Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited ($ADVENZYMES)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Akash, moderator for the conference call. Welcome to Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited Q4 and FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand over the floor to Mr. Ronak Saraf. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Advanced Enzyme Technologies Q4 and FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. We hope you all have gone through our financials, press release and the PPT, which have been posted in the Investor Relations section of our website. We have with us Mr. Vasant Rathi, Chairperson; Mr. Mukund Kabra, Whole-time Director; and Mr. Beni Prasad Rauka, Group CFO. Today, the management will discuss the performance and business highlights, updates on strategies, and respond to any questions that you may have. As is usual, for ease of discussion, we will look at the consolidated financials. Now I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that some of the information shared during this call, particularly regarding our plans, strategies and future outlook, may contain forward-looking statements. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements, influenced by a range of factors, including but not limited to, economic conditions, changes in government policies, regulatory developments and other unforeseen circumstances. Participants are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as they are not guarantees for future performance and should not be viewed as a substitute for independent judgment. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Now without any further ado, we shall commence this call. Over to you, Vic sir.

Thank you, Ronak. Good morning, everyone. I know this is the first time we are changing the call time from 4 to 9. So thank you for taking your time early in the morning during the working day. I sincerely appreciate you all taking your valuable time. I extend my heartiest welcome to everyone joining us today on the conference call to discuss the financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended 31st March 2026. The global economy has faced severe disruption, as you all know, in recent years due to a compounding mix of conflicts, geopolitical tensions and inherently fragile supply chain. Conflicts between nations have interrupted the steady flow of energy, food, and crucial raw materials, thereby injecting substantial uncertainty across international market. Concurrently, supply chain disruption worsened the transportation bottleneck and stringent trade restrictions have slowed down production cycles and delayed the delivery of essential goods worldwide. These escalating changes -- challenges have significantly contributed to rising inflation as the business faced higher manufacturing and shipping costs that are ultimately passed on to the consumers. Consequently, the prices of everything necessities have soared globally, placing heavy financial pressure on households and weakening purchase power in this uncertain global environment. Despite these daunting global supply chain challenges, we have maintained a highly consistent supply track record. However, we remain vigilant as the increasing geopolitical disruption will escalate the prices of input essentials such as fuel, salt, solvent, packaging vis-a-vis also logistics, potentially creating near-term margin pressures across the industry. Turning in our financial performance. I'm delighted to announce that Advanced Enzyme has reported its highest ever quarterly and annual revenue for the fiscal year ended March 2026. For the fourth quarter, we reported revenue from operation at INR 2,034 million, reflecting a robust year-on-year growth of 22% and sequential growth of 18%. For the full year, our annual revenue stood at INR 7,458 million, representing a solid growth of 17%. Our operating profitability also demonstrated excellent momentum. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 632 million, registering a 39% year-on-year growth and 28% sequential growth. On a full year basis EBITDA grew by 18%. EBITDA margin for both the quarter and the year remained strong at 31%. Profit after tax stood at INR 453 million for the quarter, showcasing a staggering growth of 69% on a year-on-year basis and 5% subsequently. On the annual basis, PAT grew by 30%. Consequently, our PAT margin stood at 22% for the quarter and 23% for the full fiscal year as compared to 21% in FY '25. Our overall financial performance is firmly in line with the earlier guidance. All of our business divisions delivered healthy growth, and we are confident that this steady momentum will continue into the coming year. Looking at the broader industry landscape, global pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and biotechnology sectors are increasingly shifting towards wider adoption of enzyme across various regions. This macro trend is driving substantial market demand for players like us, who can offer integrated end-to-end capabilities and customized solutions across these platforms. Over the course of the year, we have taken several strategic steps to fortify our mid- to long-term market positioning. We have continued to invest in enhancing our R&D capabilities, which will accelerate our innovation pipeline, while parallelly exploring expansion into newer high-potential geographies. On the regulatory and compliance front, during this year, we filed 2 food enzyme dossiers with the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA, and 3 GRAS dossiers with the U.S. FDA. As mentioned in our previous interaction, our new R&D center in Nashik is expected to become fully operational in the latter half of this fiscal year, significantly boosting our product development bandwidth. Additionally, we are anticipating approval of our anti-inflammatory products that we filed 2 years back in European region during this year. Now I will take you through our segment-wise revenue performance for the fourth quarter of FY '26 as well as full fiscal year 2026. Let's begin with the human health care, our largest and most critical segment, revenue for quarter 4 '26 stood at INR 1,281 million, making a 24% year-on-year growth and 33% sequential increase. For the full year, year-to-date basis, we observed a solid growth of 15%. This growth was primarily driven by higher sale volumes in pharma/API, bio-catalysis and nutritional business. Human health care continues to be our flagship division, contributing 63% of our total revenue. Animal health care, revenue in this segment rose to INR 250 million, delivering a 19% increase year-on-year, 2% sequential and 25% on a year-to-date basis. Animal health care accounts for 13% of our total revenue. The growth is mainly driven by increased sales in Asia. Turning to Bio-Processing. This segment recorded 17% year-on-year growth during the quarter, despite a 10% sequential contraction, finishing the year with 16% year-to-date growth. The annual growth was predominantly fueled by healthy performance of our food business, which grew by 20% year-on-year and 19% on the year-to-date basis. Conversely, the nonfood business contracted by 1% year-on-year and 7% sequentially, remaining flat on a year-to-date basis. Lastly, the Specialized Manufacturing segment registered a 17% growth year-on-year and a 16% sequential growth. On a year-to-date basis, it grew by impressive 23%. This segment currently represents 9% of our overall revenue. Our strategic product mix within each business division and operating leverage has continued to perform exceedingly well, supporting our healthy overall margins. We anticipate that our entire portfolio spanning Human Nutrition, Animal Nutrition and Bio-Processing will perform even better and grow stronger as we move ahead into the new fiscal year. That said, our business outlook remains extremely steady. We'll continue to focus on optimized capacity allocation, improving supply chain efficiencies, ramping up new product launches and expanding our operational footprint across both developed and emerging markets. With this, I will now hand over this call to Rauka Ji. He will walk you through the financials and key subsidiary numbers. Beni?

Thank you very much, sir. Good morning, everyone. I hope you all are in good health and doing well. On the company's consolidated financial for the fourth quarter and year-end of fiscal year 2026, year-on-year basis, our revenue has increased by INR 362 million, 22% from INR 1,672 million to INR 2,034 million. Our EBITDA increased by INR 176 million, a 39% of increase from INR 456 million to INR 632 million and it stood at 31%. Profit before tax after exceptional item increased by INR 163 million, a 38% increase from INR 430 million to INR 598 million. PAT increased by INR 186 million from INR 260 million to INR 453 million. PAT is 22% of our revenue in this particular quarter. Quarter-on-quarter basis, this is sequential. Revenue increased by INR 315 million, 18% increase from INR 1,719 million to INR 2,034 million. EBITDA increased by INR 138 million, 28% increase from INR 494 million to INR 632 million. Profit before tax after exceptional item increased by INR 15 million from INR 583 million to INR 598 million. Profit after tax increased by INR 21 million, from INR 432 million to INR 532 million. Financial year performance, YTD FY '26 with FY '25. Annual basis, our revenue increased by INR 1,089 million, 17% increase from INR 6,369 million to INR 7,458 million. Our EBITDA increased by INR 347 million, which is 18% increase from INR 1,944 million to INR 2,291 million. And it is 31% of our revenue. And even FY '25, it was 31%. Profit before tax increased by INR 451 million, a 24% of increase from INR 1,874 million to INR 2,325 million. So this is 31% as compared to 29%. Profit after tax increased by INR 396 million, a 30% increase from INR 1,340 million to INR 1,736 million. Our PAT stood at 23% of our revenue as compared to 21% in FY '25. JC Biotech revenue for last quarter Q4 was INR 172 million, EBITDA, INR 15 million, PAT of INR 3 million, as compared to INR 112 million of revenue, INR 4 million of EBITDA and PAT was negative in that particular quarter, INR 7 million. So JCB on annual basis sale is increased from INR 600 million to INR 728 million. EBITDA increased from INR 70 million to INR 92 million and PAT increased from INR 12 million to INR 29 million. evoxx for the quarter stood at -- revenue stood at INR 88 million, EBITDA of INR 19 million and PAT of INR 14 million, as compared to revenue of INR 43 million and a negative EBITDA of INR 4 million and PAT of -- negative PAT of INR 9 million in the quarter 4 of FY '25. On annual basis, revenue of evoxx stood at INR 319 million as compared to INR 213 million, a 50% increase. EBITDA is increased negative INR 12 million to INR 72 million. PAT is increased to INR 50 million as compared to INR 39 million negative in FY '25. SciTech has performed excellent. And Q4 numbers stood at revenue INR 179 million, EBITDA of INR 38 million and PAT of INR 29 million, as compared to revenue of INR 156 million and EBITDA of INR 10 million and PAT of INR 5 million respectively. Annual basis, SciTech top line stood at INR 668 million as compared to INR 542 million, a 23% increase. And EBITDA stood at INR 104 million as compared to INR 76 million, a 37% increase. And PAT is INR 45 million as compared to INR 37 million, so 22% of increase. On annual basis, our top product, which is anti-inflammatory enzyme, sales stood at 23%. And top 10 customers contributed 23% as compared to 22% in FY '25. B2C segment is about INR 0.9 million as compared to INR 1.19 million in FY '26. And so complete total number is INR 4.37 million for FY '26 as compared to INR 4.46 million in FY '25. Our R&D expenditure total on standalone basis is INR 356 million in FY '26 compared to INR 328 million in FY '25. On consolidated basis, our R&D spend is about 5.6% during quarter 4 and 5.3% in the corresponding quarter of FY '25. So this is all from my side. We shall open the floor for question answer.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Mr. Abhishek Navalgund from Centrum Broking.

Congratulations on a good set of numbers. My first question is on -- I mean, you just explained the segment-wise details also. So this clearly reflects that the quarter is all about growth that we have witnessed in serratiopeptidase, the anti-inflammatory enzyme. But I'm just curious that while our sequential margin has also kind of inched up, it is mainly because of the operating leverage maybe. But why the gross margin has kind of moderated on a sequential basis, especially when we see the Europe -- U.S. share is also more or less similar and our Human Nutrition, which is like the highest margin segment, is also maintained or rather gained some share in terms of revenue? So this first question on the gross margin.

Can you repeat, Abhishek? Can you repeat what is exactly -- what you want to know about the gross margin, Abhishek?

I just wanted to know the movement that we have seen on a sequential basis, the gross margin. While our Human Nutrition portfolio has done well, we have not lost share in terms of our U.S. exposure also. So what could be the reason why our gross margin has moderated on Q-o-Q basis this quarter?

So this is -- mainly what happens is because of the variable cost and fixed cost issue, right? If you have incremental sales, then definitely your gross margins are going to go up because your fixed expenses remain fixed and you have that operating leverage.

At the same time, Abhishek, we try to improve the productivity and there are certain products which we could increase the productivity as well in this quarter, okay? And that's a continuous process with the R&D which comes up. So it's a combination of both which helps us, even though the costs are written on the higher side because of all of this inflations and other thing which is happening with the war, still we could do it because of all the other factors because there is a constant improvement on the output side as well.

Sorry, sir. Actually what I was trying to ask you is while our EBITDA margin has increased, I think if you see our gross margin number, it has kind of dropped as compared to 3Q.

If you ask that then...

So you are talking about margin or gross contribution, right?

PAT, Rauka Ji. Last quarter there was some -- Rauka Ji, you can take -- last quarter we had some extraordinary items on the price side.

No, no. I think, Abhishek, can you again, come back with your question, please. You are talking about gross margin.

No, no. We can take this offline. That's fine. I was -- my question was on gross margin. I'll connect with you later on this.

Yes, Abhishek.

Yes. So I'm saying, on the serratiopeptidase side, the increase that we have seen, this could be a function of some market share gain in the domestic market. So is it fair to assume that this quarterly run rate will continue going ahead?

I think Mukund will give you the answer on that.

I won't comment on that, Abhishek. There are always quarter-on-quarter variability, particularly, but I would say that we'll retain most of it. And it's not only like inflammatory products, but we are working on many other products as well, and those are also contributing.

Sure, sure. And you mentioned about the EU approval for the same product. So possible to share -- I mean, how big would be the EU market for this product?

It's a novel food, which we submitted 2 years back, and we expect this year it should be approved. If it gets approved, then we will be the only person who can supply that product for the next 5 years or 10 years. I need to see exactly what is the time frame which we get. And that should be really interesting for us. I won't be able to give you the numbers, but the interest can be very big.

Sure. I'm not asking for any specific guidance, but any aspiration number that you can talk about? Let's say 5 years down the line how do you see this product growing whenever we'll get the approval, I mean, post that?

We cannot...

I can't comment on the particular product. But overall, what we expect to grow is in the double-digit and maybe mid-double-digit, and that's like what we are aiming for, and that is where all the efforts are there. We won't be able to say about a single product or 2 products. There are multiple things which we work.

Absolutely. Absolutely. My next question is on the current environment wherein we are seeing inflation and everything. So I think you talked about fuel, salt, solvents, packaging and logistics. So just would like to know in 2 branches as in, in terms of raw material increase, I guess we are relatively sorted because we procure largely from India. But when it comes to these items like fuel, salt, solvents, packaging, logistics, so [Foreign Language] how is the pass-through structure like in this quarter? And do you expect some margin pressure because of the full effect getting flowed through in 1Q?

There is always going to be pressure because if you really look into the -- do you want to take [indiscernible]? Go ahead.

Hello?

Vic sir, you want to take?

No, no. Abhishek, there's always going to be margin pressure. These are all uncertain times with what is going to happen tomorrow with your energy. Industry is very much based upon lot of energy and labor cost.

Yes, just my only point was basically there will be a 1-quarter, 2-quarter lag? Is it possible to comment on that, whether we are passing it on or partly passing it on to the customers?

No. Abhishek, it is difficult to pass on, very competitive world, global climate. But you try to increase the productivity, increase the efficiencies and try to reduce the cost. There are a lot of mitigating -- a lot of things which we have to work. And management is very aware of it. Trying to compete in the global marketplace, we have to be very efficient.

My last question, sir. In terms of guidance, what do you expect in revenue and margins in FY '27 and a specific color on U.S. business in particular?

Well, margin and things as I mentioned before, is going to be steady, same area what we are talking about. We wanted to keep this momentum and hopefully build upon it, okay? As far as the U.S. market is concerned, your second part of the question, there is enormous pressure of the inflationary pressures here in the U.S. economy due to energy. Nobody knows what's going to happen in 15 days from now or 2 months from now. But overall cost is dramatically increasing. And as I mentioned before in my comments before, the spending or what you call it, people's discretionary expenses, there's going to be a lot of pressure on that. So we'll see how that plays out, okay? This is going to be a very challenging year no matter what. Okay?

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Kunal Thanvi from Banyan Tree Advisors.

I had 2 questions. One was if you can throw some light on India business growth in terms of pricing and volume. Like, was there an element of price increases because like 3, 4 quarters back, we saw significant price erosion in our largest product. Second question was to Mr. Rathi about your thoughts on buyback of shares. We've seen you've been buying from open markets and there is a change in the taxation law in India post which buy becomes good for the retail investors. Any thoughts you can share about capital allocation? Because like we've also not announced interim dividend this time around. Was curious to know how we are thinking about the cash that we have on the balance sheet.

Well, I will try to answer your second question first. You guys are more professionals knowing about the market and prices. But we'll be looking at all the necessary options of what is in the best interest of our shareholders and how we increase the value of our shareholders. Okay? Regarding the pressure on the enzyme...

So, sir, is it fair to assume that buyback is also something that the Board is considering?

Yes. It's the Board's prerogative to look into various different areas. I'm sure that in right time Board will take a decision, okay, to see whatever they feel is best interest of the company shareholders. And regarding the -- your first part, Mukund can probably answer this.

Kunal, you want to know if there is a margin pressure or what?

No, my question is on serratiopeptidase, like, is the growth that we've seen in the Indian business side, is it entirely volume driven or there was some price increase that also we saw during the quarter because like 4 quarters back or 3 quarters back we have -- when there was competition in this segment, we had talked about pricing pressure. Is this a reversal of that pricing pressure now coming through leading to this kind of growth or it was purely a volume growth that we have seen?

So let's not look into the quarter-on-quarter basis. I would say some quarters you will have a higher growth on the particular products, some quarters some other products will have it. In terms of pricing, the pricing is more or less constant. It's more driven by the volume. But at the same time, going forward, we are looking how do we increase the cost and pass on some of the costs and which we are trying to do from the new year.

Got it. And last question was we talked about the U.S. market that the possible slowdown will continue for FY '27 given the geopolitical situation. And then at the other end, you've spoken about our aspiration to do a double-digit growth in FY '27. Like if you can break down these contours into what are the markets that you believe will kind of support the growth or to make sure that a flat or a negative U.S. market for FY '27 and still we kind of do a double-digit growth? And if that happens, what is the like second order impact on the margins because U.S., I would assume is a higher margin business, right? So like if you can talk about these 2 aspects, it would be helpful.

So going forward, the next year, we expect like little growth coming from the U.S. and not like the negative growth. We are working on many different fronts. At the same time, when we go into the Indian areas, we are working on different, different avenues, different markets we are opening. Last year, we worked on many different areas, and probably all the growth will come from all the 3 segments, including like human nutraceutical food and like animal feed. So we expect a healthy growth this year from Indian space as well.

And is it fair to assume that you would be able to hold on to the margins or -- as we have seen in FY '26, or because of some pressures in -- cost pressures in U.S., there could be an impact on margins?

I wouldn't say that too much of impact. 1% or 2% is always possible, and that's the variability what we have, and I wouldn't like to get into the nitty-gritty of it. Maybe like Rauka Ji can explain. But if you ask me, more or less, we will go with the same margins, and that's what our assumption is. But Rauka Ji can give more focus on the margins exactly, what are the numbers saying. Rauka Ji?

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Rajas Joshi from ChrysCapital.

So my first question is on our U.S. business. So if I look at the revenue for this quarter, it is down some 11% in INR terms. Now, given the depreciation of the INR, in dollar terms, the decline must have been a lot more sharper, so to speak. So just wanted to get a sense on what exactly is happening there, because I think now with the tariffs behind us, well, we were expecting a recovery in this business. That has somehow not shown up in the numbers. So just wanted to get a sense of what exactly is going on. And is it time for us to rethink our strategy in U.S. and probably change the way we are working there?

Rajas, the market is changing in U.S. quite a bit. There is more concentration on the deliverable, registration, the studies, et cetera, on U.S. strategy changing accordingly. So market is, as we said before also, very challenging, but we are making very good inroads with registration in the regulatory areas as well as in the market segments, okay? So it is going to be, as I said before, a very challenging year, but we are expecting to grow in U.S. market also.

My second question would be on our India business. This quarter has seen a significant increase in sales, about 50%, and EBITDA has also been good for us in India. So serra obviously -- I think, there was an earlier mention of serra volume going up. But outside of serra, any other products that you would like to call out, or any other segment that you would like to possibly call out that has done well for us in India both in this quarter and for the year as well? And if you could, please also call out your biocatalysis revenue for Q4 and for the full year as well, please.

The revenue, Rauka Ji can tell you what exactly the revenue is. But going forward, we do expect a good growth to come from the biocatalysts as well in Indian market. I would like to mention that not only like the pharma, but this year, like we grew very well in the food area as well as in the animal feed area. And even our specialty business grew very well. And we expect that this momentum to continue going forward as well. But if you want a specific biocatalyst numbers, probably Rauka Ji can give you. Yes, but going forward, we do expect a good growth coming from those areas as well.

Sir, biocatalysis, I think you wanted the numbers, right?

Yes, please.

INR 247 million and -- for the FY 2026. And last year it was INR 174 million.

My next question will be on our R&D pipeline. So outside of [ sema ], which -- sorry, serra, which you've already spoken about the European filing, any other products that are there in the pipeline for us, which are gaining more traction or we are expected to launch soon in the -- this year or the year after that, which you would like to highlight?

This is a continuous process. We are working on many projects as we were talking. Coming this year, probably like in the second half, our R&D new facility should be operational, and after that we should be able to work on more different products. And because of the competition of the nature, I don't want to now going forward specify the individual products because that just creates the pressure of the products. So going forward, I will not like to mention the exact product, but we are working on many different products. That's what I would like to say.

Understood, sir. And -- I mean, it seems like the company has turned around in FY '26 after a difficult FY '25. So I mean, apart from the revenue outlook which you shared, has the nature of our revenue in some sense also kind of become more long term or recurring than it was earlier? I mean, is the quality of revenue increased so to speak?

Quality of revenue is extremely well and very stable.

And last question on capital allocation. I think one of the earlier participants also had questions on this. So I mean looking at our balance sheet, we have around INR 700 crores of cash. And despite that, we have canceled the interim dividend. So just wanted to get some thoughts on your thought process regarding that.

That's again -- I will say that is Board decisions which Board always evaluate from time to time on how to enhance our shareholders' value by different modes and methods, as you guys know very well. So we are always as a company Board members are always looking to see how and where we can do -- how we can benefit this to our shareholders.

When I, broader -- broader question on the fermentation space, so to speak, this would be my last question. There are a couple of peers who actually have now entered, let's say, emerging areas like animal -- sorry, non-meat based proteins, which are also manufactured using fermentation itself. And those segments also have good growth potential and healthy margin profile as well. So just wanted to get a sense on how we are looking at some of these adjacent areas and are we considering these areas for future expansion as well?

Rajas, it is protein -- protein overall category is a growth category, as you all know very well, okay? Nonmeat protein is taking some traction as we understand it and we are continuously working on various different areas to see how we can take the advantage of it in the whole segment, not only nonmeat protein area, but all entire protein area, so to speak. But, yes, is a very interesting area. And obviously, we are always looking into all these growth areas.

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Nikhil Upadhyay from Securities Investment Management.

Congrats on a good set of numbers for the quarter and the year as a whole. Now, my broader question is, sir, if we look at our growth trajectory in the past since listing, there have been periods when we had very strong growth, then there was a period when the growth would come down to single digits. This time, it seems you are more confident on the sustain. And so what are the factors or what we have done differently from the past, which gives you confidence that this growth momentum can sustain? And in similar spirit, if we look at it, this time the growth even for the year has been more broad-based, like Human Nutrition has grown, Animal Nutrition has grown. So if you can just talk about what at the company level we have done differently or what changes we have done over the last 2 years where we are seeing this broader growth versus segmental growth, which used to happen earlier?

Sure, Nikhil. It's very good question and thank you for asking that. As you can see, the growth is broader. And what it was -- is we have to focus on the areas which we want to grow. And initially also from the beginning, we are telling that we have changed the focus on not running after every single thing, but focused on the areas which we are very good at and we want it to grow. And it has to be supplemented with a lot of research and not necessarily just a commodity product or me-too products. So we made a lot of changes in that particular segment. Our outlook is more broad-based and long-term rather than the short-term margins. And what you see is that results -- the cumulative efforts for some years now that it is paying off this year in spite of a lot of challenges in the global marketplace, okay? And outlook is global now. It is not a segmented outlook only. We look at the entire region. World is very fast. It's now coming to the AI world in the field very shortly. And as you can see, we need to be very rapid and very broad-based and deeper rather than a commodity. So those are the kind of changes we are making -- we made actually and continue to make. As I mentioned that also in my opening remarks that within next 6 months, this quarter -- this year, fiscal year, we'll be operational into our R&D center, which is one of the largest research-based center in our area so far that I know of. So we are going for innovations as our PM says rather than just service industry. And that is what you can see a lot of registration, a lot of papers, a lot of research, and we are spending substantial and -- we are committed to spend substantial amount of our earnings into the R&D sector. Does that make any -- does that give answers to your question?

Yes, sir. It gives a comprehensive view. I would just want to understand one more point because when we go for a more comprehensive and in-depth entrench with the customer or entrenchment and more innovation, there are 2 aspects which probably can throw light. One is with our existing customers, say, which were present 3 years back, today what quantum of business we would have increased with them? And secondly, if we look at the growth beyond our top 10 customers, how would that be?

Well, you will find that our top 10 customers will be very much evolving and expanding, okay? And that is because of what we have -- what I said before. And we are very keen on increasing our share of revenues from the existing customers also, which they have already established for so many years. So there is a lot of changes globally happening right now, as you are very well aware, Nikhil. And obviously, a lot of companies are looking at us also into the different angle, different perspective. So it is an exciting even though challenging time. And we feel very confident that this really with the large -- a lot of work which we have done in the last several years is taking a deep root into it.

Sure, sir. Just 2 questions. One is, sir, see, today, we are almost INR 750 crores, INR 800 crores kind of a top-line company. When we today go to a new customer, the kind of discussions which they are having with us versus when we were a smaller company, say, 5 or 7 years back, today the kind of projects which we are getting, are they more innovation-driven? Or is it more of a, like, second supplier source kind of a replacement which we are doing? So how would you define the kind of work on the R&D we are doing? Is it more newer products and even the companies are open to give them to us? Or is there still some skepticism?

Okay. That's again -- you're asking very good questions. Well, both, again, I guess I will answer you both because new companies -- quite a few new companies are approaching us. Old companies or those companies which are established are checking us out kind of thing. So, yes, we are working on both. One is we need to continue on getting the revenues from the existing or these new sources, which are just cost driven. At the same time, we have to establish the new markets which -- with our innovations which is a little deep-rooted. So the strategies are a combination of both.

Okay. And last question, 2 or 3 years back, if we go back to our call, one of the ideas which we had was that this is a business which is driven by volumes, and volumes will provide us operating leverage. Now even from -- and I'm taking a base post-COVID, when we were at INR 530 crores. Today, we are at INR 750 crores. It seems we have, like, sacrificed some bit on the gross margins because gross margins have come down from 75% to 70%. Well, it may not be a sacrifice. But the operating leverage has not played out the way we had thought or we as investors had thought that as volumes will come, operating leverage will play out. So is there something wrong with the understanding of the business, or is it a sacrifice which we have said that we are okay doing business at 30% margins, but let's focus on getting more customer traction? So what have we chosen between the 2?

More customer tractions.

Sure. So which means that margins should remain in this level and operating leverage would probably provide it for more volume growth, we would look at?

Yes. Yes.

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Lakshminarayanan from Tunga Investments.

Hope I'm audible, sir.

Yes, sir.

Yes, you are, Mr. Lakshminarayanan.

Sir 2 questions. Sir, I noticed that Mr. Roda is moving on and he has been a big part of our management. I just wanted to understand how the organization is maintaining stability and how the organization is actually moving forward and whether any next person has actually taken lead in that area.

Mukund? I cannot hear your questions properly. Maybe you are a little too soft.

No, I hear -- I understand that Mr. Dipak Roda who has been part of our team for a long time, had decided to move on. And I just wanted to just understand how that role has been smoothly transitioned and if any other person has been replaced, I mean, how he has been replaced also.

Well, in an organization, of course, when somebody leaves, that's -- such as Mr. Roda who works for a long time with the company as a part and becomes a part of the company, it does hurt overall. But there is always management -- second level management and third level management, which take care of it.

Okay. Has anyone been appointed in his -- the same capacity of getting that key role he was in?

Lakshminarayanan Ji, what we did is, like, Mr. Roda was handling some part of Indian business and some part of, like, U.S. business. So we manage with 2 different heads at this point of time who are, like, equally capable and the second line, and that's how we are going right now. And I guess, like, we should be able to do good. We will not be having too much of difficulty going forward as well.

And Mr. Rathi, you always urged us to think your company on a longer term, not look at quarter, not look at year. But if I just look at our U.S. business from March '22 end to March '26 end, I see that there is a significant divergence from the performance, which is down around 6% on Indian rupee terms, while the currency has actually also depreciated by 22%. So how does the management view this? Is it something which you anticipated or you're happy about? Or how do you like to measure -- or how do you like us to look at your U.S. business over a longer period, not necessarily a year or 2, but slightly longer?

Overall, we always told you that it is a balanced business, a global business. It is export-driven business as well as local business. So, look, you have to keep and look at it in the same way. Nothing has changed. One year -- as I said, various things take a little time to deep root and that is what we are doing right now globally, not only in the U.S. market, but global markets all over. So it is just like somebody said, when one door closes, second -- some other door opens.

Just -- if I just engage on that further, sir, how do you like us to look at the U.S. business sector because that's a business where it's very dear to you and you are putting all your efforts to expand that business. And how do you think you look at it? I mean, how do you think we should look at it and how you are looking at it over a longer period? I'm not looking at a year, but slightly longer.

Yes, it's going to be a growth business as usual. Our business is a growth business. And U.S. business, you should be looking as long-term steady growth business. Okay?

Got it. Got it. And the third question is that, from the serratio business, right, I mean, how much that did contribute for the full year and what has been the year-on-year growth? And as a follow-up on that business, I see that the competition is little muted if I can understand. So can you just tell me how are you thinking about competitive intensity in the serratio business? So I think 2 parts of the question. One is, what has been the contribution of serratio for the full year and -- especially the last year, and how is the competitive intensity? Because I understand that one of the competitors is not selling the product.

Beni, you want to answer on that one? Mukund?

Yes. So as Mukund was mentioning, I think this is the last time we will be sharing this number. This is like serratio I think we have on YTD growth about 45% and Q-on-Q is about 54% growth. [Audio Gap] I think you will all appreciate because there has always been kind of a lot of pressure which is created by competitor and all that. We'll be [ restricting ] that.

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Shreyans Gathani from SG Securities.

I had a couple of questions. The first one is on the biocatalysis. A few calls ago, you had mentioned that there were some trials going on. So just wanted to get a sense of the overall business and any updates on that.

Mukund?

At this point of time, I would like to say that we are working on a few of the products. Trials are going well, but won't be able to comment on the exact number right now. Next year, what we are looking at it is some moderate growth coming from this area.

Got it. So any estimate on like when these would complete? Because they've been going on like as far as I know, like 6 to 9 months already.

There are not 1 or 2 products. We are working on many different products. In some of the products, you get some challenges. But I would still say -- like to go and say that this year, we expect some growth coming from this area. Whenever that will happen, that will be the quarter we are going to put it up as a different category or we would like to comment on that. As of now, I would say that this year, we expect some growth coming from this area.

Keep in mind that this is a very -- this is really, again, challenging area, I would say, because -- it also depends a lot on the government bodies' regulations and global competition, so changes of processes. There are a lot of things, a lot of factors into this. But we still, irrespective -- because of the several different product lines and trials going on, we expect, as Mukund says, moderate growth in this -- continuous growth on this market.

Got it. The second question was on the gross margin. I think you alluded there are some extraordinary items this quarter. If you could just expand on that, just trying to understand a little more.

Rauka Ji?

So the gross margin is particularly driven by product mix, which the company has and the group has. So overall, if you see the domestic sales is kind of higher as compared to total consolidated sales, which in turn sometimes gives us the lesser margin. But on an overall basis, if you see on a year -- full year basis, the gross margin is kind of 1% down because of product mix only.

No, he was talking about some extraordinary.

Yes.

No, he was asking about some extraordinary items. I guess like something was there in the last quarter which is not here right now.

Last quarter that was there in FY quarter 3, right?

Quarter 3.

Quarter 3, we had some exceptional items. That was -- I think 1 was related to...

Provision reversal.

Reversal of some provision which we were carrying in our books for some litigation matter. So that has come in our favor. So about, I think, INR 16 crores was the reversal. And in addition to that, we have provided for the impact of the labor laws because we have been -- in India, you have seen that new labor laws have enacted. So impact of those labor laws on our payroll cost, so that we have taken into account. So this is, I think, pertaining to quarter 3 of this year.

Okay. Sir, my last question pertains to the R&D center, like, we expect it to operationalize in the second half of the year. So what kind of incremental expenses are we looking at in terms of percentage of R&D spends, in terms of like percentage and rupee spends? And also like have we already started hiring for that? Like, what is going to be the capacity for that? How many people are we looking to hire over there?

Of course, the expenses are going to go up, but not like -- we'll try to maintain between whatever the current percentage what we are going up, because it also depends on the function of the sales. In terms of persons, some persons we already hired, some persons we are planning to shift from our existing R&D center and some persons we are in a process to hire. In terms of capacity, the capacity in a given time, it will take some more time to really come to the fullest utilization, but we intend to increase in the first phase by the threefold of what current capacity what we have.

It's in a -- it's a phase in -- phase manner. Expansion will be in a phase out manner.

Got it. Got it. That's helpful. So are we looking to close down the other R&D centers because you said we are moving people?

No. We will not be closing.

Those will continue. Those will continue. But at the same time, some people will move from here. We will be going with a lot of modern machineries out there so that the people requirement will be lesser, but we can get, like, more higher output out there.

In absolute term, the R&D revenue expenditure is likely to go up by INR 50 million. Okay? And CapEx is definitely this is going on. So that will be, again, additional, I think, INR 50 crores we will be spending this year. So I think overall CapEx on R&D will be about INR 130 crores. Maybe we have already spent. INR 50 crores we are going to spend during this year.

Got it. Okay. And what would be our current utilization? Are we looking to do any kind of capacity expansion? Like, I know we just do incremental and we find efficiencies. But anything as we are increasing sales, are we going to need more capacities, or are we okay with what's there?

In the main company, we will be taking that call after September. As of now, we do have a preparation on the ground so that whenever we want to go, we can go very quickly, rapidly. The infrastructure buildup is done. We may look into some capacity increment in the -- one of the subsidiary company this year. So those are the plans as of now.

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Rohit Ohri from Progressive Share.

Good to see the company evolve from a domestic enzyme manufacturer to an integrated specialty biosolution platform. I think this is where the alpha lies and many congrats on this -- one of the strongest quarter that you all have delivered.

Thank you, Rohit.

Sir, I have a few questions. While you're becoming a global innovator in this biomanufacturing platform, with certain moats that you have, and we also see the small CWIP or some sort of expansion that is happening, if you can take us through that -- this fermentation capacity that we have of around 500 kind of metric -- sorry, meter cube capacity, by when do you think that the next round of expansion should come through?

That's what I said, like we might -- that's what I said, like we might look some capacity expansion into one of our subsidiary companies and we will take the call in the month of September when we should really increase. So that's as of now currently stand. We do have infrastructure to increase the capacity increment by 50% right away. So we'll take the call as we move forward in this year.

Kabra Ji, what would be the peak revenue that we get from this capacity currently?

It's very difficult to say because, Rohit, it's like always the product mix, how it's moving, what are the different areas which are moving. And as I was saying, like, there is a constant improvement in the productivity. So it's a lot of blending game. Even like I mentioned earlier as well, like, this year, we could increase some of the products output to maintain the pressure on the pricing. So these are all the blended. I mean, like it's very difficult to say exact revenue.

Okay. Sir, on the working capital, we see some stress over there in the inventory. Is it because of the demand? Or is it some new client that you all are onboarding or maybe just talking because of the pricing in the industry?

It's not only the pricing, but it's because of the uncertainties of supply chain and other things and you never know what will happen tomorrow. So you don't want to get stock out for the raw materials and other areas. And you should be able to deliver because it's a game of, like, the logistics delivery. So sometimes you need to build up the capacity, build up the inventories to manage all the changing global environment.

And on the receivables side, is it because of stronger sales? Or are we giving some higher credit to some of the clients or customers?

The things are more or less same. But Rauka Ji can put some more lights on the number. I don't feel like there is a much of difference, like, on the strategy front.

Okay. Sir, on the competitive positioning, while Rathi Ji also mentioned that this year could be a little bit of a challenging on the international front, how do you see or what are the things that generally the customer looks at while they are trying to choose AETL over Novonesis and/or Hansen? What are the cost advantages that we generally see? And why would they prefer us while we might compare with some of the European players or maybe some other players in China who could be having better margins or maybe defensive margins as compared to us?

There's like...

Good question.

The timing is always challenging. It's a very good question. The time is always challenging. And the challenging time always creates some opportunities. I always feel that the company like us gets more opportunity when the time is more challenging because that's the time when everyone is in, like, panic. That's the only time the people start looking for the alternatives as well. If you are, like, comfortable, you don't look into it.

And also one more thing you have to remember that we are not a company which is -- just came up in the last few years. It has a tremendous track record of last 30, 40 years, right?

True, true.

So that all counts. That is -- because ultimately people should trust you deliver it -- that you can deliver.

Okay. Makes sense, Rathi Ji. My last 2 questions is if you can take us through what are the developments which are happening with Starya, which was recently having some corporate developments happening over there.

Well, it has been just being established completely independently. And I think this will be -- coming year will be the first year for the Starya as this independent company. The response is pretty good.

Anything on the numbers that you would like to share on the top line or maybe...

No, there is nothing. It is just a starting. So there is not much of a numbers game right now.

Rohit, I would say that we are not, like, really looking for the numbers, but it's more like a strategical fit as well to expand the U.S. market as well, right? So it's more like a strategy rather than the exact number, and we are not really looking for too big numbers to come up in just the near terms.

Okay. Last one. If you have the number handy, maybe an approximate number to the revenue which could be coming from the products which are launched in the last 3 years or so.

Good questions. We will have to calculate, Rohit Ji. But, yes, there will be some good revenue as well. Because we don't, like, separate it out that way. Yes.

Yes, it is not like -- as you know, we do a lot of combination products, a lot of, say, very proprietary products and it's not possible, at least sometimes, to just say this is more or this is less kind of thing. We have a broad range of enzymes -- and they have their own function and it just creates a very unique formulation for the industry.

Rathi Ji, a ballpark number, maybe like 10% or maybe 15%, that is what I was looking at.

Well, the growth you can see. Whenever you take out one individual product, which you all know, and rest of them is all like that. We are very much a, what you call it, proprietary enzyme product kind of company.

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Ashish Thavkar from UTI.

Is there any update on where we are in terms of the U.S. tariffs discussion with the customers? Are they still on the back foot? What is the scene there?

Ashish, thank you for asking this question. Every day there is a new drama. We initiated -- the customers are always asking when they can get the refund back. And we are asking the government when we can get the refund back and so on and so forth. So let's play the tune and see what happens whether the Congress -- in U.S., Congress acts on it or don't act on it. But there is a lot of drama going on in the court and politicians and the business. The people more or less understood that there is -- that is there is a reality of this and prices in the marketplace is going up. Inflation is really hitting up here also in the U.S., not only in energy, but all the sectors, food sectors, supplemental sectors, supply -- all supply lines, okay? We just have a challenge how we can pass on this cost to the customers.

So as of now, we are still absorbing 10-odd percentage cost, right, from the tariff?

Yes, to a certain extent, yes. And it is a gradual process to pass it on and to explain. So that's a process, but you cannot just pass on everything to the customer and lose the market share.

But at 18% tariff, we would not be very uncompetitive, right, versus the competition?

No, it's a competitive market. It is -- when you get into ingredients and when their cost goes up, the market is very different. How many times they have to increase that to make their sales is -- and then that becomes whether the consumer can afford it or not is another issue which they have to face. And what will impact for them because it's a B2B market.

And, sir, lastly on this chemistries, since we are also on the peptide enzymes and peptide is finding a lot of relevance globally, what are the opportunities that we are seeing in these chemistries? And if you could help us highlight what are the new chemistries that you guys are targeting?

It's a very interesting opportunities. We will try to explore it also. Since we are in a protein area, and enzymes, proteins go hands in hand and peptides are also part of it, so very interesting areas. And we are exploring all various different possibilities.

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Umang Shah from Banyan Tree Advisors.

Am I audible?

Yes, Umang Ji.

Yes, sir.

Sir, I have 2 questions. Sir, first was, if you could give the breakup between India and international business in the Human Nutrition segment.

Rauka Ji?

Repeat the question.

Yes, the...

The breakup of the India and international business.

Yes.

Rauka Ji?

Beni?

Yes, I'm giving the information.

Sir, meanwhile the second question was if you can help me understand, was there any onetime component in the India revenues of Q4? Any sort of prebooking or prebuying by customers or something?

No, there is no that kind of revenue. It's not a onetime revenue.

Okay. And sir, one last question was that with our India R&D coming in, would we be freeing up some capacity in evoxx to make it more customer-facing or would evoxx continue doing R&D for us?

evoxx will continue doing R&D.

Umang, 32% of our business has come from India. I'm talking about Human Nutrition business. And of our total revenue, 32% from India domestic market and 30% has come from international market. So total is 63% contribution of Human Nutrition business in our total revenue for FY '26.

It's a balance basically.

Absolutely. Absolutely, sir. So it's 32% and -- yes, got it. Got it.

30%.

The next question comes from the line of Mr. Ketan Chheda, an individual investor.

And, sir, congratulations on a good performance for the whole year. Indeed a good growth that you have achieved. Sir, my first question is with respect to the patents, the numbers that you publish every quarter in your presentation. I saw that the number has gone down from 17 to 15. Could you just throw some light on that, sir? Like, why has the number of patent reduced?

Some of the patents, like which we are not giving the revenue or we thought that is not significant, we have cut down from the list. But we filed 2 or 3, I need to see the exact numbers, which we got granted this year as well. But a few of the old patents which we thought are not like making -- contributing to the revenue, we are not focusing on them.

And my other question is, sir, when I look at your segmental performance, of course it's a very good growth on all segments, Human Nutrition, Animal Nutrition, so on and so forth. When we look at the geographic this thing and of course, the U.S. market has been much discussed in the call earlier, but my question is with respect to a bit long term going in the past. Even if I see 4 or 5 years, right from starting 2021 onwards, our U.S. business has not kind of grown significantly. So if you could help us understand what kind of business are we doing there? And you of course mentioned about the competitive landscape being a bit tougher there. So if you could throw some more light on what kind of business it is and what kind of challenges that we face, that would help us understand the business -- the U.S. business better.

Most of our U.S. business is in nutraceutical market. We do various different industrial segments in food area and so on. But most of the business is in the nutraceutical market, okay? And nutraceutical market is under tremendous churn right now in the last few years, changing the face of it and changing the habits of the people. So as you can see last few years, now probiotics is one of the major market segment. So U.S. market is always changing with the new habits and then rest of the global catch up is there. And this is always going to be like that. But market is growing in various different segments. We need to catch up that rising trend and that's what we are doing.

Right. Right. Sir, my next question was also with respect to probiotics view, which you just touched upon. If I look at the presentation, you've given a segmental revenue also for the probiotics, which has significantly reduced from last year. So, again, like if you could help us understand while we see probiotics as a growth segment for us and our revenue contribution in that segment is a very small one, and the addressable market is a significant one, what happened...

Ketan Ji what happened there is like what we are reporting the revenues are the individual -- what we used to or what we are currently as well, like, reporting the revenues are the individual, which was, like, kind of, what I would say is a commodity market. Now the approach has changed, and we are like making a lot of different solutions using the probiotics, which are not really reflecting into the exact numbers because it is very difficult to segregate them because it's always been the -- not utilized as an individual product. So the probiotics is, like, used very widely in a lot of like U.S. formulations, but you won't be able to separate it out exactly. The numbers what you are looking at it is going down or going up is the individual probiotics which you are selling and those are like -- more like commodity segments.

But I can assure you that our probiotic business is very strong.

There are no further questions. Now I hand over the floor to Mr. Ronak Saraf for closing comments.

Thank you, everyone, for taking your valuable time for attending our earnings conference call. We will keep you all posted for any further updates. I request you all to kindly send in your further questions that may remain unanswered. An audio recording and the transcript of this call will be uploaded on our website in the due course. Looking forward to host you all in the next quarter. Till then stay healthy, stay safe. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using Door Sabha's conference call service. You may disconnect your lines now. Thank you and have a pleasant day.