Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our fourth-quarter and financial year 2025 earnings call today.

As you are aware, our reporting follows the January to December calendar year. 2025 has been a year of strong and consistent delivery for Castrol India.

We had our eighth straight quarter of volume-led growth, closed the year with the highest ever revenue, and gained market share in our core automotive lubricants business. For the full year, volume grew 8% year on year, supported by steady demand in the personal mobility sector, our continued scale-up in the industrial business, and our deeper distribution reach, particularly into rural India.

Our industrial portfolio and our rural distribution delivered double-digit growth yet again, validating the choices we have made over the last few years. The performance also reflects our agile approach, which enabled us to navigate market cycles.

Business grew from expanding our reach, deepening our relationship with key OEMs from the automotive sector, and better execution every day in line with our mantra: stay close to customers, make smart choices, and deliver with discipline. In the fourth quarter, we saw some momentum.

Revenue grew 6% year on year, making it our highest quarter-on-quarter revenue in nearly two decades, while volume grew by 8%, reflecting sustained underlying demand. However, what is important to note is that this performance came in a very volatile operating environment.

Competitive intensity continues, raw material movement and currency volatility persisted through the year. Our focus remained on disciplined execution: staying close to customers, managing cost proactively, and continuing to invest in building our brands, bringing new innovations into the market through new products, and expanding our distribution reach.

During the year, we moved at pace on innovation, launched new products, and localized close to 20 products across automotive, industrial, and our specialties range. Some of the major ones include advanced Hysol and Alusol industrial products, the new Spheerol range in greases, and we upgraded our core offer in the personal mobility car space, which is Castrol MAGNATEC.

We also launched new products in the Auto Care range. We continue to strengthen our distribution and our relationship with key OEMs across automotive ecosystems.

We also forged a collaboration with Triumph Motorcycles for our brand Castrol POWER1 and signed an MoU with VinFast Auto India to support their EV aftersales at Castrol Auto Service centers. Our brand-building initiatives reached an unprecedented scale, touching 300-plus million consumers and trade professionals through multi-channel campaigns such as [Har Garmi Mein?]

, the 3X protection, best oil guaranteed on our commercial vehicle oil range, along with establishing our presence across multiple major racing events. These efforts deepened the brand's connection with consumers and trade alike.

On the distribution front, we continue to expand our market reach. Our distribution network now covers more than 150,000 outlets nationwide.

The Castrol Auto Care portfolio is now available across e-commerce, modern trade, and another 67,000 outlets in physical retail stores. Service network has also grown.

We now have a network of 750 Castrol Auto Service points across the country, and we reach 30,000 bike workshops and more than 11,000 multi-brand retail outlets. Rural distribution continues to scale up.

We are now at over 40,000 rural outlets, and we have over 500 rural service express installed in the country. These network expansion initiatives ensure our products and services are available to consumers wherever they need.

Sustainability and community engagement remains a core part of our ethos. We introduced India's first RRBO-based engine oil—RRBO stands for re-refined base oil—for BS-VI engines and co-engineered with leading OEMs.

We also scaled up our community programs such as Sarathi Mitra through Highways as Classrooms initiative that reached truck drivers across 46 locations in Uttar Pradesh. Now before I speak further, I will hand over to Mrinalini to take you through the financials in a bit more detail.

Over to you, Mrinalini.

Thank you, Saugata, and a very good afternoon to everyone. Let me start with the full-year performance first.

In fiscal year '25, we delivered strong results. Our revenue from operations grew 7% year on year to ₹5,722 crores.

EBITDA for the year stood at ₹1,388 crores, which represents a 5% year-on-year increase, supported by strong volume growth and operating discipline, like Saugata just said. Profit after tax reached ₹950 crores, up from ₹927 crores in the prior year.

These gains reflect healthy operational execution and good product mix. Despite input cost volatility during the year, we were able to manage margins through disciplined cost control, pricing, and mix optimization, while continuing to invest behind brand building, distribution expansion, and capability development.

Let me turn to quarter four. Revenue stood at ₹1,440 crores, which is up 6.4% year-on-year basis, and profit after tax for the quarter was at ₹245 crores, which is about 8% sequentially higher than quarter three, and it reflects the improved operating leverage as volume scaled through the years.

PAT was down from ₹271 crores in quarter four '24, though. This was impacted by one-time labor code-related changes in this quarter.

Most importantly, our full-year EBITDA margin, which reflects the structural health of the business, remained healthy, and cash from operations was robust, underpinning the quality of our earnings. From a balance sheet and cash flow perspective, the business continues to remain strong and resilient, supported by healthy cash generation and continued financial discipline.

We manage costs and working capital tightly, which supported profitability even in a high-growth environment. This disciplined approach enabled shareholder value creation, and we maintained a strong balance sheet while returning cash to the investors.

In recognition of this performance, the board has recommended a final dividend of ₹5.25 per share, taking the total dividend for the year to ₹8.75 per share. This reflects our commitment to consistent shareholder returns, while ensuring that we retain flexibility to invest in the business.

I'll now hand it back to Saugata to share our outlook.

Thank you, Mrinalini. Looking ahead, we expect India's mobility landscape to evolve steadily rather than change overnight.

Internal combustion engines and hybrid engines will continue to form the backbone of the market for the foreseeable future, even as new technologies gradually scale up. Sustained economic growth and low per capita penetration of cars and bikes should continue to support the core lubricant demand in the personal mobility space.

At the same time, government-led manufacturing initiatives are expected to underpin growth in the industrial segment. That said, we remain mindful of competitive pressure, the volatility in raw material prices, and currency movements.

These are realities of our operating environment. We are focused on keeping an eye on them and responding as and when the environment changes.

Our response is clear: strengthen the core automotive business, accelerate supply chain localization, and grow in adjacencies where customers are seeking value, including services and solutions. With our scale, distribution reach, strong brand, and deep customer relationships, we believe Castrol is well poised to adapt to the shifts in the environment and continue building a resilient and future-focused business.

Thank you, and I am now happy for us to take questions. Thank you very much.

Hi, am I audible?

Please. Yeah.

Hi, thank you for this opportunity. I had some questions regarding our supply side of the business.

When we use lubricant additives in our products, are these lubricant additives sourced internally or do we source it from some external supplier?

If I could just repeat the question so that I've understood it. Your question is the additives that are used in the lubricants, are these sourced internally from within Castrol or bought from vendors?

Is that what you asked?

Yes, is it from external big four, or is it just from Castrol internally? Yeah.

We have a variety of options across our entire range of automotive and industrial fluids. There are certain additives, core molecules that we develop internally within the global Castrol system.

We have technology centers, as you may be aware, across the world. There are certain additives which we have procured or which we procure from our global partners who supply specialized additives for specific applications.

We do both.

Is there a mix, how much of it is internal or how much of it is external?

It depends on the product range, right? A typical product in automotive will have multiple additives, right?

You would say a majority of that is something that we source from our strategic partners.

Okay. Is one of those partners one of the big four big additive players like Infineum, Chevron, Lubrizol, or Afton?

Yes, we work with all four of them in different ways. All right.

Just a follow-up on that, do we have a long-term agreements with them or do we switch our mix on a quarter-to-quarter or year-on-year basis? If we do switch from one supplier to another for a particular period, what factors do we consider that has led us to switch from one supplier to another?

I'll give you a broad answer. Typically, this is driven by our innovation requirement.

As this is a brand-led business, which we're looking to deliver value to customers that they're seeking. Whatever is the best-suited chemistry for that, then we go and figure out which is the right molecule to put into the product to deliver that benefit.

That's the way we approach it over time. There are different segments within Castrol.

There's commercial vehicle, cars, motorcycle, industrial, on and so forth. There are different suppliers who have strengths, and we accordingly work with them in each of the sectors.

Understood that. Just one final question.

Do we procure from any of the Indian suppliers in this aspect, or are these just global vendors?

We have a variety of suppliers, as you can imagine. I can't give specific names, but we have a whole variety of suppliers, global as well as local.

All right. Thanks a lot for answering my questions.

All the best to you. That's all from my side.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is actually a bookkeeping one.

Can you give me the volume number for the quarter in million liters?

Mr. Tiwari, very nice to talk to you.

We engaged even last quarter, thank you for rejoining our call. Whilst specifics of how many million liters we don't usually share, I think what you heard Saugata speak at length was that it is sustained volume growth as we close the financial year '25.

In fact, all four quarters, we were able to deliver high single-digit 7 to 8% volume growth. I think that is what we really pride on.

The other good thing is it is a bit more diversified across all our portfolio where we play: automotive, rural, of course, and in the industrial part of the portfolio. I would perhaps at this point leave it at that.

Thanks for that, Mrinalini, but I suppose we've been sharing this number historically in the calls like in the earlier calls. Hence, I asked this question because it gives me a specific with the volume number.

It would be great if you can give us a volume number for this quarter as well.

I understand. Let me help you a little bit there.

Of course, I won't get specific. It has been a good year for us, and we have seen upwards of 60 million liters in all our quarters.

We definitely are celebrating a good year closure for us.

About a 63 to 64 would be a good ballpark for this quarter?

Upward of 60 in Q4 of last year, and every quarter, if I may just respond, has a certain seasonality in our business because there are different times of the year where the agri business is big and certain times of the year the automotive, the core motorcycle businesses respond and have some demand. We anticipate that we will have similar seasonality this year, and we will hold on to our guidance of growing our volume at 1.5 to 2 times the market growth rate.

We expect the market to grow anywhere between 3 to 4%.

That's fair, Saugata. I'm just referring to this quarter because you mentioned that you've grown at 8% for the year and also 8% for the quarter.

Hence, I asked that would 63 to 64 million liter a good ballpark for Q4 to understand the volume number?

Broadly ballpark, we can keep it at that. Typically, Q4, Q1 is slightly different, but you can hold it around that range.

Okay. Sure.

My second question—

Nitin, your estimate is a good estimate as well.

Sorry, you were saying something, Mrinalini? Yeah.

I was

saying that your estimate is a good estimate.

Good. Thanks.

My second question is with respect to your margin. Our operating profits have grown by about 5.5%, whereas volume growth has been at 8%, as you indicated.

We've seen a margin compression in this year vis-a-vis previous year, right? What are the key reasons for that, and how should we see this number going ahead?

Nitin, you would recollect that we had given a guidance that we will operate in the EBITDA margin range of 21 to 24%. As we close the year, we are actually right at the top of range at 24% EBITDA margin.

I'm going to repeat one more time. Is my voice better now?

I'll do that. Thank you for letting me know.

Nitin, as I was saying, we've given our guidance as operating margin, obviously EBITDA margin in the range of 21 to 24%, and as we close the financial year '25, we actually closed it right at the top of range, almost at the 24% mark. From that sense, we are very much within our guidance and we are actually happy with that result.

You identified the mix correctly. As we grew volumes high single digits and EBITDA grew for about 5, 5.5%, there is a dilution.

We've spoken about this earlier as well. As we expand, as we change our business mix towards the industrial side of the portfolio, we know that we cannot operate at same levels as an automotive industry does.

That level of dilution, we expect, we anticipate. Additionally, we have chosen to invest in the business.

We are in a growth journey, you will see our fixed costs also growing with really focused on the investment buckets. Both of those have played out well for us, which is why you see the 5% result.

Thanks, Mrinalini. That's a very elaborate one.

My question was more around it. Given that you have mentioned your focus is now shifting towards industrial demand, is data center demand something which you think is a reasonable one which can come up in the years to follow?

What's the assessment of potential demand from data centers in the time to come?

Let me try to recap the question, and then between Saugata and I, we will try to address it. I think, Nitin, your question was on data centers.

Your question was, do we see data center business as a growth opportunity? Let me take a shot at it and Saugata can build on.

It is indeed very, very small for us right now. We are at a very early part of the journey.

Being a part of the global Castrol, we do benefit from the research and development which has brought us to this place where we have a solution for cooling in data centers, very small in India today. Given the role that India will play in overall data centers for the world, also looking forward, indeed, we do think it's a good opportunity for the future.

Saugata, over to you.

I'll just build on what Mrinalini was saying. I think two things.

This is a market which is growing fast. It's also changing quite quickly.

Fundamentally, what large data centers require is to cool the servers, which are immersed into liquid that can conduct heat, but not electricity. The technology that was used and is used in many other places today is pure air conditioning.

That is moving to immersion coolant. Opportunity is evolving.

It is moving very fast. We think it's going to be a big market out there.

We have trials that are ongoing, and we will see, as the market stabilizes, what is the size of the opportunity. Still at a very early stage to project it.

I understand that, Saugata, but I suppose that it's an early stage in India, but can you help us with any figures that you have from Castrol Global—

Sure. Just give me a moment.

Is this better than before?

Yeah. I was saying, Saugata, if you can help us understand from any of the figures that we can source from Castrol Global in terms of how much data center demand is Castrol Global catering to and that will help us have an understanding on the potential for our demand in India.

I won't be able to comment on the global demand, honestly, but what I can tell you is large demand is coming out of markets such as the US, out of China, parts of Europe, and India, of course. Again, as I said, you will have seen all announcements on terawatts of data centers being created, but a lot of that is very early stage of execute.

At this stage, it's not completely clear what is the technology that is going to be used on coolant, right? As I mentioned, it is something which will evolve, and that's the case even globally.

Got it. Fair enough.

Thanks so much for taking my questions. I'll get back in the queue for more.

Thank you, Nitin.

Good afternoon, sir. Sir, looking at your annual volume run rate of say around 240, 250 million liters, are you fine with the current capacity of your plant, or is there a thought process of expanding capacity or something like that?

Look, we have been growing very strongly, as you have picked up, and we have three plants in India. We feel that at the moment we are adequately equipped to release capacity.

There are always process transformation programs which are in play, and we'll be able to support the growth for the next couple of years, at least.

Okay. I think you've mentioned CY25 capex to be somewhere at around 130, ₹140 crores.

I think ₹150 crores. That is the run rate we can expect going ahead also, and CY25 was ₹150 crores, or was it different?

Hazarika, let me take that question. It's a growth driver for us.

We invest it in two forms. One is in our plants and building capacity for innovation, like Saugata just spoke, and making sure that we can enable all the new launches that he also spoke about in reach, which is about half my capex.

We also invest capex to enable our distribution growth, in our dealer boards as well as in the market. Rural service express investment as well.

Overall, between the two buckets, we spend about ₹100 crores of capex, and that is the trend that we've demonstrated in the past. As we look forward, what we know for sure is we will invest when the investment pays out.

Given our strong structural margins, we know that every time there is a growth proposal, it pays out. Capex is not a constraint for us.

We have kept a healthy cash balance sheet, and we will invest wherever there is a business need.

Right, got it. Just one small follow-up.

Your dividend payout this time has been around 91%. I understand in CY24, there was a special dividend, but is 90, 91% the sustainable rate right now for dividend payout?

Indeed, that's a good question, and I'm hoping the shareholders are happy with the given out right now. 90% is industry-leading payout ratios, and I'm very happy that we're able to do that.

Last year was the celebration of the 125th year of Castrol, because of which we had given that special dividend. We always look for such occasions to sort of delight our shareholders.

Nonetheless, even without those special dividend, our dividend payout is usually 4.8 to 5%. That's something we really want to sustain.

Got it. Thank you so much, and all the best.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thanks for the update.

I have two quick questions, please.

Am I audible now?

Yeah. The first question is with regard to BP, the parent company, recently announced its selling stake, 65% to be precise, in Castrol's global lubricant business.

How could this impact Indian shareholders in terms of brand licensing agreement, R&D support from BP's global centers, and basically long-term strategic direction under new ownership?

Right. Thank you for that question.

Let me try and address that. As you rightly said, the global announcement was made in December, which was subsequent to a strategic review that was also flagged early in the year.

The parent level, BP has signaled that they will form a joint venture with an investor where BP will remain a 35% shareholder, investor will take 65%. I must caution that this is all subject to regulatory approval, and we expect the transaction at some point to close toward the end of the year.

As and when that happens, there would be, if any regulatory-related disclosures to be made, that new shareholders would do that. To your question on what may or may not impact, very early.

It's business as usual for us over here. Castrol and India particularly remain a very big market for Castrol globally, and we are focused on executing on our plan, and we think that those are the metrics which have created that kind of value for our shareholders, including the ones who have invested.

Thanks for the reply, sir. The second one is with regard to EV fluids.

We have been talking about EV fluids for a few quarters now. Can you give us any quantitative update with regard to OEM approvals received in India in the last 20 12 months, or the current run rate of EV fluid sales, and the kind of margin expansion that we see with EV compared to ICE products?

Right. Okay.

Look, the demand for EV fluid is directly proportional to the number of EVs being sold in a year, right? You would know from publicly available information that the number of two-wheeler EVs is roughly 10% of the total new vehicles sold in each year, and in cars, that's about 5 to 6%, okay?

The good news is that we have access to the best technology on the EV fluid front, which is developed by a global team. We have a center of excellence in Europe on EV fluids.

In India, as things stand today, about 70% of the OEMs, especially in cars, they have approved Castrol products, and they're used in a lot of the vehicles over here. Again, the population is quite small, therefore, it is not a material part of our business today.

We're prepared and ready to cater to that demand as that business scales up.

I get it, sir. Just a bit on that, is there any higher margins with the EV fluid sales compared to ICE?

There are certain segments in which the EV margins are better. Like when you say ICE, there are a whole range of products that we sell starting from commercial vehicle engine oil, we have grease, gear oil, and then we have the high-end synthetic products which go into cars.

For those, margins are higher. On a aggregate basis, I would say the EV margins would be at the same range as what we have our core automotive business.

That's a great clarification, sir, and thanks for the update.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my questions.

Sir, sorry, this is first time I'm coming to the conference, I may not be well versed with details about previous calls. I wanted to understand What is our expectation because of the upcoming EV growth?

How much impact will it be on our numbers going forward in mid-term as well as in the long run? Because of the increase in PHEV and hybrid sales, does PHEV and hybrids have a lower sales volume for Castrol or is it at similar level as compared to ICE?

That would be my first questions.

Right. Okay.

I'll rephrase or I'll recap the question you said, because the voice was not very clear, to make sure that I've got it. You are asking, what is going to be the impact of the transition into EVs in mobility space in the medium and long term, and does hybrid also have an impact on demand for lubricants?

Are those your two questions?

Exactly.

Okay. Thank you.

Got it. The first thing I would say is, look, we believe that the transition to low-carbon mobility is going to have multiple pathways for that.

What do I mean by that? That there are efficiencies to be had in the existing ICE powertrains, which is already happening, and the regulations that are making those engines much more efficient.

Then there are multi-fuel engines which are being introduced in the market. You have a lot of manufacturers now selling vehicles which are either on CNG and even some people are experimenting in heavy commercial vehicle with LNG.

Then you have hybrids and EVs, and all of these are happening in service of efficiency and bringing down the carbon intensity in mobility space. The second point I would make is the penetration level of personal mobility, especially in India, is quite low today when you compare to middle-income and developed markets, right?

The headroom for growth on motorcycles and cars remains very robust, and we can see that in terms of the growth that new vehicle sales are registered last year. There are about 4.5 million cars being sold in the country, and there's another 18 to 20 million two-wheelers being sold in the country.

The contribution of pure EVs within that today is still small, okay? The contribution of multi-fuel or alternate fuel vehicles, CNG, LPG, LNG, all of that is growing.

All of them, along with hybrids, require lubricants. We have products.

In fact, for hybrids, we have a new range of products called High Spec, and all of those are available. In the medium term in India, hybrids and ICE will remain the backbone of the market, and as and when EVs do scale up, we have tie-ups with all leading OEMs in two-wheeler and in cars, and we will cater to that demand too.

I hope that answers your question.

Partial, but so does that EV also require—

Is it okay now?

Yeah. I wanted to check the requirement of lubricants in EVs should be lower than the requirements of lubricants in ICE and hybrids.

Is this understanding correct?

On a per-unit basis, an EV is likely to require less number of liters of product. The application of fluids in EVs can be in two places, and it's evolving.

There are certain batteries that require immersion coolant technology, where the coolant enables faster charge and better discharge rates for the batteries, and therefore, prolongs life of the battery, and that is a high-value product. There are certain cases where the EV transmission fluids have dielectric coolants in that, whereby it cools the motor, the transmission, at the same time, it removes heat, but does not conduct electricity.

The application or use cases change, and these are differentiated product, and therefore, not something which we can compare clearly with the lubricants that are going into ICE engines.

Okay. Sir, if I consider as 2030, how do you see our product mix changing between autos and industrials, and within autos the hybrid, ICE, and EVs?

If you could just comment on that, that would be pretty helpful.

Your question, up to 2030, the contribution change between automotive and industrial, and within automotive, the contribution change. Is that your question?

Yes.

Okay. Today, predominantly, our business has been automotive, but we have informed all our investors a couple of years back that we want to scale up in industrial, and the industrial business has delivered double-digit volume growth.

Our core business has delivered high single-digit growth. I anticipate that profile of growth from the industrial segment will continue, okay?

Therefore, over time, going up to 2030, which is just about six year about four years away, the contribution of industrial business on the volume side is going to be higher than what it was and what it is in 2020 what it was in 2025. Within the core lubricants business, we see growth coming through in all three, that is the commercial vehicle, cars, and bikes.

Different parts of the country are growing differentially. Our two-wheeler business, motorcycle business is growing very strongly, driven by our reach into rural India where, based on media reports, you'll see that anywhere between one in two or one in three new two-wheelers are being sold in rural India.

That's why we have invested heavily in terms of increasing our distribution in rural India in the last few years. That is bearing results.

We anticipate that will continue, and that's what is going to drive our motorcycle category growth, where we are the market leaders with a brand called Castrol Activ. In cars, it's a big city play.

Again, we are leading in that market with a brand called MAGNATEC and GTX. We anticipate that is going to grow faster in terms of percentage growth compared to two-wheelers, just because the penetration level of cars is quite low.

In the core commercial vehicle business, resilient, low single-digit growth, which is linked to growth of freight. There, we anticipate the business to move beyond just diesel, as I mentioned earlier, the multi-fuel vehicles going in the market.

We'll have products which can be used or which are used in powertrains that use CNG in commercial vehicles. We also have products that are used for last-mile mobility, your sub-1-ton delivery vehicles that you see in cities.

That will contribute to the growth in commercial vehicles, but those are going to grow at low single

digit. Sir.

Thank you, sir, and all the best for—

Thank you very much.

Congratulations on the results, and thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. My question is on base oil.

I see a recent announcement where there has been partnership with HPCL, and it has been trying to revive the used engine oil for base oil. I understand 50 to 55% of base oil is currently imported, and can this percentage go down going forward?

How much incremental base oil can be procured from this partnership? My question is finally to do with your gross profits.

The more you get it domestically to lower the impact of FX and higher the profits. How do you see base oil being procured locally?

That's my first question.

Dhaval, let me take that. Firstly, welcome back.

I remember speaking with you last time as well. You are right.

We do import about slightly more than half of our base oils is imported, and the rest is bought locally. That is a trend I believe we would like to continue because as we buy locally, we save a little bit on freight, and it's better cost for us.

It's also better response like lower inventory, lower lead time, it's the right strategy. That being said, I heard your underlying question within that was does it really protect us from the foreign exchange fluctuations?

There, incidentally, it doesn't, because at the end of the day, base oil is a commodity, and it is really pegged to the dollar price. That is a globally tracked metric.

While we save a little bit on cost, what we don't really protect ourselves is on foreign exchange fluctuations, which is why our discipline on cost saving, on pricing, and on hedging is very important, and we continue to focus on those strategies. Did you have any other questions, Dhaval, related to this?

The HPCL MoU, let me hand over to Saugata, and he can talk about that.

I think on the HPCL piece, Dhaval, that is a MoU that we have signed with HPCL to explore the two companies coming together to explore what we can do to help develop a base oil RRBO ecosystem in India. One of the big challenges that we have determined, which is coming in the way of a very vibrant RRBO ecosystem in India, is the challenge on collection and last-mile collection.

Given the reach of Castrol and HPCL in different segments, we are exploring what could be ways of working together to try and get that going, and that, in itself, should then help at some stage to develop an RRBO industry in India. That's at a very early stage of scoping out.

That helps. I understand you domestically procure base oil from PSUs, and IOCL are coming up with more refineries or more output of base oil.

Is there already some contracts in place? Are you guys already talking to them regarding procuring domestically, or can you shed some color on that?

Yes, we, as you rightly picked up, we source base oil domestically from the PSUs, and there is a new base oil plant that IOC has commissioned with Group III. We are in conversation with them, and as and when that scales up, and as requirements creep up, we always look at what is the most efficient way to source our base oil, and we are quite agile and tactical in terms of making choices as and when opportunities open up to bring efficiency.

Thank you for taking and answering my questions. Thank you.

Hello?

now?

Thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions.

Could you please share the current revenue mix between B2B and B2C segments? Additionally, what is the product mix breakdown within automotive segment, specifically on PCMO and MCO category?

Let me give it a shot, Mandira. The industry is still heavily retail-focused.

I would say out of my automotive sales, 65, 70% still is in the retail segment. Balance would be, let's say, in franchise workshops, etc.

I think your second part of the question was about industrial versus automotive. Is that correct?

Yes.

Yeah. I think Saugata alluded to this earlier.

Automotive is the big part of our business today. Industrial is still relatively small at about 12, 13%, but growing very fast, and we expect that share to go up.

Okay. Additionally, what was the advertisement and promotion spend as a percentage of revenue for most recent quarter?

You'll see these in our published financial results. We maintain it actually at a healthy 2 to 3% as of financial year '25, where we closed at a 3% of revenue into advertising and sales promotion.

Great. In the recent commentary, you mentioned continuing to strengthen the relationship with key OEMs.

Which new automotive OEM have you tied up with?

We continue to work with the largest OEMs in the country, which is again in the public domain. We work with the Tatas, both commercial vehicle and passenger cars.

We've been one of the early partners of Maruti Suzuki when they commenced operations in the country. We work with two-wheeler OEMs, as well as with some of the EVs which we talked about.

Tata passenger electric car and like. The point that we made on the announcement, we continue to invest in strengthening that relationship.

For example, in off-road side, we work with JCB, and we develop products which specifically meet their requirement, and that is what we have invested in. Those are the relationships that we continue to nurture.

We also made an announcement a few months back that we had signed an MoU with VinFast as they enter the country and help them meet their requirement for aftersales service for their EV cars.

Got it, sir. Thank you, that was really helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. I was disconnected from call for 5, 10 minutes, I don't know whether my question has been answered or not.

Can you give the split between automotive and industrial, and within automotive, what is the sub-segments like two-wheeler, four-wheeler, and commercial vehicles?

Mr. Vipul, good afternoon.

Indeed, your question was picked up just before this by Liny. I'll reiterate what I had said earlier.

Our automotive business is the largest part of our portfolio historically and remains so. Industrial is around 10 to 12%, growing faster than automotive.

Automotive is growing in high single digit, industrial is going double digit. The ratios will change.

Within automotive, we are a pretty diversified business. We have a sizable commercial vehicle business which goes into trucks and agri.

We have a market-leading position in motorcycles with Castrol Activ, are the largest operators in that segment. We have also got a market-leading position in cars, and therefore, across all three, we are material players, and that contributes to a very diversified and resilient business in automotive.

What is your overall market share, and how it has moved over say last two years?

Market share has gone up in the automotive side. If you look at Nielsen, which is a third-party provider of market share, in the automotive space, our market share has gone up by 50 bps at the end of the year, and it is in the early 20s.

This is at an overall automotive level, covering commercial vehicle, cars, and two-wheelers.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Hello, am I audible?

Yes, you are. Okay.

Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to understand something.

We get a volume-based discount on December quarter from our parent, right, for the volumes that we sell?

What was the question? Could you just repeat that again?

Hello?

Is this better?

I was asking we get a volume-based discount for the volume that we sell from our parent in the December quarter, right?

We get volume-based discount from our suppliers of base oil, and some of those contracts are global, this comes from the suppliers.

It's in December quarter. Did we get that in this quarter?

I just wanted to understand because usually we see a margin hike in the December quarter, whereas this quarter I just wanted to understand what happened. Did the forex eat that hike that we get?

Maybe let me take that, Harsh. I in fact alluded to this earlier in the commentary as well.

I'll just answer this question from an EBITDA standpoint. Average for the year, I close at about 24% EBITDA, whereas if you see Q4, margins were healthier at 26%, and that's actually the primary reason for the quarter four EBITDA margins being high.

You will see this as a trend in every year because indeed base oil rebates come to us at the end of the calendar year.

Fair enough. My other question was, when do we take our annual price hikes, and what sort of price hikes can we expect in the next year?

We look at the market. We benchmark ourselves to our key competitors, and we have a certain price range within which we operate.

At the same time, we are very mindful of the cost inflation and currency movements. As and when there are opportunities where we see we're bringing new innovations in the market, or we see the cost inflation going beyond the range that we operate in, we take pricing action then.

That's what we have done. That is the approach we have taken for the last several years, and we'll continue to remain in that way.

It's not a fixed-time thing. It's as and when we see something pop up, we act accordingly.

Yes. Okay.

Fine. Thank you.

Yes, it's not a fixed time.

Hi, I just had one question. What is the reason for more than 200 bps decline on YoY EBITDA margin?

Last year, if I can see, the EBITDA margin was closer to 27.8% in 4Q, and this year, it is somewhere around 25.5%. What's the reason for that?

Let me take that, Keshav. Thank you for the question.

Indeed, you have spotted the trend right. It is on a percentage margin basis, it is a it is lower versus same quarter last year, and I think the reasons are a few of the factors that we've discussed in the call.

For example, structurally, we know that we're invest we're growing faster in the industrial business versus the automotive business, and that that will have a certain play on the margin. Secondly, because I'm sure you're also very well aware, the foreign exchange exposure to dollar to dollar and euro has been very, very steep in the fourth quarter.

From a macroeconomic lens standpoint, we did have an input cost inflation. Like Saugata just said, we don't take knee-jerk reactions, we have a structural intervention in play to address such macroeconomic trends, and those structural interventions take some time to see to hit the market.

Hence, Q4 saw a little bit of dilution behind those macroeconomic trends as well. Then so overall, nonetheless, like I just shared with the previous question also, we landed at 26% of the as an EBITDA margin, which is still beyond our guidance of 21 to 24%.

I think we are still in a very healthy zone.

Okay. Thank you so much, ma'am.

That was helpful.

Hi, my question is with the coolant used in data centers. Can you give some color on that?

Is it clear now?

My question is regarding the coolant used in— Not very clear. Now is clear?

Am I audible now?

Yes, yes.

My question was regarding the coolant used in data centers, which we talked about it. Can you give some color on that where it will be used and what kind of—

Hello?

One sec, can you just hold on for a second? Is it clear now?

Hello?

It's better. It's a bit better.

It's a bit better. Please try asking your question again.

We'll see if we can catch it.

My question is regarding data centers, the coolant used in data centers. Can you give some color on that when this business will be starting, and what kind of growth we anticipate in this?

I think the growth percentage is not the main criteria because the business is very small today, it'll rapidly grow on a very small base. When will it become material is a bit difficult to project at early stage because the data centers that have all been announced are still at a very early stage of execution.

We'll have to see how that space evolves into data centers being established, and then there is also a technology change that is happening. The early data centers are being cooled conventionally with air conditioning.

The new data centers in search of efficiency and scale are looking for immersion coolant where they dip the servers inside fluids, immersion coolant fluids as we call them, which are dielectric. That is where these products are sold.

There's one element which is to understand how fast the new data centers are executed and put on the ground, and the second bit is to understand how many of them and how quickly are immersion-based. That's what Castrol has a solution for, has a coolant, and helps people scale up and run data centers efficiently.

We'll need a bit more time to understand how big that opportunity could be.

I think it's two to four,

four, five years away, right? Could be sooner than that, too.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, and all the best.

Thank you.

Hello?

Hello? Sir, in previous concall, we have mentioned about the pilot study being done with the data center players for the liquid cooling technology.

Can you give any further update on the same?

Yes, I can tell you that there are those pilots that are happening in India. Our global technology center of developing data center fluids is in the UK, and we have a team which is looking into it, and they're working with certain large hyperscalers in India to develop that.

We also have our tech center in India in Patalganga which further optimizes some of these products to make them suitable for use in India, and we continue to work with some of the people who have announced data center projects for India. Those pilots are still on.

Would it be possible for you to name them, and when can we expect the commercialization of the same?

You can understand I can't name them. It is their business, so that won't be appropriate for us.

All I can say is that we are working very closely on the tech front to help them solve for removing heat, which enables them to operate data centers more efficiently, and that is where our technology comes into play, both the global technology center in the UK as well as the work that our technologists in Patalganga, which is near Mumbai, do to optimize the products for Indian environmental conditions. As and when some of those arrangements close and those data centers are scaled up, we would make the necessary disclosures and announcements.

All right, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.