Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Q4 FY 2025 earnings conference call of Laxmi Organic Industries 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 and zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pranay Shah. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Anushka. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the Q4 and FY 2025 earnings conference call for Laxmi Organic Industries Limited. On the call, we have with us Dr. Rajan Venkatesh, MD and CEO, and Mr. Mahadeo Karnik, CFO. The company has uploaded its financial results and investor presentation on the website as well as stock exchanges. We hope everyone has had the opportunity to go through the same. We will begin the call with some opening commentary from the management, followed by a question-and-answer session. Before we begin, I'd like to point out that this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call.
These statements do not guarantee the future performance of the company, and it involves risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand over the call to Dr. Rajan Venkatesh, MD and CEO. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, [Tanushree].
Thank you, Tanushree.
Namaskaram to all. Good morning, good evening, and yeah, depending on good afternoon, depending on where you're dialing in from. Thank you for investing your time with us. As always, taking you through the various buckets that we would like to share with you. First is a very quick look into macro. Then coming closer to home, which is our industries that we are very proud to serve. Then comes the element of our raw materials, which are key building blocks across our value chains. I would like to take the opportunity to give an update on our ongoing projects as a status update. Let me start with macro. Certainly, one of the more exciting times we are all living in with what's going on globally and evolving on a day-to-day basis as we speak.
I have received this question multiple times, so I'll put that first upfront. Laxmi, in far too into the U.S., Laxmi has an exposure of less than 10% of our sales at an enterprise level. Broadly, given that things are still fluid and evolving, we view that opportunity as neutral to positive. That's the first point. The second lens, also when we look at the chemical ecosystem, I don't think, I must say, unfortunately, things have not developed negatively, but certainly also not positively. We continue to see the overcapacities in China continuing to play out. Other geographies like Europe continue to be in pressure. Now, when I'm talking about this, this is the overall chemical ecosystem I'm talking about, not specifically Laxmi. I want to clarify that. Producers in Japan and Korea continue to be under pressure.
Certainly, India continues to be one of the more brighter spots, and North America to a certain extent. That is where we see, if you look at the global chemical ecosystem. If we come to the next point, our customer base that we serve and industries, I would say most of the industries from a quarter-on-quarter basis, we continue to see the demand being stable. When I'm talking about these industries, be it pharma, be it printing and packaging, be it our pigments, be it industrial solutions, the one section that we continue to see weakness is the agro. It is not, I think, at this point of time, continues to be weak in our lens. We are also very thrilled with the new segment that we have entered into. I've called that out in the past.
You would have also seen the recent LOI that we signed with Hitachi Energy, which is again bringing us into a very different segment, which we are excited about. When we talk about raw materials, and I call about two of them, which are acetic acid and ethanol, on a full-year basis, FY 2025 versus FY 2024, we have seen double-digit declines, so about 11% decline in pricing for acetic acid. For ethanol, it is in the range of 15%. This is also what you see is getting reflected. Our prices are a little more softer, which is obviously linked more so more pronounced in essentials, but also certainly does impact other specialty portfolio, given that the overall feedstock environment continues to be a bit more softer and has declined on a full-year basis. Then comes to the ongoing projects.
Our project at Dahej, what we say very proudly, Indradh anush, there we have received the EC and the factory license. That project, building on the continuous efforts of the whole team, remains on track with on timelines, on in scope, and on budget. When we come to our other project, which was the fluoro intermediate setup at Lotte, there again, we remain committed to what we had shared. In Q4, we saw the first positive commercial sales happening, and the ambition continues to be that into FY 2026, we are around the 40%-60% of the peak revenues that we have laid out for ourselves. Obviously, some softening on the pricing points have happened, but broadly, that remains our focus area as we take our projects.
If we then look at our performance, clearly what we have shown is strong volume growth in certainly a point in time and markets which have not been growing at that pace. A lot of credit, a lot of focus, a lot of diligence from our side. We have also actually maintained our contribution margins by playing the entire portfolio across essentials and also specialties. That is a very positive reflection if I have to look at the full-year basis. When we look at the SG&A costs, we have certainly added in areas where we have committed, that is when we're looking at the newer plants and also the capability people linked to running these assets and running us as an enterprise level, while all other costs is we have been very, very prudent and we have held that in line. We've also been financially very disciplined.
We have held debt at very low levels despite the CapEx cycle that we are into. That is what is all keeping me, I would say, giving me comfort that once we are now very well equipped and we are well geared, and as the cycles turn, we are also very well positioned, A, to navigate the current point in time, and B, also leverage the upside, which we have done in the past and we will continue to do in the future. With that, I'll pass it on to Mahadeo, where he can take us through the numbers in more granularity. One other element which I would like to call out as things move across in one product in our specialty portfolio, the end application which it is serving has got a regulatory phase through, phase out.
This is what we had anticipated for quite some time now, but we have been diligently serving our customers and their markets thereby. That is what we will see, I would say, for while we have a substitute already lined up in the interim, it will have some minor impact and some softness into our P&L. We are completely geared for it. It is at a specialty level. It is less than 10% of our specialty basket. We saw this coming, but we are leveraging it now. With that, Mahadeo, I'll pass it on to you. I'll talk about our project with Hitachi in my closing sentence.
Thank you, Rajan. As this is a call for full year as well as Q4, I would like to take you through first full year, and then I will touch upon the Q4. year-on-year, our volume growth was 11%. That was.
It seems like the management line has got disconnected. Wait till I connect the management. We have the management line connected with us.
Yeah. Good. So Mahadeo, why do not you get started? We got disconnected at an opportune time.
Thank you, Rajan. As this is a call for full year as well as the quarter numbers, I will take you through first full year synopsis and then take you through the Q4 numbers. Our volume growth has been 11%, specifically coming from our exhibition excellence project, which we call it Luxure, that was on the back of a minimal CapEx. Our gross margin, if you look at in this environment, has improved by 218 basis points, which is a testimony that we are controlling the cost of the product because the realizations, specifically in essential business, are going down. In case of our employee cost, employee cost remains same as previous year. Again, the power and fuel remain same, low percentage versus the sales. Though the volumes have increased by 11%, the power and fuel have just grown by nearly 2%.
Other expenses have grown up by nearly INR 590 million, mainly out of the whole part of this is the sea freight cost that we have to incur. The sea freight this time has increased nearly by 60% year-on-year. Excluding sea freight, the other costs remain exactly flat. Overall, EBITDA, we are at 9.4% versus 9%. Again, we are having an operating leverage in these moments. Other income remaining flat. The depreciation has started to increase now because we have capitalized the Lotte assets. Finance cost has increased. Finance cost has increased mainly because of the term loan that we have taken as well as the buyer's credit that we have taken and the GST interest that is getting accounted at this line. The effective tax rate nearly remains same as last year. Overall, the PAT remains at 3.8% versus 4.22%.
For the quarter, the volume has grown by 1%. The gross margin has reduced. Now I will take you through two major levers that are impacting this comparison versus previous year, same quarter. In last year, same quarter, the essential price realization and margin realization was much higher and highest in the quarter of last year, FY2024, mainly on account of sudden shutdown of one of the suppliers. That has not happened this time. The margins are at a stable level. That is why you can see a dip of gross margin from 35.6% in Q4 2024 to 34.6% in Q4 2025. We have also one-time impact of the assets that we have sold at a loss because are not in use of nearly INR 68 million, which means that the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter is INR 590 million versus INR 900 million in previous year.
The INR 900 million includes the one-time impact of the loss of profit claim that we received of INR 100 million. Overall, if you adjust the EBITDA like to like, excluding one-time cost, the EBITDA is at 9.3% versus 10.2% of last year. The depreciation again has increased from INR 300 million to INR 390 million. The tax, we have a credit of nearly INR 85 million. This is mainly coming off because of the merger with YFCPL got announced, and all the financials got restated for accredited numbers. As YFCPL was taxed earlier at 17%, now it is effectively taxed at nearly 36%. That is why all the depreciation and the current year losses are creating a deferred tax asset. That is creating a one-time tax credit of INR 85 million in this year. Overall, PAT margin remains at 3.1% versus 5.7%.
On a business level, overall, the EBITDA of essential is at 3%, and specialty is at 23%. The working capital remains very robust at 24 days versus 11 days of last year. 11 days of last year was because of a one-time blip in the extended credit on alcohol consignments, which has now normalized, so which we have now got the working capital days at 24. Our term loans have reduced from INR 90 crore to nearly INR 42 crore in this year. We are looking at how we can be efficient in financing, how we can be efficient in working capital, and how efficient we can be on the project tracking and on cost. With that, I will end up my summary here, and [Tanushree], over to you. [Tanushree?]
Yes. We can now, Anushka, we can start the Q&A session.
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 touchstone 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 Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please proceed.
Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is on the LOI that we have signed with Hitachi Energy. If you can give just more details about what is the arrangement, what is the technology here, whether there is a technology transfer, and generally what is the size of the market we are looking at, and when we will start probably commercializing the product and getting the revenues. Thank you.
Question, Rohit, you seem to be as excited as we are on signing up this LOI. I think let me just structurally explain to you. We have signed the LOI, and as we speak now, we are in the next phase of detailing the contract, so ticking the boxes, and we want to pin down the moving parts. Thereafter is where we will go to our board and seek final approval. Thereafter, I'm very excited to share far more details in the granularity that you sought. Please bear with us. What is important to call out here for us is, one, it is again a testimony to what we started off like in our Daikin journey when we started with our fluorination journey. We said, "This is a platform we want to begin with.
It's a start point, not the end point." I think this is now testimony the second time around. We already had one large MNC who collaborated with us in the past, which we have called out. Now this is the next big pivot that we are making. This is obviously, as you have seen, bringing us into an interesting new segment of power transmission and generation and transmission. I think that is what we are excited about. I certainly will share the details as soon as I am privy to them with you and the overall audience. Kindly bear with us.
Sure. Just one clarification. As of today, this market is served by Hitachi, or is it a new market that will be developed once the tech transfer happens?
Broadly, Hitachi continues to be the market leader by.
Yeah, I know.
Hitachi Energy is the market leader by far in this segment. We are now collaborating with the leader. This product is primarily being sourced by them from China, and this is a unique opportunity that brings in the mix.
Fair enough. That's really helpful, and I'll wait for more details on the same. Second question on the lithium front. We have depicted in our slides that by 2027, we'll be able to reach the peak potential of maybe close to about INR 2 billion plus minus. Are there any other projects that we are working on given that I understand we still have the team Miteni in Italy working with us? Just a clarification on the same, that we will be continuing with the R&D setups in Italy, or are there any plans of shifting it to India and probably vacating that space there?
Rohit, again, thank you for the question. As we have clarified in the past, Rohit, we have no team today in Italy. The whole thing is absorbed within Laxmi. We also recently announced the opening of a brand new innovation center. That is where a lot of that technology is nested in India. It becomes Laxmi's global innovation center in Navi Mumbai for the world. There is no team in Italy who are working with us.
Got that. Just clarification on this. In terms of any liabilities from the Italy plant, we do not have any connection to Italy whatsoever right now given that everything is being transferred to India. Is that the right way to looking at it?
Yes.
Okay. On the new projects that we are working on, on the fluorination space, which user segments are we targeting?
As we have also said, the Miteni brings us a certain range of products and portfolio for the Miteni legacy. That is serving the range of industries that today we are already very active in, be it in the agro, be it in the pharma space, be it in industrial solutions. Obviously, we are leveraging it into newer segments, and the recent LOI is an occasion point.
Sure. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankur from Axis. Please proceed.
Yeah, hi, Rajan. Thanks for the opportunity. First question on the Miteni side. Now the R&D team is relocated here, and we had a set of portfolio with us from Miteni. Your thoughts in terms of, one, the ramp-up in the existing products that we are working on, and secondly, the newer ones on which we are working. When you are giving a guidance of full revenue ramp-up by FY 2027, do we have some LOIs, some business contracts already signed up, or some visibility over there?
Hey, Ankur, thank you for your question. Again, let me go back to the thesis, right, of what we have always maintained. Miteni, legacy Miteni, and I like to call it legacy Miteni because it is Laxmi now, came in with a technology platform base, electrochemical fluorination being one part of that technology platform. That is what we are continuing to leverage, both the electrochemical fluorination part of what we had acquired and the other parts of that technology platform to, A, build on the existing portfolio that Miteni had, and B, leverage that into the newer segments. Again, a case in point, what we have now just signed with Hitachi. Even prior to that, building on that adjacency was with another MNC that we had collaborated. To be very precise to your question, the baseline is building on what we had.
The majority of the baseline is building of what we had acquired, and we are building off that.
Sure. From the second part, from the revenue ramp-up point of view, what gives us the confidence and the visibility of ramp-up in the next few years?
If you look from a market lens in our assessment, certainly the demand is certainly higher than supply. That is a positive going in positioning. We have also invested the last two years even more diligently to bring this entire asset to the level of comfort where we need to be and also where our customers are. That is what is now giving us the comfort as we move into FY 2026 and beyond to actually leverage this overall platform steadily.
Sure, Rajan. So will it be fair to say that we'll have decent visibility on this revenue ramp-up there given our discussion with our global customers?
Absolutely.
Okay. Great. Just a clarification, the new contract for the LOI that we are signing up with Hitachi, will this be made in the same premises as Miteni, or there is an incremental CapEx requirement for that?
This would be in anything fluorine, as we have also stated in the past. We have called it out that we had already over-invested in IOU from a line of sight of future expansion. That is what we are leveraging in. It will be in our Lotte complex. There will be, obviously, we will bake in wherever there are synergies feasible.
Okay. Cool. Secondly, on the full-year basis, we highlighted 11% of volume growth. The spec chem revenues are up from 14%. If you can help break up the volume growth specifically for specialty chemicals?
The specialty chemicals volume growth year-on-year is 7%.
Okay. So there is a pricing improvement that we have seen in the specialty part?
Yes. Yes. It is, and the portfolio, I think that's been our strength that we have been calling out consistently in the Daikin derivative space. Today as we speak, even on a global lens, Laxmi has the largest Daikin derivative portfolio, and that is what we are consistently leveraging upon.
Sure. There were a couple of chem projects that we are working on. Have they been ramped up fully, and how do you see the growth outlook there in the spec chem business over the next two to three years?
Ankur, broadly again, calling it out at a macro level, we continue to see, at least with the customer base that we are engaged, that agro still from a demand lens continues to be under pressure. That is the first point. I think specific projects, if you can be more specific, then I can answer. Broadly, the projects that we are today already engaged in, we are well entrenched with our customer base. I would not, at this point of time, add anything or subtract anything from that.
Okay. No problem. From our chem contribution here, that still will be a majority part of the specialty, right?
No. If you really look at it also, and this is considered, and this is also shown into our chart, the agro as a part of our whole portfolio at an enterprise level is less than 10%. Also within the specialties, this has been also very well entrenched that our specialty downstream now, primarily it is our Daikin derivative, is very well hit across the industries that we are serving. In fact, we are also entering newer industries, like I called out last time around, like personal care and others.
Yeah. Okay. Great. Just last bit, while there is detail on the gross margin mix between the two segments, we had been sharing a EBITDA mix there. If you can help with the full-year EBITDA margin or the EBITDA contribution taker for the two segments.
EBITDA margin for specialty is 23%. EBITDA margin for specialty is, sorry, essentially 3% on full-year basis.
Okay. Great, Mahadeo. Thank you, and all the best. That's it from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before I take the next question, I would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of [Rohan Mehta from Secom] Family Office. Please proceed.
Hello, Sir[I'm I audible]
Yes, you are, Rohan.
Perfect. Thank you so much for the opportunity. In your initial address, I just wanted to clarify, how have the acetic acid prices trended over the past month? What are the current spot prices versus what they were a month back? That's the first one. Also, if you could provide some color on the current spreads for ethyl acetate.
Okay, acetic acid, the first is, again, let me take a step back. On a year-on-year basis, on a full-year basis, we have seen acetic acid prices decline in the range of 11%. In FY 2024, on an average, it was about INR 450. On an FY 2025 average, it was about INR 400. As we speak now, we exited quarter four in that similar ballpark of about INR 395- INR 400. I think that is where we are. Obviously, as we have also called out in the past, from a supply-demand side for acetic acid, there is more supply than what demand curtails. We continue to see some more softening anticipated into the acetic acid prices into, obviously, quarter one. That is where we have the line of sight at this point of time.
When we talk about your second part of the question on the ethyl acetate spreads, we've also dwelled into that in the past. If you take out the COVID peaks, the average spread over a 13-year period, whatever you take, 10-13 year period, should be over acetic acid and ethanol. The spread should be around $225 per metric ton. What we observed in the last quarter, and that's why we say today the spreads are far more subdued, has been in the range of about $140-$150. Obviously, depending on certain aberrations, it could go down another $10-$15. That is the range we are expecting. That is why we say today we see our essentials portfolio, and especially ethyl acetate, in the bottom quartile. That being said, you see the leverage that we have.
We have been able to grow market share, and we believe we have a good cost positioning to win. As things move across upward, we are well positioned.
Sure. Sure. Thanks for the clarification, sir. On the ethyl acetate, I believe there were some players who have shut down capacity last quarter or two or so. Has there been any more capacity shutdowns in Q4?
No, I think nothing that has been official, especially outside India. I think you are referring to the announcement from Sipchem that they made. I think that is progressing, as we understand from the market from today's perspective. The other players, I think we see them off and on. At this point of time, no other official announcement that we are aware of apart from the one you called out in quarter four.
Got it. Got it. Lastly, sir, on the acetic anhydride, could you tell what the current spreads are?
Acetic anhydride is, I think, a much smaller part of our portfolio. Certainly, it would be fair to say there, again, we are continuing to see that the margins are under pressure as compared, given that the downstream paracetamol, and you've heard that from the largest player in the acetic anhydride space calling that out. It is no different for us from that lens. We are a much smaller player in that space.
Sure. Sure, sir. Thank you so much for patiently answering my question. Thank you and wishing you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arian James from Lotus Wealth. Please proceed.
Thank you for the opportunity. You mentioned in one of the slides that we have a roadmap to achieve 20% ROC by the year 2028. What's the growth plan to achieve this number? Do you think there are some risks involved associated with this number?
Arian, thank you for the question. Again, let me call that out. One is we have our essentials part of the business, as we have said. It is a cyclic business. At this point of time, listening to the narrative that I was sharing with the previous caller, we are today in the bottom of the cycle. The margin assumptions we have made are over a cycle. We remain very, very well positioned to leverage once things pivot. You already see certain producers actually announcing shutdowns. We will see, given that the bottom of the cycle has long prolonged, we will certainly see other producers also feeling the pressure. We are well positioned. That is one part of the puzzle that you need to understand when we look at our essentials basket. It is not a point in time. It is over the cycle.
In our specialty space, our ambition has been also very clear that we need to maintain EBITDA ranges of 20%-25% independent of the cycle. As you saw also in our performance in FY 2024, where we closed at about 24%, Mahadeo just said where we closed at 23%. I think we continue to be strongly positioned and are diligently working towards in that direction. What could be risks? Clearly, from this side, obviously, the softening you would see on the raw materials is something I called out. That could be a double positive. When things also pivot, we are well positioned to leverage because we are also investing in the current down cycle. That is the way I would view it, Arian.
Just to follow up regarding this, we actually have a margin of about, I think, 10%-12%. For us to achieve that number, we have to essentially double our revenues, maybe triple our EBITDA. Do you think this number is actually sustainable given the margins that we have?
As I again said, the margins are twofold. One is if you look at our essentials business, it is over the cycle, and we are in the bottom of the cycle. In the specialty business, we have continued to maintain our EBITDA ranges despite the market backdrop that we are operating in. Thirdly, we are in an investment mode. Our volumes will increase by 1.7x versus where we closed out in FY 2024. We have also called that out. It is not going to be simply achieved from the current baseline. There is an investment which is going in. We will also be doubling our capability of the ketene and Daikin derivatives space. All of that is what is going to come into play for us to be on track with our ambition.
Wonderful. Wonderful. And just to confirm, our capacities that are going to be doubled in diketene and diketene derivative products, they're going to be at the Dahej plant, if I'm not wrong?
Yes. The Daikin derivatives would be at our Dahej site. The expansion that we are doing for our ethyl acetate is at our Lote site.
Wonderful. Thanks a lot. Thanks for answering my questions patiently.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash Mehta from Malabar Investments. Please proceed.
Thank you for the opportunity. There was a question by one of the previous participants on volume growth. You mentioned 11% volume growth for the full year. You mentioned that specialty is seven. Is it a fair thing to say that acetides would have grown at 13% or 13%-14% volume growth for the full year?
Yeah, you are correct.
And.
But one suggestion. It is essential. While acetales is the older term, we call it essentials.
Oh, my bad. My bad. So what would be the growth, sir? Sorry, just to clarify, for the full year?
It's 12.5%.
Understood. For the quarter, it would be helpful to understand that there was a 10% odd decline. Is that largely volume-driven, or was there a fair amount of pricing fall as well?
The volume has declined by 1%. The rest is price fall, as I said.
[Do you know?]
In the last year, the prices were quite exceptionally higher because of unplanned shutdown of one of our suppliers. It may not be a right parameter to check that, it's specifically in essential business.
Understood. Understood. Business on volume was broadly flat, only driven by YoY pricing spike that happened last year. In terms of product mix, it seems that this year was one of the first years where you introduced a lot of new products in this essentials business as well.
Yeah. Yes. Yes. Where are you leading with the question?
What I was trying to understand is, was there a negative price mix? Because since these products get added, what would be the share of ethyl acetate within them, and has that changed over the last one year that is driving the 9% negative price mix?
No. In fact, one of the key products that we introduced was n-propyl acetate. There is no negative price mix in that, Yash. In our strategic timeline, we are also very clear that we need to find a good hedge to ethyl acetate. If you look at FY 2024, ethyl acetate as part of our essentials basket was contributing 85% to our essentials basket. The ambition that we have is in that FY 2028 time horizon to bring this down to almost 65%. I think that is a conscious effort from our side. We are also looking at products which are primarily import substitute. n-Propyl acetate is a case in point. Butyl acetate, which we called out about two quarters back, is a case in point. I think that is also bringing in resilience to our customers in India in today's, I would say, trade backdrop.
Got it. Today, ethyl acetate would be much lower than 85%.
It would be in an 80-82 range, early 80s range.
Got it. Sir, the other question that I had was, as far as Lotus complex is concerned, since we have already reached 40%-60% utilization, is it fair to suggest that the site has achieved cash break-even at these levels on a monthly basis, at least?
No. The first is we've not achieved 40%. Quarter four was the first, as we called out also, if you see in our chart, is where we started commercial sales from our Lotus setup. The cash break-even question that you have, this will happen in this financial year. The target remains about close to 40%-60% of our peak revenues, and the cash break-even will happen this year.
Would it be helpful to kind of call out the additional spends that are happening at the particular site today, like in terms of maybe operating drag, just to understand the EBITDA margins better? No other reason.
We are happy to understand the granularity that you seek. We can follow up with Mahadeo offline. That's what I would recommend, Yash, if it's okay with you.
For sure. Thank you very much. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jigar Shah from Elevate Research. Please proceed.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. Firstly, just wanted to get a sense on the rationale of investing additional capital in ethyl acetate. Even that is a segment where we are dependent on external factors for pricing. Also, there are overcapacities already. Because even if overcapacities go away, there will be sufficient supply to cater to the demand, right?
Jigar, thanks for that question. See, our thesis has been always the same that whatever we do to win in our essentials basket, we need to look at economies of scale. What this investment does, it is providing us economies of scale. A 70 KT single-line technology, we would be the first plant in India providing that economies of scale. Our markets for ethyl acetate continue to grow. One needs to get a little more granular into what is that while you talk about supply-demand being at a certain level, I think one needs to also understand what is utilization and where are the other competitors on the cost curve. That is the granularity that we have done.
Even if you saw it in the course of this year and last year, the fungibility that we are able to bring into our market share domestically is, I think, also a testimony to the way we are also steering our entire backend and frontend. That is what is giving us the comfort, Jigar, to also call it out in quarter four. There has been announcement of players like Sipchem deciding to move out. I think we will see how things evolve, but we remain confident that we are the leader in this portfolio. We have reached the bottom of the cycle, so we are well leveraged to sort of, as things move further, we are very well positioned.
Okay. Understood. Secondly, sir, when do we expect to commission the Dahej plant? And when do the revenues start to flow in?
Through the second half of this year is what we are looking at, the mechanical completion, chemical charging all happening at our Dahej facility. We will be more granular closer to that commissioning period.
Okay. Lastly, sir, on a consolidated basis, I mean, given all the dynamics coming into play, we should probably get to our FY 2028 target, right?
We are very diligently working towards it, Jigar. However, to the previous caller called out, obviously, today we continue to be in the bottom of the cycle when we talk about our essentials business. We have always viewed this over the cycle, not at a point in time. Also, we are seeing some softening in the feedstock, which is obviously also in our specialty business, taking down our revenues. We are very diligently, as also Mahadeo called out, looking at other levers, not just hoping that things will evolve, but playing to our strength and navigating through.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jigar.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please proceed.
Thanks for the follow-up. This year, we had exports of about 36%. What would be the composition in terms of specialty and essentials? In FY 2028, when we are targeting twice of revenues, how much would be the export contribution? What will be the split between essentials and specialty? Thank you.
Rohit, I think what is important to note is that exports will continue to be one important lever as we are steering our portfolio. In our essentials part, we have a range of 70%-75% domestic and somewhere between 25%-30% of exports. Obviously, it also depends on the price arbitrage, the way we steer it. For our specialty part of the portfolio, on a rule of thumb, 50% is domestic, 50% is exports. Also, this is driven by the customer mix that we are serving. I think that remains the key focus rather than talking about it has to be specific to the business unit that we are and the portfolio that we are steering.
Now that you brought the export question, it's a good segue to also bring to the people's attention that we are doubling down on two regions. We have built-in capability in China. I think you see also my leadership team chart. Lydia Wang joins us as the head of China. We have also built-in capability in Europe with Mustafa coming in as the head of essentials and also head of LOBV. We have another colleague, Pascal, who then supports our specialty business. We are also building in competence and capability in these regions to tap those opportunities there.
That's really well put. Second question on the numbers. We have total CapEx, which is about INR 1,100 crore, and a large part of that is expected to happen in one HSR 2026. First question on that, in terms of funding, how are we looking at on the debt equity front? Second thing, when the entire CapEx is complete, what is the peak debt that we are looking at?
Rohit, I look at around INR 300 crore-INR 350 crore of term loan maximum, which I will pay off by, say, FY 2027-2028. Debt equity at peak would be around 0.23 or 0.30, not more than that.
Got it. Got it. Thanks and all the best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we will take the last question from the line of Chetan Doshi from Tulsi Capital. Please proceed.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity and congratulations for the new pair with Hitachi. One question is regarding the Dahej plant. You said in the second half, you plan to commission the plant on phase manual. In the current year, how much turnover do you expect to end up in March 2026? Are you planning to dilute the equity? Because again, this new pair with Hitachi will require a lot of funds. My question is on this, that you'll be diluting the equity in the near future, or will you continue with the internal accrual?
Cheta, let me answer the second part first. We are not going to dilute equity. We've been very prudent. You currently see our debt to equity, and Mahadeo just called out what would be at peak. I think we are very, very cognizant, very prudent, and very well funded in that sense, right? We have not called out specifically. Normally, as you have new investments coming with your experience, I hope you understand, it takes a certain period to ramp up. That is why in the second half of this year is where we will see our Dahej project, mechanical completion, chemical charging happening across most of the assets. The ramp-up would take, obviously, there is a qualification step because for certain of these products, the customers will need to qualify the supply point. There is a qualification step.
We are really looking at the ramp-up starting into FY2027 and 2028.
Just last question. Do you expect that the profits of the company will be on the rise because you are not planning to dilute the equity? I think the main focus will be on the specialties rather than essentials?
We are basically playing the strengths of our portfolio here, Chetan. If you see where we closed out FY24, we had a good blend between our essentials to specialty business. The focus in our essentials business is to continue to diversify from ethyl acetate and offer a range of products which is today imported into India and support our customers. In our specialty vertical, it is to double-click on our Dahej team downstream and be globally top three in the world, including China, and obviously then also leveraging our fluorination setup. That is the way we are entirely steering the business, Chetan.
Best of luck.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you all for your interest and thank you for joining. Let me conclude by saying a few things. One is, and this is captured in my reflections, I think first and foremost, let me start by firstly thanking my entire team. While we talk about numbers, there is a lot of brainpower, manpower, and heavy lifting that goes in the background. Big thank you to the entire Laxmi team, our customers who pay our bills, the board of directors, our investors, and the communities where we operate our other assets and the related stakeholders. Big thank you to all of them. We have actually achieved factually 11% volume growth and 9.5% EBITDA growth year-on-year while maintaining our profitability in the prevailing environment, which is a testimony to our performance. The growth was driven by the focus on operational excellence. Second, talking about capacity augmentation.
Third, our customer-centric approach. Fourth, the prudent cost and fund management. Innovation is what keeps our business relevant and dynamic, and we are thoroughly excited to inaugurate our Laxmi Innovation Center that happened in quarter four of FY 2025. It is tailored to meet the needs of the dynamic workforce that are part of us, and we are proud to have them and support our customers' ambition. Our fluoro intermediate site has commenced generating revenues in quarter four, and we are focusing on expanding that into FY 2026 and beyond. I'm also as excited to share the LOI that we have signed with Hitachi Energy, and this will pivot us very positively into a new sector with a market leader in that sector. At our upcoming Dahej site, we have received environmental clearance and factory licenses, and the project remains on schedule in terms of timeline, scope, and cost.
As Team Laxmi, we remain geared to win and geared to growth, and we work diligently towards that goal. Now, giving you a bit of a lens also into what we are talking about into first half, as I called out in the specialty portfolio, there has been one product which downstream has undergone a regulatory phase-out, which will certainly have some minor impact as we go into the first half, and we'll be more granular as the things progress. Thank you all again, and stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy. Thank you all.
Thank you. On behalf of Laxmi Organic Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.