Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is my privilege to welcome you to this morning's call of Sanathan Textiles Limited for the third quarter and nine months ended December 2024. I am Jude D'Souza, the Company Secretary and Compliance Officer, interested in overseeing Investor Relations. I will be your moderator for today's session as we delve into the business and financial performance of the company. Please note all the participants will have their video disabled and audio on mute during the call. The participant asking questions will only be requested to have his or her audio muted. Post the management commentary, the company will open for a Q&A session. Interested participants may click on the raise hand icon at the center bottom of the pane on the Webex application to join the Q&A queue.
The participant may click this option during the management commentary itself to ensure they find a place in the queue. Upon announcement of their name, the participant will be requested to unmute by the host. The participant must unmute by clicking on the Unmute Me button. Post this, the participant can ask the question. Before we proceed, I would like to bring to your attention that certain statements made during this discussion may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current expectations, assumptions, and beliefs regarding future developments and are inherently subject to various risks, uncertainties, and factors beyond our control. Such forward-looking statements involve both known and unknown risks, and we advise you to interpret them with caution. Now, it is my honor to introduce the esteemed members of our management team who are present with us today: Mr.
Paresh Dattani, the Chairman and Managing Director; Mr. Sammir Dattani, Director; and Mr. Sanjay Shah, the Chief Financial Officer. Kindly note that this conference is being recorded, and the recording will be made available on our website, accompanied by a full transcript for future reference. Without further ado, I now invite Mr. Paresh Dattani, our Chairman and Managing Director, to share his insights and address the esteemed participants.
Thank you, Jude. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining our Q3 and nine-month conference call. It's a pleasure to inform you that the demand this quarter has been consistent, and so have the gross margins also been consistent. The quarter overall has been a stable quarter for us, as expected by us. But on a year-to-year basis, when we look at the nine-month year-to-year basis, our EBITDA, as well as PAT, has gone up by 30%. The gross margins on a year-to-year basis have moved up from 13.9% to 15.65%. Looking ahead, we are commissioning a greenfield project capacity in Wazirabad, in Punjab, which will increase our manufacturing capacity of filament yarn from 550 tons a day to 1,500 tons per day in a phased manner. The first phase is expected to be operational by Q1 FY 2026.
There, the work is on, and everything is on course to commission in that quarter, as expected by us. Thank you. Now, I ask Sammir to take you through the business and operations of the company.
Thank you, and a good evening to everyone. India's textile industry is one of the largest in the world, contributing to 2.3% of the country's GDP. In the recent budget, the Government of India increased its allocation towards the textile sector with a keen focus for the PLI Scheme, which is focused on man-made fiber. They also have announced a five-year Cotton Mission scheme, which will improve the production of cotton. And they also have key policies to encourage the technical textiles market in India, which is a $29 billion market. At Sanathan Textiles, we are strategically aligned for the expected growth in the years to come because we are among the few companies that specialize in three yarn verticals. We make polyester filament yarns, cotton yarns, and yarns for technical textiles.
Further, the increase in the customs duty on import of fabrics in the recent budget will give a good advantage to the downstream domestic producers in India. At Sanathan, we have delivered a strong performance this quarter across all three segments, mainly due to stabilized pricing and operational efficiency. Our sales quantity for nine months has been 180,000 tons, compared to 174,000 tons on a year-on-year basis, showing optimum use of the installed capacity. This has given us a nine-month revenue of INR 2,260 crores. And on a year-on-year basis, the gross margins have also improved slightly, being 13.91% last year versus 15.65% this year. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Sanjay Shah, our CFO, to take you on the financial performance of the company.
Thank you, Sammir. For the quarter ended December 31st, 2024, revenue from operations stood at INR 743.13 crores, as against INR 742.17 crores in Q2 FY 2025, on account of marginal increase in sales volume. EBITDA for the quarter is INR 58.47 crores, as against INR 58.22 crores in Q2 FY 2025. PAT stood at INR 34.17 crores, against PAT of INR 32.56 crores in Q2 FY 2025. For the nine months ended December 31st, 2024, revenue from operations stood at INR 2266.43 crores, as against INR 2201.37 crores in nine months FY 2024, led by higher sales volume. EBITDA for nine months FY 2025 stood at INR 195.17 crores, as against INR 147.48 crores in nine months FY 2024, on account of higher volumes and better margins. Nine months FY 2025 PAT stood at INR 116.80 crores, against PAT of INR 81.59 crores in nine months FY 2024. Thank you all.
We shall now open for the Q&A. The first line of question is from Surya.
Yeah, am I audible, sir?
Yes, you are.
Yes, you are audible.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. So, sir, just to understand the contours of your CapEx going forward, actually, I was checking the deviation reports of ICRA. So the amount remains unutilized for the IPO money that has been raised. So please offer that comment. And secondly, just continuing from the last conference call, sir, just to understand, when the capitalization of the polyester capacity, cotton yarn capacity, and technical yarn capacity will be added, and if you can quantify the gross block additions there too, you can be precise for the month of commissioning. That will be better for my understanding. And lastly, just one question is that I was understanding that your last quarter of the last year was very fantastic, where the EBITDA margin was very outlier. So what is the reason for that? Whether such kind of thing also currently visible?
Okay. With respect to your first question on the utilization of funds from the IPO, see, the company received the funds in the last week of December. So we were able to utilize around INR 4 crores out of the funds received. There are three main objects of the IPO. First was INR 160 crore repayment of loans of Sanathan Textiles Limited, which were done in the month of January. The second object was INR 140 crores repayment of term loans of Sanathan Polycot Private Limited. That was done in the month of February. And the third was general corporate purpose. So we managed to utilize the funds in the last week. Okay. With respect to the CapEx, as discussed earlier, the Punjab plant is expected to be operational in the first quarter of next year. The approximate CapEx amount, as explained last time, is close to INR 1858 crores.
Post which we are planning to have our cotton project, the initial estimate is close to INR 400 crores. Post that, we would be taking up the phase two of our polyester plant. The CapEx would be around close to INR 250 crores.
On your last question regarding the last quarter, yes, we had a good quarter. As I mentioned in the last call, that we normally look at the entire year performance because quarter to quarter, there may be small variations depending on a few factors like sales, like gross margins, raw materials volatility, etc. On a year-on- year basis, we look at it. That's why we said that this year, FY 2025 also, we'll be ending the year at about close to 9% EBITDA. I hope this answers all your queries.
Thank you, sir. The next line of question is from Saket Kapoor. Mr. Saket, we move to the next line of question from Mr. Vikram Vilas.
Hello. Hello.
Yeah.
Okay. Sir, what was the volume in this quarter? And if you compare to last year's same quarter, what was the volume growth or decline, if you can share?
Yeah, the sales volume in the current quarter was around 59,942, as compared to 61,862, a drop of 3% as compared to the previous year's quarter, but on an annual basis, our sales have increased by 3.28% for the nine months.
Okay, understood. And in terms of pricing, how is the pricing, if you look at synthetic or cotton yarn? Even I think cotton prices have also corrected. Is it having impact on the cotton yarn pricing, if you can give some views, or even from raw material prices for synthetic in terms of PTA, MEG, effective cost, how much is?
As the cotton prices, you are rightly saying, the cotton prices have been a little soft, but cotton yarn prices have been more or less stable in this period, in the last quarter also. And that is what we expected to be going forward also. As far as the raw material for the polyester filament yarn, that is PTA, MEG, more or less, it's been stable, a few dollars plus and minus, but it has been more or less stable. And so have been the yarn prices also.
Okay. So PTA, MEG, effective cost per kg would be how?
PTA, in dollar terms, the PTA cost that we have is about $645, and MEG is about $550 a ton.
Understood. That is. So in our Punjab, how much loan, basically, till now, how much total CapEx we have done?
Can you repeat that? We were losing you.
For Punjab polyester capacity, how much total CapEx we have done so far?
We have already spent INR 1,450 crores as on December 31st, and we have drawn about INR 1,000 crores from our loan and INR 450 crores plus we have installed from our own accruals.
Okay. Okay, got it. And last question is that what was the revenue mix from, say, filament, cotton, and technical for this quarter or nine months, whatever is available?
Yeah. The filament polyester contributed close to 77%, cotton 19%, and IDY close to 4%.
This is nine months or for this quarter?
Yeah, nine months. Even for the quarterly, the ratio remains the same.
That was helpful. Okay. Thank you, sir.
The next line of question is from Ms. Garvita Jain.
Am I audible? Hello.
Hello.
Yes, sir. Sir, actually, I'm looking for two figures. One is realization and one is the spread, which is COGS to sales ratio. So could you give me these two figures for all the three segments separately for the past quarter and for FY 2024 as well, if possible, sir?
It would be difficult at this point of time.
You don't have the realization numbers as well, sir?
No.
Okay. That's fine. And if you need a trend.
Only for polyester, it would be close to INR 112 per kg.
Sorry, sir, if you could repeat?
INR 112 per kg without GST.
Per kg without GST. This is the realization number, right?
Right, right. Cotton would be, excluding the scrap, it would be close to INR 325.
Excluding scrap, INR 325 per kg, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Sir, could you give me the idea about what has been the trend for the realization? Has it been increasing or there are fluctuations or what?
There were fluctuations in Q2, but now they have stabilized since December.
Okay, and no numbers available for spread, sir?
No, no. Not really.
Not for the technical textiles as well?
No.
Realization?
It is close to INR 125 per kg.
INR 125 per kg.
Right. That's right.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir. That's all from my side.
We shall try again the line of Mr. Saket Kapoor.
Small suggestion, if we could provide an investor presentation. Sorry if I have corrected me there. I could not find one along with our results, so these volume numbers, the mix, the sales, and the comparative data, these can be very easily provided to us much beforehand the call commences, and these are the basic data which we all investors or analysts would be looking forward to going ahead, sir, so kindly look into our request of providing the same in an investor presentation manner, and wherein also, sir, where our facilities are and all the three segments, our capacity, the utilization levels, these are the basic inputs which are needed to analyze the number in depth, so kindly look into the same.
Done. We have made a note of your request and very valid. From next quarter, we'll be updating the investor presentation with all this information. As far as the larger company-level information on capacity is concerned, it's available on our website even today, and the quarter updates, we will present in the presentation. We've made note of that, and we'll ensure that it's there every quarter from the upcoming quarters.
Even, sir, the one you were mentioning about the website, the more it is disseminated to the stock exchange part, the more better it is for the investor community. So if some things are point.
Point well noted.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sir, and now coming to the first, the point of the split-up of sales between the three verticals. I missed your number. Can you just repeat once again for the three segments?
The split-up of the revenue of the three segments?
Yes, sir. For this quarter and.
Look, consistently, given the percentage here and there, it is 77% of our revenue comes from the polyester filament yarns, and about 18%-19% comes from cotton yarn, and about 4% comes from yarns for technical textiles.
Okay.
We are doing a CapEx, which is to be commissioned at Punjab for the polyester yarn only. This percentage is going to change to what level post the commissioning?
Yes. Once we commission the filament yarn project at Punjab, this ratio will be more lopsided towards the filament yarn from the moment till we commission our future cotton yarn. Then we aim to, in a longer run, stay almost in the same ratio.
Okay.
Sir, going ahead, what we have understood since we are new in the listed space, the more margins are done at the value addition level and not at the first level of yarn. So what's the thought process of the management in just sufficing to keeping itself only to the yarn segment and technical textiles being a very small percentage of the overall portfolio? And what could be the rationale since, I think, the turnover ratios are also lower in terms of only catering to the yarn segment, the capital employed and the turnover ratio, what I was trying to make sense of, sir?
In the last few years, our focus has been to expand backwards and forwards, but stick only to the yarn business. You are quite right that value addition happens in the chain, but we have been trying to focus on the value addition in the yarn segment at the moment. That's why our input are petrochemicals, PTA, and MEG. What we sell are only the final yarns, the textured yarns, the colored yarns, the stretch yarns, the value-added yarn products for the customers. We do not sell any intermediary products like polyester chips or POY. The yarns for technical textiles, we also will be doubling in the coming year. Our current capacity is 9,000 tons, and we are adding an additional 9,000 tons in the Punjab facility.
Okay, so when we look at small points, sir, when we look at the capital work in progress, closing balance for September, the balance sheet which is available, it was INR 772 crores, and I think, sir, you have mentioned about INR 1,850 being spent on the Punjab facility.
Correct.
And that to be commissioned by the first quarter or by March, I think. So it will be commissioned for March 2025, sir, the commissioning?
The first quarter. So, April or May, first quarter. So, frankly speaking, as explained earlier during the call, we have already spent close to INR 1,450 crores by 31st December. So, substantial portion has already been spent.
Okay. But sir, while the closing balance is showing at INR 700 crore, we are also capitalizing it?
Some part would be lying in advances to creditors also, capital advances.
Okay, sir. So then, sir, for a quarterly basis, how should the depreciation line item look once we commissioned it, once it is capitalized?
Once it is capitalized, the Punjab plant would have an annual hit of close to INR 90 crores towards depreciation.
Okay and our ramping-up exercise, sir. How are we going to ramp up this facility reaching the optimum level?
Within one quarter, we would be fully ramped up for phase one.
And phase one would be, sir, if you could just give me some more color, what is the total capacity addition in volume terms, 550 tons per day, I think, sir, you have mentioned?
So 550 is what we are producing today. Punjab will be in two phases. The first phase will give us close to about 250,000 tons annually. And the second phase will ramp it up to 355,000 tons annually.
Okay. And the total cost of project is INR 1,850, phase one and phase two mila?
No. Phase one is INR 1,850.
Okay. And phase two, sir?
Phase two will be about INR 250 crores.
Okay. And we will be doing that commissioning by when, sir?
We'll get those numbers on FY 2028.
Okay. So it's a long way. So after this commissioning of the polyester first phase, we will be going ahead with the cotton yarn part.
I lost you. Can you repeat it?
Sir, after the commissioning of the first phase for the polyester yarn at Punjab, we will be going ahead with the cotton yarn capacity addition.
That's right. So cotton yarn and the industrial yarn capacity addition will be done FY 2027. And the second phase of polyester will come in FY 2028.
Okay, sir. And lastly, sir, our facilities for all the three, can you provide me the location? I think, sir, it is mentioned Dadra and Nagar Haveli is the region where the other facilities are there, other than the polyester one which we are commissioning at Punjab?
Yes, sir. We have our entire cotton yarn for technical textiles and the filament yarn. What is running today, that is at Silvassa, which is Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and the new filament yarn plant is at Wazirabad in Punjab.
Right, sir. Sir, I'll join the queue for the follow-up, and we hope that more dissemination, as discussed, in an elaborated manner. Also, sir, I would suggest that if we could hire a good IR team, investor relations team, or investor relations house that will cater to the investor queries and will create the awareness in the investing community because now everything is shouldered on our only company secretary to take care of. I think, sir, IR would be a good idea to go ahead to create the.
Yeah. We'll get the process, and we will keep you informed on that.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. I'll join the queue, sir.
The next line of question is from Mr. Kunal Mehta.
Hi, sir. Good evening. My question is, how much is the outstanding external commercial borrowing?
As on 31st December, it was close to EUR 42 million.
EUR 42 million. And how is the repayment of that? Like 10 or?
Yeah. The half-yearly installments would be close to EUR 2.5 million. It would be a period of eight years. The last installment would be due in 2032, 2033.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you.
The next line of question is from Bhavya.
My question, given that you have mentioned in the previous con call that the margin in cotton is way more than polyester, even though the turnover of polyester and the filament is more than the cotton, why doesn't the company also go for a CapEx in the cotton segment?
Hi, Bhavya. As we mentioned in the last call, over a spread of five years, we have seen that because of the asset turn of polyester gives us is about 2.1, 2.2, and the asset turn on cotton is 1, the EBITDA margins are more or less similar over a five-year period on both those segments. And coming to your second part, that regarding the expansion of the cotton, as we have mentioned that we are in the process, and we alternately, as we have been doing in the past, alternately, we expand over the three segments. So we give each segment a gestation period to stabilize and place the material also.
Hello. Am I audible, sir?
Yes, Mr. Surya.
Yeah. Yes. So, sir, just one question is that as last time, you were saying that you will be replacing the demand of close to one-fourth with the Punjab facility. And.
No, we lost you. We lost you. Can you repeat it, please?
Yeah. Am I audible now?
Yes.
Okay. So last time, actually, we spoke about the demand situation in the north, and roughly one-fourth of the capacity will be replacing with the Punjab facility, which is currently coming from the Silvassa. So point is that if new competitors will be also trying in north, so will it hit the capacity utilization? A, and B, when the Silvassa will be replaced, that quantum. So will it be last time you hinted that some of the output will be exported also. But in the export, we may not be competitive, which is being seen in our export trade. So it is close to 4%, 5% only, not more than that. So then in that case, will it be absorbed in the western or southern market, as you said?
See, as far as the capacity of anybody adding to the capacity there, well, the industry will require more material over the next couple of years. So there is bound to be a growth. The question is where the growth comes from. But as we stand today, there are no further projects announced in the industry. And effectively, a project of this size takes about two and a half to three years to commission. As far as our own capacity, which we have been placing in the north, we have three options there. We either place it in the west, where the growth is also happening downstream. We place it in the south, or we export it. Depending on wherever we get a better net back, it's not that we are compelled to export that material. We have the option.
The fourth option is, of course, that if we still feel that after our capacity there, we still have space to send it up north, we will do that. It all depends on the better netb ack that we get.
The next line of question is from Mr. Harsh Mittal.
Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
You are audible.
Good evening, everyone. So my first question is to Paresh sir. Sir, any idea about how's the demand in the polyester yarn segment grown in Q3, industry demand, I am speaking, in domestic wise? This is the first question.
No. How the industry demand?
Has panned out or has grown in the quarter three in India and domestically?
See, as we stand today, Harsh, we are operating as an industry at about 84%-85%, which effectively is almost close to 100% because the installed capacity, certain capacities are defunct, but they are there on paper. Effectively, this is what the industry will operate at. And with this operation of industry also, today, every piece of material is being sold. So you can imagine the growth that has happened over the past one year where the industry had added capacity, and yet today we are able to run the industry at 85%.
Thank you, sir. And second question is a small bookkeeping question. What is the foreign currency translation income or expense we have reported in this quarter, in the previous quarter, last year, and in the sequentially in Q2?
In the current quarter, there was a gain of about INR 2.18 crores. In the previous quarter, there was a forex loss of about INR 2.04 crores.
Okay. And last year?
Yeah, more or less same.
Which is INR 2.18 crores?
Correct.
Thank you, sir. These were my questions. Thank you.
That was also, we do not have any more Q&A session questions, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Jude. I also thank all of you to be on the call, and I thank the entire team at Sanathan for the untiring efforts and all our stakeholders for their continued support and faith in the company. This is all from our side, and I'd like to thank you very much for your time and attention. Thank you.