Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Rossari Biotech Limited's 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 on the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mitesh Jain from CDR India. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Swapnali. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Rossari Biotech Limited's Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call. We have with us Mr. Edward Menezes, Promoter and Executive Chairman, Mr. Sunil Chari, Promoter and Managing Director, and Mr. Ketan Sablok, Group Chief Financial Officer of the company. We will begin the call with opening remarks from the management, following which, we will have the forum open for a question-and-answer session. Before we start, I would like to point out that some statements made in today's call may be forward-looking in nature, and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings presentation shared with you all earlier. I would now like to invite Mr. Edward Menezes to make his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Sorry. Yeah, thank you, Mitesh. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our earnings conference call. It is a pleasure to have you with us today as we discuss our operational and financial performance for the first quarter of FY 2027. We commenced FY 2027 on a strong note, delivering our highest-ever quarterly revenue and EBITDA, with consolidated revenue growing 28% year-on-year. The performance was supported by healthy momentum in the domestic business and the continued expansion of our international presence. Despite a dynamic operating environment, our diversified portfolio, extensive market research, and disciplined execution enabled us to deliver growth across our business segments. Innovation remains central to our long-term strategy. The new R&D center commissioned in the previous quarter is progressively ramping up, bringing our research, product development, and application capabilities together on an integrated platform.
The facility is strengthening collaboration across teams, accelerating new product development, and supporting the faster scale-up and commercialization of differentiated technologies across end-user industries. Within our core HPPC segment, we continue to broaden our presence across higher-value applications and strengthen our portfolio of specialty solutions. Our focus remains on expanding in areas such as personal care, pharmaceutical applications, agrochemicals, and performance chemicals while leveraging our formulation expertise, application capabilities, and expanded manufacturing platform. The improving utilization of our ethoxylation capacities, together with a growing pipeline of new products, provides a strong foundation to scale this business further. During the quarter, we also strengthened our Textile Speciality Chemicals portfolio through the launch of a dedicated fiber chemicals division, expanding our capabilities across the fiber-to-fiber value chain.
Supported by our application-driven R&D platform, deep formulation expertise, and manufacturing capabilities, the division enhances our ability to offer integrated value-added solutions and expand our addressable market within the textile industry. We remain encouraged by the long-term opportunity in the agrochemical sector, supported by increasing demand for advanced formulations, sustainable agricultural solutions, and productivity-enhancing inputs. With established capabilities across agro surfactants, emulsifiers, and adjuvants, we are well-positioned to address evolving industry requirements through innovation-led specialty chemical solutions. As we progress through FY 2027, our priorities remain focused on fully leveraging the capabilities across the past few years, accelerating new product development, and enhancing operational efficiency. Supported by a healthy balance sheet and integrated manufacturing platform and an expanding innovation pipeline, we remain confident of delivering sustainable and profitable growth while creating long-term value for all our stakeholders.
With this, I now invite Mr. Sunil Chari to share additional perspectives on our business performance and strategic priorities. Over to you, Chari.
Thank you, Edward-j i, and a warm namaste to everyone. As we approach the sixth anniversary of our listing, it is encouraging to reflect on Rossari's journey from an annual revenue base of around INR 600 crore to a business that has reached close to INR 700 crore in this quarter. The scale-up has been achieved through one of the most challenging periods in the company history, encompassing the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented supply chain disruptions, raw material volatility, and geopolitical uncertainty. We believe we have navigated these challenges well even as we continue to invest in capabilities, expand our portfolio, and strengthen the overall business platform. While the business has achieved significant scale, margins remain below their normalized potential. We have already initiated several measures to address this, including the monetization of our non-core assets, rationalization of lower margin businesses, improvement in product mix, and tighter cost discipline.
As these initiatives progress over the next one to two years, alongside optimal utilization across our expanded capacities, we expect a meaningful strengthening in EBITDA performance. This quarter witnessed strong growth across each of our core business segments with the HPPC, TSC, and AHN business all growing by around 28% YoY. Notably, the HPPC business crossed its INR 550 crore quarterly revenue milestone, reflecting the increasing scale and depth of our presence across key applications and end user industries. Our international business maintained its positive momentum, with exports growing 21% year-on-year during the quarter. The performance was supported by increasing wallet share with strategic partners, the addition of new customers, and wider acceptance of our specialty solutions across key overseas markets. We remain focused on deepening our presence in existing geographies while selectively expanding into markets that offer attractive long-term potential.
During the quarter, we further strengthened our presence in Southeast Asia through a greenfield blending plant in Thailand. This facility will enhance our ability to offer customized formulations, respond faster to local market requirements, and improve supply chain efficiency. It also provides a platform to progressively expand our product offerings across the region. We are also making progress on our proposed initiative in Saudi Arabia. The opportunity is significant, supported by access to globally competitive raw materials and a well-developed petrochemical ecosystem. This remains an important strategic step towards strengthening our long-term strategic footprint, enhancing supply chain competitiveness, and creating a scalable platform to serve regional and global markets. Despite the prevailing geographical uncertainty, our conviction in the long-term potential of this initiative remains intact. Alongside these initiatives, utilizations across the capabilities created over the past few years have improved steadily and supported our performance during the quarter.
Our priority now is to drive optimal utilization, strengthen the product portfolio, and enhance operational efficiencies. Together with a robust R&D platform and a healthy pipeline of new products and applications, these efforts will enable us to scale our core B2B operations, improve returns from the existing asset base, and reinforce our competitive positioning. On the domestic front, the institutional and consumer business continued to operate in a relatively subdued environment and weighed on overall profitability during the quarter. As part of our broader strategy to sharpen our focus on the core B2B business, we are evaluating the rationalization of select non-core businesses and assets. These actions are aimed at simplifying the portfolio, redeploying capital and management bandwidth towards higher return opportunities, and improving the overall quality of earnings. Looking ahead, we remain confident about the opportunities before us.
The scale achieved across our core businesses, improving utilization of our expanded capacities, a growing pipeline of our new products and applications, and continued progress across international markets provide a strong foundation for the next phase of growth. Our priorities remain centered on disciplined execution, margin improvement, and generating stronger returns for the business platform we have built. Thank you once again for your continued support. I now invite Ketan to take you through the financial highlights.
Thank you, Mr. Chari, and good evening, everyone. Let me take you through the financial highlights for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026. In Q1 FY 2027, revenue from operations stood at INR 697.2 crore, registering a growth of 28% YoY. This marked our highest ever quarterly revenue, supported by healthy growth across the HPPC, Textile Speciality Chemicals , and the Animal Health businesses. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 80.6 crore, representing a growth of 18.7% YoY and making our highest- ever quarterly EBITDA. The EBITDA margin stood at 11.6% compared to 12.5% in the corresponding quarter last year. The margin profile continues to reflect the impact of the institutional and consumer business, along with the prevailing product mix and cost environment.
Excluding the institutional and consumer businesses, our core B2B operations delivered EBITDA of INR 85 crore, registering a growth of 13% YoY with an EBITDA margin of approximately 14%. This reflected the underlying strength and resilience of our core portfolio. PAT for the quarter stood at INR 35.1 crore, representing a growth of 4.5% YoY. In our institutional and B2C businesses, we are taking calibrated steps to optimize costs and to improve the operational efficiency. While growth in these verticals remain flat, year-on-year losses have moderated, driven by our focus on improving product mix, enhancing the operational efficiency and maintaining cost discipline. As discussed earlier, we are taking steps to simplify the business portfolio and sharpen our focus on the core B2B operations.
During the quarter, we completed the sale of our Andheri office as part of our ongoing monetization of non-core and underutilized assets. We will continue to evaluate opportunities to monetize other such assets in a calibrated manner, w ith the objective of releasing capital, improving balance sheet efficiency, and directing resources towards high return areas. Utilization levels across our manufacturing capacities improved during the quarter, contributing to the growth in revenue and EBITDA. Our focus now is on driving these assets towards optimal utilization, improving the product mix, and generating stronger operating leverage from the investments made in the past few years. Our balance sheet remains healthy, supporting strong liquidity and a comfortable leverage. We continue to focus on improving working capital efficiency, strengthening our cash generation, and maintaining discipline in capital allocation.
These measures, together with the ongoing portfolio rationalization initiatives, are expected to support progressive improvement in profitability and return ratios. As we progress through FY 2027, our priorities remain focused on optimizing asset utilization, enhancing operational efficiency, strengthening the cash flows, and delivering sustainable and profitable growth. Thank you, everyone, and I would now request the moderator to open the floor for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then two. Participants, you are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. A reminder to all, you may press star and one to ask a question. We will take the first question from the line of Divyansh Jaju from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question was regarding the EBITDA margin, as it has been, like from the last four or five quarters, it has been that major growth has been there in the margin. In the last quarter, it has been 11.6%. What do you expect from this specifically, which segment or like in which way it will be growing margin?
Divyansh, if you see the EBITDA margins, we are currently at about 11.6%, close to what we did in the last quarter and slightly lower than our last year's margins. I think, now, as these capacity utilizations start improving over the next few quarters and years, I think we should be seeing a relative improvement in these margins. Also, as we talked in the opening remarks, we are working towards optimizing our product portfolio and the product mix. Lot of the low margin businesses, we are trying to slowly exit out of them. Also, the new areas that we are looking at, which include segments like pharma and aroma, and such other areas will go a long way in improving these EBITDA margins.
I think, at least for the next couple of quarters, we should just wait and see how the margins improve, because now, we also have a lot of pressure in terms of the pricing, the raw material volatility. All these aspects have to be looked at. But on a longer-term basis, I have given you an idea how we are looking at improving the capacity utilization and the margins.
Okay. Another question was that the products which are innovated in the last two to three years, how they are contributing in the current last few quarters in the revenue?
Sorry, I couldn't understand.
I'm saying that the products which are innovated in the last two, three years, how much they are contributing in total revenue?
Yeah. Some of the products that we introduced in the last years, like NMMO and the MDEA.
MDEA. Spray cooled powder.
Yeah. So, some of them have started contributing in this quarter. Also, some of them also had sales in Q4 of last year. I think, as we had said that some of these investments that we've done, it'll take us close to about two to three years for the capacities to start getting fully utilized and the new products to come on stream.
I think the biosurfactants, the NMMO, the spray cooled powders, the fiber finishes that we've introduced, as well as the vitamin premix plant, which is operational, all these have started contributing very handsomely to the top line.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Have a good evening.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of [Disha] from Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible, sir?
Yes, you're audible, [Disha]. Please proceed.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Couple of questions. Firstly, sir, on the revenue growth part. I think last call, you had guided for around 15% of revenue growth in FY 2027, but in Q1 itself, I think you registered a growth of around 28%. Given the fact that now, we have the capacity and now, the ramp-up of utilization will begin, how should one look at the overall growth for FY 2027, sir?
Hello?
Sorry to interrupt. The management line is not audible. Sir, if you're speaking right now, you're not audible. Sorry to interrupt.
Hello, [Disha]? Yeah. Can you hear me now?
Yes, sir. Audible.
Yeah.
Yeah. Ms. [Disha], good afternoon. This is Sunil Chari. Regarding the ramp-up, if you see, our sales has grown consistently higher, and this is also due to the new capacity and new products which have come in the expansion. A lot of capacities have just become operational in the last quarter end.
Right.
And we should see a ramp-up. But given also during the volatility and uncertainty in the market, it is very difficult to predict anything today. Nobody can predict what can happen in the war, what is happening to the geopolitical now. The freight prices have gone up. We had contracts which we had already signed, and the freight prices went up. And now, everything looked okay, and then again, the war started and the freight prices again have shot up now. With the new freight pricing which came in last month, we had taken the new orders at that price with considering that rate, and that has gone up. But I think on a whole, we are looking at a good growth this year. It is very difficult to hazard a guess on how much we can do, but we are very confident and very bullish on our prospects.
We are also seeding in new territory. For example, the Thailand plant, it took away a lot of time, energy, and money to start last year in the last quarter. Then now, there's also a lot of pre-operative expenses coming in from our Saudi Arabian venture, which should take a couple of years to mature. But we continue to invest for the future and continue to look at areas to rationalize our return on capital employed and return on equity.
Right. Okay. Fair enough, sir. Sir, also on our margins, obviously, we're seeing a lot of raw material volatility. How much of these raw material price hikes are we able to pass on to the new? Are we facing any challenges to pass that on?
No. To pass on the raw material pricing is no worry at all. Otherwise, you see where the crude has gone from where, and where our raw materials have gone. We have been able to pass on. What happens is up and down creates a lot of uncertainty in the mind of buyers, and also, the freight is become one major component because of the insurance cost and of the vessels and all, and the unavailability of vessels. This is costing us some degree of margin loss for us.
Sir, now given the recalibration of this B2C portfolio, also, we are exiting some low margins. So, from here on, I think we should see margin improving. I think below this.
Yeah.
We should not see margin.
Yeah. Once it happens, you will see. Once you see the exit of some businesses, which we are working very hard, you will definitely see the margin improvement.
Sir, this 11.6% that you would have done in the first quarter, that should now be the baseline. We don't see the margins going below this level. Will that be a fair assumption?
Yeah. We are expecting the same thing also. Has Ketan-ji and Edward-ji joined back?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. Sorry.
Okay. Good. Now over to you, Ketan-ji and Edward-ji.
Yeah. I think these level of margins you can expect to be the baseline.
Okay. Fair enough. Just the next thing on the Thailand plant, what has been the contribution in the first quarter? What utilization are we currently at? And what sort of revenue can we see at peak utilization?
The Thailand plant has just gone on stream end of last quarter. Slowly, it is getting ramped up. It is a small formulation unit. The basic aim for this plant was to get us closer to our customers in Southeast Asia. We are slowly ramping up this facility. The first quarter revenues from this plant were about INR 2 crore- INR 3 crore. I think this will slowly start ramping up in the subsequent quarters. Currently, it is only working on some of the textile products, but m aybe a few quarters down the line, we also are aiming at doing some AHN products and some other HPPC molecules also on a longer-term view.
And the investment in this plant is just INR 10 crore, INR 15 crore. It is not a very big plant. We cannot expect too much out of that plant. It is not big.
Okay. Sir, what is the Saudi Arabia greenfield facility we are planning? Could you just elaborate a bit more on what sort of CapEx are we looking at? When will it come online? What products and segments are we looking at?
This is just a still. We are doing a survey and trying to formalize some raw material, feedstock allocations, some land allocation. This is still work in progress and nothing has been finalized. As soon as we finalize something, we will announce to all our investors and to public at large.
Okay. Fair. Sir, just on your pharma business, how do we expect the scale-up to be? What sort of contribution are we looking at from this business for this year and the next year going ahead? This business has higher margins, right? So, the increasing contribution will help us improve our margins as well.
Ketan sir?
Yeah. This business, the pharma business, we've started a few products in this quarter.
Okay.
It's slowly going to start ramping up. But as you know, in pharma, in terms of the compliances, it's a little long drawn process. We have started working on that. We just have a separate team who's working on all the compliance activities, both at the plant and at the customer end. Our target is by the end of Q2 or Q3, we should have most of the compliances done, and then, we should see a ramp-up of the pharma business.
Second half will be up?
Yeah. It could be a revenue potential of close to INR 30 crore- INR 50 crore.
For this year?
Yeah.
Okay. Sir, just in terms of our margins going ahead, like in terms of the steady state margin that we're looking at, once we recalibrate the entire B2C business and we monetize the non-core assets, and once our utilization stabilize, what sort of steady state EBITDA margins can we see going ahead, say, two, three years down the line?
If you see today, shown of that business also, the base business margins are at.
Total.
Anything between 14%- 15%, depending on the year and the quarter and the product mix.
Okay.
I imagine that once we recalibrate the whole business mix, the product mix, we should have a steady state, the EBITDA margins at around 15%, at least once these steps that we are taking materialize.
So, in two years around, can we see this margin level?
Yes, that's the plan.
Just the last question, what sort of export revenue do we see for this year, any sort of percentage of export revenue we target?
We don't target any specific number, but i f you see, this quarter we've done about INR 160- odd crore. About 23%-24% of our total revenue comes out of the export basket. This percentage has remained the same, while the absolute number has gone up. Compared to the Q1 of last year, the export growth is almost 20%-21%. Our target is to keep growing the export business, while the domestic business is also growing. Generally, the percentage remains around between 23%, 24%, 25%.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you so much, sir. I'll get back in the queue . Wishing you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all, you may press star and one to ask a question. We have the next question from the line of Vinith Jain from Siddh Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible, sir?
Yes. Audible.
Thank you, sir. I might sound a bit repetitive because I joined a bit late. We were looking to exit the B2C business, and I would like to know what are the investments we have so far in the B2C business, and what kind of debt is that business carrying?
See, the investment in the B2C businesses are institutional and the consumer business and the private label business. There's no separate investment. These are all core assets, multiple assets, especially in our Silvassa plant, which cater to various other businesses also. In terms of debt, if you ask me, our total debt in this business would be close to about INR 50- odd crore.
Okay. I'm trying to get into an understanding whether if we exit the business, where do we land up as an EBITDA margin, and what kind of debt is relieved out of it? That's my question to figure out.
Yeah. In terms of EBITDA margins, if you see, it will release at least 2%-3% EBITDA. So, churn of this business, we are close to about 14%, in some years we are even 15% of the EBITDA margins. That's the kind of margin improvement that will happen.
Yeah. Just to be clear, we are looking to exit both the B2C as well as the institutional business, right?
No, out of that, we will exit the B2C business, which is now currently part of the entire portfolio. But the institutional cleaning products, that business we will continue to have. That's the more profitable business within our portfolio because that's the core cleaning chemical business for us. That will remain while the consumer part of that business will move out.
Yeah, but even the institutional business is taking a lot of debt for us, unlike the core business.
Yeah, because it has that consumer business tagged along with it.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Sanjesh from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you. Sorry, some of the questions may be repetitive. I couldn't join earlier. Couple of questions from my side. One, for this quarter, what is the pricing growth and what is the volume growth? Because there's a lot of volatility in the pricing. Just wanted to understand how much of the growth is coming from the volume in this quarter to understand what is the growth in underlying. That's number one. Number two, now that EO availability is getting struggled, we have added a lot of capacity. What are we trying to do to see that we keep growing consistently in a scenario where assuming that the EO availability will remain challenged for some time, what other growth lever do we have for it?
To answer the growth lever, yeah, yeah, Ketan-ji, continue.
Yeah. So, on the price and the volume growth that you've asked, so t he YoY growth in terms of volume versus price, the volume has grown by about 10%, and the rest of the growth has mostly come out of the higher pricing.
Got it. And what are the measures we are taking to drive the growth in the absence of EO availability?
Yes, Sanjesh-ji, I will answer this question. There's a lot of new products which we have now implemented, which includes the trace minerals, the vitamin premixes, the enzyme premixes in animal nutrition. Also, a lot of esters. NMMO is now gaining traction, and there are also products which are NMM and NFM which have gained traction. Esters especially, which is non-EO, has gained a lot of volumes. If you see agro, in spite of the lean agro season, agro has part ethoxylate, but there is also a lot of non-ethoxylate raw materials in an agro formulation. That has even grown over last year. So, there has been healthy growth in spite of the markets being very slow. This is there.
The pharma, which is a higher value, I think we did more than INR 50 crore last year. This year, we should do INR 70 crore, INR 75 crore in pharma this year. These are all driving the new products. But we are also looking at higher, when we react a EO with, say, a lauryl alcohol ethoxylate, so w hen a lauryl alcohol ethoxylate is two more lauryl alcohol ethoxylate, then the EO component is less and the non-EO is more. So, what we try to do is we try to find formulations where there is less EO and higher non-EO component, and that is how we've been able to drive the growth and use the capacities.
That's clear. What kind of growth can these bring? Because EO was an established product. There was decent amount of demand for EO in India. Now that we are moving out of EO and trying to create a new volume there, what kind of growth can we anticipate there?
I think we are expecting more EO by the end of this year. Hopefully, it will come before December. We should see a good amount of growth because lot of capacities which we have installed, even in areas where there is no EO requirement, that will ramp up in the current financial year. So, we should see a healthy growth, Sanjesh-ji, this year.
Got it. One question on the margin ex of the retail. If I look at the institutional margin, last year, we did what, 16% margin. We are now at 13.6%. 15.8% to 13.6%. Now, is it because there is a delay in the price increase or it is just because we are doing EBITDA per kg same, revenue increase is largely because? How should we see profitability in a scenario of rising price increase for us?
To add here, the EBITDA per kilo would be a better area, but a lso, we have had a lot of volatility in buying our raw materials and also in the freight calculations. The freight went down in the last few weeks. Again, it has just shot up in the orders which we are executing now, which we took in the last four weeks. The freight has gone up now substantially. Also, the non-operative cost for where we are going into newer geographies. We are adding a lot of efforts, for example, also in the Saudi Arabian part where these are costs which are seeding costs, which are bringing up the margins. We should see a gradual ramp-up. Our focus is, as a company, we should do 15%+ EBITDA margins.
At the consolidated level or for a core level?
Yes. Consolidated. We only talk about consolidated level, sir.
Okay. Only at the consolidated level. Very clear.
Sanjesh, just to add to what Mr. Chari said, that certain raw material prices in this quarter were really shot up. For us also, in terms of planning out our RM purchases was a big challenge. At least I can say it in one raw material greatly impacted in this quarter in terms of the pricing. In anticipation that the prices will further go up, we did slightly larger block of purchase, but then, t he market changed the other way, so that also impacted in this quarter. But I think that was a one-off case that has happened, and we are now back to the old pricing of that raw material. That's the business dynamics which you will see happening, especially in the current scenario, be the global geopolitics is happening. That has also impacted in this quarter.
One follow-up question here. This quarter around, when we were speaking to a lot of chemical company, the chemical companies which were focused on domestic business did quite well because everybody was looking for a raw material security. There was an inventory gain. The spreads went out on a PPV basis. If I look at our number, that trend really is not showing up. What have you missed? Other companies which are heavily dependent on domestic-focused business are doing really well in Q1.
Sanjesh-ji, to add here, more where there is single raw material, kind of single product, like more of the companies who make, if I add even soda ash or if I add acetic acid, the companies like this who make single molecule, they made a good amount of money. But specialty chemicals, a lot of raw materials for us had the raw material brunt which we took, and that is something where, for example, in this product which Ketan-ji is talking about, is phenol. We only took a hit in the last quarter of INR 5 crore only in phenol, because s hipments from China were promised. We contracted at a price. The shipments got delayed somewhere, and it came nearly one month later. In the meanwhile, we had to buy from the market to supply to our customers, and those were at very high prices.
This caused a lot of issues in the last quarter. I think hopefully, we are over that now.
Got it. How should we see now that EO availability, there is an increasing visibility, so what is the growth we are looking for FY 2027 and FY 2028 from an EBITDA and PAT perspective?
Ketan, sir?
Yeah. This year, Sanjesh, I will still stick to a 15% kind of growth, something which we have spoken of even in our last call. Even though this quarter has been a stronger quarter for us, but g iven the way the things are happening globally, it's becoming a little bit difficult for us to not even predict our numbers on a quarterly basis. On an annualized basis, I think we would stick to our earlier estimates that we had shared of that 15% kind of top-line growth.
But should 2028 be better with the increased availability of EO?
Yes. 2028 should be better, hoping that the availability of EO will come on stream by the end of this calendar year. We'll have a full year next year in FY 2028 with additional EO.
Got it. One last on the capital deployment. What is the CapEx we are looking for the India entity, and have we started spending anything on the expansion in the KSA, or that's on hold given the West Asia crisis?
No. In India, currently, we've slowed down on all the CapEx spends. We are not doing very calibrated spend on new CapEx. Only certain new products or new molecules that are in R&D, we will go ahead with that, w hich includes some of these pharma molecules and aroma chemicals, et cetera. But otherwise, no large spend. Our intent this year and the next year would be to ensure the spend that we've done, we start utilizing them well in these capacities. In the KSA front, I think very initial kind of spends have happened. These are more in operational and exploratory, pre-operational kind of expenses. Our intent for KSA still remains the same, even though given the current situation, we are pretty much bullish on our project there. We are talking to a lot of partners in terms of suppliers, project consultants.
A lot of these discussions are happening, and also some deep discussions are happening with the ministry there at the KSA, and they are very keen that we partner with them and with the raw material suppliers and set up the downstream products ASAP. Our plan for KSA remains the same.
Got it. That's very useful, Chari. Thank you, Ketan. I wish you best of luck for the coming quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Rohit Nagraj from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, congrats on good operating performance. Sir, first question, again apologies to delve on the KSA front. Once we finalize the investment, from that particular point in time in terms of announcing the investment and commercialization of the project, starting the production, what could be the gestation period that we are looking at? Thank you.
One and a half years. Rohit, namaste. Chari [Non-English content]. One and a half years should be the one for us to start the first kilo of production once we do the announcement.
Right. Here, initially, we'll be targeting only ethoxylates, or will there be any other chemistry that also we are simultaneously looking at?
No. Both EO and non-EO products, both. Wherever we find, when we start the production, benefit in having higher margins or higher realizations, we'll go, but i t's a project which is a mix of EO and non-EO.
Right. Got that. Sir, second question in terms of the financials. One, in terms of the interest cost, has certainly increased and has been increasing over the last few quarters. What is the kind of debt that we are currently having an average cost of debt, given that during this quarter, we've spent almost INR 11 crore on interest expenses? Thank you.
Ketan, sir?
Rohit, on the debt profile this quarter, our net debt is about INR 248 crore. In March, this was about INR 280 crore, so w e've come down slightly on the net debt position. As regards interest, the interest cost is higher in this quarter because the term loans that the CapEx have got capitalized and some of the interest that was there in the earlier year, last year and part of the year before that, was capitalized. So, now, since the CapEx has come on stream, the project has started delivering. The interest cost is now coming into P&L. That's also why the interest cost is higher. But I think now, going forward, the finance cost should be at close to this INR 9 crore-INR 10 crore kind of a run rate.
Sure. Sir, the office space that we have sold, where have we recognized and how much has been the money that we have received from the same?
These have been recognized in other income. Last quarter, Q4, we sold off our consumer office. It was close to INR 24 crore, I think, around that number. This quarter, we have sold our Andheri office. There, we sold it for about INR 10.5 crore.
Our other income for this quarter has been INR 3.2 crore.
Yeah, here , only the profit element comes in.
Right.
Because this office, the current office was in Unitop's name, and when we'd done the consolidation, we had revalued all the assets. This was revalued five years back at that current market price. Hence, you see a lower profit on that.
Correct. Just one last clarification on the B2B business. I think last two to three years, we have invested materially in terms of the marketing distribution network. Currently, would those investments be continuing or we have stopped those investments, and we'll just try to consolidate on more revenues from the investments that have been made? Thank you.
Here, to answer this question, Rohit, we'll continue to be present in the market. For example, exhibitions, customer visits, customer interactions, this will definitely have to be considered because we are looking at scaling up Rossari to more than double from here in four years. That will continue to happen. We will not stop seeding just to show a little higher EBITDA margin.
Perfect. Thanks a lot for answering all the questions. All the best. Hope to hear soon from the KSA announcement. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. We have the next question from the line of Rohan Picha from Dexter Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
Yes, you are audible.
Yes.
Please proceed.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just wanted to know, we'll be having some visibility over the EO supply, right? So, will there be some margin improvements in terms of, let's say, gross margin whenever we get the supply? That's my first question.
Margin improvement will depend on the EO pricing at that time. But margin improvement also will depend on the product mix which we have at that time. Definitely, we will look at growing the gross margin profile. But the EO pricing is controlled and based on the world EO pricing. India, we have a sole supplier. We do not have the opportunity to negotiate on our EO price which we get. But the supplier is a very reputed corporate, and they are very fair in pricing to make us competitive globally.
Got it. I was asking this because most of our EO plants are being used for non-EO purposes as well, right? Will there be some margin improvement based on some product mix or something like that?
If you see our EO capacity now, it's practically 100% utilized, except for a small addition in the batch reactors. There's more in the non-batch, which is continuous ethylation, which is the MDEA plant where we had a major investment, and that ramping up should happen in the next 12 months. We should definitely see higher margins there.
Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I now hand the conference back to the management for the closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. I thank all of you for joining our earnings conference call. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions satisfactorily. Should you need any further clarifications or would like to know more about the company, please feel free to contact our team or CDR India. Thank you once again for taking the time to join us on this call and have a good day.
Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Rossari Biotech Limited, we conclude this conference. Thank you for joining with us today, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.