We are working with a few anchor customers at this stage. We also have the ability to work with them because they would be the front-ending in terms of what they would finally supply. We are only a product supplier to this case. Hence, this is how we are planning to move in this model.
Thank you, sir. That was helpful. My second question is, it's been long time that we are facing the war situation in the Russian subsidiary. Like all this time, like, are we able to figure out any alternative strategy? India also imports a lot of silicon carbide. Are there any alternative strategy? If there is, what type of lower realization would SiC get in other economies?
Honestly, it's difficult to create a capacity, and the cost would be, you know, pretty high. It's going to be very difficult to recreate anything like that. At the same time, Russia is not in a position to export products, which is what we are currently going through. Practically we need to wait for the sanctions to be lifted, which gives us an ability to, you know, go beyond Russia. At this stage, we don't have an alternate solution for this.
Thank you, sir. One more question. Can you just throw some light on the subsidiary you have, PLUSS? How is it doing?
PLUSS is doing fine.
In terms of profitability?
Yeah. They made profit, and it's a very small profit. They are doing fine.
Okay. Thank you, sir. That was all.
Yes.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Chintan from PICO Capital Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you so much for taking my question. Sir, one of the questions that I had was that as you said, the ceramics business is around 80% exports for us, most of our peers will be global, and they spend a lot on R&D. How do you see our business and our R&D evolve over the next few years? What are the key areas that we'll be focusing on?
Yeah, I think that's a great question. We spend roughly about 1% as R&D, and I think this needs to go up, and we expect that we should at least start spending 2%-3% level. We are working in terms of strengthening our R&D team across the individual BUs. We also strengthening the new product development process coupled with, you know, software-enabled process so that we kind of make sure that we do the right thing in terms of new product, getting the right input from the market, customers, and the users. All these factors are now being put part of this R&D process.
Strengthening the R&D, building the capability, putting process, we need to accelerate the spend both in terms of CapEx as well as in terms of OpEx.
All right, sir. The second question I had was more on the ceramic side. Basically, a lot of applications in EV require ceramics. Are we working on any products or programs with any OEMs or tier 1s where our ceramics are getting used on the EV space? How do you see it evolving over the next three to five years, basically?
Yeah, yes, we do work. I think this is part of the engineered ceramics that I described, and that's why we feel quite upbeat in terms of that segment's growth. We are working with tier 1 suppliers to OEMs. That is how our role would be, and that definitely we are doing that.
How do you see it evolving maybe, sir? I mean, would it be a substantial part of our revenues? What are the key focus areas? If you could just elaborate on that.
Engineered ceramics will be a key focus area for us, which would bring a substantial share of our business, which consists of areas like that what you talked about in terms of SOFC, EVs, as well as, you know, rings. It also consists of image intensified tubes. All these products group would fall under that. We feel that the growth rate would be substantial, and we also feel that the share of business will go up. That is how we are creating this capacity. We are also trying to create, as I said that, you know, ceramic substrate capacity for electronics is we are creating. We are working on that. Technology transfer agreement is done. Now the capacity augmentation would happen in FY 2027 on that.
All right, sir. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
Thank you.
The next question is on the line of Preet Jain from Niveshaay Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for taking my question. Congratulations on good set of numbers. Sir, my first question is on the semiconductor side. The semiconductor opportunity seems to be a massive long-term driver. Can you split between structural ceramic for fab equipment and HPSiC for wafers? Could you map out the current qualification cycle timelines with global OEM? Given the strict purity requirements, when do you expect this segment to cross the threshold into material revenue generation for us?
Well, good. Lot of loaded comments, and you are asking the right question. Particularly on this ceramic for the wafer fab equipment, in the case that we have, we have built the capacity. The material qualification process is pretty long. It could take about four to six years. We have crossed that, and that is how we have created the capacity at this stage. We have, you know, samples tested. Now we are in the, you know, development phase is completed, and now we will start supplying to them. The serial production will start. You are right, it takes long time, and that is how we took long time to get here. We will now complete phase I and then expand to phase II quickly.
When can we expect material revenue generation from that?
2029 onwards we can expect.
Okay.
20. Yeah.
Okay. My second question is, given the massive power distribution and grid infrastructure CapEx happening domestically, how quickly we can debottleneck our current metalized cylinder capacity? Furthermore, are we seeing traction in penetrating the export market to compete against Japanese player like Kyocera and NGK?
Sure. We have In fact, our metalized cylinder, the biggest portion is only exports. Definitely we are competing with the names that you are mentioning, and we are doing it well. The expansion would happen in the next 18 months to 24 months in a phased manner. I mean, it consists of three phases, but it would happen in that fashion.
Do we have the capacity till 1.5 years next to supply this metalized cylinder?
Yes, definitely. We have, we are one of the, you know, number 2 worldwide player in this field, and we feel that we have headroom. Plus we also creating the newer capacities in this, debottlenecking and creating the capacities.
Okay. Sir, another question is, you are supplying to one of the largest SOFC manufacturers in the world. Basically, our current realization according to our revenue states at INR 13 lakhs-INR 15 lakhs per megawatt of deployed. Given that SOFC manufacturer has expanded its capacity from 1 GW to 2 GW, can I know, can I get to know what are your revenue estimations regarding that SOFC product? Given that five-year, five to seven year replacement cycle of that SOFC cell, can we also expect revenue from the replacement demand?
I think a lot of that has got sub-elements of it. You are getting headline information. We feel that definitely the gigawatt of additions that each of them would add would definitely help us. Our demand also would go up. As I said in the earlier question, we feel that the growth rate in this segment is going to be substantially high. We are parallelly gearing up because we are also feeling that we need to work in terms of creating this capacity, ahead of time, so which is what, we are working on this. I think you are right. This growth toward the, you know, seem to be going up because of the AI related data center demand, et cetera.
Definitely it's a clear sign of growth in that segment. SOFC is a clear market leader in a clean energy segment, which definitely helps us quite a lot.
Okay. If time permits, can I ask one more question?
Yes, please.
Thank you. Thank you for giving me opportunity. Sir, basically China has reduced its export rebate in April 2026 from 9%-13% on their abrasives products. Are we seeing any current traction of abrasives sales growth volume improving in current month or in last month due to this policy?
I did comment on this, Preet, little bit in the earlier question. I think it just happened, you know, we are in the month of May, so a lot of inventory would be there in this, you know, the system that should get, you know, also completed. I feel that definitely it is a good sign. It helps the domestic market to grow faster. We have grown 15% in H2.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you.
The next question is on the line of Sajal Kapoor from Antifragile Thinking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions on the R&D side of things in the business. What percentage of your recent R&D and innovation projects were deliberately stopped or pivoted or, you know, redesigned because customer or market learning invalidated the original assumption? That's my first question.
Yeah. That's a great question. If I just quickly look around our R&D at four BUs, I haven't experienced any such program of that we stopped or customers request change type of a situation. Definitely not. We have experienced cases where, you know, you need to put a particular application, but, you know, you require some more work to make sure that the application really is capable of using our product. That type of thing happens.
No, understood. Thank you. How will CUMI ensure its investments in silicon carbide, advanced ceramics and other high-tech materials become high ROCE scalable businesses rather than technologically strong but capital inefficient platforms?
I'm not sure I get your question. Why would you think it's a capital inefficient platform?
No. I mean, do you have internal benchmark that, you know We are doing a lot of advanced R&D and in the annual reports, we are almost confidently saying that post 2030, CUMI will emerge as a very different looking businesses, business because of the initiatives that we are doing across many things. I can name, maybe, most futuristic opportunity to my mind is something like semiconductor link materials, EV, but even things like electrominerals, silicon carbide. You know, we have got most strategic capability around that. Difficulty is also very high. What is the, ultimately from an investor perspective, it's about, you know, this, how scalable the business can be and what will be the steady state ROCE it will generate.
That will determine-
Yeah.
The outcome will determine the shareholder wealth creation. I was coming from that perspective.
Sure. No, I think these are definitely looked at part of our threshold to evaluate any such opportunity. Clearly the dimension that you are looking at market size and opportunity growth rate and, you know, the ROCE that we would get in a steady state. We feel that these areas that we just listed in terms of ceramics for semiconductors, ceramic for electronics, you know, high purity silicon carbide, ceramics for the aerospace and defense, all these areas, we feel that are good areas to work on and invest, and that's how our programs are on. CUMI is capable of funding itself.
If you really look at it, we spent this year INR 310 crores plus CapEx, and we have 0 debt, net 0 debt at this point, and substantially very good FCF. We are able to fund these type of programs. Kind of practically, we think that we would spend INR 400 crores next year as well. The year before, we did spend about INR 250 crores plus.
No, no. Helpful. Thank you so much. That answers all my questions. Thank you. Wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Kapoor. The next question is from the line of Rachna Kukreja from SIMPL Limited. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, could you please help me understand the performance of our abrasives business for our JVs, in terms of growth as well as segmental profit margins. If you could give some color on the JV performance, it would be very helpful. Hello?
Yes. So madam, I am afraid I'll be able to comment on that. It is another listed company. I think I would encourage you to stay in touch with the management. They would be able to provide that. But I think their shortfalls are coming because of the machine, building the segments, and SuperAbrasive is doing fine. I would limit my conversation to this level.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We take the last question from Pravesh Kochar from Four Lion Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking the question. First one on ceramics. I think last call you mentioned we'll end up with 13%-14% growth in that segment. Then the guide for next year also is at 15%, 15.5%, and we have ended the year at close to 9%. Just want to understand if the, you know, what's the gap between those two. Second, again on the ceramic SOFC side, do we supply only the ceramic plates, et cetera, or are we also in the electrolytes for that particular business? Thank you.
Okay. All right. Two great questions. I think why did we miss? I think that's the only area we missed our guideline. It's largely because of deferred projects, which I think is substantially the one line reason for why did we miss our guideline. Why do we think that we can meet 15 is the backlog and focus from our customer gives us that confidence. We are not currently into electrolytes, but you're asking a very deep question. We have the capability because of our electro mineral business. We have the capability of manufacturing electrolytes. That's the technology we had worked with CGCRI. As I mentioned, we had a small pilot scale plant we established to manufacture that, which is what we just shared in the call as well.
We have a small capability there. We need to now expand that. At this point in time, it's more a pilot scale.
Understood. On the overall segment, my question was earlier we used to anticipate 16%-18% kind of growth, right, in the ceramic segment. I was assuming because of the deferred projects, the next two years would be in that range, right? Given this year some projects were deferred into next year. Just trying to understand if structurally there's more competition that you're seeing or the overall market itself is kind of slowing down.
I don't see. I mean, it's not because of structurally something is changing. I feel that it's more projects, plus a lot of it would depend also on how we do business in America in terms of the ceramic side of the business. These are factors that we have kept in mind when I told the kind of 14%-15%.
Understood. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. That was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Right. So, first of all, I thank you all for patiently hearing us. I just want to summarize. We have done fairly well in FY 2026. We have addressed all the major issues in terms of loss-making subsidiaries. They alone contributed a loss of over INR 100 crores to INR 120 crores. The first year of our five-year journey, we've done fairly well. CUMI has created a good base over the last 24 months for this aspiration. CUMI has made a significant capacity and capability investment in FY 2026. You see three years, INR 280 crores, INR 310 crores. Next year we would plan to spend about INR 400 crores. All of them are in capacity or capability building, that would give a strong future revenue growth.
CUMI has achieved a good free cash flow, after meeting all CapEx investment. It's a good sign, and CUMI is net debt-free. CUMI has drawn a good Aspiration 2030, and it's well-resourced, both in capacity and capability. It's built a good, strong execution rhythm. Above all, it has a good leadership and a strong team exhibiting Be Fast behaviors, which consist of bold and timely decision-making, embracing the change with solution-driven mindset, fairness to all stakeholders, accountability in decision-making and execution, and standing up for each other. Thank you all for hearing us, during this call. Look forward to meeting you in the next call soon. Thank you. Bye.
Thank you so much, sir. With that, we conclude this conference call. Thank you for joining us. You will now disconnect your lines.