Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Akash, moderator for the conference call.

Welcome to Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited Q1 FY27 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participants 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 "*" then "0" on your touch-tone telephone. Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand over the floor to Mr. Ronak Saraf.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Akash. Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to Advanced Enzyme Technologies Q1 FY27 earnings conference call. We hope you all have gone through our financials, press release, and the presentation, which has been posted in the investor relations section of our website.

We have with us Mr. Mukund Kabra, Whole-time Director, and Mr.

Beni Rauka, Group CFO. Today the management will discuss the performance and business highlights, update on strategies, and respond to any questions that you may have.

As is usual, for ease of discussion, we will look at the consolidated financials. Now I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that some of the information shared during the call, particularly regarding our plans, strategies, and future outlook, may contain forward-looking statements.

These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements, influenced by a range of factors, including, but not limited to, economic conditions, change in government policies, regulatory developments, and other unforeseen circumstances.

Recipients are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as they are not guaranteed for future performance and should not be viewed as substitute for independent judgment. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Now without any further ado, we shall commence this call. Over to you, Mukund sir.

Thank you, Ronak. Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for joining us today for our quarter one financial year 27 earning call. I extend a warm welcome to all our shareholders and partners.

The global economy has been experiencing significant disturbance for quite some time, primarily driven by geographical tensions, trade and uncertainties, and continued disruption across global supply chain. These challenges have had a direct impact on the pricing of energy and certain raw materials, creating a volatile operating environment for businesses globally.

Against this backdrop, our quarter one performance reflects a softer, more muted start to the fiscal year. However, the fundamental strength of our business remains firmly intact, and we anticipate progressive momentum as the year advances.

While it is important to view this performance in the context of the inherent nature of our business, that's the reason we always suggest all our shareholders to evaluate our business on an annual horizon rather than through the lens of a single quarter. Our top line for the quarter stood at ₹1,898 million, registering a 2% year-on-year growth.

On a sequential basis, revenue declined by 7% compared to the previous quarter. As part of the standard revenue recognition practices, which is based on transferring of control of goods to the customers, sales reversal occur every quarter.

On account of revenue recognition accounting principles, this quarter was impacted by an additional sales reversal amounting to ₹100 million, over and above the reversal of revenue generally being accounted in every quarter. I am pleased to share that this revenue reversal has already been recorded as on today, maintaining the robustness of our revenue pipeline intact.

Our fundamentals remain strong, execution continues to be solid, and we are well-positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities. We remain confident in delivering sustainable revenue growth, consistent with our annual guidance.

EBITDA for the quarter came in at ₹510 million, down 10% year-on-year and 19% quarter-on-quarter. Consequently, the EBITDA margin stood at 27%, compared to 30% in quarter one financial '26 and 31% in quarter four financial year '26.

Our consolidated margins moderated primarily due to three factors: lower top-line realization, elevated power and fuel costs driven by global energy disruption, and a temporary shift in the sales mix. At the same time, our disciplined focus on optimizing our cost and improve our operational efficiencies position us to deliver sustainable growth and stronger performance as the year progresses.

Moving to profitability, profit after tax stood at 386 million, declining 5% year-on-year and 15% sequentially. The PAT margin for the quarter was 20%, compared to 22% in both quarter one financial year '26 and quarter four financial year '26.

Now I will take you through our segment-wise revenue performance for the first quarter of financial year '27 and compare it both year-on-year and sequentially with quarter four financial year '26 and quarter one financial year '26. Let's begin with human healthcare.

Revenues from quarter one financial year '27 stood at ₹1,139 million, reflecting a 7% year-on-year decline and 11% sequential decline. The decline was primarily attributed to lower sales in the pharma API business.

Despite the moderation of revenues, the segment contributed 60% of total revenue during the quarter. We observed an improvement in our B2C revenue in USA.

Moving to animal healthcare, revenues stood at ₹252 million, registering a 3% year-on-year decline while growing 1% quarter-on-quarter. The segment contributed 13% to our overall revenue during the quarter.

Turning to bioprocessing, the segment reported revenues of ₹306 million, delivering the 30% year-on-year growth. Revenues were 5% lower sequentially.

The strong year-on-year performance was driven by healthy growth in food business, and the segment contributed 16% to our total revenues. Lastly, specialized manufacturing reported revenues of ₹200 million, registering a robust 41% year-on-year growth and an 11% increase over the previous quarter.

The segment continued its strong momentum and accounted for 11% of our overall revenue during the quarter. We are pleased to announce that the board has approved a buyback of ₹697 million at a ceiling price of ₹500 per share via open market route.

The company has also announced the acquisition of the remaining stake of 4.28% for a consideration of ₹79.79 million in our existing subsidiary, JC Biotech, resulting in a total stake of 100%, making it wholly owned subsidiary. With this, I will now hand over the call to Rauka ji.

He will walk you through the financials and key subsidiary numbers.

Thank you very much, Mukund. Good evening, everyone.

I hope you all are in good health and doing well. On the company's consolidated financials for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, on year-on-year basis, Q1 of FY27 versus Q1 of FY26, our revenue is increased by ₹39 million, a 2% of increase, from ₹1,859 million to ₹1,898 million.

EBITDA decreased by 55 million, 10% decline, from ₹564 million to ₹510 million, from 30% of our revenue to 27% in this quarter. Profit before tax decreased by ₹14 million from ₹549 million to ₹535 million.

This was 30% as compared to 28% during this quarter. Profit after tax decreased by ₹19 million, a 5% decline, from ₹404 million to ₹386 million.

Our PAT is about 20% of our revenue as compared to 22% in Q1 of FY26. On quarter-on-quarter basis, sequential basis, Q1 versus Q4, revenue decreased by ₹136 million, a 7% decline, from ₹2,034 million to ₹1,898 million.

EBITDA is decreased by ₹123 million, a 19% decline, from ₹632 million to ₹510 million. Profit before tax decreased by ₹63 million from 598 million to ₹535 million, a 10% decline in profit before tax.

Our PAT is decreased by about 15% from ₹453 million to ₹386 million. This is about, again, as mentioned, 20% in this quarter as compared to 22% in last previous quarter of Q4 '26.

Let me give you the subsidiary numbers. JC Biotech, revenue stood at 195 million and EBITDA of ₹46 million, PAT of ₹10 million, as compared to revenue of ₹211 million, EBITDA of 33 million, and PAT of ₹14 million in the Q1 of FY26.

The sales from Evox stood at 74 million, and EBITDA is negative 13 million, with negative PAT of about 18 million in Q1 FY27, as compared to ₹70 million of revenue and 14 million of EBITDA and PAT of 7 million, respectively. SciTech, this is again our subsidiary, we had top line of 201 million and EBITDA of 31 million and PAT of 13 million in Q1 of FY27, as compared to 145 million of revenue and EBITDA of 4 million and negative PAT of 8 million in Q1 of FY26.

I would like to give you some numbers about our top 10 customer. It is about 23% during this quarter as compared to 27% last year Q1, and as compared to 26% in Q4 of FY26.

Our top 10 product has contributed about 45% as compared to 45 last year and 49% in last quarter of FY26. B2C segment contributed about $1.14 million as compared to $1.12 million during the same period previous year.

This is from our subsidiary company, this is Advanced Enzyme USA, and we have another subsidiary, AST. Let me also give you some more numbers about our healthcare segment.

The Q1 FY27, our India sales is about 580 million as compared to 699 million in Q4 and 659 in Q1 of last year. International sales, 559 million as compared to 582 in Q4 and 562 in Q1 of FY26.

Total from this segment is about 1,139 million as compared to 1,281 million in the previous quarter of Q4, and Q1 was 1,221 million. R&D expenditure, we have spend about 90 million in the quarter first of FY27, as compared to ₹86 million in Q1 of FY26.

This is about 4.75 during this quarter as compared to 4.62% in the corresponding first quarter of FY26. On consolidated basis, R&D spend is about 5% during Q1.

This is rounded off basically when we talk about consolidated basis, 5% was last year in Q1. If we remove our spending to Evox, then R&D spend is about 3% in Q1, and we have spent the similar amount in the first quarter of last year, 3%.

This was from my side. Now we shall open the floor for question and answer session.

Please.

[unclear] our business over the last 9 to 10 years, just looking at the comparison of Q1 of FY19 or FY18 with the Q1 which we reported now, the growth has been around, I would say, on a overall basis around 3% to 4% on Indian rupee terms. Now, comparably if you look at the US enzyme market per se has actually grown at even at 7% or 6% on a US dollar basis.

Just want to understand what is holding us from growing in one of the most lucrative markets, which is the US? Of course there have been issues like COVID in the middle, and there has been large client loss, etc.

Even on our longer basis which we always—

Lakshminarayanan ji, sorry to interrupt. There is no clarity.

There is some kind of echo happening. Can you please repeat this question?

Am I clear now or is it still problem, sir?

No, still there is a problem.

I'll join back in the queue then.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

The first question is on capex. Just correct me if I'm wrong, but I think in the AGM minutes, I think the capex number which was highlighted was somewhere close to 120, 130-odd crores.

In fact we were building in a significantly lower numbers. Could you please help us understand this 120, 130 crore will be spent over 2, 3 years, or it is FY27 outlay?

That is my first question.

So 123 crores, you rightly said that we have explained in the AGM. Correct?

Yeah.

This is what we are going to spend—

Yeah. I'm saying this 123 crore will be entirely spent in FY27, and if that is the case, for which all projects if you could highlight?

No, I think out of this, about 20 crores will stretch to probably second quarter of FY27 also, mainly of one of our subsidiary because we talk about the consolidated number.

Sure. Basically what I'm trying to understand is out of this 123 crore, what could be the growth capex?

If you keep aside the maintenance capex, what could be the growth capex that we'll be incurring in this year?

Out of this, I think 20 crore is normal capital expenditure, okay? And 50 crores will go for R&D, which is again already under work in progress, and maybe it will becomes functional in the next quarter or so.

Balance is all about the growth only. R&D is not kind immediate growth, but of course it is always for a sustained growth only.

Okay. The remaining part, this is in the human nutrition side or which other segment, the growth capex?

No, capex is not meant for any particular segment as such because we manufacture enzymes for different industry.

Sure. No, I'm saying this is a step-up as compared to last few years, and we always maintain that in terms of the fermentation utilization is around 55%, 60%.

Are we close to maybe 70% and that's why you are doing this? Just wanted to understand the reason for this step-up in capex.

We are close to 70%, 75%, and we will take the call in the next quarter, and we may start some of the capex expenditure for increasing our capacity.

Sure. This is helpful.

Next question is basically what is stopping us from growing strongly in the US market because I think you just highlighted few international human nutrition numbers. I think in this quarter also we have witnessed a decline of 14-odd percent.

Could you please explain what is the reason behind this?

I think overall, if you see the situation in the US is not so conducive as of now, and what we are also doing is that we have been following a path where now we are trying to brand most of our products. This shifting is taking some time, and because of that, if you see the numbers, it is kind of steady numbers, not getting any kind of a significant increase in those numbers because the business is undergoing some kind of a changes.

Again, you would agree that the kind of situation happening in USA is also not so conducive from business point of view. Couple of issues are there, that is again being addressed by the company.

Okay. My last question—

Geopolitical situation is something that also creates a lot of issues in the business.

Okay. My last question is, what is the number for serratiopeptidase this quarter?

I think we requested earlier also that we will stop sharing those numbers.

Okay. No, because there was some ban kind of a thing which we saw in the news this quarter, just wanted to understand, will there be any impact because of that or we don't see any meaningful impact because of the FDC combinations?

There will not be any meaningful impact, maybe 1% here and there, 1%, 2%.

Sure. Thank you.

Sure, thank you so much.

Am I audible now?

Yes, sir. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Sir, I was just looking at our US business growth over a slightly longer period of 8-9 years or even more.

While the US market per se has actually grown on the enzyme thing, I think broad numbers are around 6% or 7% of the industry level, our growth has been divergent from that. Of course there have been COVID in the middle and there have been logistics issues and there has also been client loss issues, which I understand.

I'm just trying to understand broadly whether this divergence is more an internal issue or an external issue, and how do we address this? Because we have good products, we have good patents, but still we are unable to, at least from the looks of it, scale up meaningfully in the US.

I just want to hear your thoughts on that.

Lakshminarayanan ji, challenges are several. I think in past also we have explained, post-COVID things were going to stabilize, but then, last I think 1 and 1/2 year or or rather 1 year you can say you we have been facing this geopolitical situation.

In addition to that, I think we have also explained a couple of times that we are changing our business model in US per se, basically looking into kind of, branding most of the things, most of the products which we are selling, most of the like ingredients we are selling. This process is taking some time to really, consolidate the entire operations, entire customers, and this is one issue, and besides the geopolitical situation.

Everything is like, going in such a way that we don't see any kind of, big numbers. Although in FY25 we have seen kind of a 10% growth or so, '26 again it was kind of a down.

Now again, first quarter it because this is the first quarter, we have to again wait and watch, and we see I think, better visibility as we progress. All these issues are now being faced, and as you mentioned that, the market is big, but then you have to also carve out a niche segment for yourself, otherwise it's kind of, you want to become a commodity or not.

That's like, not our exact business strategy. We are trying to again revamp and, change our business model in such a way that at least we should have a sustained growth as well as, our margins are kind of, intact.

All these issues are being addressed.

Right. Our typical model is to manufacture in India and then ship it to the US.

Given that every third year or second year we have some issues in terms of logistics, is the management thinking of any alternative sourcing thing instead of looking at manufacturing in India and then selling it in the US?

I think we missed your question. Can you please repeat?

My question is that, see, we manufacture in India if I'm right, and then we sell in the US. Now given that every second year or third year there has been some geopolitical issue or logistics issues, is it something the management can think of where you can identify another sourcing location where you can do something instead of making in India and then selling in the US?

Is it possible at all, or is it something which you want to explore at some point in time?

I think if you really look at from the fermentation side, we will always continue to do it in India. Alternate sourcing, because it's again 100% subsidiary company, we always see that we have to work on if there are any kind of alternate source, how we can also equally become competitive in the process by improving our productivity, by spending more on research, at least we don't have to look at any other source in that sense, and we can grow in India as well as in US.

US, if you want to invest, there will be a lot of money that will be required to invest in those kind of capacities.

Got it. Okay.

I think management is very clear in terms of that.

Got it. If you look at the US business, what kind of growth you can actually envisage on a steady-state basis, sir?

Of course, let's say that all these things go by, what kind of—

Lakshminarayanan ji, all of a sudden the tariff issue was there, then we faced those problem, and then this Iran war that has created some kind of issues. These are a lot of many challenges, and in addition to that, what has happened in the market in last 2 years, even hiring people has become a big challenge in the process.

Many such issues are being addressed, and kind of a growth we can expect is, as we always say, US we don't expect at least at this juncture about 8% to 10%, beyond 8% to 10% of growth.

Got it. In case we are unable to grow, we may be losing some client because the clients would be looking for raw materials, and if we don't provide, would it not be a challenge for you because if you are looking at a growth and for some reason you are unable to ship, your end clients would then look for alternate source, correct?

I think business has a lot of many challenges, but as we are into business, we have to address all these challenges, and that's what we have been doing. Yes, when you have several challenges, you have to really work very hard to see that how you can sustain and you can have a sustainable growth in the process, and at the same time you make good money.

Got it. Okay.

Thank you, sir. I'll come back in queue.

Sir, I think it's a decent set of numbers in difficult times. We had projected, I think, yearly growth of 13% to 15% over the next 3 to 5 years, sir.

Do you think we can close this year at least 12% plus, sir, in the balance three quarters?

As of now, we feel yes. Even this quarter we lost around ₹10 crore because of the sales reversal, which will come in the next quarter.

As of now, we think we should be able to grow in double-digit.

If you add the incremental

reversal—

Sorry, okay. Go ahead.

Sir, aap complete kijiye,

sir. Nahi, I was just telling as Mukund has mentioned, this particular quarter we have incremental sales reversal.

That means if we add ₹10 crores in ₹190 crores, at least we had a ₹200 crores in this quarter. This is roughly 8% kind of a growth.

As we progress, we are confident that we shall be able to achieve the kind of a growth numbers which we have shared with you in past. Right.

What about the cost trajectory, sir, because I think most of our inputs including energy, it was at inflated levels this quarter. Do you think these costs have come under control from the Q2 onwards, sir?

Yes, because that will definitely improve because of operational efficiency.

If I may just ask a last question, sir. We are going in for a buyback of approximately 1.4 crore shares, and I see that we have a ESOP pending conversions of around 2.5 crore shares.

Is it the right figure, sir, have I got it right?

No, sir. I don't know crore shares.

Where did you get these numbers?

14 lakh shares.

Yeah, 14 14 million shares, ₹70 crores ka na, sir, buyback? Approximately that will be the—

1.4 million, 14 lakh shares.

14 lakh shares. Okay.

The ESOPs is 25 lakh shares, correct?

Total scheme 25 lakh.

Pending conversion?

ESOP scheme was for 25 lakh, but so far we have granted, I think, in two different tranches about, I think, 11 lakh shares only. Those shares will also vest over a period of 5 years.

Still there is a lot of time left.

Sir. This will be open market buyback which will start on 14th August?

Yeah.

Sir. Thank you.

Best wishes for the year, sir.

Hi, sir. Good afternoon.

Am I audible?

Please. I think some disturbance is there, but then I think we will have to bear with that and we'll try to see that what best we can do.

Please go ahead. Sir.

Not a problem. Yes.

Sure, sir. Sir, the first question that I had was when you mention about your change in US strategy and focusing on brands, some quarters back you had mentioned that your customers have your name on their products, which helps them sell their product better.

Now when you say that you want to move more from a B2B to a B2C business, is that understanding correct or would you want to be in a B2B business but focus on the brand? If yes, then how will that work?

I think business will not change. Only thing, even in B2B when you sell ingredient, there you sometimes say very specific that this is what is my ingredient.

When you put a label, use my this particular name as ingredient.

Okay. How is this expected to help us in our business?

Then it becomes sticky business, no, in that sense? Once the label done with your name, then it becomes kind of a sticky business.

Understood. Sir, if you could break the human nutrition business between India and international, that would be great.

I think I've given the numbers, but I will repeat for you. India business this quarter was ₹580 million as compared to ₹699 in quarter four of FY26 and ₹659 in quarter one of FY26.

International sales was ₹559 million as compared to ₹582 in Q4 and ₹562 in Q1 of FY26. Total from this segment is about ₹1,139 million as compared to ₹1,281 million in the previous quarter of Q4, and Q1 was ₹1,221 million.

Okay. Understood.

Thank you so much for repeating. Sir, just last one question in terms of the competitive intensity that we have in terms of our largest product, has it gone away for good or is it still continuing?

In terms of pricing, if last year the pricing was 100 at this time in Q1, what would be the pricing right now?

Pricing is better in this quarter quarter because we have increased some prices, it's better in that sense. Realization is better than Q4 and Q1 of last year.

Can you quantify it roughly in range?

I think that's what we were saying that when we discuss in the past also, few things we would not like to discuss on the concall, please.

Not a problem. Sir, any view on biocatalysis segment?

Biocatalysis number ₹45 million during this quarter as compared to ₹44 million in the last quarter of Q4.

Right. We were planning to get into intermediates business, I think 1 year back, to grow this biocatalysis piece, but then we decided not to go for that.

Now how do we plan to grow this segment? It's considered to be one of the high-growth segments, right?

It's still the high-growth segment for us, and this year we expect in the second half good growth should come from this area.

All right. Thank you so much and wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

Can you just explain me what we mentioned about this ₹10 crore sales reversal? Is it sales which have got canceled, or sales which have not been booked, or how does this entire cycle work?

Ravi, it's the sale in the transit, which is not reached to the customer.

Achha.

The material is already booked, but a lot of export shipments, it really didn't reach to the customer.

Okay.

Please go ahead, Ravi.

No, sorry. Please finish, Rauka ji.

No,

I was saying that revenue recognition happens when the risk and reward is transferred to the customers. It was on ship.

It is not delivered to the customer, you cannot recognize as the revenue.

Every quarter you have a sales reversal, but this time it was—

Incremental by 10—

Incremental by ₹10 crore. Impact is more by—

Okay. That should get normalized or matlab the material would have already reached the customer now?

Yeah.

Okay. Sir, if you could kind of share some thoughts on how are we kind of looking at scaling up products which we have outside of serratio, right?

Serratio has been one very large product for us and our dependence on it doing well is disproportionately higher, right, in any given year. Koi saal mein if that product does well, the company's overall growth looks better, and if that kind of drops off significantly, the growth kind of tapers off.

Can you just share what are the opportunities, where are we kind of seeing newer products coming out of or if you could just kind of throw some light on this?

Ravi, we are working on very different industries. We are growing very well in the food areas.

We are working on the protein solubilization, all of those other areas. I don't want to name the product, but those are going to be also the potential products.

We are working in all the other areas and we'll see how it grows.

Okay. Great.

Thanks a lot and all the best, sir.

Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon, sir. I had a question on the US business.

Although you mentioned that it's been flat, the currency depreciation has been in rupee terms it is flat, we're definitely seeing, I would assume, some volume declines there. I'm trying to understand are we not having the right product or what is going on?

Some clarity on what the strategy is going forward. Rauka ji did mention about the branding, but I would think that the existing business is declining and just trying to understand what is declining over there, what is not working out, just some color on that.

Currency decline, if you really talk about the USD, is about 4% decline. Rupee has depreciated by 4% on Q-on-Q basis.

On year-on-year basis, it is declined by I think 10%, 10% depreciation.

Right. That's what my question was trying to understand where we're losing out.

Is our product not in demand anymore, or are we not having enough products to sell, or what is the strategy to fix? Also Deepak Rodda, I would believe was looking at some of the US marketing, is that something that we need to fill up in terms of position if you could give some color around that, cuz you're not very clear since a while?

Sometimes the sales doesn't come in this quarter, sometimes it goes to the other quarters as well, right? We need to wait and see how the things progresses, and maybe then we can talk more on this.

As of now, it's very premature.

Okay. Because I'm talking over a period of time we have lost business, right?

Not just this quarter is what I'm mentioning, so—

I think earlier we have explained you that we are expecting 8% to 10% of growth in our US business. That is what I think I already mentioned to you.

The reason that why there's a steady numbers in US, I think that also I explained you because of geopolitical issues, and then again as explained to you, we are working on several brandings. All this is taking its time.

As we progress, we will get more clarity, and I think we expect that we shall be having a better growth in the coming quarters, and I think by the end of the year it should be about 8% or so.

Okay. That's good to know, sir.

Any new products that we have launched, if you could highlight any changes there or it's more of the same product that we're branding it and doing a different sales strategy there?

I think I am not getting your question. Can—

No, my question is, any new products that we have launched in the US that you think will bring the 8% growth, or is it the sales strategy change where you're looking at that branding which will lead to the 8% growth?

This happened over a period of time, the changes in the strategies, because as the market dynamics happens, we have to also see that what best we should do to keep our progress continue. This is not 1-day task, and it is shaping up gradually.

Okay. Last question was on the SciTech Labs.

If you could share any updates on that, what we're doing, any testing that's already happening there, any color would be helpful.

SciTech Labs, I think we have already explained that we are doing a lot of lab-related work, but it is not yet fully functional under that particular name because we have to still work on transferring the assets and all that. As such, whatever work is related to that particular activity is being undertaken by the company.

Okay. That's all from my end.

Thank you.

Hello, am I audible?

Yeah. Please.

I understand that EBITDA margins were softer this quarter on account of higher energy cost. For the rest of the year, do we expect to recover this to our historical levels or do we feel that it's still going to be subdued?

Yes, we expect that it shall come back to the normal level of about 30% of EBITDA.

Okay. The full-year number, we expect 30% to be achieved at least, along with the growth guidance that you gave.

In terms of working capital, what is our inventory position as on Q1?

We'll come back with you this number. Anything else?

No, that's it. Thank you.

Hello, am I audible?

Yeah. Sir,

I just wanted to understand that when we look the numbers of the Indian geography, both on YoY and the quarter-on-quarter the numbers are down. When we look at the Europe geography, the numbers were around 40% both YoY and quarter-on-quarter.

I just wanted to understand what worked in Europe and what didn't work in India, and which end market is driving the growth in the Europe?

Europe you mean to say Evox?

Yes. When I look the quarter numbers of the European market, we are seeing around ₹13 crores of revenue in Q1, which is up around 43% YoY and 38% Q-on-Q.

What is driving this kind of growth in Europe, which end market?

Can you please repeat your question, otherwise?

Yeah. I just want to understand what is driving the 40% growth in the European market.

Which end market is driving that kind of growth? That is one.

European market, the major growth is coming from the food area. Let's not look into the quarter-on-quarter.

Because you can't predict every quarter what will be the order size and other things. The second sales happen through Evox, which is more like the R&D company, and there you should consider the revenue more or less flat.

Okay. What challenges we had in India market for this particular quarter?

Sorry?

What were the challenges in the India market? I'm saying what was the challenges in the India market in this particular quarter?

Just don't look into this quarter-on-quarter. I would say that the first quarter was dull this time because of some price increases and other things.

It takes some time to regroup and get back to the growth. Don't look into the quarter-on-quarter.

We can see now the robust pipeline of the sales order and other things. That's what I can say.

Okay. On the last bit when you say that you are expecting a double-digit growth, this growth would be coming from the new products or from the existing products?

It's always a combination.

Okay. Just sort of to understand in which areas we are launching our new products, which end market?

Is it food or is it biofuel, something?

We are expanding the areas. We are expanding the product in the biocatalyst area, we are expanding some of the products into the animal feed areas, and we are expanding in ruminant area, in food areas besides baking.

There are a lot of different industry which we started working. We are also increasing our presence in detergent area.

Okay. Thank you.

That is helpful.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, could you share what is the status of the novel food application that we had? In the last quarter, you had mentioned that we are likely to receive the approval.

Is there an update on that one?

It's still under considerations. It's a long process, you never know.

It takes sometimes early, sometimes the question comes up and then you had to reply. In some of the cases, earlier when we were filing for the infant food, we are still waiting from 2014.

Maybe it depends on the authorities, maybe 6 month to year. As of now, that's where it stands.

You're referring to the novel food ingredient or the other applications, sir?

Can you please repeat?

I'm asking, are you referring to the novel food ingredient or the other applications?

Right now we are waiting for EFSA approval. I guess you ask for the novel food approval, right?

We are waiting for that. Maybe 3 months to 6 months, we should wait.

Ultimately, it depends on the authorities, right? You submit all the questions and then they may come back again with some question.

This is on and off is going on. We'll wait and see.

Right. In terms of introducing new products which could contribute meaningfully to our top line, if you could help us give some examples in the past maybe couple of years, which new products, not by the names, but at least by the applications where you have introduced and that has significantly contributed to the top line.

It will give us a sense whether we're introducing newer products because, as a lot of participants have been telling that over the past decade, our growth has been pretty muted even after doing significant acquisitions. We're not really growing organically, inorganically, whatever way we see it.

We just like to understand that new products are being developed which could help propel the growth in the future.

We are extremely sorry, there's a lot of disturbance, probably it is with our instrument and unfortunately we are not able to hear you out properly. Please excuse us and we'll try again if you can repeat your question.

Go slowly, there's a lot of disturbance, I don't know why.

Sure, I'll try to go slowly. I was asking if you could give us some examples of new products that we have introduced in the last few years which are now contributing to our top line, reason being in the past decade or so, our growth has been pretty muted even after doing so many acquisitions.

The growth is not really coming through and hence what I'm requesting, if you could help us understand what kind of products we've introduced in the last couple of years and what products are we likely to introduce in the coming couple of years? See,

I couldn't hear you clearly, but I will explain what I understand little bit from your question. We don't track product-to-product sales, that's the first thing, I won't be able to give you the exact number what is the revenue coming from the last 2-3 years products as of now.

Your second question probably is how many products we are under the working. We are always working the new molecules, there are always 15-20 molecules under the pipeline and few of them are always coming every quarter.

That's how it works, but I don't have exact numbers or question exactly, but you can go with this probably as of now.

Okay. Another question is on the margins.

Now if we see the last 10 to 11 years, our margins used to be in the 40s and now it has dropped to 30s and we're expecting to remain at that level. Now is there a possibility that our margins could go up and the reasons could be that you are introducing or coming up with better solutions and products for customers, which must be in the development or R&D right now?

Is there a possibility?

See, R&D always help in increasing the margins, but as of now, we will just like to continue that we will be having a 30% to 32% of margin, EBITDA margin, and that is what we are saying. In R&D, we are always will increase our pace to increase the productivity as well, okay?

All right, sir. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Hi, team. Couple of questions.

First one on the— Hold on,

hold on. Operator, can you please disconnect and can you take us back into the line?

There is a lot of disturbance.

Hi, team. I was asking a few questions.

First one was related to the status of the three patent applications which we have registered for sugar management, mitigation of gluten intolerance, and biocatalysis.

Yeah. What is the question?

Sir,

the status. How far have we reached, and do you think that these are—

We need to check, but I guess we got one patent on alternansucrase on the sugar management, we already granted US patent. On the protein as well, I guess I need to check, but I guess we got that one too, and the third one is under the process.

Then what sort of opportunity can it get to us in number-wise, revenue-wise?

The patents are filed with a lot of different intentions. Some of them are with the intention that when you carry out the research, no one should stop you from doing development.

Some of them are the marketing patents so that no one can do this. There are a lot of different approaches while filing the patents.

The sugar management patent is good with respect to marketing, and the another one as well on the protein. We are using those patents for the good marketing, and I guess both of them have a good potential.

The third one is more like a R&D patent.

Mm-mm. Anything on the addressable market that you must have done some rough work on?

When we talk about sugar management, there is a big market. It can go with the GLP-1 studies and all the others and all those things.

I don't want to get into the numbers, and as of now, we are working on the branding and other things. The second one is all the protein hydrolysis and other areas, which we are getting some sales started in this quarter, the current quarter, and we will see how it goes up into the next quarter and next to next quarter, and then we can predict more on that.

The third one I already said, right?

JC Bio was exploring some options in algal DHA, they were working on docosahexaenoic acid. Any developments over there, any insights that you would like to share, or the opportunity size for us?

Sorry, can you repeat?

I fetched this from the annual report, algal DHA, JC Biotech was working on that.

DHA, yeah. No, we are not going forward with the DHA as of now, which was a JC Biotech's molecule.

As of now, we are not really working on that at current level.

Mm-mm. Do you think that the project will be revived in near future, or is it a cost which is gone already and forgotten?

See, once our new R&D facility comes up, we will look into it again because those are the different processes, and we were just thinking should we go into that or not, or focus more into our core areas. As of now, JC Biotech facility, we are having a lot of shortages at JC because there we can handle a lot of solvents and other things.

We are also increasing our capacity as of now, and then we will see.

Okay. Last question on bioenergy boom and the demand for the enzymes.

We see the top player has been slightly aggressive over there. What is our stand in this domain?

Because I know we're working on this enzyme, but then by when do you anticipate that we should start getting revenues from here?

No, so as of now, we don't have any revenues into this area. We are still under the development of the products, and I think it's always a priorities which products you need to go quickly and which not.

Maybe after this R&D facility, which will be maybe next year we'll relook into that, not right now.

Sir. Thank you for answering my question.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. My questions are answered.

One gentleman asked about the inventory and working capital days. Inventory 30th June '26 was about ₹190 crores and we had a receivable of about ₹131 crores and payables were about ₹41 crores, ₹280 crore was roughly invested in the working capital.

In terms of number of days, generally, our working capital cycle is about 125 to 138 days.

No, sir. No question.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening.

Thanks for the opportunity. I hope I'm audible.

Nikhil ji. Go ahead.

If we look at last four quarters or five quarters in fact, I'm just trying to understand this growth trajectory. Like for June '25, September, March, we had a strong growth of 20% plus, and what we see is it was across segments.

All the segments were growing significantly well. Now in this quarter, even if I adjust for that ₹10 crore reversal, the growth comes to around 8%.

Now how should we understand what happened last year? Was it many of those projects got commercialized in 1 year and now that becomes the base on which we build the business again, or were these one-time projects which came in, which supported that high kind of a growth, which is not there this year?

If you could just give some sense on what happened last year and—

Nikhil ji, let's not get into the quarter-on-quarter, and I won't say that you need to compare every quarter to the last year to this quarter, there is always a change. Yes, this time it is affected with the sales reversal as well, and you're right if we consider that it's 8%.

There was slow quarter on the pharma side as well this quarter, and probably we expect a strong momentum from the next quarter because sometimes there are some inventory issues and some other issues which all accounts at the customer level, at your levels, and all of those are the components. Let's not get into the quarter-on-quarter.

I would say that still we are on the track, and that's what I need to mention as of now.

Sure, sir. I understand.

The reason I put that context on that quarter was because our business is not supposed to be so much variable because once we've given Hello?

Am I audible now?

Yes, better.

Yeah. The only context which I brought in was, see, our business is not as such a very variable kind of a business because, as I understand, once we've given a product or we are part of a chemistry or a process, that product or process will continue until unless we lose a customer.

To that extent, then this kind of a variability should not be there. Once a base is set, that base should be set and then we build the business over it.

I'm just trying to understand, is that the right understanding or is this not the proper way?

Nikhil ji, you're right. Generally, 70% to 80% customers are always constant, 20% to 30% is changing in our business, and that is right.

At the same time, I would say that quarter-on-quarter you cannot just go on and say that last quarter it was this, what happened. Sometimes you get some quick sales as well and sometimes you don't get.

That's all what it is. Those are comes under those 20%, 30%, right?

Let's not get into the quarter-on-quarter, and that's what I want to highlight out here.

Thank you everyone for taking your valuable time for attending our earnings conference call. We'll keep you all posted for any further updates.

I request you all to kindly send in your questions that may remain unanswered. An audio recording and the transcript of this call will be uploaded on our website in due course.

Looking forward you all to host in the next quarter. Till then, stay healthy, stay safe.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you so much.

Bye-bye.