Cohance Lifesciences Ltd

Cohance Lifesciences Ltd

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Q4 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 12, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 and FY26 earnings conference call of Cohance Lifesciences Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

Should you need assistance during this conference, 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 Ms. Cyndrella Carvalho.

Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.

Cyndrella Carvalho

Thanks, Darwin. Good evening and good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining Cohance Lifesciences' Quarter 4 and FY26 earnings call. Today, we welcome our Executive Chairman and Group CEO, Mr.

Umang Vohra, on his first earnings call with Cohance. Joining me today are Mr.

Yann, our CEO Pharma CDMO; Mr. Gunjan, our CEO API Plus; Mr.

Amrit, our Head Specialty Chemical; and Mr. Himanshu Agarwal, Whole-Time Director and Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today discussion may include forward-looking statements. With that, I will hand it over to Umang for his opening remarks.

Umang Vohra

Thank you, Cyndrella, and good evening to everyone on the call. I am very happy to be here.

Having spent over three decades in this industry, I'm excited to be part of a platform that is anchored in science with capabilities such as ADCs and oligonucleotides, which are well differentiated and hard to replicate in terms of a value offering. Cohance is well positioned to be such a platform.

It is also important to acknowledge the team behind the platform. The colleagues on this call along with the broader leadership group and our 640 scientists who bring this science to life everyday represent a strong foundation.

My immediate priority over the next few months will be to spend time with our teams, customers, and sites. By the end of this fiscal year, the intent is to create a strategic blueprint for growth and sustainable value creation.

Over the next few years, we intend to focus Cohance's capabilities and science on the predictability of delivery backed by our strong quality and systems, a deep talent pool, and a pipeline that matters to our partners and our patients. With that, I will hand it over to Yann.

Yann D'Herve

Thank you, Umang. Good evening, everyone.

The pharma CDMO business reported revenue of 8.9 or ₹8.89 billion for FY26. Adjusting for the destocking impact in the two large commercial molecules, the business delivered an underlying growth of early single digit.

Commercial products contributed more than 70% of standalone pharma CDMO revenues in FY26. Overall, we have more than 140 active projects across the pharma CDMO standalone portfolio covering both development and commercial programs.

On small molecules, while FY26 was impacted by customer inventory adjustments, order phasing, and slower reloads, engagement with customers for both the large commercial products currently under destocking continues to remain steady. We added one new Phase 3 lateral program in small molecules with a large innovator along with one program each in ADC and oligonucleotide advancing into Phase 3.

With two programs progressing towards commercialization, the total Phase 3 pipeline now stands at 10 programs. Within the Phase 3 pipeline, one program is under priority review and another is awaiting clinical data readouts expected in calendar year '26.

Of the two programs that recently entered commercialization, we have recently received orders for one involving four intermediates with the other that is also expected to contribute during FY27. Reload conversion remains quite high, above 90%, and new business conversion with innovator pharma and biotech customers continue to be healthy.

On ADCs, customer interest continues in payloads, linker programs. In FY26, we have filed three payload DMFs, and many additional payload linker filings are underway.

We are also seeing traction in newer payload platforms, including exatecan-linked opportunities. During the year, we initiated work on adjacent payload platforms based on customer inquiries.

At NJ Bio, we continue to expand our integrated ADC capabilities. The platform has successfully completed the first bioconjugation campaign during Q4 '26, cGMP.

Expansion work of $10 million capex at the NJ Bio US facility is progressing to support future scale-up, Phase 2 requirements, and patient readiness. In oligonucleotide segment, through the year, Sapala platform, we have received a follow-on purchase order.

The cGMP oligonucleotide building block facility is under validation. Several customer qualifications and higher complexity RFPs are progressing.

During the last few months, we completed more than 20-plus audits and customer visits from large- and mid-sized innovator pharma and biotech customers. Several of these included senior customer teams visiting our facilities.

To summarize, FY26 revenues were impacted by restocking, customer inventory adjustments, and delayed reloads. However, RFQ activity, customer audits, late-stage programs, and pipeline-building work continues.

The focus for FY27 is execution, order conversion, and delivery visibility. With that, I will hand over to Gunjan.

Gunjan Singh

Thank you, Yann, and good evening, everyone. The API Plus business reported revenues of ₹10.88 billion in FY26, reflecting a decline of 8% year-on-year.

The softer performance was due to product-specific factors, shipment delays, and temporary disruptions at the Nacharam formulation site. However, performance through the second half improved sequentially as the supply execution stabilized, the customer engagement strengthened, and the order conversion improved across key markets.

In API, the portfolio continues to remain broad and differentiated. Our top 15 leadership products contribute around half of the API revenues, and eight of our top 10 molecules continue to hold leadership positions.

The business remains supported by niche, small- to mid-volume products, diversified customer relationships, cost competitiveness, and backward integration capabilities. During the year, the demand across therapies remained largely stable with growth primarily volume-led.

While select mature molecules experienced pricing pressure, this was substantially mitigated through higher volumes, operating efficiencies, portfolio expansion, and focused cost actions. Importantly, the challenges during FY26 were concentrated around a limited set of products and customer-specific situations rather than reflecting any structural weakness in the portfolio.

As highlighted over the course of the year, we've continued to strengthen our development pipeline and diversify the revenue base. During FY26, we completed 10 new filings and validated six more new products.

We also advanced multiple new customer engagements, including lifecycle management opportunities with European customers, which are expected to scale progressively over the medium term. The breath of the pipeline today is materially stronger than it was a year ago and provides a broader platform for future growth.

On the formulation side, revenues were impacted by approximately ₹610 million during FY26 due to the temporary disruptions at our Nacharam site and the associated shipment defers. Production and US supplies have since resumed, and remediation actions implemented over the past several months are strengthening quality and operating systems at the site.

While utilization levels are still normalizing, customer engagement and order visibility has steadily improved. In parallel, we have continued to actively manage supply chain continuity through alternate site strategies and closer customer coordination.

We expect further normalization over the coming quarters as execution stabilizes and the order book progressively converts into shipment. On the business front, we shifted five launches, we supported five launches during the year while additional two launches moved into the next quarter based on customer timelines.

Further, there are a few very interesting and differentiated opportunities in our formulation business that are shaping up. Most of these are leveraging our integrated API and FDFA.

Overall, API Plus enters FY27 from a significantly more stable operating base. The focus now is on accelerating volume growth, improving asset utilization, expanding customer engagement across both APIs and formulations, and converting the strengthened pipeline into commercial scale-up opportunity over the medium term.

With that, I hand over to Amrit. 3 billion in FY26, a marginal decline of—

Operator

Amrit sir, sorry to interrupt. We missed some of your audio.

Requested to please restart.

Amrit Singh

Okay.

Operator

Thank you, sir.

Amrit Singh

I'm starting from specialty chemical this thing. Specialty chemicals reported revenue of ₹2.913 billion in FY26, a marginal decline of 2.1% year-on-year.

The business was impacted by customer program phasing, regulatory timing, and generics pressure. In agrochemical, we continue to work on active ingredient and advanced intermediates.

During the year, we saw progress in qualification campaigns, registration sample work, and new lab scale programs. Engagement continues with large global agrochemical innovators across qualification work, registration sample, and advanced intermediate programs.

In the performance chemical business, photochrome coating application remains relatively stable. The OLED business is going through a product cycle transition.

We are also seeing early-stage engagement in electronic materials and semiconductor link chemistries. These are still at an evaluation stage and will take time to scale.

For FY27, the focus is on converting customer qualifications, RFQs, and confirmed orders into revenue. FY27 will be a qualification and readiness year for parts of the portfolio with supplies expected to build as customer programs progress, growth to return in FY28.

With that, I will hand it over to Himanshu. Thank you.

Himanshu Agarwal

Thank you, Amrit. Good evening, everyone.

Let me take you through the financial performance. For FY26, revenue stood at ₹22.68 billion, a decline of approximately 13% year-on-year.

The adjusted EBITDA stood at ₹4.77 billion. EBITDA margin stood at 21% while our standalone adjusted EBITDA margin were at 24.6%.

Q4 and FY26 performance were in line with the guidance we had shared last quarter. Gross margin was at 70.8%.

This was supported by product mix, backward integration, cost actions, and benefit of INR depreciation. Operating margins were impacted by lower volumes, continued investment in business, and weak performance by subsidiaries.

Towards the end of Q4, uncertainties in the Middle East region led to escalation in logistics and freight cost along with selective inflation in certain raw materials and key starting materials. While Q4 did not witness any material impact from the situation, Q1 will experience impact of nearly 100 to 150 bps on our FY26 gross margin levels, largely on account of API Plus business.

We are under discussions with some of our customers to share part of this cost inflation. Capex during the year was ₹2.515 billion.

This was focused on ADC, oligonucleotide, manufacturing infrastructure, and our quality systems. We expect capex spend of nearly ₹3 billion in FY27.

Free cash generated in FY26 stood at ₹1.73 billion. In FY27, growth will return from second half of FY27 onwards.

Quarter 1 FY27 is to be low on both revenue and EBITDA, largely on account of revenue schedules skewed towards second half, escalation in logistics and input cost arising from the Middle East geopolitical situation, as well as higher operating cost. Improvement in EBITDA should become visible in the second half as the volumes recover, order conversion improves, and product mix normalize.

We believe the business is moving towards a bottoming out phase with Quarter 1 FY27 to be the low point. We expect recovery becoming more visible from second half of FY27, supported by execution on existing programs, customer conversions, reloads, and improving utilization across the platform.

With that, I'll hand it back to Cyndrella.

Cyndrella Carvalho

Thank you, Himanshu. We will now open the floor for question and answers.

Operator

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, 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 the question queue, you may press star and two.

Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. We will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

Our first question is from the line of Karthi from Suyash Advisors. Please go ahead.

Yeah.

Karthi Keyan

Good evening, gentlemen. Mr.

Umang, welcome to Cohance. If the stock price is any indication, your presence is greatly appreciated.

I had just a couple of clarifications. One is if you could for FY26 that is split the CDMO revenues into ADCs, small molecules, Sapala and NJ, and give an outlook for '27 and beyond.

A detail to that would be what is the contribution expected from the two products which saw big draw down last year? What would be the likely contribution from the two new products which have been commercialized?

Sajal,

Himanshu Agarwal

I'll answer part of the question—Karthi, sorry for that. I'll answer part of the question and then I'll hand it over to Jan.

From the contribution of the two large molecules, commercial molecules that we've seen destocking, as communicated earlier, the impact is around 260 crores.

Karthi Keyan

Yes. I said how much of that is likely to return in FY27.

The two new products, what could be the likely contribution? That was my question.

Himanshu Agarwal

Yeah. From a return, we are in active discussion with both the customers.

We expect there would be a return in both these molecules. However, you will have to allow us to have meaningful conversations crystallize into orders before we communicate to you on the actual amount.

On the new products, Okay. Sorry, please.

Karthi Keyan

Fair. You're saying there is no visibility as on date, that's what I am to take away, right?

Himanshu Agarwal

No, what I'm saying right now to you is there is a visibility because we are in conversations with the customers. What I cannot confirm to you is the value at this stage.

I can confirm to you that we are expecting both these molecules to return back to us in FY27.

Karthi Keyan

Okay. You were talking about the other two new products added to the commercial portfolio.

Himanshu Agarwal

I'll ask Yann to contribute and answer that.

Karthi Keyan

Yeah.

Yann D'Herve

With regard to the two new products that have been approved, as indicated in my speech, we have received four commercial orders for four key starting materials with regard to one of the commercial drug, right? That's revenue that will appear mostly in Q2 FY27 and in Q3 FY27.

With regard to the second product that has been approved, we are in active discussion in order to determine when those will be delivered. Right.

Karthi Keyan

Sure. Would you be able to call out the contribution of ADC to your CDMO revenue this year, FY26 that is, and what is the likely growth in FY27?

Umang Vohra

I think we are not providing that color right now. As we reassess the strategy, maybe a few months later, we could consider that.

At this point, we're not providing that color.

Karthi Keyan

Sure. One last thing before I get back in the queue, sir.

Would you be able to provide the breakup of the one-time expenses over the last 2 years, roughly about ₹109 crore? Can you break that down so we have a clear understanding of the nature of these one-offs?

Himanshu Agarwal

Karthi, your line is slightly

Umang Vohra

No, he wants to know the breakdown. Maybe you can just tell him this year's.

Yeah. I will give you.

Yeah.

Himanshu Agarwal

I'll tell you about this year. I think this year this year on one-time expenses, there are two large elements.

One is that we have taken a one-off inventory provision, which is around 195 million. We've also provided for certain customer adjustments that's in the range of around 126 million.

On to the point of ADC and oligo, we've called out in the presentation that our niche tech as a percentage of revenue is 16.2% for the full year.

Karthi Keyan

Sure. Thanks and best wishes.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star then one.

Our next question is from the line of Shyam Srinivasan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Shyam Srinivasan

Thank you for taking my question and good evening, team. Welcome, Umang.

I think first question is just on from a forward-looking perspective, I think I've seen the guidance that has been mentioned on the opening remarks and in the presentation. Q1 is supposed to be weak and second half recovery.

Just if you could share other than the base effect, is there anything tangible or qualitative that you could add? If you could also give color across the three segments as well, Spec Chem, API Plus, and CDMO, please?

Himanshu Agarwal

Shyam, this is Himanshu. See, at this stage, as we've said, that the second half would be when we would see the growth returning, right?

The first half is weak with Quarter 1 in particular weak with both revenue and EBITDA. We do expect that in the order of revenue, it would be API followed by CDMO and followed by Spec Chem.

That would be the order. I would not be able to give you more dimension on it.

That's essentially what we are looking at. Quarter 1 would be low.

The Quarter 2 is our understanding where we expect the Quarter 2 to be stable. Then, H2 is where we're calling out growth moving forward.

Shyam Srinivasan

Thank you, Himanshu. Just second question to Umang from your own vantage point.

You have spent so much time in the pharma industry. Sir, what are some of the things that you have, I know it's been a short time since you've been at Cohance, but just want to understand, just to double click on your role and what are some of the best practices you think you would like to bring, or is it just enhancing already existing systems, just some philosophical thoughts around the path forward for Cohance?

Umang Vohra

If I was to broadly, and again, look, I'm sorry, please don't hold me to it. It's been nine days or 10 days, but it seems to me that Cohance has attentioned significant places or significant portions of the value chain in the ADC, oligonucleotide chemistry.

I think there are some that we will continue to augment and build so as to offer a value offering that is probably unique and maybe more integrated. That's one of the things that we will do.

I think there are some chemistries on the small molecule on the API and the API Plus side, which are pretty unique to what Cohance does, which are around the areas of colored compounds, around certain types of chemistries which are important for Cohance. I think the intention is to build these further while improving the product offering here.

I think basically the capabilities of science, the capabilities of the ability to offer differentiation is what I think Cohance would position itself to do. Linked to that would be operating leverage that hopefully will come out from the business as we begin to get more revenue, and we begin to optimize the type of expenditures that the business has invested in over the past couple of quarters.

I think that I see those as important areas to go. It's really about embedding Cohance into the value chain of new drugs as well as, off-patent and unique drugs that exist in our marketplace.

Shyam Srinivasan

Thank you, sir, and all the best.

Umang Vohra

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sajal Kapoor from Antifragile Thinking.

Please go ahead.

Sajal Kapoor

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions.

Hi, team. Now with Umang on board and some reshuffling and some rethinking will invariably happen.

As shareholders, we look forward to some growth. Can I just clarify that when we say H2, from current fiscal of H2 we will revert back to growth, will we be measuring ourselves against the previous YoY basis or the FY25, which was the last growth Q3 and Q4 of fiscal '25?

Are we benchmarking our growth or expecting that growth to come on that base, the higher base? Yeah.

Himanshu Agarwal

Sajal, this is Himanshu. I think the growth would be on a year-on-year basis, okay?

I think that's important for us to relate to, right? Having said that, I'm not saying that there may or may not be a growth versus the previous to previous year.

I think what we must understand, and I think I mentioned that to Karthi, that there is a large commercial which got dropped in the FY26. As that we're ramping up our commercial.

Our Phase 3 pipeline, as we've called out, has moved up to 10. From the nine, it moved to 10 with two molecules moving out into commercial.

We've actually added three molecules into the pipeline. The commercial gets strengthened.

However, it does take time for the commercial to improve or for the innovators to make these products commercial. Therefore, we would see a lag effect on the revenue.

That's essentially what we are looking at from our business perspective.

Sajal Kapoor

Sure. Sure.

Look, that's helpful. If I could just conclude with my second question.

What is likely to be the hardest decision for you as a team you will need to make at Cohance in the next 18 to 12 months? Because, see, ours is a regulated business.

It's a relationship-based business where trust compounds over many years with our customers. In that context, what do you think is the biggest priority for the team to sort of rebuild that confidence both with regulators and the customers so that when we get back to growth, we stay in growth mode for a very long period?

Thank you.

Umang Vohra

There I can think of two things or maybe three. Let me put out three things here.

One is the operational rigor. When we have the green light to go, we can't be short of capacities.

We can't be short of product robustness, and the quality systems have to be strong. The second point is customer relationships have to deepen.

Like Himanshu was mentioning, there are some places where they're beginning to see diversified customer base and diversified customer orders coming in versus our historical reliance on one or two customers. I think the third is just the science engine.

We need to keep progressing our science engine, whether it's in the area of ADCs and oligonucleotides and other amidite chemistries to even beyond into regular solid dose chemistry and solid dose capabilities. I think pushing the science envelope, which in means talent, pushing a quality envelope and the robustness of our offering, right, as well as pushing the ability to create and sustain long-term relationships, I think those are the three things around which I think we will be making decisions going forward.

I don't know if we're at a point where we will make tough decisions at this stage, but wherever a tough decision is needed on where we allocate capital, it's likely to be in these three areas.

Sajal Kapoor

Thank you. Thank you, Umang.

Wish you a very long and productive career here at Cohance. Thank you so much.

Umang Vohra

Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Siddharth Diggandi with CWC.

Please go ahead.

Siddharth Diggandi

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Umang, you just mentioned about a certain program concentration.

If you could share the program and customer concentration in revenue for each of the three segments? The second would be any specific examples of AI implementation that you are seeing which is enabling you either to get better quality output or get output faster especially in the later stages of your programs?

Lastly, if you could share any color on the FY27 guidance in terms of what growth can one expect and I hear you on the H1 H2 piece.

Umang Vohra

Yann, you'll take the first?

Yann D'Herve

Let me clarify. Could you repeat the question on the customer concentration?

Siddharth Diggandi

Could you share your customer concentration for the CDMO segment by program or molecule and by customer? What's the revenue salience of the top one, top three, and top five customers, top one, top three, and top five molecules?

Yann D'Herve

We don't give these level of details. Nevertheless, I can answer some of the question on customer concentration, right?

You can see that in our results, right? We have had by the past reliance on a few molecules, right, historically.

That's the reason why we are in the situation we are in today, especially on the small molecule side of the business of the CDMO business. This concentration is changing positively year-on-year, meaning that there is less concentration in FY26 than there was in FY25, and there will be less concentration in FY27 versus FY26 as we continue to develop our customer project pipeline.

That's essentially the message. That's one way to derisk long term.

I hand over to Gunjan for the same question, I think, right?

Gunjan Singh

The API Plus case, which is our products business, our top 15 products contribute nearly half of the API revenues there. If I give you a flavor around the kind of customers, nearly 2/3 of the revenues come from customers who are innovators or large global generic or regional leaders in generic space.

Only nearly 1/3 is with smaller customers there.

Siddharth Diggandi

Got it. Any FY27 guidance and any specific AI implementation that is helping you either get through programs faster or get better quality output for any of your programs?

Yann D'Herve

Maybe I can answer. This is Yann here on the AI-related topic, right?

What's important for us is customer centricity and how we support our clients in their projects, huh? That's how we are successful as an organization.

As such, we've implemented some AI tools in order to improve our analysis on essentially our results, right, in order to be able to have proper communication with clients and offer as well opportunities for improvement, huh? That's one example of use of AI tools that we currently have in our platform to support the clients.

Okay?

Gunjan Singh

I'll just add couple of points there. On the AI use, we are in active discussions and evaluating some tools around which can help improve operational efficiencies and can also support us on the regulatory aspects in terms of reducing our time to file and improve the quality of filings there.

Yeah. That's the limited use that we are doing so far.

Additionally, we are also exploring the creation of data lakes and the databases that can help take better and faster decisions going forward, both on operational as well as customer side.

Siddharth Diggandi

Any FY27 guidance across the three Siddharth,

Himanshu Agarwal

this is Himanshu. Yes, we really appreciate the need to give a guidance, but I think you would have to allow us some time to come back and give guidance.

At this stage, I think we are comfortable to share that the growth will return from second half and Quarter 2 would be stable while Quarter 1 is a weak quarter both on revenue and EBITDA.

Siddharth Diggandi

Sure. Thanks, Himanshu.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Ashish from UTI.

Please go ahead.

Ashish Shriram Thavkar

Thanks for the opportunity. Given that between the standalone and the console, there's a differencing the margins.

I wanted to have some details on Sapala and NJ Bio. What is the projected timeline for consolidated margins to return to the historical benchmark of 30%?

If you could give some color around this, would be helpful.

Himanshu Agarwal

Ashish, this is Himanshu. At this stage, one, the results will enable you to get a sense and appreciation of how the standalone and subsidiary results are, right?

That would give you a good indication of the 4% to 5% play that we're looking at it. I think there is recognition that is there.

You've called out that Sapala has a reload on Phase 2, Phase 3, and that would kind of help the Sapala business accelerate from here onwards. On NJ Bio, there is work being progressed with NJ Bio team in terms of bringing the business back to profitability.

As I said, we do need some time to kind of come back to all of you on how this would shape up in the coming year. Maybe I'll ask Yann to further contribute on this subject.

Yann D'Herve

On the NJ Bio situation, right, we have a very important investments that is currently being implemented to be able to support the bioconjugation program to Phase 1, Phase 2, huh. This is where a lot of the value moving forward is.

As such, it takes always some times here because it takes about 1 year to implement plus some time for validation and then being able to execute all the different programs here. Give us here a little bit more than 2 years to get back to this level.

Ashish Shriram Thavkar

This is helpful. Lastly, since you said recovery, the order of recovery would be API first, just wanted to understand the second half recovery that you mentioned, is that dependent a lot on the API segment recovering?

To that extent, what I was trying to understand is the Nacharam formulation facility. What's the kind of dependency that we have when we say it would be a second half recovery?

Ashish,

Himanshu Agarwal

I think what I'd mentioned to Shyam was how we were looking at the H1. When you're looking at recovery from an H2 perspective, we expect the CDMO business to have an accelerated recovery.

In fact, all the three businesses we expect the recovery to be strong in the second half. It's just that the order book is skewed towards the second half, which is why we are looking at weak Quarter 1 and a stable Quarter 2.

Ashish Shriram Thavkar

This helps. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Shreya Chatterjee with Ageless Capital.

Please go ahead.

Shreya Chatterjee

Thank you for taking my question. My first question is just confirming the fact that you had mentioned that there would be four commercial molecule launch in FY27.

I guess two molecules have already launched. Is that in progress, four total molecules to be launched in FY 26 and 27?

Hello.

Yann D'Herve

Yeah. I confirm, right?

Two have launched, right, and we expect the two others to launch, of course, depending on the clinical performance, and we expect these to be known within the next 12, 18 months.

Shreya Chatterjee

Would it be possible to give any color in H2 how much are you expecting from a new commercial molecule launch?

Yann D'Herve

I think Himanshu had provided already the response. We are not yet ready to answer that question.

That will come later.

Shreya Chatterjee

Got it. Also on the new Phase 3 molecule that you have added on the small molecule side and the ADC molecule that you had commercialized, I think, would it be possible to give some color to this two molecules?

Yann D'Herve

Okay. This is Yann again.

Phase 3, we normally don't provide too much color, right? This is early Phase 3.

We need a little bit more time. Even the client might not know himself, right, the kind of volume that is expected here.

Shreya Chatterjee

Got it. Also if it's possible, this question is to Himanshu, to provide the breakdown of other expenses for the full year, which is a big amount, ₹671 crore, if that's possible where the major expenses heads going, a rough breakdown of that amount?

It would be helpful.

Himanshu Agarwal

Shreya, the financials have been declared, and they have the necessary split from that perspective. I'm not sure what additional flavor you're seeking.

If you can help me, then what is possible, we will certainly want to share.

Shreya Chatterjee

What are the major heads of the expenses under other expenses, which is a big amount, ₹671 crore, because our gross margin seems to be quite high, but when we convert it to adjusted EBITDA margin, we're losing out a lot. One part is employee benefit expenses, but then other expenses is also a big head.

Just trying to understand what are the major expense heads currently in FY26. Under other expenses.

Himanshu Agarwal

Yes, large portion of that is the conversion expenditure, Shreya. That's almost in the range of 400-plus crores.

Then, the balance 260 is a function of the marketing expenditure. As you know that we had a merger, and therefore, we were building the brand.

Brand-building expenditure as well as the entire SG&A. Actually, the entire SG&A if you look at it, whether it's the office expenditure, travel expenses, these are all granular expenditure, which is typically there in the business.

Shreya Chatterjee

Got it. Got it.

Thank you. Thank you for taking the question.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one.

Our next question is from the line of Chirag Shah from White Pine Investment Management Private Limited. Please go ahead.

Chirag Shah

Thanks a lot for the opportunity. I have two questions.

Question one on some indication on the vacuum that has got created because of loss of two molecules. Yann, specifically for you, what is being done right now to ensure this kind of vacuum doesn't get created in future?

That's question one I have. A second question, I'll ask once you respond to that.

It's for Umang. The second question is for actually him.

Yann D'Herve

Thank you for the question, right? That's true, huh?

We mentioned it several times. We have a dip because of the high concentration in few molecules and the fact that some are getting close to becoming generics, right?

What do we do about it, right, in order to bring growth, is essentially expansion in term of number of customers and being able to get projects that are later phase in the customer project pipeline to accelerate recovery. That's what we are doing at the moment.

We see good traction with strong funnel that has been multiplied by two essentially in the last 6 months with regard to small molecules that gives us a strong hope that we are going in the right direction here.

Chirag Shah

Okay. Second question for Umang, actually, a slightly different question.

Since you have joined the organization, have you been able to focus on corporate governance and strengthening the processes? Or it has not been on your agenda as of now?

Why I'm asking that in your absence, when you are not there, it's coincidental that certain information and certain investor category have co-aligned in that sense. At the peak, some information has got out and some investors have exited and then re-entered at the bottom of the stock price, and since then again positive announcements have started.

It's a request if you look at the strengthening of corporate governance/information flow, which I believe was happening selectively. I could be absolutely wrong and I hope I am wrong.

If you have not been able to spend time, I would request you to focus on that. That's my second question.

Umang Vohra

No, certainly. I think as part of this role, the governance requirement is paramount, and I will be spending time on that as well in the next few months.

Thank you for raising this.

Chirag Shah

I hope you would be able to update us whenever you can, maybe two quarters down the line on what changes have you made on this side?

Umang Vohra

Yes, absolutely.

Chirag Shah

Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Umang Vohra

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Siddharth Diggandi with CWC.

Please go ahead.

Siddharth Diggandi

Hi. Just a follow-up on the claim that you put in respect of the one-time settlement with the customer.

A, if you could give some color on what that was towards, and does that have any impact or bearing on that customer relationship and therefore likely revenue impact going forward? That was one question.

On the brand-building expenses that were there, therefore do we expect those also to be more one-time in nature and therefore some cost savings on that in FY27 and going forward? That's question two.

Question three is if you could give us a little bit of a breakup on the number of programs that you have underway and breakdown by phase into how many of those are Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and commercial?

Himanshu Agarwal

Siddharth, on your first point, I think the customer settlement is purely commercial. Therefore, given the nature of the settlement, we don't see any impact on the revenue or on the relationship with the customers.

On the second question, yes, we would see a reduction in the marketing expenses given that a part of the brand building has already been done. To that extent, your observation is right.

On the third

Siddharth Diggandi

Could you quantify that? Sorry, I'm interjecting.

Could you quantify that?

Himanshu Agarwal

No, I would not prefer to quantify that at this stage. We do not give specific categories of expenditure.

Yes, there would be a reduction that would happen on that. Yeah.

On your third question, I'm going to request Yann to address that.

Yann D'Herve

Thank you, Himanshu. On the programs, I think we communicate on the Phase 3 and commercial programs quite extensively.

It's part of the quarterly reports as well, right? I think this information is available.

What I can tell you as well is the quality of the programs that we are onboarding right now in Phase 1, Phase 2 is so pretty strong with some clients also asking us to produce the API or the complex molecule for them, huh. That's good news.

Of course, it's Phase 1, Phase 2, takes some time to develop, but that shows as well the strength of the platform.

Siddharth Diggandi

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today.

I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Cyndrella Carvalho

Thank you, everyone, for your time and joining us today. See you next time on the Quarter 1 call.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of Cohance Lifesciences Limited, that concludes this conference.

Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.