Shree Cements Ltd. — Call Transcript 2025

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Shree Cement Limited Q2 FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, a`ll participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a touch-tone phone. Before we begin, a brief. This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and the expectations of the company as on the date of this call. The statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you. Thank you, Mark. Good evening everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q2 FY 2026 earnings call of Shree Cement Limited. From the management, we have with us Mr. Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director, Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Senior Advisor, and Mr. Subhash Jajoo, the company's CFO. Without any further ado, I hand over the call to the management for opening comments. Over to you, sir. Quarter 2 of FY 2026. As you all know, last quarter the Government of India took a significant decision of reducing the GST rate on cement from 28%-18% along with various other commodities. We believe this was a very positive and a transformational step and augurs well for cement demand in the long term. The company has fully passed the benefit of GST rate rationalization to its customers. The company continued with its value over volume strategy. During the last quarter the total cement sales volume including that of Shree Cement East Private Limited were up by about 6.8% YoY on cement basis. With cement and clinker combined it was slightly lower. Total sales volume increased from 7.6 million tonnes in September 2024 to 7.9 million tonnes. Last quarter realization per tonne increased from INR 4,451 per tonne to INR 4,840, mainly due to increase in share of premium products from 15% last year to 21% in September 2025 quarter. Total EBITDA accordingly increased by 46% from INR 582 crores to INR 851 crores. EBITDA per tonne, and this is a figure adjusted for INR 30 per tonne for one time impact, also increased sharply by 43% from INR 772-INR 1,105. On sequential basis, volumes were down by about 12% mainly due to heavy rains in North India in the monsoon season. Despite this, the company was able to maintain its realization. However, the total EBITDA at INR 851 crores was down by about 31%. EBITDA per tonne also decreased by 20% from INR 1,379 to INR 1,105. Very happy to say that the company's UAE operation registered its best ever quarterly performance. Sales were up from 9.87 lakh tonnes to about 13.1 lakh tonnes, growth of about 34%. Sales revenue also registered growth of 50% YoY and EBITDA increased by 158% from AED 20.34 million to AED 52.53 million. The improved performance is a result of increased realization and improved operational efficiency. The expansion of the unit is progressing well. During last quarter the company commissioned clinkerization rate of 3.65 million tonnes at Jatara in Rajasthan. The cement mill of 3 million tonnes is also expected to be commissioned very shortly. The work on integrated project at Kodla, Karnataka of 3 million tonnes is in the final stage of completion and expected to be commissioned in this quarter. The company is continuously exploring various opportunities to grow better than the industry growth or slightly better than industry growth. Recently the company has also commissioned a 20 MW solar power plant in Chitrakut in one of its subsidiaries. With this, the total green power capacity of the group now stands at 612 MW. The company has been rapidly expanding its RMC portfolio with 24 operational RMC brands at present. During the quarter, the company entered the East India market by setting up its RMC plant in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The company also commissioned India's first RMC solar plant at its Jaipur facility. The unit now runs primarily on green, clean, renewable solar energy, reducing its carbon footprint and setting a new standard of eco-friendly construction in India. We are very proud to say that the share of green electricity in total electricity consumption stood at 63% in H1 FY 2026, which is the highest to my mind globally, but at least highest in the Indian cement industry. All the company's manufacturing locations are also zero liquid discharge, treating, recycling, and reusing 100% of its waste generated from its operations. These efforts have enabled the company to improve its water positivity index to more than eight times. With good performance this year, the company expects to further improve its water positivity levels. India's economy continues to demonstrate resilience underpinned by strong consumption and sustained investment activity. High frequency indicators point to a pickup in real GDP growth in the second half of this year, supported by above normal monsoons. Steady employment conditions, benign inflation, and recent rationalization of GST rates are further expected to stimulate demand. These factors are likely to accelerate fiscal development and growth of the housing sector, which bodes well for the cement demand. With this, I have with me Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Mr. Subhash Jajoo, Mr. K.K. Jain, and Mr. S.S Khandelwal to take you through the Q and A session. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the Touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. On cement realization, you mentioned it was INR 4,840 per tonne. This excludes other operating income if I'm not wrong. Could you give a similar number for Q1 as well? 4840 is excluding other operating income. The previous quarter I had explained that because of a glitch in our SAP system we could not come up with an NCR number. The NCR number this quarter onwards will always be disclosed to everybody. That glitch has been rectified, so we do not have a comparable Q1 number, but roughly there is a decline. There is a decline Q on Q increase, increment increase. You have already understood. Mr. Akhoury has already addressed it, and I will request Mr. Akhoury to address the second part of the question that was on. I'm going to have your question. What we have said is that the realization per tonne this last quarter was INR 4,840, which has increased from INR 4,451 in the same quarter last year. Sure. You also mentioned that you continue to prioritize realization over volume. Given that we are in the midst of a significant expansion program, what would be the outlook on the expanded capacities? Can we expect them to kind of? Have a slow and gradual ramp up? What would be the outlook on volumes essentially? Amit, please understand that there are no entry barriers which anyone can create in the cement market. It is your strategy of value over volume which restricts you to your dispatches. However, I can assure you will be growing either in line or slightly better in line than the industry. Sure. Just lastly, on the one-off, you mentioned that adjusted for one-off, what exactly was the one-off? I am giving it to Mr. Khandelwal who is Company Secretary. He will explain you what it is. For our Guntur unit, we had taken power connection from Andhra Pradesh Transmission Company, and we had to create a substation at our capex, which as per the agreement entered into with them, was to be transferred by gift deed back to the transmission company. This transaction took place this quarter. Therefore, this write-off. Understood. Thanks. Thanks a lot.I'll come back in the queue. Thank you. The next question is on the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just to delve a little deeper, is there any other one-off in other OpEx? I see there is a strong jump year on year on the other OpEx side. Any explanation on that would be great. Thank you. I'm giving the line to Mr. K.K. Jain. He will explain you what it is. Yeah. Good evening. As there's no other one-off in the result, the expenses, current quarter expense is slightly higher because of the repair, maintenance cost, and other distress cost. Otherwise, there's no one-off in this. Great. My second question is for Mr. Akhoury. Now that we are getting out of monsoon testing season, how should one expect demand from here on over the next couple of quarters? Are we seeing any green shoots from GST cut with respect to retail rural demand picking up? Thank you. A little too early to project demand at this moment. As you know, we're just coming out of festival seasons as we speak. Actually, today is Chhath and happy Chhath everybody. This Chhath also means that there will be significant labor shortage across construction sites in most of our markets. Let us see how demand pans out. We expect, as everyone, that GST cut would boost demand in the long term. We have to wait and watch for its impact in the short to medium term. Clearly, GST cut was, as I said earlier, a transformational step. This augurs well with the cement industry demand projections. I would like to add Mr. Gupta that the effect of GST payable on finished houses hurts the low and middle income houses more. The vibrancy in low and middle income houses as well as Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities is expected to be far better than what it had been. No, understood sir. My question pertain mainly from the perspective of how should we see the balance between demand and cement pricing over the next few months. That's what I was looking for. I fully understand your question. As I said, we have to wait and watch to see how the demand pans out. Little too early to say. Given the fact that there has been a GST cut, one would argue that the demand boost should happen. It may take some more time before actually it is converted into purchase. That's where I'm saying in long term it is good for the industry, it is good for everyone. There has been GST cut. We have to wait and watch for immediately what will happen or in the short term what will happen. Prices. As I speak for Shree Cement, we have passed on the entire benefits to the consumers of the GST reduction. If you see our results, I think one thing you will notice is that our prices have remained almost similar to last year. Same quarter to the last quarter. Not same this year, last quarter and about 20% growth. 19% odd growth from last year. From last year. Yeah. I think prices have been stable for us from this year, last quarter to the last quarter. Quarter quarter one to quarter two. Going forward it is not for me to forecast prices, it will be wrong. What I do see that if the demand grows little better than what we have seen in the first six months then prices should at least remain stable. If nothing else. Yeah. Got it. Thank you so much, and all the best. I'm so sorry, I must repeat myself. Year on year price growth was 9%, not 19%. I'm so sorry. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Private Limited, please. Hi, good evening. Thank you. Just wanted to ask on overall volume and the capacity that you're looking at, especially in North now that you have new volumes from the new line. Just wanted to see how are you going to look at this volume versus value growth. For the last few quarters the focus has been on premiumization. Should we expect similar focus on new capacity that you have? That first and maybe tied to this would be the second question that other players are also looking aggressively at North in general. Typically if I look at your capacity it seems incrementally. You're also looking at Northwood also expanding out of North and North is typically 50% of overall capacity. As you look beyond the expansion and in the release you mentioned 80 million tonnes, how would you look at expansions across region with new capacities coming in North, would you look to maintain share and add more capacity? Just the thought process on incremental capacity beyond what you have in place. To answer the first part. As I said in my opening remark, that on premium cement we grew from about 15% to about 21% this year. This has been possible with a very high focus on increasing our share in the premium product segment. Not only that, we have also worked on our general price levels to make sure that we are able to squeeze our brand equity in a better way. That has been the strategy which we have often defined as value over volume. This strategy is something that we would like to pursue in the coming years as well. On capacity, we have just commissioned, as I said, a new kiln in our north plant this quarter itself. Very soon you will see us also announcing the cement expansion in the same cement mill, commissioning at the same location, which will happen very shortly. North remains our focus and north is something that will remain one of the areas where we will continue to evaluate all possible methods to grow in the coming years as well. Having said that, we are growing in other regions, be it east, be it south, and that will be on. Our focus on north will never go down is what I would assure everybody. I have two more things to add. One is that if you look at the standalone and consolidated results, the EPS differential, which was always around INR 6.7, has gone up to INR 33 in favor of consolidated, which clearly points out that our UAE operations are doing far better. Mr. Akhoury had already pointed this out in his opening statement and we are expanding our capacity there as there has been very healthy price rise in the UAE market. Also, you will note that we generally have been very conservative in our dividend payout. This year we have given the highest interim payout, interim dividend of INR 80, and we expect to have an incremental dividend payout. There are various factors affecting this. Everybody had questioned us on the rationale of carrying such large cash reserves. Some Chief Investment Officers had asked for higher dividend payout and we have acceded to that. Just one clarification question on both dividend and depreciation. Generally, depreciation has been very volatile. This year we will be depreciating about 2,800 crore or so, which is based on the capitalization schedule. We have already charged about 1,100 crore in two quarters. The depreciation for next two quarters will be about1,700 crore. That is all right because as everybody is expecting, we are that the prices should remain stable and the demand should return. There will be no hassle in availability of distributable profit in any case for the year. Okay, thank you and wish you all this. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pennekin. Excuse me one second. I stand corrected. The deposition for the year will be 2,450 crore, not 2,850 crore. I'm sorry. Thank you. The next question is on the line of Penneken from HSBC. Please go ahead. Thank you very much, sir. For my first question, among the three core markets of North, South, and East, how is pricing today on the ground versus the second quarter average? Is it lower or is it flat? Are you talking about the last quarter? No sir, today. Yes, today's prices versus the second quarter, the September quarter that went by. No. As I said, the prices have been reduced, but that is largely because we have passed on the GST to the consumers, from 28%-18%. The prices are lower than what they were in the pre-22nd September time. Would the net realizations to the company broadly be unchanged today versus what you have seen in the second quarter? No, I would say it will be slightly lower because of all the festivals and all the demand has not been very robust in October, and therefore we see some slippage of prices happening across India, not only in regions. Got it. My second question is that again if you were to look at your three core markets, and over the next two quarters, do you see any one region demand outlook to be materially better than the other between North, South, and East? When you talk about demand forecast, I always keep quiet because we have to be cautious in this statement. As we speak, we have seen demand growth almost similar across the country, almost similar except some states where it has been lower and some states have been higher. Not to compare region wise or maybe state wise, one can do some comparisons going forward. Also, I think this trend should continue. Only. I would expect North and West to be slightly better than rest of the country. Okay sir. My last question is again if you look at your competitors' capacity expansion announcement, particularly in northern India, which is very large, and you highlighted that North is a core market for Shree. Should we expect Shree to defend its capacity share and hence at some point of time announce capacity expansion to maintain its current share? This is a trick question, isn't it? This is a trick question. We have said that we will be growing marginally better than the industry. Now which region, what region, what kind of growth? How do you all forecast this? We have to be prepared. We are having sufficient physical resources to set up capacity in most of the areas where we operate, and we'll take a call as the demand scenario becomes more clear. Understood. Thank you very much, sir. Is the moderator there, please? Hello? Yeah, can you hear me, sir? Yeah, that's fine. I think we've lost Mark. I can't hear him. I'll just dial him back one second. The next question comes from the line of Kushal Shah from PL Capital.Please go ahead. Now, since the time we have undertaken the measures to improve the brand positioning and the premium sales on a portfolio level, how much would have the base realization improved on a per tonne basis? What would be the milestone here along with any timelines if it can help? When we look for the numbers, as you know, the milestone remains that we have already reached about 20, 21% of premium sales. This is a level at which we would like to maintain in the coming quarters as well. If there are some improvements that will be welcome. The milestone was to reach about 18%. We have already reached 20, 20, 21% up from 15% and we will be focusing a lot that we are able to maintain this same level of premium share of our trade volumes in the coming quarters as well. Can you answer the first question? Kushal here. Yes sir. Can you repeat the second part of the question? First question? No sir. One was the premium sales, which is very clearly visible, but also there have been steps to improve the brand positioning as well as the base brand positioning. All I'm trying to understand is, since the time you have taken these measures, how much would the base realization have moved up? Let's say keeping other things aside, I mean status quo, how much would have the base realization impact? Kunal, that is the point I'm trying to make. Mr. Akhoury in his opening statement had said we have improved 9% year-on-year. It is unfortunate that I could not give you NCR number for Q1, but Q2 or H2, sorry, H1 vis-à-vis last year, H1 9% incremental price is there, which is a mix of various things. And it is. You see please understand, my dear friend, that if we are saying that we will focus and we have reached 21% of premium sales, the price trajectory should be upwards or stable. However, demand and pricing in commodity is very difficult for any company to address, isn't it? Understood. No, that helps. Secondly, sir, on the cost savings, especially on the logistics front, where exactly are we in the journey? You know, because we were planning to aggressively increase the rail share. Could you just reiterate our positioning? Here and the quantum of. Just to reiterate on our last question once more before I come to the second question. As I said, we have increased by 9.8%. I believe some of the players who have announced the realization year-on-year, if you see the gap of our performance, you can get a sense of how much we have improved. That is part number one on the rail. Very focused work is going on. We have, as you know, already commissioned our Purulia railway siding in our Purulia unit. We are doing siding in Kodla for which the project work land acquisition has been done and now the construction process has started. Similarly, for ITA we have completed line deposition and project work has started. A lot of focus has been there to improve our rail connectivity across India, and you'll see that very soon some of them will be commissioned. This is very helpful sir, just to extend it, like in FY 2025, what would be the real mix exactly, what are we going towards, and what would be the savings if that? That would be very helpful. Presently we are at about 11%. Yeah. Of rail share in our total outbound logistics here, we think we should reach about 20% in the coming time. If I see at savings, typically on the PTPK railway, rail is about 1.8, 1.9 versus road at about 2.3, 2.5. If I look at the industry across, especially in the North region, one would expect that at least INR 100, INR 100 per tonne savings should come from our increased focus on railway operations. Got it. Sir, if I could just squeeze in one more, I think there was a lot of efforts towards the AFR shipments. INR 100 on the logistics front, and anything on the AFR front because I believe that share is also on the lower side, right? I mean, there's a lot of scope over there. As I said, a lot of project work is happening across on the AFR side as well. We are now at about 2.3% up from 1.5% same quarter last year. This is on AFR you said? Yeah. More and more facilities are getting created as they roll out in the coming years. You will see we will also go up on RAFR consumption. Got it. Sir, if I just squeeze one more, just from a capital allocation perspective, what should be the capex number for. 2026, 2027, 2028? 2026-2027, roughly you estimate INR 3,000 crore and 2027-2028. We have not. We have a broad capex in mind, but it should be in line with this much only. It may spill slightly to 2028-2029 because we are rethinking our commissioning strategy. I can assure you that we will maintain our spirit of growing marginally higher than the industry growth rate. Yeah, yeah. Just to clarify, 80 million tonnes could get spilled over to 2029. I cannot see. Please understand it's not that we are devoid of any physical resource. It is basically how the capacity utilization of the company gets ramped up and how the demand gets ramped up. It is dependent on that. We are taking a stand that if needs be, 80 can shift to 82 by 2028. May shift to 80 by 2029. As the time passes, we will keep on updating you. Understood.This is extremely helpful, sir. Thank you so much and all the best. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Hi sir, just to check. Now currently we have a 62.8 million ton and 6 million ton. Both Jatara and Kodla will be added in this quarter. We will be 68.8 and from there by FY 2027 and 2028. Will there be any capacity addition because 3 million ton Jatara was postponed. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You are asking too many questions. Let us address one at a time. 67 million, 66.8 or 67 million March 2026 is given. We have given you a CapEx guidance of about 3,000 crore, so we should be about 72 million-75 million March 2027. I have already told you that. Let us see how the demand and how capacity utilization moves to see whether we need to become 80 by 2028 or 2029. You have seen our balance sheet. You understand we have all physical and financial resources to do this capex. That market also has to, so the market conditions are to be recognized in planning exact dates. So. Yeah, go ahead. Got it, sir. This 2028 or 2029 when we say, is this a calendar year or FY 2028 or FY 2029? We are not talking calendar year at all. We talk FY. Okay, got it. Sir, I need a couple of data points. Even last quarter we did not have a call. If you can share the data points for Q1 and Q2, starting with. One second. One second. Let Mr. Subhash Jajoo take you through all the numbers because he is the CFO the company. Yeah. You can ask all your questions and pointed questions to him. Yeah. Sir, trade, sir. Blended cement, sir, for Q1 and Q2. Yeah. For trade sale, it was 70% in September 25th, and in June it was around 71%. Landed cement sale was 68% in September and 70% in June. Okay. Lead distance in Q2 and Q1? In Q2, it is 441 km. In Q1, it was 451 km. Okay, got it. And for Q2 and Q1. For Q2 it is 1.66 and Q1 it is 1.59. 1.59. Okay. It has decently gone up from even from March level. Given the current petcoke prices and the coal prices, do we see any further increase in this KK cost? No. As per our inventory pipeline, I think it should be around similar levels, maybe slightly lower than this. Okay. In terms of the fuel mix, broadly the petcoke and coal would be a 90% to 95%. This quarter it is like around 66%. It is pet coke and balance is coal and other alternate material. Okay, got it. Sorry to interrupt. Yeah, no issues. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ensure the management can address questions from all participants, please limit your inquiries to two per person. If you have a follow up, kindly rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Raashi Chopra from Citi. Please go ahead. Thank you. My first question is, Mr. Akhoury, you made a comment saying that, you know, in addition to premiumization, you're also focusing on pricing to be able to extract the best value for your brand. Could you just elaborate on that please? Rashi, let us understand. Only 21% is premium. Now in our sales mix, Mr. Akhoury has clearly said only 21%. If you look at the incremental price rises, it must be incremental plus general category also. You get my point. Overall, there is a price buoyancy. How it will pan out is completely dependent on market conditions. The delta between peer groups, we are certainly trying to converge on the top line rather than price. Right. How are you trying to do that? Mr. Akhoury will answer that, please. In a sense, you know this market, as you know the industry market, there are for same kind of product, there is a price ladder which is not less than INR 15-INR 20 or even higher. This is what we call the price gap between brand A and brand B. Through our pricing actions as well as distribution actions, we are trying to reduce this gap. That is one effort that has worked for us in the last six months. Odd. That is where we said that we will focus on value over volume. In addition to that, we have also focused on premium products, which are higher price than the base product. Their positioning in the market is on the higher side, and these two combined, for base brands as well as for premium, there has been a focus of reducing the gap with some of the peer group companies. That has helped us to record 9% price growth last quarter versus, I am not so sure. I have seen the figures of others, but whatever figures the others have, if you could look at it, then I think Shree's performance on price growth will be slightly better than what industry has seen. Understood, thank you. That's helpful. On the volume side for the first half, now your volumes are down about 2% on a year-on-year basis, total volume cement plus clinker. What is your projection for the year for yourself? We should do about 37 million-38 million tonnes this year. Yeah. Okay. On the power side, green power, I would imagine that in this quarter your green power proportion has gone down to about 60% or so. Yes. I mean for the first half. 63. Yes. Raashi you are forgetting renewable also consists of solar, and this was monsoon period. 60 is a correct number, right? Yeah, 60 for the quarter is the correct number. Okay, got it. Okay, that's it for me. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Yeah, my first question is on your UAE plans. Can you elaborate on the expansion plans there? Overall outlook, as you said, is like very positive. UAE demand has been quite robust, quite healthy in the last one year, if not a little more than that. Our assets in UAE are very well positioned to serve all parts of the country, including the main consumer centers of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. Our numbers have shown that we are doing very well, and hence we have decided to put a new mill there of 3 million tonne capacity. We have excess clinkers in UAE. We used to sell clinker earlier. We now believe since the cement demand is very robust, we can convert that clinker into cement and sell it in the domestic market. In addition, in UAE we also produce some special cement products like oil well cement. Oil well cement from our facilities goes across the world, not only in the Middle East but also in some markets of Europe and some markets of U.S. North America. We are also doing debottlenecking of our kiln there. That will give us about 500,000 million tonne of additional production of clinker. Overall, we are very positive on the UAE market as well as the Middle East market, where we sell not only the base product but also the special products like slag and oil well cement. Hence, this capacity expansion program has been announced. All right, what is the full quantum of CapEx? If you're looking at it, it probably is part of consolidated operations and not standalone. It's AED 110 million or approximately of CapEx in UAE. By the way, I must point out that it is fully funded by the UAE by cash available at the UAE. Yeah, it is fully funded by cash available. Cash available at UAE. The other question is like this 40 EBITDA per tonne of 1100. With very minimal visibility on price improvement in the third quarter, are we looking at our EBITDA profile of 1300-1400 which we used to like sort of earlier? Prateek, this question you ask me every quarter and every quarter I humbly suggest that it is impossible for the hands of any commodity supplier or manufacturer to predict the price. Price is not in our control, my dear friend. Market forces decide the price. When will my EBITDA go up at INR 1,300 or INR 1,400? I am not in a position to enter. Prateek, please appreciate that any incremental price rise is a straight flow to my bottom line. Now, how much incremental price rise will come, when it will come, how much volume will come? These are not. These are affected by various macro factors. What is you are looking at INR 1,300. Why not INR 1,800? Let us understand. Let us be realistic. We have said we have done 1,100. Mr. Akhoury has clearly said that he does not expect. He expects some demand vibrancy. He expects stable to a stable pricing scenario. At first we will do 1,100. At best we can do 1,200. I don't know that. I am not saying everything. Maybe we can do 1,300 as well. You will have to have patience, my dear friend. People have been claiming all kinds of EBITDA, never delivered. We don't promise anything. We deliver and then we say. Certainly, sir. Thank you. This is my question. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Private Limited. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you. Just a couple of questions. First on the dividend. We appreciate the thought process that there is fair cash and some of it can be given out as dividend. If you look at dividend, even after dividend, dividend looks like 0.4% odd. Go ahead, please. What is the need for having such a lot of dry powder still on the balance sheet given the CapEx and all you're looking at for the next two, three years? Why not look at one-time dividend, special dividend? Just the thought process on keeping so. Much spare cash, my dear friend. On our strategy of keeping spare cash, please talk within your firm with Nitin Basin. We have explained to him many a times why this cash is needed. The other point that why not one time will address it. Second would be on the growth that you're outlining. You're talking about growing in line with the industry and that I'm guessing or maybe slightly higher than industry that maybe looks at volume growth. What about capacity utilization? Is there any capacity utilization number that we typically look at? Is there any demand number? Can you tell me what is your expectation of demand growth and what is the basis of that expectation? [Foreign language] We will not look shy upon. We will be doing either equal or better. Hopefully we maintain. Okay, thank you, sir. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, thanks for the opportunity again. Just in some data questions actually, what would have been other operating income in the quarter? If you can share that. Other operating income, you have that here. Hello Amit, you can send us a mail and then we'll reply on that because right now that data is not available. Sure. You mentioned cement growth of 6.8%. What could be with clinker if you can get the total volume basically for the quarter? Yeah, I think you missed the first part of the opening remark. Where we have given the volume, it is 7.9. The total growth will be around 4.8%, 4.6%, 4.7%, around 5%. 5% is simple cement and clinker, both 6.8% of cement for cement only. Got it. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Hi sir. Good evening. My first question, you mentioned on the premiumization benefit which you have approved, which I can read in the numbers given that Q2 you have delivered around 9% NHR growth while most of the other companies have delivered 5%-7%. I believe for H1 also you mentioned 9% volume realization growth. Hello. Am I audible? Can you ask the question again, please? You mentioned the cement realization that you like to like. Cement realization growth is 9% for Q2. Right. Year on year. 4,854 over 4,409. Comes to around 8.7% or 9%. Yeah. For H1 also, the growth is similar, around 9%? For H1 also. Yeah, it's similar at about 9%. Yes. Okay. If I work backward, our cement realization on a Q-on-Q basis would have come down by around 11.5%. It is flat, actually. It is flat. Okay. It is flattish. Now on the UAE business you gave the volume numbers for Q2. Could you share the Q1 number also and the year-on-year number for UAE this year Q1 and last year, and also request, can we, you know, now that UAE is also delivering performance in line with the domestic operations, 20% plus margins, can we look at the company at a console level rather than, you know, looking at the two units separately. Indeed you should. That is what the idea is. That is why I pointedly mentioned the cashing PS number. Maybe a consolidated result for valuation may be more authentic. Exactly. Than doing standalones. What was the volume number you. You take the numbers from Mr. Akhoury is prepared with the actual volume numbers. Last year same quarter UAE was at 9.87 lakh tonnes. This year it has been 1.13 lakh tonnes, 13.19 lakh tonnes. That is Q2, right? That is Q2, September 2025 was 10.09. Sorry. June 25 was 10.09. Okay. September 2024 was 9.87 and September 2025 is 13.19. Okay. June 2024 also. Would you have handy? No, that I don't have. I'm so sorry. You can send. We'll get into that. Great. Yeah. That's all for my answer. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumangal from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Good evening. First question on the volumes. If you look at H1 there's a decline of 2%. I just want to understand either industry-wide or in our core markets what would have been the market industry growth, and just trying to understand what is the market share loss which we've seen. I would not have the H1 number for industry, but quarter two, the best estimates coming is around 3%-5% cement demand growth. Yeah. Versus that 3%-5%, we have done slightly better at 6.8% on cement sales. The first quarter was when we were very firmly trying to establish our value positioning in the market, and therefore you saw lower than expected growth. The second last quarter, I believe, and the best information that I have of market growth, versus 3.5% of industry growth, we are slightly ahead on our performance. Let me just also make one point very clear to you on our value proposition. Consol numbers of 914 have been reported vis-à-vis our standalone number of 1,105. If you compare it with the standalone, it is INR 966 to INR 1,105. The delta which was there in Q1 of INR 137 per tonne in EBITDA has been slightly bettered, I think by INR 2 or something. Understood. Sir, should we understand it this way that if you look at even FY 2025, our volumes are flattish, one key also we would have, I mean, appears that we would have lost market share and from 2Q now we are maintaining and gaining. Now since our value proposition is now established and even for future when a lot of capacities are coming up and you guided that we will be maintaining share and even gaining to some extent, there is a subtle change in strategy. Is this the right way to kind of look at? Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. We have not said that we will not remain focused on value. We expect additional demand to come in because of all the fiscal measures announced by the Government of India, and that should keep us in line or better than the industry depending on the geographical reach, number one. Number two, you also please appreciate that the value over volume proposition, you do a very simple calculation. You do the capacity utilization of, say, all cement plants and plot EBITDA per tonne of all cement plants. You will see an inverse correlation. So have a look at that. Okay. There is no change in the strategy. This is what we would like to keep reinforcing, so it is value over volume. Having said that, and you have seen that in the results when we say 9% realization growth over last year, you should compare it with the industry numbers, and I'm sure you will find that we have not done badly. At the same time, while delivering 9% realization growth, we have also delivered 6.8% volume growth. It only means that the strategy has started working. How does the future pan out is difficult to say at this point of time. That is how I would say. Very clear. Some Ready-Mix Concrete business looks like there's not a focus here. If you can just share what is the outlook in next three, four years? What sort of targets are we looking at in terms of number of plants, maybe revenue contribution, etc. RMC is a new business for us. We've just started a year back. Already about 24 plants are operational. I think this is one of the fastest ramp up of RMC business in this industry. We had an initial goal of going up to 40 plants by FY 2028 and that continues even today. We are trying to put up more plants. 2026. I'm so sorry. Not 2028. Having said that, it is also a time for us to better understand the profit levers, the revenue levers for this business and make it more prepared so that we can have a playbook of RMC business and we can therefore thereafter keep putting new plants at a better performance level. That is how I would see it. Understood. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will take that as the last question for the day. I now hand over the conference to the management for the closing comments. Thank you everybody. Thank you for participating and thank you for supporting Shree. As I said, we will continue to remain focused on delivering a better performance. Our strategy is working, and we hope we should continue to give you better than industry performance at least on EBITDA in the coming years as well. This is our focus, and this is how we would like to perform. Thank you very much again everybody. Happy Diwali. Thank you on behalf of ICICI Securities. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Speaker 10: Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Shree Cement Limited Q2 FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a touch-tone phone. Before we begin, a brief. This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and the expectations of the company as on the date of this call. The statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you. Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Shree Cement Limited Q2 FY 2026 earnings conference call. ladies and gentlemen good day and welcome to shree cement limited q2 fy 2026 earnings conference call As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. as a reminder a`ll participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a touch-tone phone. should you need assistance during the conference call please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a touch-tone phone Before we begin, a brief. before we begin a brief This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and the expectations of the company as on the date of this call. this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs opinions and the expectations of the company as on the date of this call The statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. the statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict I now hand over the conference to Mr. Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities. i now hand over the conference to mr navin sahadeo from icici securities Thank you, and over to you. thank you and over to you

Speaker 15: Thank you, Mark. Good evening everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q2 FY 2026 earnings call of Shree Cement Limited. From the management, we have with us Mr. Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director, Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Senior Advisor, and Mr. Subhash Jajoo, the company's CFO. Without any further ado, I hand over the call to the management for opening comments. Over to you, sir. Thank you, Mark. thank you mark Good evening everyone. good evening everyone On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q2 FY 2026 earnings call of Shree Cement Limited. on behalf of icici securities i welcome you all to the q2 fy 2026 earnings call of shree cement limited From the management, we have with us Mr. Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director, Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Senior Advisor, and Mr. Subhash Jajoo, the company's CFO. from the management we have with us mr neeraj akhoury managing director mr ashok bhandari senior advisor and mr subhash jajoo the company's cfo Without any further ado, I hand over the call to the management for opening comments. without any further ado i hand over the call to the management for opening comments Over to you, sir. over to you sir

Speaker 9: Quarter 2 of FY 2026. As you all know, last quarter the Government of India took a significant decision of reducing the GST rate on cement from 28%-18% along with various other commodities. We believe this was a very positive and a transformational step and augurs well for cement demand in the long term. The company has fully passed the benefit of GST rate rationalization to its customers. The company continued with its value over volume strategy. During the last quarter the total cement sales volume including that of Shree Cement East Private Limited were up by about 6.8% YoY on cement basis. With cement and clinker combined it was slightly lower. Total sales volume increased from 7.6 million tonnes in September 2024 to 7.9 million tonnes. Quarter 2 of FY 2026. quarter 2 of fy 2026 As you all know, last quarter the Government of India took a significant decision of reducing the GST rate on cement from 28%- 18% along with various other commodities. as you all know last quarter the government of india took a significant decision of reducing the gst rate on cement from 28%- 18% along with various other commodities We believe this was a very positive and a transformational step and augurs well for cement demand in the long term. we believe this was a very positive and a transformational step and augurs well for cement demand in the long term The company has fully passed the benefit of GST rate rationalization to its customers. the company has fully passed the benefit of gst rate rationalization to its customers The company continued with its value over volume strategy. the company continued with its value over volume strategy During the last quarter the total cement sales volume including that of Shree Cement East Private Limited were up by about 6.8% YoY on cement basis. during the last quarter the total cement sales volume including that of shree cement east private limited were up by about 6.8% yoy on cement basis With cement and clinker combined it was slightly lower. with cement and clinker combined it was slightly lower Total sales volume increased from 7.6 million tonnes in September 2024 to 7.9 million tonnes. total sales volume increased from 7.6 million tonnes in september 2024 to 7.9 million tonnes Last quarter realization per tonne increased from INR 4,451 per tonne to INR 4,840, mainly due to increase in share of premium products from 15% last year to 21% in September 2025 quarter. Total EBITDA accordingly increased by 46% from INR 582 crores to INR 851 crores. EBITDA per tonne, and this is a figure adjusted for INR 30 per tonne for one time impact, also increased sharply by 43% from INR 772-INR 1,105. On sequential basis, volumes were down by about 12% mainly due to heavy rains in North India in the monsoon season. Despite this, the company was able to maintain its realization. However, the total EBITDA at INR 851 crores was down by about 31%. EBITDA per tonne also decreased by 20% from INR 1,379 to INR 1,105. Very happy to say that the company's UAE operation registered its best ever quarterly performance. Last quarter realization per tonne increased from INR 4,451 per tonne to INR 4,840, mainly due to increase in share of premium products from 15% last year to 21% in September 2025 quarter. last quarter realization per tonne increased from inr 4,451 per tonne to inr 4,840 mainly due to increase in share of premium products from 15% last year to 21% in september 2025 quarter Total EBITDA accordingly increased by 46% from INR 582 crores to INR 851 crores. total ebitda accordingly increased by 46% from inr 582 crores to inr 851 crores EBITDA per tonne, and this is a figure adjusted for INR 30 per tonne for one time impact, also increased sharply by 43% from INR 772- INR 1,105. ebitda per tonne and this is a figure adjusted for inr 30 per tonne for one time impact also increased sharply by 43% from inr 772- inr 1,105 On sequential basis, volumes were down by about 12% mainly due to heavy rains in North India in the monsoon season. on sequential basis volumes were down by about 12% mainly due to heavy rains in north india in the monsoon season Despite this, the company was able to maintain its realization. despite this the company was able to maintain its realization However, the total EBITDA at INR 851 crores was down by about 31%. however the total ebitda at inr 851 crores was down by about 31% EBITDA per tonne also decreased by 20% from INR 1,379 to INR 1,105. ebitda per tonne also decreased by 20% from inr 1,379 to inr 1,105 Very happy to say that the company's UAE operation registered its best ever quarterly performance. very happy to say that the company's uae operation registered its best ever quarterly performance Sales were up from 9.87 lakh tonnes to about 13.1 lakh tonnes, growth of about 34%. Sales revenue also registered growth of 50% YoY and EBITDA increased by 158% from AED 20.34 million to AED 52.53 million. The improved performance is a result of increased realization and improved operational efficiency. The expansion of the unit is progressing well. During last quarter the company commissioned clinkerization rate of 3.65 million tonnes at Jatara in Rajasthan. The cement mill of 3 million tonnes is also expected to be commissioned very shortly. The work on integrated project at Kodla, Karnataka of 3 million tonnes is in the final stage of completion and expected to be commissioned in this quarter. The company is continuously exploring various opportunities to grow better than the industry growth or slightly better than industry growth. Sales were up from 9.87 lakh tonnes to about 13.1 lakh tonnes, growth of about 34%. sales were up from 9.87 lakh tonnes to about 13.1 lakh tonnes growth of about 34% Sales revenue also registered growth of 50% YoY and EBITDA increased by 158% from AED 20.34 million to AED 52.53 million. sales revenue also registered growth of 50% yoy and ebitda increased by 158% from aed 20.34 million to aed 52.53 million The improved performance is a result of increased realization and improved operational efficiency. the improved performance is a result of increased realization and improved operational efficiency The expansion of the unit is progressing well. the expansion of the unit is progressing well During last quarter the company commissioned clinkerization rate of 3.65 million tonnes at Jatara in Rajasthan. during last quarter the company commissioned clinkerization rate of 3.65 million tonnes at jatara in rajasthan The cement mill of 3 million tonnes is also expected to be commissioned very shortly. the cement mill of 3 million tonnes is also expected to be commissioned very shortly The work on integrated project at Kodla, Karnataka of 3 million tonnes is in the final stage of completion and expected to be commissioned in this quarter. the work on integrated project at kodla karnataka of 3 million tonnes is in the final stage of completion and expected to be commissioned in this quarter The company is continuously exploring various opportunities to grow better than the industry growth or slightly better than industry growth. the company is continuously exploring various opportunities to grow better than the industry growth or slightly better than industry growth Recently the company has also commissioned a 20 MW solar power plant in Chitrakut in one of its subsidiaries. With this, the total green power capacity of the group now stands at 612 MW. The company has been rapidly expanding its RMC portfolio with 24 operational RMC brands at present. During the quarter, the company entered the East India market by setting up its RMC plant in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The company also commissioned India's first RMC solar plant at its Jaipur facility. The unit now runs primarily on green, clean, renewable solar energy, reducing its carbon footprint and setting a new standard of eco-friendly construction in India. We are very proud to say that the share of green electricity in total electricity consumption stood at 63% in H1 FY 2026, which is the highest to my mind globally, but at least highest in the Indian cement industry. Recently the company has also commissioned a 20 MW solar power plant in Chitrakut in one of its subsidiaries. recently the company has also commissioned a 20 mw solar power plant in chitrakut in one of its subsidiaries With this, the total green power capacity of the group now stands at 612 MW. with this the total green power capacity of the group now stands at 612 mw The company has been rapidly expanding its RMC portfolio with 24 operational RMC brands at present. the company has been rapidly expanding its rmc portfolio with 24 operational rmc brands at present During the quarter, the company entered the East India market by setting up its RMC plant in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. during the quarter the company entered the east india market by setting up its rmc plant in raipur chhattisgarh The company also commissioned India's first RMC solar plant at its Jaipur facility. the company also commissioned india's first rmc solar plant at its jaipur facility The unit now runs primarily on green, clean, renewable solar energy, reducing its carbon footprint and setting a new standard of eco-friendly construction in India. the unit now runs primarily on green clean renewable solar energy reducing its carbon footprint and setting a new standard of eco-friendly construction in india We are very proud to say that the share of green electricity in total electricity consumption stood at 63% in H1 FY 2026, which is the highest to my mind globally, but at least highest in the Indian cement industry. we are very proud to say that the share of green electricity in total electricity consumption stood at 63% in h1 fy 2026 which is the highest to my mind globally but at least highest in the indian cement industry All the company's manufacturing locations are also zero liquid discharge, treating, recycling, and reusing 100% of its waste generated from its operations. These efforts have enabled the company to improve its water positivity index to more than eight times. With good performance this year, the company expects to further improve its water positivity levels. India's economy continues to demonstrate resilience underpinned by strong consumption and sustained investment activity. High frequency indicators point to a pickup in real GDP growth in the second half of this year, supported by above normal monsoons. Steady employment conditions, benign inflation, and recent rationalization of GST rates are further expected to stimulate demand. These factors are likely to accelerate fiscal development and growth of the housing sector, which bodes well for the cement demand. With this, I have with me Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Mr. Subhash Jajoo, Mr. K.K. Jain, and Mr. S.S Khandelwal to take you through the Q and A session. Thank you very much, everybody. All the company's manufacturing locations are also zero liquid discharge, treating, recycling, and reusing 100% of its waste generated from its operations. all the company's manufacturing locations are also zero liquid discharge treating recycling and reusing 100% of its waste generated from its operations These efforts have enabled the company to improve its water positivity index to more than eight times. these efforts have enabled the company to improve its water positivity index to more than eight times With good performance this year, the company expects to further improve its water positivity levels. with good performance this year the company expects to further improve its water positivity levels India's economy continues to demonstrate resilience underpinned by strong consumption and sustained investment activity. india's economy continues to demonstrate resilience underpinned by strong consumption and sustained investment activity High frequency indicators point to a pickup in real GDP growth in the second half of this year, supported by above normal monsoons. high frequency indicators point to a pickup in real gdp growth in the second half of this year supported by above normal monsoons Steady employment conditions, benign inflation, and recent rationalization of GST rates are further expected to stimulate demand. steady employment conditions benign inflation and recent rationalization of gst rates are further expected to stimulate demand These factors are likely to accelerate fiscal development and growth of the housing sector, which bodes well for the cement demand. these factors are likely to accelerate fiscal development and growth of the housing sector which bodes well for the cement demand With this, I have with me Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Mr. Subhash Jajoo, Mr. K.K. with this i have with me mr ashok bhandari mr subhash jajoo mr k.k Jain, and Mr. S.S Khandelwal to take you through the Q and A session. jain and mr s.s khandelwal to take you through the q and a session Thank you very much, everybody. thank you very much everybody

Speaker 10: Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the Touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. thank you very much We will now begin with the question and answer session. we will now begin with the question and answer session Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the Touchstone telephone. anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. if you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. ladies and gentlemen we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles The first question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. the first question is from the line of amit murarka from axis capital Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 1: Hi, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. On cement realization, you mentioned it was INR 4,840 per tonne. This excludes other operating income if I'm not wrong. Could you give a similar number for Q1 as well? Hi, good evening. hi good evening Thanks for the opportunity. thanks for the opportunity On cement realization, you mentioned it was INR 4,840 per tonne. on cement realization you mentioned it was inr 4,840 per tonne This excludes other operating income if I'm not wrong. this excludes other operating income if i'm not wrong Could you give a similar number for Q1 as well? could you give a similar number for q1 as well

Speaker 6: 4840 is excluding other operating income. The previous quarter I had explained that because of a glitch in our SAP system we could not come up with an NCR number. The NCR number this quarter onwards will always be disclosed to everybody. That glitch has been rectified, so we do not have a comparable Q1 number, but roughly there is a decline. There is a decline Q on Q increase, increment increase. You have already understood. Mr. Akhoury has already addressed it, and I will request Mr. Akhoury to address the second part of the question that was on. 4840 is excluding other operating income. 4840 is excluding other operating income The previous quarter I had explained that because of a glitch in our SAP system we could not come up with an NCR number. the previous quarter i had explained that because of a glitch in our sap system we could not come up with an ncr number The NCR number this quarter onwards will always be disclosed to everybody. the ncr number this quarter onwards will always be disclosed to everybody That glitch has been rectified, so we do not have a comparable Q1 number, but roughly there is a decline. that glitch has been rectified so we do not have a comparable q1 number but roughly there is a decline There is a decline Q on Q increase, increment increase. there is a decline q on q increase increment increase You have already understood. you have already understood Mr. Akhoury has already addressed it, and I will request Mr. Akhoury to address the second part of the question that was on. mr akhoury has already addressed it and i will request mr akhoury to address the second part of the question that was on

Speaker 9: I'm going to have your question. What we have said is that the realization per tonne this last quarter was INR 4,840, which has increased from INR 4,451 in the same quarter last year. I'm going to have your question. i'm going to have your question What we have said is that the realization per tonne this last quarter was INR 4,840, which has increased from INR 4,451 in the same quarter last year. what we have said is that the realization per tonne this last quarter was inr 4,840 which has increased from inr 4,451 in the same quarter last year

Speaker 1: Sure. You also mentioned that you continue to prioritize realization over volume. Given that we are in the midst of a significant expansion program, what would be the outlook on the expanded capacities? Can we expect them to kind of? Have a slow and gradual ramp up? What would be the outlook on volumes essentially? Sure. sure You also mentioned that you continue to prioritize realization over volume. you also mentioned that you continue to prioritize realization over volume Given that we are in the midst of a significant expansion program, what would be the outlook on the expanded capacities? given that we are in the midst of a significant expansion program what would be the outlook on the expanded capacities Can we expect them to kind of? can we expect them to kind of Have a slow and gradual ramp up? have a slow and gradual ramp up What would be the outlook on volumes essentially? what would be the outlook on volumes essentially

Speaker 6: Amit, please understand that there are no entry barriers which anyone can create in the cement market. It is your strategy of value over volume which restricts you to your dispatches. However, I can assure you will be growing either in line or slightly better in line than the industry. Amit, please understand that there are no entry barriers which anyone can create in the cement market. amit please understand that there are no entry barriers which anyone can create in the cement market It is your strategy of value over volume which restricts you to your dispatches. it is your strategy of value over volume which restricts you to your dispatches However, I can assure you will be growing either in line or slightly better in line than the industry. however i can assure you will be growing either in line or slightly better in line than the industry

Speaker 1: Sure. Just lastly, on the one-off, you mentioned that adjusted for one-off, what exactly was the one-off? Sure. sure Just lastly, on the one-off, you mentioned that adjusted for one-off, what exactly was the one-off? just lastly on the one-off you mentioned that adjusted for one-off what exactly was the one-off

Speaker 6: I am giving it to Mr. Khandelwal who is Company Secretary. He will explain you what it is. I am giving it to Mr. Khandelwal who is Company Secretary. i am giving it to mr khandelwal who is company secretary He will explain you what it is. he will explain you what it is

Speaker 2: For our Guntur unit, we had taken power connection from Andhra Pradesh Transmission Company, and we had to create a substation at our capex, which as per the agreement entered into with them, was to be transferred by gift deed back to the transmission company. This transaction took place this quarter. Therefore, this write-off. For our Guntur unit, we had taken power connection from Andhra Pradesh Transmission Company, and we had to create a substation at our capex, which as per the agreement entered into with them, was to be transferred by gift deed back to the transmission company. for our guntur unit we had taken power connection from andhra pradesh transmission company and we had to create a substation at our capex which as per the agreement entered into with them was to be transferred by gift deed back to the transmission company This transaction took place this quarter. this transaction took place this quarter Therefore, this write-off. therefore this write-off

Speaker 1: Understood. Thanks. Thanks a lot.I'll come back in the queue. Understood. understood Thanks. thanks Thanks a lot. thanks a lot I'll come back in the queue. i'll come back in the queue

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is on the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Thank you. thank you The next question is on the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. the next question is on the line of rahul gupta from morgan stanley Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 13: Yeah, hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just to delve a little deeper, is there any other one-off in other OpEx? I see there is a strong jump year on year on the other OpEx side. Any explanation on that would be great. Thank you. Yeah, hi. yeah hi Thank you for taking my question. thank you for taking my question Just to delve a little deeper, is there any other one-off in other OpEx? just to delve a little deeper is there any other one-off in other opex I see there is a strong jump year on year on the other OpEx side. i see there is a strong jump year on year on the other opex side Any explanation on that would be great. any explanation on that would be great Thank you. thank you

Speaker 6: I'm giving the line to Mr. K.K. Jain. He will explain you what it is. I'm giving the line to Mr. K.K. i'm giving the line to mr k.k Jain. jain He will explain you what it is. he will explain you what it is

Speaker 3: Yeah. Good evening. As there's no other one-off in the result, the expenses, current quarter expense is slightly higher because of the repair, maintenance cost, and other distress cost. Otherwise, there's no one-off in this. Yeah. yeah Good evening. good evening As there's no other one-off in the result, the expenses, current quarter expense is slightly higher because of the r epair, maintenance cost, and other distress cost. as there's no other one-off in the result the expenses current quarter expense is slightly higher because of the r epair maintenance cost and other distress cost Otherwise, there's no one-off in this. otherwise there's no one-off in this

Speaker 13: Great. My second question is for Mr. Akhoury. Now that we are getting out of monsoon testing season, how should one expect demand from here on over the next couple of quarters? Are we seeing any green shoots from GST cut with respect to retail rural demand picking up? Thank you. Great. great My second question is for Mr. Akhoury. my second question is for mr akhoury Now that we are getting out of monsoon testing season, how should one expect demand from here on over the next couple of quarters? now that we are getting out of monsoon testing season how should one expect demand from here on over the next couple of quarters Are we seeing any green shoots from GST cut with respect to retail rural demand picking up? are we seeing any green shoots from gst cut with respect to retail rural demand picking up Thank you. thank you

Speaker 9: A little too early to project demand at this moment. As you know, we're just coming out of festival seasons as we speak. Actually, today is Chhath and happy Chhath everybody. This Chhath also means that there will be significant labor shortage across construction sites in most of our markets. Let us see how demand pans out. We expect, as everyone, that GST cut would boost demand in the long term. We have to wait and watch for its impact in the short to medium term. Clearly, GST cut was, as I said earlier, a transformational step. This augurs well with the cement industry demand projections. A little too early to project demand at this moment. a little too early to project demand at this moment As you know, we're just coming out of festival seasons as we speak. as you know we're just coming out of festival seasons as we speak Actually, today is Chhath and happy Chhath everybody. actually today is chhath and happy chhath everybody This Chhath also means that there will be significant labor shortage across construction sites in most of our markets. this chhath also means that there will be significant labor shortage across construction sites in most of our markets Let us see how demand pans out. let us see how demand pans out We expect, as everyone, that GST cut would boost demand in the long term. we expect as everyone that gst cut would boost demand in the long term We have to wait and watch for its impact in the short to medium term. we have to wait and watch for its impact in the short to medium term Clearly, GST cut was, as I said earlier, a transformational step. clearly gst cut was as i said earlier a transformational step This augurs well with the cement industry demand projections. this augurs well with the cement industry demand projections

Speaker 6: I would like to add Mr. Gupta that the effect of GST payable on finished houses hurts the low and middle income houses more. The vibrancy in low and middle income houses as well as Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities is expected to be far better than what it had been. I would like to add Mr. Gupta t hat t he effect of GST payable on finished houses hurts the low and middle income houses more. i would like to add mr gupta t hat t he effect of gst payable on finished houses hurts the low and middle income houses more The vibrancy in low and middle income houses as well as Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities is expected to be far better than what it had been. the vibrancy in low and middle income houses as well as tier 1 and tier 2 cities is expected to be far better than what it had been

Speaker 13: No, understood sir. My question pertain mainly from the perspective of how should we see the balance between demand and cement pricing over the next few months. That's what I was looking for. No, understood sir. no understood sir My question pertain mainly from the perspective of how should we see the balance between demand and cement pricing over the next few months. my question pertain mainly from the perspective of how should we see the balance between demand and cement pricing over the next few months That's what I was looking for. that's what i was looking for

Speaker 9: I fully understand your question. As I said, we have to wait and watch to see how the demand pans out. Little too early to say. Given the fact that there has been a GST cut, one would argue that the demand boost should happen. It may take some more time before actually it is converted into purchase. That's where I'm saying in long term it is good for the industry, it is good for everyone. There has been GST cut. We have to wait and watch for immediately what will happen or in the short term what will happen. Prices. As I speak for Shree Cement, we have passed on the entire benefits to the consumers of the GST reduction. If you see our results, I think one thing you will notice is that our prices have remained almost similar to last year. Same quarter to the last quarter. I fully understand your question. i fully understand your question As I said, we have to wait and watch to see how the demand pans out. as i said we have to wait and watch to see how the demand pans out Little too early to say. little too early to say Given the fact that there has been a GST cut, one would argue that the demand boost should happen. given the fact that there has been a gst cut one would argue that the demand boost should happen It may take some more time before actually it is converted into purchase. it may take some more time before actually it is converted into purchase That's where I'm saying in long term it is good for the industry, it is good for everyone. that's where i'm saying in long term it is good for the industry it is good for everyone There has been GST cut. there has been gst cut We have to wait and watch for immediately what will happen or in the short term what will happen. we have to wait and watch for immediately what will happen or in the short term what will happen Prices. prices As I speak for Shree Cement, we have passed on the entire benefits to the consumers of the GST reduction. as i speak for shree cement we have passed on the entire benefits to the consumers of the gst reduction If you see our results, I think one thing you will notice is that our prices have remained almost similar to last year. if you see our results i think one thing you will notice is that our prices have remained almost similar to last year Same quarter to the last quarter. same quarter to the last quarter Not same this year, last quarter and about 20% growth. 19% odd growth from last year. From last year. Yeah. I think prices have been stable for us from this year, last quarter to the last quarter. Quarter quarter one to quarter two. Going forward it is not for me to forecast prices, it will be wrong. What I do see that if the demand grows little better than what we have seen in the first six months then prices should at least remain stable. If nothing else. Yeah. Not same this year, last quarter and about 20% growth. 19% odd growth from last year. not same this year last quarter and about 20% growth 19% odd growth from last year From last year. from last year Yeah. yeah I think prices have been stable for us from this year, last quarter to the last quarter. i think prices have been stable for us from this year last quarter to the last quarter Quarter quarter one to quarter two. quarter quarter one to quarter two Going forward it is not for me to forecast prices, it will be wrong. going forward it is not for me to forecast prices it will be wrong What I do see that if the demand grows little better than what we have seen in the first six months then prices should at least remain stable. what i do see that if the demand grows little better than what we have seen in the first six months then prices should at least remain stable If nothing else. if nothing else Yeah. yeah

Speaker 13: Got it. Thank you so much, and all the best. Got it. got it Thank you so much, and all the best. thank you so much and all the best

Speaker 9: I'm so sorry, I must repeat myself. Year on year price growth was 9%, not 19%. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, I must repeat myself. i'm so sorry i must repeat myself Year on year price growth was 9%, not 19%. year on year price growth was 9% not 19% I'm so sorry. i'm so sorry

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Private Limited, please. Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Private Limited, please. the next question is from the line of satyadeep jain from ambit private limited please

Speaker 4: Hi, good evening. Thank you. Just wanted to ask on overall volume and the capacity that you're looking at, especially in North now that you have new volumes from the new line. Just wanted to see how are you going to look at this volume versus value growth. For the last few quarters the focus has been on premiumization. Should we expect similar focus on new capacity that you have? That first and maybe tied to this would be the second question that other players are also looking aggressively at North in general. Typically if I look at your capacity it seems incrementally. You're also looking at Northwood also expanding out of North and North is typically 50% of overall capacity. Hi, good evening. hi good evening Thank you. thank you Just wanted to ask on overall volume and the capacity that you're looking at, especially in North now that you have new volumes from the new line. just wanted to ask on overall volume and the capacity that you're looking at especially in north now that you have new volumes from the new line Just wanted to see how are you going to look at this volume versus value growth. just wanted to see how are you going to look at this volume versus value growth For the last few quarters the focus has been on premiumization. for the last few quarters the focus has been on premiumization Should we expect similar focus on new capacity that you have? should we expect similar focus on new capacity that you have That first and maybe tied to this would be the second question that other players are also looking aggressively at North in general. that first and maybe tied to this would be the second question that other players are also looking aggressively at north in general Typically if I look at your capacity it seems incrementally. typically if i look at your capacity it seems incrementally You're also looking at Northwood also expanding out of North and North is typically 50% of overall capacity. you're also looking at northwood also expanding out of north and north is typically 50% of overall capacity As you look beyond the expansion and in the release you mentioned 80 million tonnes, how would you look at expansions across region with new capacities coming in North, would you look to maintain share and add more capacity? Just the thought process on incremental capacity beyond what you have in place. As you look beyond the expansion and in the release you mentioned 80 million tonnes, how would you look at expansions across region with new capacities coming in North, would you look to maintain share and add more capacity? as you look beyond the expansion and in the release you mentioned 80 million tonnes how would you look at expansions across region with new capacities coming in north would you look to maintain share and add more capacity Just the thought process on incremental capacity beyond what you have in place. just the thought process on incremental capacity beyond what you have in place

Speaker 9: To answer the first part. As I said in my opening remark, that on premium cement we grew from about 15% to about 21% this year. This has been possible with a very high focus on increasing our share in the premium product segment. Not only that, we have also worked on our general price levels to make sure that we are able to squeeze our brand equity in a better way. That has been the strategy which we have often defined as value over volume. This strategy is something that we would like to pursue in the coming years as well. On capacity, we have just commissioned, as I said, a new kiln in our north plant this quarter itself. Very soon you will see us also announcing the cement expansion in the same cement mill, commissioning at the same location, which will happen very shortly. To answer the first part. to answer the first part As I said in my opening remark, that on premium cement we grew from about 15% to about 21% this year. as i said in my opening remark that on premium cement we grew from about 15% to about 21% this year This has been possible with a very high focus on increasing our share in the premium product segment. this has been possible with a very high focus on increasing our share in the premium product segment Not only that, we have also worked on our general price levels to make sure that we are able to squeeze our brand equity in a better way. not only that we have also worked on our general price levels to make sure that we are able to squeeze our brand equity in a better way That has been the strategy which we have often defined as value over volume. that has been the strategy which we have often defined as value over volume This strategy is something that we would like to pursue in the coming years as well. this strategy is something that we would like to pursue in the coming years as well On capacity, we have just commissioned, as I said, a new kiln in our north plant this quarter itself. on capacity we have just commissioned as i said a new kiln in our north plant this quarter itself Very soon you will see us also announcing the cement expansion in the same cement mill, commissioning at the same location, which will happen very shortly. very soon you will see us also announcing the cement expansion in the same cement mill commissioning at the same location which will happen very shortly North remains our focus and north is something that will remain one of the areas where we will continue to evaluate all possible methods to grow in the coming years as well. Having said that, we are growing in other regions, be it east, be it south, and that will be on. Our focus on north will never go down is what I would assure everybody. North remains our focus and north is something that will remain one of the areas where we will continue to evaluate all possible methods to grow in the coming years as well. north remains our focus and north is something that will remain one of the areas where we will continue to evaluate all possible methods to grow in the coming years as well Having said that, we are growing in other regions, be it east, be it south, and that will be on. having said that we are growing in other regions be it east be it south and that will be on Our focus on north will never go down is what I would assure everybody. our focus on north will never go down is what i would assure everybody

Speaker 6: I have two more things to add. One is that if you look at the standalone and consolidated results, the EPS differential, which was always around INR 6.7, has gone up to INR 33 in favor of consolidated, which clearly points out that our UAE operations are doing far better. Mr. Akhoury had already pointed this out in his opening statement and we are expanding our capacity there as there has been very healthy price rise in the UAE market. Also, you will note that we generally have been very conservative in our dividend payout. This year we have given the highest interim payout, interim dividend of INR 80, and we expect to have an incremental dividend payout. There are various factors affecting this. Everybody had questioned us on the rationale of carrying such large cash reserves. Some Chief Investment Officers had asked for higher dividend payout and we have acceded to that. I have two more things to add. i have two more things to add One is that if you look at the standalone and consolidated results, the EPS differential, which was always around INR 6.7, has gone up to INR 33 in favor of consolidated, which clearly points out that our UAE operations are doing far better. one is that if you look at the standalone and consolidated results the eps differential which was always around inr 6.7 has gone up to inr 33 in favor of consolidated which clearly points out that our uae operations are doing far better Mr. Akhoury had already pointed this out in his opening statement and we are expanding our capacity there as there has been very healthy price rise in the UAE market. mr akhoury had already pointed this out in his opening statement and we are expanding our capacity there as there has been very healthy price rise in the uae market Also, you will note that we generally have been very conservative in our dividend payout. also you will note that we generally have been very conservative in our dividend payout This year we have given the highest interim payout, interim dividend of INR 80, and we expect to have an incremental dividend payout. this year we have given the highest interim payout interim dividend of inr 80 and we expect to have an incremental dividend payout There are various factors affecting this. there are various factors affecting this Everybody had questioned us on the rationale of carrying such large cash reserves. everybody had questioned us on the rationale of carrying such large cash reserves Some Chief Investment Officers had asked for higher dividend payout and we have acceded to that. some chief investment officers had asked for higher dividend payout and we have acceded to that

Speaker 4: Just one clarification question on both dividend and depreciation. Generally, depreciation has been very volatile. Just one clarification question on both dividend and depreciation. just one clarification question on both dividend and depreciation Generally, depreciation has been very volatile. generally depreciation has been very volatile

Speaker 6: This year we will be depreciating about 2,800 crore or so, which is based on the capitalization schedule. We have already charged about 1,100 crore in two quarters. The depreciation for next two quarters will be about1,700 crore. That is all right because as everybody is expecting, we are that the prices should remain stable and the demand should return. There will be no hassle in availability of distributable profit in any case for the year. This year we will be depreciating about 2,800 crore or so, which is based on the capitalization schedule. this year we will be depreciating about 2,800 crore or so which is based on the capitalization schedule We have already charged about 1,100 crore in two quarters. we have already charged about 1,100 crore in two quarters The depreciation for next two quarters will be about 1,700 crore. the depreciation for next two quarters will be about 1,700 crore That is all right because as everybody is expecting, we are that the prices should remain stable and the demand should return. that is all right because as everybody is expecting we are that the prices should remain stable and the demand should return There will be no hassle in availability of distributable profit in any case for the year. there will be no hassle in availability of distributable profit in any case for the year

Speaker 4: Okay, thank you and wish you all this. Okay, thank you and wish you all this. okay thank you and wish you all this

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pennekin. Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Pennekin. the next question is from the line of pennekin

Speaker 6: Excuse me one second. I stand corrected. The deposition for the year will be 2,450 crore, not 2,850 crore. I'm sorry. Excuse me one second. excuse me one second I stand corrected. i stand corrected The deposition for the year will be 2,450 crore, not 2,850 crore. the deposition for the year will be 2,450 crore not 2,850 crore I'm sorry. i'm sorry

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is on the line of Penneken from HSBC. Please go ahead. Thank you. thank you The next question is on the line of Penneken from HSBC. the next question is on the line of penneken from hsbc Please go ahead. please go ahead Thank you very much, sir. For my first question, among the three core markets of North, South, and East, how is pricing today on the ground versus the second quarter average? Is it lower or is it flat? Thank you very much, sir. thank you very much sir For my first question, among the three core markets of North, South, and East, how is pricing today on the ground versus the second quarter average? for my first question among the three core markets of north south and east how is pricing today on the ground versus the second quarter average Is it lower or is it flat? is it lower or is it flat

Speaker 9: Are you talking about the last quarter? Are you talking about the last quarter? are you talking about the last quarter No sir, today. Yes, today's prices versus the second quarter, the September quarter that went by. No sir, today. no sir today Yes, today's prices versus the second quarter, the September quarter that went by. yes today's prices versus the second quarter the september quarter that went by No. As I said, the prices have been reduced, but that is largely because we have passed on the GST to the consumers, from 28%-18%. The prices are lower than what they were in the pre-22nd September time. No. no As I said, the prices have been reduced, but that is largely because we have passed on the GST to the consumers, from 28%- 18%. as i said the prices have been reduced but that is largely because we have passed on the gst to the consumers from 28%- 18% The prices are lower than what they were in the pre-22nd September time. the prices are lower than what they were in the pre-22nd september time Would the net realizations to the company broadly be unchanged today versus what you have seen in the second quarter? Would the net realizations to the company broadly be unchanged today versus what you have seen in the second quarter? would the net realizations to the company broadly be unchanged today versus what you have seen in the second quarter No, I would say it will be slightly lower because of all the festivals and all the demand has not been very robust in October, and therefore we see some slippage of prices happening across India, not only in regions. No, I would say it will be slightly lower because of all the festivals and all the demand has not been very robust in October, and therefore we see some slippage of prices happening across India, not only in regions. no i would say it will be slightly lower because of all the festivals and all the demand has not been very robust in october and therefore we see some slippage of prices happening across india not only in regions Got it. My second question is that again if you were to look at your three core markets, and over the next two quarters, do you see any one region demand outlook to be materially better than the other between North, South, and East? Got it. got it My second question is that again if you were to look at your t hree core markets, and over the next two quarters, do you see any one region demand outlook to be materially better than the other between North, South, and East? my second question is that again if you were to look at your t hree core markets and over the next two quarters do you see any one region demand outlook to be materially better than the other between north south and east When you talk about demand forecast, I always keep quiet because we have to be cautious in this statement. As we speak, we have seen demand growth almost similar across the country, almost similar except some states where it has been lower and some states have been higher. Not to compare region wise or maybe state wise, one can do some comparisons going forward. Also, I think this trend should continue. Only. I would expect North and West to be slightly better than rest of the country. When you talk about demand forecast, I always keep quiet because we have to be cautious in this statement. when you talk about demand forecast i always keep quiet because we have to be cautious in this statement As we speak, we have seen demand growth almost similar across the country, almost similar except some states where it has been lower and some states have been higher. as we speak we have seen demand growth almost similar across the country almost similar except some states where it has been lower and some states have been higher Not to compare region wise or maybe state wise, one can do some comparisons going forward. not to compare region wise or maybe state wise one can do some comparisons going forward Also, I think this trend should continue. also i think this trend should continue Only. only I would expect North and West to be slightly better than rest of the country. i would expect north and west to be slightly better than rest of the country Okay sir. My last question is again if you look at your competitors' capacity expansion announcement, particularly in northern India, which is very large, and you highlighted that North is a core market for Shree. Should we expect Shree to defend its capacity share and hence at some point of time announce capacity expansion to maintain its current share? Okay sir. okay sir My last question is again if you look at your competitors' capacity expansion announcement, particularly in northern India, which is very large, and you highlighted that North is a core market for Shree. my last question is again if you look at your competitors' capacity expansion announcement particularly in northern india which is very large and you highlighted that north is a core market for shree Should we expect Shree to defend its capacity share and hence at some point of time announce capacity expansion to maintain its current share? should we expect shree to defend its capacity share and hence at some point of time announce capacity expansion to maintain its current share

Speaker 6: This is a trick question, isn't it? This is a trick question. We have said that we will be growing marginally better than the industry. Now which region, what region, what kind of growth? How do you all forecast this? We have to be prepared. We are having sufficient physical resources to set up capacity in most of the areas where we operate, and we'll take a call as the demand scenario becomes more clear. This is a trick question, isn't it? this is a trick question isn't it This is a trick question. this is a trick question We have said that we will be growing marginally better than the industry. we have said that we will be growing marginally better than the industry Now which region, what region, what kind of growth? now which region what region what kind of growth How do you all forecast this? how do you all forecast this We have to be prepared. we have to be prepared We are having sufficient physical resources to set up capacity in most of the areas where we operate, and we'll take a call as the demand scenario becomes more clear. we are having sufficient physical resources to set up capacity in most of the areas where we operate and we'll take a call as the demand scenario becomes more clear Understood. Thank you very much, sir. Understood. understood Thank you very much, sir. thank you very much sir Is the moderator there, please? Hello? Is the moderator there, please? is the moderator there please Hello? hello

Speaker 15: Yeah, can you hear me, sir? Yeah, can you hear me, sir? yeah can you hear me sir

Speaker 6: Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. yeah that's fine

Speaker 15: I think we've lost Mark. I can't hear him. I'll just dial him back one second. I think we've lost Mark. i think we've lost mark I can't hear him. i can't hear him I'll just dial him back one second. i'll just dial him back one second

Speaker 10: The next question comes from the line of Kushal Shah from PL Capital.Please go ahead. The next question comes from the line o f Kushal Shah from PL Capital. the next question comes from the line o f kushal shah from pl capital Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 5: Now, since the time we have undertaken the measures to improve the brand positioning and the premium sales on a portfolio level, how much would have the base realization improved on a per tonne basis? What would be the milestone here along with any timelines if it can help? Now, since the time we have undertaken the measures to improve the brand positioning and the premium sales on a portfolio level, how much would have the base realization improved on a per tonne basis? now since the time we have undertaken the measures to improve the brand positioning and the premium sales on a portfolio level how much would have the base realization improved on a per tonne basis What would be the milestone here along with any timelines if it can h elp? what would be the milestone here along with any timelines if it can h elp

Speaker 9: When we look for the numbers, as you know, the milestone remains that we have already reached about 20, 21% of premium sales. This is a level at which we would like to maintain in the coming quarters as well. If there are some improvements that will be welcome. The milestone was to reach about 18%. We have already reached 20, 20, 21% up from 15% and we will be focusing a lot that we are able to maintain this same level of premium share of our trade volumes in the coming quarters as well. Can you answer the first question? When we look for the numbers, as you know, the milestone remains that we have already reached about 20, 21% of premium sales. when we look for the numbers as you know the milestone remains that we have already reached about 20 21% of premium sales This is a level at which we would like to maintain in the coming quarters as well. this is a level at which we would like to maintain in the coming quarters as well If there are some improvements that will be welcome. if there are some improvements that will be welcome The milestone was to reach about 18%. the milestone was to reach about 18% We have already reached 20, 20, 21% up from 15% and we will be focusing a lot that we are able to maintain this same level of premium share of our trade volumes in the coming quarters as well. we have already reached 20 20 21% up from 15% and we will be focusing a lot that we are able to maintain this same level of premium share of our trade volumes in the coming quarters as well Can you answer the first question? can you answer the first question

Speaker 6: Kushal here. Kushal here. kushal here

Speaker 5: Yes sir. Yes sir. yes sir

Speaker 6: Can you repeat the second part of the question? Can you repeat the second part of the question? can you repeat the second part of the question

Speaker 9: First question? First question? first question

Speaker 5: No sir. One was the premium sales, which is very clearly visible, but also there have been steps to improve the brand positioning as well as the base brand positioning. All I'm trying to understand is, since the time you have taken these measures, how much would the base realization have moved up? Let's say keeping other things aside, I mean status quo, how much would have the base realization impact? No sir. no sir One was the premium sales, which is very clearly visible, but also there have been steps to improve the brand positioning as well as the base brand positioning. one was the premium sales which is very clearly visible but also there have been steps to improve the brand positioning as well as the base brand positioning All I'm trying to understand is, since the time you have taken these measures, how much would the base realization have moved up? all i'm trying to understand is since the time you have taken these measures how much would the base realization have moved up Let's say keeping other things aside, I mean status quo, how much would have the base realization impact? let's say keeping other things aside i mean status quo how much would have the base realization impact

Speaker 6: Kunal, that is the point I'm trying to make. Mr. Akhoury in his opening statement had said we have improved 9% year-on-year. It is unfortunate that I could not give you NCR number for Q1, but Q2 or H2, sorry, H1 vis-à-vis last year, H1 9% incremental price is there, which is a mix of various things. And it is. You see please understand, my dear friend, that if we are saying that we will focus and we have reached 21% of premium sales, the price trajectory should be upwards or stable. However, demand and pricing in commodity is very difficult for any company to address, isn't it? Kunal, that is the point I'm trying to make. kunal that is the point i'm trying to make Mr. Akhoury in his opening statement had said we have improved 9% year- on- year. mr akhoury in his opening statement had said we have improved 9% year- on- year It is unfortunate that I could not give you NCR number for Q1, but Q2 or H2, sorry, H1 vis-à-vis last year, H1 9% incremental price is there, which is a mix of various things. it is unfortunate that i could not give you ncr number for q1 but q2 or h2 sorry h1 vis-à-vis last year h1 9% incremental price is there which is a mix of various things And i t is. Y ou see p lease understand, my dear friend, that if we are saying that we will focus and we have reached 21% of premium sales, the price trajectory should be upwards or stable. and i t is. y ou see p lease understand my dear friend that if we are saying that we will focus and we have reached 21% of premium sales the price trajectory should be upwards or stable However, demand and pricing in commodity is very difficult for any company to address, isn't it? however demand and pricing in commodity is very difficult for any company to address isn't it

Speaker 5: Understood. No, that helps. Secondly, sir, on the cost savings, especially on the logistics front, where exactly are we in the journey? You know, because we were planning to aggressively increase the rail share. Could you just reiterate our positioning? Here and the quantum of. Understood. understood No, that helps. no that helps Secondly, sir, on the cost savings, especially on the logistics front, where exactly are we in the journey? secondly sir on the cost savings especially on the logistics front where exactly are we in the journey You know, because we were planning to aggressively increase the rail share. you know because we were planning to aggressively increase the rail share Could you just reiterate our positioning? could you just reiterate our positioning Here and the quantum of. here and the quantum of

Speaker 9: Just to reiterate on our last question once more before I come to the second question. As I said, we have increased by 9.8%. I believe some of the players who have announced the realization year-on-year, if you see the gap of our performance, you can get a sense of how much we have improved. That is part number one on the rail. Very focused work is going on. We have, as you know, already commissioned our Purulia railway siding in our Purulia unit. We are doing siding in Kodla for which the project work land acquisition has been done and now the construction process has started. Similarly, for ITA we have completed line deposition and project work has started. A lot of focus has been there to improve our rail connectivity across India, and you'll see that very soon some of them will be commissioned. Just to reiterate on our last question once more before I come to the second question. just to reiterate on our last question once more before i come to the second question As I said, we have increased by 9.8%. as i said we have increased by 9.8% I believe some of the players who have announced the realization year-on-year, if you see the gap of our performance, you can get a sense of how much we have improved. i believe some of the players who have announced the realization year-on-year if you see the gap of our performance you can get a sense of how much we have improved That is part number one on the rail. that is part number one on the rail Very focused work is going on. very focused work is going on We have, as you know, already commissioned our Purulia railway siding in our Purulia unit. we have as you know already commissioned our purulia railway siding in our purulia unit We are doing siding in Kodla for which the project work land acquisition has been done and now the construction process has started. we are doing siding in kodla for which the project work land acquisition has been done and now the construction process has started Similarly, for ITA we have completed line deposition and project work has started. similarly for ita we have completed line deposition and project work has started A lot of focus has been there to improve our rail connectivity across India, and you'll see that very soon some of them will be commissioned. a lot of focus has been there to improve our rail connectivity across india and you'll see that very soon some of them will be commissioned

Speaker 5: This is very helpful sir, just to extend it, like in FY 2025, what would be the real mix exactly, what are we going towards, and what would be the savings if that? That would be very helpful. This is very helpful sir, just to extend it, like in FY 2025, what would be the real mix exactly, what are we going towards, and what would be the savings if that? this is very helpful sir just to extend it like in fy 2025 what would be the real mix exactly what are we going towards and what would be the savings if that That would be very helpful. that would be very helpful

Speaker 9: Presently we are at about 11%. Yeah. Of rail share in our total outbound logistics here, we think we should reach about 20% in the coming time. If I see at savings, typically on the PTPK railway, rail is about 1.8, 1.9 versus road at about 2.3, 2.5. If I look at the industry across, especially in the North region, one would expect that at least INR 100, INR 100 per tonne savings should come from our increased focus on railway operations. Presently we are at about 11%. presently we are at about 11% Yeah. yeah Of rail share in our total outbound logistics here, we think we should reach about 20% in the coming time. of rail share in our total outbound logistics here we think we should reach about 20% in the coming time If I see at savings, typically on the PTPK railway, rail is about 1.8, 1.9 versus road at about 2.3, 2.5. if i see at savings typically on the ptpk railway rail is about 1.8 1.9 versus road at about 2.3 2.5 If I look at the industry across, especially in the North region, one would expect that at least INR 100, INR 100 per tonne savings should come from our increased focus on railway operations. if i look at the industry across especially in the north region one would expect that at least inr 100 inr 100 per tonne savings should come from our increased focus on railway operations

Speaker 5: Got it. Sir, if I could just squeeze in one more, I think there was a lot of efforts towards the AFR shipments. INR 100 on the logistics front, and anything on the AFR front because I believe that share is also on the lower side, right? I mean, there's a lot of scope over there. Got it. got it Sir, if I could just squeeze in one more, I think there was a lot of efforts towards the AFR shipments. sir if i could just squeeze in one more i think there was a lot of efforts towards the afr shipments INR 100 on the logistics front, and anything on the AFR front because I believe that share is also on the lower side, right? inr 100 on the logistics front and anything on the afr front because i believe that share is also on the lower side right I mean, there's a lot of scope over there. i mean there's a lot of scope over there

Speaker 9: As I said, a lot of project work is happening across on the AFR side as well. We are now at about 2.3% up from 1.5% same quarter last year. This is on AFR you said? Yeah. More and more facilities are getting created as they roll out in the coming years. You will see we will also go up on RAFR consumption. As I said, a lot of project work is happening across on the AFR side as well. as i said a lot of project work is happening across on the afr side as well We are now at about 2.3% up from 1.5% same quarter last year. we are now at about 2.3% up from 1.5% same quarter last year This is on AFR you said? this is on afr you said Yeah. yeah More and more facilities are getting created as they roll out in the coming years. more and more facilities are getting created as they roll out in the coming years You will see we will also go up on RAFR consumption. you will see we will also go up on rafr consumption

Speaker 5: Got it. Sir, if I just squeeze one more, just from a capital allocation perspective, what should be the capex number for. 2026, 2027, 2028? Got it. got it Sir, if I just squeeze one more, just from a capital allocation perspective, what should be the capex number for. 2026, 2027, 2028? sir if i just squeeze one more just from a capital allocation perspective what should be the capex number for 2026, 2027, 2028

Speaker 6: 2026-2027, roughly you estimate INR 3,000 crore and 2027-2028. We have not. We have a broad capex in mind, but it should be in line with this much only. It may spill slightly to 2028-2029 because we are rethinking our commissioning strategy. I can assure you that we will maintain our spirit of growing marginally higher than the industry growth rate. 2026-2027, roughly you estimate INR 3,000 crore and 2027-2028. 2026-2027 roughly you estimate inr 3,000 crore and 2027-2028 We have not. we have not We have a broad capex in mind, but it should be in line with this much only. we have a broad capex in mind but it should be in line with this much only It may spill slightly to 2028-2029 because we are rethinking our commissioning strategy. it may spill slightly to 2028-2029 because we are rethinking our commissioning strategy I can assure you that we will maintain our spirit of growing marginally higher than the industry growth rate. i can assure you that we will maintain our spirit of growing marginally higher than the industry growth rate

Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. yeah yeah

Speaker 5: Just to clarify, 80 million tonnes could get spilled over to 2029. Just to clarify, 80 million tonnes could get spilled over to 2029. just to clarify 80 million tonnes could get spilled over to 2029

Speaker 6: I cannot see. Please understand it's not that we are devoid of any physical resource. It is basically how the capacity utilization of the company gets ramped up and how the demand gets ramped up. It is dependent on that. We are taking a stand that if needs be, 80 can shift to 82 by 2028. May shift to 80 by 2029. As the time passes, we will keep on updating you. I cannot see. i cannot see Please understand it's not that we are devoid of any physical resource. please understand it's not that we are devoid of any physical resource It is basically how the capacity utilization of the company gets ramped up and how the demand gets ramped up. it is basically how the capacity utilization of the company gets ramped up and how the demand gets ramped up It is dependent on that. it is dependent on that We are taking a stand that if needs be, 80 can shift to 82 by 2028. we are taking a stand that if needs be 80 can shift to 82 by 2028 May shift to 80 by 2029. may shift to 80 by 2029 As the time passes, we will keep on updating you. as the time passes we will keep on updating you

Speaker 5: Understood.This is extremely helpful, sir. Thank you so much and all the best. Understood. understood This is extremely helpful, sir. this is extremely helpful sir Thank you so much and all the best. thank you so much and all the best

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. the next question is from the line of shravan shah from dolat capital

Speaker 12: Hi sir, just to check. Now currently we have a 62.8 million ton and 6 million ton. Both Jatara and Kodla will be added in this quarter. We will be 68.8 and from there by FY 2027 and 2028. Will there be any capacity addition because 3 million ton Jatara was postponed. Hi sir, just to check. hi sir just to check Now currently we have a 62.8 million ton and 6 million ton. now currently we have a 62.8 million ton and 6 million ton Both Jatara and Kodla will be added in this quarter. both jatara and kodla will be added in this quarter We will be 68.8 and from there by FY 2027 and 2028. we will be 68.8 and from there by fy 2027 and 2028 Will there be any capacity addition because 3 million ton Jatara was postponed. will there be any capacity addition because 3 million ton jatara was postponed

Speaker 6: Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You are asking too many questions. Let us address one at a time. 67 million, 66.8 or 67 million March 2026 is given. We have given you a CapEx guidance of about 3,000 crore, so we should be about 72 million-75 million March 2027. I have already told you that. Let us see how the demand and how capacity utilization moves to see whether we need to become 80 by 2028 or 2029. You have seen our balance sheet. You understand we have all physical and financial resources to do this capex. That market also has to, so the market conditions are to be recognized in planning exact dates. So. Yeah, go ahead. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. now wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute You are asking too many questions. you are asking too many questions Let us address one at a time. 67 million, 66.8 or 67 million March 2026 is given. let us address one at a time 67 million 66.8 or 67 million march 2026 is given We have given you a CapEx guidance of about 3,000 crore, so we should be about 72 million- 75 million March 2027. we have given you a capex guidance of about 3,000 crore so we should be about 72 million- 75 million march 2027 I have already told you that. i have already told you that Let us see how the demand and how capacity utilization moves to see whether we need to become 80 by 2028 or 2029. let us see how the demand and how capacity utilization moves to see whether we need to become 80 by 2028 or 2029 You have seen our balance sheet. you have seen our balance sheet You understand we have all physical and financial resources to do this capex. you understand we have all physical and financial resources to do this capex That market also has to, so the market conditions are to be recognized in planning exact dates. that market also has to so the market conditions are to be recognized in planning exact dates So. so Yeah, go ahead. yeah go ahead

Speaker 12: Got it, sir. This 2028 or 2029 when we say, is this a calendar year or FY 2028 or FY 2029? Got it, sir. got it sir This 2028 or 2029 when we say, is this a calendar year or FY 2028 or FY 2029? this 2028 or 2029 when we say is this a calendar year or fy 2028 or fy 2029

Speaker 6: We are not talking calendar year at all. We talk FY. We are not talking calendar year at all. we are not talking calendar year at all We talk FY. we talk fy

Speaker 12: Okay, got it. Sir, I need a couple of data points. Even last quarter we did not have a call. If you can share the data points for Q1 and Q2, starting with. Okay, got it. okay got it Sir, I need a couple of data points. sir i need a couple of data points Even last quarter we did not have a call. even last quarter we did not have a call If you can share the data points for Q1 and Q2, starting with. if you can share the data points for q1 and q2 starting with

Speaker 6: One second. One second. Let Mr. Subhash Jajoo take you through all the numbers because he is the CFO the company. One second. one second One second. one second Let Mr. Subhash Jajoo take you through all the numbers because he is the CF O the company. let mr subhash jajoo take you through all the numbers because he is the cf o the company

Speaker 12: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 6: You can ask all your questions and pointed questions to him. You can ask all your questions and pointed questions to him. you can ask all your questions and pointed questions to him

Speaker 12: Yeah. Sir, trade, sir. Blended cement, sir, for Q1 and Q2. Yeah. yeah Sir, trade, sir. sir trade sir Blended cement, sir, for Q1 and Q2. blended cement sir for q1 and q2

Speaker 8: Yeah. For trade sale, it was 70% in September 25th, and in June it was around 71%. Landed cement sale was 68% in September and 70% in June. Yeah. yeah For trade sale, it was 70% in September 25th, and in June it was around 71%. for trade sale it was 70% in september 25th and in june it was around 71% Landed cement sale was 68% in September and 70% in June. landed cement sale was 68% in september and 70% in june

Speaker 12: Okay. Lead distance in Q2 and Q1? Okay. okay Lead distance in Q2 and Q1? lead distance in q2 and q1

Speaker 8: In Q2, it is 441 km. In Q1, it was 451 km. In Q2, it is 441 km. in q2 it is 441 km In Q1, it was 451 km. in q1 it was 451 km

Speaker 12: Okay, got it. And for Q2 and Q1. Okay, got it. okay got it And for Q2 and Q1. and for q2 and q1

Speaker 8: For Q2 it is 1.66 and Q1 it is 1.59. For Q2 it is 1.66 and Q1 it is 1.59. for q2 it is 1.66 and q1 it is 1.59

Speaker 12: 1.59. Okay. It has decently gone up from even from March level. Given the current petcoke prices and the coal prices, do we see any further increase in this KK cost? 1.59. 1.59 Okay. okay It has decently gone up from even from March level. it has decently gone up from even from march level Given the current petcoke prices and the coal prices, do we see any further increase in this KK cost? given the current petcoke prices and the coal prices do we see any further increase in this kk cost

Speaker 8: No. As per our inventory pipeline, I think it should be around similar levels, maybe slightly lower than this. No. no As per our inventory pipeline, I think it should be around similar levels, maybe slightly lower than this. as per our inventory pipeline i think it should be around similar levels maybe slightly lower than this

Speaker 12: Okay. In terms of the fuel mix, broadly the petcoke and coal would be a 90% to 95%. Okay. okay In terms of the fuel mix, broadly the petcoke and coal would be a 90% to 95%. in terms of the fuel mix broadly the petcoke and coal would be a 90% to 95%

Speaker 8: This quarter it is like around 66%. It is pet coke and balance is coal and other alternate material. This quarter it is like around 66%. this quarter it is like around 66% It is pet coke and balance is coal and other alternate material. it is pet coke and balance is coal and other alternate material

Speaker 12: Okay, got it. Okay, got it. okay got it

Speaker 10: Sorry to interrupt. Sorry to interrupt. sorry to interrupt

Speaker 12: Yeah, no issues. Thank you. Yeah, no issues. Thank you. yeah no issues thank you

Speaker 10: Ladies and gentlemen, to ensure the management can address questions from all participants, please limit your inquiries to two per person. If you have a follow up, kindly rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Raashi Chopra from Citi. Please go ahead. Ladies and gentlemen, to ensure the management can address questions from all participants, please limit your inquiries to two per person. ladies and gentlemen to ensure the management can address questions from all participants please limit your inquiries to two per person If you have a follow up, kindly rejoin the queue. if you have a follow up kindly rejoin the queue The next question is from the line of Raashi Chopra from Citi. the next question is from the line of raashi chopra from citi Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 11: Thank you. My first question is, Mr. Akhoury, you made a comment saying that, you know, in addition to premiumization, you're also focusing on pricing to be able to extract the best value for your brand. Could you just elaborate on that please? Thank you. thank you My first question is, Mr. Akhoury, you made a comment saying that, you know, in addition to premiumization, you're also focusing on pricing to be able to extract the best value for your brand. my first question is mr akhoury you made a comment saying that you know in addition to premiumization you're also focusing on pricing to be able to extract the best value for your brand Could you just elaborate on that please? could you just elaborate on that please

Speaker 6: Rashi, let us understand. Only 21% is premium. Now in our sales mix, Mr. Akhoury has clearly said only 21%. If you look at the incremental price rises, it must be incremental plus general category also. You get my point. Overall, there is a price buoyancy. How it will pan out is completely dependent on market conditions. The delta between peer groups, we are certainly trying to converge on the top line rather than price. Rashi, let us understand. rashi let us understand Only 21% is premium. only 21% is premium Now in our sales mix, Mr. Akhoury has clearly said only 21%. now in our sales mix mr akhoury has clearly said only 21% If you look at the incremental price rises, it must be incremental plus general category also. if you look at the incremental price rises it must be incremental plus general category also You get my point. you get my point Overall, there is a price buoyancy. overall there is a price buoyancy How it will pan out is completely dependent on market conditions. how it will pan out is completely dependent on market conditions The delta between peer groups, we are certainly trying to converge on the top line rather than price. the delta between peer groups we are certainly trying to converge on the top line rather than price

Speaker 11: Right. How are you trying to do that? Right. right How are you trying to do that? how are you trying to do that

Speaker 6: Mr. Akhoury will answer that, please. Mr. Akhoury will answer that, please. mr akhoury will answer that please

Speaker 9: In a sense, you know this market, as you know the industry market, there are for same kind of product, there is a price ladder which is not less than INR 15-INR 20 or even higher. This is what we call the price gap between brand A and brand B. Through our pricing actions as well as distribution actions, we are trying to reduce this gap. That is one effort that has worked for us in the last six months. Odd. That is where we said that we will focus on value over volume. In addition to that, we have also focused on premium products, which are higher price than the base product. Their positioning in the market is on the higher side, and these two combined, for base brands as well as for premium, there has been a focus of reducing the gap with some of the peer group companies. That has helped us to record 9% price growth last quarter versus, I am not so sure. I have seen the figures of others, but whatever figures the others have, if you could look at it, then I think Shree's performance on price growth will be slightly better than what industry has seen. In a sense, you know this market, as you know the industry market, there are for same kind of product, there is a price ladder which is not less than INR 15- INR 20 or even higher. in a sense you know this market as you know the industry market there are for same kind of product there is a price ladder which is not less than inr 15- inr 20 or even higher This is what we call the price gap between brand A and brand B. this is what we call the price gap between brand a and brand b Through our pricing actions as well as distribution actions, we are trying to reduce this gap. through our pricing actions as well as distribution actions we are trying to reduce this gap That is one effort that has worked for us in the last six months. that is one effort that has worked for us in the last six months Odd. odd That is where we said that we will focus on value over volume. that is where we said that we will focus on value over volume In addition to that, we have also focused on premium products, which are higher price than the base product. in addition to that we have also focused on premium products which are higher price than the base product Their positioning in the market is on the higher side, and these two combined, for base brands as well as for premium, there has been a focus of reducing the gap with some of the peer group companies. their positioning in the market is on the higher side and these two combined for base brands as well as for premium there has been a focus of reducing the gap with some of the peer group companies That has helped us to record 9% price growth last quarter versus, I am not so sure. that has helped us to record 9% price growth last quarter versus i am not so sure I have seen the figures of others, but whatever figures the others have, if you could look at it, then I think Shree's performance on price growth will be slightly better than what industry has seen. i have seen the figures of others but whatever figures the others have if you could look at it then i think shree's performance on price growth will be slightly better than what industry has seen

Speaker 11: Understood, thank you. That's helpful. On the volume side for the first half, now your volumes are down about 2% on a year-on-year basis, total volume cement plus clinker. What is your projection for the year for yourself? Understood, thank you. understood thank you That's helpful. that's helpful On the volume side for the first half, now your volumes are down about 2% on a year-on-year basis, total volume cement plus clinker. on the volume side for the first half now your volumes are down about 2% on a year-on-year basis total volume cement plus clinker What is your projection for the year for yourself? what is your projection for the year for yourself

Speaker 6: We should do about 37 million-38 million tonnes this year. We should do about 37 million- 38 million tonnes this year. we should do about 37 million- 38 million tonnes this year

Speaker 11: Yeah. Okay. On the power side, green power, I would imagine that in this quarter your green power proportion has gone down to about 60% or so. Yeah. yeah Okay. okay On the power side, green power, I would imagine that in this quarter your green power proportion has gone down to about 60% or so. on the power side green power i would imagine that in this quarter your green power proportion has gone down to about 60% or so

Speaker 6: Yes. Yes. yes

Speaker 11: I mean for the first half. I mean for the first half. i mean for the first half

Speaker 9: 63. Yes. 63. 63 Yes. yes

Speaker 6: Raashi you are forgetting renewable also consists of solar, and this was monsoon period. Raashi you are forgetting renewable also consists of solar, and this was monsoon period. raashi you are forgetting renewable also consists of solar and this was monsoon period

Speaker 11: 60 is a correct number, right? 60 is a correct number, right? 60 is a correct number right

Speaker 6: Yeah, 60 for the quarter is the correct number. Yeah, 60 for the quarter is the correct number. yeah 60 for the quarter is the correct number

Speaker 11: Okay, got it. Okay, that's it for me. Thank you. Okay, got it. okay got it Okay, that's it for me. okay that's it for me Thank you. thank you

Speaker 10: Hello. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Hello. hello Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. the next question is from the line of prateek kumar from jefferies Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 17: Yeah, my first question is on your UAE plans. Can you elaborate on the expansion plans there? Overall outlook, as you said, is like very positive. Yeah, my first question is on your UAE plans. yeah my first question is on your uae plans Can you elaborate on the expansion plans there? can you elaborate on the expansion plans there Overall outlook, as you said, is like very positive. overall outlook as you said is like very positive

Speaker 9: UAE demand has been quite robust, quite healthy in the last one year, if not a little more than that. Our assets in UAE are very well positioned to serve all parts of the country, including the main consumer centers of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. Our numbers have shown that we are doing very well, and hence we have decided to put a new mill there of 3 million tonne capacity. We have excess clinkers in UAE. We used to sell clinker earlier. We now believe since the cement demand is very robust, we can convert that clinker into cement and sell it in the domestic market. In addition, in UAE we also produce some special cement products like oil well cement. UAE demand has been quite robust, quite healthy in the last one year, if not a little more than that. uae demand has been quite robust quite healthy in the last one year if not a little more than that Our assets in UAE are very well positioned to serve all parts of the country, including the main consumer centers of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. our assets in uae are very well positioned to serve all parts of the country including the main consumer centers of dubai and ras al khaimah Our numbers have shown that we are doing very well, and hence we have decided to put a new mill there of 3 million tonne capacity. our numbers have shown that we are doing very well and hence we have decided to put a new mill there of 3 million tonne capacity We have excess clinkers in UAE. we have excess clinkers in uae We used to sell clinker earlier. we used to sell clinker earlier We now believe since the cement demand is very robust, we can convert that clinker into cement and sell it in the domestic market. we now believe since the cement demand is very robust we can convert that clinker into cement and sell it in the domestic market In addition, in UAE we also produce some special cement products like oil well cement. in addition in uae we also produce some special cement products like oil well cement Oil well cement from our facilities goes across the world, not only in the Middle East but also in some markets of Europe and some markets of U.S. North America. We are also doing debottlenecking of our kiln there. That will give us about 500,000 million tonne of additional production of clinker. Overall, we are very positive on the UAE market as well as the Middle East market, where we sell not only the base product but also the special products like slag and oil well cement. Hence, this capacity expansion program has been announced. Oil well cement from our facilities goes across the world, not only in the Middle East but also in some markets of Europe and some markets of U.S. oil well cement from our facilities goes across the world not only in the middle east but also in some markets of europe and some markets of u.s North America. north america We are also doing debottlenecking of our kiln there. we are also doing debottlenecking of our kiln there That will give us about 500,000 million tonne of additional production of clinker. that will give us about 500,000 million tonne of additional production of clinker Overall, we are very positive on the UAE market as well as the Middle East market, where we sell not only the base product but also the special products like slag and oil well cement. overall we are very positive on the uae market as well as the middle east market where we sell not only the base product but also the special products like slag and oil well cement Hence, this capacity expansion program has been announced. hence this capacity expansion program has been announced

Speaker 17: All right, what is the full quantum of CapEx? If you're looking at it, it probably is part of consolidated operations and not standalone. All right, what is the full quantum of CapEx? all right what is the full quantum of capex If you're looking at it, it probably is part of consolidated operations and not standalone. if you're looking at it it probably is part of consolidated operations and not standalone

Speaker 9: It's AED 110 million or approximately of CapEx in UAE. It's AED 110 million or approximately of CapEx in UAE. it's aed 110 million or approximately of capex in uae

Speaker 6: By the way, I must point out that it is fully funded by the UAE by cash available at the UAE. By the way, I must point out that it is fully funded by the UAE by cash available at the UAE. by the way i must point out that it is fully funded by the uae by cash available at the uae

Speaker 9: Yeah, it is fully funded by cash available. Cash available at UAE. Yeah, it is fully funded by cash available. yeah it is fully funded by cash available Cash available at UAE. cash available at uae

Speaker 17: The other question is like this 40 EBITDA per tonne of 1100. With very minimal visibility on price improvement in the third quarter, are we looking at our EBITDA profile of 1300-1400 which we used to like sort of earlier? The other question is like this 40 EBITDA per tonne of 1100. the other question is like this 40 ebitda per tonne of 1100 With very minimal visibility on price improvement in the third quarter, are we looking at our EBITDA profile of 1300-1400 which we used to like sort of earlier? with very minimal visibility on price improvement in the third quarter are we looking at our ebitda profile of 1300-1400 which we used to like sort of earlier

Speaker 6: Prateek, this question you ask me every quarter and every quarter I humbly suggest that it is impossible for the hands of any commodity supplier or manufacturer to predict the price. Price is not in our control, my dear friend. Market forces decide the price. When will my EBITDA go up at INR 1,300 or INR 1,400? I am not in a position to enter. Prateek, please appreciate that any incremental price rise is a straight flow to my bottom line. Now, how much incremental price rise will come, when it will come, how much volume will come? These are not. These are affected by various macro factors. What is you are looking at INR 1,300. Why not INR 1,800? Let us understand. Let us be realistic. We have said we have done 1,100. Mr. Akhoury has clearly said that he does not expect. He expects some demand vibrancy. He expects stable to a stable pricing scenario. At first we will do 1,100. At best we can do 1,200. I don't know that. I am not saying everything. Maybe we can do 1,300 as well. You will have to have patience, my dear friend. People have been claiming all kinds of EBITDA, never delivered. We don't promise anything. We deliver and then we say. Prateek, this question you ask me every quarter and every quarter I humbly suggest that it is impossible for the hands of any commodity supplier or manufacturer to predict the price. prateek this question you ask me every quarter and every quarter i humbly suggest that it is impossible for the hands of any commodity supplier or manufacturer to predict the price Price is not in our control, my dear friend. price is not in our control my dear friend Market forces decide the price. market forces decide the price When will my EBITDA go up at INR 1,300 or INR 1,400? when will my ebitda go up at inr 1,300 or inr 1,400 I am not in a position to enter. i am not in a position to enter Prateek, please appreciate that any incremental price rise is a straight flow to my bottom line. prateek please appreciate that any incremental price rise is a straight flow to my bottom line Now, how much incremental price rise will come, when it will come, how much volume will come? now how much incremental price rise will come when it will come how much volume will come These are not. these are not These are affected by various macro factors. these are affected by various macro factors What is you are looking at INR 1,300. what is you are looking at inr 1,300 Why not INR 1,800? why not inr 1,800 Let us understand. let us understand Let us be realistic. let us be realistic We have said we have done 1,100. we have said we have done 1,100 Mr. Akhoury has clearly said that he does not expect. mr akhoury has clearly said that he does not expect He expects some demand vibrancy. he expects some demand vibrancy He expects stable to a stable pricing scenario. he expects stable to a stable pricing scenario At first we will do 1,100. at first we will do 1,100 At best we can do 1,200. at best we can do 1,200 I don't know that. i don't know that I am not saying everything. i am not saying everything Maybe we can do 1,300 as well. maybe we can do 1,300 as well You will have to have patience, my dear friend. you will have to have patience my dear friend People have been claiming all kinds of EBITDA, never delivered. people have been claiming all kinds of ebitda never delivered We don't promise anything. we don't promise anything We deliver and then we say. we deliver and then we say

Speaker 17: Certainly, sir. Thank you. This is my question. Certainly, sir. certainly sir Thank you. thank you This is my question. this is my question

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Private Limited. Please go ahead. Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Private Limited. the next question is from the line of satyadeep jain from ambit private limited Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 4: Hi. Thank you. Just a couple of questions. First on the dividend. We appreciate the thought process that there is fair cash and some of it can be given out as dividend. If you look at dividend, even after dividend, dividend looks like 0.4% odd. Hi. hi Thank you. thank you Just a couple of questions. just a couple of questions First on the dividend. first on the dividend We appreciate the thought process that there is fair cash and some of it can be given out as dividend. we appreciate the thought process that there is fair cash and some of it can be given out as dividend If you look at dividend, even after dividend, dividend looks like 0.4% odd. if you look at dividend even after dividend dividend looks like 0.4% odd

Speaker 6: Go ahead, please. Go ahead, please. go ahead please

Speaker 4: What is the need for having such a lot of dry powder still on the balance sheet given the CapEx and all you're looking at for the next two, three years? Why not look at one-time dividend, special dividend? Just the thought process on keeping so. What is the need for having such a lot of dry powder still on the balance sheet given the CapEx and all you're looking at for the next two, three years? what is the need for having such a lot of dry powder still on the balance sheet given the capex and all you're looking at for the next two three years Why not look at one-time dividend, special dividend? why not look at one-time dividend special dividend Just the thought process on keeping so. just the thought process on keeping so

Speaker 6: Much spare cash, my dear friend. On our strategy of keeping spare cash, please talk within your firm with Nitin Basin. We have explained to him many a times why this cash is needed. The other point that why not one time will address it. Much spare cash, my dear friend. much spare cash my dear friend On our strategy of keeping spare cash, please talk within your firm with Nitin Basin. on our strategy of keeping spare cash please talk within your firm with nitin basin We have explained to him many a times why this cash is needed. we have explained to him many a times why this cash is needed The other point that why not one time will address it. the other point that why not one time will address it

Speaker 4: Second would be on the growth that you're outlining. You're talking about growing in line with the industry and that I'm guessing or maybe slightly higher than industry that maybe looks at volume growth. What about capacity utilization? Is there any capacity utilization number that we typically look at? Second would be on the growth that you're outlining. second would be on the growth that you're outlining You're talking about growing in line with the industry and that I'm guessing or maybe slightly higher than industry that maybe looks at volume growth. you're talking about growing in line with the industry and that i'm guessing or maybe slightly higher than industry that maybe looks at volume growth What about capacity utilization? what about capacity utilization Is there any capacity utilization number that we typically look at? is there any capacity utilization number that we typically look at

Speaker 6: Is there any demand number? Can you tell me what is your expectation of demand growth and what is the basis of that expectation? [Foreign language] We will not look shy upon. We will be doing either equal or better. Hopefully we maintain. Is there any demand number? is there any demand number Can you tell me what is your expectation of demand growth and what is the basis of that expectation? [Foreign language] We will not look shy upon. can you tell me what is your expectation of demand growth and what is the basis of that expectation [foreign language] we will not look shy upon We will be doing either equal or better. we will be doing either equal or better Hopefully we maintain. hopefully we maintain

Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, sir. Okay, thank you, sir. okay thank you sir

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead. Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. the next question is from the line of amit murarka from axis capital Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 1: Hi, thanks for the opportunity again. Just in some data questions actually, what would have been other operating income in the quarter? If you can share that. Hi, thanks for the opportunity again. hi thanks for the opportunity again Just in some data questions actually, what would have been other operating income in the quarter? just in some data questions actually what would have been other operating income in the quarter If you can share that. if you can share that

Speaker 6: Other operating income, you have that here. Hello Amit, you can send us a mail and then we'll reply on that because right now that data is not available. Other operating income, you have that here. other operating income you have that here Hello Amit, you can send us a mail and then we'll reply on that because right now that data is not available. hello amit you can send us a mail and then we'll reply on that because right now that data is not available

Speaker 1: Sure. You mentioned cement growth of 6.8%. What could be with clinker if you can get the total volume basically for the quarter? Sure. sure You mentioned cement growth of 6.8%. you mentioned cement growth of 6.8% What could be with clinker if you can get the total volume basically for the quarter? what could be with clinker if you can get the total volume basically for the quarter

Speaker 6: Yeah, I think you missed the first part of the opening remark. Where we have given the volume, it is 7.9. The total growth will be around 4.8%, 4.6%, 4.7%, around 5%. Yeah, I think you missed the first part of the opening remark. yeah i think you missed the first part of the opening remark Where we have given the volume, it is 7.9. where we have given the volume it is 7.9 The total growth will be around 4.8%, 4.6%, 4.7%, around 5%. the total growth will be around 4.8% 4.6% 4.7% around 5%

Speaker 9: 5% is simple cement and clinker, both 6.8% of cement for cement only. 5% is simple cement and clinker, both 6.8% of cement for cement only. 5% is simple cement and clinker both 6.8% of cement for cement only

Speaker 1: Got it. That's all. Thank you. Got it. got it That's all. that's all Thank you. thank you

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. the next question is from the line of rajesh ravi from hdfc securities Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 7: Hi sir. Good evening. My first question, you mentioned on the premiumization benefit which you have approved, which I can read in the numbers given that Q2 you have delivered around 9% NHR growth while most of the other companies have delivered 5%-7%. I believe for H1 also you mentioned 9% volume realization growth. Hello. Am I audible? Hi sir. hi sir Good evening. good evening My first question, you mentioned on the premiumization benefit which you have approved, which I can read in the numbers given that Q2 you have delivered around 9% NHR growth while most of the other companies have delivered 5%- 7%. my first question you mentioned on the premiumization benefit which you have approved which i can read in the numbers given that q2 you have delivered around 9% nhr growth while most of the other companies have delivered 5%- 7% I believe for H1 also you mentioned 9% volume realization growth. i believe for h1 also you mentioned 9% volume realization growth Hello. hello Am I audible? am i audible

Speaker 9: Can you ask the question again, please? Can you ask the question again, please? can you ask the question again please

Speaker 7: You mentioned the cement realization that you like to like. Cement realization growth is 9% for Q2. Right. Year on year. You mentioned the cement realization that you like to like. you mentioned the cement realization that you like to like Cement realization growth is 9% for Q2. cement realization growth is 9% for q2 Right. right Year on year. year on year

Speaker 9: 4,854 over 4,409. 4,854 over 4,409. 4,854 over 4,409

Speaker 7: Comes to around 8.7% or 9%. Comes to around 8.7% or 9%. comes to around 8.7% or 9%

Speaker 9: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 7: For H1 also, the growth is similar, around 9%? For H1 also, the growth is similar, around 9%? for h1 also the growth is similar around 9%

Speaker 9: For H1 also. Yeah, it's similar at about 9%. Yes. For H1 also. for h1 also Yeah, it's similar at about 9%. yeah it's similar at about 9% Yes. yes

Speaker 7: Okay. If I work backward, our cement realization on a Q-on-Q basis would have come down by around 11.5%. Okay. okay If I work backward, our cement realization on a Q-on-Q basis would have come down by around 11.5%. if i work backward our cement realization on a q-on-q basis would have come down by around 11.5%

Speaker 9: It is flat, actually. It is flat, actually. it is flat actually

Speaker 7: It is flat. Okay. It is flattish. Now on the UAE business you gave the volume numbers for Q2. Could you share the Q1 number also and the year-on-year number for UAE this year Q1 and last year, and also request, can we, you know, now that UAE is also delivering performance in line with the domestic operations, 20% plus margins, can we look at the company at a console level rather than, you know, looking at the two units separately. It is flat. it is flat Okay. okay It is flattish. it is flattish Now on the UAE business you gave the volume numbers for Q2. now on the uae business you gave the volume numbers for q2 Could you share the Q1 number also and the year-on-year number for UAE this year Q1 and last year, and also request, can we, you know, now that UAE is also delivering performance in line with the domestic operations, 20% plus margins, can we look at the company at a console level rather than, you know, looking at the two units separately. could you share the q1 number also and the year-on-year number for uae this year q1 and last year and also request can we you know now that uae is also delivering performance in line with the domestic operations 20% plus margins can we look at the company at a console level rather than you know looking at the two units separately

Speaker 6: Indeed you should. That is what the idea is. That is why I pointedly mentioned the cashing PS number. Maybe a consolidated result for valuation may be more authentic. Indeed you should. indeed you should That is what the idea is. that is what the idea is That is why I pointedly mentioned the cashing PS number. that is why i pointedly mentioned the cashing ps number Maybe a consolidated result for valuation may be more authentic. maybe a consolidated result for valuation may be more authentic

Speaker 7: Exactly. Exactly. exactly

Speaker 6: Than doing standalones. Than doing standalones. than doing standalones

Speaker 7: What was the volume number you. What was the volume number you. what was the volume number you

Speaker 6: You take the numbers from Mr. Akhoury is prepared with the actual volume numbers. You take the numbers from Mr. Akhoury is prepared with the actual volume numbers. you take the numbers from mr akhoury is prepared with the actual volume numbers

Speaker 9: Last year same quarter UAE was at 9.87 lakh tonnes. This year it has been 1.13 lakh tonnes, 13.19 lakh tonnes. Last year same quarter UAE was at 9.87 lakh tonnes. last year same quarter uae was at 9.87 lakh tonnes This year it has been 1.13 lakh tonnes, 13.19 lakh tonnes. this year it has been 1.13 lakh tonnes 13.19 lakh tonnes

Speaker 7: That is Q2, right? That is Q2, right? that is q2 right

Speaker 9: That is Q2, September 2025 was 10.09. That is Q2, September 2025 was 10.09. that is q2 september 2025 was 10.09

Speaker 7: Sorry. Sorry. sorry

Speaker 9: June 25 was 10.09. June 25 was 10.09. june 25 was 10.09

Speaker 7: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 9: September 2024 was 9.87 and September 2025 is 13.19. September 2024 was 9.87 and September 2025 is 13.19. september 2024 was 9.87 and september 2025 is 13.19

Speaker 7: Okay. June 2024 also. Would you have handy? Okay. okay June 2024 also. june 2024 also Would you have handy? would you have handy

Speaker 9: No, that I don't have. I'm so sorry. No, that I don't have. no that i don't have I'm so sorry. i'm so sorry

Speaker 6: You can send. You can send. you can send

Speaker 7: We'll get into that. Great. Yeah. That's all for my answer. Thank you. We'll get into that. we'll get into that Great. great Yeah. yeah That's all for my answer. that's all for my answer Thank you. thank you

Speaker 10: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumangal from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Thank you. thank you The next question is from the line of Sumangal from Kotak Securities. the next question is from the line of sumangal from kotak securities Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 16: Good evening. First question on the volumes. If you look at H1 there's a decline of 2%. I just want to understand either industry-wide or in our core markets what would have been the market industry growth, and just trying to understand what is the market share loss which we've seen. Good evening. good evening First question on the volumes. first question on the volumes If you look at H1 there's a decline of 2%. if you look at h1 there's a decline of 2% I just want to understand either industry-wide or in our core markets what would have been the market industry growth, and just trying to understand what is the market share loss which we've seen. i just want to understand either industry-wide or in our core markets what would have been the market industry growth and just trying to understand what is the market share loss which we've seen

Speaker 9: I would not have the H1 number for industry, but quarter two, the best estimates coming is around 3%-5% cement demand growth. Yeah. Versus that 3%-5%, we have done slightly better at 6.8% on cement sales. The first quarter was when we were very firmly trying to establish our value positioning in the market, and therefore you saw lower than expected growth. The second last quarter, I believe, and the best information that I have of market growth, versus 3.5% of industry growth, we are slightly ahead on our performance. I would not have the H1 number for industry, but quarter two, the best estimates coming is around 3%- 5% cement demand growth. i would not have the h1 number for industry but quarter two the best estimates coming is around 3%- 5% cement demand growth Yeah. yeah Versus that 3%- 5%, we have done slightly better at 6.8% on cement sales. versus that 3%- 5% we have done slightly better at 6.8% on cement sales The first quarter was when we were very firmly trying to establish our value positioning in the market, and therefore you saw lower than expected growth. the first quarter was when we were very firmly trying to establish our value positioning in the market and therefore you saw lower than expected growth The second last quarter, I believe, and the best information that I have of market growth, versus 3.5% of industry growth, we are slightly ahead on our performance. the second last quarter i believe and the best information that i have of market growth versus 3.5% of industry growth we are slightly ahead on our performance

Speaker 6: Let me just also make one point very clear to you on our value proposition. Consol numbers of 914 have been reported vis-à-vis our standalone number of 1,105. If you compare it with the standalone, it is INR 966 to INR 1,105. The delta which was there in Q1 of INR 137 per tonne in EBITDA has been slightly bettered, I think by INR 2 or something. Let me just also make one point very clear to you on our value proposition. let me just also make one point very clear to you on our value proposition Consol numbers of 914 have been reported vis-à-vis our standalone number of 1,105. consol numbers of 914 have been reported vis-à-vis our standalone number of 1,105 If you compare it with the standalone, it is INR 966 to INR 1,105. if you compare it with the standalone it is inr 966 to inr 1,105 The delta which was there in Q1 of INR 137 per tonne in EBITDA has been slightly bettered, I think by INR 2 or something. the delta which was there in q1 of inr 137 per tonne in ebitda has been slightly bettered i think by inr 2 or something

Speaker 16: Understood. Sir, should we understand it this way that if you look at even FY 2025, our volumes are flattish, one key also we would have, I mean, appears that we would have lost market share and from 2Q now we are maintaining and gaining. Now since our value proposition is now established and even for future when a lot of capacities are coming up and you guided that we will be maintaining share and even gaining to some extent, there is a subtle change in strategy. Is this the right way to kind of look at? Understood. understood Sir, should we understand it this way that if you look at even FY 2025, our volumes are flattish, one key also we would have, I mean, appears that we would have lost market share and from 2Q now we are maintaining and gaining. sir should we understand it this way that if you look at even fy 2025 our volumes are flattish one key also we would have i mean appears that we would have lost market share and from 2q now we are maintaining and gaining Now since our value proposition is now established and even for future when a lot of capacities are coming up and you guided that we will be maintaining share and even gaining to some extent, there is a subtle change in strategy. now since our value proposition is now established and even for future when a lot of capacities are coming up and you guided that we will be maintaining share and even gaining to some extent there is a subtle change in strategy Is this the right way to kind of look at? is this the right way to kind of look at

Speaker 6: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. We have not said that we will not remain focused on value. We expect additional demand to come in because of all the fiscal measures announced by the Government of India, and that should keep us in line or better than the industry depending on the geographical reach, number one. Number two, you also please appreciate that the value over volume proposition, you do a very simple calculation. You do the capacity utilization of, say, all cement plants and plot EBITDA per tonne of all cement plants. You will see an inverse correlation. So have a look at that. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute We have not said that we will not remain focused on value. we have not said that we will not remain focused on value We expect additional demand to come in because of all the fiscal measures announced by the Government of India, and that should keep us in line or better than the industry depending on the geographical reach, number one. we expect additional demand to come in because of all the fiscal measures announced by the government of india and that should keep us in line or better than the industry depending on the geographical reach number one Number two, you also please appreciate that the value over volume proposition, you do a very simple calculation. number two you also please appreciate that the value over volume proposition you do a very simple calculation You do the capacity utilization of, say, all cement plants and plot EBITDA per tonne of all cement plants. you do the capacity utilization of say all cement plants and plot ebitda per tonne of all cement plants You will see an inverse correlation. you will see an inverse correlation So have a look at that. so have a look at that

Speaker 16: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 9: There is no change in the strategy. This is what we would like to keep reinforcing, so it is value over volume. Having said that, and you have seen that in the results when we say 9% realization growth over last year, you should compare it with the industry numbers, and I'm sure you will find that we have not done badly. At the same time, while delivering 9% realization growth, we have also delivered 6.8% volume growth. It only means that the strategy has started working. How does the future pan out is difficult to say at this point of time. That is how I would say. There is no change in the strategy. there is no change in the strategy This is what we would like to keep reinforcing, so it is value over volume. this is what we would like to keep reinforcing so it is value over volume Having said that, and you have seen that in the results when we say 9% realization growth over last year, you should compare it with the industry numbers, and I'm sure you will find that we have not done badly. having said that and you have seen that in the results when we say 9% realization growth over last year you should compare it with the industry numbers and i'm sure you will find that we have not done badly At the same time, while delivering 9% realization growth, we have also delivered 6.8% volume growth. at the same time while delivering 9% realization growth we have also delivered 6.8% volume growth It only means that the strategy has started working. it only means that the strategy has started working How does the future pan out is difficult to say at this point of time. how does the future pan out is difficult to say at this point of time That is how I would say. that is how i would say

Speaker 16: Very clear. Some Ready-Mix Concrete business looks like there's not a focus here. If you can just share what is the outlook in next three, four years? What sort of targets are we looking at in terms of number of plants, maybe revenue contribution, etc. Very clear. very clear Some Ready-Mix Concrete business looks like there's not a focus here. some ready-mix concrete business looks like there's not a focus here If you can just share what is the outlook in next three, four years? if you can just share what is the outlook in next three four years What sort of targets are we looking at in terms of number of plants, maybe revenue contribution, etc. what sort of targets are we looking at in terms of number of plants maybe revenue contribution etc

Speaker 9: RMC is a new business for us. We've just started a year back. Already about 24 plants are operational. I think this is one of the fastest ramp up of RMC business in this industry. We had an initial goal of going up to 40 plants by FY 2028 and that continues even today. We are trying to put up more plants. 2026. I'm so sorry. Not 2028. RMC is a new business for us. rmc is a new business for us We've just started a year back. we've just started a year back Already about 24 plants are operational. already about 24 plants are operational I think this is one of the fastest ramp up of RMC business in this industry. i think this is one of the fastest ramp up of rmc business in this industry We had an initial goal of going up to 40 plants by FY 2028 and that continues even today. we had an initial goal of going up to 40 plants by fy 2028 and that continues even today We are trying to put up more plants. 2026. we are trying to put up more plants 2026 I'm so sorry. i'm so sorry Not 2028 . not 2028 Having said that, it is also a time for us to better understand the profit levers, the revenue levers for this business and make it more prepared so that we can have a playbook of RMC business and we can therefore thereafter keep putting new plants at a better performance level. That is how I would see it. Understood. Having said that, it is also a time for us to better understand the profit levers, the revenue levers for this business and make it more prepared so that we can have a playbook of RMC business and we can therefore thereafter keep putting new plants at a better performance level. having said that it is also a time for us to better understand the profit levers the revenue levers for this business and make it more prepared so that we can have a playbook of rmc business and we can therefore thereafter keep putting new plants at a better performance level That is how I would see it. that is how i would see it Understood. understood

Speaker 10: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will take that as the last question for the day. I now hand over the conference to the management for the closing comments. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. thank you ladies and gentlemen We will take that as the last question for the day. we will take that as the last question for the day I now hand over the conference to the management for the closing comments. i now hand over the conference to the management for the closing comments

Speaker 9: Thank you everybody. Thank you for participating and thank you for supporting Shree. As I said, we will continue to remain focused on delivering a better performance. Our strategy is working, and we hope we should continue to give you better than industry performance at least on EBITDA in the coming years as well. This is our focus, and this is how we would like to perform. Thank you very much again everybody. Happy Diwali. Thank you everybody. thank you everybody Thank you for participating and thank you for supporting Shree. thank you for participating and thank you for supporting shree As I said, we will continue to remain focused on delivering a better performance. as i said we will continue to remain focused on delivering a better performance Our strategy is working, and we hope we should continue to give you better than industry performance at least on EBITDA in the coming years as well. our strategy is working and we hope we should continue to give you better than industry performance at least on ebitda in the coming years as well This is our focus, and this is how we would like to perform. this is our focus and this is how we would like to perform Thank you very much again everybody. thank you very much again everybody Happy Diwali. happy diwali

Speaker 10: Thank you on behalf of ICICI Securities. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you. Thank you on behalf of ICICI Securities. thank you on behalf of icici securities That concludes this conference. that concludes this conference Thank you for joining us. thank you for joining us You may now disconnect your lines. you may now disconnect your lines Thank you. thank you