Thanks, [madam?] .

Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Avendus Spark Institutional Equities, I welcome everyone to this earnings call to discuss the 3Q FY26 results of Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited.

The company is represented by its Deputy Managing Director and CEO, Dr. Bir Kapoor, and the other senior members of the management team.

I'll first request Dr. Bir Kapoor for the opening remarks.

Over to you, sir.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone.

A very warm welcome to all of you for GFL's quarter 3 FY26 earnings call. For this call, I have with me my colleagues, Mr.

Akhil Jindal, who is Group CFO; Mr. Manoj Agrawal, who is CFO of GFL; Mr.

Kapil Malhotra, Business Head of Fluoropolymers; and Mr. Rajiv Rao, who is the Business Head of our battery materials.

The company announced its quarter 3 FY26 results at its board meeting today. The results along with earning presentations are already available on the stock exchange and on our website.

I'll briefly highlight the key financials and then give you an update on business operations and outlook. This quarter was undoubtedly one of the most challenging for us.

Performance was impacted by seasonal weakness in refrigerant segment, the holiday season in Europe, US, and continued uncertainty around US tariff situation. The elevated US tariffs not only affected the US market directly, but given the complexity of global supply chain, it also had a spillover impact on other regions as well.

This impacted on both volumes and realizations during this quarter. That said, the outlook going forward is meaningfully more constructive.

The recent reduction in US tariffs from 50% to 18% provides significant relief and restores competitiveness in one of the key export markets. We believe this structural improvement will support a recovery in volumes, better pricing stability, and margin expansion over the coming quarters.

At the same time, demand in fluoropolymers remain encouraging, particularly from the semicon sectors, where global investments and capacity additions continue to be strong. This is expected to support volume growth and strengthen overall performance.

We are also witnessing increasing momentum in the EV/ESS segments globally. With improving order inflows and better visibility, we are confident that FY27 should see healthy revenue growth from this vertical.

Overall, the combination of tariff rationalization, commencement of R32 production, faster EV/ESS adoption provides a stronger foundation for recovery in both revenue and profitability. Let me now briefly touch upon the financial performance.

Revenue for the quarter stood at 1,136 crores, a marginal decline of 1% year-on-year. In Q3 FY26, EBITDA stood at 283 crores, reflecting a 7% decline from 304 crore in quarter 3 FY25.

This decline was primarily attributable to the refrigerant portfolio, which bore the brunt of multiple headwinds during the quarter. The most adverse pressure came from R22, where we faced a dual impact.

First, the production quota reduction constrained volumes. Second, seasonally subdued demand affected offtake.

Also, the delay in R32 production start-up resulted in lower than expected profitability for us. In addition, R125 prices remained weak during the quarter, further contributing to the softness in performance.

Despite these near-term challenges, the underlying fundamentals of the business remain intact. As seasonal demand normalizes and refrigerant volume picks up, we expect improved profitability in coming quarters.

Let me now walk you through the performance of each business segment. The fluoropolymer segment delivered healthy growth of 14% year-on-year, though revenue declined 3% sequentially.

The quarter-on-quarter moderation was primarily due to uncertainty around US tariff policies, which led to cautious ordering patterns and temporary deferment of demand in key export markets. With the recent tariff reduction, we are seeing improved customer sentiment and better order visibility.

We expect strong momentum in this segment going forward, supported by structural demand drivers, particularly from the semicon industry. In the fluorochemicals business, revenue declined by 33% year-on-year and 24% sequentially.

The decline was largely due to refrigerant business, as explained earlier. The specialty chemicals remains subdued, reflecting near-term demand softness.

On a year-on-year basis, revenue in the bulk chemical segment declined mainly due to lower prices in chloromethanes and caustic soda. Let me now turn to our battery materials business, which is an important strategic focus area for us.

On 5th of December 2025, the International Finance Corporation, IFC, has approved investment of ₹430 crores in our subsidiary, GFCL EV Products Limited. This investment supports the development of India's first integrated battery materials manufacturing facility and strengthens the domestic EV supply chain ecosystem.

IFC's participation reflects confidence in our strategy and execution capabilities. As endorsement of our business strategy and growth prospects in the battery material space, another sovereign fund has approved investment of $82 million US dollars in battery materials business.

The documentation is in process and likely to be executed shortly. When we entered the battery materials space, our approach was focused on building capabilities, securing customer validation, and scaling in a disciplined manner.

Keeping that in mind, we are setting up a state-of-the-art greenfield advanced battery materials project in Oman to produce battery materials for lithium-ion batteries with an estimated investment of US $216 million. In LiPF6, we have worked closely with the leading global electrolyte manufacturers and OEMs.

Our product has been approved by many OEMs, and our facility has been successfully audited by key customers. Commercial supplies commenced in December '25, and we have already received repeat orders in Q4 FY26.

As customer offtake increases, we expect volumes to scale up steadily. In LFP cathode active material, our plant has stabilized operations.

We have begun sample dispatches to prospective customers, and qualification process is progressing. We expect approvals over the coming months, following which commercial supply will commence.

In fluoropolymer binders, the qualification process is progressing as planned, with commercial operation expected to begin in the first half of FY27. This further strengthens our integrated battery materials portfolio.

Stepping back, we are building a comprehensive and integrated battery materials platform with established capacities, ongoing qualifications, early commercial traction, and IFC's and one more sovereign fund's strategic investment. We believe we have created a solid foundation for the growth of this new business.

The battery materials segment is particularly promising given the recent surge in demand for battery energy storage system in addition to continued growth in EVs. Structural drivers, such as data centers, AI, and machine learning infrastructure, and the transition towards renewable energy are expected to drive significant growth in energy storage demand over the coming years.

Overall, while the quarter current quarter was challenging, we see improving conditions ahead. We remain focused on execution, cost discipline, and scaling our new growth platforms responsibly.

We remain confident in our ability to deliver deliver sustained growth and create long-term value for all our stakeholders. Thank you, and now I open the floor for questions.

Thank you. Good evening, sir.

Thanks for this opportunity. I got few question.

First on the refrigerant gas both on R32 and R22. R32 we said that we have commissioned the plant in month of February.

Can you help us with what is the capacity we have started with and where are we now in the first fortnight of this commissioning? What is the utilization we are looking at?

For the full year, what kind of capacity are we looking at? What is the final capacity are we intending by December '26 where the deadline end with this capacity already getting delayed?

Are we looking at 30,000 or we are satisfied with whatever capacity we have today? That's number one.

Number two, on the R22, the prices appear to be have further gone down as we speak in the month of Jan and Feb. In this background, how should we look at margin?

Because a lot of bounce on the margin has come on from the bulk chemical and R22, which appears to have remained either weak or has only got further weaker. This is the first comment.

Thank you.

Thanks, Sanjesh. I had indicated earlier that our plan was to build capacity in phases in R32.

I had indicated in the last call that target is to go for 20,000 ton in the first phase. Of course, there was a setback due to the incident, and because of this, our plan got a little bit delayed.

However, that delay is not significant. Our plan is to still commission going to 20,000 ton, as I had indicated earlier.

Of course, at that time, I had indicated it was going to be March end. Now I expect that to be slightly delayed by a quarter or maybe a quarter and a half.

Our production has already started now. Of course, it took time because we wanted to be absolutely sure with respect to the safety aspect.

We got it audited by multiple agencies and make sure that when we start, we start on a solid foundation of having a very strong safety. Having said that, so far, everything is looking good.

We have started it and going to be ramped up. What you said December '26, I think the number is December '27.

The capacity can be added up to December '27. Of course, in previous call also, I had indicated that the long-term plan is to go to 30,000 ton, which is go up to our quota that we have today.

That plan still remains intact, however, in the first phase, we will go up to 20,000 ton, Sanjesh. Now, coming back to R22--

The capacity we started right now with?

It will be ramped up to 20,000 ton. It's starting in phases.

It's going up right now.

Got it.

Coming back to R22, of course, the prices have been low. Realization have been low, and also, double whammy in a way.

However, going forward, we are looking at in this sector positive because of not only R32, but also 125, which prices were also subdued, and partly because of the US tariff and partly, once we have an R32, it takes us to 410 as well. I think our outlook on refrigerant section going forward is positive from here, Sanjesh.

Got it, sir. My second question is on the fluoropolymer side of the business.

You rightfully said that PFA is picking up for the semicon. How about the other fluoropolymer?

Because we are still after all these effort and there were legacy player who went out and all those factors, we are still at 14% growth. We aspired for 20; we are still short of it.

How should we look at this year and the next year? See,

I will add first part here and then I'll let Kapil take over from there. The first part is, yes, when we have looked at the growth and given you the number, there were multiple factors in which we were counting on.

Of course, one of them was anti-dumping duty, where, of course, as DGTR had recommended anti-dumping duty, which was eventually not approved by the Finance Ministry. That of course has eroded few percentage points from the growth that we're looking at.

Of course, the tariff situation has deferred quite a few of the buying decisions. Combined effect of these two in a way has taken more than a quarter off from what we were targeting earlier.

Over to you Kapil, please.

Hi, Sanjesh, Kapil this

side.

Just continuing with what Dr. Kapoor has mentioned, first was the fact that we were counting some growth coming from the domestic market itself due to the anti-dumping duty recommendation, which was actually not accepted by Ministry of Finance.

Coming to the other fluoropolymers in other parts of the world, we have done well in some of the elastomer categories. We have grown there, taking some market share from our erstwhile legacy players who are going out.

Secondly, the other thing which I had also mentioned last time is that in these applications, there are always qualification times also from the customers. They always keep some stock from the legacy players in check and then slowly, slowly start approving and then once the stock reduces, they start onboarding us.

That particular process is on. We are seeing that very steady growth coming in every quarter from the exit of these legacy players, and in elastomers or in other fluoropolymers, we continue to gain market share as and when we are getting the approval from the customers.

Got it. Particularly, which fluoropolymer are we seeing a better offtake and we may see more capacity coming in in say this year and next year?

Sanjesh, first of all, rightly mentioned semiconductor industry. You must have also seen that we were mentioning that semiconductor industry is poised to grow from start of this year, which has started happening.

You must have been seeing the news in the media that chip shortage is already started happening, memory chip shortages are going high in prices. The first green shoots we already started seeing in terms of increased demand coming from our customers.

PFA is one product where I am seeing that the demand will keep on increasing as and when we keep on getting a ramp-up approval from the customers. Also, we have invested a lot of money in terms of getting to the clean class required by the semicon industry.

There also all our entire investments have been utilized. Commissionings have taken place, audit from the customers have taken place, and some of the audits are going on.

This is one place where we really see the business growing up. The second business is obviously the fluoroelastomers business.

There also we are seeing that the increased vehicle growth sales in India due to GST reduction and also income tax rebate which government gave, we are seeing the demand in the market also converting to demands of our products also. Same way we are also seeing that with the tariff reductions in US, further, automobile industry there also is doing well.

There also we expect the demand to keep on growing and giving us more business as we are getting qualifications in some of the other exotic applications. Then, since it's an engineered product, we are also getting some requirements of the new applications.

That's where we have also developed some of the newer grades, which are under qualifications or they have got qualified. There also we see a growth coming in next year from these particular products, and they are high value-added products for us.

Got it. One last on the inventory side.

We were aspiring 120 and we are exactly on the other side of it at 201. What's driving such a sharp increase in inventory?

Why are we carrying so much of an inventory? Any particular reason for it?

Sanjesh, let Kapil answer that.

Yeah. Sanjesh, here, we were actually building up some markets and we expected some of the stocks to build up in expectation of some of the orders coming in.

However, last year, we saw that in the last quarter also, as it was a holiday period in USA, Europe, and also some of the slowdowns happened due to tariffs also, that we had to hold some inventories with us either over here or in our stock warehouses in other countries also. That's how our inventory went up.

However, offtake has started, and we are seeing the diminishing inventories right from the beginning of the last month.

What is the aspiration on the working capital? Because it appears to be too stretched now, eating away all the capital for us.

Where do we want to be in the working capital days? Earlier, we used to talk of 120, now at 200.

Where we realistically can be, say, in a year's timeframe?

What we are targeting, Sanjesh, is somewhere around maybe 170 to 180 is what we think is the realistic number going forward because of our business model is based on stock and sale and also shipping material early from here. Keeping that in mind, of course, it's on the higher side at the moment for the reason that has been explained by Kapil.

Got it. On the battery side, what is the aspiration for FY27?

Where are we targeting now that we are looking slowly commercialization happening? How does FY27 and FY28 look for battery chemical, particularly FY27?

How does the order book look like? What is the potential revenue we can book?

See, the way we started, Sanjesh, is we started building our first plant so that we can get it qualified and then slowly ramp up. If you look at today, the first plants are all ready.

Materials in, for example, in LiPF6 case is qualified. Our supply has started, okay.

LFP also, the plant is commissioned, we got the right quality level, it's going through the qualification. The issue is that unfortunately in products in EV and ESS space, the qualification times are long, okay.

The more critical the product is, the longer the qualification time, okay. While we expected revenue to trickle in in this financial year, which is happening, we expect '27 and '28 to be a growth year for us, okay.

It will be difficult for us to give you the exact projection of '27, but our order books for the capacity that we have built up today looks very healthy. For the plant that are already there, we expect to get fully utilized probably by the end of this year, okay.

We have put around 1,700 crores of asset

for the battery chemical

if I'm right. What is the asset turn we are looking at?

When we say full utilization, that means--

Asset turn we had always given, Sanjesh, on 1 to

2x

on the to x product, and then again, some products are higher, some products are lower. It also depends on product.

Once the plant gets fully utilized over a period of time, we intend to get that, but I'm not so sure whether the same turn would be achieved. It all depends on how the different product lines are getting.

Even if we talk about 1x kind of an asset turn, we are talking about what potential, 1,700 crores of revenue in FY27?

1,700 crores is right now commissioned at the moment, but there are plants which are for example, electrolytes. Electrolyte is for the Indian market, which is a little bit on the slower side, has not picked up.

We are looking at a global market, Sanjesh, okay. Some of our products are for US market very clearly, electrolytes are based for Indian market, and as the market picks up, these capacities will get utilized over a period of time.

To just be more specific, how many orders are commercially approved for us, as in LiPF6, in LFP, how many of the customer has commercially approved us?

LiPF6, we have several approvals, let me put it this way, okay, because multiple electrolyte players have visited us, including OEMs, okay. Typically, the way it happens after qualification, the supply is ramped up in a phased manner.

That process has started. That's a very good part that there is a confidence of customers on our capability to deliver, and that ordering process has started, okay.

We expect this to continue to grow. LFP is at very early stage.

Plant got commissioned, we just got the quality, the samples are being sent out. While I can say that we have a very clear visibility to order for the capacity that we have right now, the qualification time will take a few quarters, and then the revenue stream will start coming up.

Will it be fair to assume that only LiPF6 as a revenue will be booked in FY27? FY28 is when LFP will start, and electrolyte with how the India picks up on the battery side is how one should look at it, right?

Sorry, Sanjesh, and my apologies. I think it got disconnected in between.

Do you want me to repeat the question?

No, I remember the question. All I can say is that the capacity that we have right now, we expect to get fully utilized by '27-'28.

Because this year will be the ramp-up growth period for us.

No, it appears that only LiPF6 can ramp up this year because electrolyte India manufacturing is still little away. LFP, we said few quarters away for all the approval process to get, probably only FY28 story.

What we are left in FY27 is only LiPF6 salt manufacturing.

Possibly some electrolyte will also pick up, and the binder as well, which you missed.

Got it. No, that--

Because binder is at the final stages. The commercial trials are going on right now in the customer factory.

It's going into the commercial cars right now as we speak. We expect in the second half of this financial year, we'll start shipping up orders for PVDF.

That's very clear. Thank you, sir.

Thank you for patiently answering all those questions and best of luck for the coming year.

You're welcome. Thanks, Sanjesh.

Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity. First question is again on R32.

We believed that the deadline for putting up the project was end of 2026, but in your comment, you said end of '27. Just wanted clarity on this.

Allied question to that, in terms of market for selling R32, which markets are we looking at? Is it domestic, export?

If it is both the markets, what kind of mix at optimum utilization that we are looking at? Thank you.

My understanding, Rohit, is that it's December '27. I'm confirming it internally here right now.

However, for putting the capacity, because we already have a quota, of course. The second part that you asked is R32, of course, we are looking at it as global market access because we are into a very sweet spot with R125 also with us, we are looking at R32 and R125 combination 410 plus R32 alone.

It's going to be both global as well as--

Got that.

Just a clarification that I have received, Rohit, that the quota has to be confirmed by end of this year, but the plant can be commissioned in December '27. We already have quota, we can commission the plant by December '27 of the quota that we already have access to.

Right. We are still considering 30,000 tons as our capacity in a phased manner till December '27, right?

Right, absolutely.

Sure. The second question is on the fluoropolymers.

I'm slightly flummoxed that 9 months back when we started the year, we already had the indication that 3M, the competitor is out of the picture by end of '24 and partly that void will be filled up by incumbents. Obviously, in anticipation of that, even the customers would have got the validation from the incumbents for their supplies.

Today again we are seeing that there has been a slowdown in the fluoropolymers and projections that we were anticipating are not likely to materialize at least for FY27. I understand the US part tariff part attached to it, but again, I think the large part of the market is Europe.

What has changed suddenly in terms of last 3 to 6 months? Will it be a feature for FY27 as well, or we expect that on this lower base FY27 will be able to pick up momentum and again go back to that 15%-20% volume growth?

Thank you.

Thanks, Rohit. Let me give one statement up front that it has not changed significantly.

Because there are multiple factors which has impacted the few quarters that we looked at. However, the fundamental remains very strong, and I'll let Kapil take this and take you through.

It's not that we are changing the growth pattern here.

In fact, Rohit, everything remains the way we had talked about. The first thing which I had mentioned just a couple of minutes back was that what happens is that once any existing player is exiting, they have some commitments of 6 months or 1 year to the existing customers, they keep some stocks for them, that's one.

Whatever stocks were kept, they actually got liquidated a bit slow because there was a market which was picking up slowly at that time. Secondly, then that tariff announcements also had confused a lot of customers also.

I'll give you one very specific example. One of our very good customer in USA, he had qualified us for a particular replacement from the existing incumbent, but he was withholding it because his end customer was withholding it because there were inventories there.

Now that inventories are going off, customer is committing that from March or April, he will start shifting towards us gradually. This is just one example.

There are a couple of such examples which we have. Because again, don't forget that these are high-performance products going into automobiles, space, or other important applications.

End customer also then qualifies, gives a clearance. Sometime the inventory is stuck up in between also creates a bit of a hurdle.

Now all those hurdles are over now, and also with tariffs also coming down to 18%, the customers also at that time were not actually keeping some inventories with them. Whatever inventories were there, they were trying to liquidate as they didn't want to build up any inventories at higher tariff costs.

Now that things are showing up, clarifications are coming, we expect that the entire momentum will come back again the way we expected to come.

That explains, sir. Thanks a lot for that elaborate answer.

Just one last clarification about the Oman project. Will this be a part of the 6,000 crore CapEx on the battery materials, or is it excluding that?

And--

No, it includes that, Rohit. It's part of that.

Right. In terms of timelines, I think we were expecting the 6,000 crores investment will be over sometimes by FY28.

Now with this Oman, will it get spilled over by a few quarters? How is it going to be?

No, the timeline is around 18 months for us to have the plant gets commissioned, okay.

Sure, sir. Thanks a lot for answering all.

It will probably be mid to end of '27. Yes,

okay. Sure.

Thank you, sir, and all the best, sir.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is on PTFE.

Within PTFE, our understanding is that the basic grades and the say value-added grades, I'm assuming that there will be different buying pattern and different demand. What we are seeing in data is, correct me if I'm wrong, the basic grade seems to be a lot lower this quarter.

Is there anything significantly affecting this, or is it just a timing difference?

Yes, Arun. Could you repeat your question?

Arun,

you can clarify to me what do you mean by the basic grade so that I can--

Let's say suspension grade seems to be at the lower levels in terms of the volume this quarter. See,

suspension grade is not the basic grade. Suspension grade also has a lot of higher performance grades in between.

The base grade probably starts, and that's where we have just 10%-20% of our sales is in that base grade. Rest 80% is into the higher performance grades.

As we had mentioned around last to last quarter where we had seen that our realizations also had become better, and that time, we had mentioned that what target we were having of shifting towards high performing grades, that process is on and that's why we are converting everything to the high-performance grades, and that is what is reflecting in our business also.

We don't see corresponding growth in the volume in the other grades as well. What am I missing, sir?

See,

one thing which we also mentioned was that we were expecting the anti-dumping duty in the domestic market to come, but unfortunately, it did not come. It was supposed to actually be through by December or something, but Ministry did not accept it, Ministry of Finance.

In fact, we were expecting some volumes to grow, and in this quarter also, but that is something where now we'll have to relocate ourselves that whatever volumes we were reserving for that, we are now trying to find more lucrative market so that we can park our material there.

Right. Understood.

Is there any limitation in your overall capacity if we say do more of emulsion and less of suspension? Are we already there in that level?

No, we do not have any capacity limitations. In fact, we are also doing some debottlenecking wherever we feel that some of the grades which are giving us better realizations, we are adding some kind of a small balancing equipments to enhance the capacities to even serve those more volumes better.

As such there is no capacity constraint, but we are doing our balancing of the equipments to see to it that we go to higher value-added products. Sure.

Secondly, on our R22, because we are seeing continuous reduction in the volume that we can place, what are our alternate plans to utilize this excess available, say, TFE going forward?

Right now, I think it's not an issue because the available TFE we have, which is what is required, which we can expand. R22 availability also is there for us.

As far as the backward supply chain for PTFE or fluoropolymers, we do not have any issue, Arun, at the moment.

Everything now depends upon the end-market recovery. Till then, we need to kind of run at a lower utilization levels.

Correct.

Understood, sir. My second question is on the LFP CapEx announced, this 216 million.

This is the total CapEx for the entire site, or is it phase-wise?

Phase-wise. This is the first phase, which we are doing right now, because the site has a very large potential to grow further.

This is the first phase of investment.

What kind of demand this site can meet in terms of size for this?

We have not shared the numbers yet in terms of the capacity and the product details, which we'll probably do it in due course. We are holding onto that information as of now for the obvious reasons of because this is probably for the global market, and we are trying to make sure that we do not lose any competitive advantage by giving some numbers like that.

Just to make us understand, sir, what kind of competitive advantage we have in Oman as a geography, even versus India? How competitive in terms of CapEx per ton and OpEx against, say, Chinese or other competition in, say, Europe?

See, of course, as we had always said earlier also, that focus of our market, of course, is the US market, and Oman as a location is on a sweet spot because it has a FTA from US, and of course, we have also signed an FTA with India. Oman has signed FTA with India.

I think from that perspective, I think it has a certain strategic advantage. There are other advantages as well, which would be difficult for me to share a lot more details, but definitely, it has a lot more strategic advantage for us to be there, okay.

Is the CapEx competitive to, say, Chinese plant? That is what I'm trying to understand, for the scale that they are putting up there?

Yes, it's in the same line. Or

how disadvantage or how better we are?

Of course, the Chinese CapExes are of course right now the most lowest efficient, but however, it's not very very far from that, okay. It's obviously Oman, being a country where we'll have to bring all the equipments and machinery from outside, the CapEx is expected to be higher, but nevertheless, when we look at the entire OpEx and CapEx combination, I think it has a strategic advantage for us.

Understood, sir. Finally, on the LiPF6, are we looking to sell mostly in the spot markets because now with the LCE price going up, salt price is also seen good traction.

Will this be a benefit for us, or are we locked much of our capacity or whatever in terms of contractual prices?

I'll let Rajiv handle that, but just to tell you that a lot of the pricings are sort of a formula-based pricing. Rajiv, you want to

answer? Most of our LiPF6 pricing with our customers is based on a formula with lithium carbonate as a reference.

As the lithium carbonate fluctuates, will our LiPF6 pricings, and our margins will be intact. That's the way we have structured our contracts, and our customers also like it so they don't have the volatility of LiPF6 pricing going very high or very low.

That's the way we are operating.

Having said that, Arun, the Chinese prices were very low, they were sinking. However, we have always said, I said it in earlier calls as well, that our price points of course are very different.

We are actually a non-PFE suppliers, which gives a certain advantage, not only on accessing customer base, but also on the price points.

Understood, sir. This margin is also--

No issues. We'll do that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Arun. Thank you.

Good evening, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity.

I'm sorry if I'm being repetitive. I've joined the call a bit late.

Just wanted to get an understanding on all these four elements within the EV product subsidiary, and great to see progress over there already. If I take out, for example, India in our exposure to the Indian geography in terms of revenues or EBITDA in all these four product portfolios, LiPF6, the cathode active material, electrolyte, and the fluoropolymer binder, how are we faring on the exports front?

Let's say if one has to hazard a guess for FY27 or FY28, ex of India, how do we look at scaling up these product portfolios, any revenue indication that you would like to give or at least on a utilization basis, where would be our aspiration or target to get into the exports market?

I'll just make one statement, then let's Rajiv answer the rest. The first thing is, Archit, that as you said that the strategy that we have to set up this business is to create alternate supply chain globally, and this is to cater to the global customer, whether they are in US, Europe, India, okay.

Having said that, the products that you mentioned, except electrolytes, the remaining three product verticals are all for global market because Indian market is still not ready, entire business plan is around that. You want to answer, please?

If we look at our various products, for example, LiPF6, there's hardly much capacity outside of China, and our customer base, which is mostly in US and Europe, are looking for non-PFE suppliers to derisk their supply chain, and this is where we have been able to win customers in all these geographies. Same is the case for LFP CAM and binders, where the customers are looking to derisk their supply chain.

As far as electrolyte is concerned, it will be focusing on Indian markets. Indian market is still to pick up.

As far as customer mix is concerned, as we start in FY27, we'll start off with being heavy on the US and European customer base, and over the next year or two, we'll start adding Indian customers through electrolyte business.

Right, sir. That's exactly the reason why I was focusing on non-India markets because the battery capacity, the gigawatt-hour capacity is yet to materially come in a big way.

I was trying to understand how should we look at revenues building up in these three portfolios ex of electrolyte, which will definitely, as you rightly said, on the export side. Even if you can give any sort of qualitative understanding with regards to any visibility on customers, quantities, any revenue numbers that we believe that can be achievable in FY27 or FY28, that's what I was largely looking at.

In the interest of time, if I can just add another question. The initiative in Oman, what were the thought processes in venturing into Oman?

Is it the raw material advantage? Is there availability of phosphate or lithium, or is it the CapEx advantage?

I'm sorry if I've been repetitive, but if you can share your thoughts once again, that would be helpful. Thank you, and over to you.

Thanks, Archit. Please, Rajiv.

The capacities that we have put up right now, the way I would like to answer your question, and we have responded a little bit earlier, the utilization is going to increase in the coming financial year, and by the end of the coming financial year, our current capacities will get fully utilized by supplying LiPF6, binders, and CAM to the US and European market. As far as electrolyte is concerned, the business is likely to start by the end of coming financial year.

Does that answer your question?

Partially, sir. Would we derive decent amount of revenues at least from this even if you don't want to point out a revenue number?

What I'd like to understand at least is that we'll have some revenues coming into the subsidiary FY27 and onwards?

Of course, yeah. Like we mentioned earlier, for binders, we are at the final stage of qualification.

By the second half of financial year '27, we expect that business to get going fully. For LiPF6, we already started getting orders in December of '25, and we have got repeat orders for Q4 of FY26 because we have approvals from major electrolyte players, global electrolyte players which serve the US market and therefore are consumers of LiPF6.

That business is already started and is going to pick up steam right from the beginning of FY27. There is going to be a revenue stream for salt from the beginning of the financial year, binders from the second half of the financial year, and LFP CAM also is going to start somewhere in the second half of financial year '27.

There is going to be an increasing revenue as we go into FY27, and FY28, all our capacities will be fully utilized.

Sure, sir. Sir, one final bit on the Oman bit, if you can address that question as well.

That would be my final one. Thank you and all the best.

On Oman front, of course, as I mentioned in earlier question, that the certain advantage we have because that geographical location gives us certain advantage supplying from Oman has tariff advantage in certain markets. Also, accessing raw materials and skill sets in Oman is easier.

There are definite advantage of setting up a facility in Oman, okay. That's the reason.

Looking again at a global market and creating a supply chain which is at a scale which is globally competitive.

Sir, any raw material advantage there, availability of phosphate or lithium or other nearby?

Not at the moment, but yes, it will eventually happen over a period of time because the entire ecosystem which is being set up in that region. Of course, we have certain advantage there with the gas as well as power.

Right. Sure.

That's it from me, sir. Thank you and all the very best.

Sir. It's regarding infusion of capital by Oman government.

They have invested in the subsidiary of GFCL EV, the Oman part, and previous all investment happened in GFCL EV India. Is there any valuation difference or this if you want to share, it's well and good?

Both these investments are coming in convertible form, where they are linked to the certain milestones for the IPO, that way. There is no fixed valuation neither for the IFC investment in India, nor for the sovereign fund that is going to invest in the subsidiary in Oman.

They are more like a convertible instrument, which will have a fixed return is linked to the certain milestones.

It's a equity portion only, not the debt?

It is absolutely an equity with no put being given by the parent or any other company, with no buyback commitment, nothing. It's the purest form of equity.

We wanted to contain the return. We wanted to just restrict the returns of what they would ultimately make, and that's the reason why it is a convertible instrument.

All right. My another question is, sir, on slide 7, you have mentioned fluoropolymers binder.

Can you please elaborate on that? Whether it is PVDF or PTFE binder and whether this cater to the recently technological breakthrough by Tesla in dry process?

I am not telling with we will be supplying to Tesla, but just to understand that this will be of that grade whereby our PTFE binder can be used in the dry process? See,

right now, the binder which is mentioned and which is at the final stages of qualification is PVDF binder. PTFE binder is also being tested as of now.

We have capability to produce both PTFE as well as PVDF. The business will first start what we have mentioned is from PVDF.

Sir, after the breakthrough done after 5 years by Tesla in dry process, if that is being adopted by all the other battery players, is it possible that we may see shoot-up in the demand of the PTFE of that grade? Whether we are capable to produce that much grade PTFE?

Surely. We are capable to produce, and that's where the outlook of fluoropolymer when we gave, very strong outlook from multiple sectors, one of the factor, of course, is what you're mentioning.

We have capability to produce, but as because this is a breakthrough, by the time it converts into a volume, there's a process, there's a timeline for qualifications and grade development. It will happen.

Certainly, it's a wonderful opportunity for our PTFE business. Ketan sir?

Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question.

Just two from my side. First, a clarification.

Did you mention that you'll be able to put up R32 capacity by CY27 end?

We said that CY20 the entire capacity that we have quota allocated to us. That's what I mentioned.

Not the 20,000 that I had indicated earlier.

Yeah. I was asking the 32 capacities have to come up before CY26 end or CY27 end?

No, we have already started our first phase of R32 capacity, which I had mentioned in previous calls. Initial capacity that we are putting up is 20,000 tons, okay.

This we were supposed to do it by the end of this financial year, which got delayed, and then eventually, what we'll do is we will commission this capacity very early in this calendar year, and then subsequently, the second phase of the capacity will be planned, okay.

The second phase by that's I think you produce close to 9,000--

That we have not really indicated any timeline for that, but of course, if it has to be done, we'll do it prior to December '27, as per the requirement.

That is what I was checking. What is the requirement?

The plant has to come up before CY27 end? Is that the requirement?

The plant has to come up by CY27, correct. For whomsoever has to receive quota, that will happen by end '26, but the plant capacity can come up by '27.

Far we already have a quota, and-- Okay.

Sir, go ahead, sir.

That's what I was saying, that we still have not reached our quota limit by 20,000 tons, we still have a quota available to us. We will in the second phase, we'll see what all capacity based on the market requirements and other scenarios.

We'll take a call, but we have time till December '27 to add capacity.

Okay. Just a last bit on this.

You produce close to 19,000 tons of R22 during CY9/10, this is my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong. 65% on GWP basis translates to close to 32,000 tons of R32.

Is this the entitlement you intend to use for the phase 2, which has to come up before CY27 end?

Yes, that's indeed one of the numbers, yes.

Understood. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thanks, Krishan.

Thank you.

Thanks for the follow-up. Under the fluorochemicals vertical, we also have the fluorospecialty, which goes in for pharma, agro applications.

We haven't heard on this part of the piece since a fairly long time, given that you're more focused on the downstream of fluoropolymers as well as the battery chemicals. Is there any revenue contribution coming in, and whether the margins are in line with our company-wide margins?

Whether there is any focus on this, or probably this will just stay as it is for the time being? Thank you.

As of now, Rohit, we do not have much focus on that particular segment. We have certain products which are continuing, which we intend to continue, of course, and those have been picked up based on certain margin expectations.

We are not really investing in that segment as of now because there are so many other opportunities that we have. We are so far not focusing much on that particular segment, but that, of course, has the revenue contribution, which is included in the vertical that we have shown in our presentation.

Right, got it. Just one last clarification on the IFC fund front.

Have we received the funds, or will be receiving in near term?

The necessary compliance with respect to that IFC disbursement is all done. There was an AGM which was to be done for the shareholders of EV plus other statutory requirements, they are all complete.

The funding should be done pretty shortly, maybe in a week's time or so.

Okay. That's all from my side.

Thank you and all the best.

Okay. Thanks, Rohit.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, and let me close this call, reaffirming our growth plans. Fluoropolymers continue to do well despite some temporary hiccups, be it the US tariff or demand from some of the industries getting pushed forward.

Our long-term growth and plans are firmly in place for fluoropolymer business. EV business, as you see, is shaping up very well, and we are on track to achieve our guidance there.

There is a huge interest from the customer worldwide, and we are emerging as a credible large alternate supply chain partner for most of our customers outside of China. A large global marquee investors' participation in GFCL EV re-emphasizes the deep value in the segment.

The biggest dent this quarter has been from the refrigerant segment, mainly from the volume and price dip of both R22 and R125. We believe this should recover going forward.

Also, the value creator for us this year going forward in this segment will be R32 sales ramp-up, which we are expecting to start from quarter 3, which has now been pushed to quarter 4. With this, I would like to thank you all for your interest in GFL and GFCL EV, and appreciate you being part of this call.

Thank you very much.