Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Surya Roshni Limited Q3 FY2024 Earnings Conference Call. This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Raju Bista, Managing Director of Surya Roshni Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Hi, everyone. Thank you. Good evening, once again, with the Q3 FY earnings call, and on behalf of Surya Roshni Limited, I extend a warm welcome to everyone for joining us today. On this call, we are joined by Mr. Naresh Singhal, Executive Director, Steel Operation, Mr. Gaurav Jain, Chief Operating Officer, Steel Operations, Mr. Jitendra Agrawal, CEO, Lighting and Consumer Durables, and our CFO and Company Secretary, Mr. B.B. Singhal, and SGA, our Investor Relations Advisor. I hope everyone had an opportunity to go through the financial results, press release, and investor presentation, which have been uploaded on the stock exchange as well as on our company website. Moving on to the highlights for the Q3 FY earnings.
The company revenue experienced a slight dip on account of slowdown of demand on the basically high value-added product in steel pipes business, and flattish growth in lighting and consumer durable segment. Despite a decrease, slight decrease in revenue, the company managed to sustain its operating profit margin on account of a substantial improvement in the operating margin mainly in the lighting and consumer durable business. The company reported an EBITDA margins of 8.2% for the quarter, up by 87 basis points as compared to 7.3% for Q2 FY 2024. Over the past few years, company has placed its emphasis on reducing the debt.
During 9 months of FY 2024, the debt reduced by another INR 168 crore, and the debt-to-equity ratio is at 0.12 as on 31 December 2023. Lighting and consumer durables business is now completely debt-free. The segment has no long term and no any working capital borrowing as on date. We become totally debt-free company in the like Q4 FY 2024, which means one year ahead of our target. Now, coming to the lighting and consumer durables, the segment recorded a revenue of INR 403 crore in FY 2024 Q3, up by 2% as compared to the same period last year.
The professional lighting business witnessed higher double-digit growth, while the consumer lighting business had a modest, single-digit growth in consumer durable, and appliances segment witnessed, almost a flatish kind of growth. Strong growth in volume, along with a better product mix, towards higher margin product and cost saving from backward, integration, driven by PLI, production-linked incentive, contributed to a significant improvement in operating, profitability. And also the gas price has also added, to it, because the gas prices has come down, significantly. EBITDA for Q3 FY 2024 was up by 38% to INR 38 crore, as compared to INR 27 crore in the same quarter of FY 2023.
EBITDA margin for Q3 stood at 9.3%, up by 244 basis points, as against 6.9% in Q3 of FY 2023. In professional lighting, we undertook a few big and important projects, like G20 events, and facade lighting of Atal Setu, et cetera. We also recently won a major order of, like, INR 75 crore for LED public street lighting and maintenance work in the state of Odisha. We have been witnessing robust growth in infrastructure lighting, facade lighting, and other industrial lighting projects. For the consumer durable segment, overall sales has been subdued due to muted consumer demands. However, the premium category, consumer durable products category, has recorded decent growth. Fan, as a category, is currently seeing unique challenges due to regulatory interruptions, such as implementation of mandatory star labeling requirements.
However, the market acceptability of star labeling fan is finding good traction, and we plan to continue launching new products of star category. Adding to it, we also conducted over 150 engagements with dealers in this Q3 quarter, thereby engaging with almost 10,000 top retailers, retail outlets in different parts of our country. Also, similarly, we keep engaging with prominent electricians. Now, moving on to the steel and strip business, there was a slight decline in the top line growth, primarily due to the slowdown in demand of high value added, mainly the spiral pipes in pipe segment. However, this was partially offset by improved sales in all other categories of pipes.
So there was also 23% growth in export in Q3 as compared to the same quarter last year. Overall, the steel pipe segment witnessed a volume de-growth of about 2.5% only in Q3 FY 2024, and overall nine-month growth is about 7%. We have strong in-hand order book of about INR 600 crore for mainly oil and gas segment. Sequentially, there was an improvement in steel prices, EBITDA per ton for the quarter stood at INR 6,156 per ton, achieving a growth of 21% from Q2 FY 2024, which means previous quarter. And that was, I think, INR 5,104 .
So we are the first Indian company to manufacture 0.5-inch pipe to 140-inch pipes, minimum to maximum. We have recently received EPD, Environmental Product Declaration certification for all products, which is mandatory requirement for the customer, mainly in export market. We are expecting robust order from Saudi and Middle East and Canada markets in future. We have also ordered new spiral pipe unit at our Gwalior plant facility, and we manufacture pipe up to 140-inch diameter. Earlier, it was 104-inch only at Anjar plant. We further plan to add new coating plant in Anjar, Gujarat. We are also currently in process to modernize our cold rolling plant at Bahadurgarh facility, which will be completed in next H2 FY 2025.
The other ongoing project will complete as per the schedule. This will result in substantial fall, a reduction in cost of production as well as improving the quality of our products. Lastly, we remain confident about the opportunity that lies ahead of us. The company is focusing on geographical expansion, innovation and efficiency enhancement, infrastructure and human capital to deliver the best world-class solution to our customers. Now, I would like to request our CFO, Mr. B.B. Singhal, to share his thoughts on financials.
Thank you, respected MD sir, and a very good evening to all participants on the call. For the quarter, the revenue was INR 1,938 crore, as compared to INR 2,021 crore. Q3 FY 2024 EBITDA and PAT stood at INR 158 crore and INR 90 crore, as compared to INR 164 crore and INR 90 crore respectively for the same period last year. For nine months of this financial year, the revenue was INR 5,729 crore, as compared to INR 5,845 crore. EBITDA stood at INR 414 crore, up by 13%, as compared to INR 366 crore in nine months of financial year 2023. And PAT stood at INR 225 crore, up by 25%, as compared to INR 180 crore.
The increase in operating performance can be attributed to the PLI scheme, backward integration, and the increased demand for value-added products. In lighting and consumer durables for the quarter, the revenue stood at INR 403 crore as against INR 396 crore, registering a modest growth of 2%. EBITDA and PBT stood at INR 38 crore and 30 crore, registering a growth of 38% and 56% respectively. For the nine months, the revenue stood at INR 1,154 crore as against 1,114 crore, a growth of 4% year-on-year basis. EBITDA and PBT stood at INR 106 crore and INR 83 crore, a growth of 50% respectively.
In the steel pipe and strips, during Q3 FY 2024, the revenue was INR 1,536 crore as compared to INR 1,626 crore. Similarly, EBITDA per metric ton stood at INR 6,156 rupees, compared to 6,733 year-on-year basis, and 6,156 in Q3 FY 2024. PBT stood at INR 91 crore as against INR 104 crore last year.
For 9 months, FY 2024, the revenues stood at INR 4,577 crore as compared to INR 4,731 crore. Similarly, EBITDA per metric tons stood at INR 5,224 crore or 24 rupees, compared to INR 5,190 year-on-year basis, while EBITDA and PBT grew by 8% and 18% year-on-year basis to INR 308 crore and INR 222 crore respectively. Improved capacity utilization, working capital optimization and cost rationalization has further reduced the debt by INR 160 crore. As of 31 December 2023, the debt-to-equity ratio stood at 0.12.
As on 31 December 2023, ROCE improved by 271 basis points and stood at 22.91% as compared to 20.20% as on 30 September 2023. Return on equity, ROE, stood at 17.88% as compared to 15.57% as on 30 September 2023, registering a growth of 231 basis points. As on 31 December 2023, the net working capital days stood at 70 days, inventory days stood at 50 days, debtor days stood at 36 days and creditor days stood at 16 days. With this I conclude the presentation and we can now open the floor for further questions and answers.
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 touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset 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 Jatin Damania from Svan Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Good evening sir, and thank you for the opportunity. Congrats for a good set of numbers compared to the industry peers. Sir, just wanted to understand in the, in your opening remarks, you highlighted that the volume growth was only 2% in the quarter, while there was a decline in the value added product. But at the same time, we had seen a sharp jump in the EBITDA per ton as compared to what peers has reported. So what has drive the sharp improvement in our performance?
Yeah, Jatin Ji, thank you very much. [Foreign language] high value added products [Foreign language]
Sir, [Foreign language] , sir export का volume [Foreign language] EBITDA per ton [Foreign language]
Overall percent...
Hello.
Yeah. [Foreign language] but [Foreign language] overall [Foreign language] comparison [Foreign language] both का relation [Foreign language] .
Okay, but sir, so [Foreign language] and definitely Q4 [Foreign language] expect [Foreign language] [Foreign language] Q4 [Foreign language] domestic demand slowdown [Foreign language] our EBITDA per ton continue to remain in the same range [Foreign language] improve [Foreign language] chances [Foreign language]
[Foreign language] global disruption, distribution [Foreign language] , fourth quarter [Foreign language] substantially [Foreign language] per ton EBITDA [Foreign language] better [Foreign language] overall last year call [Foreign language] guideline [Foreign language] INR 5,500-INR 5,600 [Foreign language] per ton EBITDA [Foreign language] annual basis [Foreign language]
More, around 6,500 [Foreign language]
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Thank you sir! All the best. I will come back in the Q.
Thank you. Reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask question. Reminder to participants, you may press star and 1 to ask question. Next question is from the line of Vikas Singh from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Sir, question again previous participants [Foreign language]
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We have come into the INR 5,500-INR 6,000 range. We have come to the INR 5,500-INR 6,000 per ton EBITDA level. We have created that kind of segment.
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Ji sir, sir just one last question. [Foreign language]
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Thank you! Next question is from the line of Manish Bhandari from Vallum Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
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Ya Manish ji.
Hi, hi, good evening. Sir, my question is about exports and congratulations. I have seen your company becoming debt-free, which was on your wishlist for a very long time. My question, sir, is about the export business. You people have been very big exporters to the Middle East from the beginning. In the Middle East, do you have a strategy? Are we working on some very concrete strategy where our export percentage can be substantially increased? In the Middle East, where a very big construction boom has come, have you made some strategy about this, and what regularly comes to our notice for the next two years? Because exports also run on the order book. So you can share the order book also of the export.
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Yes, 250-300, yes you are right.
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My last question [Foreign language]
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10% in a business like pipe isn't it too high. [Foreign language] versus the competition is too high number.
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Thank you, thank you to whole team. Thank you Raju.
you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question is from the line of Naveen Baid from Nuvama Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Thank you, actually my question is answered. Thank you!
Thank you. Reminder to all participants. You may press star and one to ask question. Next question is from the line of Sanjay Nandi from VT Capital. Please go ahead.
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Yes please, yes please.
Yeah, can you hear me?
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In the segment we are having 80% of the share, so how my comparison with this other peers in the segment.
Will you please repeat it again?
Yeah, in the segment who are the peers that we are competing with?
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Right! So sir, what kind of margin differential do we have compare to peers, like Maharashtra Seamless some good number in this quarter in the segment and like what you have mention in the call in the period. Like we are having some growth in the volume and also steel segment also not doing well. So where we are doing sir exactly compare to our peers.
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Okay, okay sir. Thank you sir.
[Foreign language] On the pipe segment only.
So, its cold segment how much will be? Our total ERW space in.
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Yes, yes, total 100% jo steel segment [Foreign language]
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Okay, okay! What kind of guidance can we presume in coming years, like on a long term basis, like in the ERW segment?
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You are talking about INR 6,000 per ton, right? It is for the entire company and for the ERW segment as a whole.
So company as a whole. [Foreign language]
As the lighting, what kind of margins can we expect one full corporate lighting and... so what kind of margins can we expect in lighting?
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Okay sir, [Foreign language] . Like every year lighting technology gets, sabko naya naya variety lighting. So how comfortable you are in like competing with that type of technological change which is going to happen in lighting space.
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Sir, what kind of products are you thinking of exporting business [Foreign language]
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Thank you. Next question is from the line of Shweta Dikshit from Systematix Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, congratulations sir and good set of numbers and thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I want to understand the export proportion as a export share as a proportion of sales. How is that? Meaning you are saying that you targeting in Canada, Australia, New Zealand new segment from also focus is. Then how are this proportion expected? Is it expected to change in the next two years? Are you targeting a growth and second follow up regarding the exports is I think I miss the realization number, EBITDA per number for the export. What is that a ballpark number if you can give.
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Okay, thank you sir!
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Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question of the day. I now hand the conference over to Mr. B.B. Singhal for closing comments.
For joining us today on this earnings call. We appreciate your interest in Surya Roshni Limited. I sincerely once again thank our MD sir, Executive Director and CEO for sharing the valuable time and addressing queries raised by the participants who attend the call. For any further queries, please contact SGA our investor relations advisor. Thank you, good evening!
Thank you very much.
Thank you on behalf of Surya Roshni Limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.