Thank you, marshal. Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to Q3 FY '26 earnings conference call of Symphony Limited.

We have with us today the senior management team of Symphony Limited represented by Mr. Achal Bakeri, Chairman and Managing Director; Mr.

Nrupesh Shah, Managing Director Corporate Affairs; Mr. Amit Kumar, Executive Director and Group CFO; and Mr.

Rajesh Mishra, CEO International Business. I would now like to hand over the call to management.

Thank you and over to you.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this Symphony's quarterly conference call. As we do each time, we'll have a short presentation followed by Q&A, and so we'll all be here for the Q&A.

The presentation will be done by Nrupesh Shah, the Managing Director Corporate Affairs. Thank you very much, Nrupesh-bhai, over to you.

Thank you, and welcome to Q3 conference call of Symphony Limited. There is our customary disclaimer statement to start with.

This is about the Symphony standalone performance, Symphony Limited. For the quarter YoY it has been flattish, that is 182 crore of top line versus 182 previous year for December '24.

At EBITDA level, it is 31 crore versus 34 crore, mainly on account of elevated advertisement and sales promotion expenses of water heater. At PAT level, it stands at 34 crore versus negative 4 crore.

Just to remind you, in December '24, we had to take the write-off of Pathway, and hence it had turned negative considering that exceptional item. In current quarter, we have recovered additional 4 crore from Pathway leading to total recovery of 8.5 crore in current year nine months, vis-a-vis write-off of 50.2 crore, and for residual recovery, necessary strong legal actions are under various stages.

Also to point out, and as shared earlier, now in Symphony India, there are broadly two categories: one is household air coolers, and second is the products selling around the year and/or counter-seasonal products. In nine months ending on 31st December 2026, 25, products selling round the year have contributed almost 26 percentage of the top line.

At this point of time, that is as on 31st December, trade inventory seems to have normalized as it is normally supposed to be at this point of time, mainly on account of revenue contradiction and lower lifting by the trade in September '25 quarter. Board has announced third interim dividend of ₹2 per share amounting to about 14 crore and total interim dividend during the year about 28 crore.

Coming to standalone financials of nine months, the top line is 566 crore versus 814 crore. Gross profit margin percentage stands at 48.3%, EBITDA at about 81 crore versus 188 crore of previous year for nine months, and at a PAT level, which is higher than EBITDA, one, on account of treasury income, secondly, exceptional income after providing gratuity additional provision as per revised Wages Act as well as there has been profit in Forex fluctuation.

All put together at PBT it is 123 crore leading to PAT of 99 crore versus 132 crore of December '24 nine months. For Symphony Standalone, capital employed in trailing 12 months based on monthly average stood at 49 crore, translating into ROCE, that is PBIT percentage on core capital employed, about 371% and return on net worth percentage of 19% versus 24%, while treasury is 460 versus 488 crore after robust payout last year.

This excludes loans and investments to subsidiaries all in all amounting to 277. All inclusive, it is almost 800 crore, slightly less than 800 crore, including equity, loans, and investments to subsidiaries.

Coming to consolidated financials, at console level the top line is 233 crore versus 242 crore. Gross profit margin percentage stands at 48%, YoY down by about 2 percentage.

EBITDA, which is a core EBITDA, is 24 crore versus 35 crore, while PAT is 20 crore versus negative 10 crore due to reasons explained earlier. Coming to console financials for nine months, the top line is about 793 crore that is down by 27% versus 1,088 for corresponding period.

EBITDA stands at 76 crore, while PAT is at a console level 81 crore versus 134 crore. Capital employed on a console basis for trailing 12 months is 343 crore, that is all inclusive Symphony Standalone and subsidiaries including capital employed in Climate Technologies, translating into ROCE percentage of 54% and return on net worth of 21%.

Yesterday in the board meeting the IB transaction has been reviewed, and it has been decided to roll back the proposed IB transaction to divest the stake in Impco Mexico and Climate Technologies. As it was updated from time to time, two investment bankers were appointed, there was a global outreach, more than a 10 non-disclosure agreements were signed with some of the global consumer durable companies, some of the financial investors.

However, on account of evolving geopolitical situation as well as the reason which we are bound as per NDA, but in nutshell, the valuation offered didn't meet with our valuation expectation as well as broader strategic consideration. Hence, it has been found appropriate to roll back, and Symphony will like to nurture the business, and the silver lining is, considering the tariff situation, there seems to be a great potential in Mexico as well as United States, and we are already witnessing decent traction.

Coming to part two regarding this IB transaction, whatever our financial investments in various forms, whether it is in terms of equity investments, intangible assets, etc., etc., as on 31st March '26 by accounting year, as auditors will advise and guide, appropriate accounting treatment will be taken, which is quite different from whatever business transformation may happen later on, and that accounting treatment is normally done based on the past actual financial performance. Just as a guidance.

Repeatedly in various forum we are being asked as to what is Symphony's market standing vis-a-vis some of the published reports, we thought it appropriate to take you through very specifics. At a primary level, the market size is about 5,000 crore.

Market comprises of different segments or different kind of the players, Symphony being by far the market leader. There are national players as per published report, which many of you are aware, and as per the published report, there are eight players having sales in excess of 100 crore, and that too, sales in excess of 100 crore is at customer level, not at a company level.

In addition to that, the players whose consumer level sales is less than 100 crore, but they call themselves, or many of us understand them as national players, that is third category. Fourth is a regional players, they may have a strong presence in some states or part of the states, and then completely fragmented and unorganized market.

Organized market share in terms of the value percentage is about 35%. In published report, in research reports to which we as well as many of you have access, it accounts for only some of the segments.

The segments which it doesn't account for, but that very much forms part of our sales, and that too, that part of the sales constitutes almost 40% to 50% percentage of Symphony sales to dealers and distributors, and those segments are rural and semi-urban, e-commerce, quick commerce, D2C, institution sales. We are clearly excluding large space ventilated cooling from this, because that we treat it as product selling round the year or counter-seasonal product.

Also to draw your attention, the second most company's turnover is around 250 crore. Top three to four players put together, combined household domestic air cooler sales is less than Symphony sales.

We clearly believe that, for us, this is a structured growth story for medium to long term on account of variety of reasons as known and shared from time to time. Also happy to share with you some of the data and details as validated by external agencies.

In terms of the Google rating and review, out of more than 34,000 rating and review, Symphony score is 4.8, by far higher than most others. In terms of the share of voice on TV, because that is authentic data, otherwise we know all put together our brand reach far, far higher than number two and number three player.

Again everywhere we have cited the source. Even in terms of the Google Search, out of millions and millions of customers who are looking for and searching air coolers, as per Google Analytics from July '24 to June '25, two out of three customers look for Symphony while looking for an air cooler.

Again on our right-hand side, in terms of the market leadership, brand preference, channel partner endorsement, as well as pricing premium, again as per each of this reliable external source, you can see that Symphony scores far, far higher than peers. Next.

Thank you. With this, we can take question-answers.

Good morning, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunities.

Sir, on that premium side, 95 to 120-liter category, I think the market we have seen in input cost deflation as well as the market is also flattened. Just want to understand how our competitors are doing in this segment, whether they are doing aggressive discounting to gain market share, and how is our volume growth in this segment, and are we seeing any compression in this premium in recent quarters?

These are my first questions, sir.

Broadly in terms of the premiums that we are talking about, see, the market is going into what we call a K-shape kind of movement where the lower end of the segment, which is migrating particularly from metal coolers to classic coolers, that continues to be at a lower price point, and the good news there is that at least the migration from metal to plastic and in some sense from completely unorganized to regional and some branded segment has happened. Over time this is a segment which at this point in time is not at a premium, but we expect that this will move into the premium categories over time.

The other end is the actual existing premium category wherein the prices have broadly been stable. Some of the recent models that we have launched also, they are at a higher premium compared to our average portfolio, but that's something which is a small chunk of the overall portfolio that we have.

Sir. Sir, organized as well as unorganized air cooler market are growing at same rate or is there any diversion is happening?

How is our growth is coming? It's primarily from market expansion or premiumizations or share gain from organized or unorganized players?

What is the split, sir?

A bigger chunk of the growth is coming from the movement of consumers from the unorganized to the organized segment. As I said, the entire metal cooler market is mostly unorganized.

While there is some organic growth even in the traditional plastic coolers market, a bigger chunk of growth in the market is happening from unorganized to organized movement.

Okay. My last question, what percentage of sales is coming from modern trade and e-commerce versus traditional dealers in Q3?

How are margin structures are evolving across these channels? What investments are being made in direct-to-consumer capabilities to mitigate long-term channel dependency risk?

About D2C sales to answer first, it has already turned not only EBITDA, but at a PAT level profitable since last year. At EBITDA level, its profit margin is in line with our GT sales.

Coming to specific breakup between traditional channel versus large format stores, on account of competitive reasons, we are not sharing the data. Again coming back to D2C the kind of investments, whatever investment was to be made, we have already routed through P&L, and that has been already written off.

We believe for all such kind of initiatives, including the water heater which we have launched last year, all such kind of expenditure we prefer to route through P&L, even though the variety of benefits may be a medium term to long term.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Hello? Hello?

Yes. Yeah.

I would just like to understand that the India growth which we have, is it majorly because of the core air coolers, counter-seasonal products, channel normalization, or are we gaining market share?

In the current quarter, Shraddha, as you know as someone who knows this sector and tracks it, the current quarter is less about the market share, it's more about the placement in the channel. The October to December is where we place the products in the market, but there's no market share per se that we talk about for this quarter.

Also regarding the channel and the counter-seasonal products, that's something we are focusing on, and as Nrupesh-bhai said, at this point in time, the overall share of that in the business is slightly upwards of a quarter of our business. It has steadily increased over the years, and that is where we are right now.

Sure, sir. If you could give a bit of details in terms of the inventory, we have mentioned that the channel inventory is normalized.

If you can give more update on that.

On that, Shraddha, basis the estimates we have of the inventories available with our partners at the distributor and dealer level, at this point in time, the inventory in the market is almost similar to what we had around the same point in time last year. Some of the lower primary sales that we did this year in the September quarter and kind of same sales as last year, net impact is at present the inventory in the market is similar to last year, and hence we are saying it's kind of normalized.

Sure, sir. Thank you so much.

I'll fall back in the queue for further questions.

Thank you.

Hello, hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

This time you haven't mentioned subsidiary financial in presentation. Can you give some sense how has been the performance for this quarter, and how are the things looking for the next quarter for top growth and margin, which we should expect?

Sure. No, of course, we have the data and details, but to keep the presentation crisp, we are not sharing, but to share with you subsidiary-wise, for Climate Technologies Australia, nine months as a whole, the top line has been 128 crore versus 123 crore.

At EBITDA level, it is -8 versus -14, and at a PAT level, it is -18 versus -22 crore. In terms of the cash loss, it is negative 15 crore versus negative 25 crore in terms of the cash loss.

Coming to Impco Mexico, for nine months, it is 101 crore versus 135 crore. At EBITDA level, it is 4 crore versus 17 crore, and at a PAT level, is -1 versus 10, but at a cash profit level, it is positive 9 crore versus 12 crore.

Just to remind you, after three bumper years in Impco Mexico until March '24, it more than doubled its top line and almost tripled its profitability from '21 to '24, the summer of 2025 was subdued, and that has led to this performance, but otherwise structurally, and in terms of the overall performance, Impco Mexico is very well poised. About GSK China, nine months top line is 80 crore versus 75 crore.

At EBITDA level, it is 8 crore versus 14 crore, and profit after tax, including exceptional gain on account of sale of IPR, it is 49 crore versus 10 crore, but we need to exclude that, and hence it's almost at a PAT level about 7 crore versus 10 crore. In nutshell, for nine months each of the subsidiary has delivered like this.

About Symphony Brazil in totality, not being material, not sharing, of course we do have the details and data.

Understood. Got it.

Just a sense, we have just taken a decision to sell it off, now we are rolling it back. What sort of valuation gap was there, because earlier call you were very sort of positive this might happen by this year-end and possibly early next year, and we had a strong interest, as you highlighted, from more than 10 parties.

Why was the valuation so poles apart? Nothing so much has changed geopolitical to we take a decision we want to roll it back.

Can you give some more colors on it, what was the thought process?

Sure. As we conveyed, there was strong interest by several multinational consumer durable companies from Europe, from China, from North America, apart from also financial investors as well as PE investors.

However, when it came to the valuation vis-a-vis our expectation, as well as the way in which we wanted to treat it strategically in terms of further sourcing of product by us for those markets from us, we didn't find it favorable. About gap of the valuation, you will appreciate that with each of the prospective buyer, we have entered into NDA, legally we can't disclose, as we have also announced on the stock exchange as well as in our earning presentation, as to precisely what kind of the valuation was offered or what was the gap, but we believe that this is suffice to mention that there was a gap, and obviously gap was not insignificant.

Had it been insignificant, we would have gone ahead. Having said that, the silver lining is, considering this evolving geopolitical situation, now in Mexico, despite they have imposed tariff of 50%, as far as air cooler is concerned, there is no tariff, and even between Mexico and United States, as far as air cooler is concerned, there is no tariff, and there seems to be a very strong traction, especially from both the markets, and considering our position as well as our presence in multiple geographies, this may work beneficial if we treat it as a silver line.

The US company, as you will know, is a subsidiary of the Australian company. The prospects that we see in the US company are bound to benefit the holding company, which is the Australian company as well.

Understood. Got it.

That is helpful. When should we expect this Climate Australia to hit the profitability path?

Could we expect it should be back to profitability on PAT as well as cash level from next year onwards?

We're working towards that, but can't really sort of confirm anything yet. Time will tell.

Understood. Will it be a fair assumption at least things will be on improving path from here onwards?

Yes, you could say that.

Got it. One last question from my side.

How has been the non-core category growth this quarter, and how much it was as a percentage of mix?

As it was shared earlier in the presentation, in Symphony India, it contributes more than 25% in last nine months, and it is growing steadily, which comprises of large space ventilated air cooling, water heaters, tabletop and kitchen cooling appliances, and exports from India. They are not dependent upon Indian weather or Indian summer.

If we consider at a console level, then at a console level, it is like 50-50% because overseas subsidiaries, in a way, air cooler and other product sales is counter-seasonal or coming from other geographies. Of course, from subsidiaries as a whole, still they are not contributing big chunk to profitability.

However, we have to bear in mind Impco Mexico and GSK China have not only turned around, but they have contributed significantly.

What was their growth non-core for this quarter and as a nine-month as a whole?

I think more meaningful to share for nine months rather than quarter-to-quarter due to variety of reasons. We don't really do the business or plan or strategize quarter-to-quarter, even though we do have a budget, but on nine months YoY, the pie has grown and it's continuously growing.

Possible to give a number for nine months and three months both, because at least we can get some sense how the cooler is doing?

Right now we don't have readily available, but one-to-one separately it will be given. By the way, until September quarter, we have given the figures and data.

Right. Thank you.

That's it. Helpful.

Thank you.

Hi. Good morning, sir.

Hi, morning Aditya.

Hi, morning. Two questions.

Hello?

We can hear you actually. Go ahead.

The first one is on the difference between standalone and consol revenues. If we just consider continuing operations, the revenues in the consol entity are slightly lower than standalone.

Is it a case that we had sold certain units to let's say Impco or Climate Tech which have remained unsold? How should we kind of think about it, and what proportion of our standalone revenues would be sales to group companies at this stage?

Aditya. It is mainly the decrease in the consol turnover in continued business is mainly due to the stock.

Whatever we have sold to the subsidiaries and these are lying at stock at subsidiary level, it has been removed from the consol turnover as per the accounting standards to show the continued business. It automatically goes to the discontinuing operations.

We should look at the continue plus discontinue put together for this purpose.

Sure. Understood, sir.

Is it possible to kind of give an indication of what proportion of our revenues would be sales to group companies at the standalone level both for third quarter as well as nine months?

For the quarter it is around 20 crore. Yeah, 20 crore out of that 182 is to export to subsidiary.

Keep in mind, Mr. Bhartia, respective company records the turnover, but when it is a console turnover, as reported, inter-company sales or exports, that's completely knocked off.

There is no way double counting or duplication if at all there is any question about it, and hence console is a net-net sales.

Sure. Absolutely, sir.

Sir, my second question is if you could give us some indication on how the water heater business is faring, which all states are we currently present in, how large the business could have become, and what are your plans regarding the product category from a two, three-year perspective? Thank you.

Aditya, as water heaters is a fairly mature category, and we have introduced a product range which is pretty innovative in its offering. We have gone into the market with a phased plan.

Last year we had introduced the product in the Karnataka, AP, and Telangana market. This year we have expanded this portfolio to select markets in the north, overall covering about eight states at this point in time.

Also, last year we had launched it into organized retail, and this year we have expanded this into the general trade also in the markets that we mentioned. In addition, we are selling on our D2C and e-com channels.

Over the next two years, I expect that we would roll this out in more markets and stabilize the business from where we are to a higher trajectory.

Perfect, sir. That's helpful.

If you could just give some indication on how large you see the business becoming in case you can share that, that would be helpful.

There are targets and aspirations set, Aditya, but just allow us to perform, and then maybe when the numbers reach a meaningful scale, we'll definitely talk about it.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Good morning.

Thanks for giving me an opportunity. Sir, I just want to had two questions, mainly revolving around our market share.

Firstly, you said that 5,000 crore market size and we are somewhere around 35% within the organized. If you can just help me bridge the understanding gap, we had roughly 1,200 crore on our top line.

If you can just help me understand the market share. That's my first question.

Secondly, on a medium-term basis, want to understand how has the market share fared for us at company? That are the two questions I had.

Harsh, first a small correction here. The 35% that we talked about is actually the share of organized business in the total addressable market.

If you recall, about 10 minutes back we were talking about a significant metal air cooler market and unorganized market. So, 35% is the share of organized business into the overall air coolers market.

Within that organized business, as Nrupesh-bhai highlighted, we are the market leaders with a significant market share, and the total numbers are more than the top next five players combined. That's where we stand in terms of the market share.

Okay. Understood.

I did have the second question as to how has our market share fared in medium term. That was my second question.

Has it deteriorated or improved any further from here?

Harsh, broadly let's say over the last, if I look at last three or four years, within a percent or two kind of band, it has been fairly stable, I would say, and if I look at let's say even FY '22 or FY '23 versus this year, the deltas on either side are barely about 1%, 1.5% against the median that we are maintaining.

Understood. You're saying that even for say nine months if I just had to consider, the major weakness would be on account of the weaker summers and not us losing market share?

Absolutely, yes. That's something that is true for us and a lot of products and categories and companies in the cooling product segment.

Understood. That's all from my end.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks, Harsh.

Hi, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity for asking the questions.

Am I audible?

You are.

Yes.

The higher advertising and promotion spends in Q3 is a one-off expense, and should we expect this higher level to continue going forward?

As explained and shared earlier, we have entered into water heater category just in '24, and obviously being a new product category, the advertisement and sales promotion expenses are far, far higher vis-a-vis normal advertisement and sales promotion on established category. In fact, more than 90% of the advertisement and sales promotion expenses of 11 crore incurred during December '25 quarter pertains to water heater in addition to whatever we spent earlier.

You will appreciate that in our kind of the product category, it is a necessary expenditure, even though the benefits accrue in the medium to long term, and we have to route through P&L.

Okay. Sir, just some clarity on the market share thing.

The mandatory BSI norms have helped the company to gain the market share from unorganized players. How big is the opportunity?

No, certainly such BSI norms are beneficial to organized sector, and as it always happens in any industry, market leader gains the most because it really differentiates the product. Child versus men are really being differentiated, which was just narrative.

Now actually it will be known and felt and seen.

Sir, because of some strict norms, some supply bottlenecks also have been created in other sectors, how is this panning in this sector?

No, that's why our product and category focus plays a role. Whenever there are situations like this, we are well prepared and we have tackled it, and we are not going to face any issue in that respect.

If you remember, even in June '24 quarter, which was a bumper summer, most of the players faced massive logistic and supply issue, but in a very short time, we could more than double in just 60 days our production as well as supply. That's where that agility, market leadership, and insight really work.

Sir, is there any additional market share we expect to capture going forward because of this?

Our focus is a top line and bottom line growth at a robust rate rather than market share.

Okay. Thank you for taking my question.

As long as we can increase the kitty of the profit, some additional market share or some less market share, we are not really bothered.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much. Hello?

Thank you, marshal. Thank you very much, Achal sir, Nrupesh-ji, Amit-ji, and Rajesh sir, for giving us the opportunity to host the call.

Any closing comments from your side, sir?

No, thank you everybody. Shraddha, thanks to you, and thanks to all the participants for sparing your valuable time, that too on a working day during market hours from 11:00 to 12:00 a.m.

We really appreciate your inputs, and looking forward to see you in next conference call or maybe in person.