Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Godrej Agrovet Q4 FY 2025 earnings conference call hosted by IIFL Capital Services 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. Before we start, I would like to point out that some statements made in today's call may be forward-looking, and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings presentation shared with you earlier. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ranjit Cirumalla. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Anushka. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the Godrej Agrovet Q4 FY 2025 earnings conference call. From the company, we have with us Mr. Balram Yadav, Managing Director; Mr. Burjis Godrej, Executive Director; Mr. S. Varadaraj, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Arijit Mukherjee, Chief Operating Officer, Astec LifeSciences. We would like to begin the call with brief opening remarks from the management, following which we will have the forum open for an interactive Q&A session. I would now like to invite Mr. Balram Yadav to make his initial remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone. I welcome you all to the Godrej Agrovet earnings call. At the outset, I am pleased to report that 2025 marks a significant milestone for standalone Godrej Agrovet Limited, which recorded its highest-ever profitability. The primary drivers of this exceptional profitability were the outstanding performance of our domestic crop protection business and the vegetable oil business, complemented by notable margin expansion in our animal feed segment. On a consolidated basis, EBITDA margin, excluding non-recurring items, improved by 110 basis points in 2025 as compared to 2024, despite revenue remaining relatively flat year-on-year. Beyond our financial performance in 2025, we remain deeply committed to the long-term sustainability objectives aligned with the Godrej Group's good and green vision. For the second year in a row, we have been included in ALA's leadership band of climate disclosure projects, climate disclosures, and also for water and forest disclosures.
We achieved good progress in achieving sustainability targets led by 81% of energy consumption from clean renewable energy sources and being a water-positive company, already conserving 15 times more water than we consume. The company also has been conferred with CII's coveted and prestigious Climate Action Program CFP 2.0 award. Coming to the key financial and business highlights of each of our business segments, in animal feed, while volumes grew marginally in Q4 FY 2025, segment margins remained flat. For FY 2025, segment margins improved sharply from 4.6% in FY 2024 to 6.1% in FY 2025 on account of favorable commodity positions and cost optimization initiatives. Further, our EBIT per employee improved significantly by 28% from INR 1,542 in FY 2024 to INR 1,973 in FY 2025. Volume remained flat year-on-year, primarily due to lower placement and lower end product prices in the first half of the year.
Vegetable oil segment delivered remarkable results in FY 2025, followed by an increase in average realization of crude palm oil and palm kernel oil prices, which was fueled in the area by an increase in import duties in September 2024. As a result, segment revenue and results for Q4 FY 2025 and FY 2025 improved significantly, while fresh fruit bunches' arrivals for FY 2025 were lower by 8% year-on-year. FFB arrivals for Q4 were higher by 10% year-on-year. Our crop protection business delivered stellar performance throughout FY 2025 and Q4 FY 2025. For FY 2025, segment margin at 40% was impressive growth over FY 2024. This was fueled by robust volume growth across in-house and traded product portfolio. FY 2025 was a challenging year for Astec LifeSciences, marked by a lower offtakes in the CDMO business, coupled with a sharp decline in the prices of its enterprise products.
However, in Q4 FY 2025, Astec reported a sequential improvement in performance as compared to Q3 FY 2025 on the back of improved volume and lower input costs. Our dairy segment reported improved profitability in FY 2025, a direct result of our relentless focus on enhancing operational efficiency and favorable milk spread. Furthermore, our strategic emphasis on value-added products continues to gain traction, now contributing a significant 37% of our total sales. The performance of Q4 was impacted due to an increase in procurement prices. In our poultry business, Q4 FY 2025 and FY 2025 earnings and margins declined primarily because of the lower volume of live bird category, as we continued to focus on increasing salience of branded businesses and reduce exposure to live bird businesses. While the volume of branded categories grew in FY 2025 by 4% year-on-year, profitability was adversely impacted due to higher input costs and unfavorable channel mix.
In Q4 FY 2025, margin in the branded category improved sequentially due to higher realization and low input costs. Godrej Agrovet's joint venture in Bangladesh, ACI Godrej, recorded a decline in revenue of 13% year-on-year in FY 2025 due to ongoing economic challenges and political instability in Bangladesh. This concludes our business and financial performance update for the quarter. With this, I close my opening remarks. We will now be happy to answer your questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Ranjit Cirumalla from IIFL Capital Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thanks for this opportunity. The first question is on the Astec LifeSciences. The business has seen a bit of a challenge in the year gone by. What are your thoughts on this particular business over the next couple of years if you can just shed a bit more light on that? Thank you.
Thank you. There is, Arijit. Let me try to answer this question in two parts. The first part was, first, the problem which we faced last year was because of high-priced inventory, which is mostly in our enterprise section. Last year, we have liquidated all the high-priced inventories. From Q4, if you see, there is a little bit of improvement in terms of the volume uptake. With the fresh arrival of the raw material intermediate and the volume increasing, we think that more or less the bad phase of enterprise business is over. We will see a positive contribution from that business. Hopefully, by Q2, the volume should be normal in terms of the increasing demand from the U.S. and other geographies. In terms of commodities, as you know, the second half of the year generally goes more for contract manufacturing.
Whichever contract manufacturing is between the H1, most of the contract manufacturing POs and negotiation has been over. This gives us confidence that almost most of the contract manufacturing will be coming back to the normal demand. Contribution for contract manufacturing does not vary too much. It has been consistent over the last two, three years. We see that more or less the business is moving towards a positive phase in terms of contribution and volume demand. Yeah.
Any long-term?
Long-term, what we are now currently working because today, almost 60% of the business comes from contract manufacturing. By the end of the year, we think we should build up to 70%-75%. Already, there are a number of projects which we are working in R&D. I think by Q3, there will be new molecules which will be commercialized. Some will be in the backward phase which adds up to the margin, and some will be the new molecules. Overall, the focus is more towards the next 2-3 years will be more into contract manufacturing, and it will be mostly in the innovator space. That is our first preference to go with the innovators to get new molecules.
Right, sir. Thank you. Could you just share a guidance on the growth numbers for the contract manufacturing business? We were earlier confident of more than 30%-40% kind of a growth. We have entered a phase on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
More or less, it will be around 35%. Year-on-year, the growth will be 35%.
For the next couple of years?
Couple of years, yes.
Thank you. How soon can we get back to our previous highs in the enterprise sales?
It is very difficult to predict, Aster, but Q2 is the time when the demand generally, most of the geographies, India, as well as U.S. and other geographies, it picks up. I think we have to wait for a month or so to see how the demand just translates to actual orders and how we compete with China and everything. We are very near to the start of the season.
I must also tell you that all our buyers, particularly in the U.S., are closely watching the tariff situation. I think the story will be clearer in a fortnight or so. By that time, they have to start taking the orders. Considering the kind of differential we have with China in different molecules, we believe that the margin expansion will happen because of the tariff regime also.
Right, sir. Thank you. I will come back in queue.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind that you may press star and one to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question.
Hello. Anushka?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. People are unable to ask questions. There seems to be some technical issue. Can you please check?
Yeah. Yes, sir. Give me a moment. I'll check.
Yeah, yeah. You're getting messages.
Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind that you may press star and 1 to ask questions. The first question is from the line of Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please proceed.
Hi, sir. Good afternoon. First question is on the Astec enterprise business. Now going into FY 2026, with our high-cost inventory liquidated, how should we think about loss margins in these businesses?
Now, within enterprise, also, there will be few molecules which will be showing a relative good growth percentages, right? It should be around, say, 15%-20% of growth volume we can expect for. There will be still, there will be, say, 20%-30% of the molecules which is under stress. That might be because of inventories. It might be because of.
Growth margins.
Oh, growth margins.
Of the enterprise.
Growth margin will again be around, say, 12%-14% should be the growth margin.
No, it's contribution.
Contribution margin will be 12%-14%.
Growth margin will be close to about.
20%.
20, 23% of the growth.
Okay. Secondly, in the CDMO business, we are guiding for a 35% growth. How much of this would be coming from new molecules, and how much of this would be coming from the existing business from FY 2025?
I think this year, the majority of the growth will come from the old molecules where the volume because last two years, the volume did not reach the peak. 90% of the growth will come from the old molecules. Few new molecules will come up, but this will be in the initial phase. It will be very small volumes which will come.
35% looks big. I must also tell you that last year was a very subdued year for CGMO, so on a low base.
Correct. Lastly, in terms of CapExes, are we planning any capexes on the Aztec side?
No CapEx in Astec. In GAVL, we are only putting CapEx in high-margin businesses now, particularly oil palm plantation. Oil palm plantation business is the recipient of most capex. They're coming up with refineries in palm kernel oil, etc. Apart from that, they'll get into further value-added products also. The CapEx is being done for that also.
Lastly, on the domestic CapEx for next year, very minor, just maintenance things. Nothing is planned for further CapEx until we get more visibility into the business and until mid-term overall profitability improves.
Lastly, on the domestic side, how should we look at our placement for the curry season in the crop protection business?
Placement is very good on the back of expectation of normal monsoon. I think we are fully geared up. I think dispatches are happening. Placement is happening at the retail level. We are expecting a good season, and we are also expecting very good volumes.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akella from Kotak Securities. Please proceed.
Yeah. Good afternoon, and thank you so much for taking my question. I'll just start with a slightly broad question, sir, if I may, but it would be great to get your perspective on the outlook for the various business segments for the upcoming financial year in terms of growth and profitability. It would be great to hear your overall broader perspective on that.
I think I must also say that last 5-6 quarters have been very, very important for us in correcting a lot of our margin structure, a lot of our distribution model, the portfolio also in terms of products within a business. We believe that I think we should get back to growth. Some of the green shoots we have seen in the last two quarters. Overall, we are expecting between 15%-18% top-line growth in GAVL, backed only by volume growth. We are not taking too much of inflationary growth next year. I think the main businesses where growth is likely to happen is crop protection business, in the animal feed business, and in the Astec LifeSciences business. As Mr. Arijit Mukherjee said, Astec LifeSciences, we are expecting a pickup in the volume so that we get back to earlier levels.
That is why we have budgeted higher growth in Astec LifeSciences. Crop protection, they'll be launching one molecule which will account for some growth, and the rest of the growth will come from earlier products. In animal feed business, last year was a washout in aqua feed, particularly fish feed. We believe that this year, because of very good fish prices, the volumes are coming back. We are expecting very good growth in the aqua feed segment in animal feed. As far as profitability is concerned, again, we have taken a growth of 16%-18% profit. I must also tell you that in animal feed, in crop protection business, in oil palm plantation business, the profit as a percentage of sales is already very high.
We have not taken any growth in profit per term, but whatever growth is there will come from volume. Big profit improvement will come from reduction of losses in Astec LifeSciences this year. We are saying that on a conservative basis, our loss should come down to less than half of last year, and that will definitely drive profitability of Godrej Agrovet and take us to a 16%-18% growth overall at consolidated basis.
Okay. So 16-18% on the top-line front and also on the bottom line, sir? Is that how we should think about it?
Yeah, 16-18% on bottom line, but most of it is going to come from loss reduction in Astec LifeSciences.
Sorry, just wondering, shouldn't the bottom line growth be higher, sir, than the top-line growth if the losses are reducing?
I'm saying that, according to me, we can be 1% or 2% higher, but I don't see any significant change. You must also remember that we are already at 30% EBIT level in what was the EBIT level in crop protection?
Protection, 40%.
40% EBIT level in crop protection, plus the oil prices were extremely high in oil palm plantation business and animal feed business. Also, there has been significant improvement in margin, as I've already talked about, that we have seen a significant improvement in margin in our feed business. I feel that I think whatever growth and profitability in these businesses will come from is going to come from volume. I also feel that there will be a drop in profitability from 40% EBIT level in agrochemicals because all of us know that it is not sustainable.
Understood, sir. That makes sense. That's a helpful color. If I may just take a couple of questions to dig a little bit deeper into some of the segments.
Go ahead, please.
The dairy and Godrej food segments seem to have seen some margin compression in the maybe fourth quarter, particularly. What is the reason for that, and how do we expect that to go going forward? In animal feed, cattle is the largest segment, and we kind of struggled in the first half last year, I believe, because of lower milk prices. Have you seen a recovery in that segment given the fact that procurement costs seem to be moving up?
Yeah. You are talking about in both our food businesses, we had an extreme challenge in Q4 also, which continues in Q1 also, which is the high prices of input, which is the chicken prices have gone up, as well as costs have gone up, and milk procurement costs have gone up. The prices have not kept pace. In chicken, they have not kept pace because of the bird flu situation in West and South India for some time. The industry has gone through a lot of pain, and now the prices have started recovering. We may see marginal improvement in this quarter, but more improvement in the next quarter. In milk, there is a lag between increase in procurement prices and increase in consumer prices. That is what we are seeing also.
One reason for margin compression in dairy business was that we accelerated our marketing initiatives for our value-added products. You will be glad to know that we spent almost INR 6 crore in quarter four of last year. We have taken Rana Daggubati, the superstar of Southern cinema, as our brand ambassador. All those spends have been made. We believe that these results will start coming in this year. Chicken has already explained why the margins have compressed.
Rana did not mention about animal feed also, I think.
Cat food feed, I think that rebound is happening, so you will see that.
Animal feed rebound is happening.
Yeah.
Animal feed is well after, no?
Yeah, but show me the number. I don't remember that.
Cattle feed is 50% of overall animal feed bucket. Because milk prices have started to go up, usually farmers alternate between.
There are questions, sir.
I think, sorry, we are hearing your internal conversation.
Are you going to grass to raise the cattle? Because milk prices are going up, that cattle feed volumes are expected to go up as well. Show me that line item. This year, volume growth was - 2%, but margins improved because raw material prices have gone up. I can see this is animal feed business.
I think we can move to the next question, Abhijit, if you are.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aejas Lakhani. Please proceed.
Yeah. Good afternoon, team. My first question is that animal feeds had a benign raw material environment. How is the situation right now? The EBIT margins that you have reported for the full year, do you expect margins to remain at the same level?
Sorry to interrupt. It seems like the management line has been disconnected. I'll rejoin. Please wait for a moment. Thank you for waiting patiently. We have connected the management to the line.
Can we go to the next question, please?
Yes. The next question is from the line of Aejas Lakhani.
Hi, Aejas.
Give me a moment, sir.
Yeah. Please check whether he is.
Yeah. Connected.
Yeah. My first question is on animal feed. This year, we've had a benign raw material environment, which has led to a higher segment margin. How do we expect FY 2026 to shape up from a margin perspective as well as a growth perspective?
One of the other reasons for very good margin expansion was very good raw material calls we took last year. You're absolutely right that we are not seeing the kind of inflation we would see in off-season in the animal feed business. That is still continuing. One thing I must tell you about this industry, I think this industry has benefited the most as far as profitability is concerned from the government's ethanol policy. Because while government corn became expensive, all the protein sources, particularly soya meal and all kinds of meal, including cotton seed meal, rapeseed meal, etc., all of them became cheaper because of the DDGS, which got produced from making ethanol. I think the industry has benefited from that.
The second benefit came from ban of DORB exports to Bangladesh because that was one area where they would take away almost 500,000 tons to 700,000 tons every year from us, and that would result in some inflation in our DORB brand prices. All these things are likely to continue. We are very sure that either we will build on our margins or we will maintain the margins. My expectation is that our EBIT per ton will remain between INR 1,900-INR 2,000 on an average. Some quarters it may go up, some quarters it may come down, but I am talking more the annual number.
Got it. My second question is on vegetable oil. Could you speak about the outlook for the segment? That is point number one. Within that, the benefits of forward integration that you have been doing, could you specifically call out that the margin expansion that we have seen this year from 15% - 17%, how much was it on account of the palm oil prices being higher? How much was it on account of the productivity benefits of forward integration? What has been the FFB arrival, FY 2024 and FY 2025, and how should we think about it in 2026?
Okay. I will start answering from price outlook. The prices have definitely started correcting. Today, the exit is close to INR 115,000-INR 118,000 per metric ton of CPO. Oil is also at similar prices. I think they have come down from the peak of INR 131,000, INR 132,000. The forward prices for, say, August, September are showing at about INR 107,000-INR 110,000. We do not know what will happen, but definitely the prices are softening. Where we are extremely happy is because palm kernel oil, which competes with coconut oil, the prices are still holding at close to INR 215,000-INR 220,000 per ton. I think that will definitely is likely to continue because the demand for palm kernel oil is very strong. On the second question is our journey. Our first investment in that journey was the refinery for crude palm oil.
I can say that it has added, like-to-like basis, almost 1.25% to our overall profitability. The second investment in that journey is under progress, which is a refinery from palm kernel oil. All the palm kernel oil will also be refined and sold as value-added products, but that is likely to happen only towards the end of this season and definitely in the next year. That will add another 1%-1.2%, depending on prices, to our overall profitability. These two investments will add close to anything between 2%-2.5% to our overall profit, depending on the price of the product. The third investment, which is under discussion, is about hydrogen, hydrogenation, and interesterification plants, which will help us to manufacture shortenings.
Bakery fats.
Bakery fats, cocoa butter substitutes, and non-dairy milk, etc., which will add close to 1-2% to our overall profitability once we start doing that. However, having said that, the third phase, which launches us into these B2B food products, will require a lot of development of these products along with the partner clients. I think for that, we have set up an R&D center in Rabale. In the agrochemical R&D center, we had one floor which was available, and that has been converted into R&D center for oils and fats. This is the way forward. The best thing about this journey is that I think CPO prices will still be relevant, but will not add to volatility of profits to a large extent in another two years' time. The journey is already started. Investments are already underway, and more investments will be made.
We believe in FY 2027, we should get a glimpse of what a value-added oil business would look like. Please tell what is the.
Yeah. In terms of the fresh fruit bunch arrivals, fresh fruit bunch arrivals for the year was lower on account of several factors, including the water availability and the spatial distribution of monsoon. For Q4, the fresh fruit bunch arrival grew by almost 11% in Q4. Also, FY 2026 is expected to be a good year from a fresh fruit bunch arrival perspective, and we expect close to 18% growth in fresh fruit bunch arrival in the financial year 2026.
April has been stunning.
Yeah. April has been stunning.
Got it. Just to follow on this, the PKOs and CPO realization spread, earthwise, used to be in the range of 20%-35%- 40%. The number you called out, which was INR 215,000 versus INR 115,000, it shows a far stark jump. Do you see this as a secular trend, or is this a one-off that will revert back to the 40% spread level?
According to me, it is also season to season. I think there is a big jump in the demand of palm kernel oil for food as well as for industrial purposes. We believe that nobody can predict what will happen, say, four quarters later. I am very sure the kind of trends I see, first and the second quarter, definitely this kind of gap will prevail. My sense is that PKO will be 1.8-1.9 times of CPO price.
Understood. Perfect. My next question is on the live bird segment, on poultry specifically. Your aspirations in this segment are pretty clear to us in terms of what you've communicated. Today, could you just give a breakup of FY 2025? What has been the proportion of live birds after you have taken over in completeness? What is that segment revenue as a percentage of the overall? What is RGC and Yummiez? Just directionally, so we know where we are.
Before that, let me tell you, Mr. Varadaraj will answer the other question. I must tell you that could we reduce the live bird variance in the business and brought it to a very low level? Otherwise, the kind of mayhem we have seen in this market because of bird flu incidences in West and South, we would have really suffered heavy losses in this segment. Now, you can tell.
In terms of volume, the saliency of live birds for FY 2025 is close to 32%, while that of Yummiez and Real Good Chicken put together was around 68%. That is what in terms of volume saliency was. While in terms of revenue, if we had looked at the saliency of live bird, it was close to 23% as against 39% in the previous year. Yeah?
Wonderful. Sir, is it fair to assume that given that the business is now tilted more towards RGC and Yummiez, which have a significantly better margin profile as compared to live bird, we should start to see the benefits of that in FY 2026?
That is the expectation.
That is the expectation. Also, more importantly, the volatility will come down. For instance, let's take Q4 itself. Q4 of FY 2024 had a very high live bird price. Was it sustainable? The answer was no. That is why when you compare it with Q4 of FY 2025, you see a dip in the live bird contribution and live bird margins. This kind of volatility will also go down.
Another thing which I want to add is that in both our food businesses, we have doubled our ad spend over FY 2025.
Understood. Sir, when will this segment start to see reasonable healthy return ratios, the live bird segment especially? Sorry, the poultry segment especially?
We are expecting things to change in a quarter or two, but I'm saying that I would hold this question for one more quarter because there's so much we have done in dairy as well as chicken, and the results are yet to be seen. We will wait and watch for three more months if we have to pivot something or focus something else. One thing which we are also seeing is subdued consumer demand. We believe that sentiment is also likely to pick up and improve in time to come. Definitely, the direction is right.
Noted. Sir, on the dairy side, now we have spoken about the significant improvements we have done, and you have called out the higher ANP spend for the quarter. If I were to take FY 2026, how should we expect growth to be? What should we directionally think about the value-added portion, which has been about 36% of revenues or 37%? How should we incrementally see that going up? Where are we on the direct procurement model today? Directionally, given that milk procurement prices are going up, have we taken an increase in our products so as to pass on the increased cost of materials?
Overall growth in volume in all blended all products is taken at about 10% in our dairy segment. We have not been very, very aggressive in growth because we are having problem in top-line growth for the last two years. The salience of value-added products.
Wow.
It will go up to almost 40% plus in the next year, the saliency of value-added products. Also in terms of margins, the EBITDA margins, we expect that to expand from the current 5% in the current financial year to almost 6%-7% in the next financial year.
I must also say that regarding price increases in some of the value-added products, where we could, we have taken the price increase. Can you hear me?
Yes. What percentage of the portfolio would you have taken price increase?
Almost 20. No. Okay. Let me just complete what I'm saying. There is a price increase which happens, which the industry takes along with everybody else, which is pass on the cost of increased cost of milk. I think those two price increases have happened in the last four months. Apart from that, in certain value-added products, we have taken a price increase of about 4%-5% to 10% in certain areas, but that constitutes only 10%-12% of our total portfolio. As and when we get an opportunity, when we start advertising in that segment, we definitely are planning to take a price increase, even if the market does not take a price increase along with us. I think that journey has started of premiumizing and other things, which is going to be backed by ad spend.
I think we will see margin improvements all across in the dairy segment. In pure plain milk, we will have to be with the market.
Okay. Sir, where are we on direct procurement with farmers? What percentage of the milk is now being directly procured?
I think we can give, I think last week, it has already crossed 60%, but I would request my colleagues to get to the thing. I think our plan is to cross 75% this year. That is the target because that is the only big initiative which is ongoing in the procurement because it yields a lot of benefits. I must say that we have, just because of direct procurement, halved the number of our chilling centers. It is becoming very, I would say, the depth is increasing and the cost is decreasing. The rate of decreasing cost is slower, but definitely it is becoming more and more efficient.
Sure, sir. Sir, on crop protection, you mentioned in your opening remarks that the 40% margins are at the higher end of the threshold. How should we think about margins for FY 2026? Also, could you comment about how the in-license portfolio is doing and what is the outlook there?
Sir, let me just add that definitely why we have taken a drop in margin is because we have taken a 30%+ increase in top line. We believe that we need to expand geographically because we should not be dependent on only a few molecules, a few crops, and a few geographies. The kind of debacle we had in Chile should not happen next year. We have expanded into several other vegetable crops and several other geographies, and all this is going to cost. This margin drop is coupled with the kind of top-line growth we have in this because we are going to launch another product in corn, which is another in-licensing product, which will also add to our growth numbers this year. On in-licensing, I think the efforts have been, I would say, there is a multi-fold increase in our efforts.
Last year, we set up, or FY 2024, we set up a Japanese desk to connect with Japanese companies, and we are extremely happy to say that we are working with a few Japanese companies for a few molecules, which will be launched in FY 2027, FY 2028. Apart from that, we have started the Chinese desk also last year. In both these countries, we have appointed people to further our interests. I am extremely glad to say that the China desk is also likely to deliver good results. All in all, I think we are in, I think this is a crunch year for us. We will definitely try to get 30%+ margin and more than 30%+ growth over last year in top line. Having said that, at 30% EBITDA level, we will still be higher than last year. Hello?
Hello.
Hello. Can you hear us?
Can you hear us? We seem to be having some issues with ChorusCall today, so just checking.
Hello.
Yes.
Yeah. Can you hear us?
He's on talk only.
Okay. We are not able to hear anything.
Give me a moment, sir.
Yeah.
Can we move to the next question, please?
Anushka, we can move to the next question, please. Yeah.
Sure. The next question is from the line of Ankur Periwal from Axis Capital. Please proceed.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. I hope I'm audible.
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Great. Sir, two questions. First, since we're discussing on the crop protection side, you did highlight that we are going to launch one more in-license product this year. Just trying to get your thoughts from a two to three-year perspective. Since you're already in talks with Japanese as well as Chinese players there, what are our thoughts in terms of, one, number of new product launches as well as the overall portfolio growth for us, given there is a geographic expansion as well that we are working on?
I can definitely talk about one which is already going commercial. The only thing I can definitely tell you is that at least five molecules, one or two mixtures are already in the different stages of registration. I think we can give some color on that in another six months time. Definitely, the pipeline is healthy, and all these molecules have at least 10 million-20 million top-line opportunity in the second or the third year of the launch.
Equal. Equal.
Equal. Yeah.
And.
And.
And.
Yeah. Sorry.
Hold on. Hold on.
If you ask me, yes. There are two products which are going to come from in-house, which are mixtures. There are five products which are already in different phases of registration. They are all in-licensing and all from Japan.
Sure, sir. These five will be launched over the next three years, which is FY 2026, 2027, and 2028?
Definitely, everything will be over by FY 2028. Most of it is 2026 and 2027.
Great, sir. That's helpful. Just a follow-up here. You mentioned on 30%.
Registration can go by one quarter or here and there it can happen. The point is that it may not fall in the financial year, but definitely will happen. In the next 8-10 quarters, everything will be in the market.
Yeah. Yeah. Should be good. Just on the margin front, you did mention that we look to maintain 30%+ EBIT margin in the standalone crop protection side. Was that a guidance only for FY 2026 or even, let's say, two years out when these products get launched?
FY 2026.
Okay. Let's say three years out, will that number be similar or will it be probably drifting down a bit, maybe more closer to 25% or your thoughts?
Depends on the kind of margins we get in in-licensing products because as the salience of our own molecules come down, definitely you do not get this kind of EBIT margins on in-licensing. My sense is that between 25%-30% is something which we try to maintain three years out also.
The key point would be that it will still be higher than peers in those time frames. That is something that you should note.
Sure. Noted, sir. Secondly, on Astec side, you did mention on the strong revenue ramp-up that we see. Two parts. One, pricing-led pain in enterprise segment you mentioned is largely over. Are we starting to see some volume-led uptake here?
Yeah. The growth will be volume-led this year, and price will be a little bit of correction, but the growth will come only from the volume.
Okay. A large part of this 30% odd growth will be led by the CDMO business. What timelines are we looking for a peak utilization of that contract, that product?
Generally, the product we should be launching this year generally takes three years to reach the peak volume.
Okay. Sure. Just second bit on the margins front in Astec here. While there is a strong ramp-up we are looking to witness in this year, the margin guidance still is slightly subdued in terms of halving the losses. Any specific reason why we are still expecting the losses to continue? My sense was probably the turnaround over here could be much quicker.
I'm telling you, we have had egg on our face for the last four, five quarters. How horribly can we go wrong that we budgeted a break even in Astec LifeSciences and lost INR 140 crore? I am saying we are being conservative, and the budgeting is done by just taking whatever confirmed orders we had and whatever the margin which we have already locked in in terms of price expectation and raw material cost expectation. So this margin, we are 90% plus sure that we will deliver. However, there are upsides also. One upside can be general improvement in the market. Second upside can be some tariff differential from China for the American market, if it can give us a few percentage points more. I think these are something which have not been factored in the current margin expectation.
This is Rohit Gangaraj. I just want to add that we are expecting EBITDA positivity for this year, but given the situation on interest cost, depreciation, those are significant. There are significant investments made in R&D center, new herbicide plants. That is why the outlook for overall profitability is still looking like it is loss-making.
Sure, sir. And just last bit, let's say two years out, given some near-term, there are still challenges, but let's say 2-3 years out, once Astec is going at 25%-30% CAGR here, which you suggested for, what sort of stable EBITDA margins are we looking at for Astec three years out?
I think these businesses have to cross 20% + EBITDA margins to be able to be sustainable and worth their while. That is what the expectation is. A lot of things are there, but I would not hazard a guess right now. I can tell you the kind of amount of work we have done. We have appointed consultants outside the country. We are working with a lot of people in trying to turn around this business. I can definitely see that a lot of activity is there, but it has to precipitate to business results. It will take another two to three quarters for us to give you a full glimpse of how the next two to three years will look. One great thing about CDMO and why I love it is that suppose you nail something, you nail something for long term.
Correct.
Looking into specialty molecules will also be very important. Those contribution margins, gross margins are much more significant than enterprise molecules. We have discussions underway for contract manufacturing for those. Around the time of Q3, Q4, you'll see some of those efforts beginning to be commercialized.
Great, sir. Thanks for the detailed answers there and all the best. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sujit Jain from Bajaj Allianz Life. Please proceed.
Yeah. I hope I'm audible. Quite some candid observations, Mr. Yadav , you've made. I have some questions on the dairy business. In the dairy business, you still, given your aspiration of moving from 5%-6%-7% margin, here is a business which, if you compare with the listed dairy peers, it's subscale A and B. Even in aspiration, our margins are still 6%-7%, people have reached double-digit margins. They have also reduced the volatility of margins in dairy business and kind of given commentaries of keeping it in a narrow band even when prices of raw materials are to go up materially. Is there an issue in terms of our aspiration falling short? That's my question one.
Okay. Definitely, what we inherited and what we went through in this business, I think, is known to everybody through our numbers.
I can definitely say that in the last two years, a lot of correction has been made, and you would have seen that correction has been made first in.
Hello. Hello.
Hello.
Yeah. I lost, I think, the management.
Sorry. I'll rejoin the management. Please wait for a moment.
Come on. You start. I'm joining. Come on. Wait for a few seconds.
Thank you for waiting patiently. We have connected the management's line.
Sudhir, where did I lose you?
No. You kind of started answering, and then at least I lost you.
Okay. What we are saying is that a lot of correction has been made in the backend. That has brought us to the GM margins, which is comparable to our peers. We are between 26%-29% GM margin for the last several quarters. Our big problem of lower EBITDA is also because of our top-line growth. That is one thing which we are trying to address by branding and by distribution reboot. My sense is that it will take time, but we will get this also in order. I must say that the team has been revamped. We have got very good marketing talent in that team. I think in a few quarters from now, you will start seeing uptake in our value-added sales.
Okay. When I look at you got benefited this year because of higher palm oil prices, you've already discussed in this call, they've started coming down. If I were to kind of do my math for FY 2026, there will still not be much of growth if that business were not to support us. This company was supposed to be a good double-digit compounder company, and here we have a situation where, because of various reasons, we've not been able to achieve. That is one. Secondly, could there be a reorganization of all these seemingly disparate businesses into, let's say, at least one more entity where some businesses can be housed? For example, a dairy business can be spun out separately. Could this conglomerate structure be continued?
Sudhir, the first answer is with palm oil. I must tell you that we are very, very confident that this year we have watched this plantation business. We have learned so much from Malaysia and Indonesia. Trees are trees. They have their own behavior. You must have heard about mangoes also some year because you have excessive crop, some years you have short take. I think the similar trend is in all orchards or say horticultural crops. We believe this year is a year of volume growth. If April is a sample, then we are very confident that we will be able to maintain similar profitability also because of volume growth in FFB arrival. On your second question, I must tell you, and I must disclose this, that we have talked about the portfolio being one of the focus. We have tried to clean up the portfolio.
We have bought 49% stake in Godrej Tyson Foods, and we are also in the process of buying the stake with minority stakeholders and try and own 100% of CDPL in a month's time. One reason is to have a real good look at these businesses, grow them. The other advantage of owning 100% is also that in joint ventures, the restructurings are not very easy. I think this gives us a lot of flexibility and freedom to restructure the way we want. I fully agree with you that I think portfolio play has to portfolio consolidation or reorganization has to play out in this company. By buying these stakes, we have given ourselves that freedom to do that. My sense is that we are going to see what each business can do. We are working with some consultants also to make future plans.
I am sure that in time to come, you will see management action on the questions you have asked.
Sir, and one last question is on Astec. If you could just summarize what went wrong, is it Chinese flooding and we had our business more tilted towards catalog business earlier? In future, how we can be more agile rather than reacting to circumstances, be proactive to actually take some actions ahead of the time?
I'll simplify the whole thing. I'm telling you that in enterprise business, we lost heavily because the price has just halved. We were left with a lot of finished product and a lot of high-cost raw material. At one time, our cost of raw material was higher than the finished product. We sold a lot of material on negative contribution, which accounts for almost 50%-55% of our losses. The second thing was that CDMO, which was supposed to pick up, also did not pick up. These were customers who were with us for a long time, but they just reduced their quantities or postponed their quantities. This was the problem of last year. Now, the first problem of high raw material cost has been sorted out. All the products are in positive contribution, which is increasing with each consignment. That is there.
To make this business more sustainable and less volatile, I think we need to crack CDMO big time. That is where our efforts are on. I think if we are talking about 30-35% growth this year, in case that happens for one or two years, then we would say that we are on the right track. We believe that we are doing everything, whatever is required to become a good and a favorable CDMO player. Let us see how it plays out. My sense is that we will be successful.
Okay. Sure. All the best. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aman Bora, an individual investor. Please proceed.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. First of all, one feedback from my side. One of the participants, Mr. Aejas, for the last two quarters has been giving more than 20 minutes on the call, which leaves very less time for us because we get to talk to the management only once in a quarter. If we could limit the time given to each participant so that more participation can happen in the call. That is my first request to the management.
Thank you. Thank you for pointing out.
Please do reach out to us offline, and we're happy to answer any queries that were unaddressed.
Thank you, sir. That was just one. I just have two small questions. One is on Astec. If I talk about, say, two quarters back, our guidance for FY 2025 was that we'll do about INR 400-450 crore of top line on the CDMO side, while we've achieved almost half of that in terms of INR 225 crore, which is down versus what we did in FY 2024. If FY 2026, we are saying that the business volume is returning back to normal, can we now, for the full year FY 2026, do a CDMO business number of that INR 400- INR 450 crore, which was expected for FY 2025?
Let us say this way.
Last quarter, which has happened, is that some of the orders, which generally the CDMO orders which comes in Q4, was in the last moment being canceled. That is why if you see, there is a decrease in terms of the overall projections which we have given. For this year, this is too early to say because this CDMO takes first portion of the CDMO, which is 30% of the businesses, happens in H1. Actual 70% of the CDMO businesses also happens in H2, where the negotiations and the discussions will start in Q2. It is too early to say about the actual projections part, but then the way it is moving, it seems that the volumes are coming back, which we lost in the last two years.
If that proves right, we should be there somewhere between 30%-35% of the growth we can achieve.
Got it. Got it. That is point number one. Point number two, I think what Mr. Godrej also highlighted, we, as I say for FY 2026, the guidance for Astec is that we will half our losses. If I just leave aside the PAT losses because I understand the depreciation and interest costs, at the EBITDA level, what is the broad margin guidance range that the company can share with us? Why I—sorry to ask specific questions, but why I ask is that as outsiders or as minority investors in the business, these broad ranges help us think about the business better also. You would appreciate that as you, we would not have the clarity as what you would have by running the business.
A broad range on the EBITDA margin, if you can share for FY 2026.
EBITDA margin, historically, if you see, has been driven by CDMOs. Now, CDMO is more or less towards the H2 quarter is where the CDMO generally picks up. The guidance currently is that we will be positive EBITDA. In terms of percentage, we'll take some time, at least a quarter time, to give you the exact numbers in terms of what will be the percentage share in EBITDA level.
Okay. Got it. Second, my just one final question is on Godrej Agrovet. For FY 2026, we've discussed about 15%-18% top-line growth, and that's heartening to hear and largely partly driven by volumes. I would just second the previous participant's point that we've been share owners in this business for the last eight years. The problem is that the predictability of business goes so low because in each quarter, there would be a business that would do well while there would be something that adds a negative hedge. This portfolio construct, I would humbly request the management to look at what best we can do to unlock shareholder value, especially for people who've been invested in this company since IPO or for the last seven, eight years. That's just my humble.
Point taken. That is top of agenda for the management also. We are taking outside help from top consultants to think through all this. The project is underway, and I think management action will follow.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much. All the best.
You too.
Thank you. The last question for the day is from the line of Abhijit Akella from Kotak Securities. Please proceed.
Yeah. Thank you so much for taking my follow-up. Just on the working capital front, it seems like there's been a significant increase in payables in the year-end numbers. Also, a reduction in inventory. If you could please just help us understand what happened there and what we should expect going forward.
Thanks, Abhijit. As you may recollect, Abhijit, some time back, we had moved away from supplier financing arrangements which were there because the spread was quite high. Now, the spread has come down significantly between supplier financing facilities which are available and our borrowing costs. Consequently, the savings of supplier financing has gone up. That is the reason why you see that towards the end, we have seen more of lower capital employed. Also, as you rightly pointed out, our inventory also has been coming down. Both these things have helped us in unlocking value, unlocking our working capital.
Okay. These levels are sustainable, right, over here?
Yes. These levels are sustainable.
We do not want to go overboard also. We will keep it at a reasonable level.
Yeah. Yeah. The other thing on the crop protection side, very aggressive growth plans that we have driven by geographical expansion primarily, I guess.
New products also.
New products as well. I mean, from being primarily maybe a South-based company, which regions are we targeting? If you could please elaborate a bit on that. Then this lower prices of chili, which impacted the in-license products last year. I guess that situation perhaps continues. How do we expect, how do we sort of plan to tackle that scenario?
I think we are focusing on West Central, big-time, vegetable crops. And for our products, we have taken labels for different vegetable crops also. That is the diversification we feel. Vegetables is a very big crop growth in the country. That will help us expand or improve our footprint in different geographies. This year, West and Central will be the focus apart from South.
Just one last thing on the animal feed side. Is it fair to expect maybe double-digit volume growth in cattle feed for the upcoming year?
Too early to say. Cattle feed, definitely, we are expecting higher growth. A blended growth of 7%-8% is something which we are expecting and which we have seen in the last few months. There have been good signs of improvement in the whole category. We believe 7%-8% of volume growth will happen. Margin expansion will also continue. My sense is that I see a good year for animal feed.
Thank you so much, sir. I wish you all the best.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Thank you. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions. If you have any further questions or would like to know more about the company, we would be happy to be of assistance. Stay safe and stay healthy. Thank you once again for taking the time to join us on this call.
On behalf of IIFL Capital Services Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.