Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

On behalf of Arihant Capital, I would like to thank all of you for joining the Q4 and FY '26 conference call for UFlex Limited. From the company's leadership team, we have Mr.

Sumeet Kumar, Executive Vice President - Finance, and Mr. Surajit Pal, Vice President - Head of Investor Relations.

We'll open the call with opening remarks by the management, followed by the Q&A session. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr.

Surajit to make the opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Ashvath. Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for joining us today for Q4 FY '26 earnings conference call of UFlex Limited. Let me draw your attention to the fact that on this call, our discussion will include certain forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other estimates about future events.

These estimates reflect management's current expectations about the future performance of the company. Please note that these estimates involve several risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied.

I would now request Mr. Sumeet Kumar, our Executive VP - Finance, UFlex Group, for his opening remarks, following which we will open the forum for Q&A session.

Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Surajit. Thank you Arihant team for facilitating this call.

Good afternoon, everyone. I must thank you for joining UFlex Limited's Q4 and FY '26 earnings conference call.

Before I proceed further, I would take a moment just to extend my apologies on behalf of UFlex for a slight technical glitch at the beginning, which delayed our starting the call a little bit, and appreciate your understanding while I extend my apologies. In fact, at the same time, before I talk about Q4 and FY '26 operational and financial performance, I would also take a couple of moments for those joining us for the first time to briefly introduce UFlex business and product portfolio.

UFlex Limited is India's largest multinational in flexible packaging and solutions company and one of the very few companies uniquely integrated across the entire packaging value chain, offering both standalone and end-to-end consumer-ready packaging solutions. Our ecosystem begins with the production of virgin and recycled PET chips, the core raw material for BOPET and recycled PET packaging films.

Our packaging film portfolio includes BOPET, BOPP, CPP, recycled BOPET, metallized and Alox-coated packaging films, along with a wide range of value-added specialty packaging films, including ultra-high barrier solutions. These upstream strengths are complemented by a comprehensive portfolio of intermediate products, including high-performance inks, adhesives, coatings, holography solutions, printing cylinders, and packaging-related engineering equipment, enabling full in-house capabilities, strong quality control, and greater operational efficiency.

At the downstream end, we deliver complete end-to-end packaging stock-keeping units, SKU solutions, including flexible laminates, pouches, tubes, WPP pet food bags, rice raffia bags, and aseptic liquid packs. We serve leading global brands across FMCG, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, personal care, and industrial, real estate sectors.

Talking about this upstream, intermediate, and downstream, this fully backward integrated model ensures supply chain reliability, drives innovation, strengthens sustainability, and positions UFlex as a truly comprehensive, one-stop packaging partner globally. I'll talk more about it, that how this completely integrated model has helped withstand particularly what happened during quarter four.

Now, starting with the performance of quarter four, Q4 FY '26 marked a very strong finish to the year with broad-based recovery across our businesses despite a challenging operating backdrop, which was characterized by supply chain disruptions due to ongoing West Asia conflict and continued tariff-related uncertainties for the first half of the current, of the four, quarter four. The quarter demonstrated the resilience of our integrated business model, diversified geographic footprint, and disciplined execution.

Reflecting this overall strong financial performance, consolidated revenue for Q4 FY '26 increased by 12.8% sequentially and 5.7% year-on-year to Rs 40,973 million. More significant was the jump in EBITDA, which jumped 36.3% quarter-on-quarter and 31.8% year-on-year to Rs 6,265 million, while EBITDA margin also expanded to 15.3%.

Both the EBITDA, aggregate EBITDA recorded during the quarter, and also the EBITDA margin achieved was highest in the last 14 quarters, which was after Q1 of FY '23. Normalized PAT during the quarter increased to Rs 2,026 million, reflecting the benefit of improved realizations, a better product mix, and stronger operating leverage.

At the same time, for the full year FY '26, consolidated revenue increased 2.1% to Rs 155,130 million, while EBITDA rose much healthier at 8.1% to Rs 19,836 million. EBITDA margin expanded by 70 basis points compared to the previous fiscal to 12.8%, which underscores our ability to ensure steady operations and improved profitability, successfully navigating through multiple external headwinds.

Now talking about volumes, consolidated sales volume during the quarter increased 10.3% sequentially over quarter three and 1% on quarter four year-on-year to 166,879 MT during quarter four. For the year as a whole, consolidated sales volume remained resilient, growing 0.4% to 649,789 metric tonnes for the whole fiscal.

Total sales volume consists of the packaging business and packaging films. Our packaging business comprising flexible packaging, aseptic liquid packaging, and holography delivered another strong quarter.

Packaging sales volumes increased 7.1% sequentially and 1.6% year-on-year to 38,842 metric tonne in quarter four FY '26. For year as a whole, packaging volumes grew 5.1% to 151,755 metric tonne, reflecting sustained demand momentum across key packaging categories.

The aseptic packaging business recorded 15.9% sequential growth during the quarter, which is typically one of the strongest quarters, and which was driven by the seasonal demand cycle during January to March quarter. While full-year volumes increased 2.4% to 7.97 billion packs despite multiple demand disruptions during the year, which includes an unseasonably cooler summer, which includes a little prolonged winter, and also monsoon being deficit.

In the packaging films business, Q4 witnessed a meaningful recovery. Sales volume increased 11.4% sequentially and 0.9% year-on-year to 128,037 metric tonne, supported by sequentially improving demand across several regions.

For FY '26 as a whole, packaging films sales volume declined by 1% to 498,034 metric tonne amid tariff-related uncertainties for most part of the year, GST-related disruptions in the second and third quarter, softer CPG demand in Europe and USA, and broader macroeconomic challenges. Now I'll give you a perspective about the regional performance within the packaging films segment.

In India, we witnessed a sequential recovery with sales volume increasing 6.3% quarter-on-quarter to 26,888 tonnes, supported by demand normalization and strategic inventory replenishment. However, sales volume declined 6.3% to year-on-year, impacted by softer FMCG demand with volume growth moderating to 0.9% in Q4 of FY '26, as higher raw material costs and supply disruptions led customers to defer purchases amid general expectations of price correction and concerns over inventory losses.

Americas delivered the strongest growth with sales volume increasing 23% sequentially and 18% year-on-year to 31,883 metric tonnes, supported by post-US government shutdown normalization, which was the longest ever US government shutdown. Post-shutdown normalization was one, and also improving CPG food demand and seasonal post-holiday inventory replenishment were the contributing factors about this increase.

Europe recorded a strong sequential rebound with sales volume increasing 12.9% QoQ to 35,367 metric tonnes. However, demand remained soft on a year-on-year basis amid subdued consumer spending, fragile CPG demand, persistent energy and food inflation, and pressure from cheaper imports.

Middle East and Africa region volumes decreased 4.6% sequentially and 1.5% year-on-year to 33,899 metric tonnes, driven primarily by Egypt and Dubai. Egypt in particular benefited from now localized sourcing opportunities arising from supply chain disruptions in the region.

During the quarter, the capital expenditure was primarily allocated across four key projects, which includes aseptic packaging facility in Egypt, which includes our WPP bag manufacturing unit in Mexico, for the PCR PET facility in India and also MLP recycling facility, and also the new BOPP packaging film manufacturing line at Dharwad. Overall, we are encouraged by the strong recovery in Q4, improving profitability, and the continued ramp-up of our strategic growth projects.

Looking ahead, as we move into FY '27, the company remains confident in the long-term growth prospects of the overall packaging business, supported by rising income levels, shifting consumer habits, and accelerating urbanization across key markets, which are expected to drive higher consumption of FMCG products and consequently related packaging materials. The company expects FY '27 to perform better than FY '26, driven by improved utilization of recently commissioned capacities, product mix optimization, and additional capacities expected to come online during FY '27.

With this, I would be happy to take your questions and provide any additional information that may assist in your analysis and understanding of the company's performance and growth prospects. Thank you very much.

Please go ahead. Hope I'm audible?

Yeah. Sir, my first question is in terms of the US market, could you just elaborate on the demand in terms of BOPP and how much revenue can we expect from the current as for as to where we stand in FY '27 and FY '28?

US market, primarily, we operate in the BOPET space. US market, in fact, BOPP has a very high level of imports for market as a whole.

When it comes to UFlex, we are actually having our operating capacity in BOPET. We are, in fact, at this stage, we are looking at this BOPET capacity, better asset utilization.

Overall, US has a lot of imports of in excess of about 23, 24,000 tonnes every month of BOPP within the US market.

Okay. Sir, in terms of capacity utilizations in terms of Mexico and Egypt, can we see an uptick?

In fact, if you look at US, US for quarter four, we had that uptick in terms of capacity utilization. Mexico, during the year, we had during the year, we had capacity utilization, which we can expect during the current year as an uptick, definitely.

Okay. Sir, one question before I join back.

Just do you foresee any shift in the mix in terms of domestic and export, or is it to be remaining same?

Overall, in fact, the contribution of international business, which includes export and also the overseas revenues, has been showing a transition towards higher contribution of international revenue. Currently, as we speak, it is 57% contribution from international revenues and 43% from India revenues.

That, in fact, if you compare with the corresponding quarter last year, has shown a transition towards higher contribution of international business.

Right. Sure, sir.

I'll join back the queue for further questions.

Thank you.

Yeah. Namaskar, sir.

Hope I'm audible.

Yes, sir. Yes, Saket ji.

Thank you first for the opportunity. Sir, in your opening remark where you mentioned that we are in better operating environment than as we exited the last financial year.

If you could just give us some more color on how the current spreads are panning for both BOPP and BOPET film? What are the factors that are currently influencing those spreads across the geography?

Yeah. I think, yeah, what was relevant for the quarter was a little abnormal phenomenon that we witnessed more towards the second half of the quarter or more precisely during March.

During March, you have seen, as we are all aware, that largely the raw material prices, both for PET chips for BOPET as well as for homopolymer for BOPP lines, it went up quite dramatically. At the same time, the prices which were prevailing in the market, prices which most of the players, not just that could command in the market, was more than corresponding increase in the raw material prices.

As a result, quarter four, the spreads generally improved significantly despite the rise in raw material prices, which not only could be passed through, but also we could realize additional spread. Having said that, I think post that, your question is also about how it's panning out during the current quarter.

Largely, I think this has moderated to a great extent. While the raw material prices have softened, and at the same time, prevailing market prices have brought down the spreads significantly.

I think during the current quarter, as we know, both for BOPET and BOPP, more particularly for BOPET, the spreads are significantly down compared to what it was in the fourth quarter. I hope that addresses your question short of getting into specific spread and other things.

Okay. Right.

Sir, the spreads have been considerably lower than what we exited March. Overall then, and how are the utilization levels currently for all our operating assets?

Quarter four overall, in fact, we had a utilization level across most plants which has increased significantly on a sequential basis, which is also reflected in stronger production and sales volume. We hope that that trend continues.

Given the softening of the prices, we have to closely watch, keep a track of that.

Okay. Sir, then taking into account the current business environment and if you could just give more color on how are we going to commission our projects?

I think so our closing capital work-in-progress on a consolidated basis was closer to 2,100 crore. If you could just highlight to us what are the projects that will be commissioned during the year and the ones that have been commissioned last year, what kind of sweating are we expecting for the current year?

Yeah.

Let me start with first two large capacities overseas which were commissioned in the last quarter of the previous fiscal. Where we saw a healthy ramp-up of operations, both for PET chips facility in Egypt and also increased utilization of CPP facility, 18,000 tonnes CPP facility in Mexico.

Both were done at the fag end of fiscal '25. During the year, we have seen increased utilization of both the PET chips facility for Egypt and also the CPP facility there.

Now, in fact, we talked about last quarter. As we speak now, we are expecting in the current H1 the commissioning of 12 billion aseptic packaging facility in Egypt.

At the same time, our WPP facility in Mexico, which are near commissioning, we're expecting same to be commissioned during the H1 of the current year. Having said that, we already commissioned our recycling facility in sector 155 end of April.

Now that ramp-up of 36,000 rPET and another 3,600 of rMLP facility is something that we are expecting the ramp-up and utilization over the course of next three quarters, adding to the revenues and also with significant margin in the current year. These are the three to be commissioned during the year.

Okay. Sir, can you give us some more color on how then our depreciation, the annual outgo, will behave?

I think so we have done 345 for March '26. With the commissioning and all, what should this line item be?

How should then the finance cost also work out? To be very precise also on the front, how are we expecting our EBITDA margin to trend going ahead with the type of value-added products that the line's been getting commissioned?

If you could just give us a ballpark number of what can be envisaged going ahead?

Right, yeah. I think, yeah, your questions had two or three points rolled into one.

One is about how EBITDA will play out of this capex incurred, the projects undertaken in the recent quarters last year and what will be commissioned during the year. The second part of the question was what impact it will have on the depreciation and also the increased interest cost.

Let me explain this one by one. Number one, we talked about these projects which are commissioned in the last fiscal, largely, and where, in fact, we are seeing the increasing ramp-up utilization of the facility, PET chips facility in Egypt, and also the CPP facility in Mexico.

Now with the recycling facility, which is already commissioned during the year, and expected commissioning of aseptic facility in Egypt and WPP facility in Mexico, we expect, starting with the current year, a substantial impact of that EBITDA kicking in. When it comes to overall the interest cost at the consol level of 777 crore, which is, say, about 5% of the total revenues, is something we see as a mix of this largely remaining in the same range.

Depreciation, which is again approximately the same number, which is 787 crore, we see this capex phase, commissioning phase being over, reflect the recently commissioned projects' depreciation as well. Largely, we see this EBITDA, which will be improved as we expect the revenues of these new projects kicking in, to largely take care of this additional interest and this cost.

You mentioned 748 crore as the depreciation number and the finance cost? The line was not very...

787 crore. 787 crore.

787.

787 is the annual number for depreciation and the similar number is for finance cost?

For the finance cost, yeah.

Okay. Net-to-net, 1,500 would be the number, which is for this year closer to 700.

It will be just double the amount?

Sorry, I didn't get your question.

Sir, for this financial year, the finance cost was 378 crore. You are anticipating that to move up to 780 crore for the year as a whole?

On a consolidated number, yes.

Yeah. Consolidated number, the finance cost was 700 crore for the last fiscal, which we first column.

Yeah. Yeah.

Sorry, sir. I made a mistake.

Okay.

Likewise, you see the number of close to 700 for depreciation, which is now at 787 for FY '26.

Correct. The EBITDA margin trend, sir, likelyhood should be?

Yeah.

EBITDA margin during the quarter, if you talk about it, expanded significantly, both on sequential quarter basis, which was expansion of 260 basis points, and on a year-on-year basis, 300 basis points to 15.3%. Overall for the year, it is at 12.8% as compared to 12.1% during the previous fiscal.

It has improved by 70 basis points during the year as a whole, but largely led by very strong EBITDA rebound in quarter four. Right.

Sir, as that you have mentioned that it was one of the March month wherein that led to that higher spread, and that's to getting negated in the first quarter. On a holistic number, since that was only one month aberration, how should the EBITDA margin of 14%, 15% is what we should anticipate for the going ahead, or what should be the likelyhood?

Yeah. As we are in the midst of the first quarter, we are very closely monitoring this overall assessment and also assessing the impact of that in the margin as it will play out.

I think it will be a little premature to give a sense of what kind of EBITDA range will be there for the year as a whole. I think we will have to probably assess that a little better before I can give you a sense of what the number or what the range will be for the year as a whole.

Okay.

Last point, and I join back. You said our closing capital work-in-progress number is 2169 on a consolidated basis as on March.

What portion of this will get capitalized for this current financial year? Can you give that number?

Yeah.

In fact, as we talked about these projects, we see, in fact, two are near commissioning, which we are expecting in H1. At the same time, we have already seen the commissioning of the recycling project.

Some part of that, which is for BOPP plant, which will be incurred during the year, but which will be commissioned during the next fiscal. Except that, most of the CWIP that you see will be capitalized during the year.

Okay. I just calculate the number.

You have the number, sir, what should be the exact number that will get capitalized, amount?

Around 2,000. Yeah.

Roughly, we expect around 1,900 to 2,000 crore as the number which will be capitalized.

Okay. Sir, going ahead, sir, how should our debt profile then look like?

What should be the peak debt? I think so we were looking for some x number of debt to EBITDA.

Where are we, sir, in that part of the story currently, and how are we going to trend that number?

Yeah. In fact, I just take a moment to refer my statement in the last earnings call.

In fact, if you see, as we have mentioned, the focus remains on the leverage. We were talking about quarter three to quarter four, where leverage has improved from 4.51 to 4.35.

Of course, now this still excludes the EBITDA contribution of the near-commission projects or which are about to be commissioned. Largely, the impact of that, as it kicks in, we expect this overall leverage ratio, which is a key monitorable for us, to improve further.

This is something which is important for us rather than looking at the standalone number of debt or that, because largely the improvement we expect coming out of EBITDA being higher than what it is today. That's a key monitorable, I think, for all of us as to what is the leverage ratio which plays out.

Right. Just to make things understandable for me is that with the commissioning of the project, the contribution of EBITDA from the project would be higher number, then the impact of net debt to EBITDA goes down.

However, the absolute number may remain elevated only. Yeah.

I think elevated is a very subjective concept, and it has to be seen always in the context of what is the EBITDA level. Of course, for expansion, you are having the capex funded both through debt and internal accruals.

As part of that, while on one hand the debt increases, but now as the EBITDA for these projects start kicking in, the leverage is what we have to monitor. That's where we see the improvement over the last quarter and expected to continue in the coming quarters during the year.

I think that's what is the key parameter for us to track.

Right, sir. Got it correctly.

We are done with the peak debt, sir, or what is there in the anvil now with the commissioning of the project and closing the capital work-in-progress getting capitalized for the current financial year? Are we done with this, the capex cycle, and now it is the sweating of the assets is what the roadmap going ahead?

Yeah. In fact, if you see last one year also, it is important to understand it from a perspective as to what our capex has been towards in last one year.

On one hand, while there has been increase in capex and a corresponding increase to some extent in debt, but at the same time, if you look at the projects which are near commissioning or which have been commissioned are the ones which are expected to be value accretive, higher margin, be it aseptic packaging increasing with the debottlenecking in India from 7 billion to 12 billion, or addition of the similar facility in Egypt. It has been in the aseptic where capex in the last one year has been incurred towards commissioning of that project.

Likewise, our WPP project again where you see the larger contribution in the current year capex is again a high margin expected packaging WPP bags. Likewise for the recycling facility where we expect the margins to be better.

As a combination of that, if you continue that trend, we are not saying no to the capex which makes sense, which has higher margin and which is having the right product mix optimization. There is always an opportunity to remain open to that capex.

That's what we will look at, and that's exactly has been demonstrated in last one year capex largely. We remain open to, globally, to the opportunities where we feel there is a good market, there's a clear market and expansion of margin.

Those capex we are not saying no to.

Right, sir. I'll join the queue, sir, only with the closing point is that with the type of effort that our team has been trying both on the operational front, the financial numbers, the same does not give the right intrinsic value of the listed company.

To create pure minority as well as this shareholder value creation exercise, where are we, sir, in midst of that story? Because the wholesome game is how value creation happens.

The realization of the same first need to happen, then only that culminates into value. That ascribing of value is not being the case with our company as on date.

What the current promoters or the operating team feels about and whether the journey happens, and what steps are in the anvil in terms of creating that value for your investors? That was my closing question.

Right, yeah. No, thanks a lot.

I think, yeah, that's a very valid question. Of course, this what you ask is also shared by a lot of other stakeholders.

Most important is that we must respect what the market commands as a current market cap. We have no reason, and we have intention to challenge that we are undervalued, because that will be very clichéd statement to say that the value unlocking should be realized.

Because, ultimately, we have to do everything within our control to make sure that the long-term value creation is done, and we are at it. That's exactly what we are doing, and some of that insight I'm able to share on forums like this.

Having said that, we respect whatever is the price which is market driven, and of course, that sensitivity and that insight nobody can challenge. From management side, I can only assure that we are looking at a long-term value creation, and all our sustained efforts are in that direction.

Rest all, I think, yeah, we should see how it pans out in terms how it is reflected in terms of market price.

Right, sir. I think so the message to the promoters can also be conveyed that creeping acquisition or upping their stake will give a boost to the minority shareholders also going ahead.

That is what is there in law that they can exercise over a period of time and gives the message to the investing community regarding valuation. Else is all market driven, that is the point well taken.

Sure.

I take this

message as a takeaway from our call to be definitely taken to promoters.

Yes. Thank you, sir.

I'll join the queue.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening, sir.

My questions have been answered. Thanks.

I'll drop the slide.

All right. Thank you.

Hi. Am I audible?

Yes, you are.

Sir, can you please elaborate on your capital allocation plan?

Yeah. You mean our capex plan?

How are you going about it? Yeah.

Capex plan, in fact, largely we talked about the projects where in reference to another question. We talked about the three projects, what is the remaining capex to be incurred during the year.

Additionally, we are also having the BOPP 54,000 tonnes BOPP line in Dharwad, India, which will expected to be commissioned during FY '27, '28. A significant part of that capex also is being incurred during the current fiscal, which is FY '26, '27.

Rest all, it is towards the remaining capex to be incurred for our aseptic facility, which is about another remaining capex of How much is that?

972

972 crore. Yeah.

We have this WPP, where the remaining capex is largely already incurred. We have the PET recycling, whereas the remaining 47 has already been incurred during the current quarter.

For the manufacturing line, we have a total capex of 700-odd crore. A major part of that will be incurred during the current year and the next fiscal.

These are the projects which are currently on the anvil where the capex is going to be incurred mostly during the current year, and some part of that is spilling over to the next year.

Sir. Got it.

You spoke about WPP. I just wanted to know how big is this opportunity here and what is your strategy specific to this segment?

Could you elaborate on the pricing dynamics of the WPP segment you're planning to operate in?

Yeah. WPP, the total installed capacity is 80 million bags or thereabout.

The opportunity largely comes from the large pet food market in North America, where, in fact, we have very encouraging response in terms of market from the facility in Mexico, largely meant for US market. The margins are expected to be very healthy compared to the average margin of UFlex financial numbers.

As such, I am limited in my response about the specific margin about the WPP, but I can tell you that this will be a much higher margin compared to the average margins at UFlex level. At the same time, given the early response, we are very enthused by the facility's ramp-up and looking at this being ramped up very rapidly based on the customer demand coming from major customers in North America.

Sir. Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, we want to understand in terms of beyond FY '27, what kind of capex projects are we looking given that we have achieved some level of utilization? Do we see capex as a continual flow in our business or how do we portray the capex trajectory going ahead?

Yeah.

As of now, in fact, to a previous question, I kind of tried to give a perspective about the capex that we see at this stage for the current fiscal. For the next fiscal as of now, having said that, I said that we remain open to any other capex which is overall, in fact, value accretive and making sense to us to be added to this repertoire.

Talking about the current capex, I think these three plus BOPP project in Dharwad is what is on the anvil is what I can talk about. Rest all, we see how it poses an opportunity and how we pick it up.

Sir. And

Also the focus is on increasing asset utilization of the already installed capacity and which are going to be near commissioning, to make sure that the lag in terms of capex and utilization and sweat of that in terms of EBITDA is something which is minimized, so as to make sure that EBITDA largely reflects a number which is expected to be achieved out of the capex incurred. I think that's where we are focused currently as a management.

Sir. Sir, we wanted to view your views on the aseptic volume target.

Since we have our 12 billion capacity plant in Egypt plant, what kind of volumes are we looking at? If you could quantify the volumes for us for FY '27 and even beyond if you could.

Sorry, Ashvath, your voice was a little muffled. If you can just repeat this question, probably because of some background, your voice was a little muffled.

Is it better? Can you hear me?

Better now. Much better, yeah.

Yes. My question was on our aseptic volume target.

Since we have the Sanand expansion with 12 billion capacity, what kind of volumes are we expecting in '27 and even beyond if you could help us quantify that?

All right. For Sanand, in fact, if we talk about with reference to FY '26, as you are aware, this Sanand expansion or debottlenecking of the additional 5 billion was achieved during the third quarter.

Hence, the overall capacity available for the year has to be seen for the availability of this additional capacity from third quarter onwards. Against that, we had a total volume close to about 8 billion packs.

At the same time, depending on when this 12 billion facility of Egypt is commissioned, we will be getting, if it is largely done during H1, we are expecting two-quarter impact of this additional capacity for FY '27. If we factor in this additional capacity for part of the year, all put together, we are expecting the total volume, sales volume, in the range of about 10 to 11, 10, 10.5 billion packs for the year.

From current 8 billion packs to about 10.5 billion packs.

Right. Sir, if you could just help us understand what the margin trajectory are we expecting going ahead, since Q4 was a good quarter, are we expecting similar margins ahead?

Yeah.

I think it will be important to understand it with a little nuanced approach, because different segments, some of the segments, including packaging and all, we expect that the same margin trend will continue, which we are very optimistic about. At the same time, I can't say the same thing with equal conviction about how the packaging films margins will remain at the level that we saw.

Once that moderates reflecting the larger market trend, larger industry trend, more particularly in India, to some extent in other parts, I think that will definitely mean that overall margin may not remain in the same range. Given that, we have to see.

At the same time, the rest of, other than non-films, we're expecting the same margin trend to continue, and which is a healthy sign, because if you actually, in context, it's better to see the margins of the year as a whole. If you see the year as a whole, that 70 bps improvement in the yearly EBITDA margin is more important for us than looking at this quarter four margin expansion, because that's more sustainable.

Anything between that and the last quarter is what we would look at.

Sir. One last question from my end is on a previous call or meeting, there was some discussion on reduction in cost of debt.

Just wanted to understand where and what progress has been made on that and has any refinancing initiatives been done to get the debt percentage further down? Yeah.

In fact, moving forward, you'll see that our cost of funds, which was above 9, is today at about 9% overall. At the same time, as the share of the international business becomes more out of the total revenues, you will find usually the cost of funding for our overseas business is much better compared to the cost of funds in India.

With the increasing share of international revenues contributing more and more, we expect that to have an impact on the overall cost of fund. That is one.

At the same time, at this stage, talking about a refinancing option is something a little premature. We remain open to that, but as of now, we are more looking at this being sourced from a more attractive, cheaper cost of funds as the contributing factor.

Sir. What is our blended cost of debt as of now in percentage?

Yeah. Overall, our blended cost of funds is about 9%.

If you see this 777 crore against the total outstanding debt of 8,500, you'll see this more or less in the range of close to about 9%.

Got it. Okay.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for taking the questions.

Sir, on the aseptic part, you mentioned on an installed capacity domestically at 12 billion, we will be doing 10.5 to 11 for the year, or including Egypt, your number was that?

Yeah. Installed capacity of 12 billion during the year, you can take as available as full for the year.

At the same time, addition of 12 billion facility in Egypt will be commissioned during H1. Taking the maybe two quarters' impact of that, our installed capacity has to be seen in that context of something between 12 billion existing to 24 billion, not exactly 24 billion because it is for part of the year, number one.

When I'm talking about 10.5 billion packs, it is combination of the current level capacity utilization in India and incremental on that limited period availability in Egypt and also the fact that this will be ramped up during the period. All put together, when I'm saying 10.5 billion packs, it includes part contribution from Egypt as well during the year.

Okay. Since Egypt will be for H2 and it will be in the ramp-up phase, we are including only a smaller portion of the 12 billion into account.

Here in domestic market, it will be at the higher range of say 75%, 80%, that is what should be envisaged?

Right, yeah. If you actually see the current year at close to about 8 billion, to be precise, 7.97 billion packs, is against the current capacity of 12 billion for part of the year and 7 billion for the whole year.

Which is approximately 80% plus utilization. At the same time, you very rightly pointed out about the additional capacity being available for part of the year, which brings the bar lower.

At the same time, ramp-up in utilization, which you again mentioned very correctly, will mean that we will expect a good ramp-up during the two quarters. At the same time, that number has to be seen in the context of this limited period and ramp-up phase.

Adding a decent number to the total at the current level.

Sir, if we take the contribution of the aseptic segment to the EBITDA, I correctly hear in the presentation has been mentioned about what has been the contribution from the aseptic segment for the current financial year and how will this going to trend, since this a value-added product or it is non-linear to the commodity type of scale. What is the current contribution and what kind of improvement can we expect with the economy of scale kicking in for the Indian operations?

How will that number of EBITDA from the segment look going forward?

Yeah. If I understood your question correctly, you are looking at what kind of EBITDA contribution will be there from packaging business as a whole, including the value-added products and probably more particularly including the aseptic liquid packaging capacity contribution.

What will be the contribution? Yes, sir.

Liquid aseptic, yeah. Yeah.

Rightly, this has to be seen against what you pointed out as more average margin split of the packaging films business. When you see that, I think the contribution from packaging solutions business is definitely increasing more and more.

Of course, with the recent three capacities which we talked about, you see those are largely in the space where we are talking about packaging solutions business, be it our aseptic packaging, be it WPP, be it recycling. These are largely contributing to the packaging solutions business.

With expected kicking in of those EBITDA, of course, the contribution from the packaging solutions business is going to be a lot more, which is currently at a revenue split of 36%, which, as it grows higher, will contribute a lot more to the EBITDA, too.

Okay. Sir, can you have that absolute number from the contribution of the total EBITDA number for the last financial year, how much has been the contribution?

The total number, in fact, I can kind of give you a perspective about the contribution of packaging films and packaging solutions. When it comes to EBITDA, largely I think it is in the range of close to about 40% contribution from the packaging solutions business and about 60% from the packaging films business.

Okay. With the improved utilization levels and the base improving, this mix is going to remain 40-60 also for the next financial year or for this financial year, or this will improve further from 40 to a higher level number?

We expect this packaging solutions business contribution to be higher than the current year as the contribution from these packaging solutions business is increasing more. Okay.

Sir, in this packaging segment, we have also heard about some PIL from some states and all regarding liquor being also used in the segment. There are some requests from a portion of the society that liquor should only be served in glasses and other as has been the normal case.

What kind of risk does these kind of activities pose on the end-use case for this packaging solutions segment, the aseptic one?

Yeah. In fact, if you see this is something, I know which one you're referring to, and in fact, that is something which is not only by us, but which is also being monitored by the industry players.

This is something which has been challenged very early stage to comment on that. Because there is, on one hand, this has been challenged for some reasons.

At the same time, there is also a transition moving away from glass packaging and packed to more flexible packaging. We have to see how it plays out, because this is something which is still in very, very early stage.

What portion of our sales is towards the liquor segment, sir, in the same packaging solutions category?

Yeah. I think this is something, it is a granular details of the aseptic packaging as such.

We don't really dissect and talk about that coming from which segment. I think I appreciate your understanding on we being constrained to keep it at this level.

Theek hai, sir. All the best to the team.

Hope to have further conversations going ahead.

All the best for the

participation in other calls also. I think so new people are joining soon going ahead.

It was mentioned in the exchange release. All the best to the team.

Thank you so much. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Always, we appreciate your insights and inputs in this forums a lot.

Thank you, sir. I'm humbled, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time, questions, and continued support.

The transcript of this call will be made available shortly on our website at www.uflexltd.com. We value this platform as it enables us to engage meaningfully with our investors and stakeholders and look forward to update on our progress in coming quarters.

Wish you all those present here. Thank you.

Thank you so much Arihant team, and thank you all the investors and analysts. Thanks a lot for your time and attention.

Thank you so much.