Thank you. Thank you, Sagar.

Good evening and welcome everyone to our Q1 earnings call. I'll start the discussion with a brief overview of industry, then move on to our operational highlights across businesses and geographies.

Before I begin, I just wanted to say that this quarter we made a significant accounting change, which Nandu will explain at the end of my overall presentation in terms of the segment change, to align that with the way we are running the business. Instead of two segments, which is basic chemistry and specialty chemical products, we have now renamed them as living, industry, and farm essentials.

The farm essential business is particularly comprising of Rallis and also Morocco, which is reported as a JV income below the line. In terms of living essential, it is mainly comprising of products which are salt, bicarbonate, prebiotics, and everything which goes into feed, food, and pharma.

The industrial product especially is around soda ash, silica, and industrial chemicals, which includes things like bromine, chlorine, and caustic, in addition to soda ash and silica. Let me start now highlighting the demand scenario across geographies for each of these three segments.

In living essential, mainly the food, feed, pharma, the core products, which are salt, bicarbonate, and FOS, they continue to have a stable demand, continuing to grow, supported by premiumization in this segment. Also, prebiotics is expected to grow faster due to rising health and wellness consumption.

Industrial essentials, which is mainly soda ash, the near-term outlook, unlike the previous one, is challenging due to global oversupply, especially coming out of China, and also elevated raw material and freight costs, which are caused by the geopolitical tensions in Middle East. Despite these cost pressures, the market was adequately supplied, in addition to which, I think there were no major market demand disruptions, except in Arabian Gulf.

While it is subdued, it has not gone down despite all the other macroeconomic challenges. The long-term fundamentals remain positive, mainly on view of the focus on renewable as well as electrification.

India continues to demonstrate stronger demand momentum in terms of the global market. China and US remain mostly flat.

Demand in LATAM has strengthened, especially supported by rising lithium carbonate production. Exports to Argentina and Chile have increased by 53% and 32%, respectively.

Southeast Asian market, mainly demand declined marginally. However, this is also a place where there is a maximum pricing pressure coming out of Chinese exports.

In terms of farm essential, Indian farm sector outlook remains moderately positive, supported by improved irrigation, technology supplies. There is, of course, a focus by the team on monsoon variability, potential El Niño conditions, and higher input costs, but we do remain positive in terms of the outcome during the year, despite certain pressures coming on the overall system, especially driven by higher commodity prices which farmers will have, which will ensure that they will save all the crop and hence use the crop protection products to get those products to market.

In terms of supply scenario, the bicarbonate, additional supply coming in from competition, but overall the supply scenario remains balanced. In terms of soda ash, the market are more than adequately supplied.

The Chinese inventories reached a all-time high 1.73, and Chinese producers continue to operate at high utilization rate. The export volumes from China remain elevated and with no significant supply curtailments which are announced, the market rebalancing will be mainly driven off supply rationalization, which we are closely watching.

In terms of pricing environment, as I said, this demand supply environment, especially in soda ash, in the industrial segment, continues to compress the margin. Chinese soda ash export prices are in the range of $160 to $180 FOB, translating to $170 to $190 CIF in Southeast Asia, which remains the most challenging markets for us.

In our view, global pricing is expected to remain subdued given elevated inventory levels. However, the several domestic markets will continue to have steady pricing and move on the back of steady demand.

Now I'll move to operational highlights. Despite the challenging environment in one segment of our business, which is industrial essentials, the company delivered resilient performance due to higher sales and production volume across segments, more especially in the living essential and in farm segment, and strong operating efficiencies and disciplined cost management.

The revenue from operation on consolidated basis was up 14%. EBITDA was down by about ₹100-odd crores compared to previous year, despite sharply lower realization, and net debt was ₹5,692 lower than previous quarter on account of monetization of assets.

Standalone was a very strong performance. The revenue was up 10%, EBITDA was up 35%, and profit after tax from continuing operations was up 12% compared to Q1 of last year.

In terms of unit-wise performance, as I mentioned, the standalone has done well both on higher volumes and stronger realizations, with higher fixed-cost control. We also capitalized some of the projects, which has led to higher depreciation.

The domestic demand has remained steady right across all products. However, the input costs have increased due to Middle East conflict.

US has a higher revenue previous year due to higher volumes, partially offset by slightly lower pricing during the quarter. EBITDA was impacted due to lower realization and higher fixed cost, which was mainly fixed costs were fixed in US dollar, however, because of the exchange rate impact in rupee terms they were higher.

Demand remained stable. Markets were well-supplied, especially in most of the export market, especially in the Southeast Asian market.

UK had higher revenue than the previous year due to higher volumes. There was a lower pricing in some of the product market segments.

EBITDA was impacted due to higher variable costs on account of Middle East crisis, which was mainly due to higher gas prices they had to buy. Kenya, higher volumes were partially offset by lower prices, especially in the Southeast Asian market.

Fixed costs were under control. Singapore, the integration plan is going well, and Rallis saw an overall revenue growth due to higher volumes and higher pricing.

EBITDA growth primarily driven by better volume in crop protection and optimization of fixed cost. With this, I hand back to you for Q&A session.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. My first question is relating to the reclassification.

Can you please give out more details? What are the objectives that you wish to meet by changing this classification?

Are there any measured target or outcome that we can expect because of this reclassification, which may reflect on the P&L?

I think mainly, Saurabh, I think the whole objective here is to make sure that we can continue to focus on reshaping the portfolio towards what we would call as non-cyclical products, and these also are the products which are sustainability-led. There's a lot of application focus in these products, and customer saliency and customer stickiness is very, very high, and less volatility in pricing.

We are fundamentally focused on making sure that our portfolio moves in that direction. Our capital allocation will be done on that basis.

We are also building deeper customer engagement here because the sales, marketing, the operational teams are all geared around following similar processes. If you look at food, feed, and pharma, the regulatory environment under which that operates, especially the food regulatory environment, the pharma regulatory environment is very different from industrial segment, which is why we have carved that out.

As the farm sector anyway is run in a separate subsidiary, this effectively brings focus into each business to build its own capability. Over a period of time, this will also show itself in terms of capital allocation.

You're already seeing part of it, but this would be more sharply seen in going forward, especially with investments being focused on the living essential and farm essentials.

We can add to Mr. Mukundan on that segment here.

See, earlier we had one basic chemistry segment having everything in that in terms of soda ash, salt, bicarbonate, and based on investors' feedback over the last few years, the feedback was more in terms of having a different segment in terms of non-segregated. This segment would give investors, analysts a better view on the company on what is the revenue towards non-segregated, segregated part here, because earlier was one big segment where you're unable to make out within that what is driving the growth.

Now we can look at the components of each of segment and see what is driving growth for Tata Chemicals. This is an attempt towards that, and based on the investors' feedback given so far.

Is there an added cost also involved here when you try to restructure your sales, marketing team or other processes? Possibly, can you quantify it?

Also, can you quantify any realizable benefits because of this restructuring, any synergies, if some of these calculations you have done on the back of the envelope?

In fact, Saurabh, this was the way we were running the company. The operations, the segmentations reflect the way our company is structured, and the benefits are greater administrative control, and also greater ownership of the outcomes, especially from the customer side.

In terms of financial and operational benefits, it is effectively we will have one view of bicarbonate, one view of higher grades of salt. It then becomes very easy to sort of look at a global view in terms of the overall specific products, rather than geography view.

This is just to drive one solution for every customer. Many of our customers are present in multiple geographies.

If you take customers in the food area, customers in the pharma area, customers also in industrial area, they are present in multi-geography, they also want a single point of accountability, which is the way we have been structured, now the financial reporting also is structured on that basis. We will still be relaying to all the analysts the specific geography-wise P&L so that you also get a view of what each geography is doing.

Sure. Okay.

The way it has happened because of restructuring which has happened over a period of time, while the split is happening in India where there is a split of standalone revenue into living and industrial, US and Kenya fall fully in industrial, and UK falls fully in living. It already has happened because in UK we have shut down the industrial businesses 100% because they were unsustainable.

The reflection is also coming in the way that we are looking at the market. Singapore is folding into the living essential, more or less.

UK would be in the living, right? We have a salt and bicarb business.

Yes.

Yes, yes. Understood.

When I look at your capex plan, it shows a skew towards your living essentials segment. Now going forward, from a mid to long-term point of view also, once you're done with these capex, are you focusing more on the living essentials, trying to deploy more capital on that side and less capital on industrial essentials, or it's just only for the next two to three years and then you might need incremental capex on industrial side also?

Very clearly, our objective is to move away from cyclical business. If you look at the cyclicality of the business, it's the highest in soda ash.

Not that we want to sort of reduce our soda ash operational strength today. It'll continue to remain because, when it comes back, it is going to be one of the biggest profit drivers.

Within industrial segment, our focus will be on focusing on silica, which is also slightly more non-cyclical than soda ash itself. We will be sort of focusing our capex more towards what you explain, that we drive growth in food, feed, and pharma, and also specific segments within the industrial essentials, and try to decommoditize our portfolio as much as we can because that's a strategic direction we have been undertaking for the last few years.

Okay. Any timelines on your silica plant expansion, 50 KT?

I

think Timeline for all the projects because I see that the timeline is missing in the presentation.

Yes, I think if you look at the salt plant in India, IBSD, the 82.5, that should get operational by this year-end, you should start it supplying to market by first quarter of next financial year. The 210-kiloton plant in South India, which is mainly there, has a 24-month execution time.

Similar is the execution timeline for 50 KTA silica plant, they will become operational early '28, sometime during '28.

Understood. If I may ask one more question, more insights into

Sure. I'll get back into queue.

My question is for India business. We have seen a significant improvement in operating level.

Apart from whatever the reason you talked on the initial commentary, is there because of West Asia war, the freight cost has increased, the overall because of that, the realization is higher, salt business, I think volume is higher. Any other reason apart from that, my understanding correct?

I think the main driver of this India growth has been the volume increase. That's fundamentally right across all products.

Also there is a higher realization in soda ash because of the foreign exchange shift which has happened. We had taken a pricing adjustment because especially soda ash is linked to import parity pricing.

Freight cost also played a role?

The freight and forwarding costs did increase during the quarter, but they were more or less passed on to the customer.

Okay. When talk about the pricing for India business, how is the revision for contract, and how is the mix contract and spot market for us, soda ash?

I think India has taken a price increase of about ₹2,000 per ton, which I think is a spot priced. The contracts are quarterly, as and quarterly they get reviewed with the customers.

Okay.

US, significant deterioration. How is the scenario in export?

Because of tariff war, overall the export market is unviable and domestic is also subdued. Any outlook for the US business, how ₹48 per kg EV is going to be reach at with that level, or it will take time?

In terms of US, I think one of the key approaches we have is that the biggest impact in the shift which has happened in terms of margin is on the export front, especially the export volumes which we were sending to Southeast Asia. They are just at breakeven level or unremunerative, and that is likely to remain so, at least through the year.

Unless some capacity rationalization happens in China, it is unlikely to see a uplift. Okay.

Next one year, four-quarter

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Continuing with the geographic performance there, especially in US, last quarter we did rationalized somewhat of volumes, saying that Southeast Asia was not as profitable, we had taken a strict call there. We are seeing good volume growth here, but your comment on Southeast Asia pricing being lower.

We are still supplying at lower margin or was it a tactical call, if you can throw some light there? Same question on Kenya.

Good volume growth, but margin's not there. Your thoughts, please.

No, in Kenya, the Kenya fundamentally has been because of the pricing, as well as their HFO prices have increased. I think if you really see that it's been not so much the market price pressure.

Kenya had very high impact of the war, and that's directly related to oil prices. When oil price goes from $70 to $100, that clearly reflects in their HFO pricing, which leads to compression and margin.

We will try to pass that increase to customers as we can, as much as contracts allow, but clearly that's a tough spot they are in. As the spot prices come down, I think Kenya would also adjust itself.

They have since bought hedged HFO, which covers them up to October, but we'll have to see what happens beyond October if the war drags on beyond that. In terms of US, while the input cost prices are more or less under their control, they have done well, mainly on back of higher exports to mostly the LATAM and Northeast Asian market.

There were some exports Southeast Asian market, but we are more or less vacated, like most of the US players, the Southeast Asian markets to Chinese.

Sure. Given the Chinese inventory being higher, probably that pain may continue, as you rightly mentioned.

The domestic part of US is doing good?

Domestic part of US is stable, and while there is no volume growth as such, the pricing levels are more or less stable, maybe a $3-$4 shifts here and there. The main cost pressure we are facing in US is on logistics and transportation, and we are engaged constantly with customers to pass that on to them.

That remains an open item in terms of customer-by-customer to ask them to change the logistics cost.

Sure, sir. Just a last bit, the same question on the UK business as well, on the profitability side.

Your thoughts, given the ramp-up in the salt business there as well, but still the margins don't suggest so.

I think UK had basically fundamentally two big events which were one-offs of adding up to about £2.4 million, which is one was on the loss on sale of ETS. This is likely to come back by October quarter because we go through a cycle.

Second, there has also been one-off issue related to some of the prior-period adjustments. That has led to a fall.

Overall, I think our expectation is UK should be EBITDA-positive, as well as tending towards PBT breakeven.

Breakeven for the full year, that is, just that clarification?

Breakeven full year, but also from next quarter onwards, because these one-offs we don't expect it to repeat.

Okay. Great, sir.

Thanks for the answers. I'll get back into the queue.

Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you so much.

My question is on the India business. We're seeing soda ash sales volumes down about 12% sequentially, and bicarb sales volume down about 19% sequentially.

What were the reasons for that? Number two, despite this volume decline, we've seen a really sharp margin expansion.

EBITDA margins are 28%, more than 10 percentage points higher quarter on quarter sequentially. Is this some sort of maybe temporary benefit because of some low-cost coal inventories that we were sitting on during the quarter?

In your view, is this margin sustainable next quarter, or should we expect margins to revert back to, say, the 18%-20% kind of range in India EBITDA?

In terms of the inventory benefit which are there, I think there are two elements here. One is in terms of the overall plant itself.

There's been a bit of an optimization done to deliver higher volumes of salt to the market, which has led to certain throttling of soda ash production at the production level, nothing to do with market demand. In terms of bicarbonate, it's fundamentally some of the contracts getting realigned, especially some of the tendered contracts we had to forgo during the quarter because of certain pricing issues, which we hope to get back during the year.

Certainly in terms of inventory gains, we do believe that there'll be certain inventory gain which will happen in coal, which would come back to impact the cost in the next quarter, because as the past inventory of the coal goes out, the fresh inventory of coal is coming at pricing which is elevated, not because of the basic price, but more due to the higher freight cost. We'll let this play out in the marketplace in terms of whether we can get better pricing from all the customers, because the price increases also have not been transmitted to everyone.

It's been the only spot price increase which has happened. We let it play out, but certainly your point of view that while volumes may remain more or less steady, there could be a marginal pressure driven mainly by the cost side.

Sure. Sorry, yeah, thank you.

Just to clarify, what would a sustainable margin range be for the India business, if it's possible to spell that out? Just the other one that I had was, you made a comment about a reduction in debt because of monetization of assets.

If you could please just help us understand what assets were monetized exactly and what the value was? Thank you so much.

Nandu, you want to address the monetization?

We have sold some land in Q1, and we sold some of the shares we holding, and that contributed to the debt coming down in Q1. That's the answer for that.

In terms of sustainable margin would be somewhere around 18% which you referred to. I think that would be broadly the number I would pick, approximately about 35% 30 to 32% to 33% GC margin.

Got it. Thank you so much.

I'll come back in the queue for any more.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, the question is on the annual report research and development.

Couple of things that we have stated here is on the LFP battery recycling process, and we've also developed indigenous sodium-ion battery technology. Can you just throw some little more color on the same, how things are likely to shape up, where are we in terms of the commercialization process, and any timelines around that?

Thank you.

On the battery side, I think we have certainly made the first battery pack, and it's undergoing testing. At the same time, I think we are reviewing the entire business strategy for the sodium-ion battery, especially for the storage application.

It will not be appropriate solution for mobility. It will remain as energy storage, mainly for renewable power as well as data centers.

That's the main focus of that, but we'll come back to you with the specifics of the plan. Right now, we're going through the phase of proving the product and also piloting it.

That itself should take better part of this year. After that, once we get through that, we'll come back with specific plans to enter the market and launch the market.

Certainly, we can see that several strides have been made by the competition in China in the sodium battery. We remain very positive about it, especially since it uses soda ash as one of the cathode-active material, which is what we make as a product.

It has been patented, and we will be looking to commercialize after basically taking it through a pilot phase as soon as our testing protocols are over. In terms of the cathode-active recycling business, we are working internally to set up this entire unit, and no major capex is needed.

It's more or less being tried. We're trying to set this up in Mithapur.

Initial lot is very small because the volume of vehicles which are more than seven or eight years old is very very small at this point of time. This will be a business which will be built on OEM tie-ups, especially with the auto manufacturers.

Thanks. Just one clarification on the sodium-ion battery.

In terms of soda ash requirement, any ballpark numbers in terms of 1 GW or 1 MW battery, how much soda ash is required?

We'll come back to you with the specific number. As what we do indicate to market is for the lithium battery, for lithium carbonate production, you need two parts of soda ash for every part of lithium carbonate.

On sodium, we'll come back with specifics as soon as the piloting phase is over.

Perfect, sir. Thanks a lot, and all the best, sir.

Hi. My first question was regarding the pricing impact.

What has happened quarter on quarter? We have seen a lot of rationalization in EU and even India.

How has the quarter-on-quarter prices of soda ash have changed? Do we see China dumping, since China have additional capacity of 10 million tons?

Any idea around that?

I I think this threat from China exists for all markets in the world. It is not just Indian market or US market or Southeast Asian market.

We will work actively with, especially since there's manufacturing facilities in India, we will work with regulatory authorities in making sure the domestic industry is kept healthy as far as we are concerned. In terms of the pricing, as I mentioned, the big impact in pricing has been due to foreign exchange rate movement, and broadly, I think Indian market has seen about ₹2,000 price increase.

Some contracts have got it, some contracts still on the old prices, but we'll see as it rolls out. We don't see pricing in China dropping below anywhere around $160 to $170-odd at FOB level.

It has been holding steady for quite some time, moving in tandem with what the yuan USD rate is. The fall in yuan has yuan sale price of soda ash in China has been commensurate with the depreciation of dollar, which effectively meant the pricing has remained more or less flat.

We don't see any big shift in this. We are probably at I don't want to say this, but maybe used to say that $170 was the bottom.

It is close to $160 to $170, it's pretty much at the bottom. Most Chinese manufacturers are, in effect, are losing money on cash basis, this is the reality of the market there.

Okay. On your raw material side, how has [unclear] raw material been, and how are you seeing it?

We can't hear you clearly. Can you

sorry. I'll join back in the queue.

Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. I had one question.

Like the

Can you hear me now?

Oh, yeah, I had one question. We have seen the price of soda ash coming down because of the excess capacity in China.

Similar trend is expected in bicarb also? See,

I think every market will have a very different reaction to this. If you look at our units in UK and in Singapore, we sell to premium markets which are pretty much which need customer approval, and the plant to be cleared by the customer before the supply starts.

These are not technical products, we don't see a big shift impact on those two units. Certainly, within India, the competitive intensity has increased in the short term, not so much because of China, but because one competitor has brought in some capacity in, which will get absorbed due to growth in the market.

We do expect during the course of the year that that capacity will get absorbed and intensity will drop. We haven't seen big shift in the bicarb as such as of now, and China does have surplus in bicarb, but that can impact mainly the technical grade.

Sir. What is the reduction in debt amount?

₹300 crores. ₹300 crores compared to March.

Oh, thank you.

Am I audible now? Is it better?

Yeah. My question is regarding the cost of raw materials side.

How has that been shaped out? Have we seen any increase in the raw materials?

It's going to impact margin going forward.

I think your question is on raw materials side? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Clearly, I think it is depending on unit and unit. Let me just telegraph that properly.

In US, there is no impact on the input raw material in input cost side, except for the logistics, which is outsourced, there'll be impact, and we are working with customers to make sure that it's passed on to the customers. The UK there there will be an impact from time to time.

We do believe that UK, we will be hedging going forward, but fundamentally, there's there's an open item we keep in US because we do believe UK, because we do believe the gas prices will revert back to mean at some point. In In In Kenya, as I said, our contracts are clear up to clear up to October.

Right now, if the prices remain high, they will certainly get impacted with the high price beyond October. India, of course, we are mostly on coal, and which the biggest impact in coal is in terms of the logistic cost of getting it imported from Indonesia.

We do see if the if if the if the conflict continues beyond certain point of time, which is beyond October, November, we will have an impact coming in terms of the limestone, because the limestone stocks and the domestic production can only cope with production there, and we'll have to bring in fresh consignments from Middle East, which today, at the today's rates, are extremely high, and mainly because of the transportation they have to incur to get the product to Fujairah. Really, the inputs for India, the biggest impact is to see whether the war does drag on beyond October, and right now, we are planning that we will be able to find solutions on that.

Clearly watch out for Kenya HFO, India limestone beyond October, and energy cost increases in India mainly driven by logistics cost, and the cost increase in US driven by again logistics cost.

Thanks for the answer.

Thank you for taking my question. Now the first question is back to the sodium-ion.

In our annual report, we have talked of using it to a drone flight test. Drones are likely to be the least amongst the transportation segment to adopt sodium-ion.

Just curious, why would you use it for a drone flight test, and if you could talk a little bit about the output our product is getting in kilowatt-hour density, et cetera? Thank you.

We will come back to you with the details going forward. This was just to prove the product in extreme application, but clearly, in terms of customer specification, this is more suitable for static application.

We will not be selling it for mobility, including drone, going forward. It's a proving flight.

We have gone through several tests, both on static, proving flight. Mobility has been done in some of the lab test also, but we do believe that the competitive positioning is absolutely right for static applications, stationary applications.

Sure. Any metric that you could share in terms of energy density or number of cycles, etc., that we have been able to produce our battery?

We will come with a very specific number on this because, as I said, it's undergoing testing, and we don't want to give a number which the testing doesn't prove. We'll come back with number which what our pilot units can do.

As of now, our view is that the product does meet the minimum requirement for stationary application.

Sure. Secondly, just in terms of capex, if you could talk about how much do we envisage on spending in FY 2027?

Are we looking at further sales of investments? As you mentioned, we have liquidated ₹300 crores of investments, partly stock, partly land.

What's the plan for the remaining part of the year, and what are our spoken

I'll come to that. See, our annualized capex will be around the depreciation number.

We will try not to exceed it, in fact, keep it below that, I think that's our plan through the year going forward, including all the capexes which we have lined up. Sorry, what is your second question?

In terms of spending, in terms of liquidating investments, we have sold ₹300-odd crores

I'll let Nandu answer.

See, we have some non-core land available in the country there, we're looking at monetizing some part of that in the second half or after Q2 onwards. We will also look at what we can do in terms of any other non-core we can look at monetizing.

We can't comment on that now in this call, but we can look at as and when required.

Sure. We spent roughly ₹1,200 crores as consol was our consol depreciation for FY 2026.

Should we take that as the capex and maintenance capex number for FY 2027?

Yes, Rohit, you can. You can take that number.

Perfect. Thank you, and wishing you all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity again. Again trying to understand more on the sodium-ion battery side.

When you say indigenous developed technology, is it like a part of the whole battery that you have developed indigenously or it's like a complete battery solution that you're the developed indigenously? Going forward, which part of the battery would you, look to scale if you want to go ahead with your plans for the in the battery space?

We have produced the full unit, including BMS, full assembly, including BMS, to be tested by power companies and data center for their application. In terms of which parts we do, we will certainly be doing the chemicals and cathode-active material, but whether we get into the full prismatic cell or the cylindrical cell, I think we will come back to you specifically as our plans unfold.

At this point of time, we are extremely focused on getting the piloting done with as many customers as possible.

Sure. Then understand that you would not be able to share more details on this side, but can this also be scaled up for export purposes or it is going to be more focused on the domestic needs?

As we see it, the demand in India itself is going to be very, very strong, with a number of data centers coming and number of the focus on renewable power. We are not ruling that out, how we deal with exports.

We've not put it in the strategy, but it remains something which we will be open to in case the plans develop even better than what we've anticipated.

When can you be in a position to share more details? Sorry to interrupt,

I was just completing it. Any insights into when can we expect more details to be shared on this side?

See, we expect the piloting to finish in about six to nine months so that we at least get a clear understanding of what is the customer responsiveness. After that, we'll come back to you.

End of the year, we should have some element of from lab to at least initial customer let's say, offers and units. The full-scale plant, as I said, will come after that, two years after that.

Okay. Understood.

Thank you so much, and all the best.

Thank you so much. Just two, three quick data-related questions.

One is the staff cost this quarter includes some ₹45-odd crore reversal, is it? The staff cost would actually have been higher by ₹45 crores?

Is that correct? That was point number one.

Number two would be, possible to just share a breakdown of US volumes between domestic sales and exports? The last one was on IMACID.

Seems like the income from associates has gone into negative zone this quarter. Is that because of the higher sulfur prices, and so any outlook for the IMACID business?

Thanks a lot.

All good questions. I think, firstly, let me start with IMACID.

IMACID did not produce during the quarter because of high sulfur prices. I think they have just begun operations during this quarter, we'll see how it progresses.

Certainly, I think that part of the business is under pressure in terms of margin, but I think they'll be profitable for the year, but I think the first quarter, they took a call to not run the unit. The second piece in terms of the

Employee cost.

Employee cost, you're right about ₹43 crore. I think it normal run rate should be ₹43 more than that.

That's a one-off during the quarter. There was a third question.

US export-domestic split.

Split, I think we'll give next quarter if you don't mind, Abhijit. Sir.

Fair enough, sir.

Just to clarify, this employee cost would have been closer to ₹590 crores, which is up from about ₹517 last year, ₹524 in 4Q. Is that largely a rupee depreciation impact that's flowing through or something else?

It's largely rupee depreciation. Also, I think many of the quarter one usually is a high number during the quarter, especially removing the rupee number.

It is also the year where the period when we also pay out all the people's variable pays and all that. Take the large impact is from the overseas unit.

Thank you so much, and all the best.

Thank you. Thank you all for joining today for the conference call.

As discussed, the operating environment remains dynamic, with ongoing uncertainties and disruptions. There's a price challenge, as well as the cost challenge in one of our biggest businesses, almost 50% of the revenue in soda ash.

Despite these headwinds, our business continued to demonstrate resilience, supported by disciplined execution in terms of the volume of products sold and our customer engagement. We do have diversified portfolio, and the revised segment results also will highlight which parts of the business are stable and continue to be non-cyclical.

This is backed with stronger customer relationship right across portfolio. On behalf of the entire management, I'd like to thank our customers and our partners for their continued trust and confidence, and look forward to your ongoing support.

Thank you all for joining this call, and we look forward to speaking to you again in quarter two FY 2027.