Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q3 and nine-month FY 2026 earnings conference call of Concord Biotech Limited, hosted by Antique Stock Broking. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectation of the company as on date of this call. These statements do not guarantee the future performance of the company, and it may involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. 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 conclude. 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. Sumit Gupta from Antique Stock Broking.
Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good, good afternoon, everyone. I welcome you all to the 3Q and 9-month FY 2026 earnings conference call of Concord Biotech Limited. We thank the management of Concord Biotech for providing us with the opportunity to hold this earnings call. From the company today, we have Mr. Ankur Vaid, Joint Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Raviraj Karia, CFO, and Mr. Prakash Sajnani, AVP Accounts and Finance. I would now like to invite Mr. Ankur Vaid to give his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. So we delivered a steady performance during the quarter, reporting revenues of INR 278 crore, representing 14% year-on-year growth. For the nine-month period, revenues declined by 5%, primarily due to challenges in H1, arising from uncertainty on global trade due to U.S. tariff dynamics, delay in written confirmation from EDQM, and the deferral on tender-based supplies in Middle East market. Importantly, these headwinds were largely timing-related rather than structural. Let me give an update on how these situations are evolving now. So firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to the, uh, sorry, one second. Sorry on that. So we have also started with Stelon Biotech, our subsidiary to the, um, our U.S. subsidiary to drive marketing.
So uncertainties around tariffs and global trade dynamics temporarily disrupted customer procurement patterns and delayed second source opportunities as customers waited for greater geopolitical stability before making firm decisions. However, following clarifications that tariffs do not apply to generic products, order momentum began to recover. Now, with the U.S. trade deal taking shape, we are seeing increased engagement and more advanced discussions around larger second source supply opportunities and CDMO partnerships. Written Confirmation approval delay from EDQM, which did not allow us to sell in the European market for a couple of months, was received in early November, which has resumed the supplies back to normal. However, the ramp-up will happen in gradual manner. Last, being deferment of tender-based supplies to Middle East market was kept on hold on account of geopolitical tensions. This is currently status quo, and we are monitoring it closely.
Having said that, we will be the preferred supplier to them, and once this is resumed, we will be able to recoup the revenues from this tender. We have also seen India-EU Free Trade Agreement announced earlier this year, and we view this as a positive long-term development. This agreement enhances access to one of the world's largest and most regulated healthcare markets and strengthens India's position as a global manufacturing hub. Given our established presence in the EU market, we see this as a strategic opportunity over the medium to long term. Also, we would like to mention the Union Budget, which is broadly supportive of the sector. Of particular relevance is the Biopharma Shakti Initiative, a INR 100 billion, five-year program aimed at strengthening India's biopharmaceutical ecosystem.
Its emphasis on R&D, talent development, manufacturing capabilities, and faster regulatory approval aligns with our fermentation API expertise and supports long-term visibility. While spillovers from earlier disruptions are expected to materialize gradually, with all positive developments across the industry, we believe that Q4 will be stronger. This is also reflected in our Q3 performance, where revenues grew by 14% on a year-on-year basis. Speaking about key highlights for the quarter, our injectable facility has received WHO GMP certification, which will enable us to sell in the domestic market via our own brand and contract manufacturing opportunities. Our initial focus remains on the domestic market, with plans to expand into emerging markets following the necessary regulatory approvals....We have taken meaningful steps towards building this as a long-term growth platform for the company. The facility has a peak revenue potential of approximately INR 600 crore.
We have incorporated Concord Lifegen Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, to further strengthen our marketing, sales, and distribution capabilities in India. We have also started with Stelon Biotech, our U.S. subsidiary, to drive the marketing, distribution, and commercialization of our products in the U.S., creating a direct commercial footprint and supporting global market expansion. From pipeline perspective, we have completed DMF for nystatin and voclosporin last year, and during the current year, as previously communicated, we plan to launch two new products, primarily in the anti-infective segment, which offers large volumes, niche positioning, and limited competition. Moving on to margins. Profitability during the nine-month period was impacted on account of startup costs associated with the commercialization of our injectable facility. That said, our core API and formulations business continues to operate with stable unit economics.
Excluding injectables-related startup costs and costs associated with our U.S. subsidiary, EBITDA margins remain in the range of 40% for Q3 and nine months FY 2026. As the injectable business scales up over the coming quarters, we expect this temporary margin impact to gradually normalize. Moving to segmental performance. In Q3 FY 2026, API revenues were at INR 219 crore, representing growth of 24% on a year-on-year basis. These figures exclude inter-unit sales to our formulation business. On the formulations front, revenue stood at INR 58 crore compared to INR 68 crore in Q3 FY 2025. On the leadership front, we are pleased to welcome Mr. Raviraj Karia as our Chief Financial Officer. He brings over two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, and his experience will further strengthen our leadership team.
In summary, during Q3, we witnessed a gradual improvement in volumes, despite it being a seasonally softer quarter due to holiday period and year-end closure in our key regulated markets. We are entering Q4 with greater optimism and a stronger growth momentum. While FY 2026 is expected to remain below our historical averages, primarily due to the challenges encountered in the first half, we anticipate that FY 2027 and beyond will reflect a normalization in performance and regaining back the momentum, at least to our historical averages. Over the medium to long term, Concord remains well-positioned to deliver sustained growth through injectables, CDMO, new product launches, and continued market share gains. With strong regulatory credentials, differentiated manufacturing capabilities, disciplined capital allocation, and expanding growth engines, we remain confident in our long-term strategy.
With this, I hand over the call to Raviraj Karia, our CFO, for financial and operational performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Ankur, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. First, I would like to express my gratitude to the Concord board and the management team for welcoming me into the Concord Biotech family. I'm truly excited to join the organization at such a pivotal time. With a strong foundation and clear vision for growth, I look forward to closely working with the leadership team to strengthen the financial discipline, enhance the transparency, support the strategic initiatives that will drive the growth long-term value for the stakeholders. Let me take you to the financials and operational performance for the quarter.
On a revenue front, our revenues for quarter three, financial year 2026, stood at INR 278 crore, as compared to INR 244 crore in the same period last year, witnessing a growth of 14%. Our revenues for nine months, financial year 2026, stood at INR 729 crore, as compared to INR 770 crore in the same period last year, with a de-growth of 5%. Revenue from API business stood at INR 219 crore in this quarter, against INR 177 crore during the same period last year, with a growth of 24%. Revenue in nine months, financial year 2026, for the formulation business... I'm sorry, formulation business in this quarter stood at INR 58 crore as compared to INR 68 crore in the same period last year.
Formulation revenues for nine months of financial year 2026 stood at INR 164 crore. Revenue from our domestic and export business grew collectively by 14% in quarter three versus last year's quarter. Now, speaking on the EBITDA, EBITDA for this quarter stood at INR 99 crore as compared to INR 98 crore in the same period last year. EBITDA for nine months, 2026, stood at INR 249 crore. EBITDA margin for this quarter stood at 35.6%. EBITDA margins were largely impacted on account of expenses related to the commercialization of new injectable facilities, and also on account of expenses related to the setting up of subsidiaries in the U.S. market. Excluding these impacts, EBITDA margin for quarter three and nine months, financial year 2026 stood at 40%.
On profit after tax, our profit after tax for this quarter stood at INR 64 crore as compared to INR 76 crore in the same period last year. Profit after tax was impacted on account of impact of new labor costs, the extent of INR 3 crore, and also there was a higher other income of INR 15 crore in quarter 3, 2025, compared to INR 10 crore in the quarter three this year. If we exclude these impacts, there would have been a higher growth in profit after tax numbers compared to what was seen. We are a zero debt company with an, with investments, bank balance, and cash and cash equivalents to the tune of INR 1,263 crore, as on December 31, 2025. With this, I shall now leave the floor open for the question and answers.
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Chintan Sheth from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity, and, congratulations, Raviraj Ji, for joining Concord Board. My first question, Ankur, is on, you know, the growth which you mentioned that, FY 2026 will not be, you know, grow as per the historical trends which we have been growing. So on, on, beyond, FY 2026, how, how do you see, you know, business momentum going on? How confident you are, you know, the external factors which we have faced this, this year in particular, will, will, would not be, you know, what, what gives you the confidence that we will be back to our normal growth? That's one. And second, on the labor code, which, which we have kind of, provided a provision of INR 3-odd crores.
That is, on a retrospective basis, we have taken the provision, but if you can provide going forward, how should one look at, on the recurring basis, the impact of new labor code to our finances? That's these are the two, and I'll jump again.
Sure, sure. So, let me first talk about in terms of the growth. So, you know, historically, if you see, we have grown at around 18% or so. And during our previous many interactions, what we have said is that the way that we look at growth over the next two years is that we, we, and, you know, while the injectables can do a much larger business, but we have considered, you know, half of the business over the next three to five years, which contribute to around 6% growth. And then we had also considered growth coming in from the CDMO because of enough capacities available and considering that how globally India is becoming more favorable for fermentation compared to, say, Europe or China.
So there was a 6% growth that we had kind of taken it over a medium-term period. So if you put together your baseline growth of 18 and the 6% from injectables and that of CDMO, you reach to 30%. And, you know, in, in our previous discussions, we've also said that there could be years where you would see these kind of challenging environment, because of which we kind of, you know, toned it down to, say, a CAGR of 25%, once these, two growth drivers start kicking in at, at full capacity. Till that time, you would see gradual movement going from the 18% to the 25% CAGR.
Now, with the, with the introduction of new products across the fermentation and US, taking different initiatives across formulations and gaining more market share, because in the last 3-4 months, we have also gained significant accounts business across multiple products. So all these when factored in together gives us a lot of optimism that the return that the growth can return to the historical CAGR, and there could be potential upside, which could be there on account of injectable facility, where we have, you know, as I mentioned recently, now got the WHO GMP approval, and soon, soon we will be engaging with the customers to kind of qualify this facility for their contract manufacturing as well, while we launch the products into the domestic markets under our own brand name as well.
So I think all these factors put together gives us confidence that the next year we will be at least doing our historical CAGRs. And, with favorable positionings on the other matters, we could be slowly and steadily inching towards, you know, the CAGR that we have set to be there over the next three to five years.
So, Ankur, just a follow-up on injectables. Given we will be focusing on domestic, do we have to incur a little bit more to develop the, you know, on-ground team? Because I believe domestic injectable products will be directly supplied to hospital chains, right? That was our initial understanding.
Yeah.
and for that, do we have to incur a little bit more on marketing, a little bit more on, you know, developing that business, on the domestic part, and that, that will also have some impact on our margins overall?
No, no, not really, because, you know, we already have a field force for the, for the critical care, division. And, you know, close to around 100 to 120 people are there for the, for the critical care segment. And they are, they are supplying to the large corporate hospitals, mid corporate hospitals, government institutions, nursing homes, pan-India.
Mm-hmm.
So, you know, when we... And, you know, we are selling our own branded generics. So once we have kind of moved the manufacturing in-house, I think-
Mm.
that has given, and that continues to give a lot of confidence to the doctors, that now the entire value chain is being controlled in-house rather than we relying on third-party manufacturers.
Mm.
Because for some of the key products earlier, it was our API, but we were using a third-party manufacturer while doing the marketing on our own.
Right.
But now with our own manufacturing, many of the core products would now be shifted in-house, and I think, that would give a lot of confidence to the doctors and also help us grow the business, in the domestic markets. For the trade... Now, also for the government institution, if you see, you value, that is also a very, very large segment, which was currently being untapped by us, because only manufacturers can participate to supply the government market.
Mm-hmm.
With us being a manufacturer now, in a span of one year or so, we will also start getting access to the government suppliers. You know, which is currently absolutely untapped by us. While it is there in our nephrology segment, where we make the tablets and capsules-
Mm.
Because we are own manufacturers, but in the injectables, that was not the case. But now with our own manufacturing, that market would also significantly open up, which would give us significant opportunities to grow in this segment. And of course, you know, as I said, the third opportunity is to us become a contract manufacturer. But we also see a lot of potential in our own marketing, and that is the reason, you know, we have also started Concord Lifegen, which is only to cater to a certain specific segmentation of the hospitals, which we were currently unable to tap, which I said was, you know, the government institutions and certain smaller nursing homes. While the larger corporate hospitals and mid corporate hospitals have were already being tapped into.
Got it. Got it. On the employer cost, if you can, and then I'll jump back. Thank you. Thank you.
Can you elaborate the question? What is your exact question?
So, this new labor code related, you know, the provision you have made, the INR 3-odd crore, right? That is... I think, I believe, for the retrospective period, that the provision has been made for the employees, where the gratuity and whatever there is required has been provided for. But going forward on the recurring basis, do we expect employer costs to increase a little bit because of that? And, if that is the case, if you can quantify the same.
Yes, your understanding is correct. This is a one-time correction that is based on the labor code across the industry and the companies.
Right.
Way forward, it is going to be an incremental, normalized cost that we will have.
It won't be material enough for a 10 basis point or 20 basis point increase? Right. Okay.
No, that will not be material enough.
Okay, got it. Got it. Thank you. I'll jump back. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. Reminder to all the participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. Our next question comes from the line of Ritika from Valuequest. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. So could you give more understanding on how the CDMO project is doing? And we were also in interaction with other projects for CDMO. How is that shaping up?
... Yeah, so one of our projects is already commercialized in the U.S., and, you know, we are already in talks to kind of evaluate it, to take it to, a global level. So different markets are also being evaluated by our partner. But for now, I think it is primarily the U.S. market, and, this is basically an NDA product where, you know, our client has launched the product in the U.S. So the first year or so has been primarily about setting up the, the marketing setups and kind of reaching out to the wholesalers and establishing that, that channel. So, sales have already started, and, you know, what we, what we're looking at is that for the next year, you know, we are looking for further forecasting from them, so discussions are ongoing.
So there is a good potential of the product in the U.S. market with the possibility of expanding it to the global markets. So there are, of course, other discussions happening on other projects as well. But as I mentioned, that, you know, the first half of the year was a challenging year because many of the projects were temporarily put on hold because of the uncertainty around the tariffs. But post-September, we have again started engaging with them, and I think discussions have now are progressing quite well. We are also meeting these customers in March during DCAT, so you know, we are confident that there should be some positive movement around some of the products, some of the projects which were at relatively advanced stages of discussion, you know last year.
So, you know, we continue to file a lot of RFQs, primarily in the enzymes, as well as in CMO opportunities for the innovator companies. So a lot of effort is being put around that, and, you know, we are seeing positive momentum around this.
Oh, also, sir, a clarity in terms of whether that 100% tariff, which was imposed on branded drugs from India to U.S., does that stay currently?
So it, you know, to our understanding, it did not cover the brand which were already launched into the market. You know, we've not read the new fine print, but even in the earlier stages, what we got the clarity around October, November, that the newer. It is not going to be impacting the products that have already been launched into the U.S. markets. So the customers that, or the clients that we've been talking to already have the products launched into the U.S. markets. They are the innovator companies, so them shifting the manufacturing to, say, from any other part of the world to India, would not be impacting them in any manner.
But, yeah, for any newer launches, at least, you know, the last that we knew of, it was impacting those clients, if they moved their manufacturing out of the U.S. But again, it's a very dynamic world that we're living in, so and there could be potential changes happening, which, you know, we are not right now familiar with. But, yeah, it doesn't impact already launched branded products in the U.S.
Sure. Sir, lastly, could you help us with what is the CapEx number that we are looking for this year, and ahead?
So CapEx is primarily, you know, maintenance CapEx that is going on. And, you know, in terms of number, maybe Raviraj can share more.
So, for the year, you know, generally, we have a CapEx number of around INR 100-INR 150 crore as a maintenance CapEx. That's the number generally we have.
Okay. So that's the CapEx that we are looking to spend for FY26, and ahead of the year?
Yes.
Okay. Sure. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Naman Bagrecha from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Firstly, can you explain in terms of why was there a decline in-
Naman, your voice is not clear.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yeah.
Hello.
Slightly better.
Yes, yes. Just wanted to understand the contraction in gross margins, despite, let's say, around 79%-80% kind of API revenue contribution. Anything specific that you want to call out?
No, not really. You know, I think this is primarily on account of the product mix, because if you're looking at it from a quarter-on-quarter basis, but if you look at it from a nine-month basis, actually the gross margin has moved from 77% to 78%. So, you know, on a quarter-on-quarter, it'll be difficult to kind of, you know, take a call. And, as I mentioned, it is primarily on account of the product mix, which if you... As you extend the time period, it kind of gets stabilized. And on a nine-month period, we have actually seen an improvement in the gross margins by 100 basis points.
... One on the formulation business. I believe that one is FY 25 had that Middle East tender or let's say, high base. But Q3 this time also, we saw between kind of decline. So, anything that you could call out in terms of why there has there is still a, let's say, decline in the formulation business, and then how should one you know look, let's say, in terms of future purpose?
You know, I'm not sure if I understood correctly, but what I understand is that, you know, the formulation business, you're seeing that there is slightly a reduction compared to the last year. Is that what you're asking?
Yes, yes. Y-over-base is there is 14% decline in the formulation business. My belief was that the, the Middle East tender was stopped or halted in first half of FY 2025. So there won't be any base impact or any, let's say, these, the issues in the third quarter of FY 2026. But despite that, we see a decline in the formulation business. So, what really is, let's say, what are the challenges in this piece?
No, no, no. I think the way that... As I said, that the way that one needs to look at it on a quarter-on-quarter, is that there could be areas that we have kind of, you know, addressed through the API. So, and, you know, that gets reflected in our API numbers, which grew at 24%, because there are certain opportunities that would have been captured through the API rather than through the formulation. And this is primarily coming in the emerging markets, because in the India market, as well as in the U.S. market, the sales volumes have increased. But in the emerging markets, where we are not able to, say, gain opportunities through the API, only the that is where we kind of look through the formulation route.
But if, if that is getting addressed through API, which in this quarter you are seeing with the growth on the API, then it has some bit of an impact on the formulations.
Coming to the API business, so you'd highlighted around INR 25 crore of sales deferred, and in Q2. So has this been captured fully in Q3?
So that was, that has been fully captured, which was on account of the Written Confirmation.
Mm-hmm.
That was to the tune of around INR 20 crore-INR 25 crore, which, you know, actually, during our last call only, that sales had already been executed because it happened somewhere in early November or so. So that sales to that customer has already started to build on.
Mm-hmm.
Because it was only because they were only awaiting the certification. Once that certification was there, then the sales started to pick up with them.
But if I X out, I mean, adjust that, and largely you see quarter-on-quarter, that has been the growth for the API business. So the base business still has not, let's say, really, grown, if I adjust for that.
No, you will not be able to take that out, Naman, because it is. You know, it is not that the, let's suppose in that particular, in this particular quarter, that those customers have picked up double the quantity that they would wanted. So it's not that, you know, it—what it does is it kind of gradually spills over a little bit into the, slowly and steadily, into the subsequent quarters. Because if they picked up something that instead of, say, July, August, they have now picked up in October, November, so it will take time for them to consume those quantities. It is not that, they've picked up in November, and they will again pick it up in December, the INR 20 crore. So that does have a little bit of spillover happening.
So, it may not be the right way to kind of look at it, that if we consider the growth minus that number, then the growth is a different number. That would not be the right way to look at the numbers.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. And on the margin front, this time you had called out Stelon setup costs as well. So can you provide what were the injectable plant losses for the quarter, and what were the setup costs related to Stelon?
The injectables would be close to around INR 10 crore-INR 12 crore, and the Stelon cost would range anywhere between INR 5 crore-INR 10 crore per quarter.
Okay. five to, sorry, INR 5 crores-INR 10 crores?
INR 5 crore-INR 10 crore per quarter.
Do we expect this INR 5 crore-INR 10 crore cost to increase from here on? Or this is, I mean, this is the base, and here, from here on, we'll start seeing that it's getting-
... So, the process, the procedure of already getting the licenses, for the U.S. business is already completed. I think now we are gearing up for the launch activities. So in subsequent few months or so, we should start seeing the launch happening. So there would be sales realizations coming from Stelon, because they are not doing not only for Concord products, but they would also be looking at in-licensing opportunities. And, you know, there would be certain costs which probably we were incurring right now with third parties, which would now be done through Stelon. So, you know, there could be some, cost which kind of gets compensated because of the reduction that we may end up seeing with our third-party distributor, current marketing partner.
But yeah, as I think business with Stelon would grow, these costs would then be accordingly taken care of.
So anything in mind, any target in mind in terms of, we'll be moving away from the distributor and completely sell everything from this vicinity itself, or there will be a mix of the third party and channel?
No, so in-licensing opportunities are going to be, you know, in the near future, because as I said, that since right now we are. We just established and the approvals for the licenses have come in. So the in-licensing opportunities are going to be somewhat of a medium-term roadmap. But, you know, till that time, all those years that Concord has, the supplies are going to be from Concord to Stelon. There are a few ANDAs, which our current marketing partner is not marketing those products, so they are immediately going to go to Stelon for marketing. And then, you know, that is going to lead to the sales increase for those products in the U.S.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Those products will be manufactured till that time in Concord, till the time in-licensing opportunities, which are a medium term, do not get executed.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. On the previous participant's question, on the U.S. CDMO opportunity, is this that, animal health product, or this is something else?
No, no, these are human products. So we have five dosing, five ANDAs, which,
No, no, not at all. I'm not talking about any ANDA, I'm talking about the CDMO opportunity.
Oh, CDMO.
Uh.
Okay. Yeah, that is an animal product, yeah.
Animal health product, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. I have more questions. I'll get back into the queue.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the question from the participant, we request you to kindly limit your question to two questions per participant. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Sumit Gupta from Antique Stock Broking Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, sir. So first question is on, like, you mentioned increased engagement on second source supply, post clarity on U.S. trade. So are these discussions largely with the existing customers, or new innovator or generic players? And what is the kind of conversion timeline, that one should expect?
So I think engagement is going on on both fronts. You know, most of the discussions that we are doing is where we've already had, some level of engagement on other products with those customers, and, you know, that also gives us an opportunity to engage a lot more on the newer products as a second source opportunities. Secondly, also certain markets, you know, the customers have started looking at us, as, whom we were not engaging with them in the past. Say, for example, Nystatin, which is an anti-infective product, it has a slightly different customer base as well. So under, in those, in those cases, those are relatively newer customers for Concord as well. You know, most of those are newer customers.
Of course, we have few Indian customers, wherein we already have established relationships, and, you know, that is helping us to kind of engage with them on these newer products as well. So I would say it is a mix of both. We do have couple of products at the API level, which is our own API, where we are engaging with the innovators. And I expect that maybe one of those projects hopefully will commercialize in this quarter. And hopefully, with another one, we would take some validation batches, at least if not in this quarter, in the next quarter. So I know of at least two-
Understood.
two, two are there, where, you know, the engagement level with the innovators are, they are relatively newer products, and engagement levels are quite at an advanced stage. We have also actually to add on, you know, commercialize one anti-infective product with one of the innovator companies as well. The supplies may not look much in this quarter because they've just started picking up, but I think we have, a good level of engagement visibility over the next year's time with them.
Understood. So how should we see the Q4, the exit, run rate or as we enter FY 2027, especially in the APIs? And, second, how should we see the formulation segment over the next two to three years?
See, I mean, giving exact numbers for quarter four will be, you know, would be difficult. But as I said, that, you know, there has been an uptick in revenues, and, you know, we are optimistic of the improved performances in Q4, but, difficult to put a number, you know, to, to how things are going to be in Q4. But, yeah, I think given the optimism which is there, and given that we are getting, a lot of second source opportunities, we are optimistic of the growth rate, for, for Q4.
Understood, sir. There was one question on formulations also. How should we see that over, like, over the medium term?
Yeah. So I think formulation also will have a big drive-growth driver because, you know, to answer Chintan's question, which was there, that, you know, in the past, that injectables, when I answered to his question, that injectables, we are looking at a 6% growth contribution to the revenues over the baseline of 18%. And that is a facility which has recently got commercialized, got its WHO GMP also. So we are now engaging with a lot of customers to kind of get that facility qualified for them. So in the next one to two years, we should see good level of growth coming in from not only our own branded generics, but also as a contract manufacturing partner, because no company in India has its own fermentation API, as well as, injectable formulation.
Even the API companies who are importing the product or exporting the products to India, they are also pure API companies only. They don't have their own formulations. So there is no company like Concord which would have this mix of fermentation, APIs, and finished formulations, which should give us a good competitive edge to... for our own products as well as for contract manufacturing. So, you know, over a medium term, I think injectables would play out quite well or should play out quite well. And then from a medium to long-term perspective is where we would start seeing growth coming in from the emerging markets with the registration processes going through. And that should kind of also help growth in the medium to a longer-term perspective.
So, you know, we are seeing good traction coming in from the injectable side, and what we're doing with Stelon and with newer dossiers being filed in global markets, that would help us drive growth in the oral solid, you know, opportunity as well. So, that's how at least we look at the formulation business over the next two to three years.
Understood, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alankar Garude from Kotak Mahindra Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Ankur, do you still expect to grow overall sales in FY26?
So as I said, Alankar, you know, in my previous response, that difficult to give you a number in terms of what the growth is going to be looking like. But, but yes, I think the way that we are progressing, the second half looks to be much better. We have already seen how quarter three is doing. We are optimistic of quarter four. You know, we have a good order book position. We have continued to build on that, over the next one and a half month that we have, and deliver those quantities and sales to our customers. But putting a number there would be challenging for me.
Okay. I asked this, Ankur, because you had said that, there would be growth at overall level in FY26. But okay, I take your point. Second question is, can you broadly break down the API growth across pricing, volumes, and new launches for nine-month FY26?
So if you see, you know, the launches that happened in last year were only for two products, which was Nystatin and Voclosporin. And these two products, one is a Para IV product, the other is a generic product, where, you know, there are only three players, primarily three players in the global markets. And both of those two players are based out of Europe. So that gives us a lot of advantage to kind of become a leader, on, on that particular infective product. And we have already started seeing good traction coming on those products. We have started supplying validation quantities and exhibit batch quantities to our customers, and they have filed also. So hopefully in the next year, we should start seeing commercial sales happening to these customers, across global markets.
But for this year, it has been primarily supplies of exhibit and validation batch quantities, which on a number basis, it may not be that significant a number. But much of the growth, as I said, is coming from our already commercialized 28-29 products, which are there. These two products that have got launched have seen more of validation and exhibit batch quantities being supplied in this year.
Within those, 28, 29 existing molecules, how would you break the growth between volumes and pricing? Just a qualitative response should suffice.
So here it has been all volume growth only. I mean, you know, being in the kind of... You know, while I would say that in fermentation products, where the kind of competition that we have, there are only maybe two or three players on the market. But in spite of that, I don't think that it is... You can go with the pricing increase. So it has been mostly or majorly a volume gain rather than a price increase way of growing.
Has pricing declined, Ankur? If I look at nine-month FY 2026 for the API business, I mean, can it be as high as a double-digit pricing decline or more likely in the single-digit range?
If it would have been a double-digit price decline, then the gross margins would not have increased by 100 basis points.
Okay, so more in the single-digit range, would that be a safe number to look at?
See, again, it depends, Alankar, on a product to product and customer to customer. Sometimes, as I said earlier also in our previous discussions, you give certain discounts to certain customers for larger growth in other products and all. So, on, you know, we have more than 300 customers. So if we end up giving some customers some discounting in anticipation of newer businesses, you know, I would say that to be in single digits, not because of pricing pressure, but because of larger opportunities to address to, is how I would put it at it.
Got it. Got it. And, a couple of, smaller questions. Firstly, did you recognize any revenues from the injectable facility at all in the third quarter?
No, insignificant.
Got it.
Because it has been primarily the, it's been primarily the exhibit batches that we took, which were supplied to the, to the India market, because, you know, you have to go with the six months stability and other things. So if we, if we did that, you know, we commercialized the facility in March, so with six months of data also, you end up being in September. So October, November, December did see supplies of those validation batches, but it is insignificant in the overall, revenue mix.
Fair enough. What was the share of immunosuppressant APIs to the overall API sales mix in nine months?
So, you know, we what we would look at is that for the 77-78% of the API business, it would be closer to around 70-75%, which has been historically been the case. So there has not been many any major change in the mix between immunosuppressants and anti-infectives and other segments. So I'm happy to see that the other segments are also growing, you know, in terms of volumes, because, you know, I did mention that we are trying to work with the innovators in the anti-infective segment as well. So there is a lot of growth momentum which is coming in the non-immuno segment as well, while immuno segment continues to build and kind of, you know, stay strong there.
The mix has been relatively more or less the same as it had been last year or last nine months.
Understood. The final question, capacity utilizations, please, for unit one, unit two , and unit three?
Yeah. Yeah, I... So for the quarter, Unit one was at 81%, Unit three was at 40%, and Unit two was at 27%.
Got it. That's it from my side. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Chintan Sheth from JM Financial Family Office. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you so much for the opportunity. So I had three questions. So one is, you know, continuing from the previous participant, if you can just comment more on your non-immunosuppressant portfolio. Basically, what is the strategy there, the competitive intensity that is happening, and over a longer term, how do you see the mix evolve? That is the first question. Second is, you know, wanted to... A bit more understanding on the R&D side. Basically, now, since we are looking to go on the grow on CDMO side, so how are we, you know, looking to ramp up our R&D operations? That's the second question. And third, I think we, I see a good amount of cash flow that's building up on our balance sheet, and now the generative CapEx we are done through.
So are we actively looking at any inorganic opportunities to probably add to our portfolio and grow more? So those are my three questions. Thank you.
Sure. Thanks. So, you know, as I answered earlier, that for the nine months, we've not, you know, we have seen that the mix has been more or less the similar, while volume growths are also happening in the anti-infectives, antifungal and onco segment. Now, even the newer products that we have, the ones that are there in the pipeline, all of them are in the anti-infectives, antifungal and onco segment. And the underlying principle of the, you know, they are again, products where you would see limited competition, and they are complex and niche products. So like the ones that we launched last year, like Nystatin, as I mentioned earlier, there were only three players, Concord being one of them.
You know, we have few products which are there in the pipeline right now, where there are again, you know, maximum two or four players. So, and most of them, as one would see, are either from Southeast Asia or Europe. We have one product, which is in pipeline, which is where you have good competition from China, but the way that we are developing that product, the cost competitiveness is also significantly lower than that of China's cost. So, you know, we have a lot of products where we are actually selling our APIs into the China market. It's not that this is one such product. We have many products where we are much, much more competitive than even the Chinese manufacturers.
So, you know, to answer your question, the newer set of products which are there, there is the base principle remains the same as it has been for the immunosuppressants, and it is just that it has seen a much smaller time to kind of, you know, gain market share, but many of these products are gaining market share as we speak. It's just a matter of time till the time, you know, till it reaches to the number that you would have seen in our other segments. So, so that's how, you know, we would look at the non-immuno segments. When we talk about the R&D and CDMO, we have more than 100 scientists, which are working in the R&D. So, you know, the team is continuously working on new products development as well as the CDMO opportunities.
You know, once any newer project comes in, each customer is assigned a project leader who works very closely with that customer. So here it is more about the expertise, which is there, rather than the cost that gets loaded onto. That's why you would see that our R&D cost typically stays 2%-3%, which is significantly lower than the cost which many of the formulation companies would see. Because it is more of an expertise and a skill-driven rather than a scale-driven developmental cost. So. But, you know, if we do feel the need at any point of time to ramp up our people, you know, that is not a challenge at our end. But at least for now, you know, we are not seeing any reasons to kind of go towards that path.
I think we have a good mix of PhDs and R&D scientists who are working on these products. To answer your third question, you know, while we have a good, healthy cash position, we are looking at different opportunities, and I would say those opportunities are being looked not only organically, but also inorganically. So, you know, there are fewer opportunities that we are continuing to look at inorganically, and there are a few opportunities that we are evaluating if kind of look at from to grow in adjacencies of fermentation to take it organically as well. So, you know, both the two options are there on the table to kind of see that how we can optimally utilize this cash flow.
Okay, great. Thank you, Ankur. That was very detailed and helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time constraint, we will now take the last question for today's conference, and that comes from Mr. Chintan Sheth from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the follow-up opportunity. Just a clarification on the CapEx, the maintenance CapEx number, which you mentioned, you know, that 100-150 crore annually. On the asset base of gross block of 1,100 or last year, it looks seems to be pretty high. We used to give guidance around 20-25 crore earlier. So I'm just trying to understand whether why the increase in maintenance part? And second is on the cash balance, which you mentioned it is it INR 1,298 crores as of December? That that's the number you mentioned? These are the two. Sorry.
Yeah. So, you know, of course, you're right. You know, there is a level of maintenance CapEx across, you know, which is close around INR 30-INR 40 crores. We also have some CapEx, which is going for certain newer projects that we are trying to build on with some of our customers, and also certain opportunities to kind of grow over the next year. So there is some bit of CapEx happening around there, in addition to the maintenance CapEx.
So it's a blend of growth and maintenance, is it?
Yes.
INR 150 crore. Okay. Okay, okay. And the cash balance is INR 1,290 or, or 1,290?
The investment is INR 340 crore.
The total cash in-
The investment is INR 340 crore.
Okay.
Let me check.
Sorry, I lost your voice. Hello?
Yeah. So it would be close to three at INR 350 crore.
Total cash and cash equivalent will be INR 350 crore, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Okay, got it. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the last question for today. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, team.
Thank you everyone for joining on our Q3 and nine-month FY26 earnings call. We hope we have been able to address all your queries. For any further information, please get in touch with us or SGA, our investor relations advisors. Thank you once again, and have a good evening.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Antique Stock Broking, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.