Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Paradeep Phosphates Limited Q4 FY 2025 earnings con call hosted by Antique Stock Broking Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manish Mahawar from Antique Stock Broking Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Navya. On behalf of Antique Stock Broking, warm welcome to all the participants on the call of Paradeep Phosphates. Today we have Mr. Rajeev Nambiar, COO , Mr. Harshdeep Singh, Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Bijoy Kumar Biswal, CFO, Mr. Alok Saxena, Head Corporate Finance, and Mr. Susnato Lahiri, DGM Strategy, on the call. Without further ado, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Nambiar for opening remarks, post which we will open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to Mr. Nambiar.
Good morning, Manish. Thank you for the call and good morning, everyone. And warmly welcome you to the Paradeep Phosphates Q4 as well as Financial Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. We have shared our earnings presentation and press release, both available on our website and stock exchanges, and I hope you had a chance to go through them. FY 2025 has been a truly transformational year for the company, marked by healthy profitability, improved operational efficiency, and significant strategic progress. On the financial front for FY 2025, the company posted a very healthy 452% year-on-year surge in profit after tax, powered by highest-ever fertilizer sale of 3.03 million tons. Revenue from operations stood at INR 13,820 crore, registering a 19% growth over the previous year. EBITDA rose sharply to INR 1,367 crore, up by 91% year-on-year, while the profit before tax increased by 434% to INR 752 crore.
In Q4 alone, revenue grew by 56% to INR 3,494 crore, with EBITDA doubling to INR 389 crore and PBT rising nearly eightfold to INR 223 crore. In line with our dividend policy, the board has recommended a dividend of INR 1 per equity share on the face value of INR 10 for the financial year 2025. Over the past four years, PPL has demonstrated industry-leading growth across the fertilizer production, sales volume, market share, and key financial metrics, including revenue, EBITDA, and PAT. The successful execution of key CapEx proposals is now yielding visible cash flow benefits. On the operational front, the company reported production volume of 2.63 million tons and primary sale of 3.03 million tons for the full year, reflecting year-on-year growth of 14% and 20% respectively. PPL served over 9.5 million farmers across 15 Indian states through a wide network of more than 95,000 retail points.
Our product basket includes nine diverse crop and soil-specific NPK grades, with N20 sales crossing a record 1.06 million tons for the first time. Our share of NPK in the product mix has steadily increased over the last two years, reinforcing our approach of balanced fertilization for the soil. We produced 4.86 lakh tons of phosphoric acid during the year, making a 30% year-on-year increase, while the sulfuric acid production stood nearly 1.3 million tons. PPL also achieved record cross-sales, maintaining high sales velocity, which led to improved receivables and better working capital efficiency. We continued our innovation-led offerings, selling 1.66 million bottles of nano-fertilizers and receiving a strong market response for our recently introduced TSP product, with sales of nearly 1.5 lakh tons during the year.
We maintained a sharp focus on strategic sourcing and supply chain agility, leveraging a long-term supply relationship and robust on-site storage infrastructure to navigate raw material price volatility during the year. The company ended FY 2025 with a net debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, marking a 28% reduction over the previous year, along with improved net debt per ton of sales. These operational efficiencies translated into healthy free cash flow generation, cost, working capital, and CapEx. On the ESG front, PPL achieved a significant milestone by being ranked among the top 2% globally in the chemical sector by S&P Global as a part of the 2024 Corporate Sustainability Assessment, which forms the basis of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. This recognition underscores our growing leadership in sustainability and our continued focus on embedding ESG into every layer of strategy and operations. Our strategic roadmap anchored in three core pillars.
They have scale in operations, backward integration, and product innovation. The ongoing merger with MCFL is expected to enhance our overall sales volume by approximately 23%, taking it to 3.7 million tons. This will also enable deeper penetration into key southern markets and provide opportunities to sell and upsell as well as cross-sell. In parallel, we have been investing in backward integration with the aim of enhancing our margins. The expansion of sulfuric acid capability to 1.9 million tons at our Paradeep site is progressing well and is expected to be commissioned by Q3 of this year. Additionally, our plans to augment phosphoric acid capacity to 0.7 million tons from the current 0.5 have commenced, and we expect completion within two years. These expansions will help us achieve greater self-reliance and long-term sustainability in operations.
On the product innovation front, we were the first to introduce the Triple Super Phosphate, TSP, and Biogenic nano-fertilizer in the country, both of which saw healthy sales in FY 2025. Our focus going forward remains on developing differentiated low-carbon products tailored to soil and crop-specific needs, aligning with both farmer expectations and the environmental goals. Overall, FY 2025 has been a defining year for the Paradeep Phosphates. We have strengthened our market position, delivered strong financials, and built a resilient and agile operating model. I want to thank our employees, channel partners, customers, and all stakeholders for their continued trust and support. We look forward to building on this momentum and delivering a greater value in the years to come. Thank you, and I now look forward to your questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone phone. 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 Rishi Kothari from Pi Square Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you so much for the opportunity and conversation on this set of numbers. Also, I have a couple of questions. First, regarding the current margins that we are sustaining. So, of course, it was the effect of backward integration that we are eventually incorporating in the company. So, these margins will be sustainable for the next two-to-three years? How exactly are we looking at? And will it be a similar range, or will it increase eventually?
Related to the margins, [audio distortion] .
Yeah. Regarding this, you know, this backward integration and the impact on the margins, this is what you know on account of this process, integrat,ion from 5 lakh to, no 3 lakh- 5 lakh tons . So, that will be continued, and it will be sustained. Apart from that, you know, whatever the things we are doing, which is in pipeline , this new sulfuric acid, which is going to come on stream by Q3, that will also add to the, you know, that will also impact the margins positively.
Okay. So, what are the margins that we have for EBITDA as well as that? That will be sustainable or rather increase as and when the backward integration process is completed by FY 2026, right?
Yeah. We expect it to improve.
Okay. So, in terms of demand for if I say, what exactly is the scenario in the rural areas? I mean, I heard that we are more focused with the rural part of India. [audio distortion] ?
The demand outlook remains very, very strong. If you see the current forecast for the monsoon, it's expected to be around 103%-104% of the long period average, which augurs well for the Indian economy and Indian farmers. The farmers are getting good price for their produce, which also augurs well for their strong demand in the year ahead. Yeah. Thank you.
Okay. So, in terms of growth rate for top line for the next two, three years, what exactly do we have for target for next two to three years?
Yeah. So, in terms of top line, you know, we actually did a record sales of 3 million tons for the first time. We're looking at organically having a 5% increment this particular year. Plus, MCFL, when it gets added on, that'll kind of add on another 23%, 24%. So, net net, we're looking at north of 3.7 million tons this year.
Okay, so, in terms of growth in terms of numbers if I say , that would be around 18% to 15%, 20%, something like that?
About 23%, a little more than that.
Okay. For the next two, three years? It's all because of the increase in Backward Integration of the production that we are looking at in terms of increasing?
Yes. If we are talking about FY 2026, about 20%.
Okay. Interesting. Got it. Got it. Thanks for the update.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. Next question is from the line of Jignesh Kamani from Nippon AMC . Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Just on the DAP side, I think government announced additional subsidy of around INR 3,500 last year. And we book, I think, INR 3,000 out of INR 3,500 for the nine months. I just want to check, in the Q4 ahead, we book additional amount for the entire year? And what is the quantum?
Hi, Jignesh. So, the policy says that INR 3,500, but whatever has been paid, that has been booked. At this, this INR 500 has not been booked. So, that will be as far as when it will be declared, then it will be booked.
In Q4, there was no incremental benefit which you booked. It was a pure, you can say, profitability which was there.
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, Jignesh. Yeah.
Understood. And with the revised subsidy on the DAP import trading, is there any margin now? Because earlier, there was not much margin left, and hence there was a shortage of DAP.
Yes. I think currently, the government policy, the way they have announced, it's going to be a positive margin on the trading. So, they have given an indication for that in the subsidy policy. So, that's very, very positive, actually.
So, what happened last year? You mentioned that there was a shortage of DAP, so that's why adoption of the NPK was pretty good. With now easy availability of DAP, are you seeing some moderation in the NPK growth rate or some of the farmers who compulsorily shifted from DAP to NPK? Might reverse?
There are two factors. See, one is the NPK growth, which is driven by a fundamental awareness for the balanced nutrition, which is what is actually helping us to grow the NPK portfolio and the industry also to grow that. Of course, there was a constraint of the DAP, which limited the DAP sales as far as the current year is concerned. We see basically a steady growth for NPK still continuing because there's still room for balanced nutrition as we move forward. However, DAP availability, if it's better, we can expect a marginal growth there also. And we are trying to position innovative offering, which is TSP, which is 46% P. And that basically creates value for the farmer because you prevent overuse of nitrogen, basically, through TSP.
So, despite a healthy availability of DAP, TSP and NPK growth will remain reasonably good, right, for this year?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Okay. And last on the, have you finalized the handprint of INR 4,000 crore CapEx MOU with Odisha government?
Yeah. So, in the course of a few years, that will be done in a safe manner. So, right now, we are taking this expansion of phosphoric acid and the sulfuric acid and this dry gypsum, all those things, that is the pipeline. So, once that is completed, then we'll go to the next level of expansion. So, that is pretty much the pipeline.
Okay. Thanks a lot, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ahmed Madha from Unifi Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. Just to understand Q4 number, with the change in subsidy rates for current, is there any change in the major inventory gains for us in Q4? And if yes, can you please quantify it?
No, there is this. Yeah. This Q4, whatever subsidy is there, now from the current, the new subsidy has been notified, NBS rate has been notified. So, due to that, whatever stock is there, that also has been properly taken care of. That has been accounted for.
Can you quantify that number?
So, that, whatever for this stock available right now, this thing is taken care of. I think.
Yeah. Okay. Got it. And in terms of working capital, are you seeing any challenges in terms of receivables from government? That's my first question. And the second part of the question is, if I compare our receivables compared with other peers of ours, be it in urea business or NPK business, our relative receivables look higher. So, is there any sort of technical reason which I'm missing which explains the higher receivables relatively?
Just to kind of clarify, see, basically, we are trying to look at how we can drive improvement, so if you look at our performance last year, the receivables is both from the market and the sub-receivables, there is a significant improvement which has happened, and that's a direction which has been enabled well by good market demand and good cash flow from the government as well as the market. If you look at the trend, it's very strongly positive for the current year.
Okay. Got it. And in terms of inventory in the channel, can you give any comments? How is the inventory in the channel by the end of March? And how do you see the placements for the next Kharif panning out?
So, just to kind of tell you, the channel inventories are at a very optimal level. If you look at the post sales, also the farmer sales, like where our primary sales was 3 million tons plus, the farmer sales also was 3 million tons plus. So, we maintain a consistent inventory level, which is a steady state around 4 lakh metric tons, 3.5-4 lakh metric tons.
Okay. Noted. We are thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Riju Dalui from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the call and congrats for a good set of numbers. Just for a bookkeeping question, how was the capacity addition at the Goa non-urea plant for the full year?
Can you repeat the question? We couldn't understand.
If you could tell us the Goa non-urea plant utilization for the full year?
Oh, that is actually an outstanding year. Actually, last year, we almost touched the fullest capacity utilization. So, that's a good news for us last year. Yeah.
So, it's 100% utilization is there for the non-urea plant?
Yeah. It's almost like the fullest utilization, one of the best utilization in the recent years.
Understood. And the other question is that in FY 2025 for the full year, we have seen strong volume growth in the manufacturing fertilizer side, right? So, probably we are utilizing roughly around 85% of our total installed capacity in the non-urea side. So, if you could highlight with the current capacity, how much we can incremental volumes we can sell into the market for over the next two years?
This year, we have sold 3 million tons. Out of that, this product manufactured is around 2.6. So, we plan to grow around 5%, 5 to 7, 5% on this overall basis.
So, we are saying that we might be utilized 95% of our total capacity in terms of manufacturing fertilizer?
Yeah. We are aiming for that, actually. Yeah.
Yeah. So, with that, I think we might exhaust our 100% production level by FY 2028. So, is there any plan to de-bottleneck our existing facility to improve the capacity?
Yeah. That is actually an ongoing project of a smaller nature. It always goes along with the normal production. Just look at it, all the trains actually after this year's shutdown, which is almost over, we expect actually to come to the next level. So, that debottlenecking is an ongoing job for us. And that will definitely realize much better utilization for the equipment and overall equipment effectiveness.
Understood. And in terms of profitability, so in Q4, we have registered one of the greatest EBITDA/ ton, and in terms of EBITDA margin, the margins were one of the highest ever in the last few quarters. So, was there any kind of inventory gain in terms of your non-urea side business, especially in the manufactured fertilizer or the NPK or DAP side?
Yeah. Due to the NBS impact notification, whatever this upside, that has been accounted for as a policy.
Riju, it's basically a function of multiple things, Backward Integration is one, the right product mix is one, wherein we have had more of NPKs a nd of course, there have been some inventory as part of our channel inventory, and that's been accounted for as part of the NBS, whatever was given out.
Understood, but see, I just wanted to understand one thing is that if we look at the RM prices, which are higher, which are potentially increasing for the last couple of months, right? So, was there any kind of inventory gain for this quarter? And if you could quantify that gain.
No, we can't quantify what you said, that. Whatever stock is there, that will be utilized in the process. So, and that will be accounted for in due course.
Okay. Understood. And in terms of your growth in the northern region, northern market, so is there any kind of market share gain that we have witnessed during the quarter?
So, just to kind of keep currently, market share not in a public domain, but at an overall level, if you look at it, we almost gained more than 1.5% of NPK market share. Our growth of NPK portfolio as far as farmer sales was concerned was upward of 50%, with industry growth of 31%. And north remains to be a focus market for these irrigated markets. And the way TSP portfolio is concerned, we are in a very balanced kind of volume contribution from North, East, West, and South.
Okay. Okay. Understood, and one last question in terms of your Goa plant energy efficiency that you have mentioned in the PPT, so how much you are going to spend there for the energy efficiency, and what is the expected benefit in the EBITDA level?
This is a phase II energy efficiency level what we are embarking. So, that will be completed by Q4 this year and the capital outlay is around INR 190 crore-INR 200 crore.
Okay. And expected gain out of this investment?
No, it will be the payback. In terms of payback, I can tell that it will be four to five years.
Got it. Yes. Thanks. That is all from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vignesh Iyer from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.
So, congratulations on excellent set of numbers, and thank you for the opportunity. So, my first question would be to understand, sir, how towards current season, I mean, how has been the availability of DAP, especially if I have to comment for the month of April? And secondly, I wanted to understand, can we see the velocity when it comes to NPK sales similar to what we have seen in Q4 going ahead as well?
So, like when we discussed for the Kharif season, just two, three fundamentals. One is, I think, first and foremost, which is a good monsoon. The current forecast is very, very strong and positive, 103%-104%. The reservoirs are carrying good water level, which also works well for the agriculture. In terms of the stock inventory as a country, the DAP inventory currently is low. And we maintain still a good stock of NPKs, basically, which is available with the trade. We see a good demand in the Kharif season. And the DAP availability is going to be mixed, basically, in view of limited availability from China.
However, the government policy has been very favorable, and it supports that the customer requirements are met. You are going to see a good demand for NPKs because of fundamental kind of demand from the customers and also good demand for DAP and new products like TSP. It's going to be a good season ahead. DAP availability is going to be limited.
Okay, so can you quantify the inventory that we carry from March to April and the total inventory in tons if you could?
Basically, for us, we will be having approximately 3.5-4 million tons of 4 lakh tons of stock.
Okay. So, I mean, considering we have almost done sales more than I mean, capacity, for obvious reason that we would have carried forward some inventory last year as well. Can we expect, I mean, like a 3.3-3.4 lakh ton type of volume number in FY 2026?
So, we don't give a forward-looking thing. You should expect a good set of numbers. Like we have clarified, we are planning to augment our capacity. We also strategically do trading volumes based on driving profitable growth. And since we are carrying opening trade stocks, which is like a regular routine in nature, that augurs well for both Kharif season and the season ahead. So, sales are going to be strong. That's how we look at it.
Okay. Just one last question before I get back in the queue. Wanted to understand how the prices of sulfur and sulfuric acid have panned out in Q4 ? And can you say if there is any meaningful change that we have seen in the month of April?
Yeah. So, basically, we are seeing some sort of an uptake in raw material commodities. Sulfur, right now, as we are speaking, is about trading at about $300 odd. Sulfuric Acid is about $125-ish. But given the fact we have about 1.4 million tons of sulfuric acid captive capacity, we can stand to benefit by kind of procuring sulfur and making acid in-house.
What were these prices in Q4 , I mean, for sulfur and sulfuric?
Q4, sulfur was about 190 odd, sulfuric was about 102.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Got it. Got it.
These are published numbers, not specific to our company, but generic numbers.
Got it. Got it, sir. Yeah. General trend of the price, I understood. Fine. I'll get back in the queue, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Dhruv Muchhal from HDFC Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Sir, it's a repetition of the earlier question on the manufacturing capacity almost fully utilized. So, assuming you grow by 5%, next year, you will be about 90% capacity utilized on your manufacturing volumes. So, just trying to understand how much more can you do from de-bottlenecking and, I mean, and when do you probably will have to go for the next phase of expansion? And how do you time it better?
Thank you, Dhruv. Actually, last year, we did actually one of the best capacity utilization of all the trains what we operate. This year, actually, like we said about debottlenecking is an ongoing activity for us. At least 5%-8% of the capacity we expect to come out of the debottlenecking. And accordingly, there are a lot of other things happening parallelly in terms of reliability improvement and the excellence in terms of manufacturing, in terms of improving capability of people. So, this all should result, actually, if you look at it, actually, 7%-8% of the capacity should increase year by year by various means. And also, once the backward integration projects are handy, actually, definitely we'll be on the drawing board. A lot of other action plans are already lined up.
Got it. I'm just wondering, are we a bit late in terms of the announcement, given that demand is reasonably good and also your capacities are fully utilized? Or there is a lot of scope from debottlenecking that you can drive for one to two years? Because I'm just wondering, if you announce a capacity expansion even today for the commissioning, it would take about one to two years probably for the phase to come up. So, just trying to understand, would this capacity constraint become a bottleneck for growth?
So, Dhruv, if I may add, actually, the growth for Paradeep Phosphates over the last four years has been a mix of both organic as well as inorganic. So, although we are on.
No, I understand. The inorganic part will drive just from the organic segment. I'm just. So, organically, in fact, let the merger kind of get complete. And then, I think we should have very quick plans in terms of how to augment the capacity further. So, you have to wait it out. In Paradeep, we have got a spare capacity of 1.5 lakh ton, which can take care of this whatever growth we are talking. So, we can easily have 1.5 lakh-2 lakh ton addition with doing little this whatever the debottlenecking we are doing.
That is what we are right now doing it. And just to add, see, we're also trying to augment the business growth through the traded volumes. Our philosophy on traded volume is to drive profitable growth. So, but we will be augmenting the market requirement through full capacity utilization as well as through traded volumes also. And of course, the inorganic growth through NPK integration. Yeah.
Just to give you a number, if you look at the overall market growth, it's about 5-6%, whereas PPL for the last four years have grown at a compounded rate of more than 15-16%. So, I think that kind of really it's a good number for us, and we'll announce further plans once the merger is complete.
Got it. Perfect. And is there also a scope from optimizing your portfolio further? For example, DAP this year, if I understand, is about 30% of your overall mixed manufacturing mix versus it was about 45% earlier. So, can you trade more of DAP and produce more of NPK? Is that a possibility to also drive volumes, manufacturing volumes?
So, the way we look at it is, see, the product mix is a function of the market requirement, profitability, and as well as optimal use of the RM materials available. Our focused path is to drive the NPK growth. However, in order to meet the customer requirement, we offer DAP, which is partially through the manufactured volume. And we are also going in for traded DAP to augment that.
So, Dhruv, yes. Dhruv, if you look at it, actually, the last two years, it has been very clearly consolidating towards the NPK volumes. And that path is actually going to get strengthened in the coming years, for sure.
Okay. Got it. The second question is on the CapEx. If you can guide for the CapEx for FY 2026?
So, the project we are now undergoing, we have got around INR 500 crore all put together. So, out of that, this is why I'm talking the cash outflow, whatever we are going to invest. So, in that energy efficiency what I told just some time back, INR 200 crore for the P2O5 augmentation of the capacity around INR 100 crore and sulfuric acid, what we are increasing the capacity from 5 lakh ton. This is for that. This is around INR 100 crore what we will be spending. So, the balance has been spent. So, this will be spent during this year.
Got it. And sir, last question is on the DAP subsidy and some of the under-recovery. I think in the last call, you had mentioned that at the end of the year, when the government looks at the audit accounts, if there is any loss in DAP sales, that would be adjusted for and would be given to the companies, I mean, made good to the companies. So, I'm just trying to verify, does that still hold? And assuming you were to go to the government and claim for that under-recovery, how much that amount would be?
No, this. Whatever has been notified by the government, based on that, we have claimed it. And that has all been accounted for. So, nothing is there which is not further to be claimed.
Except for the INR 500, which you have not provided for, the remaining everything else is claimed?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Okay. Perfect, sir. That makes sense. That's helpful. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Aayush Jha from Sagun Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Thank you for letting me ask questions, sir. My question is for the Goa plant, ammonia and urea. Even the plant is starting 2023, I have seen a very frequently breakdown of the plant. And if I put the number, it's around more than six and seven, and the plant has breakdown, and I have read that. So, what's the issue there? And when we can see the stability of that plant, sir?
[audio distortion]. It is unfortunate we had multiple stoppages in the ammonia urea last year. If you look at it, actually, we are recovered from that, and majority has come from basically the ammonia compressor side. And to remove all this once and for all, actually, by end of this year, actually, we'll be replacing the critical ammonia compressor as a program to address both reliability as well as the energy efficiency. And apart from that, there's a lot of other investment we have done in terms of maintainability and reliability improvement. So we expect this year is going to be much better than last year, and just to add that, in spite of all this incident, we have crossed our RAC. As such capacity to what has been allocated to us, 4 lakh ton, we have not crossed. Yeah.
Okay, sir. And sir, my second question is around the merger, which is recently going to take place. And is there any future guidance you want to give about that, sir?
No. As per, we have received the SEBI approval. We are with the NCLT bench. The shareholder meeting is being convened on 2nd of June. Once that is approved, then we'll go to NCLT for the second motion. So, all in all, we expect that by the next three-to-four months, we should be able to close the process.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir. That's it from my side.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Krishan Parwani from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, sir. Congratulations on a very strong set of numbers. A couple from my side. First, one clarification. I think you mentioned about capacity debottlenecking. So, probably about 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh tons. So, by when can we expect that?
This is ongoing, actually. This will get realized this current year itself.
Okay. So, basically, your overall capacity, like phosphatic capacity, could go from 2.6 to 2.8 by FY 2026. That's correct?
Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Okay. That's fine. And for that, what was the CapEx that you did?
Not a major CapEx, in fact, actually. There's a lot of debottlenecking, which is taking both the revenue as well as smaller CapEx routes.
Got it. And secondly, on the overall volume, so we've seen that that volume has declined to 660 KTTA in FY 2025, obviously, because NPK's volume sold are higher. So, what's your expectation for those sales in FY 2026?
We don't give forward guidance for a particular product. However, the intention is to overall grow the numbers. Like what we said, around 5%-7% will come from the inorganic, and the further growth will come from the merger, basically. We are also trying to drive traded volumes of DAP and TSP. TSP is another product in the similar portfolio with 46% P. That's how we're trying to meet the requirement. DAP will be done in line with the market requirement. However, the intention is to kind of offer farmers a balanced portfolio of NPKs. But that is much better for agriculture.
Okay, and when you say 5%-7%, I think that's basically ex of MCFL, correct?
Yes. Yes. Yes. You're right.
Okay. Okay. Got it. And just the last bit, I know you don't indicate this, but can you give some understanding about what's your traded volume EBITDA like? I mean, what is your trading EBITDA like? And FY 2025, if you could just give some indication.
Given the traded volume, last year we have gone around 3.9 lakh ton, right? 4 lakh ton. So, the EBITDA will be around INR 2,000-INR 2,500 lower than the manufactured EBITDA level.
Okay, so that's more like INR 2,000 give or take. Okay, and last bit, what's your subsidy outstanding currently?
Around INR 1,900 crore.
Okay. Fair enough, sir. Thank you for patiently answering my questions. Wish you all the best.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sophiya Masta from Elara Securities. Please go ahead.
Oh, congratulations on a good set of numbers, and thank you for the opportunity. I just would like to know that what are the kind of trading volumes that we expect in FY 2026? If you could give any guidance on that.
So, like I think you clarified, we are not giving a forward guidance on the numbers ahead. We have indicated a growth of 5%-7% on the overall portfolio. And trading will be done to support the market requirement, basically, and as well as driving profitable growth. So, it's going to be we are going to be looking at DAP and TSP. I would not like to give standalone forward guidance.
Okay. And what are like a fixed CapEx plan for the coming year? Just giving like.
In terms of the decarbonization and carbon neutral path, there are big investments which is going to come in terms of energy improvements, especially in the Goa plant, and in Paradeep plant, I think it's going to be backward integration of sulfuric acid as well as phosphoric acid, and some debottlenecking to increase the capacity of the current range.
Okay, and do we?
We are around INR 500 crore.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sandeep Mukherjee from SKP Securities Limited. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, I think that the NBS subsidies are revised. So, any other products in Goa plant are you targeting, like N10 or something?
Just to kind of share with you, Goa remains a dedicated site for making NPK portfolio. And one of our flagship products that we are trying to grow is triple 19. And of course, we've got a strong portfolio of other NPKs like N10, N12, N20. So, Goa is a dedicated NPK site.
Okay, sir. And your CapEx guidance of INR 5,500 by FY2027 remains intact? Sorry, your EBITDA per ton guidance of INR 5,500 by FY 2027 is intact?
No, no. We continue to give guidance of INR 4,500-INR 5,000 as sustainable EBITDA. And whatever expansion in EBITDA will happen, it will happen because of the backward integration project that we are undertaking. So, to that effect, the EBITDA per ton increase. But the sustainable EBITDA per ton guidance continues to be INR 4,500.
Okay, sir. Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vignesh Iyer from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Yes, sir. Sir, my question is more on the other income side of it. I wanted to understand what is the income that we are deriving from, I mean, on the other income side. We have been doing 35-40 crore now consistently for the last two quarters. So, earlier, the rate went away to 15-20 crore. Is it mainly treasury income or how is it?
Yeah. This is mainly on account of the treasury income. And during this year, the cash flow subsidy improved and the trade collection is good. So, one of the surplus, we have put it in the treasury manager treasury. And that has yielded this type of income.
Okay. And can we expect that the net debt-to-equity to improve and to see more probably near 0.6-0.5 times in the next two years?
Certainly, with this type of what the backward integration and this EBITDA margin, we are talking and the growth in the volume with the cash flow, we can expect that. We believe that we'll be able to do that, to achieve that.
Okay, sir. Got it. Got it, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Manish Mahawar from Antique Stock Broking Limited. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Just in terms of market, right, I think we are gaining share in terms of a north market. Right? I just wanted to understand. Basically, we are growing NPK at a faster pace. So, it's a market in the north, which is more of a depth, I think, so heavy, right? It's shifting towards NPK at a much faster pace because our competitor is also highlighting the same thing. So, just wanted to understand from the market perspective.
Just to share with you, we've been pioneers in driving the northern market as a shift to NPKs is concerned, especially through our flagship grade 20:20:0:13, which is nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, and we are seeing a good acceptance for that product happening right across Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar, so which all goes well because the farmer instead of just putting one or two nutrients is getting a balanced nutrition of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, and we also see a good scope for NPKs like 12:32:16 to also grow in that geography.
Okay. And the market side, it's more of a shift is happening towards DAP to NPK at a faster pace in these markets?
It is definitely happening. Okay. And one of the key products which is going in the overall market is 20:20:0:13. So, out of almost the 1.14 million tons of NPKs, almost 70% is approximately N20. So, you can see a clear shift which is happening. And that is more dominant in the north because the south and west are already dominant NPK market.
Right. Okay. And these markets are within the 1,400 km range for which we get subsidy, freight subsidy, right? It's over and above that in terms of a reach perspective.
Yeah, so, just to kind of give you a sense of the synergistic effect that we have, that we've got Paradeep and Goa, and we are able to serve the markets based on what is the most optimal thing from both the plants.
Okay. Understood. And in terms of second question, in terms of your EBITDA per ton, right, I think Alok has said in one of the answer, right, fees are INR 4,500 per metric ton will be the sustainable number. And how basically my sense is that next FY 2027, right, your energy efficiency in Goa as well as our sulfuric acid plant will come, right? So, this EBITDA per ton has to improve in FY 2027, right? FY 2026 maybe will be the operating leverage will play out?.
Yes. So, what Alok has told, this and that, there are the steady state versus we are at half 4,500. And due to this, all these backward integration and what are the costs of project we are doing, it will have definitely a positive impact on this our product portfolio. But that also depends on what are the influence of prices and all these things, depending on all these things. But it will have a definitely good impact, a positive impact on our EBITDA bottom line. Actually, if you look at it in terms of two key actions, one is the scale in terms of the production improvement as well as the total scaling, and obviously the backward integration and energy improvement. This is the key thing which is going to be playing out in the coming days against the risk involved in terms of the turbulence which happens.
We are quite positive that actually we'll derive much higher numbers.
Okay. Understood, and two bookkeeping questions. One in terms of subsidy, as you said, INR 1,900 crore of a subsidy outstanding. Can you break it up into the due and non-due subsidy from the government?
So, out of that, whatever due is around INR 700 crore should be. And what is the pipeline that cost is around INR 1,200 crore.
1,200. Okay. Understood. And next one is interest cost. Basically, if you look at this year, right, we have closed at around INR 360 crore of interest cost. How do you see this number will be the next year? Or maybe you can share the rate of interest, average rate of interest for us.
During this year, even though the MCLR rate and RBI rate, there is an increase and subsequently decrease. But our rate has substantially reduced. Our interest rate, which was earlier last year around 8.5%, this year it is around 6%-7.7%. So, this is on account of this portfolio of more supply trade, buyer trade, and good management of working capital. And this year also, because of this good subsidy and trade collection, the utilization of the fund-based limit also quite muted.
Okay. But do you think this overall interest outgo, which is last two years is in the same range of INR 360-INR 370 crore, right, will come down from these levels now as we have good cash now?
Yes. Exactly.
Okay. Understood. Sure. That's from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on good set of numbers. So, first question is on the phosphoric acid. So, currently, we have 1.5 million tons of capacity. Are we currently using the entire phosphoric acid for our fertilizers? And the second question is the additional 0.2 million tons which we are adding, that will be sufficient for how many years in terms of the growth that we are targeting? Thank you.
Yeah. So, hi Rohit. First of all, I think there was a bit of confusion. So, in terms of phosphoric acid, we have 0.5 million tons as we speak. And that is sufficient for the Paradeep site. The incremental 0.2 million tons will be helping us to kind of support the other sites in addition to Paradeep. That's one. In terms of the other intermediary, which is sulfuric acid, we are augmenting the capacity to 2 million tons, which will kind of be expected to complete in another four, five months. That should kind of make Paradeep more than 100% backward integrated.
Sure. And second question in terms of the battery-graded phosphoric acid. So, any comments on that from your side? Thank you.
Rohit, as you would realize, we have quite a healthy level of free cash on the balance sheet at the moment. We wanted to kind of complete the couple of important items at hand, namely the merger, the phosphoric acid, and the sulfuric acid. Post that, we'll announce further plans in terms of utilization of the remaining free cash.
That's excellent. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Shubro, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. The INR 3,500 additional subsidy on DAP has been extended till the month of September, is that correct?
Yes. It has been extended
up to September of. And regarding?
Hello?
Regarding the balance INR 500, yes, regarding the balance 500 subsidy, which is due, by when do you think it will be cleared?
No, that's still not notified. The wait has to be claimed and all things. So, we are waiting for that notification. Once it comes, once it's certain, then we'll do it.
So, this would be the same for all the industry players on DAP, correct?
Yes. Yes.
Because I asked this because the government has extended this for another six months. And the previous fees are also not yet clear when it will be paid out. So, that's the reason I was asking.
Sir, your question is valid. This INR 3,500 has been extended. But last year, whatever they have paid, INR 3,000, we have accounted for. Whenever they notify the balance 500, that will be accounted for.
That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. We take the last question from the line of Sophiya Masta from Elara Securities. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi. Thank you so much for the opportunity once again. I just wanted to ask that how much CapEx have we already put into our sulfuric and phosphoric acid plants, respectively?
The sulfuric acid plant, whatever we are talking, that 0.5 million ton, on that, out of INR 480 crore, whatever capital outlay, we have already spent around INR 360 crore. So, that balance will be spent during this year. Phosphoric acid, that 0.2 million what we are talking, out of that, we have just started, we have spent around INR 30 crore.
How much? Sorry?
We have spent around INR 30 crore, and the balance INR 100 crore will be spent during this year.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued trust and interest in our journey and the company. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to our investor relations team anytime. Thank you. Thank you, you all.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
On behalf of Antique Stock Broking Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.