Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the 15 months 2026 earnings conference call of International Gemmological Institute Limited, hosted by MUFG Intime. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in a 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 is being recorded. I would now hand the conference over to Mr. Sumeet Khaitan from MUFG Intime. Thank you. Over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to the earnings conference call to discuss 15 months 2026 results of International Gemmological Institute Limited. To discuss the results we have from the management, Mr. Tehmasp Printer, MD and CEO, Mr. Eashwar Iyer, CFO, and Ms. Natasha Kedia, Head of Investor Relations and Public Relations. They will take you through the results and the business performance, after which we will proceed for Q&A session. Before we proceed with the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. For more details, kindly refer to investor presentation and other filings that can be found on the company's website. With this, I now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Sumeet. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today for the 2026 earnings call. I trust everyone has had the opportunity to review our financial results and investor presentation, both of which are available on the stock exchanges as well as on our website. Industry landscape. Over the past year, IGI has delivered another period of strong growth and consistent results, supported by favorable structural shifts across the diamond and the jewelry ecosystem. At the heart of industry is trust. Whether natural or lab-grown diamonds, a diamond derives its value from independent certification of the 4 Cs, that's cut, color, clarity, and carat, while increasingly also addressing transparency, traceability, and origin assurance. Certification is what gives consumers, retailers, manufacturers confidence in the product they are buying and selling.
As the industry scales up with the advent of lab-grown diamonds, the need for certification today is more relevant than ever before. In fact, we believe the diamond industry today is witnessing a structural increase in certification intensity across all categories. Consumers are more informed, retail networks are expanding rapidly, and purchase decisions are increasingly driven by transparency and trust. This trend directly strengthens the long-term opportunity for globally recognized independent certification players like IGI, like us. Importantly, we are uniquely positioned within this evolving landscape as one of the few scaled global players with a strong leadership across both natural and lab-grown diamonds, as well as jewelry and colored stones. One of the most important developments shaping the industry continues to be the rapid expansion of lab-grown diamond ecosystem. Over the past several quarters, we have witnessed a significant manufacturing capacity additions, accelerated retail adoptions, and increasing consumer acceptance.
In India, in particular, remains at a relatively early stage of penetration, which gives us confidence that the runway on growth for this category remains substantial. While pricing volatility within the lab-grown diamonds has been widely discussed, we believe this is often misunderstood from a certification perspective. As supply expands and accessibility improves, the relevance of independent certification only increases. Consumers still want assurance regarding the quality, authenticity, and value irrespective of whether the diamond is natural or lab-grown. In many ways, the scaling up of the lab-grown ecosystem is expanding the addressable market for certification globally. We continue to see this reflected clearly in our operating performance. For January to March 2026 quarter, lab-grown diamond certification revenue grew by 35% year-on-year, while lab-grown jewelry certification grew by 29%. For the 15-month period, growth stood at 25% for LGD and 23% for LGD jewelry respectively.
We have also seen encouraging traction from the increased capacities and retail expansion initiatives that are expected to contribute meaningfully over the coming quarters. At the same time, the natural diamond segment continues to demonstrate strength. Despite near-term volatility in gold prices and macroeconomic uncertainty across certain markets, consumer demand for natural diamonds, particularly in the bridal and the high-value purchases, remain intact. For the 15-month period, our natural diamond certification business grew 18%, while quarterly growth remained a healthy 10% year-on-year. Natural diamond jewelry has witnessed some softness in this quarter, driven by high volatile pricing in gold and silver. Another important strategic milestone during this year was the acquisition of AGL, that's American Gemological Laboratories, in January 2026. This acquisition significantly strengthens our positioning within the global colored gemstone certification markets, expanding the total addressable market and opens a new long-term growth avenue beyond diamonds.
AGL brings deep expertise, a strong reputation in gemstone certification, and a strategic access to the U.S. market. We see meaningful opportunities for cross-selling, geographical expansion, portfolio diversification, and deeper engagement across the jewelry value chain. On the back of the success in the U.S. geography, we plan to expand AGL to other markets for colored stones to enhance brand presence and garner higher market share. IGI has initiated focus investments in brand building and consumer awareness during the year through a series of high impact consumer engagement initiatives and strategic media associations. This included partnerships around marquee sporting properties, including the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup broadcast and partnering with Gujarat Titans in the largest league of the world, IPL. Our campaign was to build this connect as an independent third-party certifying agency to bring greater transparency and trust to the consumer.
We are also working towards integrating AI and ML into our operations to further enhance service qualities, improve customer turnaround times, increase operational efficiencies, and reduce redundancies. Against this background, IGI delivered another strong set of financial results for January to March 2026 quarter. Consolidated revenue from operations and EBITDA both have grown by 21% year-on-year, while report volumes increased to 16% to 3.64 million reports. For the 15-month period ended March 2026, revenue grew 18%, EBITDA grew 22%, and total report volume increased 20%, reflecting broad-based momentum across natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, jewelry certification, and colored stones. Despite the changing landscape, the long-term growth trajectory of the industry remains intact, and our performance is evidence of that. Between year 2022 and 2025, IGI delivered revenue, EBITDA, and PAT of 36%, 29%, and 30% respectively, while continuing to maintain strong profitability and cash generation.
Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the long-term outlook of the industry and for IGI. The global jewelry market continues to be robust. Lab-grown diamonds are expanding the consumer base through rapid retail expansion. Across all sectors, consumers increasingly want transparency, authenticity, and confidence, combined with trust in what they purchase. All of these trends structurally reinforce the importance of independent certification. With our strong global footprint, diversified segment presence, trusted brand, and expanding capabilities, we believe IGI is exceptionally well-positioned to capitalize on these opportunities and continue delivering sustainable long-term growth and value creation. With that, I would now like to invite our CFO, Mr. Eashwar Iyer, to take you through the financial performance for the quarter and the year gone by. Thank you.
Thank you, Tehmasp. Thanks everyone for taking the time. I would just start by giving a context in terms of the company having transitioned its financial reporting structure from a calendar year to a financial year. These have been announced to the stock exchanges as well sometime earlier. Accordingly, the current reporting period comprises the 15-month ended March 31st, 2026, while the previous reported period was for a 12-month period ended December 2025. As a result, the two periods are not directly comparable. To aid compatibility, we have also shared a corresponding 15-month financial performance in our investor presentation so that you are able to have a proper comparative of the 15 months performance over the last two years. I would like to start with an update for the quarter.
From a consolidated group standpoint, in terms of consolidated revenue, certification income for the quarter stood at INR 3,587 million, which has grown at 21%, supported by strong volume growth of 16%. This was primarily driven by strong revenue growth across all our core segments. Be it the lab-grown diamonds, which has grown 35%, natural diamonds lab-grown jewelry, which has grown 29%. Total revenues for the quarter stood at INR 3,686 million and registering a growth of 21%. Reported volumes stood at 3.64 million reports, compared to 3.12 million reports for January to March 2025 period, registering a growth of 16%. During the quarter, the significant revenue growth in LGD stones was on account of new customer acquisitions and an increase in capacity at some of the primary growers.
Correspondingly, LGD jewelry grew 29%. While ND loose stones grew 10%, ND jewelry saw a 19% decline due to a slowdown in the India ND jewelry business caused by steep increase in prices of gold and silver. The resultant mix shift towards the higher ASP categories, namely LGD and ND loose stones, has led to a 4% improvement in ASP. EBITDA reported at INR 2,360 million, reflecting a growth of 21% compared to the previous year. EBITDA margin stood at 64%, which is more or less the same levels as the previous year. PAT reported at INR 1,796 million, growing 28%. PAT margins at 48.7% for the quarter. Coming to the AGL acquisition that Tehmasp spoke about. We acquired this company on 30th of January 2026. Subsequently, there has been a lot of work in terms of integration, et cetera, that is currently going on.
The quarter therefore represents the first quarter of consolidation with AGL financials. AGL is a subsidiary of the IGI U.S. entity, and hence its financial statements are not disclosed separately. AGL being in the business of certifying gemstones, the AGL revenue is subsumed in the gemstone revenue line. In line with maintaining transparency, there is two months of revenue for this period, which is now got consolidated, and the corresponding expenses and EBITDA has also got consolidated. In the absence of the corresponding numbers for the previous year, this has contributed to an additional 2% growth in revenue and 3% growth in EBITDA for the quarter. Coming to the consolidated group performance from a 15-month standpoint. For the 15 months ended March 2026, we delivered 16.45 million reports, compared to 13.7 million reports in the same period last year, marking a robust year-on-year growth of 20%.
In terms of consolidated revenue, certification income stood at INR 15,465 million, growing at 19%. This was driven obviously because we had significant and substantial improvements of growth in LGD at 25%, LGD jewelry at 23%, ND at 18%, and ND jewelry by around 2%. Total revenue from operations for the 15 month was at INR 15,976 million, growing at 18%. EBITDA reported at INR 9,728 million at 22% growth. EBITDA margins at 60.9%, representing a 230 basis points year-on-year improvement. The company delivered a PAT of INR 7,112 million, growing 25%. PAT margins at 44.5% is up 270 basis points on a year-on-year basis. I'm just going to touch upon the India standalone performance for the quarter.
For that period, the revenue from operations in India stood at INR 2,963 million, growing at 27%, supported by a strong volume growth of 18%. This was primarily driven by strong revenue growth across our core segments. lab-grown diamonds has grown 46% for the quarter, LGD jewelry at 19% and ND at 9%. Total revenues for the quarter stood at INR 3,124 million, registering a growth of 28%. EBITDA reported at INR 2,198 million, reflecting a growth of 21% compared to the previous year. EBITDA margins at 74.2%. There is a slight reduction in the EBITDA margin. It is attributable to a higher commission payout to our subsidiaries in U.S. and Dubai on account of new customer acquisition there, for which services are rendered in India. We had a one-time consulting and professional expense of around $25 million.
PAT reported at INR 1,742 million, growing 25% compared to the previous period. PAT margins at 58.8% for the quarter. Overall, the company has ended the 15 month with an exceptional performance, thus delivering ahead of the guidance provided at the beginning of last year. We remain confident to deliver the 15% revenue growth and 20% EBITDA growth for the financial year 2026, 2027. With that, I conclude my remarks and open the floor for any questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question is from the line of Umang Mehta from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on your outlook for 2027 on both growth and margins. I hear you mentioned 15% revenue growth and 20% EBITDA growth. Possible to share any color in terms of segment-wise, how are you thinking about the year? In terms of margins, any tailwinds from INR depreciation that you are kind of factoring in?
Hi, Umang. Yeah, thanks for this question. Yes. I think over the last two years, the company has been intending to deliver around 15% of revenue growth and 20% of EBITDA growth. That trend is what we expect to continue for this financial year as well. Again, the quarter one performance obviously has been driven exceptionally by the growth in LGD and as well as natural diamonds as well as lab-grown jewelry. We've had a little soft quarter on natural diamond jewelry. We expect the major chunk of the growth to come through increased capacity buildup that's happening in LGD and our increased penetration in natural diamonds. I think those two strategic priorities, which have been on record for the last two years, continues to be our core focus areas, and we expect to build on whatever strength we have at the current moment.
From a margin standpoint, I think our focus has been in terms of ensuring that we make the right investments for the business while margins are important, but that is not the sole driver of the decisions that we take within the organization. There are significant interventions, et cetera, that we are working on. Tehmasp Printer has mentioned about AI, ML. That project is going on. There is a big focus on building the brand in terms of various brand initiatives, et cetera. From that standpoint, I think these are critical investments for the long haul. We don't expect any erosion of the margins. Our guidance for the year should be to maintain the margins at the same levels as what we have seen in the last year.
Got it. Thank you. The second question was on your performance of subsidiaries. Possible to share any color on how both of them have done for the full period?
I think, just to set this in context, we have businesses which roll up to the holding company in Belgium, which has the Belgium and the U.S. business under it, and we have other businesses rolling up under Netherlands. Importantly, we need to understand that the Belgium and the U.S. office, they play a very critical role in engaging with the retail, considering that these are the largest markets from a consumer standpoint. With the strength and leverage that IGI has in India, working closely with the growers, and we work very closely with the growers and manufacturers here. Our teams in the U.S. and Europe are therefore expected to engage with the retailers, so that they partner with IGI as their certifier of choice. I think from that context, the business has been doing pretty well.
The subsidiary business delivered on a 14% revenue growth for this quarter and EBITDA growth of over 25%. EBITDA margins have also slightly improved, over 300 basis points in the subsidiary business for this quarter. Obviously, we are also making significant investments from a leadership recruitment standpoint in the U.S., et cetera, which ties in with our strategy to build greater focus and scale up the business in the U.S. That, combined with the AGL acquisition. These are important steps that the organization is taking to ensure that the synergies of the brand that AGL gets with the operating size that IGI has, we're able to therefore scale up some of the other businesses in conjunction with the gemstone certification opportunity that AGL presents to us.
I think the quarter has been good, not only in India, but also the subsidiaries, and we hope that this trend continues into the future as well.
Sure, Eashwar. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, good evening. Just had two or three questions. First was on the strong realization growth. You mentioned mix is the key driver here. Just wanted to get a sense, Eashwar, that is pricing per segment, has that continued to be stable like it has been in the last two quarters? Is that a correct assumption?
Yeah. Hi, Harit. Yes. We haven't had any structural changes to the pricing during this quarter, Harit. That continues to stay okay.
Okay. Any broad outlook you have on that for the near to medium term? Do you think that pricing should broadly remain in the same range, and then whatever happens to mix happens depending on the growth? Is that the right way to think about it?
Yeah, that's the right way to look at it, Harit. I think mix finally is just an outcome. Yeah, our focus remains on ensuring that each of our core business segments continue to perform well.
Great. Fantastic. The second thing was on natural diamond jewelry bid. You've seen two quarters of value growth coming down here. If you look at this only as domestic jewelry market shifting more towards gold, that near term impact that's there, which is affecting the segment overall. Is that the right way to think about it? Should that normalize? Within natural diamond jewelry, if you could just give a little bit of color on how your U.S. initiative, in terms of the leadership change that you alluded to, how that is fructifying any key account wins or anything which you can give any color to.
Yeah. I'll take the second question first, Harit. I think we're building up a leadership in the U.S. We have had a new recruit who's been in our organization for three, four months. We are also having to fortify the sales organization there. There is going to be a little bit of work that has to happen in terms of building an organization to meet the requirements of sustaining a growth business in the U.S. That is work in progress currently. Coming to your first question, yes, thanks to the increased prices of gold coupled with the volatility. I think that is what is causing a little bit of distress, is what we understand from the market. We'll see how that pans out. Hopefully, things settle down over the next quarter or two, and hopefully this comes back on track.
Great. My final question was on the comment that you made that there has been capacity additions in the Indian market from the grower perspective. Could you give a little bit more color on this in terms of, given that prices have not really gone up at their wholesale level, what's driving capacity addition? Is it just the kind of volume uptake that they are seeing in the global market, Indian market that is driving this? Some sense on this.
We had alluded to this last time as well, Harit, in terms of the expectation that the industry is having is probably to double from wherever they are today over the next three years. I think that has been one of the key considerations because there is still a lot of demand that's still coming in, and that's the reason why people are adding a little bit more capacity. I think, again, these are initial days for the lab-grown is what we believe, because the Indian consumer will also come into the fray, hopefully in the near future. We see some of those trends in the way lab-grown jewelry business is moving as far as IGI is concerned. These are just starting points for this segment.
Absolutely. Last is just bookkeeping on other expenses. You mentioned there's a $25 million additional standalone to the subsidiary, which obviously gets netted off at a consolidated level.
No. See, there are two elements there. There is a commission payout that happens. That gets eliminated.
Yeah.
INR 25 is just an expense. There's no elimination there. That's the reason you see a slight impact in the India EBITDA margin. At the group consolidated level, the EBITDA margin has remained at the same levels.
The $25 million, if you could just repeat as to why?
Yeah, sure.
What was it regarding? Sorry, I missed that comment.
Sorry, I had some expenses regarding the entire acquisition process for AGL et cetera.
Got it. Okay. Got it. Yeah. [crosstalk] Perfect. Wish you all the best. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Smit Gala from RSPN Ventures.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My first question was, in the last quarter's earnings call, we alluded that we are increasing our capacity in terms of number of gemologists. In this quarter, we have not seen the reflection there seen in the employee expenses, which is also after the acquisition of AGL. When does the employee expenses see an increase, given that we are giving a massive hiring project?
Sure. Thanks for the question. I think if you were to look at from a quarter standpoint, I think our employee benefit expenses are.
There's a lot of disturbance.
I think we'll go on mute, Smit.
Yeah.
Thanks. I think if you look at it from a quarter-to-quarter standpoint, the employee expense is up 16%. That is obviously because there has been additions not only in India but also in other geographies. Versus the previous quarter, I think the previous quarter already had soaked in some of those expenses. If I look at the numbers, INR 71 crores was the employee benefit in Q3 of 2025, which then became INR 73 crores in Q4 2025, and this is Q1 2026 is around INR 74 crores. Slowly that is getting built up for some of the investments that we have made on people and capability within the organization. Smit, you there?
He's unmuted.
Yeah. Yes. I'm there. Yeah. Thank you. That was helpful. My second question will be, given that 16%-17% volume growth, while I tried to analyze the India export numbers for gems and jewelry, they are seeing decline continuously. How is our company able to deliver the growth, where export data as a whole is not showing promise?
See, Smit, I think this export data is in INR or USD million. I think you have to also look at it from a carat standpoint, because what has happened is there is an increasing mix shift towards lab-grown stones which is getting exported. While the carats have probably doubled, I think, from whatever I saw last time, obviously because of the way the pricing has evolved over the last 2.5 years, I think the INR component has probably remained the same. I think we have to look at it from a volume standpoint and not just value.
Okay. That was helpful. Thank you. I'll join back with you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pallavi from Sameeksha Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my question. This was again continuing on this previous comments on the marketing side. I just wanted to understand what's the team size there now in the U.S., and to what size do we want to take it to?
Sorry, Pallavi, we are not very clear. Can you just repeat the question?
Yes, sir. My question was on regard to what you mentioned earlier about the marketing team in the U.S. and the ramp-up. What's the size now, and if we can have a sense of where we want to go and how long will that take?
Our U.S. offices actually operate as a marketing office where they are in touch with the retailers in the U.S., and they get exact requirements of what the retailer wants in the U.S. market. That is translated to us, and we certify accordingly. We are at the manufacturing end, so U.S. is the marketing end for us, and they give us all the relevant information, what a U.S. consumer and the U.S. retailer wants. From that perspective, this information is translated to us and to the manufacturing units in India, and we certify accordingly. That is how we are ramping up the U.S. marketing effort.
Right. I understand it's the marketing. I just wanted to know the number of people we have for that on the street there.
I think our staff strength in the U.S. is not very large, but I think what the point that we're trying to make is we're trying to build some capability in the sales organization to capture the market there, because it's such a large country, right?
Right.
We have to slowly build that capability. I think that's what we are alluding to.
Yeah.
In terms of building that capability for the long term.
Right. Which share gained in third quarter, does that continue for the U.S. in particular?
Sorry, come again.
The natural diamonds. On that side, we had gained some market share in third quarter in the U.S., is what you had alluded to.
Yeah.
Is that continuing, and how is that?
It's continuing. Yeah. In quarter one, we've grown 10% on natural diamond in what has been a very tough market. I think our efforts continue in the same direction in terms of trying to build greater credence into that segment. Yeah.
Right. Okay. My last question would be on the export data that you mentioned about the value and LGD. That would also, in terms of volume, what would have been India's growth in that? Would that number be available for LGD volumes carat-wise? Yeah.
See, we have some information, but again, it's not available in the public domain, these are just guesstimates that we have versus what we speak to a lot of people in the industry.
Okay.
Our understanding is, and it's logical actually, because given the fact that the volumes have continuously been pretty robust, and given the fact that prices corrected in the last two years, I think that corroborates with what people in the industry also talk. I think from that standpoint, I think the volume data is something that we need to look at.
Right. The U.S. is fairly mature on the natural diamond side, so I was just trying to understand what is Sorry, not natural. On the LGD side, I believe it's like for engagement rings, it's more than 50%.
I would like you to rejoin the queue for the follow-up question, please.
Yeah.
No, I'll just take that question. Pallavi, just to wrap this up, I think while the estimates are over 50% adoption rate for lab-grown buyers, but what we understand is there's still over 40% still left. I think that aspect is what is giving this sort of momentum as far as manufacturing capacity ramp-up in India is happening.
Right. That's happening for the U.S. market, you're saying, but right now, what earlier you alluded to, it's India. It's the same thing.
No, I didn't get that question, Pallavi. Sorry.
No. Earlier we said that this growth in Indian capacity is to serve the India market. Right now you're alluding.
No, I understand. I'll just clarify. What we mentioned is, the U.S. has been the first adopter of lab-grown, and they are the largest player as far as consumption of lab-grown diamonds is concerned. What we are alluding to is the fact that the Indian consumer will also come into this mix going forward. Some of the lab-grown jewelry growth that you are seeing is because of the retail explosion that is happening in India as far as selling of lab-grown jewelry is concerned. While the U.S. has been the place where lab-grown has taken off the first, we expect that trend to be emerging in India as well.
Right. Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shravan Vora from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening to the management. Many congratulations on a good set of numbers. I know you touched upon that when you were guiding for the 15% top-line growth for the coming year. The two important segments you spoke about was continuing growth in LGD and natural diamonds. Could you briefly just talk about the drivers a little bit on those two for us?
Hi, Shravan. Good evening. Obviously the key drivers for us from a natural diamond standpoint is getting more customers into our bouquet who work with us. We have obviously created a separate vertical to focus on natural diamond. We have a business leader with tremendous experience in this field. The focus on natural diamond continues to be on terms of getting more customers into our basket. Number one, lab-grown, as we talked about, the capacity addition that has happened. We haven't seen the full impact of all of the capacity that's getting added, because these happen over a few months, et cetera, for the capacity to ramp up. We expect that to also kick in as we get along the road during this course of this year.
Just to add to what Eashwar said, you have to understand that the manufacturing is all done in India, whether it is natural or lab-grown. We are at the manufacturing end, and our offices globally are at the retail end. When we receive all the information, what the retailer or the consumer wants in that geography, we transfer that information to the manufacturers in India, whether it is lab-grown as well as natural. That is our unique advantage, where we merge the two geographies together and settle all their requirements. That has given us the strength to vector up in our endeavor.
Right. Got that. Just the second question from me, sir, is that ASPs in the last two quarters have actually done quite well. How should we look at ASPs for the coming year? Just attached to that, you mentioned that you would continue to make investments, and EBITDA growth of 20% is what you guided for. If you could just highlight some of the investments other than the marketing investments that you're making, both in the U.S. and India. Just those two, one is on ASP and the other, what kind of investments you're making.
Yeah, marketing efforts.
I think, Shravan, two important strategic pillars. One is the brand salience piece in terms of investments and building up that brand awareness, et cetera, especially in line with getting the consumers to know the need and the importance for a third-party independent certification. I think that is the context in which we want to build that sort of communication directly with the consumers. I think that is an important strategic pillar for us. Number two is building capability in the U.S. in terms of a structured sales organization, et cetera, because there is significant potential in the U.S., coupled with the fact that we have also acquired AGL. I think all of those things. These are the two large strategic pillars in which the organization is working. Coming to the ASP question, I think we have discussed this in the past.
There is a lot of discussion that happens on ASP. We believe that this is just a derivative. Long as we are able to deliver a 20% volume growth with a 15%-16% revenue growth with a corresponding EBITDA growth, I think that should be what we should be focusing on. There are quarters in which the jewelry mix will go up, and correspondingly, the ASP drops. Those things have been discussed over the last five to six quarters. I think we'll see how that goes. Normally, the first quarter of the year, effectively the end of the year because of the change in the financial year.
This quarter, January to March, normally we see a ramp-up of lab-grown mix in the business, which slowly tapers down as we get along the year because then we have the quarter three and the quarter four on Christmas and Q3 and et cetera. I think we should just expect the same trend to continue. Again, from a management standpoint, our focus is in terms of volume revenue and EBITDA growth rather than too much of focus on ASP.
Got that, sir. Thanks a lot for that and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Umang Shah from Banyan Tree Advisors, PMS. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, first question was, in the previous quarter's presentation, we had given our market share, and in that, natural diamond volumes, our market share was almost 55%-65%. Sir, our understanding was that we are the second-largest player in natural diamonds, not the largest ones in terms of certification. Can you just clarify this?
No, you're right, actually, Umang. We are the second-largest player as far as natural diamond is concerned from a global standpoint. India, I think we command a decent position in India. I think we must be close to.
Over 50%.
We must be close to leadership here in India. Again, we measure ourselves in terms of the global share because obviously the largest player in this segment is still the U.S. I think our endeavor therefore is to find means to improve that market share from a global standpoint.
Will you be okay calling out our global market share in natural diamonds?
These are again estimates for us, Umang. We think that our market share in India probably is in surplus of 50%. Globally, I think we will stay around in the 20%-25% range.
Sure. Sir, one more data point from that presentation was that almost 30%-35% diamonds, both natural and loose, are uncertified. What could be the reasons for the same?
These are more for the smaller sizes and less relevant from the commercial value. All the high-end diamonds and larger sizes are generally certified, and that is where the game is.
Got it. In studded jewelry also, you've mentioned that almost 60%-70% is uncertified. Do we see that as an addressable market for us or not really?
Where are you seeing this 60%?
Where are you seeing this 60%?
Yeah. I don't recollect this actually.
This was in the previous quarter. Yeah, this was in the previous quarter's presentation, slide number 30. This year, not put in this quarter's presentation. This was in the last quarter's presentation.
Okay. I think this probably must be tier 2, tier 3 towns where probably certification are not.
People are not as aware.
Not that aware, yeah.
We are taking action to also go into the second and the third tier cities.
Sure. That is useful. Sir, final question. [crosstalk]
No, one second, Umang. I think From a natural diamond jewelry certification, I think our share in this segment would be around 60%, 70%. You are basically saying 70% is going uncertified, is it?
Yes. Correct.
On LGD, is it?
On LGD jewelry.
Okay, get studied. Okay. Okay. Probably, to Tehmasp's point, I think these are the small size stones which finally end up in jewelry, and there's no probably a commercial proposition to have this certified at the loose stone level.
Okay. One more question was that this year we see that the subsidiaries are profitable, both the subsidiaries, and full year margins are around 8%, net margins. We have India margins which are exceptionally high. Two, three years down the line, where do we see the EBITDA margins or net margins of the Belgium and the Netherlands entities?
Umang, I think we have to look at this business in its totality. I think, to what Tehmasp also mentioned, I think while India is the manufacturing hub or the back office hub of the world, as far as cutting and polishing is concerned, the markets are still in the U.S. from a retail standpoint. There is an important strategic play for what the teams in the U.S. and Europe actually bring to us. From that standpoint, I think that is the reason we talk of a one IGI concept.
Okay.
We leverage the strength of the retail markets in other parts of the globe with the manufacturing strength in India. Most of the certification happens here in India. To the point that was discussed during the financials, there is obviously a large commission payout that has happened to Dubai and U.S. That's the way it pans out because customers get identified by our local teams who then end up in India for certification. I think let's look at it from a totality standpoint. I think.
Fair point, sir. Thank you so much.
Take care, Umang.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharat from MC Research. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, the question is on the margin side. In your FY 2027 guidance, you have indicated revenue growth of 15% and EBITDA growth is slightly high at 30%. I just wanted to understand the levers for the same. That is my first question.
Bharat, I think this is more of operating leverage. Our business model is pretty straightforward. Some of these incremental revenues actually flow into the bottom line. That's the reason why we are guiding for a faster EBITDA growth versus revenue growth. Structurally, the business gives us that sort of leverage.
Okay, fair enough. Sir, you guided for 15% revenue growth. Just wanted to understand the key reasons for it, I mean, the key levers for that. Do you foresee an increased market share both in LGD and natural diamonds, or is it more to do with increased geographical penetration? What would be the important driver for that?
Bharat, the focus for us is all the four large segments, the fifth segment that's got added now is gemstones, thanks to the AGL acquisition. Each of these have to kick in, that's what the management's endeavor is. Whether it's 15%, 17%, we don't know, these are just broad guidelines in terms of what we see is happening within this business. Last year, we obviously over-delivered to whatever was the guidance. Let's see how this year pans out. This is just the first quarter.
Okay. Sir, last question from my side is that you talked about increased capacity in the LGD business. Which geography you're seeing increased capacity addition? Is it more on the U.S. side or the Indian side, or do you see any other market increasingly helping the LGD? That would be my last question.
Bharat, the manufacturing capacity is in India, in Surat. The marketing requirement is different, but the increase in capacity is all done generally in Surat, in India.
Okay. All good, sir. Thanks, and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shweta from ithought PMS. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. I just had one question regarding the LGD loose certifications. I just wanted to see if you are seeing any change in the format of the certificates that take place in the near to mid-term.
Shweta, we are committed to identify a gemstone or a diamond along with the 4 Cs. Ours is an independent certifying body, and we will not deviate from the traditional 4 Cs certification. We are committed to keep our certification on lab-grown as well as on natural diamonds according to the 4 Cs that has been there for nearly a century.
Okay. Sir, is there no pressure from retailers for a change in this or something like that?
In fact, the retailers enjoy this because everyone is so conversant with the 4Cs that any new nomenclature, which doesn't really support the 4Cs, is confusing.
Okay. Understood, sir. One more question is, do we have any long-term contracts with any retailers, or is it like an order basis?
No, we have contracts with the manufacturers.
For LGD?
Those are ongoing. Yeah. Those are ongoing.
These are volume-based, sir?
No. Yeah, these can be scaled on the volume. Yes, you're right.
Okay. These are long-term contracts?
Yes.
Okay, sir. That's it. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you. As that was the last question for the day, I would now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Okay. I think, thanks everyone. This has been quite participative, and in case for a shortage of time, et cetera, we've been unable to address any of your queries. Please reach out to us and we shall be happy to clarify on any other doubts, et cetera, that you may have. Thanks once again for everyone. We look forward to seeing you next quarter. Thanks.
Thank you very much for everyone.
Thank you. On behalf of International Gemmological Institute Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.