Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call of Dhoot Transmission 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 followed by zero on your touchtone phone. The management of Dhoot Transmission Limited is represented by Mr. Rahul Dhoot, Managing Director, and Mr. Nitin Kalani, Group CFO. Please note this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand over the conference to Mr. Rahul Dhoot. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. A very warm welcome to all of you today. I am Rahul Dhoot, Founder and Managing Director for Dhoot Transmission. After getting listed, this is our first earning call, and I would like to thank all of you for the immense trust bestowed upon me and my team. The first quarter has been very good for the automotive industry and also for Dhoot Transmission. For the two-wheeler industry, the last quarter was one of the best quarters with 22.8% growth. Comparing YoY performance, EV industry grew by 93% and ICE in excess of 20%.
In a nutshell, domestic volumes grew in excess of 20% and exports in excess of 36%. Against the same, Dhoot Transmission saw a very strong growth of nearly 50% on YoY basis. Revenue from wiring harness grew 44.6% YoY and from non-wiring harness business by 67.7%. The Multilink acquisition contributed to about 3% in terms of revenue growth for the quarter. EV revenue in the same quarter grew 79% for us. With this, the overall contribution of EV revenue has reached 27% of our total revenue, up from 24% last year.
Our EBITDA margins improved 110 basis points to 15% as compared to Q4 FY 2026. Key RM like copper brass continued its upward trend in the first five months of the year, but the pace of increase was slower than the previous year. Our finance costs declined in the quarter as we continue to optimize working capital debt levels because of equity infusion in March. Multilink integration is progressing well and we are confident of scaling up our non-wiring harness business with this addition. Also, our collaboration with Ride Vision is progressing pretty well and we are in process of JV forming.
Our NPD pipeline continues to be robust. If I talk about the outlook, the electrification trend is aiding growth to the wiring harness and non-wiring harness business to us. To add to this, the addition of customers and products will also be a strong positive in the years to come. However, we also need to keep in mind the soft comparison for the first six months as the GST reduction which fueled growth was implemented last year in the second half. Considering overall things, we are confident of delivering another strong year of 25%-30% of growth. We will provide you with an update of utilization of IPO proceeds in our next reporting period based on actual utilization of funds. With this, we are happy to answer your questions now.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touch tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then 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. Again, to register for a question, you may press star and one now. Your first question comes from the line of Siddharth Bera with Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, sir, and congrats for a great set of numbers. Sir, my first question is, on the margin side, if you see sequentially on the gross margin side it has been stable, but in terms of cost pressure it was much higher in quarter four and like you correctly mentioned in quarter one the cost pressure is lower. How should we think about the margin expansion from current levels? What is the under recovery here and where do you think they sort of normalize as you completely pass on the copper inflation?
Hi, Siddharth. Most of the copper inflation is already passed on. Nitin Kalani this side. That has already happened. Actually what is happening is last four or five months we are also seeing somewhat further increase in the copper prices. Some impact is obviously there on these numbers basically as we speak. But we would like to sort of continue to stick to our indication, 15%-16% kind of margin guidance for the full year.
Okay, got it. Second is on the Multilink acquisition, if you can guide us about how to think about this business over the next few years. What is the sort of revenue margin profile currently? What are the areas you are looking to push aggressively? How big this business can become over the next few years?
Multilink full integration with us will take another three, four months to have a very proper integration in terms of overall products. But with this we have added one customer which is Hero and also we have added two more products, which is the fuel level sensor and the relays. Which obviously there's going to be a big market for cross-selling because Multilink doesn't supply to many of our existing customers. So cross-selling opportunities would be there. I believe that there should be a decent 25%-30% growth which we should be able to do on Multilink as well. The margin should be in line with Dhoot's margin.
Great sir. Sir last question is on the non-wiring harness EV component business. In terms of, I would say specifically the EV two-wheeler battery pack assembly. Where are we in terms of new customer addition by when do we start seeing more pickup in terms of take from more customers here?
As we had initially told you that we were already supplying to one customer; We have started with one more customer down south which is a big customer for us and the supplies have already started.
Got it. Thanks a lot sir. I will come back with that to you.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Rishi Vora with Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on good top line print. Just a follow up on again the non- wiring harness EV business, right? Today we predominantly supply battery packs and incrementally we may start supplying the other products as well. How should we think about this business over the next three to five years in terms of the contribution? Like today how much it is— I am just asking for a rough number but today how much it is roughly contributing in three or five years down the line where do we expect the contribution of this particular segment would be given that the pace of electrification continues to surprise positively especially in the two-wheeler segment?
Hi Rishi, Rahul Dhoot. Well, if you look at it, we are present across the entire EV powertrain. It is not that we only do the battery pack assembly. Whatever businesses come across, we try to optimize on all the areas of products which we have in the EV powertrain. If you are talking about the battery pack assemblies, we have been doing the battery packs for our top customer and another top customer has now added onto it. The battery pack assembly business is also going to go up. Apart from this, we are also going to start the EV charging business. All those areas are going to add up.
Now, when we talk of the growth in terms of electrification, it is growing much beyond the expected numbers and the present customers are very bullish on the growth. Fortunately, our top two customers do not look at India as a market, they look at world as a market and there will be a lot of EV exports happening from India also. I believe that there will be a lot of opportunities to not only selling through them in India but also out of country.
Understood. Any thoughts about getting into three-wheeled battery pack business and how should we think about the margin of this EV component business? Will it be similar, dilutive or accretive to our overall business?
For us, margins are similar whether it is ICE or EV because at the end of the day, we work with customers not product by product but as a norm. It is all about superior execution. We do not operate with too many management layers. We have a very hands-on operation and also a lot of good mix of workforce management and labor mix. These are the areas where we focus on and we try to have a superior execution. Otherwise, the margins remain the same for ICE or EV for us.
Understood. Any thoughts on three-wheelers battery pack business? Is that area which you will consider in the future or not?
Three-wheeler battery pack, if you ask me as a manufacturer, we will always plan to create our own product and go up to the existing customers and try to reach out to them. But I believe we are at this point of time going to consolidate our position on the two-wheelers battery packs at least for the next one or two years.
Understood. One question for Nitin, like what would be your cash levels at the end of June and if you could share the FCF for the quarter?
Rishi, thank you. The thing is the IPO money came in the month of August, the Bain infusion which happened in the month of March, plus the impact of Multilink acquisition part impact, I would say, has led to debt level which is at about INR 220 crore at the end of June quarter. We had fixed deposits created out of the Bain infusion. That's the indicative number at that point in time. After the equity infusion has happened, the debt level would have turned again, meaning a cash surplus kind of scenario after the IPO.
Fair to assume INR 1,000 crore of net cash, like around August, end of August, is how we should consider?
Yeah. End of August that will be the kind of number, maybe slightly there only, few crore here and there.
Understood. Thank you so much for this. I will get back in queue.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Kumar Pandey with Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my questions, and congratulations for an excellent set of numbers. Sir, first of all, if you could help us understand the breakup of the non-wiring harness business in Q1, in terms of sensors and controller. Multilink, you said 3%, and battery pack.
No. You want to understand the growth in the non-wiring harness business?
Yes, growth and the revenue breakup of the contributions between the-
Yeah. If you honestly ask me the growth I can touch upon, but we are not allowed to give exact breakup on the battery side and all those things specifically because of the customer concentration, it being with only one single customer. The non-wiring harness business grew almost 67.7%. Of that, I would say about 10%-12% was contributed by the Multilink acquisition for the 20 days period that it had.
On overall basis, it was about 3%, the contribution of the Multilink basis on overall growth levels. This business includes, as you know, battery packs which is a major portion of this revenue. Apart from that, we also do controllers, sensors, and switches. I think these five products constitute the non-wiring harness business.
Okay. Sir, secondly, if you can speak little bit about Ride Vision JV, because that's a new business and we are getting into. The Ride Vision comes into ADAS, so just want to understand what kind of product opportunities are looking there? What can be the potential addressable market there? Could you please help us understand that?
Yep. So regarding the Ride Vision JV, it is all about the ADAS for the two-wheeler setup, which the Israeli company has already done well. We have been giving presentations to all the important two-wheeler customers, and there’s a pretty good interest which we have got out of it. It’s a futuristic thing, and it will be lots to got to do with the regulations coming on board from the Government of India. But we are well in time, and we’ll be prepared for all those areas to explore before they come.
Sir, with Ride Vision JV also, we will continue in two-wheelers or we plan to expand into passenger vehicle as well?
No, ADAS as a product is not dependent on the segment of the whole thing. It can be two-wheelers, four-wheelers. We are going to first focus on the two-wheeler side for it.
If you can help, because ADAS in two-wheelers, we have not seen much business there in the industry. If you could help us understand the types of product or anything on that basis.
Basically what happens is, there are not only the front collisions, there are also back collisions, and sometimes there is a blind spot on left and right side, which is detected by the product which has been made by the Israeli joint venture company, Ride Vision. They have already done a lot of study on the Indian market, and looking at the concentration of the Indian market, they have created this product, and they are already in advanced discussions. It’s regarding the blind spots which come across on both the sides, and that is how this is going to help us out.
Okay. Sir, lastly, in terms of Multilink and non-wiring harness, what will be our EBITDA margin generally, and what is our expectation in midterm?
I believe that the full integration with Multilink should happen in four months' time. I believe that the way we work, the EBITDA margin should be in line with Dhoot's EBITDA margin.
Okay. Sir, are we looking for any acquisition with IPO money, with the cash we have now?
That is always going to be a continuous thing. With Bain associated and helping us out on the M&A side, there's a long funnel which goes through every month. We are very slow on that because the money which has come in, the first option would be the JVs, TCs, organic, and then M&As. In that also, our first option would be Indian acquisitions, and the last option would be taking businesses abroad in the West, if at all it is related to strategy in terms of technology or sector.
As such, we are not thinking for any acquisition in passenger vehicle space or other thing from that side.
No, not as of right now. We are in an advanced stage related to a joint venture for the passenger vehicle harnesses for the HV side. But we will be able to give correct information of this in our second earnings call.
Okay, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, you may press star and then one to ask a question. Your next question comes from the line of Ajox Frederick with Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congrats on a good set of numbers. Sir, just two questions. One is on the split between the wiring harness and the non-wiring harness, the absolute value this quarter and last year first quarter. If you can give me that data.
One second. We will give you the exact absolute value. Yeah.
The wiring harness revenue in this quarter was about INR 1,090 crore [inaudible] and non-wiring harness business revenue was INR 358 crore.
Okay. How much was it last year, sir, 1Q.
Last year same quarter, the revenues were for wiring harness INR 753 crore, non-wiring harness-
Okay.
...was INR 230 crore.
Very helpful. Sure, sir. Secondly, sir, on margins usually it comes with a quarterly lag, right? The repricing, et c. Do we still have probability of inching the gross profits up? I mean, is there further scope for that repricing to happen in our gross margins?
Yes. In the first quarter, there was a slight elevation of the key raw materials, which include copper and one or two other commodities also where we have these negotiations with customers possible. But the margin impact would be not significant. I think by July also it went on further basically by about 3%-4%. July even August, we saw similar kind of trend. So if you're asking whether it'll be materialized in the second quarter itself, the answer would be probably no, not immediately in Q2 but in Q3 we'll get these things since the prices are stable.
Technically, I would just like to say that whenever there would be a softening of the raw material-
Yeah.
...at that point of time, the recovery will start for us.
Understood, sir. Got it.
Yes. It is over a period of time. When it is a hard cycle for us, we have to lose that money and when the soft cycle starts because at some point of time there is a peak which it hits and then it comes down. That is the time wherein the recovery starts.
Perfect, sir. Great, sir. That's it from me. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Preet Pitani with Incred Asset Management Company. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir, and congratulations on the good set of numbers. My first question is on the line of wage hike impact. If you could please quantify what could be the wage hike impact. You have around 16% QoQ growth in the employee cost. What would be led by wage hike, and what would be the organic employee hikes?
Wage hike impact is not on our thing. Whenever whichever state we are present, whatever is the minimum wages contract which comes through that, we have to adhere to that, and then only in terms we have to discuss with the customer. I believe that the impact which is there has been taken and discussions with customers are yearly discussed with them on the wage hike costs, and that's where it comes to us back.
Sure, sir. Got it.
Preet, sir, you have any further questions?
No. My other question has already been answered.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ayush Ved with Leo Asset & Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Am I audible? Yeah.
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
First of all, congratulations Rahul and Nitin for good set of numbers. My question is more on accounting side. When the acquisition of Multilink happened, the consideration is shown as INR 435 crore, if I'm not wrong, in the RHP. What would be the goodwill impact for it?
We are in the process of assessing the attribution of those values basically. Some tentative numbers have been arrived at on that part. The value will be distributed across three, four major heads and one of those would be customer relations basically. Obviously, the assets acquired would be recorded at fair value both on the fixed asset side and working capital side. In addition to that, there will be intangibles which will be identified.
One of those large intangibles would be the customer relations where we are getting a customer which was not with us earlier and also another customer base where we have increased the revenue contribution from that particular customer. Customer relationship would have a major, I would say, part of the purchase consideration breakup. In addition to that, there will be goodwill and as you rightly said, the intangibles, the trademarks and patents and other things basically. My sense is that roughly it would be about 20% or 25% of the acquisition price when it comes to goodwill.
Okay. Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Nishant with Nippon Life. Please go ahead.
Just one moment. Am I audible?
No, you are not. If you can be little loud, please.
Yes. Better now?
Yeah, much better.
Okay. Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. First question would be on the wiring harness side, what would be our percentage of localization or backward integration that we would probably have in that business versus the bought out components maybe in terms of cables dominance. Any sense on that you could provide us?
We have a very good auto component division wherein we backward integrate into cables and connection systems. Localization is a continuous drive. You have to keep doing that every month, and then go on progressing with it. It's not that there is a benchmark because at the end of the day, the business also grows and the number of components which keep on coming for localization are there. But I can tell you that we have a very good localization drive and about 30% of the component-- 35% of the component which were imported must have come down by 20%, 25% now. About 20%, 25% is what we import and remaining we have localized.
Is there something that we manufacture ourselves in terms of tables or connectors or terminals, something like that, or those are all bought out components?
We manufacture it ourselves. We have Dhoot Autocomponents , it is a subsidiary of Dhoot Transmission, wherein about INR 1,200 crore of business is done for the group companies, which does not reflect into the overall sale because at the end of the day, it is all self-consumption.
Okay. Secondly, I just wanted to understand copper. What would be copper as a percentage of our BOM cost?
About 22%-23%.
Okay. So 22%-23% is our dependency on the copper as a material, right?
Yeah, 20%-23% approximately that ballpark. Yeah.
Lastly, just a sense on your battery pack business, what would be our value addition in this particular product?
Battery pack, basically the cells are imported, which customer gives this to us. Then there are cell holders, the tap cells, the bus bars, the wiring harnesses, the pressure sensors, the overall component level working which is there connector systems and all that we do in house. We manufacture it in the Autocomp company.
Sir, any percentage here that you can guide us with?
We are bound by an understanding with the customer. Actually, we really can't disclose more details there because we have a single customer, and it will be tantamounting to breaching that agreement with the customer.
Fair. No problem, sir. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants, to ask a question, you may press star and then one now. The next question comes from the line of Viraj Sanghvi with Ambit. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. Sir, just one clarification first. The supplies to the second customer for battery pack assembly, were they started for the full quarter of Q1?
Just one month of the last quarter.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Secondly, sir, the automotive switches and EV cord set utilization levels have remained low for the last three years. So what is the kind of hindrance which is there in that particular piece of the business in your utilization levels picking up over there and how can that pick up?
Sorry. The point is in the automotive switches business, we do the off-highway business, the off-highway and the tractor business switches. And we have been growing as per the market rate at what this industry has been growing. And the EV cordset business is doing very well. In fact, the new business of EV cordsets which are coming for next year, we almost have a 40%-45% share of business for the Indian market.
Okay. Got it, sir. And sir, what we see on the wiring harness business on the passenger vehicle side is generally there are two separate suppliers for low voltage and high voltage wiring harness. How predominant would that kind of scenario be in the two-wheeler, three-wheeler space or that is absolutely not the case in electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers?
No. See, in any electric vehicle there will be two voltage systems. LV and HV remain a part of the two-wheeler business also, but we are a part of both the products together.
Okay. So usually when you are present on an electric or two-wheeler, you will be supplying both low voltage and high voltage. That would just be predominantly the case, and it would be that-
Generally, 99% of the case is that only.
Okay, got it, sir. Those were my questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sheetal Kumar with Herons Management. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I just want to highlight one fact, that please give some time to study the report and maybe schedule the call the day after, means the next day you intend to publish the result and the presentation. That will be helpful.
We will take this suggestion from you, and we will do it from next quarter onwards.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
My question is that where do you see the revenue contribution of EV in next, say, two to three years or later? Means, where will it settle considerably? Like 27%.
On the EV side, this will be driven by the growth of the EV industry. If you really see, this quarter has been an excellent, I would say, growth for the EV sector per se, where the volumes almost doubled than what it was in the first quarter of last year. Only with this small, this one particular, I would say action, our share of revenues from EVs have increased from 24%- 27% of our revenue, in spite of all other segments growing very strongly.
So it all depends, meaning if the penetration increases for EVs, our revenue from EVs should also grow substantially. What we believe is that maybe in another two, three years timeframe, we should be definitely having a revenue from EVs of more than 32%.
Thank you. That's helpful. My second question is that the ICE volume has increased 70%, whereas in your representation it is shown that the two-wheeler and three-wheeler volume have increased by 20% and 33%. So it means that we are losing market share in the ICE segment. Is my understanding right?
No. We have not lost any market share.
We will work on the numbers again basically with you separately. We believe whatever we disclosed is correct.
Okay. We have the markets are intact. We should grow in line with the industry. If industry grew by 20% and 33% and we are growing by 17%, it is a basic assumption. There might be some volatility, so it will be better if it is clear.
No. Our revenues on ICE side grew 63% in the quarter.
It is mentioned in your presentation. Let me check page number exactly. It is on page number six.
It is not said. Not specifically mentioned. Our revenues on the EV side grew 79%, on the ICE side grew 52.6%.
That is helpful. Thank you.
Which is much more than the market.
My last question: we are already in the testing phase for the ADAS systems. I think the testing is being done by the Israeli company. Do we have customer ready to adopt it? I mean, if you can name it, who is willing to adopt it.
Sure. We can't name the customers, but the point is that we already have a relationship with all the two-wheeler customers. We've already approached them. There is a pretty good interest which is there, and whenever the regulation comes, we'll be ready with the product before it comes.
Okay. What it means, we are dependent on regulations and what it means it doesn't come and the OEMs want to sell it as premium feature.
Yeah.
That is not a possibility?
That could be a possibility, but as much as we understand, looking at the concentration of two-wheelers which is happening and the road accidents which are happening, the regulations for ADAS should be coming on very soon, and we want to be ahead of the curve in case it comes and be ready with the products. That is why we have chosen Ride Vision to be the right partner for it.
Okay. What is the main, I am not trying to reveal your number, but say entry-level segment bike or scooter, how much the cost will increase if they adopt this ADAS?
That depends on what all features. It is a very relative question. It depends on how many features it is required. We cannot comment on this right now. But if you send us a separate email, we will put you across to our CEO who is doing this, and he can share more details if it is in line with the customer.
Okay, thank you. This is all. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and then one now. The next question comes from the line of Preet Jain with Niveshaay . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you so much, sir, for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is on the margin profile. If you compare YoY Q1 FY 2026 to Q1 FY 2027, is it the proportion of battery and other products increasing, that is why we are seeing an impact on the gross margins?
No, no, it's not because of that. As he explained it to you, it's about the hard cycle and the soft cycle of the commodity. So at that point of time, it was a soft cycle of the commodity going on. Right now, we are through a hard cycle of the commodity that's going on.
Okay. Gradually, we should see that margin profile going up, right?
Yes. Whenever the raw material starts coming down, we should be doing better on the margin side.
Okay. Okay. We do pass on our prices but with a lag, you are saying.
It is a lag of three months, and that is how customers do it. We have been doing it for years like this.
Okay, got it. Sir, in terms of where we in the EV side, when I speak specifically, we have a good market share of around 70%. But let's say in terms of the content per vehicle with our set of products that we have currently, wire harnessing, battery sensors, controllers, how much do you think that, let's say, if with our current product profile we can offer X amount, what percentage are we currently supplying to these OEMs?
If you look at it, there are various OEMs to which we are supplying various products and there are products like the cos cells, there are products like the charging guns, products like RCDs, products like chargers, DC/DC converters, wiring harnesses, HV/LV, and then the battery pack assembly. So everyone has a content depending on model to model. It goes up and down. So it's a variable thing and its information which is customer to customer. We would not like to talk more about this term. Kalani, if you want to add.
But if you are honestly asking about the content between ICE versus EV, then the content is substantially higher. If you only look at the wiring harness piece, the content goes up by between 1.5x- 2.5x that of the ICE engine. On top of it, we have the other products Mr. Dhoot mentioned.
What happens is for the wiring harnesses, normal ICE will have only a low voltage harness. We get an extra high voltage harness over here. That's why the content increases. Then the other products also come into picture. So overall everything goes well as compared. If someone picks up all our products, then X can become up till 4x in the EV.
Got it, sir. In terms of capacity expansion, with this IPO proceeds, also we have not set aside anything for this wire harnessing segment. Do you think 75%-80% utilization, we still have headroom to increase it or will soon becoming a bit of CapEx here?
In the IPO proceeds which have come in that there is expansion going on in two plants. One is in Jhajjar and one is in Hosur, which is going to add about 15%-20% to our capacity this year. We cannot increase anything in the 75% range because all our customers operate at 100% efficiency when it comes to the five to six months of season time during Diwali. For that we have to maintain a capacity of 75% year around so that during the peak cycle we are able to support our customers.
Got it sir, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Dhoot from Dhoot Transmission Limited for closing comments, Over to you sir.
Thank you so much to all of you for attending the call today and looking forward for sharing our next earnings call next quarter. And thank you for the trust which has been bestowed upon me and my team. Thank you.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Dhoot Transmission Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you everyone for joining us and you now disconnect your lines.