Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Sumitomo Chemical India Limited Q2 and H1 FY 2026 earnings conference call. This conference will contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as of the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and endorse risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. From the management, today we have on the call Mr. Chetan Shah, Managing Director, Mr. Sushil Marfatia, Executive Director, Dr. Suresh Ramachandran, Deputy Managing Director, Mr.
Kunal Mittal, Senior VP , Planning and Coordination Office, Mr. Anil Nawal, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Deepika Trivedi, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer, and colleagues from SGA, their Investor Relations Advisor. Now, I hand the conference over to Mr. Chetan Shah, Managing Director of Sumitomo Chemical India Limited. Thank you and over to you, Mr. Shah.
Thank you. Hi, everyone. Very good morning to all of you and welcome to this conference. I'm sure you all had a great Diwali, and I take this opportunity to wish each one of you a very prosperous and meaningful New Year. I must admit that today I was hoping to join you all with a very, very robust Q2 working on the basis of what we did in Q1. However, I think God and nature had some different plans of their own, and due to the climatic conditions, our expected Q2 performance could not be achieved. There were the first 18 days of July, which went absolutely dry, and then from 19th July, the rain started, but it never stopped till September end. This made it very difficult for farmers to go into the field for spraying operations. That's how the consumption of agrochemicals in general got affected.
There was no respite from rain till the end of the current season. It was a very, very disappointed quarter for us. We would have really shown a great performance, but for this weather condition. However, having said that, our H1 still we could achieve a reasonable growth, which is 9% in sales and 11% in profits. Apart from that, the quality of business in this adverse condition, as far as Sumitomo is concerned, was excellent. We have no returns of goods. We have not reduced the prices. We have maintained our profitability. In spite of all the adverse conditions, we have grown in H1 at 9%. I think that the resilience of our team and the disciplines that we have enforced in the market has been really proved to be really good and working. I think we'll come out stronger from this experience.
Another bright side is that the water storage and the reservoirs are absolutely full. The soil is moist, which is good for the Rabi season. We hope that the Rabi season will go well. However, some rains are still expected here and there as per IMD, but I don't think that the rain will be a disruptive kind of rain as we saw in August and September. The overall situation looks good, and we hope to have a great Rabi season. Also, on the global front, the agrochemical industry is witnessing early signs of stabilization after nearly two years of inventory destocking, pricing pressure, and climate-related disruptions. Internationally, ordering patterns are gradually normalizing, and prices appear to have bottomed out in key markets, offering a base for recovery. This is in a nutshell my message or my address to you. I'll get back to you in the Q&A session.
I hand it over to Dr. Suresh Ramachandran, DMD of Sumitomo . Thank you very much.
Good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining this call. Coming to the performance of Sumitomo Chemical India , the second quarter, as Chetan mentioned, was undoubtedly a challenging one. At least, we have not seen this kind of rain in many years. It was just pouring from the middle of July till the end of September or even into October. The year started on a promising note, but because of the weather conditions, it resulted in farmers not able to go to the field, which led to missing of sprays or deferment of sprays. Despite all of these challenges, Sumitomo Chemical delivered a resilient performance, maintaining operational continuity and channel health while protecting margins in a seasonally weak environment. In Q2 FY 2026, our consolidated revenues stood at INR 930 crore versus INR 988 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Although this represented a slight decline, it was entirely driven by volume contraction due to erratic and excess rainfall. Price realization remained broadly stable across our portfolio, supported by disciplined pricing practices and strong product positioning. Gross margins were maintained at 43.1%, demonstrating cost efficiency and prudent input sources. The EBITDA margin stood at 22% for H1 FY 2026, broadly in line with our expectations despite the adverse seasonal impact in Q2. At the half-year level, ACL performance reflects healthy underlying strength. Our H1 revenue grew 9% year-on-year to INR 1,987 crore, with corresponding growth in profitability. Our domestic crop protection business was affected by wet weather. Yet, our key brands like Sumi MAX, new product launches like Excalia Max , Lentigo, and also some old herbicide formulations continue to gain attraction and reinforce our market leadership.
The newly launched rice herbicide Lentigo witnessed encouraging adoption, while Excalia Max, a fungicide for rice, sustained its strong growth momentum in specialty segments. Our environmental health division posted healthy growth off of a low base, reflecting our growing presence in branded solutions and urban renewables. In exports, demand has bluttered in certain geographies, specifically in Africa, countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, and in Latin America, primarily due to Brazil, due to shipment difference. Of course, our business in the U.S. and Europe remains stable. We are also expanding registrations and customer relationships in new markets in Asia and the Middle East to offset regional volatility. Importantly, our working capital management remained robust. Net working capital days improved by 7 days year-on-year to 55 days, primarily due to better receivable collections and stable inventory management.
Cash and cash equivalents as of 30th September 2025 stood at INR 2,089 crore, providing strong liquidity and balance sheet flexibility. While Q2 was weather-affected, our H1 FY 2026 results reaffirmed the underlying health of our business and our ability to navigate volatility with financial prudence and operational discipline. Our subsidiary Barrix Agro Sciences recorded a relatively steady performance during the first half of FY 2026, maintaining its market presence despite a challenging operating backdrop. While the overall top line remained broadly in line with the previous year, profitability was impacted by higher input costs and elevated operating expenses. During this period, biostimulant sales were also affected by regulatory constraints, which had a bearing on Barrix's performance. As we look ahead, we enter the second half of FY 2026 with measured optimism.
The combination of healthy reservoir levels, adequate soil moisture, and a normal withdrawal of the monsoon augurs well for the upcoming Rabi season. Field conditions have improved significantly since late September, which should support a rebound in farming activity and input demand. With that, I hand it over to my colleague, Mr. Kunal Mittal, to talk about the business strategy. Over to you, Kunal.
Thank you, Chetan and Dr. Suresh. Good morning, everyone. At Sumitomo Chemical India , we remain firmly focused on executing our strategy and delivering long-term sustainable growth. Our strategic priorities revolve around five key pillars, which are as follows. Number one, strengthening domestic franchise and farmer engagements. Our efforts continue to be directed at deepening farmer connect, strengthening the domestic franchise through structural engagement programs and digital interventions. The Every Day Farmers Day, which we have been doing very sincerely since 2024, and which has also been explained in the investor presentation, this initiative has become a key differentiator for our company in the field. This also enables direct communication with farmers, demonstrations of our product efficacies, and announcement of our overall brand recall. We aim to Every Day Farmers Day coverage across additional districts, and we will focus more of these activities in our Rabi crops.
This will also help us consolidate our leadership in the domestic market through extensive farmer engagement and ground-level demand generation. We are also deploying various digital and physical initiatives, and we are also making sure that each of the physical farmer engagements are more impactful, and also they are followed up with digital initiatives so we can also take feedback from the farmer community about our initiatives. Number two, scaling up of our recently launched and differentiated products. Dr. Suresh already explained about these two important products which we have launched in the first half of the year, which is rice herbicide Lentigo and patented fungicide Excalia Max, which is Indifine as a technical product. Our innovation-led growth strategy remains the core of our business model.
Both of these products are sourced from our parent company, Sumitomo Chemical Japan 's global innovation pipeline, and so far, they are very well received in the market. During the current financial year, our focus is to scale up these products across newer territories, accelerate our demonstration of these products to the farmer, and also prepare for additional launch. One important product which we are planning to launch in the second half of the year is a product from our group company, Valent BioSciences. The name of the product is crop grain. These efforts will continue to reinforce our company's reputation as a trusted provider of high efficiency and sustainable crop protection solutions. Number three, enhancing exports' competitiveness and our global footprint. We are intensifying our focus on expanding global presence. Despite temporary softness in certain export destinations, our business model remains resilient and agile.
We continue to broaden our footprint across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, while consolidating our relationship in the U.S. and Europe. With strong backing from our parent company, we are also increasing the integration of our group's global supply chain and registration network, which will position India as a critical manufacturing and export base for our future growth, not just for India, but for the global organization. Fourth, advancing manufacturing and backward integration initiatives. Manufacturing excellence is a very important core pillar of our long-term strategy. We have already started and commenced backward integration for selected molecules at our Tarapur facility. We have also made significant progress in project planning and regulatory approvals for our upcoming greenfield expansion at Dahej.
In the earlier investor presentation in the quarter ending June, we had announced two CapEx projects, one doubling the capacity of one of our plant products for our parent company to be manufactured at Bhavnagar, and also a few additional products, including some of the blockbuster global products being launched recently to be made at our Tarapur site. Both of these were already explained, and they are also explained in our investor presentation. These facilities like Dahej will produce multiple Sumitomo origin molecules and intermediates, which will help us diversify our parent company's SCCL 's global manufacturing footprint and also enhance SCIL 's cost competitiveness in the long term. Simultaneously, our operational teams are continuing to pursue productivity improvements and process efficiencies to ensure consistent quality, optimized costs, and margin sustainability.
That is something which we have demonstrated even in a very challenging market like this, that our margins were largely maintained. Number five, sustaining financial discipline and working capital efficacy. If you look at our company's balance sheet, it remains one of the strongest in the Indian agrochemical industry. We continue to prioritize liquidity management, cash generation, and prudent working capital deployment. During the first half of the financial year 2026, our collections improved substantially, with total inflows to the extent of almost INR 2,277 crore compared to INR 1,999 crore in the first half of last year. We remain committed to sustain this kind of momentum through stringent credit control, optimized inventory levels, and timely supplier settlements. Our philosophy is to grow responsibly.
In short and to conclude, while the first half of the year was characterized by climatic challenges, the underlying fundamentals of both the Indian agriculture sector and our company's business remain strong. With improving field conditions, healthy rural sentiment, normalization in channel inventory, and a very good level of water reserves, we expect a recovery in demand during the Rabi season and beyond. Our unwavering focus on portfolio differentiation, operational excellence, farmer engagement, and disciplined execution position our company well to deliver sustainable value for all our stakeholders. With that, I will now hand over the call to Mr. Anil Nawal, CFO of our company, to please take you through our Q2 and first half 2026 consolidated financial performance.
Right. Consolidated Q2 FY 2025-FY 2026 financial performance. During the quarter, we recorded revenue from operations of INR 9.30 crore compared to INR 9.88 crore in Q2 FY 2024-FY 2025. The decline was primarily due to lower volume in the domestic market, as persistent and excessive rainfall through much of July and August curtailed field activities and delayed spray application in key crops. Gross margin in FY 2025-FY 2026 is 43.1% as compared to 42.6% in Q2 FY 2024-FY 2025. EBITDA came at INR 2.18 crore in Q2 FY 2025-FY 2026, as compared to INR 2.45 crore in the same period last year. EBITDA margin in the current quarter stood at 23.4% as compared to 24.8% in Q2 FY 2024-FY 2025. Profit after tax stood at INR 1.78 crore in FY 2025-FY 2026, as compared to INR 1.93 crore in the same quarter last year. Profit after tax margin stood at 19.1%, with a risk of 19.5% in Q2 FY 2024-FY 2025.
Lower operating leverage in the quarter on account of weather-related volume impact led to a moderation in profitability. However, we remain healthy margin through cost control and disciplined channel management. Sequentially compared to FY 2025-FY 2026, both revenue and profitability were lower, reflecting the seasonal softness due to unusually prolonged rainfall pattern this year. Coming to our consolidated performance for FY 2025-FY 2026, revenue from operations in FY 2025-FY 2026 stood at INR 19.87 crore, up by 9%, as compared to INR 18.7 crore in H1 FY 2024-FY 2025. In FY 2025-FY 2026, domestic agrochemical revenue stood at INR 2.85 crore, about 85% of overall revenue, with export contributing the rest. In FY 2025-FY 2026, insecticide contributed about 39% of total revenue, while herbicide, plant growth regulator, and fungicide contributed about 26%, 9%, and 9% of total revenue, respectively.
From a business mix standpoint, our domestic business continued to exhibit healthy momentum, growing 11% year-on-year in FY 2025-FY 2026, contributing 85% to revenue. Export revenue did grow by 4% year-on-year, largely on account of decline in sales to South America by 33% as compared to the same period last year. Our FY 2025-FY 2026 gross margin stood at 40.4%, broadly in line with the previous year at 40.9%. EBITDA stood at INR 4.37 crore in FY 2025-FY 2026, witnessing a jump of 8% as compared to INR 4.06 crore in H1 FY 2024-FY 2025. Our EBITDA margin stood at 22% in FY 2025-FY 2026, as compared to 22.2% in the same period last year. The profit after tax for FY 2025-FY 2026 amounted to INR 3.56 crore, reflecting an increase of 11% compared to the previous year's figures of INR 3.19 crore.
We'll take a pause from here from our side and request the moderator to open the floor for questions one by one.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Prashant Biyani from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, have we launched Excalia Max and Lentigo pan-India, or have we done it in a few states only till now?
Oh, it's launched pan-India. Both of them have been launched in India.
What would be the total revenue from these two till now?
See, we are taking stock of the situation. It's too early to conclude the revenue. There's one more season ahead. Some of the inventory will get liquidated if there is any in the market. It's too early to, you know, it's just about three months old product in the market. We launched in, what, June, July timeframe. It's too early to comment on the total revenue of those two.
We are on target, right?
Yeah, we are on target.
Whatever plans we have made, we are actually on target. Rather, we are ahead of the target.
It finds application in rubbish as well, not only curries.
Yeah, yeah. It fits in both the seasons. It's basically both the products are for rice. Of course, Excalia Max goes in other crops as well. In both the seasons, this product, both the products fit in.
What would be your outlook on exports for H2?
Outlook for exports in H2? See, the Africa season should start, probably towards the end of December or early January. We are on track. Overall, the market situation seems to be okay in Africa. Latin America, what we hear is there is pressure on the channel. However, our customers are positive. We have been in continuous engagement with our customers, seems to be positive, and it should be on track. The U.S., it depends on the tariff situation. We have a demand there. There is a demand for our product, but it all depends on how the tariff situation is going to go going forward. Asia and Europe would be normal. Overall, I would say it's positive.
We should build on total export revenue that we had last year versus this year. We should be decently higher.
Prashant, we will not be able to comment on any forward-looking statement. Our efforts, as Dr. Suresh mentioned, will be to revive the demand as much as possible.
Okay. Sir, on the semiconductor side, any update if you can give on, beyond what we had mentioned in the last call? How will the business look like in the initial years? Will it be, will we start from trading, or we will go for investments also? Some further insights on that would be helpful.
I think the situation remains the same. We continue to monitor the situation in India very actively. We and also our global affiliates continue to visit India, various locations, various customers. We continue to assess the situation. We believe the situation will take more time because it will be aligned with the semiconductor plants from the key players in India starting operations. Depending upon timelines of their starting the operations, our timelines will be linked to that, and also a mix of that. We believe that at this point of time, it will be a mix of some products coming from outside India and some products which will need to be localized in India. We believe it will be a combination of these things. It will still take time because what we understand is that it will all be, as I mentioned, linked to the customer's operations to start.
We are discussing and monitoring the situation on a timely basis. At the right time, we will make a decision and move forward on the project.
Okay. Lastly, sir, on Barrix, while we have mentioned that there were regulatory disruptions which impacted, when we acquired, the initial plan was to have some CapEx also there. How are we placed on that front, on capacity expansion plans for Barrix? Hence, how could be the future growth trajectory given whatever is the regulatory condition right now?
See, the regulatory condition is not only for Barrix. It's just for the entire industry. I know that you've been observing, you know, that biostimulants law came into place, and many products got impacted. Only 145 have been approved. We could not sell not only Barrix. The entire industry could not sell from the middle of June till almost the end of September or early October. Still, the process is on. You have to get the license endorsement at different manufacturing sites, then at the state level, and all those things, okay? Those procedural formalities are going on not only for Barrix, for many of the companies in the industry. Also, on top of that, the weather was challenging, in Dahej. Those are the reasons which impacted, and we could not sell any product of three or four products from Barrix' portfolio during that time.
Now things should start. We are looking at starting the sale as soon as possible. In terms of CapEx, I think we have sufficiently equipped, for the capacity what we need for the current year's sale. As the season moves into, once we close the Rabi season and next year demand we project, we would take a call on that. Of course, if it is required, we would be definitely investing CapEx.
Right. Okay. I'll jump back to the queue for further questions.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sudarshan Padmanabhan from ASK. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. My question is on your earlier comment on the international business, where you said that after a long period of time, you are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel in this space. We have been doing a lot of talking about exports, while it is not scaled up to the extent that we had initially thought. In terms of the profitability and the outlook of this segment of the business, how is it currently stacking as compared to what it was two, three years ago when we were actually talking about being a serious player in terms of the value chain of our group?
I think profitability compared to the last two, three years, we are at the same level. I mean, you can comment. We are almost at the same level. We have not eroded our margin. See, when you say export business, there are two verticals. One is technical, where generally the profitability is slightly lower. On the value addition with formulations, your profitability is slightly higher. We have a set of formulations as well as TG export. It depends on the mix of formulation and the TG that gets exported, your profitability gets determined. Having said that, we are seeking multiple registrations of the formulations in various countries across the globe. Those registrations take time. In some countries, it could be two years. Some countries, it could be three years or more also. As and when those registrations are realized, these formulation sales will start happening.
Slowly, the margin will also start improving. That will take time.
One thing to note over here is that in spite of the very steep competition from China, due to our R&D efforts and process improvements, we have saved a lot of cost in order to compete with Chinese prices. I'm glad to inform that in all the products that we export as generic products, we are in a position to compete with China. That is how we are getting orders from our customers. There is a lot of work being done on process improvements.
Sure. Clearly, it looks like the race to the bottom of the price is, you know, for the time being, largely done because that is something that we've been seeing for the last two years.
Yeah, we believe that the pricing is more at the bottom's level right now.
Sure. Sir, on the domestic side of the business, we have consistently been launching products and good products. I mean, as you mentioned, we have bought some products from our parent pipeline and launched it. Sir, in the last, if I look at the last two, three years, I think we are seeing one year of excess rain, and probably the Rabi seems to be good. In terms of acceptance of these products, if you can talk a little bit more about, say, the last three years, how much of the products have contributed? The second is when we are consciously launching the product.
I'm sorry to interrupt you in between, Mr. Sudarshan. Your voice is not clearly audible.
Can you hear me now? Hello?
Yes, sir. Please proceed.
Yes, sir. What I was trying to understand is innovator turnover index for the new launches in the last three years. How has it been accepted and how much it is contributing? The second is between Kharif and Rabi. Today, when we look at the portfolio, it's about 65% coming from Kharif and the rest coming in from Rabi. With the traction in the international market, and you also talked about the new products also targeting Rabi, how do we see this shift, say, two, three years down the line? Is that going to be changing?
Sorry, Sudarshan, you got cut off in between. I couldn't hear the second part of your question. The first part of the question is about the new product traction. As you mentioned, as you rightly mentioned, we have been launching at least four to five products every year. I would say that we are largely satisfied. I think probably the new products would contribute about 8%- 10% on a yearly basis. If you look at it, as Kunal also mentioned a few minutes back, we are surpassing our expectations for the current year launches of Excalia Max as well as Lentigo. In the previous year, we had launched Meshi, which was really, really a super duper launch. Of course, it got impacted to some extent this year. We could not ramp it up because of the weather situations. We launched Portion last year. That also got accepted very well.
Overall, we are pretty happy with the way the new products are getting accepted. Obviously, it's only a tiny speck that we are reaching out to ramp up those molecules. That's where Kunal also mentioned about Every Day Farmers Day. The more and more customers we reach out to, the scaling up would be quicker. Sorry, I could not.
The second part of the question, what you asked, like say, whether in the next few years our specialty business will become grower. I think what you need to understand is most of the products which we are launching, they are not only focused and concentrated on the specialty side. While yes, we have launched several new products in the specialty side, even in the off-patent and the basic segment, which we call, they are constantly launching new and new products. With this, there might be some more higher growth in the specialty segment, but still, there will be growth in the basic segment itself even going forward.
Yeah. Just to add a comment on this, you know, we also launched CTPR last year in-house manufacturing, and we have launched two formulation products. That has got very well accepted. It's in the basic division, off-patent division. It's really doing well this year also.
One final question, sir. I was actually trying to understand the difference. You know, today we have 65% of business in the first half, that is Kharif. With the new launches and the international business picking up, do we see this kind of bridging a little bit, say, in the next two, three years?
Not really, Sudarshan. The simple reason is 70% or 65% of the market consumption happens in the Rabi season, okay? Rabi season is a shorter season, and the pesticide consumption is slightly lower compared to the Kharif season, maybe 30%- 40%, not more than that. We are in line with the industry and agrochemical consumption in the market. Unless we get a very specific product for Rabi season, it will remain by and large in the same trend we are seeing today.
Sure, sir. Thanks a lot. I'll jump back.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rehan Saiyyed from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Good morning to everyone, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. I have only one question regarding the pricing versus volume ahead. I think you have answered, but there is some bit of a voice lag from your side. Could you please understand regarding this? My question is with better-driven volume loss, but stable pricing in quarter two. When volumes normalize, do you anticipate continued pricing pressure in H2, or does the current pricing discipline look sustainable for going forward?
Yeah. The prices are definitely sustainable. As a matter of fact, if prices are to be lower, it was in this particular condition, a tough condition of Kharif. If we have successfully maintained the price line even in this challenging months, I don't see any reason for us to drop the prices in the future. I think it would be, we will definitely maintain the price line even if the volumes go up.
Okay. Okay. One bookkeeping question from my side. According to you, should we put any margin guidance for revenue growth or EBITDA margin for going forward?
Can you please repeat? I think we could not understand.
Sure. No, I'm sorry. No, we are going, our efforts will be to maintain our EBITDA margin, our profit before tax, our profit after tax, and all the parameters. We will be maintaining or improving. I don't think that we will slowly go down then.
Okay. Okay. That's it from my side, and I'll drop in the queue.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is, we had the initial five products with a CapEx of INR 120 crores with a potential revenue of about INR 200 crore-INR 250 crores. How much of that we have realized maybe in the first half, just to understand what could be the potential growth from these molecules? A similar question, the new CapEx plan that we have announced of INR 55+ crore, INR 10 crore, what is the kind of asset term or revenue potential from this CapEx? Thank you.
About the first CapEx, which we have already completed in the last two years, as we have explained in the earlier calls also, it was in two parts. One part was related to the Bhavnagar site. That is something where full commercialization has been achieved. In fact, in the second phase, which we have announced, the INR 55 crore new CapEx, a part of that is going to double up the capacities at the Bhavnagar site for that particular product. That particular plan and the CapEx project is fully commercialized, and it is going to get doubled by the end of 2026 calendar year. The second part of the CapEx, which we have completed in the past, is related to a site in Tarapur. We had set up a multipurpose plant. At this point of time, the export revenues are not fully commercialized from that site because of some delays.
At the same time, meanwhile, we have started using that site, Tarapur, for some of the domestic products. CTPR, I think Dr. Suresh also mentioned, we launched this product in the market last year, and we started manufacturing that product also at our Tarapur site itself. In the future, we have planned that some part of this INR 55 crore CapEx, which we have announced, about INR 10 crore of that is going to the Tarapur site. That is something which will add a few more futuristic products in that site. Some of the products which we have just launched in India and which are launched globally as one of the very high-potential products. Some of these futuristic new product innovation pipelines will be manufactured at Tarapur. In short, Bhavnagar fully commercialized. We are doubling up the capacity now.
Tarapur not fully commercialized from the export side, but we have meanwhile used it for the domestic requirement. In the future, we will add more products which will also have more and more requirements and potential commercially for the Indian domestic market. In the future, Tarapur site will be more a mix of exports versus domestic utilization.
Sure. That's helpful. The second question is, in terms of commenting, you have said that during the quarter, we had seen, although we have done very well in terms of working capital and in terms of no sales returns, there has been excess inventory in the system, and obviously, there have been working capital pressures. I just wanted to get a perspective as to whether this will have any impact on the volume growth for the next season as well. How have been the Chinese imports coming to India during this Rabi season compared to, say, last Rabi season? Thank you.
See, overall, our Rabi season, you know, we are very optimistic, even though, as Chetan mentioned, you know, we don't have much of or very, very little sales return or practically no sales return. It doesn't mean the channel is overloaded and excess inventory is there. Through various meetings, farmers' meetings, channel interns' engagement, by and large, a lot of material got liquidated. Having said that, we don't know what is the inventory level of the competition in the market. We have some idea, but we don't have an in-depth idea on what is the level. The channel would want to liquidate that first. Some companies have taken back. Some companies have not. The demand would start coming in. We are quite optimistic because of our differentiated solutions and brand value.
It would be a normal Rabi season provided there are no, you know, significant rains happen in the coming months. What are the second questions?
Sure.
Out of working capital and all of that, do we really have any impact in the second half?
I don't think so. I don't think so.
Sure. Just one last, second reason. We have been making a good amount of cash, and the cash currently on the books is in excess of INR 2,000 crore. Any plan of how to deploy it, whether it is going in the same business or new business, just a broader understanding of the utilization of such high cash balance. Thank you.
As we have mentioned in the past, we have very robust plans to deploy this cash in our business. The Dahej site, which we are going to double up as a global manufacturing site for our parent company's global product portfolio, is going to utilize a large part of this cash. We are also evaluating various options to fast-track and accelerate some of this deployment of the cash through various means. At this point of time, we cannot give a very concrete timeline, but the work is under progress to deploy this cash and put it in the business because in the business, it can earn higher ROIs as compared to what it is generating today.
Sure, thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference call, we request you to kindly limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue again. The next question comes from the line of Bhavya Gandhi from Dalal & Broacha Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Hope I'm audible. My first question is regarding the Dahej CapEx. If you can provide some timeline or the progress on the CapEx, INR 250 crores-INR 300 crores that you are going to plan, how are you going to plan a phase one? What would be the amount that you'll be deploying, revenues that can be generated? If you can provide some timeline phase-wise, that will be helpful.
Yeah. We do not have very clear timelines in terms of when it will be started. As we have mentioned in the past, we are looking at various products in terms of technical feasibility studies. A lot of work has been completed. It has been submitted. We also completed a lot of ground-level work in terms of the acquisition of land, acquisition of all the environmental approvals, all those kinds of things. As we have mentioned in the past, we are looking to deploy at least INR 250 crore, INR 300 crore. While we have submitted a lot of feasibility studies, we expect that during this current financial year, some of these projects should go and get approved both by our parent company and us and our board.
Once they get approved, we will take these projects to the implementation at the ground level with the implementation timelines of 18 months to two years. Maybe sometime in calendar year 2028, we see that some of these projects should start generating revenues. We will see how this can be expanded and scaled up at the overall site of Dahej. Overall, we are working on a multi-product and multi-utilization. We are not looking at just one product or one plant. Maybe a multi-product and multiple kind of a plant situation we are looking at developing in Dahej.
Got it. Just till then, how much outsourced manufacturing do we have? I believe in the presentation also, you mentioned that your capacity utilizations are at 80%- 90% now. For the next two years in the intermittent period, where will you bring that growth from? Are we relying on outsourced manufacturing? If you can share the percentage of outsourced manufacturing, or are we just going to bring products from the Japanese market and add some trade margins in India? That's it.
Let's be a combination of this. See, for our specialty products, there is no outsourced manufacturing. Either the products are manufactured at our global locations in the U.S. or Japan, or it is manufactured by us. In those products, we do not see any capacity constraints. In the off-patent segment, which contributes to 65%- 70% of our business, yes, at this point of time, our technical plants are in the range of 85%- 90% kind of a capacity utilization level. We do not see this as a bottleneck for our growth. Whatever growth we will get in terms of volume demand in the market, we have the ability to source this product in a fairly short period of time from the market, either through China or through India and other suppliers.
We do not see that that is going to be a bottleneck for our growth for the future.
Got it. On the semiconductor side, where are the existing semiconductor companies procuring that raw material or the IT chemicals from? Indore Tata's plant has already started functioning. Cane's has put up a semiconductor plant in India. If you can just throw some light on that as well. Where are they procuring it from? Are they procuring it from the parent, or are they procuring it through some other entities?
Yeah. As far as our understanding and our surveys and discussions go, I think these kind of plants have not started the operations in India. Our products will be going to a very high-end fab, which is called the fabrication unit. Some of the units which have started in India in semiconductor, these are relatively smaller and OSAT kind of operations. In terms of the fab, I think the Tata's fab is going to be one of the largest and the first fab. It has not started operations. We are waiting and monitoring that when the Tata's operation will start at Indore.
Just if I can squeeze in one more.
Yeah.
You were saying something.
I'm saying we are in touch with all the customers, including Tata, and we are monitoring the ground-level situation. You can also maybe reconfirm this understanding, whether Tata has really started at Indolera, or it will still take some more time.
Got it. Got it. On the Excalia Max, just wanted to understand, post the Tarapur commissioning, and if we prove it on the pilot, is it like a full-scale operation at the Dahej INR 250-INR 300 crore CapEx where we'll be manufacturing Excalia Max? Is that the thought process?
Currently, what we have mentioned is we have already launched this product, but this is being manufactured at our Japanese facility. We are importing this TG and then launching this product in the Indian market. We have already announced in the last board meeting we are investing about INR 8 crore-INR 10 crore at our Tarapur site. The Tarapur site will be able to make this product for Indian requirements in the near future. We expect that by March 2027, that project should get completed. After that, we don't need to import the TG from Japan, and we can sell the Indian TG in our brands in the Indian market. For the future expansion for the global requirement, yes, this is one of the products or maybe some part of the intermediates of this product, which are in the potential list to be manufactured in Dahej.
As we mentioned, this has not been finalized. Once this is finalized and approved, we will keep everyone informed.
Fair enough. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. That's it from my end.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naushad Chaudhary from Aditya Birla AMC. Please go ahead.
Hi. A couple of clarifications. First, on the export side, you have mentioned there was some shipment deferment. If you can, you know, share the quantum of this shipment deferment and what was the reason for this?
Okay. Primarily, it's from Brazil. One of the key molecules from Brazil, they had inventory. Now that is getting liquidated, that's why instead of H1, that will move into H2, primarily from Brazil.
Also, some of it from Africa. In Africa, also some countries, we saw that some of the customers who typically buy in, let's say, Q2, some of that demand moved to Q3 and Q4 also. It is very difficult to quantify because we do not have the firm orders right now. We are negotiating and discussing with the customer. We cannot like commit that whatever we have lost in the first half, how much of that will translate. Efforts are on, and we are hopeful that some part of business can be revived in the second half.
On the biologics side, can you share the revenue share from the biologics product in this quarter versus last year's same quarter?
Yeah. Just a second. So biologicals, if you see our PGR segment, which is mentioned on slide number 14, from 11% it has come down to 9%. As you are aware, we mentioned, I think Dr. Suresh mentioned earlier, this is mainly because of regulatory constraints. Many of our products were stopped selling because of the regulatory thing. This is in the media. I think everyone is aware. The entire industry faced this situation. We also faced this situation in the Derrick's portfolio. This downward trend from 11%- 9% is mainly because of this regulatory constraint. Almost the entire Q2, we could not sell this product. Just recently, we have got some of the approvals, and we expect that in H2, we can revive some of these products.
Last, on the CapEx and under it, though you have shared in bits and pieces about different projects in detail, if I have to, in a simplified way, look at the company total CapEx outlay in the next three years, any number, if you can quantify how much we have in mind to deploy?
We are evaluating seven products to be manufactured in Dahej. We have submitted feasibility reports, which are under studies in Japan. We are confident and hopeful that all the seven products will be approved. However, if a less number of products get approved, the CapEx may be different. If all these products get approved in the next five years, we see a deployment of INR 500 crore, INR 500 crore-INR 600 crore to be invested. It depends on all the seven products getting approved.
Understood. Thank you, and all the best for the future. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Siddharth Gade kar from Equirus. Please go ahead. Mr. Siddharth?
Yeah.
You're unable to hear you, sir.
Yeah. My first question I have is to question answer. You have a clear INR 1,100 crore cash right now. What are our plans with the cash? Are we looking to give any special dividends going ahead? How should we think about the cash balance?
I think as we already explained this, right now, there are no plans to return this capital to our shareholders. We are working on several opportunities to deploy this cash in the business. Part of that can go in the CapEx for Dahej. We are also evaluating various other opportunities to deploy this cash. At this point of time, there are no plans to return this capital to shareholders by special dividends and all which you mentioned. At this point of time, there are no such kind of plans under consideration.
Secondly, when we say special other opportunities, are we looking at areas even beyond agrochemicals for now?
Yeah, that is also under discussions and evaluations. Right now, decisions have been made, but under evaluation and discussions.
Secondly, on that five molecules, given that those have not ramped up materially, by when do we expect all the five molecules to ramp up? Or now would we be doing something entirely else in those sites?
As I mentioned, our priority is now that, see, when we did that Tarapur second multi-product plant, the idea was to have this site as a fully export-oriented site by these four or five products as a multi-product plant. Currently, part of that is already used for our local domestic requirements. Even in the future, the plan is to subsidize or create an alternate site instead of doing imports from Japan. In the future also, we do not believe that this site will remain a 100% export-oriented site. The Tarapur site will cater to our domestic requirements equally. We believe that even after two years, when many new products start getting produced at Tarapur, the site will be kind of an equal mix of exports and domestic requirement.
Okay. Just last question. Even the Dahej site, we will be planning to use for both domestic and export, or that will be an entirely export opportunity?
Largely, initially, more exports focused. If the demand of those products grows very big in India, and if Tarapur is not able to cater all these products, then maybe a part of that Dahej production can also be deployed for domestic. From our company's point of view, if we are manufacturing our TG and just supplying our TG to our parent company versus if we formulate it and sell in our own brands to the market in India, the margins are much higher in the domestic business. Maximization will be our focus, will be to grow our brands and our volumes and markets in the Indian market. If there are additional capacities, for sure, we will use it for exports.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohan Jain from Blue River Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good afternoon. Am I audible?
Yes, sir. Please proceed.
Thank you for the opportunity. I mean, looking at the last three or four years of sales and margin data, and I think to give credit where it is due, you have done a really good job on the margin front. On the sales growth front, especially now, if I break that down into domestic and exports, on the domestic for the last three years, from FY 2022 to FY 2025, sales have grown at a CAGR of about low single digits for the last three years. This year, also looking at how H1 has gone, for the four-year period, it would still be in the low single-digit to mid-single-digit kind of range on a CAGR basis.
When I compare this to the peers who operate in the domestic segments only, the company that is going for listing soon and other companies that have already been listed, our growth seems a bit subpar. I just wanted to get your sense on what is holding us back here really and what has changed in terms of strategy to improve growth in the domestic segment going ahead.
I think what you are asking is that while on the margin front, we are doing well in terms of top-line growth, if we look at the last four or five years' past history, maybe some of the peer players may be ahead of us. We understand, but we believe that our growth is in line with the market. Our growth is more focused on high-margin products, better combination of products in terms of specialty and genres, and also with a very, very discipline. We are focusing more on the fundamentals of the business and profitability and a good mix of the products instead of just running behind top-line growth. That has been our strategy. We are fairly satisfied with what we have done in terms of fundamentals of the business. If Chetan, sir, and Dr. Suresh, if you want to add anything on this.
Can you summarize?
Sure. The thing is that we are very disciplined in the market. I mean, our staff, order processing from the market, etc., is absolutely online. We do not supply any material to the market without a formal order. We absolutely do not try to dump the material in the market to have a performance of one month or one quarter or something like that. We never do that. That is the reason why our recoveries and our, you know, no returns of sales, proves that our policies in the market are very, very robust. I think as Kunal said, our primary aim is to maintain the margins or improve the margins, and top-line comes after that. That is the reason why you feel that the margins are okay and top-line could be better.
As the new products come in, we wrap up the new chemistries, which we have launched and all that. We will also see the traction in the top line.
Understood, sir. This is helpful. Secondly, on exports, I think for a long time, there has been talk of the plant in Dahej coming up. For some reason or the other, due to the weak external, weak overall market situation in exports, and after that also, there's been a pretty slow process, I think, in some way, looking from outside. In terms of the traction and progress there, what can be done to at least speed up that? Because now you're saying CY 2028 is when manufacturing will, I mean, sales should actually start seeing from then, when you've seen announcements made as far back as a couple of years back. Along with that, in terms of exports at the parent level, apart from semiconductors, you also have display chemicals, pharma, some other few segments there. Are we looking to also bring those segments here from the parent level into India?
Within India operations, will those be operated through the listed entity itself? Some clarity on that because this INR 2,000 crore cash that we have, that should get utilized in a much better manner, as you have also rightly said earlier. Some clarity on that, please.
Yeah. Okay. There are two things, two parts of the question. One, you have to understand one thing, that, you know, dealing with Japan as a country, it is very, very sustainable, but the speed can be lesser than what we expect it to be. A little bit of delays or a little bit of these things which we feel frustration about is due to the working style of Japan, basically, I would say that. Having said that, once they decide, as you may have seen in our last 25 years of history, that once they decide, there is no going back. That is why I use the word sustainable because their decisions, once having given, there is no looking back. Now we have a very clear guideline from Japan that Sumitomo Chemical India will be the manufacturing hub for Sumitomo Chemical Japan .
That is why we are seeing the number of products and the speed at which we are getting one-by-one approvals has really improved. I will also give you another example that now India has been put, or Sumitomo Chemical India has been put by Japan as a number one category for testing new molecules. Earlier, what used to happen is that the new molecules would start in North America, Brazil, and Tokyo, and Japan. Now India is the fourth country placed in the same category. Any new molecule that is even at a trial stage that comes to India along with North America, Brazil, and Japan, we have already received two such molecules for testing. The speed has improved.
Our capabilities of marketing, our capabilities of R&D, our capabilities of process engineering, our capability of market reach, everything has been at a very high level now with SCCL Japan. We are hopeful that now the speed of products coming in will improve drastically. As I mentioned, we have seven products. Almost all feasibility reports have been given. We have given two clearances. We have already received two clearances. The balance of five products clearances is expected to be received by the end of this financial year. Once that comes, all our plans to implement this project will begin.
As Chetan mentioned, a lot of speed has improved. At the same time, all other sectors which you mentioned, like you mentioned about display and pharma and several others, yes, our parent company has a wide range of sectors.
Different businesses and as a company in India, as an important successful company in India, we are in touch with all these different businesses. We are evaluating what can be done in India, and the final decision will be made by each of these businesses independently. We continue to be trying from our side that this is part of our own company. This is Sumitomo Chemical India Limited. There is no legal obligation or something like this. Yes, the progress and the discussions are in the positive territory at this point of time.
Our efforts will be, of course, we will, like, I mean, we are putting in a lot of time, energy, into this, you know, semiconductor sector or pharma. Our endeavor will be that Sumitomo Chemical has to be part of it. That will be our responsibility, to convince Japan that Sumitomo Chemical remains as a part of this business and that this business comes into our listed company.
Understood. This is really helpful. Given the cash balance of INR 2,000 crores, I think, and the earlier outlay that you mentioned about INR 500 crores-INR 600 crores, and given how our cash generation has been historically, there will be a lot of cash accruals on the balance sheet. It will really be helpful if some of these can be expedited and more and more growth can be brought into the Indian entity. That's all from my end. Wishing you all the very best. Thank you for the opportunity once again.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants to limit your questions to per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue again. The next question is from the line of Ankul Periwal from Axis. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Two questions. First, on the specialty side, while we have been launching new products over the last three, four, five years, the growth in the specialty agrochem space is much lower than the generic bit. Just curious to understand whether it is just a matter of time and these products will sort of get monetized and hence a higher growth going ahead, or there is any structural change in the market and specialty will probably continue to grow at a slower pace.
I'm not sure. We are saying specialty growth is not there.
Because, Ankur, if you see the segment, like if you see last five years, we were more in the range of 22%- 24%, our specialty segment, which has grown to more in the range of 28%, 30%. Even in this half, yeah, you can see. Quarter to quarter and, say, first half versus first half, there may be variations. Structurally, we believe our specialty segment continues to grow at a higher pace. Not like significantly higher because our basic and the off-patent and generic segment is also growing constantly in the existing molecules and as well as launch of new molecules. The space, the growth of specialty segment over the last three to five-year period is at a healthy and satisfactory level. In this particular first half, maybe it has dropped 1%, but 1%.
That's almost the same.
Yeah, that's almost the same. Yeah.
Sure. Just on the specialty, especially the domestic part, I'm excluding exports here, you believe the pace is okay and probably it's satisfactory as to our understanding, our expectations internally?
Yes. Yeah.
Okay. Great. Just a second bit, you know, clarification. We did highlight it, INR 500 crore-INR 600 crore of potential CapEx for those, you know, six, seven molecules over the next five years at Dahej, that is. This will be largely fully utilizing the Dahej capacity, and this is the peak that we can look at, you know, from a capital deployment there, or there is something more?
This is just the starting of the hedge. The hedge will have potential to cater to this kind of a growth for even the next 10 years or even 12 years.
The INR 250 crore-INR 300 crore CapEx that we were sort of, you know, waiting for the full approval to come in, it will be a subset of this INR 500 crore-INR 600 crores?
Yes.
Okay, done. That's it from my side. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharat Sheth from Quest Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, on agrochemicals, you said that since we don't want to dump the material and we want to sell at certain margins, we saw our growth is a bit in line with the industry. With a lot of new products that you say that you will be launching, how do we see, one is the acceptability of the specialty among our fraternity, I mean, farming fraternity, how the things are trending up, and when we really see our agrochemical business growth higher than the industry growth?
I'll tell you that the growth of specialty molecules, like last year, we launched Mashi. In the very first year, we achieved 5 lakh liters. Our target of that particular product was to ramp up to 10 lakh liters this year. Because of the climatic conditions, we could not do that. Even then, I am sure that we'll cross 5 lakh liters by the end of this financial year. It is not that we are not growing. I think we have to understand that Q2 was a major, major setback due to no control of ours over the situation. That has to be ignored. Even the launches which we made in these difficult conditions of Excalia Max, we have surpassed our initial estimates. The structure is very good. The products like Lentigo, we have surpassed our estimates.
All these products have very big potential to have a traction in the future. That is what we are striving for. Even for our basic to, you know, like our brand Mera 71, we have sold 3,000 tons in the first six months of this year, which is the highest ever for the entire year. The earlier best we had done was 2,800 tons for the full year. We have already crossed 3,000 tons in the first half in such difficult conditions. Traction is there. You know we also understand that the traction cannot be for all the products at the same time. There will be some products which will be affected because of certain conditions. Because of certain favorable conditions, some products can have a terrible traction. You know it is a very dynamic sort of a situation in the market. Yeah, what is the rain condition?
What is the soil condition? What are the pest conditions? It depends on all this. We have to be agile to cater to this demand when it is required, what is required. You cannot see traction in all the products at the same time.
Yeah. I think what you mentioned is that we made a comment that our growth will be in line with the industry. That was, I think, maybe not a right thing what we said. What we are saying is in line with the market growth. For sure, we will grow. That is something which is a base confidence. We deploy several strategies as Chetan explained in detail product-wise level, several new products, and then doing extensive demand generation and farmer engagements for these products so farmers understand the benefit of this. Through this, we create additional demand over and above the market demand for our product. This is the same strategy which we have been deploying, which has given us almost 14x growth in the last 15 years.
We believe that in this kind of a situation, if we continue to launch new products, good innovative products, do extensive farmer promotion, we surely target to grow more than the industry.
Okay. Great, sir. One second question on my that you said that now our parent has put Sumitomo India on par with the other developed markets on the introduction of new products and all. There are also other categories where we are not present, which is there in the parent portfolio. When we like to see all those products, I mean, really when there is a significant market opportunity out there in India, we'll start playing out.
As we have already mentioned, we are in touch with many of these businesses. Many of these businesses are more other segments.
Sure.
You complete it. Other segments, you complete it. I'll answer.
What we are talking about is in other segments. Some of these businesses may not be suitable at this point of time. I think someone talked about display. Display, there are no display fairs in India at this point of time. We are monitoring many of these sectors, segments, and industries out there evolving in India. At the right time, for sure, we would like to take opportunities and materialize that. At this point of time, many of these segments may not have that readily available opportunities in India. As the Indian market grows, we are seeing good growth in the Indian market, both in terms of volume and structure and the fundamentals of the market. As India progresses to the newer technologies and displays and more high-end of the pharma, for sure, we will be ready to take a benefit of those opportunities in the Indian market.
That was for the other segments. Dr. Suresh will now answer about the current segments, how we are expanding globally.
Yeah. In terms of agrochemicals, yes, Chetan mentioned about India being on the map along with countries like developed countries like Japan or the U.S. or Brazil. Now, India is also on par with those kinds of countries. What it really meant was, till now or till last month, whatever the new molecule that would come out of the discovery stage were initially tested in those three, four countries. After a couple of years or even maybe up to five years, only India was even considered as a market for those kinds of molecules. Now, SCCL has clearly identified India as a potential market. Whenever the discovery molecule comes out of the pipeline, India will be one of the countries along with countries like the U.S. or Europe or Brazil for initial phase testing itself.
With that, we also have proved that two or three molecules, which are not even named, coded compounds, are going to be tested in India in the coming months or next Rabi season, which means that India would be one among the first countries for launch of those new products. Having said that, these new products to really go through the registration pipeline and come to the market depends. It may take five years, six years, or more than that, depending on the molecule. At least now, SCCL in Japan is considering or has started considering India as one of the premier markets. We would like to have an early entry as soon as the molecule comes out of the discovery pipeline.
Thank you, and thanks for the elaborative answer.
Hello.
Basically, imported from Japan and branded in India.
Okay, sir. Great, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that will be the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sushil Marfatia for closing comments.
Namaste, everyone. Thank you all for asking some very interesting questions and our colleagues for replying the same. We hope we would have addressed all your queries. As we draw this call to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what truly underpins Sumitomo Chemical India 's performance. Even in the quarter set by unusually erratic weather and external headwinds, our results reaffirm the strength of our fundamentals, a well-diversified portfolio, disciplined financial management, deep farmer relationship, and an unwavering focus on quality and execution. Our emphasis in the second half of the year will be on capitalizing on the improved field conditions that are driving volume growth in key molecules and sustaining our margin profile through prudent cost management and operating efficiency.
We will continue to invest in innovation, farmer outreach, and capacity enhancement to reinforce our leadership in the domestic market while building a stronger export franchise aligned with our parent company's global network. We believe that our strategic direction is well aligned with the evolving needs of Indian agriculture, a sector that continues to transform through technology, sustainability, and innovation. Looking ahead, the company remains fully committed to its long-term strategic priorities, strengthening the domestic finance franchise, deepening the innovation pipeline, expanding manufacturing and integration, and maintaining balance sheet strength. We believe this initiative will enable consistent, sustainable growth and long-term value creation for all our shareholders. Thank you for taking your time to join our conference call today. We truly appreciate your participation. We take this opportunity to wish you a season's greeting. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Sumitomo Chemical India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us today, and you may now disconnect your lines.