Thank you, Nish. Good evening, everyone.

We are happy to welcome all of you to the FY '26 annual results investor call. As you would have taken note of already, this time we have made a change in the way we are holding our investor call.

The purpose of this change is to present our investor deck during the call and share our perspective and insights in an endeavor to make the overall interaction richer. Looking forward to a good discussion.

Handing over to Puneet sir to take this forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Prassan, and good evening, everyone. Happy to be back with all of you.

Let me start with some thoughts about the Indian economy. As we all know, the India growth story remains strong and we continue to be one of the fastest growing major economies in the world, marching forward to become the third largest economy in a few years.

During the year, India's macroeconomic fundamentals have demonstrated confidence driven by robust consumption and investment demand. At the same time, supportive fiscal deficit track and robust forex reserves hold India on a strong footing to navigate through any of the geoeconomic headwinds.

As India progresses to become a $5 trillion economy by 2028 and achieve the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047, we will need substantial investments in infrastructure, and we are already beginning to see strong traction on this front. From industrial corridors and affordable housing to high-speed rail and smart cities, progress is visible across the country.

Central and state capex has also been increasing year-on-year. We strongly believe that this momentum is going to accelerate in the years ahead.

As India grows, does the cement sector. I expect the cement demand to grow at a CAGR of 7% to 8% in the medium term.

Let me now touch upon costs and cement prices. As mentioned in our earlier calls, the cost trends for the cement industry were largely flattish in the recent past.

However, this situation has changed due to the West Asia conflict. The industry is seeing cost impact in three key areas: power and fuel, packing bags, and both inbound and outbound logistics.

Petcoke prices have soared to about $160 per ton, and rupee depreciation is an added impact. Supply crunch of bags and rising cost of PP granules has led to increase in packing costs.

Fuel costs have also gone up, and there might be some more increases in the pipeline. Having said that, we are taking various measures internally to mitigate the impact of rising costs to the maximum extent possible.

On the price side, we have seen improvements in the month of April in most of our key markets. We are optimistic that this positive momentum on prices will continue in the near term, and may well mitigate the impact of the cost increases.

Moving on to the company overview. As you're all aware, we are the fourth largest cement player in India with almost 50 million tons of cement capacity.

In financial year '26, we delivered our best ever EBITDA of ₹3,083 crore and a PAT of ₹1,157 crore. We have a diverse product offering catering to all consumer segments, and are happy to share that we are adding a new premium product to our lineup called Weather 365.

With this new addition, we are confident of strengthening our premium product offering to the end consumers and our channel partners. We take pride in the journey of Dalmia over decades.

We began our operations in 1939 with just 250 tons per day of cement capacity in the state of Tamil Nadu, and today we serve over 23 states with our cement capacity close to 50 million tons. As you're all familiar with our geographical footprint, I will not go deep into that.

In this slide, we have included the status of our limestone reserves. As can be seen, we have sufficient reserves across all our regions.

In totality, we have 2.7 billion tons of limestone reserves at our operational plants. In addition to this, we have virgin mines across the country which will support our future expansion into new geographies, and we are progressively augmenting our reserves as we go along.

I want to now spend some time on our strategic priorities. Maximizing ROCE from all our assets has been one of the top agenda items for the company, and most of the management bandwidth is being deployed to drive this.

Capacity expansion and becoming a pan-India player is a key strategic priority. All our announced projects in South and West are progressing well.

We are now working on new projects to reach the 75 million ton capacity milestone. We will share details of the same with all of you in the near future.

Our balance sheet is our strength, and as we pursue our capacity expansion journey, we would be extremely mindful of continuing to maintain a healthy balance sheet in future as well. We are committed to have the highest corporate governance and a strong organization culture.

Both of these will continue to guide our actions as we take Dalmia from strength to strength. I will now hand it over to Dharmendra to take you through the progress on our operating parameters.

Thank you.

Thank you, Puneet ji. Good evening, everyone.

Please pardon me for my sore throat today. Just to re-emphasize what Puneet ji just mentioned, delivering high returns on capital employed is a key strategic priority for us, and we are addressing this on multiple fronts.

Delivering industry-leading volume growth backed up by strong value proposition for our channel partners and customers is the key to higher capacity utilization. We have recently refreshed our brand identity and have adopted a new logo, keeping pace with the new Bharat of today and tomorrow.

We are doubling down on our efforts towards premiumization at both product and price level. Various initiatives are being taken for better channel engagement and offering reliable delivery to our partners.

We have also made positive stride on our cost leadership. In this quarter, we delivered the lowest quarterly total cost per ton in the last 5 years, which demonstrates our unwavering commitment to be one of the lowest cost producers.

We'll talk a bit more about cost in the coming slides. Now let me give you a brief snapshot of our ROCE performance.

For ease of understanding the numbers, we have categorized our capital employed into core cement operations and non-core line items. The key components of non-core line items are CWIP of about ₹2,500 crores, intangibles arising out of group restructuring, another about ₹2,100 crores, and rest is largely treasury investments partially mitigated by deferred tax liabilities.

In financial year '26, we have been able to improve our ROCE from core cement assets by more than 200 basis points, going up from 9.9% to 12.1%. As more of our projects get commissioned, the CWIP value will keep getting converted into core cement assets and start generating strong returns.

Our ongoing expansion projects at Belgaum and Pune as well as Kadapa will take our cement capacity to 61.5 million tons per annum in the next 18 to 20 months. Civil work at Belgaum project is complete while E&I work has started.

We are actually expecting commissioning a little ahead of our earlier announced schedule. Ordering for all key equipments at Kadapa project is already done.

There have been some minor delays in Q4 '26 which have also resulted in lower than planned cash outflows during the quarter. Things are now back on track, and we are confident that we will be able to commission this project somewhere between Q2 to Q3 of FY '28.

Progress on Pune GU and Chennai bulk terminal are also progressing satisfactorily. Total cash outflow on account of project capex has been about ₹2,200 crores in the last two financial years.

With all projects picking up pace, we expect expansion-led cash outflow in FY '27 to be in the range of ₹2,200 crores with a total capex outlook for FY '27 being ₹3,200 to ₹3,400 crores. Moving to our performance for the year, we have closed the year with 2% volume growth and 6% revenue growth.

We delivered ever highest EBITDA of ₹3,083 crores, up 28% versus previous year. Our PAT in FY '26 was ₹1,157 crores, which is a jump of 65% versus previous year.

Let me now cover each metric in the following slides. During the quarter, our sales volume grew 3% YoY to 8.8 million tons.

Trade percentage for the quarter was 67% and our premium product share was 24%. We'll continue to drive the agenda of premiumization aggressively in FY '27 as well.

Revenue from operations improved, driven by both realizations and volume growth. Although our realizations appear flattish, it has actually improved by about 1.7% on a QoQ basis if we adjust the one-off incentive approved last quarter amounting to ₹46 crores.

Our incentive approvals during the quarter were ₹45 crores. Total incentives outstanding at year end has increased to ₹839 crores as collections for the quarter were subdued at just ₹14 crores.

This was due to delays in payouts by a few state governments on account of elections. We expect this to normalize soon.

Raw material cost per ton of production reduced by 1% YoY to ₹734 per ton. This is despite the additional levy of mineral tax in Tamil Nadu at ₹160 per ton.

Compared to previous quarter, raw material cost has come down by 6%. Our blended ratio has improved to 83% during the quarter, which led to marginal improvement in CC ratio as well.

The power and fuel cost per ton of production has reduced 6% versus previous quarter despite cost headwinds. We have been able to mitigate inflationary pressures with mix optimization and other initiatives.

On full year basis, our cost per ton is flat. Share of renewable energy jumped from 39% in Q4 last year to 47% this quarter, while fuel cost stood at ₹1.36 per mill per kcal.

Given the volatile environment, we will continue to focus on all big and small initiatives to keep power and fuel cost in check to the extent possible. We continue to deliver one of the lowest logistics costs in the industry and have further improved on that.

During the quarter, our cost declined 6% YoY to ₹1,064 per ton, driven by multiple initiatives. We achieved highest ever direct dispatch share during the quarter at 65%.

As we move forward, we'll continue to balance the twin objectives of reliable service to our customers and cost excellence. During the quarter, other expenses increased by 4% YoY to ₹694 per ton, primarily due to increase in packing cost towards the end of the quarter.

If you look at the total cost level, we have continued to deepen our position as one of the lowest cost cement producers. Happy to share that Q4 per ton cost is the lowest quarterly cost in the last 5 years for Dalmia.

At reported cost basis, our cost per ton since Q1 FY '25 has come down by ₹183 per ton from ₹3,973 to ₹3,790. If we see on adjusted basis, that is after moving impact of Tamil Nadu mineral cess and fuel prices, the fall is even steeper, that is ₹211 per ton.

On a full year basis, FY '26 adjusted cost is lower by ₹100 versus FY '25. This decline is in line with the guidance we had given a few years back, and as we look forward, we are confident of further improving on our cost trajectory.

Since cost reduction is a continuous journey in a very dynamic environment, we don't want to guide the speed. However, internally, we will always keep looking to deliver ₹50 to ₹100 cost takeout on an annual basis going forward.

Our EBITDA has grown to ₹902 crores, driven by all key levers, that is volume, realization, and cost. The jump in EBITDA is 14% versus previous year and 50% versus previous quarter.

EBITDA per ton was ₹1,023 against the reported Q3 number of ₹823. However, adjusted for the one-off incentive of ₹46 crores last quarter, our EBITDA has improved by ₹260 per ton on a sequential basis.

As Puneet ji mentioned, balance sheet health is a key priority. Our net debt stands at ₹1,428 crores, translating to a net debt to EBITDA of 0.46 times, which is well below the threshold level of 2 times as per our capital allocation framework.

Sustainability is central to how we operate and grow as a company. Our net emissions has been one of the lowest among the cement companies globally at 471 kg.

Our DJSI score has also significantly improved to 78 this year. We continue to scale up our renewable power capacity at a strong pace, adding around 180 million megawatt this year.

We will also be commissioning 128 megawatt of RE capacity soon, which will take us to 576 megawatt renewable energy capacity. This will further increase our share of our consumption and reinforce our commitment to sustainability.

This is just a glimpse of some of the CSR interventions across our locations. We take immense pride in the impact we bring to the lives of people we touch, and will continue our relentless focus in this area.

Talking about governance, we have a strong board construct at the company which brings diverse expertise and reputation. The layer below the board is the executive committee of seasoned professionals, bringing together diverse industry expertise and functional strengths.

Some of the best names in the industry are engaged with us either as auditors or giving us assurances and ratings on various parameters. Talking about contingent liabilities, our tax-related liabilities have come down drastically in FY '26.

There was increase in mining and mineral-related matters, details of which will be covered in our annual report. Our total contingent liability as percentage of equity is 6%, which is amongst the best in the industry.

Last, on the key legal matters, one of the key positives this quarter has been the progress in the ED land attachment case. The alleged proceeds of crime have been substantially reduced from ₹793 crores to ₹93 crores, which is nearly a 90% reduction.

The ED has also ordered for the release of the entire land parcels by substituting the same with a bank guarantee of equivalent amount of ₹93 crores. With this, I open the floor for questions.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hi.

Thanks for the opportunity. Just firstly on the volumes, this quarter you had some impact of the capacity or the kiln shutdown.

Generally speaking also in the last couple of years, there has been a continued market share loss. What is the outlook that we can expect on volume and market share let's say in the coming couple of years?

I think as I have said earlier, we want to look at a profitable volume growth. This quarter, we had an unexpected breakdown in East India and we lost some volume on account of that.

We have commissioned new lines in Northeast and we are also going to commission our line in Belgaum this year. For all these new investments, our priority remains to increase capacity utilization as fast as possible.

I think we will continue to ensure that we are able to scale up the utilizations in the right markets. As I said, in some markets we have to improve the quality of sales, which we've been doing.

You've seen that in our profitability. It's a work in process, and overall I think we are pretty happy with the progress that we're making.

Sure. Thank you.

Just one more question on capacity, usually there was a chart talking about 70 million tons and 110, 115. This time it's missing, how to read that and what's the current targets on capacity now?

As I said, I think our first milestone is by financial year '28 we want to be 75. We are continuing to work on that and our long-term target also remains the same as we had outlined earlier.

There's no change.

Just to add on that, Yatin this side. I think Puneet ji covered in his opening remarks that we are pretty much on our way to chase 72 to 75 million tons in the next 2 years by FY '28.

That is pretty much a milestone that we are chasing. It's not missing.

110, 130 million milestone, we will be declaring more as we go along. Even that destination as a part of being a pan-India player is pretty much.

Just the last question if I may. There has been a lot of cost inflation due to the West Asia crisis.

How are you placed to combat that and if you could give some guidance on the cost inflation that you expect in Q1 and Q2?

Amit, we have done this assessment actually. As you have seen our cost numbers for the quarter have been really good.

I think there are challenges, there are headwinds as Puneet ji mentioned on power and fuel, on packing, and a little bit on logistics also. Overall if you were to see versus Q4 to Q1, we are expecting an impact of somewhere between ₹125 to ₹150 per ton.

That is what's coming and something we have to handle. We are working on ways and means to mitigate this in terms of our fuel mix, in terms of our other initiatives on logistics to mitigate these impacts.

We will see how the quarter pans out. Right now we are looking at a risk of 125 to 150 on the horizon, and we are in the process of mitigating this

risk. Sure, thanks a lot.

Good evening. Am I audible?

Yeah. Sir, wanted to ask in the presentation, you mentioned the like-to-like cost opex-led efficiencies, it's ₹100 per ton which is achieved in FY '26.

Is this reading correct? Cost reduction in FY '26 on the efficiency basis,

you have

achieved ₹100 cost reduction, right?

On an annualized basis year-to-year, ₹100 is the reduction

that we Annual basis.

Yeah.

What more is expected or targeted for FY '27?

Actually we guided roughly I think four eight quarters ago on the path we had to take. We have lived that journey.

As we have shown, if you were to look at Q4 to Q4 on adjusted basis, we're looking at ₹125, ₹130. As an organization, we are chasing cost reduction, I would say on a continuous basis.

Internally we are targeting, as Puneet ji mentioned, somewhere between ₹50 to ₹100 takeout every year. I think that's the way we want to see it.

We don't want to see it like a permanent milestone. It's a moving target, and we need to keep chasing more and more as we go along.

Understood. The ₹125 to ₹150 cost increase expected in Q1 over Q4, could you break it up between packaging and fuel cost?

What sort of numbers you're looking at?

I can give you an indication. I think the entire industry would be near the same numbers.

Packing would be somewhere between 80 to 90 bucks and the balance would be split between logistics and power and fuel.

This power and fuel the current inflated 30% odd or factoring in the rupee depreciation, some 40% increase. If suppose the prices were to hold on at the current level, since when would that start hitting numbers?

A part of it has already started hitting, but the question is how do we respond to those increases. I think we have been able to optimize our fuel mix to make sure the impact is mitigated, and that is exactly what we're looking for Q1.

It is not that the high costs have not started to impact us. These are alternative ways of sourcing and the fuel mix that is basically the lever to mitigate the impact.

Can you work out what was the fuel mix in Q4 and what is at least Q4 and how you're looking

Rajesh, we can speak offline and I can give you those numbers.

Sure, sure. Next question comes on the capex.

You have spelled out ₹2,200 crore capex for FY '27. This is only for the ongoing projects.

For full year, what sort of total capex for FY '27 we are looking at?

₹3,200 to ₹3,400 crores.

Sorry?

₹3,200 to ₹3,400 crores range.

Okay.

This is all the announced projects, the 3,200, 3,400, but as Puneet ji mentioned, we would be coming out with more announcements,

which

will revise.

One last question on

waiting for their turn. Sure.

Yeah. Thank you.

Hi, can you hear me?

Please go ahead.

Hi. First question is on that 75 million ton that you mentioned.

If it's come in in the next 2 years, can you talk about what options you're looking at? Where are you in the ordering stage?

I think we can't talk right now. We'll share with you whenever we arrive.

Do you expect

Just confirming that 75 million target by the end of FY '28, right? That's the target?

We are pretty much chasing that. Amit ji mentioned that, give or take a quarter here and there, give or take a few million there and there, I think that is what we are seeing.

Okay. Sir, just on the IEX investment.

I know the share is also been knocked down by all these news around market coupling. What's your expectation on the remaining stake that you have?

I think we have said that IEX is a non-core asset for us, and we have to liquidate that asset. We are waiting for the right opportunity to do that, and we will do it.

We've already liquidated half our position, and I think the balance position also we will liquidate as and when we find the time is right.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Good evening. Congrats for good numbers.

My first question is on your clinker utilization. Can you give clinker utilization for the year and if clinker utilization in specific regions impacted volume growth for the quarter?

I think we don't share the capacity utilization for clinker and that too

by region-wise.

We will not go there. I think we have made quite a lot of addition this year in our investor deck.

This is something that we would not. I think we do share our CC ratio, I think that can give you an indication on that.

That is not a factor which impacted why your volume growth this quarter?

Sorry, can you repeat your question, Prateek?

Is this not a factor which would have impacted your volume growth in peak quarter, which is this quarter?

We've already said that in our slides that there was about an unexpected one-off breakdown, which is resulted in a 3% YoY growth, lower.

Prateek, in quarter three, we registered a 10% volume growth. I think we were able to exhibit performance a little ahead of the industry.

Quarter four started on a high note. In the month of March, as you would have seen in our intimation to stock exchange, we actually had a breakdown.

We lost roughly 1.5 lakh tons of clinker and 300,000 of cement, and that is the reason that you see subdued growth in quarter four. I think in the long-term basis, I think we are very optimistic that we'll get back to our sales growth momentum and outperforming the industry in the coming quarters.

Sure. Other question is on pricing.

You talked about price increases in the month of April. Are these enough to cover the cost inflation expected over next two quarters, or how do you think about that?

Look, we are in a dynamic world and nobody knows what the cost inflation will be. If I look at the first fortnight of April, so far whatever are the cost increases, we've been able to pass on through the price increase, and we are quite hopeful that this will sustain.

Largely, hopefully we should be able to protect the margins. Again, it's a dynamic world.

We'll have to see how the prices behave and will the energy prices cool off, will the supply chains become more reliable. We have to see all of that.

As of now, I think the impact of cost has been passed on.

Sure, thank you. These are my questions.

Hi, sir. Sir, is it possible to quantify both trade, non-trade hike in your core operations of the regions in April?

You want us to share what? Sorry?

Cement price hike taken by you or the industry in April in your core regions.

I think it's a moving number. It's not that one market, one price is stable.

Overall as Puneet ji has mentioned, the price increases have happened and we are looking at recovering more than the cost impact. That's where we are.

Okay. Sir, given that now for the expansions, Kadapa, that previously we are looking at Q2 FY '28, that now we are saying it could be a Q3 FY '28 also.

At the same time, we are still not announced the next expansion to reach a 75 million ton, but still we are sticking to it. What gives the confidence?

Because that's the one thing which is not even if when you announce and whether we will be able to reach a 75 million ton can you help us know that?

I would just say that you have to take confidence from our confidence to do this. As I said, this could be a couple of quarters here and there, a couple of million tons here and there.

Just wait for us to come up with more announcements and then we will be able to share more details on that. As of now, I think Kadapa, one quarter, we also said Belgaum is a little ahead of schedule.

Sorry, can we get the others muted, please?

As I said, Kadapa might be a little delayed, Belgaum a little ahead of time. By and large, the story is intact.

In the next 8 to 9 quarters, we are looking forward to reach somewhere between 70 to 75 million tons of capacity.

Sir, on the volume growth I understand in last 2 years also just a 2% kind of a growth. Sir, is it possible to say that we are saying 7, 8% kind of a industry growth for couple of years for us for FY '27, '28, how one can look at?

Will it be a still lower than the industry growth or at par or better than industry growth?

We are aiming to deliver better than industry.

The capex for FY '28 would be once we announce, broader would be the last time we said 27, 28 put together would be a close to ₹9,000 odd crore. That way one can look at?

I think last time we said that for the next 2 years, we're looking at ₹3,000 to ₹3,500 every year. I think that pretty much we are what we are saying today also pre new announcements.

Because

that math will not tally. If we want to add another 10 odd million ton to reach that, we need to do a decent capex, at least ₹6,000, ₹7,000 crore to reach that, Yatin Malhotra (CFO):

Let's wait for the next announcements on that. We have said this is the capex without any new announcement.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, just wanted some sense of the break-up of the capex guidance for 2027.

Roughly this ₹3,200, ₹3,400 odd crores, if you could help me understand different projects, maintenance capex, any other capex such as renewables, that would be very helpful, sir. That's my first question.

I think in the deck Dharmendra ji covered that ₹3,200 to ₹3,400 is our overall guidance. Roughly 2,200 to 2,300 would be on account of the expansion projects and Pune.

I think balance is by and large, our regular capexes and plants. That's the way it is.

Any further details, we would rather avoid. I think our balance sheet will keep talking as and when we spend on capex.

Okay. Basically the ₹1,000 crore which is over and above the projects announced, basically maybe we can split them half into maintenance capex and half into efficiency projects.

Is that the correct way to think about it?

Also some land also will also be there. This 50-50 is not the right way, but I think we can keep it at that that the ₹1,000 crore would be for our regular operations.

This will be a mix. This is a moving thing.

There are return capexes, expansion, some small futuristic capexes and maintenance capexes. We don't want to split hairs beyond.

Understood, sir. Out of this total capex of ₹6,800 odd crores for the two announced projects already, roughly what proportion of capex is pending?

Capex is pending?

Yes, what proportion of this ₹6,800 crore of capex is pending for us pertaining to these projects which have already been announced?

We won't have that percentage handy. The way we incur, the projects keep running and the payment cycles keep coming after a while.

What cash outflow has happened versus what is the progress done on the project are two different numbers. We won't have that handy, but I don't think you should worry about that.

Let's look at the commissioning outlook for the organization. We are on track as we have said, and that's where we would want to leave it.

Got it, sir. Thanks for this.

Just one small sort of query. Do we sort of expect any meaningful change in fuel mix to happen over the next, say, two or three quarters?

Is that something which is possible? If yes, what would be the possible quantum of the shift?

Sir,

can you repeat that question, please?

Sir, are we expecting a meaningful change in the fuel mix to happen, say, away from petcoke, maybe higher coal mix, higher AFR, and if that is the case, maybe can we sort of quantify what sort of change in mix will happen, the fuel mix?

The situation is quite dynamic region to region, plant to plant, any kind of guidance may not hold true after a month.

Directionally, as petcoke gets more expensive, we have to look at alternates which is exactly what we are doing, wash coal and local petcokes and alternates. That's directionally what we're achieving.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Thank you for your time, sir. Thank you.

Namaskar, sir. Hope I'm audible.

Saket.

Thank you, sir. Sir, firstly if you could give some color on the capacity addition for the industry as a whole for the year ending March '26 and what is envisaged as the capacity addition for the current year, which are in the pipeline?

Yes, sir.

Saket, Prashant here. If I just broadly talk about the entire industry, I think the cement industry is adding somewhere around 160 to 170 million ton capacity Sorry,

Saket, just to repeat, I'm saying that for the industry as a whole, the cement industry was expected to add somewhere around 160 to 170 million ton of capacity between '26 to '28 and out of that, around 40 odd million ton has been commissioned in FY '26 so far. Somewhere the balance of around 110 to 120 odd million ton of the capacity is expected in the next 2 years.

All right, sir. Sir, in terms of the average utilization if you could just give some color on how the utilization for the industry has been for year ending March '26?

As of now, most of the companies are yet to announce their results, it would be a little difficult to estimate that. If I just say broadly, we have seen as a trend industry somewhere operates between 65% to 70% of utilization, and we believe that that will mean of a similar ballpark number in this year as well.

Sir, as you alluded in your presentation about the benefits that we have garnered out of the cost reduction exercise, but now with the inflationary trends in petcoke prices and even industrial diesel prices being hiked earlier, are these gains will be weaned out in the times to come or what should be our trajectory in terms of cost reduction per ton? I think so we did some very good numbers last year.

Where do you see ourselves placed for the current year in terms of the inflationary trends which we are witnessing currently?

I don't know, Saket, how to answer this question. We have said we are chasing ₹50 to ₹100 reduction internally.

This is our initiatives. What happens externally is something that we'll have to see and bake in our numbers as and when they come.

That's where we'll have to leave it. For any modeling that you want to do, I think both these line items have to be modeled separately.

Sir, I didn't understand. Can you come again, sir?

I am saying we are chasing internally, as we said, ₹50 to ₹100 cost takeout every year. That's internally what we want to chase.

What happens as an external impact in terms of inflation and headwinds, you will have to factor in as and when they come in.

No, sir. You are correct there.

What I was trying to make sense is how have the inflationary trends affected our gains that we have booked last time because of the cost reduction exercise? With the type of inflationary trends currently we have, how much have that being mitigated?

I think you can look at the right hand side of the chart where you've shown adjusted numbers for the Tamil Nadu cess and petcoke. I think that is the right way for you to understand our operating performance.

As Yatin covered in his remarks also earlier that we expect about ₹120 to ₹150 increase in the coming quarter, which is imposed on us by the environment.

Right, sir.

Thank you. Dhanyawad, sir.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

I have one question, actually two questions. One, how has the demand trend been in April so far?

I know it's too early, but given the price hikes across commodities, are you seeing any weakening of mainly I&C demand?

I think demand in April has seemed to be holding up. In cement, we have usually seen based on our past experience that even if there is a slowdown, it takes some time to feel the slowdown in the industry.

Thoda break lagane mein time lagta hai because

existing projects keep getting completed, the new projects could get deferred. Similarly, when the economy picks up for acceleration, maybe time lagta hai.

I think it's too early to decide whether there's a slowdown or not in April. I think the effects in my view will get visible in probably a couple of quarters only.

Month-to-month dekh ke I don't think we can conclude anything. I think maybe H2 will be the real test of what's going to happen.

I think it's too early to say right now.

As Puneet ji mentioned, for the full year, we are looking at a decent demand. We are hopeful and anyhow we had a little lesser base also last year in quarter one and quarter two on account of high monsoon.

Let's see. We are optimistic on the demand scenario.

Sure, and we are confident of growing ahead of the industry for FY '27, right?

Yes.

My second question is on availability of key raw materials like let's say petcoke which is imported, or PVC granules. Are you seeing any issues with that?

Pricing aside, but is availability of some of these raw materials a concern now?

The cost has gone up, and supply disruptions we have been able to overcome through timely interventions. We have not faced issues in terms of availability, and I don't foresee that problem to come, but actually cost cannot be controlled at this.

Sure, and one more if I may. What would be the sensitivity of freight cost to diesel price increase?

Let's say if there's a 5% diesel price increase, pump price increase, how much could our freight cost go up?

Typically, I think if you have to use a formula, every 5% jump is ₹15 per ton cost. Roughly, that's the ballpark.

So

5% rise in diesel price is ₹50 per ton in cost?

15, 1 5.

Yeah, 15. All right, thank you.

That's all from my side.

Just to your first point what Dharmendra ji said, I think the situation in March was a little tough for the industry. I think we take a lot of pride in the way we have been able to navigate the month of March, and without taking too much pressure on cost, at the same time ensuring regular supply.

I think we have played this game well, and we are confident that we'll continue to

play. No, this is very helpful.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, first question is that in the slide number 11, we have mentioned that our limestone is more than 48 years in the southern region. Sir, as per public data, we have seen that Dalmia has been selected as the preferred bidder in multiple mines in Tamil Nadu in the month of February this year.

Does this reserves include the reserves won recently?

Yes. Yes, Harsh.

What would be the quantum of the reserves which we have added, if you can share that data?

Quantum, I don't have it offhand, Harsh. Maybe we can share with you separately.

Okay. Second question, sir.

Our cement and clinker, there is a mismatch particularly in the Northeast region. Do we expect any grinding capacity addition in the Northeast region as part of your 72 to 75 million ton plan?

Yes, Harsh. I think you can expect that.

Let us wait for more announcements, but yes, you are right and we might be looking at our grinding capacity split soon.

The size of the grinding capacity, sir, will it be 2 million ton, 3, 4, any capacity if you can just share?

I would suggest let's wait for the opportune time to have a chat on that.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

These were my questions. Okay.

Hi, sir. Two questions.

One, am I audible?

Yes, please.

Yes. Yeah.

If I look at the change in fixed asset on the annual basis, I see a much higher number of around ₹3,500 crores, whereas in the capex outflow has been close to ₹2,000 crore for the full year. Could you reconcile why there is a sharp difference of ₹1,500 crore between the two numbers?

Rajesh, I think there is one more line item that you need to look at, which is other financial liabilities. A lot of capex that we have incurred during the year is still standing as payable in our books, and that is actually one reason that the guidance we gave earlier in terms of the cash outflow on capex is much lower in this quarter.

As we all know towards the end of Feb, this entire geopolitical situation started. I think we have just deferred our cash flows a bit and that is sitting in our liabilities, and that should get sorted in the next few months and quarters.

Understood. This ₹3,300 crore capex outflow which you're targeting for FY '27, that includes this one, or this will be over and above the ₹1,000 crore odd or whatever number which is sitting as liabilities in FY '26 end?

Next year number includes the liability of this year, which will get paid off next year.

In fresh capex amount would be much lower. Is this understanding correct for FY '27?

This would be cyclic, you would actually see the opening, closing in a similar range.

Okay. Last question from my end would be on the recent news going on that the SFIO has tried to reopen the mutual fund case and I think MCA has initiated or have instructed relevant bodies to reinvestigate.

Could you please throw some light if there is any progress, or you have as a company received any notice from the relevant authorities?

Rajesh, we can't be responding to rumors. If there's anything that has to be reported, it will be reported in the proper manner.

Right now we to respond to. We have not received any communication.

Understood. That's nice.

That's all from my end. Thank you.

Am I audible now?

Yeah. Sorry, I was on mute.

Yeah. I have only one question.

Most of the questions have been answered. Sir, you mentioned we have took a price hike in April which all the cost has been passed on.

If you can quantify what is the total price hike we have took in April so far?

We are still in the middle of April.

I think we have already said that so far we've been able to pass on the cost increase through price hikes, and hopefully we should be able to maintain it and there should be no margin compression.

Okay. Understood.

Thank you.

Hi. Sir, our CC ratio, if I look at last 2 years of almost it has declined from 1.7 to now 1.6.

Any specific reason and will it remain here or we will try to increase?

I think again it's a dynamic situation. We will take a call market-to-market.

Our long-term goal is to increase the CC ratio and decrease our clinker factor. Quarter-on-quarter, I don't think we can look at this.

This has to be looked over a 3 to 5 year period. Our endeavor will be to improve it over the medium

term. Because I look at for last 2 years, in 2 years, it has from FY '24 till FY '26 in almost 3 years, it has declined.

That's what I asked here. I am not looking at on QoQ.

No issues. Last, sir, incentive for FY '27 in terms of booking would be around ₹200 odd crore?

Yes, please.

Okay. Got it, sir.

Thank you and all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you. I think we've had a very good year in terms of profitability and a good quarter also.

We've done the highest ever EBITDA of over ₹900 crores this quarter and we've crossed ₹3,000 crores for the first time. Our capex is ongoing.

We are very optimistic about the future of the Indian economy and we will continue to invest behind the growth in India. There will be headwinds along the way and I've always said that this is not a straight road to paradise.

There'll be bumps along the way. We will navigate those bumps as we've shown resilience over the last 80 years.

We've never been more excited about the future as we are now, and I'm also very happy that our executive committee and our team is coming together very well. Thank you for your interest and I look forward to continuing this conversation in the coming quarters.

Thank you.