Thank you, Azizi. Good evening everyone, and warm welcome to Nuvoco's Q3 FY26 earnings call.

The results, along with the earnings presentation, has been uploaded to the stock exchange website yesterday, and I hope you had a chance to review the key numbers. Let me first share the key highlights for Q3 FY26, after which we will open the floor for questions.

The quarter began on a challenging note, but as we progressed, we started to see encouraging signs of recovery in overall demand. This improvement was particularly visible in the latter part of the quarter, as the impact of earlier macro headwinds began to subside.

Encouragingly, capital expenditure by both central and state governments seems to have gained momentum, supporting infra activity and cement demand. With this gradual pickup, the broader demand environment appears to be strengthening, setting a constructive tone for the quarters ahead.

That said, a significant portion of the planned capex is yet to be executed, around 45% of central capex and nearly about 61% of state capex cement spending as of November 2025. The healthy pipeline of spending projects gives us comfort that this traction could continue in the coming months.

Additionally, an above normal monsoon, a softer interest environment and growing consumer confidence, particularly in rural areas, further reinforce our outlook for sustained demand growth going forward. Now turning to our performance for the quarter, we delivered robust results despite the early challenges from macro headwinds, as mentioned earlier.

Volumes grew 7% year-on-year to 5 million tons, the highest Q3 volume we have ever recorded in our company's history. December was particularly strong, with volume growth of 20% demonstrating our strong execution capabilities and the resilience of underlying demand.

EBITDA for the quarter rose approximately 50% year-over-year to 386 crore, even as price moderated more than the benefit passed through following the revised GST rates, coupled with macro headwinds. Our emphasis remained squarely on premiumization, cost efficiency, which significantly lowered the impact of the price moderation.

We are pleased to report that the premium products sustained their share of trade volume at a strong high of 41%, marking the consecutive quarter at this elevated level. We have consistently expanded our premium base over time.

For the nine months of FY26, premiumization stood at 43%, reflecting a steady uplift of nearly 300 basis points over the FY25 baseline of 40%. This establishes new stronger base for us going forward and will continue to support our performance.

On the cost front, we continue to efficiently manage our operational costs as we achieved the lowest blended cost in the last 17 quarters at 1.41 per MTPA, despite the recent uptick in petcoke prices. Raw material cost per ton and distribution cost per ton also declined quarter-on-quarter, supported by operational efficiency gains.

Coming to cement prices, given the improvement in demand conditions and positive outlook, the company undertook a price increase in January, which is expected to further improve our performance going forward. Let me now turn to the balance sheet.

During the quarter, we raised 600 crore through CCD issuance, which were utilized to replace the equivalent amount of short-term bridge financing, thereby reducing overall debt levels. We expect to complete an additional 600 crore CCD issuance in the near term to substitute the remaining 600 crore of short-term bridge financing.

Our continued focus on a disciplined approach to debt management, prudent capital allocation will support the company's growth agenda going forward. Let me briefly touch upon the Vadraj cement plant.

The refurbishment and project execution remains on schedule, with operationalization of clinker unit and grinding unit planned in phases from Q3 FY27 to Q1 FY28. To give you a quick update on our project execution, we have made steady progress at both Kutch and Surat.

At this site, key equipment is undergoing extensive overhaul, engineering, tendering and ordering of all goods and service packages at Surat are now complete, while activities at Kutch are progressing as per schedule. Deliveries on the electrical and instrumentation front remain on track for both locations, and mechanical supplies have already started arriving at site.

We have also applied for all the required permits to operationalize this plant in line with our planned timelines. On the logistics front, the engineering scale plan and detailed project report for the Kutch railway line have been submitted to Indian Railways, and the execution order is now at an advanced stage of processing.

By the first half of FY27, we expect to complete the overarching work and equipment installation, followed by trial runs in accordance with OEM protocols. We will subsequently establish operations from the control room accordingly during FY27 Surat grinding unit and Kutch clinker unit will become operational, while in H1 FY28 Kutch grinding unit will get commissioned.

The East expansion projects, operating 4 million tons per annum in stages, also remains on target. With the East expansion and commissioning of Vadraj plant, the company's total cement capacity will scale up to 35 million tons per annum.

Post the ongoing expansion at Vadraj and the East expansion, the company's growth agenda will continue with a firm focus on balance sheet discipline. We have several strategic options ahead, including expanding our presence in the North through a brownfield project or pursuing a greenfield development in the Gulbarga region, aimed at strengthening our position in the Western and Central markets.

Furthermore, our recent preferred bid status for the GMK R2 limestone block in Jodhpur and Pali NSSR mining reserve base, providing a strong platform for future expansion. Lastly, to briefly highlight our ongoing digitalization efforts, we have further strengthened efficiency and transparency throughout the operations.

Our customer portal now handles approximately 99% of the total orders, offering real-time control and precision in order management. Following its success in cement, we launched customer portal for our MBM business too.

During the quarter, we introduced Nuvoco Zero M Unnati app under MBM to digitize influencer loyalty, driving higher engagement, greater transparency, efficiency and data-powered channel growth. On logistics, the transporter portal now covers inbound and outbound logistics across all plants, delivering end-to-end visibility while minimizing manual interventions.

That concludes my opening remarks. I'm here with Mr.

Jayakumar Krishnaswamy, managing director of Nuvoco Vistas, Mr. Maneesh Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer.

We are happy to answer any questions. Over to you, Azizi.

Hello.

Is it better now?

Hi, thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a good set of numbers despite weak pricing. Just wanted to understand a couple of things.

Firstly, you mentioned that Nuvoco took a price hike in this month, wanted to understand when did you take that price hike and how much was the price hike, and is the price hike sustainable in the market. First question was that.

If you can clarify on that, then I’ll proceed with my next question.

I guess, after a quarter in terms of pricing, December onwards demand improved and then sustained demand continues in January as well. Around 10th to 12th, around that time we have taken a price hike in non-trade across the geographies in the markets where we operate, and also in trade channel we have taken a price increase in East as well as West.

We will have to wait for a week or so to see whether the price hike we have taken sustains, but as of now things look positive.

Good to know. Has the demand tapered off after the price hike, or the momentum continues which we saw in the first 10 days?

Other than 14-15 days, it’s a touchy, I guess I’ll have to discount two days before and today. I guess demand was good in the first 10-12 days of the month.

Give or take, I think typically after Sankranti demand improves in all the regions. That’s been the past trend.

It should continue to improve going forward as well.

My second question is on cost. Nuvoco has been doing impressive cost numbers.

Now recently we have seen petcoke prices going up. I wanted to understand in the fourth quarter what will be the impact of that, and going forward as well.

Also if you can shed some light on your capex plan in the amount for next year, FY27 and 28, and how should we look at this.

As Bishnu mentioned in his initial comment, our fuel cost rupees per million kcal trended at 1.41 in Q3, which if you would have seen in the last many quarters we have come to around thereabout a number for many few quarters now. We will continue this.

Already petcoke prices have gone up in the month of December, and including I am talking about the current trend of pricing, I guess in Q4 I am still looking at similar kind of number, give or take a little bit of 0.01 or something like that. That’s all insignificant changes that happen.

These are basically backed up by two three aspects of the company. One is to work on our AFR agenda in the two plants, in Risda.

The second one is using domestic open market coal. For the first time in the last many years, in the preceding quarter we have started using a good amount of domestic open market coal in our North plants, and that kind of helped us sober the cost lines of fuel in North, as well as increase the domestic open market coal has been in our East plant.

Last but not least, our focus has been to kind of reduce the petcoke consumption from a high of 48% all the way come down to 41% now, which is an impressive number. With this kind of petcoke reduction we would be able to offset the rise in petcoke prices, if any.

Also our teams have been very innovative and trying to use what they call power plant reject coal and as well as coal washery reject coal for our CPP plants, bringing down the power cost of CPP from close to about 0.9-0.95 rupees per million kcal to as low as 0.78-0.8 rupees per million kcal. Basically substitute, reduce petcoke consumption.

Second is get increased focus on AFR, and last one is kind of work on CPP coal. With all these three initiatives, I think we should be able to decrease the potential increase in petcoke prices at prevalent levels.

In the unlikely event of a big-time increase, I guess that’s going to be a challenge for the entire industry. As we see today, we have fuel stocks for a month or two right now, and with the fuel stocks which we have, we should be able to sail through quarter four.

On the second point about capex plans, in the previous call we had spoken about the overall capex outlay for the company. Obviously we have the capex for the existing operations as well as capex for the Vadraj.

Overall this year, as of nine months, we have spent close to about 320 crores of capex as of December, and the balance three months we should be spending close to about 200-odd crores. For the full year the capex outlook is coming anywhere between 620 to 670 crores.

Okay. Maybe I can squeeze in one last question.

One of the advantages that you mentioned from Nuvoco, especially on cost front, are in the eastern efforts. When we start Novoco start Vadraj, a lot of these advantages will not be there.

In the initial years can you give us a sense of how much the cost might increase as capacity ramps up at Vadraj?

You are talking about what happens when Vadraj starts? Okay.

Vadraj starts, look, anyway Vadraj is going to be run on petcoke fuel for kiln, similar to our Nimbol and Chittor. The ballpark number will be same as what Chittor and Nimbol numbers are terms of fuel cost per kiln.

The other advantage is Vadraj, that area we have lignite, the captive power plant is going to be based on lignite as a fuel. When we have done the initial calculation, our energy cost for Vadraj plant, other than the startup challenge of starting a new plant, other than that I guess in terms of somewhat steady state, our fuel cost, energy cost, it will also have a CPP similar to what we have in Chittor and Nimbol.

It’s kind of a copy of our North operations. The cost lines of Vadraj in terms of power and fuel will be more or less same as what we get in Nimbol and Chittor as we start the plant.

Thank you so much. Thank you for joining.

Back to you.

Hi, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity.

Just a question on leverage. In the presentation, I think you see, you have shown debt at 4.27 crore and plus 600 crores as short-term bridge loan and CCDs.

I just wanted to understand a bit more about the CCDs. What are the conversion terms, and by when does it come up for conversion?

During the last call and the one before, we have already said that now with Nuvoco reaches 3500 to 4000 crore, that's when we start our next expansion, which that's how we started the Vadraj process. The entire fundraising bit for Vadraj was we had to pay 800 crores as an acquisition cost for Vadraj.

To get that 800 crores funding, we had started with 600 crores of long-term debt and another 1,200 crores of bridge financing till the CCD route was decided by the organization. First I'll explain the 600 crores.

The 600 crores sits in this 4,217, as mentioned in our investor presentation. The 4,217 crores debt level at December 25, it has built in number of 600 crores.

If we have to do a like-to-like comparison of our past periods, this number is 3,617, and compared to December last year it was 4,350. That's the kind of debt reduction deleveraging company has been able to do in the last few years.

So 3,617 adds 600, 4,217, and that 600 is sitting on books as a long-term debt for Vadraj acquisition. We mentioned that the 1,200 crores will be in the form of a CCD.

I will ask Maneesh to explain how we have gone about doing the 1,200 crores in two 600 crore tranches.

In terms of the specific terms of the CCD, which is the tranche that has been done in the month of November as one of the query. Basically there is a call option and a put option as part of the CCD.

Nuvoco will have the call option and will have the right, though it's not an obligation, to buy out the investor depending upon our balance sheet position at that point in time and the market conditions. Basically this call option is exercisable at the end of the fifth year, at the end of 5.5 years, and at the end of the sixth year.

These CCDs are for a period of seven years, and presently the call option is after five and a half, six years. These 600 crores CCDs, three tranches of 400 crore each that I have talked about, and it is mandatory, it gets converted into equity at the end of seven years.

It carries a coupon rate of 0.1% in the books.

Yeah, 600 crores, just to wait a pickup from Maneesh. It's consummated at five years plus.

At that time Nuvoco balance sheet will be much stronger than where we are currently. We have the call option at the time, and so as Maneesh says, up to under 200, 200, 200.

The second 600 crores, we have still not completed the long-term, short-term debt into CCD. I guess due to year-end holidays in the market, we are still having a discussion, should be concluded in the coming days.

Okay. What I understood is that it is compulsorily convertible into equity at the end of the seventh year.

That's right. And

what would be the price at which it gets converted?

I think you can take these things offline or separately with the solutions department. As I said, it is a call option at the end of fifth year, five and a half, six years, from Nuvoco's perspective.

The intent would be, depending on the market conditions and all, that

at that time it will have a pretty strong balance sheet to kind of use the call option and repay the CCD. That's the idea which we have.

In the most unlikely event, that's when I guess the put option will be exercised on the promoter company.

Understood. You are basically, the idea is to essentially repay off this in the fifth year itself, and through the cash flows that you will generate in this period, and not wait for the conversion into equity.

No, absolutely. That's the intention.

I guess as we speak, we would be three years from now at a CAGR of 7%. Obviously the business will grow to a much higher volume, and also with the volumes coming from Vadraj.

With overall what do you call market opportunity, we should be able to generate much more cash, and the balance sheet should be much stronger. As I mentioned, the kind of business projection which we have in place, we should also be able to fund the Vadraj capex through internal accruals, and then we should be able to retire this CCD.

I just want to mention one other point to you, is many times I have mentioned in almost all times I have mentioned this particular point in the call, chatting that, as a company, we are comfortable operating the company with a debt level of 3,500 to 4,000 crores. That would continue with.

We are not going to be going into the path of retiring all the debt. I'm sure if really business scales up to that level, this debt level also should come down.

We should also, we would be, we have the ambition of growing the company beyond Vadraj as well. I guess we are comfortable with debt level of about 3,500, and at the time EBITDA will coming, we should meet our covenant.

We are targeting EBITDA to debt level around 2-ish at the time as well. Comfortable position to retire this CCD on a call option and still grow the company.

Sure. Just on the last question on the CCD bridge.

At the fifth year when you have the call option to buy the debt out, will it be bought out at 600 crores, or will there be something additional that is required to be paid?

It has to be additional because that's how the whole structuring is done, because all the so-called interest adjustment will happen into the principal of 600, which is in the form of CCD, and then the payout will be happening on top of all the yearly compounded number when it comes to fifth year.

What is the implied interest? I just want to understand, while I understand that this is a structured transaction debt.

No. What we'll do is to share this, this should get into a long discussion.

May I request you to reach out to us, come over to our office, or let's set up a call. We'll explain all of it in complete detail.

Because obviously all of it is in the public domain, we should be able to give you all detail. Anything that is needed, reach out to us.

We should give you every bit of detail.

Okay. Sure, thank you so much.

Hi, thank you. Just a follow-up to this CCD question.

The remaining 600 crore, which you still waiting to tie up, is that, have you locked in? Basically the investors are more or less identified.

Is it the same set of investors? Is it just some procedural delay?

I just wanted to understand where are you in the process. It's been a while since that Vadraj deal happened.

Obviously close 600 crore. The remaining 600, same find out, similar investors, different, the structuring is also going to be similar as we look at that 600 crore.

Yeah. The structuring is more or less going to be the same.

Maybe the numbers could be slightly different because it's not going to be exactly the same set of people who will do. We are more or less in the final stage of discussions.

It is nothing to do with any challenge or anything which we have faced. Just that year-end happened and then the markets, the people with whom we are working have just come back.

It should happen. I can't give you a timeline whether it will happen a week or 10 days or two weeks, but suffice to say that we are on top of it and this should happen pretty much in the near future.

Okay. On this Vadraj asset, just maybe an update on the rail line.

I know it had already reached Naliya. What is the status for last-mile connectivity from Naliya to your plant, and then from there also have you seen other players start basically transporting from that particular stretch, or is it in future?

That's kind of more or less stitched up. The railway survey is already completed between Naliya and into a place called Vayor.

Vayor is a station, which is about four and a half kilometers from our plant. The survey, railways has started working on that, and I think the land acquisition, that is going to be done by railways.

I think their initial project report says that they should be ready completing this up to this Vayor station by end of this year. December, January they should be able to complete.

In parallel, the whole distance for us is there are obviously others, and then there are two other plants. I think they are also kind of pursuing from the same Vayor Chowk, and then that's when the line branches out to us, plus to the other two players.

For us, from that station to our plant, outside our plant boundary is about four and a half kilometers. The plant boundaries are our land.

We already started completing the land survey, the railway route finalization, the DPR and ESPs all done. Only on last week Wednesday I approved the purchase order for the party to work on the railway siding as well.

It all happened parallely. Our plan is to start work from inside the plant.

Already we have control over the land. The work will start from inside our plant compound all the way to the place where the siding comes inside our plant.

In parallel, I guess land acquisition, a lot of patches of land is government land. We are already working with Government of Gujarat.

By the time work starts, we should have completed the acquisition of the land. When the railway is ready by end of this year, we should also.

We won't be able to complete the project by end of this year. It should take longer than that.

Our target is June FY28 is when the siding is going to be completed. We are on top of it, on course to complete.

The other two guys, I guess they should also be working on the same lines.

As of now the other two guys, their plants are operational. Are they?

I just want to understand, because the line is there to Naliya. Have other players started shipping?

When you look at the last-mile connectivity, and assuming some delays as you mentioning June 28, but for at least the monsoon period, where it's a trade-weather port, should we assume lower utilization for the first year till this last-mile connectivity is there? Just maybe an update on are other people using that line as of now?

The Naliya siding is already being used by other companies. I guess the Naliya siding is anyway operational, though it doesn't have any handling facilities.

Obviously it's manual handling, loading into any box and moving the material. That one is operational.

Push comes to shove, we will start with Naliya, not a problem at all. By the time June of next year, monsoon, July or something, I guess we should be ready by then.

If we are, leaving Naliya is always there. It's a little bit additional cost to move material.

Other than that, the jetty road is already there with us. Jetty road will also be there, and the Naliya road will always be there.

I think beyond June FY28, we should have the railway siding operating out of the plant, and dispatch should happen within the plant. As I see today, we are on top of things.

Obviously in a big project like this, there should always be small delays here and there. I don't foresee any major stumbling block in this, because I guess backup in Naliya is there, jetty is, we have already done the bathymetric survey, and then we know how to kind of ferry material out of the jetty, cut jetty as well.

Jetty road is also going to be operational around the time the clinker starts production. Naliya will be ready when the clinker production starts.

Surat would be operational before that. By the time siding comes by Q1 end, we should be fully in business moving material.

With regard to your second question of whether we meet the scale-up of the company. As I mentioned before, our overall scale-up is 1, 2, 3, 4.

That's the kind of number which we had in mind. 1 million in FY26, which is we will exit the year at a million, kind of annualized million sales in Gujarat.

Next year we should be going into, by end of the year we should get into 2 million sales in FY29. FY28 will be 3 million, and FY29 will be 4 million.

That's the broad plan which we have. We are on course to achieving and delivering those 1, 2, 3, 4 agenda.

Lastly on Gujarat, specifically with respect to venturing, expanding there in a big way, I know you're catering to that market right now, the 1 million ton that you mentioned through North, but would you soon have to, as you look at bringing more volumes, when should we look at maybe upscaling your branding team before that capacity comes online? Is there something you need to do to strengthen your position of branding, your team, there in that future time?

When will we start to do?

I guess it's all about timing, because if I start spending money right now, I'll be wasting money. If I spend late, I'll be losing opportunity.

We have a clear blueprint in place when to get into investment mode in terms of market investment and media investment. What are the things which we have already done?

We have a full-fledged sales force in place. We have the sales office in place.

We have the market study done, and then dealer appointments are happening. By the time even month of December, we already sold in the state of Gujarat 1.2 lakhs, and our target in Q4 is going to be similar kind of numbers every month.

We've scaled up to this kind of 1.2, already more than a million ton of sales will happen in the first year itself. That will not, that sale cannot happen unless and until you appoint dealer network, which is already there.

As regards advertisement, marketing and other spend, I guess we have a blueprint in place. In this call I won't be able to tell when I'm going to break.

Certainly on top of things, and by the time our Surat grinding unit is operational, we should be having all this in place in the market.

Thank you so much, and wish you all the best.

Thanks.

Hello?

Hello, Rajesh.

Hi sir. Good afternoon.

Good evening. My question pertains to the fuel and power cost.

This 1.41, when you say per million kcal, this is inclusive of your thermal, CTP power cost? Or this is only kiln fuel cost?

This is kiln fuel cost.

This is kiln fuel cost, okay. What would be your in the kiln fuel, what would be the linkage and petcoke and other coal mix?

Petcoke on the kiln, as I mentioned, this Q3 FY26, we have delivered 41% petcoke usage in our kiln. This has got a higher load in North and a lower load in East.

This is a blended load for the company as a whole at 41%. We were at a similar time last year, Q3 FY25, we were at 48% petcoke.

We are at 41% petcoke. Linked coal is 34%, non-linked domestic coal is 15%.

Okay. AFR would be the remaining?

AFR, 10% is Q3 FY26. Here we should improve because last one and a half months we had two main plants, Risda and Nimbol, under shutdown.

Both these plants have the AFR, this number is slightly low. Our target, before shutdown of these plants, Nimbol was already at 15% and Chittor was already at 15%.

I guess some ramp-up time will take in the next three months. By Q1 FY27 we should be able to get this number to anywhere between 13 to 15% at a company level.

Understood. Sir, logistics cost this quarter has come down.

Originally reduction in lead distance, or what specifically has led to correction in your logistics cost?

Our lead distance in Q2 was 331. We are at 326 kilometers this quarter.

It is a good reduction of five kilometers. Most of the reduction has come in the secondary side, and in fact is due to the secondary side reduction, where the PTPK is more than the primary PTPK, and that's one reason why our logistics cost has become efficient in Q3 FY26.

Because if I look at from Q1 Q2 level, it is down almost by 70-80 rupees per ton. If I look at the average of H1, it was 50-25.

Now it is 100 rupees lower in Q3. What explains this?

Three things: one is lead distance, which I mentioned. The second one is all our primary freight has got GPS fitted now.

We are running a very tight system to ensure that any potential leakages in primary is reduced to a big extent. Third, most important thing, you would have also, we have mentioned in the year about two years ago, we started the Sonadih and Jajpur railway siding, and for the Jajpur plant, by road.

That's totally eliminated now. All clinker movement in East is happening only by rail.

That's a big savings in terms of clinker distribution cost has come down, which is we have long time we had mentioned in the previous calls that the clinker distribution cost should come down anywhere between 25 to 35 rupees kind of a number. That added to lead distance reduction, GPS implementation, and last but not the least increased focus in Chhattisgarh sales and Rajasthan sales has also reduced the overall lead distance, which is composite multiple reasons to explain the reduction in distribution cost.

How much is the rail share now, which was 40% in Q2?

I can give rail share for the country as a whole. Just give me a second.

Total on a total basis.

Our road share, rail share is 37% and road share is 63%, nine months FY26, and in Q3 also 63-37.

Understood. Sir lastly on the power cost, your green power mix is building up around close to 20%.

What are the opportunities there to increase this? Because most of your peers, they are all inching up to 40-50%.

Can you give me a breakup of your power usage, grid, CPP, and renewable power, and what is the split there?

Currently our CPP is 150 megawatt and WHR is close to about 45 megawatt. Put together we are at 195-196 megawatt.

Our plan is to debottleneck all this WHR and get another 3.5 megawatts in the next six to eight months. That's the number one way to increase the green power.

We also have very small solar power in Chittor factory, and it's a very small one. Along with that we have a one megawatt solar power in Bhiwani and one megawatt solar power in Jajpur factory.

These two are the current initiatives. In the last one month we have signed an LOI with a company to set up a hybrid power plant in Rajasthan, and that should be operational in the next 12 to 18 months, which should give us a big boost to power cost in Nimbol plant.

That's a 50 megawatt hybrid model which we are working, which should be one of the large investments which we are making going forward. It will not be a capex model.

It's going to be a group captive model, which we have concluded very recently, and work should start very soon.

So 50 megawatt will be the installed capacity, and it is solar, right?

It is a hybrid, solar plus wind.

Okay. No, I just wanted to, why my question is, most people are doing this RE power through JV mode to reduce their landed power cost.

What sort of power cost reduction? Given that many companies, if you see a few competitors have recently invested 45 crore with a payback period of, what we understand, these JV projects have a payback period of less than two years.

Is this not an opportunity for you to invest into, invest, say 100-odd crore through JV models, and increase your green mix from 20 to 40% plus, and in turn also reduce your blended power cost by, one rupee-odd?

Very much. I think Rajesh is right.

If you look at, where are we operating? We operate in Rajasthan.

That's a big cluster for us. Chhattisgarh is the second biggest power-consuming place, and the third one is West Bengal, where we have two units.

Our highest power cost for the company comes from Rajasthan both, because of petcoke cost as well as the overall power cost in the place. The rules of Rajasthan got changed only recently.

As soon as the group captive and the banking model came into economically right strength, we have gone ahead with this group captive model of putting up a plant exclusively for Nimbol. What we do is the second plant is based on our experience of Nimbol.

That's the first thing. When it comes to Chhattisgarh, the first thing which is important for us is we run on a, what we call linkage coal is a big component in Chhattisgarh.

The second one also is all the three plants, little integration in Chittor— so not Chittor— Risda, Arasmeta. What we run is all these three plants run on a grid, and we many times we shut the CPP to use the— or we shut the grid and use power from one factory to the other factory.

It's a common grid, and we have got a solid benefit out of it. The payback was close to only seven, eight months, and more or less the job is done.

We will go for a captive plant in Chhattisgarh once the economics of captive plant outweighs the savings which we are making out of our current model. It's very much on the agenda.

It is economics which will drive at this point of time. Lastly, it is Bengal.

Bengal still the group captive model is not working because the rules of that place does not facilitate what we have in Rajasthan. We don't have proper banking arrangement there.

Once that happens, that's the place where we'll go for.

Understood, sir. What is your blended power cost currently?

Nine months and Q3?

Blended power cost for the company is— just a second, please. The blended power cost for the company is close to about 335 rupees per ton.

325.

335. Double 335.

Understood, sir. That's helpful.

Thank you, sir. All the best.

Thank you so much.

Good evening. Congrats for great.

I have a couple of questions. Firstly, on your premiumization mix and increasing rate over last few years, how do you think your gap has closed versus gap has closed or increased versus other stand in the market?

How does increasing premium mix contribute to your EBITDA percent? Yes.

We've got some bragging rights on this. Certainly from FY22 till FY26 nine months, our premiumization percentage as a percentage of trade volumes, have moved from 34 to 36 to 37 to 40 to 43.

Q3 we had 42% of premiumization. We have Concreto, which is a flagship premium brand.

We also successfully launched Concreto Uno in Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhand, and the Duraguard microfiber is sold in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Western MP, Haryana, other non-markets and also in Gujarat. That's something which, and if you look at the rest of the other companies, I'm not going to rattle out other companies.

I think they are at a different level. We are at a different level.

Certainly, going forward, this will be a source of strength for us. We will further strengthen in FY27 and beyond, certainly to increase this number.

We are really looking at increasing this number, certainly at 200 basis points every year in the next two three years.

My question was regarding how your net realizations or market pricing would have increased or gap on a better side versus your competition during this period, and contribution of better premiumization on your EBITDA performance.

At the premiumization level, we can't look at an all-India level because premiumization has to be calculated, the base product in that state and the premium in the state. Contribution changes from state to state.

Suffice to say that at the premiumization level, we can get anywhere between 150 to 200 rupees increased contribution per ton of cement sold. That's a big boost, and as we go forward, this will provide us leverage to overall improve the realization for the company.

My other question is on your Q4. We have seen acceleration in demand growth for your company based on current trends, because we had a very high performance base in Q4 last year.

We look volume growth accelerating from 7% this quarter, and also a related question on pricing: how is your pricing undertaken on 10th January compared to the exit price of December quarter?

I guess first one in terms of Q4, obviously, base was high last year. We sold 5.7 million tons in Q4.

I'm really looking at good growth. If you remember my previous call in Q3, I mentioned that demand for the industry should be anywhere between 7 to 8% kind of a number.

I hope to tank off if that number, cross that number, certainly going forward. That's on the demand side, basis side.

I guess Q4 overall cement industry also peaks, and then we will certainly ride the demand for Q1. Second, in terms of the price increase and impact of price increase, as I said, as an answer to the first question, pricing corrections we took around 10th, 11th of January.

North trade prices have moved in most markets. Trade prices also have moved in certain markets.

I'll have to wait for the next week or 10 days to see whether these prices continue to remain where they dipped. I see no reason why prices coming down from where we have taken them because these prices have to sustain going forward, and also in a quarter where demand is going to be pretty robust.

Thank you, sir, and all the best.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. You had mentioned that you will be expecting 7 to 8% demand growth in fourth quarter.

Now from fourth quarter last year, if I'm not wrong, we operated at 90% plus capacity utilization, and I assume there will be a regional skew over there. How are we placed in terms of having capacity available both from grinding and clinker capacity perspective to meet this demand growth that could be there?

We also divided our market to the Eastern, North, South, West. Certainly in the North markets sourced from Chittor, Nimbol, Bhiwani, we would be operating at near capacity utilization in Q4.

That's very clear. The only way we can get more volumes is to go more and more into blended cement, even in non-trade category, and that's our goal in Q4 to get.

We have 6 million tons of capacity in North. We will stretch our assets to come very close to that number.

However, in the East we still have a lot of headroom. Our installed capacity needs is close to clinker capacity—not installed capacity.

Clinker capacity is close to about 20 million tons at CK ratio of 2.1. One of the goals here again is taper down the OPC levels in non-trade and go hammer and tongs on trade levels.

We have sufficient headroom in East to get the growth this year, even next year as double-digit growth and the year after also a double-digit growth. Certainly suffice to say for the next two and a half years, we have adequate capacity needs to stretch the assets and get the volume growth going.

The other one which we will certainly work on is get into more and more blended cement, get into more and more slag cement, also Concreto Uno is a composite cement. It's a premium composite, we'll more and more switch over from plain PPC or plain PSC into composite to do clinker release.

Clinker release will be an agenda, moving from OPC to blended cement—whatever little we do will be the second agenda. Sufficient headroom to grow certainly in Q4, and beyond FY27 and 28 also we have adequate capacity in the East.

North will be a tight scenario. After this quarter, we'll continue to operate at near capacity utilization in North, and that's one of the reasons Vadraj will come into play.

Once Vadraj capacity comes into play, we release close to about the current 1 million tons sale in Gujarat into North markets, and certainly get Vadraj to serve Gujarat as well as West Maharashtra. Also some bordering portion of West MP also will happen from Surat factory.

All in all, the entire Vadraj expansion strategy is to release capacity in North, and East we are self-contained for the next two to three years.

Sir. Just to add on to that, if I look at the presentation, the cement to clinker ratio for nine months is mentioned at 1.72x at the company level.

Could you break this down into East and North? What would be the CK ratio in those regions separately?

East will be close to about 1.95 to 2. North will be about 1.3 to 1.35.

We'll have to further improve North from move away from OPC to PPC. I guess that's going to be the focus in the coming two quarters to release cement, because there's growth in the market.

We'll have to move away from non-trade into trade and move away from OPC to PPC. We hardly sell any OPC in trade.

Whatever little non-trade OPC will move from, based on contribution, of course, into PPC. East certainly has to.

We still have headroom to go to 2.1 in certain markets. We have done 2.1 in the past, we should go to 2.1 very soon.

Then again, I think we will curtail the OPC sales in non-trade and go all-out into PPC or move from PSC into composite cement.

Okay. In the interim, do we have any scope for any debottlenecking, or we have already sort of exhausted likely sort of limit?

No. As we speak right now, I don't have any debottlenecking plan in East.

However, the cement capacity increase of 4 million tons grinding will help us, more grinding capacity closer to the market to get this capacity going in the market, and also the Chhattisgarh GST benefit will help us earn a little bit more money by the debottlenecking in Arasmeta. The entire composite cement agenda, blended cement agenda for the company is the reason for doing the expansion of grinding units in East.

From a clinker perspective, I was seeking from a clinker—

I'm talking about that. Yeah.

Okay. Right.

Hold on for a second. Yeah.

East, we have debottleneck. Our installed clinker capacity is close to 9.5 million tons.

We can always get this squeezing done to point where. At this point of time, I'm not focused too much on increasing clinker capacity beyond 9.5, simply because I have headroom.

Even with 9.5 at 2.1 clinker ratio, I can go more than 20 million tons in East, and I have adequate cement at 2 million. 10% growth for next three years, I have adequate cement capacity unlocked for East.

Maybe same time next year we can think about debottlenecking. We don't have plans to put a full-fledged clinker line in East at this point of time, but maybe I think as the year progresses and we come into next year, we can look at that.

In North, debottlenecking certainly we will do. We already debottlenecked Nimbol from 4,500 to 6,100.

That's a big debottlenecking exercise we did. Chittor factory used to be 5,000, we went to 6,100.

Right now I don't have any plans to increase the clinker capacity north from 6,250. 6,250 12,500.

Vadraj will be the one which will come and help my clinker capacity in North.

Sure. Thanks.

Just one last question from my side. What would be the cost of borrowing for the company as of now?

Just a second.

It is currently in the range of around 8%.

8%. Okay.

Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot.

That's it.

Hi. Thank you, sir.

Sir, just to summarize, at a blended level and given the 3 million tons capacity that will come up, particularly this East one, 1 million tons, I hope, will be coming by March of Jojobera and Jajpur. Jojobera and Panagarh will be coming by this March, and maybe 1 million tons Jajpur by 1 Q FY27, and plus 2 million tons Surat also will be coming up and will be available for the second half of 2027.

At a broader level, this fourth quarter, at least we should be doing 7-8% growth, and for next two to three years, as you are highlighting, at a blended level, closer to double-digit growth is doable.

Absolutely. I guess you summarized everything what I wanted to tell.

Certainly in Q4 our target should be what you mentioned, and next year and beyond, we are targeting a CAGR of 10% volume growth, at least for the next two years, if not more. Surat will give us...

Vadraj will give us the benefit in East. In North, and East with the Jojobera debottlenecking, more or less it is going to be ready.

I guess in the next two months we should have Jojobera expansion completed. Jajpur expansion, Panagarh expansion work started.

We have the... there is something called NAU approval, we are working with the government for getting the no load increase approval, which is happening currently.

Side by side, the modifications are happening in this B plant. Arasmeta debottlenecking is a little bit longer, because it involves putting up a totally new mill.

That should be available in FY28. FY27 certainly Jojobera expansion will be completed early part of FY27, and even Panagarh and Jajpur, I guess we should be ready by max Q2, but certainly end of Q1.

Second, sir, to summarize in terms of the cost, including even the startup cost for the Vadraj. From here on in terms of the company level, in terms of the cost saving, how one can look at?

This is our annual operating plan time. I guess when we meet in 4Q numbers, I'll be able to share the next two to three years cost saving agenda for the company.

We are currently working. Next time when we meet, I will be able to share with you the next two to three years cost saving agenda for the company.

Okay. Sir, capex you have mentioned for the fourth quarter for FY27 and 28, if you can— because I think the capex is slightly getting postponed to FY27.

For FY27, 28, if you can spell the capex number.

FY27, I'm looking at overall capex of close to about 1,000 crores, and FY28 close to 700 crores. 26 will be 650 to 650, was what I mentioned, 620 to 670.

Let's take 650 as FY26. FY27 should be anywhere between 1,000 to 1,050 crores, and FY28 will be anywhere between 650 to 700 crores.

This will have Vadraj capex, which will come. We already spent close to about 200 crores in Vadraj by December.

We should have another 300 crores, 250 crores, which will happen in the next two to three months. Then on next year about 800, and the year next another 500 for Vadraj.

Rest will be routine capex. Overall summing up, FY26 our capex will be 620 to 670 crores.

You will take 50 crores here and there. FY27 will be 1,000 to 1,100 crores.

FY28 will be 650 to 700 crores.

I am just completing that. Does that mean...

yeah. Does that mean that we are not factoring any kind of capex for Chittorgarh expansion?

That should be happening in FY28 at least.

At this point of time, it's too early for me to say when will we start. Either we'll start in FY28 or FY29.

It could be give or take one year here and there. I think let's get into FY27, H2 of FY27, we will give you clarity on when do we start, because we've got still, like Vishnu mentioned in his opening remarks, we have options with Gulbarga, we have options with Chittorgarh, we have the Nimbahera mine, we also have the JMK mine in Jodhpur, and also have the Gulbarga mine.

We will decide closer to the date where we will expand, either a greenfield expansion or a brownfield expansion. FY28 onwards we will start, but it's too early for me to say when I am going to put money, it could be H2 of FY28 or Q1 of FY29.

Okay. Got it, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening and thank you for the opportunity. Hello, am I audible?

Great. Thank you.

Two questions. One was on the industry-wide pricing.

Sir, you said you have taken some price hikes in January. Now, and you also mentioned that December as a month not just, it witnessed a double-digit kind of a growth.

I think our channel checks are also indicating both North and East witnessed a very decent, or may I say a very bumper sort of a rebound volumes in the month of December. Typically, January volumes are at par to what they are in December.

My question was that if December as a month, which witnessed such a sharp recovery, could not give any prices, rather prices continued to reel under pressure, what gives the confidence that January would see some better pricing, please?

Volumes certainly from the first 14 days of the month, I guess we are cracking decent volumes. I am sure industry also, demand for cement in general is pretty good in the market as January has started.

I am not going to qualify any, put any adjective to the past month, but certainly I think December was a good month for us and maybe for industry once their results are published. Certainly in January, I see a demand sustaining from December 20 levels, December 20th to 30th levels.

That's the reason why we have gone ahead and made these changes in pricing. As I said earlier, it is just one week into price increase time.

I will wait and watch going forward whether we are able to sustain these prices. My gut sense is the prices have fallen below to GST levels because we have passed on all the benefits of GST and we continued with the quota, but with a little bit of a cost inflation we had to do some adjustment and that's how we took this correction.

Non-trade prices have gone quite below trade prices and that's the reason why we took the correction in non-trade first.

Understood, helpful. Secondly, a slightly long-term or a mid-term question, this is with respect to the capex plans that you have mentioned.

Historically you always mentioned that whenever the net debt of the company comes to in the range of 3,500 to 4,000, you will pursue the next capex, which you are doing in the form of Vadraj. Now, since the last two quarters, you have been mentioning medium-term growth plans of Chittorgarh plant and greenfield optionality for Gulbarga.

Is there any thought process as to when, at what levels of debt will the company then again net debt or the net debt to EBITDA, will the company look to pursue these capex?

I still continue to say that we will pursue our growth at this kind of numbers in future as well. With this kind of capex spending, last year is Vadraj acquisition, and going forward in the next two years, certainly we need to have the next set of expansion to complete Vadraj.

The current focus is going to be getting Vadraj right. We are a company which goes 100 times company, so that's how we will progress on this.

When we reach FY28, I guess that will answer the previous question. Sometime in FY28, either H2 or Q1, FY29 is when we will start the next phase of expansion.

As a, the business plan for the company from current year to the next two to three years, we should be in a pretty stable position at similar kind of debt levels two years from now for us to kickstart the next expansion.

Noted. One question if I can squeeze in?

Sorry. Very quickly, your freight cost tends to be very volatile.

It's happening to see a decline, but then it also tends to bounce back. For example, in Q4 of 25, it had fallen on a person, which is as low as 1,401, but suddenly in Q1 we saw a jump to 1,550.

I'm just trying to understand. It's good to see the current quarter's outstanding reduction in the freight, but how sustainable is this is my only limited question.

Thank you.

To keep the freight cost under control, I think there are two, three levers which we have done. Certainly, I think the railway siding in Sonadih and Jajpur has been instrumental in reducing the clinker movement freight, which is important.

The second one is the starting of our Bhiwani factory. The lead distance of Haryana cement plant has got positively impacted.

As regards your question about erratic behavior of our freight cost, I would say that certainly from FY25 Q2 onwards till as we speak, I think gradually we are chipping away the freight cost, mainly due to three reasons. One is focusing on home markets and reducing the lead distance.

Second one is what you call the railway siding in Sonadih as well as Jajpur. One of the principal reasons is we are a company which is on 37% rail share and 63% road share.

As you would have seen, post-COVID for the next two years, the government did not levy the, what do you call, freight subsidy for lean season. They delivered freight subsidy for lean season and suddenly they went back again, a year and a half last year, I guess.

This FY26 and FY25, the freight subsidy got cancelled. Hence the freight cost increased because we have a project of big amount of rail share and the overall freight cost increased due to subsidy going away.

From now on, from last year, which is FY25 to FY26, I guess it's a steady state period. You will see us progressing continuously on sustained reduction in freight cost, mainly through home market sales, increased home market sales, reducing leakages through GPS, getting the clinker distribution cost between Jajpur and Sonadih, and last but not the least, one of the things which also came as a fluctuation for two quarters was also in certain markets we moved from ex to FOB, but then I think the entire industry works on a particular practice, and then we had to change the model, and that's the reason why you would have seen some spikes on the freight cost.

All that is behind us now. We now have a steady-state market with sustained railway, with all the costs which are built going forward contain the, what do you call, lean season discount not happening during the period, number two being Sonadih, Jajpur siding is completed, number three being increased focus on home markets in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, where the distribution cost should come, Haryana distribution cost should come down.

Suffice to say, as we go forward, we should be able to have efficiency improvement in logistics cost to get the maximum savings in the coming quarters.

Thank you for all your thoughtful and insightful questions. We hope your questions have been addressed.

The UCL team is ready to provide any additional clarity you might need post the call. Before we wrap up today's call, let me affirm our resolute commitment to driving sustained growth and strengthening our market position.

Vadraj Cement Plant project expansion remains on track, with phased commissioning targeted from Q3 FY27 to strengthen our Western region presence. Our Eastern expansion, fueled by strong demand for blended cement and Duraguard, will further enhance our leadership position in the region.

Looking ahead, we will continue to drive PM expansion, an area where we have consistently expanded our base and set new benchmarks, while maintaining our focus on geographical optimization and cost discipline to enhance profitability and create sustained shareholder value. Thank you for being with us today.