Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Jubilant Ingrevia Q1 FY 2027 Earnings Conference Call. 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 call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pavleen Taneja, Head of Investor Relations at Jubilant Ingrevia Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ray. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining the quarter one of FY 2027 earnings conference call of Jubilant Ingrevia Limited. I would like to remind you that some of the statements made on the call today could be forward-looking in nature, and a detailed disclaimer in this regard has been included in the press release and results presentation that has been shared on our website. On the call today, we have Mr. Shyam Bhartia, Chairman, Mr. Deepak Jain, CEO and Managing Director, and Mr. Varun Gupta, CFO, Jubilant Ingrevia Limited. I now invite Mr. Shyam Bhartia to share his comments.
Thank you, Pavleen. A very good evening to all of you. We are pleased to report a strong start to FY 2027, delivering healthy financial performance in the first quarter. Revenue grew by 25% year-on-year, while EBITDA increased by 36% year-on-year, reflecting the strength of our business model and disciplined execution across operations. Let me take you through an update on the markets we operate in. Despite continued geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East, demand across chemical industry has remained resilient. Industry volumes have stayed stable, while pricing has shown a firming trend in the recent weeks, driven by improving consumption dynamics across key customer segments. Pharmaceuticals continued to be a key growth driver for the company, supported by volume growth and sustained demand across markets.
We witnessed a stable momentum in the agrochemicals during the quarter, with demand trends showing encouraging signs of recovery across key segments. Healthy export visibility and improving market dynamics have supported recent price increases. The nutrition and personal care market witnessed healthy growth during the quarter, led by higher realizations for Niacinamide and Choline. At the same time, volumes remained resilient across end-use segments, underscoring stable market demand. We are also seeing a strong traction with customers in electronics semicon segment, who are keen to partner with us for integrated opportunities. Let me share a few details on our future outlook. We are encouraged by the progress of our vertical journey, which is increasingly reflected in our performance through strong revenue and EBITDA growth and a stronger opportunity pipeline. Supported by sustained volume growth and a firmer pricing, we remain confident of continuing our growth momentum.
FY 2027, we expect growth to be led by Specialty Chemicals and Nutrition, alongside a recovery in acetyls. We anticipate sequential improvement in revenue and EBITDA over the coming quarters. The new multipurpose plant remains on track for commissioning by the end of current calendar year, further strengthening of our CDMO and fine chemicals growth roadmap. With this, I hand over to Deepak. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bhartia. A very good evening to everyone. We appreciate your participation in the Q1 FY 2027 investor call. During the quarter, we continued to advance our strategic priorities while effectively navigating global challenges. Despite disruptions in the Middle East affecting global supply chains and price dynamics, our diversified sourcing capabilities, customer relationships, and operational agility enabled strong business performance and effective cost pass-throughs. The strength of our agile operations and execution capabilities during this challenging period is clearly reflected in our strong Q1 performance. Let me share the overall business update for Q1 FY 2027 first. Q1 marked a strong start to the year, with revenue reaching a 15-quarter high of INR 1,300 crore, up 25% year-on-year, driven by healthy volume growth and improved realizations.
EBITDA increased to INR 209 crore, growing 36% year-on-year and 22% sequentially, while PAT stood at INR 106 crore, up 41% year-on-year and 22% quarter-on-quarter. In our Specialty Chemicals business, we delivered revenue of INR 533 crore, up 11% year-on-year and 3% sequentially, supported by steady business volumes and robust growth in fine chemicals and CDMO businesses. EBITDA stood at INR 139 crore with margins of 26%, benefiting from improved pricing and a richer product mix led by value-added CDMO and fine chemical offerings. Our Pyridine & Picoline business delivered steady volumes during the quarter. Despite some pricing pressure in pyridine, cost optimization initiatives helped sustain a healthy performance. Our fine chemical business delivered strong momentum during the quarter. Pyridine and piperidine derivatives recorded healthy volume growth with improved pricing.
In personal care, we now have over 20 products under development, and we are seeing increasing traction across key personal care segments. In industrials, we continue to strengthen volumes with existing customers while expanding our new customer pipeline. Our CDMO business continues to gain momentum during the quarter. The agro segment benefited from the rollout of big innovator CDMO volumes, while pharma saw strong customer traction and a more than threefold expansion in the pipeline following our U.S. and Europe roadshows. In semiconductors and electronics, we are building a dedicated R&D and clean room facility at our Greater Noida facility, and we are seeing encouraging growth in our opportunity funnel. Our CDMO and fine chemicals pipeline continue to show good momentum. We have a funnel of 100+ molecules with INR 3,500+ crore of peak revenue potential. We have now 25+ confirmed molecules, which will drive our growth in coming years.
We added five new molecules in the last quarter across pharma, semiconductor, and personal care. In our Nutrition & Health segment, the nutrition segment continued its strong momentum, with revenue growing to INR 243 crore, up 36% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter. We achieved the highest EBITDA in the segment over the last three years at INR 36 crore, reflecting a 45% year-on-year and 12% sequential increase, while margins improved to 15%. In human nutrition, Niacinamide volumes grew steadily, supported by strong pricing across food and cosmetics applications. Choline Chloride and CBT pricing also improved on the back of strong customer engagement across key global markets. In premixes, we strengthened our presence with tier 1 customers in India following the successful integration of Remidex. Our animal nutrition business delivered a strong performance supported by significant pricing improvements.
Vitamin D3 volumes remained stable, while pricing improved substantially on both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter basis. In Choline, we maintained our domestic market position and continued to witness healthy demand from Europe alongside improved customer realizations. The premixes business also performed well with volume growth and a favorable product mix driving margin expansion. In Chemical Intermediates business, it saw a strong rebound in Q1 on the back of robust demand and price escalations. Revenue in the segment grew to INR 524 crore, up 38% year-on-year and 21% quarter-on-quarter, driven by strong volume growth and improved realizations supported by higher input cost passthroughs. EBITDA for the segment stood at INR 57 crore, up 240% year-on-year and 163% quarter-on-quarter, driven by strong realization gains across the product portfolio and effective cost passthroughs. Let me also share a few other critical updates.
On the operations and ESG front, we remain firmly on track, targeting INR 100 crore of lean savings in FY 2027. We are progressing well on our new MPP plant and advancing our Supernova program with new GenAI use cases. We successfully cleared over 20 customer quality and EHS audits during the quarter and maintained an exemplary safety record across our manufacturing facilities. From an awards and recognition perspective, we achieved several notable milestones during the quarter. We were certified as a Great Place to Work and ranked among the top 50 manufacturing companies for FY 2027. On the safety front, our Gajraula facility earned a distinction at the British Safety Council International Safety Awards, while our Bharuch and Nira sites were also recognized at the same prestigious platform. On the M&A front, we successfully completed the integration of Remidex Pharma, and we are witnessing encouraging traction from tier 1 human nutrition customers.
We are also actively evaluating new growth opportunities across high-potential segments such as electronics, semiconductors, cosmetics, and nutrition. We also hosted a highly interactive investor and analyst day at our Bharuch facility, showcasing our operational strength, pipeline visibility, and growth aspirations. Feedback from the investment community was very encouraging, with the visit reinforcing confidence in our manufacturing capabilities, operational excellence, and expansion potential. Investors also gained deeper conviction in our CDMO growth story, supported by a robust opportunity pipeline and strong commercial traction. With a strong start to FY 2027, we are increasingly confident that our Pinnacle Strategy is delivering results. We believe this will be a pivotal year in our journey, providing a strong platform to accelerate growth and create greater value in the quarters ahead. We will now be happy to address any questions that you may have.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on your touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening. The first question on the CDMO contract. Can you give us some sense on what was the contribution on the large CDMO contract this quarter? If the utilization was lower, was the plant reporting an EBITDA loss this quarter?
Siddharth, I think we shared some light on that at the plant visit also a couple of weeks back. The plant has been running absolutely smoothly. We started the supplies in March, and we continued through Q1. A significant bump in EBITDA of our specialty chemical business is reflected on the back of those volumes. We did not serve the full volumes last quarter as the innovator had confirmed, because in between, the raw material prices had escalated due to war, and the innovator asked us to take a temporary pause till pricing came down. That was the only challenge by and large, except for some small challenges on the operational front. We did make good positive EBITDA on it, which is reflected in the Q1 numbers.
Okay. How should we think about the full year EBITDA on this contract if the entire volume tool do not come?
As communicated earlier also, we have certain EBITDA expectation on this contract, which I have announced to the markets in the past and on analyst calls in the past as well. We maintain that expectation. We, of course, are in discussions with the innovator on the volume visibility for coming quarters. They are building their scenarios, as I explained couple of weeks back as well. They have not finalized, and hence I cannot provide any further visibility. But in the unforeseen circumstances of they not giving us any volume, we have full protection, which will more than cover for whatever EBITDA expectations we have communicated to the markets.
Secondly, in terms of, we have made a comment on the presentation that we will see sequential growth in the coming quarters. Can you highlight what are the drivers for that growth? And secondly, how should one think about the ASP trends in 2Q versus 1Q?
If you see our business, and I think this is not different from what we have been communicating in our Pinnacle Strategy. The growth drivers in the business are coming from our fine chemicals business, CDMO business, and nutrition business. All three businesses are showing sequential growth in terms of volume as well as portfolio expansion, as our pipeline also shows. At the same time, the new plant on Niacinamide that we created, we are filling up the capacity very fast. You can see the growth numbers in that business. A lot of it is driven by volume. And we expect to continue on that journey. The plant is already reaching almost 50%+ volumes versus what we had in Visakhapatnam. And we are hoping in coming quarters we will be able to take it to the 70% of the peak volumes very soon.
All three businesses are expected to continue to grow in coming quarters and hence we are hopeful that as and all three are high-margin businesses, so that will give a very strong drift in the positive direction to our EBITDA. On top of that, acetyls as our chemical intermediates, as we saw in Q1, have done well and we are seeing that business continue to do well in current quarter as well, especially on the back of the recent escalations in oil price and the raw material prices. If that continues, then we should be able to maintain a sequential improvement in EBITDA coming quarters.
Just last question on the CDMO funnel. Last quarter we had indicated we had 20 projects with a potential of around INR 1,500 crores peak revenue. That number has increased to 25 projects. Can you give us the peak revenue number for this incrementally or the total peak revenue from the CDMO contracts?
Yeah, I think so. That is a good and valid observation. I think we explained five new molecules which we have added. Most of them come from pharma or personal care segment and are early stage. Hence right now, it is difficult to comment on the peak potential of those new molecules, and hence we have not updated that INR 1,500 crore number. Obviously, there will be upside coming from them and as and when we get visibility from our customers on what kind of peak revenue potential exists in them, we'll add to the confirmed revenue potential. Those are good early-stage molecules and will obviously take some time to get further visibility on what their peak potential could look like.
Okay, sir. That's it. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Siddharth.
Thank you. The next question is from Abhijit Akella from KIE. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening. Thank you so much and congrats on much improved numbers. First question is just actually a follow-up on the previous one. This INR 1,500 crore order book, will it be possible to just break out by end-use industry what the rough mix is? That was one. Second, when we talk about pharma or personal care, given that these are early-stage molecules and as you mentioned, it's difficult to quantify the opportunity there. How exactly have we arrived at the peak order value for these? Is it based on some contract from the customer or how do we think about it? Because it's difficult to quantify, just the requirements at early stages.
Okay. Abhijit, I think this question came, I think in the last call as well, and I explained that not all molecules in this pipeline are backed up by a multi-year or annual contract. This is based on a very customized set of discussions with the customers where they needed some molecules and we had those chemistries and we created those molecules and started the commercial supplies to them. We start counting them as confirmed molecules as and when customers start taking first commercial volumes from us, even if it is small quantity. That is point number one. Point number two is, in most of those molecules, customers have given us at least some visibility on what these volumes would look like in two or three or four years from now.
We have taken assumptions based on that, on what it means for our volumes and our revenues. Number three, a couple of these molecules are very big and are backed up with contracts, including the big CDMO agro molecule that we talked about in response to past question. Obviously all of that is included in this INR 1,500+ crore of potential. Four, as I have explained in the past also, if you look at our business mix, we have about 20%-25% agro, about 30% pharma, about 10%-15% industrial, 15% nutrition, and 10% consumer. The broad mix of these molecules as well as broader pipeline also is reflecting that. When we started this exercise two years back, when we met customers, we met customers across all segments. Of course, the traction is higher in some, lower in some. Like agro right now is going through downturn.
We do have molecules, of course, the two contracts which we have already announced to the markets, plus a few more. But the speed at which we are moving in agro is relatively slow versus if I compare it with personal care or pharma pipeline, because those segments are still holding up in the market, while agro is recovering gradually and will hopefully start to bounce back in coming quarters. Hopefully, I answered your question, Abhijit.
Yeah. Thank you. That's helpful. The second one I just had was, we've done INR 209 crores of EBITDA this quarter, and we are talking about sequential growth through the rest of this year. In the context of that, is there any possibility you might want to upgrade your full year guidance of INR 750 crores to INR 800 crores? Would you see upside to that? Just from the standpoint of the segmental drivers, would it be possible to comment on how much of this increase year-on-year will be driven by spec chems and nutrition versus chemical intermediates?
Abhijit, Varun here. Regarding your first point, whether we want to upgrade our guidance, we'd like to stick with the same guidance of INR 750 crores to INR 800 crores. Sequential growth will be there. It will be in the similar range of what we have indicated when we met in Bharuch a month back.
Of a roughly INR 200 crores kind of an EBITDA, and the first half will be around INR 400+ . In terms of the mix, bulk of our EBITDA and revenue growth will be done through specialty and nutrition, which has been continuing in the range of 70%-80% of our EBITDA mix total. So if you do the maths, 20% of total, 15% of total EBITDA for the year, it will be acetyls or our chemical intermediates will be coming in the similar range of INR 100 odd crores. The rest all will be through specialty and nutrition.
Yeah, Abhijit, I think I'll just add one point to what Varun said. The reason we feel hopeful about sequential growth despite the guidance we have given is because we see acetyls doing well and continuing to do well in this quarter as well. On the back of some of the orders we have booked with the customers, we are hopeful that if the material is on time, we can hopefully beat the target that we have set for ourselves. So that is why there is optimism that we should be able to sequentially. But given the volatility which exists in the market, particularly on the acetyls segment, we never know what happens in Q4. The fundamentals are strong, which make us believe that sequentially will improve.
Obviously, there's always a risk if the markets go down again into 3Q4, then there could be downside as well. That's why we're maintaining overall guidance at the levels we discussed in Bharuch.
Got it. Great. Thank you. Just the last one from myself. I'll step back in the queue after that. Just in terms of the order book and its materialization into revenues. We are aware of the large agro contract, of course. That's one. What about the rest of the portfolio? How much of contribution to revenues could that have in this year? Second, from the standpoint of the agro contract itself, should we expect the full annual run rate to be visible this year itself, or should we wait for that for another year or so?
I think based on our earlier calculations and assuming we get full revenue from the contract as per the agreement with the customer. The confirmed molecules were supposed to contribute at least 25% of our specialty and nutrition portfolio together this year. Obviously, we don't have the visibility on the volume from the big contract. Depending on where it lands, at least in revenue terms, there could be some adjustment. In EBITDA terms, we should still be able to maintain what we have committed, as I explained in response to the first question.
Okay, got it. Thank you so much. I'll come back in the queue for any more.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Nitesh Dhoot from Anand Rathi Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Good evening, team. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. My question is on the specialty chemical segment numbers that we see. The sequential increase there is only about INR 17 crore in sequential revenue increase, and there is no change in EBITDA if we look at the previous quarter. Picking sequential numbers as our new plant got commercialized towards the end of the last quarter. Would that imply that the segment X of the agro CDMO contract would have seen some revenue decline and any pricing or margin pressures there? Or was the CDMO revenue lower than expected there? Could you just clarify?
Yeah. I think the question is valid and one thing to note is Q4 is always a heavy quarter for us because of the year-end. What also happens is the customers also slow down their purchase Q3 because that's year-end for them. They don't want to increase their inventory. Naturally, in Q4 we get benefit from that. I think from Q4 to Q1, sequential trajectory is not the true reflector of what is happening in the business. Secondly, of course, given the nature of our business particularly on the FC side and CDMO side, fine chemicals and CDMO side, there are always some orders which can get pushed off by one quarter here and there, which I have explained in the past also, which may be the reason. Just keep these two factors in mind.
Coming back to the specifics of your question, as you rightly said, the business has grown. The CDMO business has also grown, particularly on the back of the big order. As I explained in response to one of the questions, we haven't served the full volume in Q1 because customers asked us to delay some of that to Q2 because of the price escalations on raw material side, which hits them than us because we pass it on to them. We took some hold there. On rest of the business, the pyridine business is pretty stable in terms of volume because it's a mature business. There was some pressure on pyridine pricing, which might have offset some part of the growth. The fine chemical business also is going strong in terms of both volume as well as holding up on the pricing.
Because Q4 is a peak year for fine chemical, again, when you compare Q1 to Q4, you will not see that sequential growth. It's a combination of factors in our portfolio between CDMO business growing, fine chemical coming out of a strong base quarter, and pyridine was stable but some price decline. All those forces put together is essentially what is leading to the kind of INR 17 growth that you talked about. The more, I think, right way of doing it is to compare it versus last year, where versus last year, we have increased by almost 11% on specialty, on a like-to-like basis. A significant portion of that growth has come from our fine chemical and CDMO.
Sure, sir. Sir, just one on the confirmed molecule pipeline. The count, it has further climbed up to 25. That's roughly five per quarter over the last couple of quarters. The advanced stage bucket-
Nitesh, sorry, your voice is muffled. We can't hear you clearly.
Hello.
Yeah.
Sir, is it any better?
Yeah. Please go ahead now.
Sure. I was just checking on the confirmed molecule count. That has climbed up steadily in the last couple of quarters, five every quarter, to 25 now. The advanced stage bucket, that seems to be static at around 10 molecules for two straight quarters. Any color that you would want to give there?
No, Nitesh, you answered the question yourself. The confirmed moving means advanced is also moving, right? If it is remaining at 10. Those 10 molecules at advanced stage are not the same molecules which were three months back, because some of them have moved to confirmed part of the pipeline and some from rest of the pipeline has moved to the advanced stage pipeline. The whole funnel is moving. Even the 100+ molecules that we have mentioned even for this quarter is not the same 100 molecules which we might have explained or announced two quarters back. The fact is some of them drop, some new opportunities come. Our funnel at the top part of it is also improving. I just came back from U.S. last week, met seven customers.
On the back of that itself, there are at least 10 new opportunities we have now, which is not even reflected in the numbers we announced from the last quarter. It's a moving funnel. Obviously, at the same time, there are some molecules, customers' plans are changing. They come back and say that, We want to put it on back burner. It's a very dynamic pipeline. Each number, whether the top of the funnel of 100-plus molecules or the confirmed molecules or advancing, all three, the composition is changing every month, I would say, not just quarter.
All right, sir. Just one on the nutrition side, if I can squeeze in. Last quarter, I think you had announced that Q1 benefits from the inventory were expected to fade from Q2 onwards. Does that still hold? Have we started seeing any reversal on those benefits, or we still expect some of these gains to sustain there around the pricing side? We want to know the capacity utilization at our human grade plant there and what kind of annual EBITDA do we expect from the nutrition segment overall for FY 2027?
I think I did mention that, regarding the last call, that because raw material prices were increasing mid-May when we last spoke on this call, there was this risk of we ending up with high raw material inventory and pricing of finished goods crashing. The good news is, number one, we were very careful in building up the stock of high raw material inventory. We were very thoughtful and careful. Number two, the prices of finished good, while they came down from the peak a little bit, they did not come down as much. Particularly in our specialty CDMO segment and nutrition segment, we have been able to keep the pricing where they were in Q1. Number three, which in general is not a good news, but because the war restarted, the finished good prices have all started to move up again in certain segments.
Because of these three factors, we feel the impact coming from any inventory being carried over from Q1 to Q2 will be very minimal on the business, and hence, to Varun's earlier point, we feel confident about the numbers and the guidance we have given for Q2. To your second part, I think I already answered on the nutrition plant. That plant was created for 5,000 tons annual capacity. As we speak, we are already serving volumes of niacin and niacinamide cosmetic grade, which are the two products for which that plant was created, which are at a 50% of that run rate, and we are hoping to take it up to 70%+ by end of this year.
Sure. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much and all the best for the coming quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Archit Joshi from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. A slight clarification from the presentation. I was reading that B3 volumes, we have mentioned it to be steady, and we've sort of said that the improvement in the quarterly results is coming because of pricing, and at the same time, we have written that strong volumes in Niacinamide. I just wanted to understand what would be the quarterly performance of human animal nutrition business be, and is the pricing sustained in this current environment, and if we can see this INR 28-odd crore EBIT number being sustainable for the rest of the financial year. That would be my first one.
Archit, I think the volumes have increased. They grew steadily, but maybe the English there is confusing. The volumes of B3 at the overall segment level have increased and obviously the high-value segments that we have started to serve through the niacin and niacinamide cosmetic grade from the new plant, that is also increasing. I think the English might have confused, but as I just explained in response to the previous question, the volumes have increased. The second question is about the pricing of B3. Obviously, that is a very volatile territory in the past, historic. What we have seen is when prices move up, they stay up for at least two to three quarters at a time. Prices were up in Q1, and we have a little bit of spillover effect coming into Q2 as well.
There is a possibility that prices may start to come down by end of Q2 based on historical trends. The good thing for us is because the relative mix of high value-add products on the food grade, pharma grade, and cosmetic grade is increasing, the pricing, even if it comes down, hopefully it should not impact us significantly. At the same time, we have been continuously working on the cost improvement for that product to ensure we can protect our margins. If we are able to do both of those things, depending on where the pricing is towards the end of Q2. Q2 we feel comfortable because a lot of booking for Q2 we have already done for B3. That will, if at all pricing comes down, it will have some impact on the Q3 pricing, which we will see.
As I said, we have already done some mitigation actions which would hopefully help us in protecting the margins of that segment.
Got it, sir. Got it. Thanks for answering. The second one on, if you can give some update on the pricing of base pyridines and how are we fared in the pyridine derivatives, and how do we look at it for the rest of the nine months, towards driver.
Yes, pyridine, as you all know, we are world leader in pyridine and its derivatives. We are running our plant currently also at 95%+ utilization level. We have a strong momentum on the volume side, both on pyridine and its derivatives. The pricing depends on which derivative you're talking about in pyridine. We do almost 60+ products. In most of them, we have leadership position, and we are holding up on the pricing as well. There are some commoditized variants of pyridine, including the building block itself. The pricing pressure is more acute there because of the overcapacity in China. Because increasingly, our focus is more on either pyridine downstream, more advanced derivatives or the picoline part of it, where the pricing is holding up, we are able to manage that business in a fairly steady manner.
Sure, sir. One follow-up on the same one. To what extent have we internalized the base pyridines for captive use? I'm sure the ratio was significantly higher towards base pyridines. I think you had indicated that also in the few concalls in the past. Right now, how much are we captively consuming, and what would be the external sales of base pyridines? That would be my last one. Thank you.
We never disclose those numbers specifically, Archit, I won't be able to give those numbers. What is more important is that percentage of captive usage is increasing year on year, especially a lot of picoline, Beta Picoline particularly, goes into B3 requirement. Like I explained in earlier responses to the questions, the B3 volumes are growing substantially for us, which automatically means a lot of Beta Picoline is getting used. The percentage of captive usage is definitely increasing for picoline as well as in our pyridine business we are doing and adding new derivatives, and we are signing new CDMO contracts to have pyridine. In general, our relative share of captive consumption on the whole pyridine and picoline family is increasing, and it is significant.
Sure, sir. That's helpful. Thanks a lot, and all the best.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from Harsh Shah from RARE Enterprises. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. You have just mentioned that we did not supply much of the large CDMO contract for this quarter due to the hike in the raw material prices. Can you indicate, what about the present quarter? Are the volumes more for this quarter for the particular CDMO contract?
Yes, Harsh. The volumes in this quarter will be more than the previous quarter.
All right, sir. My second question is, last year you have indicated that you have won more than around 15 molecules, and you have said that it takes generally three years to reach the peak potential from those molecules. Few of those molecules will be reaching their second year in this financial year. Can we expect a ramp-up in those molecules in this case?
Absolutely. There are molecules where we were doing volumes, we are already getting indications from the customers that they will be giving higher volumes to us. Obviously, there is a lead time to all of it. We announce our pipeline first time, I think last year, probably October. As we get into the negotiations as well as discussions with the customers, generally most vaccine customers give us volume indications by August, September, and then confirmation by October for the following year. There are at least a few molecules where I know the volumes will be higher in second year versus what they were in the first year.
All right, sir. My final question would be, despite the massive investment that we have done in renewables and green energies, but our power and fuel expenses have gone sharply for this quarter, other expenses have also gone up. Could you explain the nature of these costs, sir? Can we expect the power and fuel expenses to go down from here onwards?
Hi, Harsh. Varun here. Yes, in this quarter, the power and fuel expenses have gone up on account of two reasons. One, first reason is year-on-year, our volumes have increased, and so has the quantity of power and fuel. Second, because of this Gulf crisis, the right cost of LSHS or the natural gas has also gone up, which has led to the increase in the cost of power, which is fuel which is reflected in our P&L. In terms of the other expenses which you see in the P&L, bulk of the increase is due to the logistic costs where we have been hit by the increase in the cost of logistics, both domestic and international, which is reflected there, which we were able to successfully pass it on to our customers as is reflected in our increase in pricing.
One last question from my side, sir. Sir, have they given us any timeline by which they will be providing us the full volume visibility?
We have been in constant discussions with them. I think as you know, the market is dynamic and obviously they are also listed. I'm sure all of you are tracking them as well. As and when they have the visibility, they will provide us. Unfortunately, they have not given us a firm timeline. In order to plan for Q3, we will need some clarity from them within next month or so. We are hopeful we'll get more visibility, at least about next quarter, by next month.
All right. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Rohit Nagaraj from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a good quarter. Sir, first question on the specialty chemicals front. We have given in our press release that there has been volume jump as well as pricing increase. In terms of 11% top-line growth on a year-over-year basis, what would be the volume and value breakup given that the EBITDA increase is limited to 7% so there could be some cost inflation transfer? Thank you.
Yeah, Rohit, we don't give the breakup of volume and price. It is driven by both, because as I explained earlier, our CDMO business has grown versus last quarter in terms of volumes. Our pyridine volumes are holding up at least at a steady level. Fine chemical volumes have also grown. There's a reasonably strong growth on the volume front. The other thing which is changing in specialty is the mix of the business, which is also giving high-priced products. That also adds to the overall growth. Then, of course, there's some contribution coming from pricing products. It's a mixed bag. It's a healthy growth on volume, supported by some price escalations. Obviously, the volume mix, which is being taken in a certain direction by the client.
Sure. That's helpful. Second question on the chemical intermediates front. If you look at year-over-year basis of the consolidated EBITDA delta of about INR 56 crores, almost INR 40 crores is contributed from chemical segment, the intermediate segment. What gives us confidence that this particular performance will continue in Q2 and thereafter? A light question to that, were there any inventory gains during the quarter gone by? Thank you.
Yeah, Rohit. See, that's why we have a portfolio of businesses. If you pick one business and say that whether we are confident that every quarter it will start increasing, that becomes slightly tricky because of what I explained earlier, that every business has its own nuances and drivers. Sometimes one order moving from one quarter to other can reflect differently on the growth trajectory of the business. I think if you see as a portfolio, three years back, we were giving INR 100 crores EBITDA in a quarter, and now we are at INR 209. What is more important is there's a steady growth over the last three years. In some quarters, some business fires and some business doesn't fire because of specific factors which are outside of control.
As a portfolio, I think that is why we feel more confident in giving the guidance on the overall business. You can analyze the last 12 quarter results. There will be quarters when specialty chemicals have fired, there will be quarters when nutrition has fired, and there will be quarters when chemical intermediate has fired, like the current one. As a combination, we feel good about the portfolio, and put together, we feel confident that we will deliver on the numbers we have committed.
Perfect. That's helpful. Sir, just one last clarification. In terms of the large CDMO contract where the revenue of $300 million spanned over five years, is there any take or pay commitment? If initially, for whatever reasons, if the commitment is lower, can that contract get extended beyond five years to fulfill the entire $300 million? Thank you.
No, Rohit. We have clarified it multiple times in the past and on this call also, probably you were not part of this call earlier. Yes, we have full protection.
Perfect. That's helpful. Thanks a lot, and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Kiran Gadge from Knightstone Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Hello. Sorry. My question has been answered. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We'll take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management team for closing comments.
Thank you everyone for joining this call today. We hope we have been able to answer all your queries. For further clarification, I would request you to get in touch with me. Thank you once again for your interest in Jubilant Ingrevia Limited.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Jubilant Ingrevia Limited, that concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.